Monkey Boy Goes Bananas: 2002

America now committed to The War Against Terror (TWAT) – with the invasion of Afghanistan under its belt, sets its sights on the next target. Rumblings about finishing the job in Iraq have been around for some time now. It’s all a question of persuading enough people that it would be a good thing. Bush made his first State of the Union address since 9-11 and said Iraq was part of the ‘axis of evil’ (Jan 30 ’03).??

But before this, a little matter of the biggest peacetime attack on mainland United States to be finished off. Conspiracy stories were multiplying on the internet, even established politicians and commentators were making serious allegations regarding Washington’s role in the atrocity. The President realised that he couldn’t hold off the inevitable inquiry for much longer. By now much of the evidence had been dumped. The wreckage of the Twin Towers was removed with indecent haste, instead of, what one might expect, being removed in a controlled manner for investigative purposes.

The US planners had set up a giant fake struggle between the evil al Qaida and the good forces of TWAT or TWOT.

January 2002

Chechnyan Atrocity

11th January 2002, the ‘Ulman case’ – members of ‘Spetsnaz’ Russian Special forces parachuted into a remote part of Chechnya ; sprayed Jeep which failed to stop – with machine gun fire, killing one and wounding two or three others in Jeep. Then they discovered the Chechens were civilians, one a female invalid. The troops bandaged wounds and radioed for instructions. Three hours later they were given orders to ‘liquidate’ the survivors, which they did. Then they disguised what was left as a mine explosion.

Al Qaida

Al Q plots came in thick and fast – one in Philippines on 17th Jan 2002– the US embassy in Singapore in December 2001 – Malaysia on 16th January 2002.

From www.channel4.com/news      By Gaby Rado

US spirited a group of suspected Al Qaida members from Sarajevo – January 17th 2002.

The all-Algerian group were taken to Guantanamo Bay.

In October 2001 US and UK embassies in Sarajevo were closed due al Q alert and then in 2002 this group were arrested attacking US ‘peacekeepers’ at 2 camps.

The evidence presented at a Sarajevo court consisted of mobile phone monitoring, and was rejected as illegal. So the US kidnapped the group instead.

They are:

               Bensahay Balkatsen

               Saber Lahmer

               Mustafa Adir

               Muhammad Nehle

               Lakdar Boumedienne

               Budellah Hadz

Same or all came to fight for Bosnian Muslims and were given Bosnian citizenship.

Sham Inquiry

According to CNN on 22nd January, In the midst of the scandal surrounding the FBI, CIA and military inability to foresee or prevent “911” CNN reported “Bush personally asked the Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle to limit the Congressional investigation into the events of 11th September…the request was made at a private meeting with congressional leaders…sources said Bush initiated the conversation…He asked that only the House and Senate intelligence committees look into the potential breakdowns among federal agencies that could have allowed the terrorist attacks to occur, rather than a broader inquiry…Tuesday’s discussion followed a rare call from V-P Cheney last Friday to make the same request…” Gore Vidal in Observer.

It was announced that an investigation into “911” would be headed by – see if you can guess – Henry Kissinger, now 79, but sure to lie and cover up for his political allies. But this was too blatant even for the Bush junta. The investigation was eventually headed by more acceptable politicians.

The split in the cabinet – June 15th – Rumsfeld had to retract a statement about Al Qaida White House disowned views of a senior cabinet members Ashcroft and Powell. Ashcroft claimed to have foiled plot to detonate a “dirty bomb”. Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary, told them to shut up.

In the summer Bush again insisted that he had not been warned about September 11th. The WH had acknowledged that security officials had already prepared a plan to destroy Al Q – completed on September 4th 2001 but still hadn’t reached GW by Sep 11th. But there was a Federal report in 1999 speculating that Al Q might crash a plane into the CIA HQ, the White House or Pentagon – Grauniad.

The “clapped out nature of US counter-terrorism operations” was emphasised.  This was used to justify new laws and bigger budgets. The claim was made that the “FBI was unable to e-mail photos of suspects to its field office and had to use post”.

Gore Vidal wrote on the first anniversary of the “911” attacks, “we still don’t know by whom we were struck that infamous Tuesday, or for what true purpose…911 put paid to much of our fragile bill of rights” and “also our once-envied system of government which had taken a mortal blow the previous year when the supreme court did a little dance in 5/4 time and replaced a popularly elected president with the oil and gas Cheney-Bush junta.”

“National security” has been used as a blanket to be thrown over the whole event. No one has been blamed, no-one has been fired.

On 24th August, the first payments were made to September 11th relatives “to apply to the fund bereaved relatives must waive their right to sue anyone other than terrorists.”

Zacarias Moussaori – the 20th hijacker arrested before 911.

Since 9-11 all that shit bout the International Criminal Court “has been put on the back-burner entirely…the US has blocked this initiative. I want to prioritise the establishment of an international – not American – police force, backed by the world community. The only nation standing in the way is America.”  Michael Mansfield QC.

The defensive shield – which caused so much tension between US and Europe was dropped too. The War on Terror provided sufficient pretext to step up the military Keynesianism policy, so son of Star Wars was no longer needed.

Airline industry problems.

TWAT Launched

Chomsky: “There are official definitions of ‘terrorism’, eg, those of the US and British governments, which are quite similar. But they are not used, because they do not distinguish between good and bad varieties of terrorism. That distinction is determined by the agent of the crime, not its character. It is close to a historical universal that our terrorism against them is right and just (whoever we happen to be) while their terrorism against us is an outrage. As long as that practice is adopted, discussion of terrorism is not serious. It is no more than a form of propaganda and apologetics. If we use the term in accord with its official definitions, then, uncontroversially, Israel (like US, Britain, Turkey, and others) is a terrorist state by the standards we apply to official enemies.”

Right after the Afghan War ended, 10,000 Pakistani and US troops/CIA agents were sent on an Al Qaida hunt.

CIA made claim that 500 Al Qaida escaped into Iran, early 2002.

OBL seen in Shah-i-Kot February, and then in Waziristan (Pakistan). – see Hitler sightings of 1945, Elvis sightings in 1980s and 90s.

A US Wall Street Journal reporter went missing in Karachi in January.

Afghanistan

 “’The last time we met in this chamber,’ said George W Bush in his state of the union speech last year [2002], ‘the mothers and daughters of Afghanistan were captives in their own homes, forbidden from working or going to school. Today, women are free, and are part of Afghanistan’s new government. And we welcome the new minister of women’s affairs, Dr Sima Samar.’ A slight middle-aged woman in a headscarf stood and received the choreographed ovation. A physician who refused to deny treatment to women during the Taliban years, Samar is a true symbol of resistance, whose appropriation by the unctuous Bush was short-lived. In December 2001 Samar attended the Washington-sponsored ‘peace conference’ in Bonn where Karzai was installed as president and three of the most brutal warlords as vice presidents. (The Uzbek warlord General Rashid Dostum, accused of torturing and slaughtering prisoners, is currently defence minister). Samar was one of two women in Karzai’s cabinet.

“No sooner had the applause in Congress died away than Samar was smeared with a false charge of blasphemy and forced out. The warlords, different from the Taliban only in their tribal allegiances and religious pieties, were not tolerating even a gesture of female emancipation” – Pilger.

After all the fuss from the elite UK and US windbags – about women in Afghanistan, things were no better – but did anyone care?

   

February 2002

February –“ the Arab Plan – proposed by the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, it offered Israel respect for its borders in return for a withdrawal from all the territory captured by Israel in 1967. Ariel Sharon insisted on an end to Palestinian violence as a precondition.” – Gaurdian

On Feb14th Crown Prince Abdullah begged the US to use its influence on the Israeli’s to help the Palestinians.

In Europe, the political decision to introduce compulsory biometric identifiers, first on visas and residence permits and then on passports, was taken at two Informal meetings of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers (in February 2002 and then in March 2003). The Commission argued for a so-called "coherent approach" for "all travel documents, including the passports of EU citizens". These decisions were not reported at the time. It was the European Councils (the meeting of EU prime ministers) at Thessaloniki in June 2003 and later in Brussels on 12 December 2003 who formally endorsed the proposal. A secondary reason for bringing in biometrics on EU passports, the Commission argues, is that the USA is demanding them on passports too.

The legal basis for the proposal is highly dubious, see: Commission’s EU biometric passport proposal exceeds the EC’s powers, Statewatch legal analysis concludes that: "no powers conferred upon the EC by the EC Treaty, taken separately or together, confer upon the EC the power to adopt the proposed Regulation": Legal analysis

Yes, the Commission is also slipping in the proposal that all ID cards should also have biometric data.

March 2002

March 2nd  - In the UK – the 3rd Stop The War Coalition march about 20,000 took part. In Europe, ESPECIALLY ITALY, SPAIN, anti-capitalist and anti-war demos attacked up to 1 million.

Abu Zubaida/ Zubaydah was arrested in Pakistan on 2nd March 2002. He made ludicrous warnings about attacks on US financial institutions and transport infrastructure – “if it ever occurred to his interrogators that its only in James Bond movies that fiendish masterminds carefully explain their crimes before they are executed, they suppressed their doubts.” Thomas Sutcliffe, t.v correspondent, Indie, 4th November 2004, writing about the Adam Curtis documentary “The Power of Nightmares”. The documentary explained that “we’ve all been spooked by smoke and mirrors. Al Qaida, he argued, wasn’t OBL’s invention, but a creation of the US Justice Department, which had to prove the existence of a criminal organisation if they hoped to try Bin Laden in absentia for the Kenyan bombings in 1998.”

Abu Zubaydah arrested in Pakistan in March.

Djerba, Tunisian island, was bombed. Al Q was blamed by Klaus Ulrich Karsten, head of Bundeskriminalamt – BKA – German equivalent to the FBI. Top Al Q member Ahmed Billal claimed responsibility for Djarba. – linked to Saudi Zouhair Tabiti?

Guantanamo Bay

Hooded detainees appeared on the world’s tellies in January. These non-persons were being held at Camp X Ray and housed in tiny cages. More than 680 prisoners locked up for indefinite period with no access to lawyers or families.

In order to combat this outrage a coalition of civil rights lawyers was set up – Prof Erwin Chemerinsky; former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark; rabbis Steven Jacob and Haim Beliak. Stephen Yagman tried to represent some of the detainees but was told he couldn’t as detainees hadn’t asked for him, and court didn’t have jurisdiction as Guantanamo Bay is not in the US. Yagman argued that either US Laws apply or Cuban Law applied and that the prisoners should be represented or released. He argued the US had violated its own law, as well as international laws, by holding the detainees without charge. He’d  previously taken cases against LAPD for brutality – against LAPD former chief Darryl Gates, and had received threatening calls for that.

Early in year Washington announced that two Britons would be among the first to face a military tribunal: Moazzam Begg, 35, and Feroz Abbasi, 23. In October the Red Cross said uncertainty over the future of the prisoners had led to more than 30 suicide attempts.

On November 11th two Britons ( Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal, two of nine Britons held) and Australians (David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib) achieved a breakthrough – the US supreme court said it would consider whether the prisoners had the right to challenge their incarceration within the American courts. It will decide whether the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay is within the jurisdiction of the federal justice system.

“Lawyers separately tabled a similar case on behalf of 12 Kuwaiti prisoners, and the SC will consider the cases together some time next year.” Independent newspaper.

Other 9-11 Suspects

 “Zacharias Moussaoui, the sole individual charged with being part of the attacks [on September 11th] is making a laughing stock of the federal government.”

US Taliban fighter John Lindh contended that he was fighting against Northern Alliance – not the US. He received different treatment, and was given the right to appear in a US court of law.

Steven Watt -  the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR).

Tom Wilner represented the Kuwaiti prisoners: “The Supreme Court hears less than 5% of cases presented to it.”

Louise Christian represented  Mr Abbasi’s family.

Lynda Block was executed for shooting a policeman – she claimed he was threatening to shoot her. She was part of Libertarian group who had ‘seceded from the country’. Date?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynda_Lyon_Block

April 2002

“Britain's military chiefs were suddenly included in top secret US planning for an invasion of Iraq in the months following a private meeting between Tony Blair and President Bush, the Iraq inquiry heard yesterday.

Major-General David Wilson, then Britain's military adviser at US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, said [during Chilcott Inquiry in 2009] he was given absolutely no access to war planning on Iraq when he arrived at the facility prior to the leaders' meeting in April 2002, saying he "would have been shot" had he attempted to muscle in on the talks. However, US co-operation changed abruptly two months later.

He said the access was a "defining moment" in the lead-up to war as he was "made privy to planning that had gone on to that point by the US". It was at the meeting at the President's ranch in Crawford, Texas, that George Bush revealed to Mr Blair that military options on an Iraq campaign had already been drawn up. Earlier Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's ambassador to the US at the time, also said that the leaders may have firmed up an agreement on military action during the encounter.

General Wilson said he believed an order had been made by Rumsfeld, US Defence Secretary, to "draw back the curtain" and give Britain access to the planning process on Iraq. Military chiefs were told of a five-pronged plan drawn up by General Franks, head of US Central Command.

General Wilson said "secure wires ran hot" between London and Tampa as planners within the MoD learned of the strategy. He then gave a speech to a secret military meeting in the US in August 2002 laying out possible British involvement in a military campaign.

However, he said no decision had been made on committing British troops to any future operation. He added that he was "never put on the spot" by US military planners about Britain's willingness to participate in the invasion.

The inquiry was told by another senior military figure that he set up a small "scoping" group within the MoD to look at possible military options for Iraq upon Mr Blair's return from Crawford. "My job was to bring options," said Sir Anthony Pigott, the former Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff. "There was no talk about plans at that stage."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/uk-suddenly-let-in-on-bush-war-plans-1834632.html

May 2002

On May 18th GB troops flew in to Southern Afghanistan. Media said troops had been involved in combat, the military denied it.

Chandra Ann Levy body found. Media coverage sensational and & probably racist.

11 French engineers killed in the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi – May.

Environment

CO2 - The US is the only industrialised country which failed to ratify the 1989 UN Basel convention for total ban on exports of hazardous waste. Kyoto – EU and Japan ratified protocol on May 21st 2002. The US, producer of 36.1% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions refused to take part.

George Monbiot in November 02: “A survey in July suggested 76 % of American voters would like to see corporations forced to reduce their CO2 emissions, while another poll, in June, found 67% of the electorate believed that energy consumption, fuel efficiency and the development of solar technology were the best means of solving the impending US energy crisis”. Yet both the Democrats and Republicans continued to obstruct efforts to tackle climate change.

e-waste – China finally put its foot down over enormous amounts of hazardous US computer junk, dumped in that country causing toxic water supplies. “Cooked” over fires to release valuable minerals with children smashing equipment for components without safety equipment. Around 80% of e-waste from America was shipped to Asia, particularly India, Pakistan, China. Cheap labour, poor environmental laws and the fact that there were no US laws to stop companies exporting this junk, were the necessary factors that enabled this “trade”.

Democracy?

Both parties’ indifference over popular viewpoints and reluctance to adopt anti-business policies, despite their obvious popularity, signifies a break down of US democracy – how come neither party is willing to reap the obvious electoral benefits of pandering to the opinion of 76% of voters? Such indifference to public opinion is surely the cause of the massive apathy in North America.

Monbiot: “Widespread public anger about tax cuts for the super rich, corporate corruption, and privatisation of state affairs.” But the politicians couldn’t give a f***. “Faced with the choice between two ugly parties, the electorate, quite rationally, stayed at home.” In presidential election 2000 17% of 18 to 29 year olds turned up to vote. Yet these young people are very politicised. The question is, so why don’t the Democrats do something to recapture the youth vote? Why do they follow the Republicans in moving to the right?

LePore – responsible for the Florida debacle in 2000 - was told by the state of to replace the punchcard machines so she went for the electronic touchscreen voting sytem that had been used in Riverside County, east of LA. “She was told that Riverside’s system had performed flawlessly” but “had in fact suffered meltdown on election night, creating the first of many controversies about the reliability and accuracy of its Sequoia Pacific machines.”

Local elections in May 2002 – former mayor of Boca Raton, Emil Danciu, finished 3rd for a seat on the city council – but a poll had shown him 17% ahead of his nearest rival. Supporters said when they’d voted for him – the name of an opponent registered instead. Also on election night an election worker broke procedure by taking home 15 cartridges that contained vote totals from Daniu’s home precinct. Some were found to be empty – and this has never been adequaltey explained. Danciu tried to get access to the source code – but under Florida law this was considered a trade secret.

Two weeks later – in Wellington – a run off election for mayor was decided by four votes – but 78 votes did not register on the machines.

Even so LePore has refused to acknowledge any flaws in the machines.

She has refused calls for a verifiable paper-trail as back-up.

Freakout USA

The Governor of California claimed a plot to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge. Jose Padilla was arrested on suspicion of building a dirty bomb.

In May – the student smiley face bombings – a non-political Lucas Helder was arrested.

June 2002

Israel began to build a huge wall between Israel and Palestine in June, which they called a fence, you know, like that other famous fence – the one in Berlin.

June 25th GWB demanded the removal of elected leader, Arafat, as a pre-condition of Palestinian statehood.

Consulate bombing in Pakistan June 2002. Pakistani president Gen Musharraf – vast underground militant network which state sponsored for past 20 years.

Early planning for War

On 28th June 2002, “a “UK and Australia planning conference” was held at US Central Command (Centcom) headquarters in Tampa, Florida. Sources said it was attended by air marshal Brian Burridge, the senior British commander in the war, Gernal Tommy Franks, the chief of the US operation, and by the senior British officers permanently based at Centcom.”

Three weeks after that planning conference, on 16 July 2002, “the Prime Minister faced public questioning by MPS. The chairman of the foreign affairs committee, Donald Anderson, asked: “Are we then preparing for possible military action in Iraq?” Mr Blair replied: “No, there are no decisions which have been taken about military action.” Blair clearly evaded the question here. Bob Woodward claimed that Bliar promised to support Bush’s regime change plan when they met in Texas, in 2002. “Recently, leaked Downing Street correspondence [Daily Telegraph – August 2004] made it clear that Blair’s closest advisors understood his policy to be to “wrong foot” Saddam into providing a legal basis for military action, preferably over the alleged weapons of mass destruction .” Gilligan adds “In a letter to Blair’s senior advisor Sir David Manning, the former UK ambassador to Washington Sir Christopher Meyer described explaining the strategy to Mr Rumsfeld’s deputy…”I then went through the need to wrongfoot Saddam on the inspectors and the UN Security Council Resolutions,” he wrote.”

 “Eleven days after the planning conference, on 9th July, the first “planning order” for possible operations against Iraq was issued, according to the leaked document. Then, on 13th August, General Franks, identified by his acronym CDR (commander) US Centcom, led a “discussion on assembling UK forces in Turkey”.

Le Pen accused of torturing civilians during his tour of duty as a paratroop lieutenant 4th June 2002.

Electrocution, beatings and rape and water torture – used by Le Pen or his soldiers accusers say. Part of 8 day operation in the Algiers casbah – “The Battle of Algiers” 1954/55 - ?

July 2002

 “On 13th July 2002, two weeks after the planning conference and four days after the issue of planning orders, the Financial Times quoted a Ministry of Defence official as saying that: “We don’t have current plans for an invasion or attack on Iraq in any form.”

Blair told his cabinet that there was ‘no prospect’ of hostilities until ‘a long way’ in the future. He warned at his 25th July press conference that “we are all getting a bit ahead of ourselves on the issue of Iraq”. In August Blunkett “described talk of war as “hype”.”

“In September, when the government published its now-discredited intelligence dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, ministers continued to insist that they were making a case for Iraqi disarmament, not regime change or war.” “Whitehall knew…that much of the intelligence in the September dossier was unsound. They knew because Hans Blix and his inspectors had visited sites it identified and drawn a blank. They knew because SIS had already developed doubts about the credibility of the source of the 45 minute claim. Andrew Gilligan was only in error about  the timescale when he claimed Whitehall knew that intelligence in the September dossier was wrong. They did not know it at the time of publication, but they did know when they asked parliament for authority for war.” Robin cook, guardian, 15th October, 04.

Yasser Arafat’s big reshuffle of inner circle in July.

Ahmed Salim, leader of an Al Qaida cell in Karachi arrested in July by Pakistani intelligence.

Pakistan handed over 50 Al Q suspects from July to September without ever appearing in court. Since October 2001 Pakistan has arrested 400 Taliban / Al Qaida suspects.

Arif Ramsi – leader of Sunni organisation

Lashkar-i-Jhangui    ?

A US massacre of 44 guests at a wedding in Afghanistan makes the news. The US pretend to be sorry and “investigate” – July 1st 2002. “The Pentagon refused to apologise” for the deaths of “at least 30 people” at Deh Rawud. They’d been firing rifles into the air as is traditional at Pashtun Weddings.

But now the important stuff, oil. “Union Oil’s (Unocal) pipeline in Afghanistan is go again thanks to US installation of a Unocal employee (John F Moresca) as US envoy to the newly born democracy whose president, Hamid Karzai, is also, according to Le Monde, a former employee of a Unocal subsidiary.” Gore vidal.

Paraguay

State of emergency July 16th 2002. Clashes between anti-gov protesters and police on 15th July – 2 dead, 17 injured. Protest against president Luis Gonzalez Macchis’ economic policies. More trouble on 16th July – 5 injured.

Paraguay’s currency has weakened sharply amid fears growing that the banking system about to collapse. Neighbours Argentina and Brazil already in trouble.

In a meeting with the then-CIA Director George Tenet in July 2002, Ms Rice "advised that the CIA could proceed with its proposed interrogation" of Zubaydah, subject to Justice Department approval, the report says.

A year later, the CIA briefed officials including Ms Rice, Mr Cheney and Attorney General John Ashcroft on the use of waterboarding and other methods.

The officials "reaffirmed that the CIA programme was lawful and reflected administration policy", the Senate report says.

The CIA is reported to have wanted to use the techniques to interrogate Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in Pakistan in March 2002.

CIA memos released by President Barack Obama's administration last week revealed that Zubaydah was waterboarded at least 83 times and self-confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad 183 times.

The BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8013759.stm

August 2002

21st August 2002: Rumsfeld claims "there are al-Qaida in Iraq", and accuses Saddam of "harbouring al-Qaida operatives who fled the US military dragnet in Afghanistan".

WASHINGTON -- U.S. intelligence agencies have stepped up monitoring of an Islamic extremist group operating in northern Iraq that may have ties both to the al-Qaida terrorist network and to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

The group, called Ansar al-Islam, is an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan, a broad political party that controls a portion of northern Iraq. It is based at Halabja, site of a 1988 chemical attack by the Iraqi army that killed thousands, and controls a handful of villages near the Iranian border.

U.S. intelligence recently monitored an Ansar al-Islam site in northern Iraq where chemical or biological weapons experiments were conducted with farm animals. It initially was feared this might constitute a significant chemical-biological threat, but U.S. officials decided it was not serious enough to justify a military strike, American officials said Tuesday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ansar al-Islam remains a serious concern, in part because the group has been linked to al-Qaida.

Asked about the situation at a Pentagon news conference, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to comment beyond saying, "I have said for some time that there are al-Qaida in Iraq, and there are."

He was asked whether Ansar al-Islam's members are protected by Hussein.

"In a vicious, repressive dictatorship that exercises near total control over its population, it's very hard to imagine that the government is not aware of what's taking place in the country," he replied.

A U.S. official said that about a dozen Ansar al-Islam members trained in camps in Afghanistan in 1999 and 2000 and had contact with members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization.

St. Petersburg Times, published August 21, 2002

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/08/21/news_pf/Worldandnation/Fighting_terror_noteb.shtml

ARREST MADE OVER PHONY IDS: A man accused of providing fake IDs to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers was arrested Tuesday at New York's Kennedy Airport as he returned from Egypt, authorities said.

Mohamed el-Atriss, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Egypt, was detained by Customs agents and is expected to be taken to Passaic County to face charges.

El-Atriss left for Egypt just hours before Passaic County authorities raided his home and businesses July 31.

According to the FBI, he sold phony IDs to Khalid Almihdhar, who was on the airliner that crashed into the Pentagon, and Abdulaziz Alomari, who was aboard one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center.

St. Petersburg Times, published August 21, 2002

“In the weeks around this time [July/August], however, according to the chronology, US war preparations became frenzied…On August 22nd, the chairman of the JCS, General Dick Myers, briefed Mr Rumsfeld on the “political – ‘military strategic plan’.”

Attack on Human Rights

From the Grauniad, 24th August, 2002, “US Court Balks at New Spy Powers”. Little known intelligence surveillance said the FBI had made more than 75 mistakes in its applications for search warrants and in consequence it rejected a request by the Justice Dept to loosen the controls governing searches and wiretaps. This court has existed since 1978 but has increased authority since 9-11. Rejected new procedures were being proposed by Ashcroft to give prosecutors in criminal cases routine access to information collected by the FBI. The court was originally set up to prevent the misuse of government powers that occurred during Watergate.

Justice Dept spokeswoman Barbara Comstock.

Questions asked by Senate Judiciary Committee.

Former head of FBI Louis Freeh.

Chair of justice committee – Patrick Leahy.

Ari Fleischer attacked reporters for being obsessed with the subject in their coverage of Bush’s meeting with his defence team in Texas on Wednesday (before 24th August) – 24/08/02 Grauniad.

On 27th August, Rumsfeld “prepared to make a personal visit to Saudi Arabia to ask for over-flight rights for US bombers and the use of a Saudi airbase as the control centre for the air war.”

On August 29th, Bush “approved (the) Iraq goals, objectives and strategy” and “in late September to early October Centcom held two 48 hour exercises simulating the war.”

“Air Marshal Burridge said that Britain had influenced US planning from “the bottom up…But permanent Secretary at MoD Sir Kevin Tebbit insisted that there was no serious engagement’ with Americans until much later in 2002 and that no decision to go to war had been taken until eve of invasion.”- GILLIGAN

“Mr Hoon and Ian Lee, the MoD’s director of operational policy, told the MPs tat no specific options or action involving British troops were considered until after the end of September, something which the leaked document flatly contradicts. Sir Kevin also told the MPs that any early planning was undertaken for “coercive” purposes rather then action, but Sir Menzies asked: “If that is the case, why was it all kept secret?... I’ve never heard of covert coercive action before.”

More likely it was kept secret because most voters and “significant parts of the diplomatic establishment” opposed a war. 

Because they were heavily committed to a pre-determined course of action that Bush and Blair appeared to have such “an obscene enthusiasm for war…few people take seriously their claimed aspiration for a peaceful outcome”. WWW.MEDIALENS.ORG

In August 2002 there was an assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai and a car bomb in Kabul – 26 dead. The man who tried to shoot the president was a southern Afghan. US special forces troops guarding the president shot the would-be assassin dead. Karzai in talks with Russia discussing support for the fledgling Afghan army.

Attacks against Muslims continued in India.

August 2002: Rumsfeld claims "there are al-Qaida in Iraq", and accuses Saddam of "harbouring al-Qaida operatives who fled the US military dragnet in Afghanistan".

Attack on Human Rights

From the Grauniad, 24th August, 2002, “US Court Balks at New Spy Powers”. Little known intelligence surveillance said the FBI had made more than 75 mistakes in its applications for search warrants and in consequence it rejected a request by the Justice Dept to loosen the controls governing searches and wiretaps. This court has existed since 1978 but has increased authority since 9-11. Rejected new procedures were being proposed by Ashcroft to give prosecutors in criminal cases routine access to information collected by the FBI. The court was originally set up to prevent the misuse of government powers that occurred during Watergate.

Justice Dept spokeswoman Barbara Comstock.

Questions asked by Senate Judiciary Committee.

Former head of FBI Louis Freeh.

Chair of justice committee – Patrick Leahy.

Air Collision

71 people, many of them children from former USSR Republic of Bash Kortostan were killed when a Boeing cargo plane collided with a Tupolev passenger jet over the shores of Lake Constance in Germany. First the Swiss air traffic control blamed the Russian pilot but then they admitted an automatic warning system was switched off and only one staff on duty at the time. This single controller would be stabbed to death in 2004.  DATE?

A disproportionate number of blacks still being executed – Maryland called a halt.

Supreme Court decided on executing people with learning difficulties

Internal Dissent

In August there was growing dissent and opposition to an invasion of Iraq. A poll. Near riots occurred outside a hotel in Oregon where he [Bush?] was speaking. Portland police used pepper spray to break demo up outside. A Republican Party fund raising rally attracted 500 protesters. It was against plans that Bush had for loosening controls on logging in National Forests, but plenty turned up with placards saying “Drop Bush, Not Bombs”. There were 5 arrests. The poll showed 53% of Americans saying yes to sending ground troops into Iraq. 41% against. It was 61 to 31 in June and 74 to 20 in November. But 94% believed that Saddam had or was developing WMDs. 86% believed he was supporting terrorists. 53% believed he was involved in 911.

Ari Fleischer attacked reporters for being obsessed with the subject in their coverage of Bush’s meeting with his defence team in Texas on Wednesday (before 24th August) – 24/08/02 Grauniad.

September 2002

“Quartet Plan” proposed UN, EU, US and Russia – Palestinian state by 2005 and halt to settlements. Was rubbished by Sharon.

September 5th 2002 there was an assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai and a car bomb in Kabul – 26 dead. The man who tried to shoot the president was a southern Afghan. US special forces troops guarding the president shot the would-be assassin dead. Karzai in talks with Russia discussing support for the fledgling Afghan army.

Attacks against Muslims continued in India.

September 7th Bush spoke of an International Atomic Energy Agency report indicating that Saddam was 6 months from developing a nuclear weapon – the report did not exist. Dana Milbank “For Bush, Facts Are Malleable” W.Post October 22nd 2002

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A61903-2002Oct21?language=printer

http://www.thedubyareport.com/malleablefacts.html

Bush Lie

Camp David, MD, September 7              "I would remind you that when the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied, finally denied access, a report came out of the Atomic -- the IAEA -- that they were six months away from developing a weapon. I don't know what more evidence we need." A report issued by the IAEA in 1998, around the time weapons inspectors were finally denied access to Iraq stated: "Based on all credible information to date, the IAEA has found no indication of Iraq having achieved its program goal of producing nuclear weapons or of Iraq having retained a physical capability for the production of weapon-useable nuclear material or having clandestinely obtained such material." The IAEA Annual Report for 2001 says only that the agency had " confirmed the validity of the Agency’s technically coherent picture of Iraq’s past clandestine nuclear programme and nuclear related capabilities as of December 1998." In response to British government assertions concerning weapons development in Iraq, the IAEA stated. "We will be seeking further detailed information from the UK government on the nuclear activities described in the report in order that we are able to conduct the necessary systematic follow-up."

Build up for War

September 10th: “If we do not deal with the threat from this international outlaw and his barbaric regime, it may not erupt and engulf us this month or next; perhaps not even this year or the next. But it will at some point. And I do not want it on my conscience that we knew the threat, saw it coming and did nothing” – TUC conference, Blackpool. A claim that could be made about any military regime, anywhere in the world. Why Iraq in particular? Bliar never answered that question.

September 12th GW addressed the UN to put the case for a war against Iraq.

24/09/02 the first Dossier published on “Saddam threat” – claims that Iraq “could produce a nuclear weapon within 1 or 2 years.”

On September 12th Grauniad carried headline, “Putin demands proof over Iraqi weapons”. He didn’t believe US claims that Saddam possessed weapons of Mass Destruction, “Russia does not have in its possession any trustworthy data that supports the existence of nuclear weapons or any WMDs in Iraq, and we have not received any such information from our partners as yet.” He wanted, so he said to Poodle Bliar, that UN inspectors return to Iraq. There was even a sceptical CIA report on Iraqi military threat.

Iraq caved in on inspectors Sep 16th - accepted ‘unconditional’ return of UN inspectors

Ahmad Chalabi – leader of the Iraqi National Congress visited Washington and gave a qualified welcome to US plans, but stated he’d prefer an interim Iraqi government. Bush’s senior advisor on the Middle East, Zalmay Khalilzad, talked about “de-Ba’athising Iraq”.

Poodle Bliar and his team of yes men came up with a “Dossier” [24th September 2002] which the Grauniad said, “could be seen as a propagandist step” to sway public opinion. Bliar said he “still expected to achieve a new UN resolution with the backing of Russia.”

“The dossier…concludes that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons; that Saddam has continued to produce them; that he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes.” As we shall see, not only did the dossier turn out to be bogus, but Bliar later denied the 45 minute claim.

“We know that Saddam has been trying to buy significant quantities of uranium from Africa” in House of Commons. He was lying.

US rejected Iraq inspections deal Sep 30th

September 30th UN negotiations and an Iraqi delegation met in Vienna for three days of talks to agree terms for resuming weapons inspections. But talks leave eight presidential compounds off-limits, and US rejects inspectors’ return without a new SC resolution.In September and October the US declared Europe “to be anti-Semitic because most of Europe wants no war with Iraq and the Junta does, for reasons we may now begin to understand thanks to European and Asian investigators with their relatively free media.”

September – “The “Quartet” Plan – proposed by the UN, EU, US and Russia, the plan envisaged a Palestinian state by 2005 and a halt to settlements on occupied land. It was rubbished by Ariel Sharon, who demanded a stop to all Palestinian violence and the removal of Yasser Arafat from any position of influence.” – Grauniad.

Attack Iraq is Back – The PR Job

“The vast propaganda campaign initiated in September 2002 succeeded quickly in convincing Americans that Saddam Hussein was an immenent threat to their existence and that he was responsible for the 9-11 atrocities, beliefs held nowhere else in the world, even in Kuwait and Iran, brutally attacked by Saddam.” Noam Chomsky.

Little was said about the west’s role in arming Iraq during the 80s. According to a Guardian article on 30/12/02 the Reagan administration and Rumsfeld, then the Special Middle East envoy, did little to stop Iraq developing WMD in the 1980s even though they knew SH was using chemical weapons “almost daily” against Iran.

To promote the war “experts” such as Richard Butler were wheeled out. In August, Butler, who has worked in the field of nuclear arms limitation, said “I believe the case against Saddam Hussein is utterly proven. But what I’m unconvinced by is the question of why it was inconvenient to deal with the problem two or three years ago and now, today, it’s imperative. What actually is motivating that?” Richard Butler was head of UNSCOM 1997 to 99, Australian ambassador to the UN 92 to 97, and currently Diplomat in Residence of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Wesley Clark said Bush asked him to claim on tv that Iraq was involved in 9-11 attacks.

“Then the US abruptly replaced OBL with Saddam. This has been hard to explain since there is nothing to connect Iraq with 911. Happily, ‘evidence’ is now being invented…Stories appeared in the press about the vast oil wealth of Iraq which must be reassigned to US and European Consortia.” Vidal.

The end of the year consisted of the US building international support for action in Iraq and losing it all by choosing to only consider military action against the wishes of the UN and all US allies bar about two. The US was gearing up for war in Iraq and nothing was going to stop them. In November George Monbiot: “ 10s of millions of US voters opposed to a war with Iraq were, until he died in a mysterious plane crash, represented by just one Senator  Paul Wellstone”.

Blair: April 4th: “I do believe there is a real danger with weapons of mass destruction – on US NBC TV”

May 1st: “Saddam Hussein is developing weapons of mass destruction, he is in breach of UN Security Council resolutions and he should come back into compliance with those” – Daily Mirror. Bliar was lying again.

On May 14th UN introduced ‘smart sanctions’ targeted at military equipment to replace existing sanctions.

July 5th talks in Vienna between UN and Iraq break down without agreement.

August 1st Iraq invited UN chief weapons inspector to Baghdad. Was this all 2002?

There was a sharp increase in the number of US-UK air raids on Iraqi air defences August to September 2002.

Secret Shenanigans

In September 2004 a document was leaked from the Pentagon, which shed light on what was really going on in the run-up to the Iraqi war. The document was part of a Pentagon chronology, part of a presentation by Rumsfeld on “strategic lessons learned from Operation Iraqi Freedom”.

From a Gilligan article: “A leaked secret document…raises serious new questions over Tony Blair’s account of when Britain began planning for war with Iraq. The highly classified Pentagon paper revealed that British commanders began high level planning with their US counterpoints 9 months before the war started. At the same time, Mr Blair was publicly denying that any such preparation was taking place.” Evening Standard 29/09/04.

               “Senior GB and US military commanders held a high level planning conference in June, 2002, a time when the prime minister was denying preparing for a conflict.”

               “GB and US commander General Tommy Franks discussed sending British forces to Turkey as early as August 2002. If this had happened, the first significant deployment in what became the Iraq war would have been by British, not American troops.”

               “The first planning orders for actual operations were issued on 07/10/02, more than a month before the UN passed Resolution 1441 giving Iraq a “final opportunity” to disarm. The full battleplan codenamed 1003V was issued on 31st October eight days before Resolution 1441 and a month before UN inspectors started work” – contradicted notion that war was only a “last resort” if UN inspections failed.

October 2002

anchester, NH, October 5       Claimed his education bill brought about "the biggest increase in education spending in a long, long time."           When asked by reporters about Bush's statement, the White House cited a 15.8 percent increase in Department of Education discretionary spending for fiscal year 2002. The increase under Clinton in fiscal 2001 was 18.5 percent. Moreover, the administration had lobbied for a much smaller increase than eventually passed. Earlier in October, Republican moderates complained that the adminstration was not spending the full amount approved for education. Budget director, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., responded that it was "nothing uncommon" and referred to the education bill as "explosively larger" than the administration request.

Build up for War

7th October 02 – “CJCS [Myers] issues planning orders for Northern Front operations.”

Bush Lies

                What Bush said       The truth

Cincinnati, OH, October 7        "[O]ne very senior al Qaeda leader ... received medical treatment in Baghdad this year."      U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged that the terrorist, Abu Musab Zarqawi, was no longer in Iraq and that there was no hard evidence Hussein's government knew he was there or had contact with him.

                "[W]e have discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a

growing fleet" of unmanned aircraft capable of "targeting the United States."        An October CIA report referred to the aircraft as an "experiment" and "attempt" and declared it a "serious threat to Iraq's neighbors and to international military forces in the region" -- but did not indicate any threat to the US.

                In 1998, "information from a high-ranking Iraqi nuclear engineer who had defected revealed that despite his public promises, Saddam Hussein had ordered his nuclear program to continue.... Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists, [which] could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints."        The Iraqi defector referred to is Khidhir Hamza, who did work on the Iraqi nuclear program, but retired in 1991 and left the country in 1995. Although he spoke in 1998 about his experiences, his information referred to activities nearly a decade earlier. The statement that Iraq could use terrorist groups to attack "on any given day" conflicts with CIA testimony to congress. Declassified after Bush's speech, the testimony declared the likelihood that Hussein would initiate a chemical or biological attack against the US was "low," but suggested that he might take the "extreme step" of acting through a terrorist group if conftronted with a U.S. attack.

October 12th, US planned to establish a US led military administration in Iraq similar to post war Germany and Japan.

Bush got a ‘resounding’ congressional mandate to use force in Iraq.

The estimate was of 75,000 troops an annual cost of up to $16bn and include GB other troops. To be run by a senior US officer, perhaps General Tommy Franks? And an early goal was to “administer the country’s huge oil deposit.”

Bush Lies

Waterford, MI, October 14      Concerning the wearing of radiation detectors by customs officials: "The leadership of that particular group of people said, 'No way; we need to have a collective bargaining session over whether or not our people should be made to wear these devices,' And that could take a long period of time."        In January the National Treasury Employees Union argued that radiation detectors should be voluntary, and called for negotiations. Five days later the Customs Service said it saw no need to negotiate and began to implement the policy. In April the union wrote that it "does not object" to mandatory wearing of the devices. According to the Customs Service the delay was caused by a shortage of the devices. 4,000 are reportedly on order.

                "There's over $15 billion of construction projects which are on hold, which aren't going forward -- which means there's over 300,000 jobs that would be in place, or soon to be in place, that aren't in place."          The $15 billion figure is not a government estimate, but comes from a trade group, the Real Estate Roundtable, which is lobbying for terrorism insurance legislation. The group obtained the information -- at the White House's request -- by taking an unscientific survey of members, who were asked to provide figures with no documentation. The White House claims the 300,000 jobs number was provided by the carpenters' union, but a union official said the White House had "extrapolated" the number from Transportation Department study of federal highway aid (not private real estate) previously cited by the union.

Iraq renewed offer to UN weapons inspectors  October 16th

October 16th Iraq renews offer to UN weapons inspectors, after ‘referendum’ gives SH another 7-year term as president with 100% of the vote.

Dana Milbank “For Bush, Facts Are Malleable” W.Post October 22nd 2002

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A61903-2002Oct21?language=printer

http://www.thedubyareport.com/malleablefacts.html

The basis of this article so tastefully highlighted by me (above).

See the dubya report for details of how the Whitehouse refuted the claims.

31st October 02 – “1003V [full operational battle plan] published [within Pentagon].

Brazil

In October, left wing Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva easily won the most votes in the first round but failed to get outright victory causing a run-off on October 27th. Jose Serra, from ruling coalition won even though Silva had more votes.

Bush Lies

Springfield, MO, October 18    "[B]ecause of a quirk in the rules in the United States Senate, after a 10-year period, the tax-relief plan we passed goes away."                Actually, although a 60-vote majority was needed to pass the tax cut, supporters of the tax cut in the House and Senate, which were both under GOP control at the time the legislation passed, agree that it should expire after nine years to keep the cost below the $1.35 trillion over 10 years that had been agreed to by congress and the administration.

The lies were more widespread – coming from various figures within the Bush camp – election season and this was the dirtiest yet – if the lies are anything to go by. See the dubya report...

November 2002

In November forensic scientists began to put names to corpses found near Sao Paulo in 1990. Dr Martin Evison and Dr Marco Guimaraes from Sao Paulo’s facaulty of medicare at Ribeirao Preto.

Build up for War

November 7th the day before the UNSC vote on Resolution 1441 Downing Street began to issue warnings of imminent terrorist threats against UK ferries, the underground and major public events.

November 8th Saddam was threatened with “serious consequences” if he does not disarm in UNSC resolution. 8th November 02 – UN Sec Council unanimously voted to return weapons inspectors to Iraq – backing a US-UK resolution requiring Iraq to reinstate inspectors.

Saddam accepted November 13th . Sent letter to the UNSC accepting the resolution.

UN resolution 1441 was designed to raise the bar as high as possible. A complete and full accounting of WMD, with any omission bringing ‘serious consequences’ and immediate and unhindered access of inspectors anywhere in Iraq – “an extraordinary request for any sovereign nation”. www.medialens.org

Inspectors arrived in Baghdad on 18th.

November 18th, “I have got no doubt either that the purpose of our challenge from the UN is disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, it is not regime change.” On Radio Monte Carlo. But after the war Bliar claimed that the Iraqi war’s main justification was the regime change.

Putin stuck his oar in on November 22nd.

“Opportunistic and selective  “ dossier on human rights abuses in Iraq by GB government. It ignored US and UK support for Saddam at time of atrocities mentioned in report.

22nd November Bush visited Russia and Putin warned the US to not got it alone against Iraq.

November 27th Saddam delivered declaration to UN that Iraq has no WMDs. US claimed that declaration is untruthful – the UN says it is incomplete. It was incomplete because the Americans removed part of it.

27th November 02 0 UN inspectors began inspections in Iraq.

November 30th: “Not only do we know that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, we also know he is capable of using them. It is solely because of the threat he poses – and for this reason alone – that the international community has decided that Saddam must disarm or face the consequences” in an interview. What international community was this? One comprising entirely of the USA, UK, Spain and Portugal?!?

Rows with Europe

The US imposed duty on European steel. “The tariffs dented Bush’s credentials as an advocate of free trade and angered American based car makers. They say that the tariffs have increased the price of their raw materials, causing job losses and making vehicles more expensive for consumers.” Independent 11th November 2003.

“White is also facing heavy political pressure from “rust-belt” states such as Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to keep import duties, which are due to continue until 2005.”

The EU imposed $4bn worth of trade sanctions in row over tax breaks for US multinationals like Boeing and Microsoft. A retaliation measure approved by WTO – US trade Rep Robert Koellick?

US authorised farm bill but want agricultural tariffs reduced from 60 to 15% and subsidies cut by $100bn worldwide. French are chief in blocking agricultural reform. Trade war is hotting up.

The other row was over the International Criminal Court. Americans wanted immunity. It now threatened to pull its troops out of Bosnia if its demands for immunity from icc were not met. What was America afraid of?

Ansar al-Islam in Iraq fighting a guerrilla campaign against Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in US occupied zone, trained in al Qaida camps in Afghanistan. 400 al Qaida fighters were sent to Indonesia in November 2001. -?

Then it was alleged that al Qaida was in Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentine border area. Where Lebanese live with sympathy for Shi-ite movement, Hizbullah .

There were claims that 3,000 to 10,000 al Qaida’s inner core – 25,000 trained guerrillas/terrorists. 5 years in Afghanistan. Bin Laden’s deputy Ayman Zawahiri, thought to be in Pakistani tribal area.

Bin Laden – Hizbulla contact in early 90s. Lebanon’s Beka’a valley was an al Qaida stronghold? US succeeded in extending Al Qaidia’s global reach. Vincent Cannistraro, former CIA counter terrorism chief.

Nations on the Security Council “voted under heavy diplomatic and economic pressure from the US” interpress service reported. As recipients of aid from Washington, non-permanent members of the council “were seemingly aware of the fact that in 1990 the US almost overnight cut about $70m in aid to Yemen immediately following its negative vote against a US-sponsored SC resolution to militarily oust Iraq from Kuwait.” [quoted Norman Soloman, “unilateral power: By Any Other Name”, Znet, November 21st, 2002]. Not generally reported or mentioned at this time.

To a large extent the PR campaign to persuade the public relied on finding something that fitted the description of WMD – however small. But of course they knew this was unlikely – so another campaign of misinformation began.

Cyprus

11th November wrangling over Cyprus, EU and UN. UN presented a peace plan for Cyprus. 15th Jan – reunification talks restart and end without result.

Washington Sniper

In October the country that is fed on a diet of violence, freely available weaponry and extreme paranoia is surprised when a real-life serial killing spree takes place near Washington DC. It lasted three weeks, 13 shootings, 10 deaths. One man was shot dead at a petrol station, south of Fredericksbury, Va. “The failure of police and FBI to apprehend the killer has sown panic throughout  Washington and sharply circumscribed normal activities.” The killers left a Death Tarot card at the scene of each crime.

December 2002

Build up for War

2nd December The British government published a dossier documenting human rights abuses in Iraq. It is attacked by Amnesty International for being ‘opportunity and selective’. Critics say it uses longstanding human rights abuses to achieve current military goals, and ignores US and UK support for Saddam at the time of some of the worst atrocities – GUARDIAN.

Iraq responded to pressure and on December 3rd a surprise search was sprung on one of Saddam’s Husseins Baghdad palaces. Government officials fully cooperated.

UNSC agreed to extend UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq, on December 4th, for another six months, but concedes to US demands to review the list of goods barred.

December 7th – the 12,000 page declaration presented to the UN one day ahead of deadline. General Hasam Anin says “that Iraq is empty of WMD.” Saddam apologises on tv to people of Kuwait.

December 8th – Iraq’s dossier flown to UN agency in NY, the SC and UN nuclear agency in Vienna. General Amir al-Sadi admitted Iraq had come close to developing a nuclear bomb but programme now long abandoned.

8th to 17th December 02 – “Exercise internal look [dress rehearsal for war in Iraq]”

December 17th Powell looks like rejecting Iraq’s declaration – saying there were problems.

Decemebr 18th – UK’s MoD revealed that ships are being chartered to carry troops and heavy armour to the Gulf.

19th December 02 – “coalition Working Group established”. The US accused Baghdad of being in “material breach” of the UN resolution. Hans Blix had said that the Iraqi arms declaration contained little new information about its WMD capability.

22nd Decemebr –Iraq invited the CIA to enter the country and track down its alleged WMD – Guardian.

Palestine – Fake Peace Talks

Oslo Accords and Barak’s ‘peace efforts’ at Camp David with Clinton, were considered by Neo-Con Abrams as threats to Israeli security. So it was time to bugger it all up. Elliot Abrams’ re-abilitation occurred on the 3rd December 2002. He was appointed as senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs in the National Secuirty Council, and became directly in charge of the Palestinian/Israeli “peace process”. Abrams exonerated Sharon and the military for their role in the 1982 invasion of the Lebanon and Sabra/Shatila massacres .

Abrams’ assistant, Flynt Leverett who is on detail from the CIA is made directly responsible for Arab-Israeli conflict under Abrams’ supervision. He defended Sharon and compared him to Churchill.

Israeli leadership now engaged in “colonial policing, which recalls the takeover by the white police of the poor neighbourhoods of the blacks in South Africa during the apartheid era.” Ze’ev Sternhell, colleague of Hebrew University sociologist Baruch Kimmerling, c/o Chomsky.

Territories have been under harsh military occupation for 35 years.

“The basic problem then, as now, traces back to Washington, which has persistently backed Israel’s rejection of a political settlement in terms of the broad international consensus. Current modifications of US rejectionism are tactical. With plans for an attack on Iraq endangered, the US permitted a UN resolution calling for Israeli withdrawal from the newly-invaded territories “without delay” – meaning “as soon as possible”, secretary of state Colin Powell explained at once. Powell’s arrival in Israel was delayed to allow the Israeli Defence Force to continue its destructive operations, facts hard to miss and confirmed by US officials.”

“When the current intifada broke out, Israel used US helicopters to attack civilian targets, killing and wounding dozens of Paletinians, hardly in self defence. Clinton responded by arranging what the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz called “the largest purchase of military helicopters by the Israeli Air Force in a decade.”, along with spare parts for Apache attack helicopters. A few weeks later began to use US helicopters for assassinations. These extended last August to the first assassination of a political leader: Abu Ali Mustafa. That passed in silence, but the reaction was quite different when Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Ze’evi was killed in retaliation. Bush is now praised for arranging the release of Arafat from his dungeon in return for US-UK supervision of the accused assassins of Ze’evi (Sternhell). It is inconceivable that there should be any effort to punish those responsible for the Mustafa assassination.” CHOMSKY

Suicide bombers from the Palestinian side continue to play into Sharon’s hands, his own campaign of random  terror attacks in residential areas seemed designed to stir things up rather than bring about an end to the violence. Suicide bomber in January killed 11 aboard a bus in Jerusalem.

Operation Defensive Shield – launched on March 29th 2002 by Sharon, with an army assault on the West Bank town of Ramallah. US novelist Russell Banks made comparisons with US Indian reservations in the late 19th century. In Nablus, May 18th,  it was reported that Arab ambulance crews feared to venture onto the streets as the Israeli army were firing at them, “They [Israeli soldiers] shot at everything that moved”. The action in May was the “most sweeping military offensive in the West Bank since Israel occupied the territory in 1967 ”.

SEC went to formal investigation into Haliburton’s dodgy accounts. Then it all went quiet...Cheney’s sweetheart severance deal. Had Cheney taken chance to get out before company went sour? Bush did – used insider knowledge to cash out of Harken. WTW, 45-53

9-11 investigation

The White House finally assented in December 2002 to the establishment of an independent commission, under former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean. Still, the administration pushed for a hand-picked panel, with a narrow focus on intelligence failures and recommendations.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/110204_mckinney_fitts.shtml

website of the September 11 Family Steering Committee

http://www.911independentcommission.org/bush2162004.html

2002 Notes

Earth summit 2002 in September – the US watered down or sabotaged the event.

Korea

Axis of Evil time. World politics explained in terms of a Disney fairy story. In Korea “North and South Korean sailors engaged in their worst firefight for three years. Two gunboats opened fire on each other, killing four South Koreans.”

Confessed – then retracted confession over nuclear capability. 1994 agreed framework collapsed and IAEA inspectors were expelled.

Colombia

CZN & Exxon-Mobil mining operations

See 1980 for the start of this story.

In 2000 - With $1.4 billion in revenues from its Colombian operations in 2000, ExxonMobil was the second largest corporation in Colombia after the state-owned Ecopetrol.

An international campaign organised by Greenpeace is targeting Exxon-Mobil as one of the main obstacles to greenhouse gas reductions. Twenty-one percent of stockholders recently voted for Exxon-Mobil to adopt a renewable energy plan. CZN also has mining operations in Cerrejon Central and they are actively pursuing new mining opportunities in Cerrejon Sur. Mine expansions are imminent.

With $1.4 billion in revenues from its Colombian operations in 2000, ExxonMobil was the second largest corporation in Colombia after the state-owned Ecopetrol.

The Exxon-Mobil Corporation sold the massive Cerrejon Coal mine to CZN and its copper mining operations to Anglo American this year.

Colombia is now the fourth largest exporter of coal. For the last 15 years an average of 15 million tons per year has been extracted from the open-cast El Cerrejon Coal Mine under its subsidiary Intercor. It is one of the largest open-pit mines in the world (30 miles long). The CZN Consortium purchased Intercor and Exxon’s share in April 02. The area of the mine is inhabited by the Wayuu Indians who have opposed the mine since 1980. At the start 5,000 Indians were employed, but most of them were dismissed when the mine began operations two years later. In 1988 the last Indians were fired for union activities. Intercor evicted all residents of the indigenous community of Tabaco to make way for the expansion of the mine. Residents are resisting and claim that the relocation arrangements made would break up communities and not give people sufficient funds to buy land to live on. The Colombian army guards the mine and has assisted strikebreaking in the past.

To extract the coal, Exxon sucked up the groundwater, dried up the rivers, and, in the process, denuded the grasslands on which the Wayuu depend for subsistence. Indians have also suffered from respiratory diseases caused by coal dust and heavy noise pollution.

Argentina

Economic meltdown. Argentines have very limited media – 2 or 3 groups. Consequently information available is limited too. Popular uprising forced government of the alliance to resign started shortly after the last measures that restricted fund withdrawals to both business and public were announced by Economy minister. Absurd cos most of population do not have bank accounts or credit cards etc. They did it for the insistence of purporting to continue to pay the interest of an external debt of over 150bn US Dollars. This caused a huge cash scarcity.

History

GB handed Kashmir to Pakistan in 1947. UN brokered referendum never occurred. July 1949 temporary cease-fire line agreed known as ‘line of control’ after collapse of eastern Europe in 1989 Kashmiri’s rose up, crossed border and took up arms from Pakistan and begin insurgency in Kashmir to eject India. By 95 Pakistan hijack independence struggle and wanted to improve Islamic law. 1999 Pakistani army sparked Kargil War, then embarrassing climb-down leading to military coup of General Perrez M.

California

United farm workers had won right to unionise in 1975 under Cesar Chavez with new bill for binding arbitration in the pipeline forces a settlement after a set time if agreement not reached – Gov Grey Davis of California needs votes of union but money of growers for his campaign – was ousted by Arnie in 2003.

During the run up to the war a series of mysterious plane crashes occurred in the Middle East. Two in Iran and one in the Sahara, with no explanation of why they crashed. 2002 – 2003?

Abdullah al-Muhajir, alleged bomber.

Tom Ridge, the President’s counter terrorist advisor, creation of department for homeland security.

Stephen Hess – Brookings Institute

12/03/02, Closed door conference of US and Taiwanese defence officials.

US support for Stalinist regime in Uzbekistan.

Bush’s hastily formulated $37bn counter-intelligence department – when? 2002? June?

German police threatened to torture a suspect? 2003

Brazil’s indie media success –chomsky -  2003