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The Perpetual War Portfolio

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The Death Toll

379  U.S. troops killed in Iraq since May 1 victory speech.
Latest fatality date included in total: 1/27/2004
Data provided by Lunaville

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News last updated: January 28, 2004 @ 9:23am EST

Iraqi whispers mull repeat of 1920s revolt

Knight Ridder (via Mercury News) - January 28, 2004
This fabled city of muddy streets and hidden guns, where one person's folklore is another's atrocity, has U.S. officials concerned that ethnic tensions could ignite a civil war and spoil plans for a unified Iraq. [...] To many Iraqis, today's U.S. occupation reads like an old play with modern characters: America as the new Britain, grenade-lobbing insurgents as the new opposition, and Ahmad Chalabi and other former exiles on the Governing Council as the new kings.

KAY CHANNELS SCOTT RITTER: Iraq Disarmed in Mid-90s

Washington Post - January 28, 2004
U.S. weapons inspectors in Iraq found new evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime quietly destroyed some stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons in the mid-1990s, former chief inspector David Kay said yesterday.

Cheney backs away from Iraq WMD claim

Financial Times - January 28, 2004
Dick Cheney, US vice-president, on Tuesday defended the US decision to invade Iraq but, in a notable shift of emphasis, he left open the question of whether Saddam Hussein had possessed weapons of mass destruction - a claim he made repeatedly before the war.

Bush Appears to Back Down on Arms Claim Against Iraq

New York Times - January 28, 2004
Asked by reporters if he would repeat earlier expressions of confidence that the weapons would be found in light of recent statements by the former chief weapons inspector in Iraq, David A. Kay, that Mr. Hussein had gotten rid of them well before the war, Mr. Bush did not answer directly.

Three U.S. Soldiers, Three Marines Wounded in Two Afghanistan Attacks

Fox - January 28, 2004
Three U.S. soldiers were wounded Tuesday in a clash with insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, and three U.S. Marines were hurt by a bomb, a military spokesman said.

AP: Iraqis in No Rush to Privatize Oil

AP (via Washington Post) - January 28, 2004
The privatization of Iraq's state-run oil industry has faded as a priority for U.S. officials advising the Iraqi Oil Ministry, despite enthusiastic support for the idea among some American conservatives in the months leading up to the war. [...] "Even the U.S. has lost interest, mainly because the Iraqis themselves are so 'anti.' It's a nationalistic thing," Leo Drollas, chief economist at the Center for Global Energy Studies, said from the center's London office.

Two attacks in Kabul kill one British soldier, wound five foreigners

AP (via USA Today) - January 28, 2004
A pair of nearly simultaneous attacks, one suicide, on British and German bases near the Afghan capital Wednesday left one British soldier dead and at least five other foreigners wounded, police and peacekeepers said.

SURPRISE!: Iraqi self-rule splits White House

Knight Ridder (via Mercury News) - January 27, 2004
The Bush administration is deeply divided over how to defuse opposition to a U.S.-backed plan for restoring self-rule to Iraq and avert even deeper instability. [...] One reason for the opposition to the proposal favored by Cheney and the Pentagon, the second senior official said, is that it would keep in power Iraqis with little popular support, including Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite close to neoconservatives in the Pentagon and White House.

Iraqi who gave MI6 45-minute claim says it was untrue

Guardian - January 27, 2004
The government's dogged insistence that Saddam Hussein was able to deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes of the order being given suffered two serious blows yesterday as ministers braced themselves for the findings of the Hutton inquiry.

Seven Iraqi Police Killed in Attacks

AP (via Washington Post) - January 27, 2004
Insurgents fired a rocket at the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition Monday night after gunmen killed seven Iraqi policemen in a pair of attacks west of Baghdad.

White House Shows Less Certainty Now on Iraq's Arms

New York Times - January 27, 2004
The White House began to back away on Monday from its assertions that Iraq had illegal weapons, saying it now wanted to compare prewar intelligence assessments with what may be actually found there.

Cheney 'waged war' on Blair Iraq strategy

Financial Times - January 26, 2004
Mr Stephens' book reveals a string of acid interventions by Mr Cheney during critical talks between the president and prime minister at Camp David in September 2002. Once, he directly rebuked Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair's communications director. In occasional contacts with British officials, Scooter Libby, the vice-president's chief of staff, made little secret of his boss's scorn for multilateralism. He once jibed: "Oh dear, we'd better not do that or we might upset the prime minister."

Straw 'was against war'

Guardian - January 26, 2004
Jack Straw privately opposed going to war in Iraq without the prior support of the UN, claims a new book on Tony Blair by the Financial Times journalist Philip Stephens.

Bush 'stole' the presidential election: Cherie Blair

Times of India - January 26, 2004
In a forthright view that is likely to embarrass her husband, Cherie Blair, wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair, is reported to have observed that George W Bush "stole" the US presidential election from Al Gore.

The 50 lies, exaggerations, distortions and half truths that took this country to war

Independent - January 26, 2004
Whatever the outcome of the Hutton inquiry and the vote on top-up fees, the central charge this paper has consistently made against Tony Blair is that he took this country to war in Iraq on a false pretext. Raymond Whitaker and Glen Rangwala list 50 statements on which history will judge him and his US partners.

U.S. trying to deal with Sistani's growing influence

USA Today - January 26, 2004
With his long white beard and bushy black eyebrows, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani resembles Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Shiite Muslim cleric who ousted the U.S.-backed shah of Iran a quarter-century ago and introduced theocracy to the modern Middle East.

US must quit Iraq before vote, say Sunnis

Guardian - January 26, 2004
An influential Sunni Muslim group in Iraq said yesterday it was opposed to partial elections scheduled for the summer and wanted a vote taken only when American forces had left the country. The opposition of the newly organised Council for Sunnis in Iraq represents another dilemma for the US-led administration in Baghdad, which is already under pressure to rewrite its political programme in Iraq a second time.

Iraqi Melting Pot May Boil Over

Los Angeles Times - January 26, 2004
This fabled city of muddy streets and hidden guns, where one person's folklore is another's atrocity, has U.S. officials concerned that ethnic tensions could ignite a civil war and spoil plans for a unified Iraq.

Iraqi cleric takes hard line on caucuses

Knight Ridder (via Mercury News) - January 26, 2004
Iraq's top Shiite Muslim leader now says that American plans for a caucus-based political system are illegitimate because the idea for them came from another illegitimate body: the U.S.-appointed Governing Council.

Delays and Split on Iraqi Council Imperil U.S. Plan

New York Times - January 26, 2004
A powerful cleric's demand for quick elections has delayed the drafting of an interim constitution and created a serious new split in the Iraqi Governing Council, officials said Sunday, further undermining the Bush administration's troubled plan for a political transition in Iraq.

C.I.A. Had Only Very Little Data on Iraqi Arms, Ex-Inspector Says

New York Times - January 26, 2004
American intelligence agencies failed to detect that Iraq's unconventional weapons programs were in a state of disarray in recent years under the increasingly erratic leadership of Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A.`s former chief weapons inspector said in an interview late Saturday.

Ousting Saddam 'no cause for war'

BBC - January 26, 2004
A leading human rights group has said the US and UK are wrong to use the toppling of a brutal regime in Baghdad to justify going to war against Iraq. The group, Human Rights Watch asked why George Bush and Tony Blair did not try remove Saddam Hussein much earlier.

Powell Voices Doubts About Iraqi Weapons

Washington Post - January 24, 2004
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who urged the United Nations to endorse a preemptive war to strip Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, conceded yesterday that Saddam Hussein's government may have no longer had such munitions.

Iraq had no WMD, says top US inspector

Financial Times - January 24, 2004
David Kay, the top US weapons inspector in Iraq, resigned on Friday saying he did not believe there were any large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the country. His remarks were a direct challenge to President George W. Bush, who insisted in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday that Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi leader, had pursued dangerous weapons programmes right up to the March invasion.

'Little point' in WMD search

Observer - January 24, 2004
Pentagon and CIA officials appear to have accepted that there is little point in searching for weapons stockpiles in Iraq, and will now concentrate on auditing Iraqi claims of their destruction. The sharp change in emphasis by the CIA-directed Iraq Survey Group follows the admission on Friday by its outgoing leader, Dr David Kay, that his 1,000-man organisation had not found evidence of stockpiles, and that he now believed they had never existed.

Britain: Iraq Weapons Hunt Must Continue

AP (via Washington Post) - January 24, 2004
The British government said the search for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction must continue, despite the resignation of the head of the U.S.-led inspection team in the country.

U.N. to Send Team to Assess Elections in Iraq

Los Angeles Times - January 24, 2004
Ahmad Chalabi, long a favorite of Pentagon officials and some key U.S. lawmakers, said in an appearance in Washington: "I believe that elections are possible. Seek to make them possible and they will be possible." In Washington, U.S. officials expressed shock that Chalabi had turned against the American-backed plan. "You never bite the hand that feeds you," said one.

Iraqi City Fractures Along Ethnic Lines

Washington Post - January 24, 2004
This ethnically mixed city sitting atop vast oil resources has become dangerously polarized, with Kurds and Arabs vying to dominate it in the new Iraq.

Changes in U.S. Iraq Plan Explored

Washington Post - January 24, 2004
The Bush administration has produced a list of possible changes for Iraq's political transition, with some U.S. and British officials acknowl

Stress epidemic strikes American forces in Iraq

Observer - January 24, 2004
Up to one in five of the American military personnel in Iraq will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, say senior forces' medical staff dealing with the psychiatric fallout of the war. This revelation follows the disclosure last month that more than 600 US servicemen and women have been evacuated from the country for psychiatric reasons since the conflict started last March.

Bush Seeks 7% Boost in Military Spending

Los Angeles Times - January 24, 2004
The administration is expected to make a request later in the year -- most likely after the November presidential election -- for an additional $50 billion or more to pay for those military operations.

THURSDAY FUNNIES: Top U.S. Senator: Iraq WMD May Have Gone to Syria

Reuters (via Washington Post) - January 22, 2004
U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts said there was some concern Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had gone to Syria, and Washington vowed to carry on searching for such arms in Iraq.

Guerrillas Kill 3 Iraqi Police West of Baghdad

Reuters (via Washington Post) - January 22, 2004
Guerrillas in a passing car fired AK-47 assault rifles and tossed a grenade at a police checkpoint near the Iraqi town of Falluja Thursday, killing three policemen and wounding five, police at the scene said.

Two American Soldiers Killed in Iraq

AP (via Washington Post) - January 22, 2004
Insurgents fired mortars at an American military encampment in central Iraq, killing two soldiers and critically wounding another, the military said Thursday.

Four Iraqis Working for Coalition Killed

AP (via Washington Post) - January 22, 2004
Unidentified assailants gunned down three Iraqi women and a driver working for the U.S.-led coalition forces in a central city, police said Thursday.

Ex-CIA Officers Ask Congress to Probe Plame Leak

New York Times - January 22, 2004
A group of former intelligence officers is pressing Congressional leaders to open an immediate inquiry into the disclosure last summer of the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer, Valerie Plame. [...] It is unusual for former intelligence officers to petition Congress on a matter like this. The unmasking of Ms. Plame is viewed within spy circles as an unforgivable breach of secrecy that must be exhaustively investigated and prosecuted, current and former intelligence officials say.

U.S., Britain Detail Iraq Plan at U.N.

Washington Post - January 22, 2004
The United States and Britain have begun detailed discussions at the United Nations about the disputed U.S. plan to hand over power in Iraq, with Secretary General Kofi Annan expected to make an announcement as early as Monday that he will send a U.N. team to Iraq to help defuse the building political crisis, according to U.S., U.N. and Iraqi officials.

Hunt for Iraqi Weapons May Get New Chief Soon

Washington Post - January 22, 2004
Charles A. Duelfer, an experienced former U.N. weapons inspector, is likely to be named soon to succeed David Kay as head of the U.S. hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a senior administration official said last night. Duelfer, 51, who has expressed doubts that such weapons will ever be found, is widely respected in the arms-control field and has persona

Iraqis Want Saddam's Old U.S. Friends on Trial

Reuters (via Washington Post) - January 21, 2004
If Iraqis ever see Saddam Hussein on trial, they want his former American allies shackled beside him. "Saddam should not be the only one who is put on trial. The Americans backed him when he was killing Iraqis so they should be prosecuted," said Ali Mahdi, a builder.

War 'making world safer'

Guardian - January 21, 2004
President George Bush last night declared the US to be on a mission to "lead the cause of freedom" and claimed his doctrine of pre-emptive military action had advanced the cause of democracy and non-proliferation around the world.

Bush bangs on the war drum to orchestrate re-election

Syndey Morning Herald - January 21, 2004
There was never any doubt that George Bush would run a re-election campaign on his national security credentials. The September 11 attacks changed the political landscape in America for ever. The leadership Bush showed during those cataclysmic events made the "war on terrorism" and homeland security his issues. In his State of the Union address, Bush made it clear that he will exploit this to the full in November.

Iraqi Shia demonstrate for third day

Al Jazeera - January 21, 2004
Thousands of Iraqi Shia have taken to the streets for a third consecutive day in support of demands made by their leading spiritual cleric calling for direct elections.

US set for Iraq election retreat

Guardian - January 21, 2004
The US-led coalition in Iraq is on the verge of bowing to Shia Muslim pressure for direct elections before the handover of power on June 30, the Guardian has learned.

Kurds turn against US after losing control over oil-rich land

Independent - January 21, 2004
Iraqi Kurds, the one Iraqi community that has broadly supported the American occupation, are expressing growing anger at the failure of the United States and its allies to give them full control of their own affairs and allow the Kurds to expel Arabs placed in Kurdistan by Saddam Hussein.

Another Voice of Academia Is Silenced in Iraq

Los Angeles Times - January 21, 2004
Gunned down only 12 hours after advocating direct elections on an Arab television talk show, Mayah was the fourth professor from Baghdad's Mustansiriya University to be killed in the last eight months, his death the latest in a series of academic slayings in post-Hussein Iraq.

Iraqis Welcome Prospect of U.N. Return

Reuters (via Washington Post) - January 20, 2004
Washington, which went to war in Iraq without the backing of most of the U.N. Security Council and for months opposed a wider U.N. role in Iraq, now wants the world body to help by convincing Iraqis that elections cannot be held yet.

Shia protesters step up demand for Iraq elections

Independent - January 20, 2004
In their greatest show of political strength since the war tens of thousands of Iraqi Shia Muslims marched through Baghdad yesterday chanting slogans in favour of free elections for a new government. About 100,000 protesters marched through Baghdad to al-Mustansiriyah University shouting "Yes to elections" and "No to occupation".

UK officials say Iraq elections by June viable

Financial Times - January 20, 2004
British officials in Basra no longer oppose early elections in Iraq, saying security and procedural obstacles to polls could be surmounted before the transfer to civilian control on June 30. [...] The volte face comes after demonstrators packed Basra's streets on Thursday in response to a call from Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's senior Shia cleric, to back his demand for an elected assembly. British officials estimated there were between 100,000 and 300,000 protestors.

Arms Issue Seen as Hurting U.S. Credibility Abroad

Washington Post - January 19, 2004
The Bush administration's inability to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- after public statements declaring an imminent threat posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein -- has begun to harm the credibility abroad of the United States and of American intelligence, according to foreign policy experts in both parties.

Iraq Shiites Demand Elections in Protest

AP (via Washington Post) - January 19, 2004
Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims marched peacefully in Baghdad on Monday to demand an elected government, as U.S. and Iraqi officials prepared to seek U.N. endorsement of American plans for transferring power in Iraq.

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Quote

And then we went to the United Nations, of course, and got an overwhelming resolution -- 1441 -- unanimous resolution, that said to Saddam, you must disclose and destroy your weapons programs, which obviously meant the world felt he had such programs. He chose defiance. It was his choice to make, and he did not let us in.

Confused US President George W. Bush
Press Conference
January 27, 2004

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January 26, 2004

Page One

A few weeks ago, a New York Times story revealing that the Bush Administration had "quietly withdrawn from Iraq a 400-member military team whose job was to scour the country for military equipment," was relegated to Page Six in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- while the Seattle Times had not deemed it newsworthy at all.

The story, now, has gained prominence in both papers. The P-I again carries the New York Times' coverage of the evolving story ("Kay says he concluded [that] at start of war no stockpile existed") -- this time on Page One, above the fold. The Seattle Times, meanwhile, is now on board, on Page Five, with the Los Angeles Times' reporting of David Kay's resignation. The NYT itself places the story above the fold as well.

So, good for them. Maybe the dawning realisation that the Administration lied out its arse ten ways from Sunday when making its case for war even has something to do with the results of a new Newsweek poll indicating that 52% of voters don't want The Superbrain to be re-elected, while only 44% do want him to be.

A shame the mainstream media could not be bothered to make an independent attempt to ascertain the status of Iraq's banned weapons programmes before the bombs began falling... Also a shame that the mainstream media does not choose to notice the serendipitous timing of Kay's admission that Iraq was not in possession of any banned weapons, coupled with Colin Powell's shameful climb-down from last year's histrionical performance at the United Nations: "The answer to that question is, we don't know yet." (You sure as hell "knew" then, numb-nuts.)

The Kay-Powell double-whammy comes just a few days after George Dubya's open-faced State-Of-The-Union lies regarding the Kay's findings: "Already, the Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations. Had we failed to act, the dictatator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day." Even if we, charitably, choose to look past Bush's striking rhetorical about-face from his 2003 State Of the Union address (wherein he claimed as established fact, on repeated occasions, the existence of huge quantities of banned weapons), The October 2003 Kay Report, in fact, asserted precisely the opposite: that there were no banned weapons to be found, and that there were no active programmes -- thus more less corroborating the claims of high-level defectors and current and former inspectors (claims initiated long before the war, indeed, long before Dubya even arrived on the scene). Moreover, what was Dubya doing referencing a three-month-old interim report, knowing full well that Kay would, in just a few days' time, issue his conclusion that Saddam had "got rid of" his banned weapons following the 1991 Gulf War?

"America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country," sez George Bush. So why is not the mainstream media lowering the hammer upon him when it's acknowledged, once and for all, by Bush's own appointees, three days later, that Iraq posed absolutely zero threat to "the security of our country"?

And, for the record, the mainstream media has not even once (to this blogger's knowlege) questioned the sacrosanctity of the United States' right to obliterate Iraq had banned weapons been found -- an issue this blogger discussed just over a year ago.

posted by eddie | link | comments (2)
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multimedia

US Overthrow of Democratically Elected Iranian Government -- 50 Years Later

The World - August 18, 2003 - Windows Media (4:30)
The fall of Saddam Hussein is not the only time the United States has brought about regime change in the Middle East. Tomorrow marks 50 years since a CIA coup ousted Iran's pro-democracy prime minister, Mohamad Mossadegh. Author Stephen Kinzer has written about it in his book, "All the Shah's Men." The World's Quil Lawrence reports.

Seymour Hersh Interview

Democracy Now! - May 12, 2003 - Real Audio (18:00)
Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz secretly create new Pentagon-based intelligence unit. Seymour Hersh examines the role of the Office of Special Plans in the lead-up to invading Iraq.

Evangelical Aid to Iraq Raises Questions

NPR - April 16, 2003 - Windows Media (3:51)
Evangelical groups rush to help war-torn Iraq, sending food, water and medical supplies for tens of thousands of people. But some question the use of relief packages to carry messages of Christian faith to a predominantly Muslim nation. Hear NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty.

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Powell Voices Doubts About Iraqi Weapons

Washington Post - January 24, 2004
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who urged the United Nations to endorse a preemptive war to strip Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, conceded yesterday that Saddam Hussein's government may have no longer had such munitions.

Iraq had no WMD, says top US inspector

Financial Times - January 24, 2004
David Kay, the top US weapons inspector in Iraq, resigned on Friday saying he did not believe there were any large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the country. His remarks were a direct challenge to President George W. Bush, who insisted in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday that Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi leader, had pursued dangerous weapons programmes right up to the March invasion.

Hussein Warned Iraqis to Beware Outside Fighters, Document Says

New York Times - January 14, 2004
Saddam Hussein warned his Iraqi supporters to be wary of joining forces with foreign Arab fighters entering Iraq to battle American troops, according to a document found with the former Iraqi leader when he was captured, Bush administration officials said Tuesday. [...] It provides a second piece of evidence challenging the Bush administration contention of close cooperation between Mr. Hussein's government and terrorists from Al Qaeda. C.I.A. interrogators have already elicited from the top Qaeda officials in custody that, before the American-led invasion, Osama bin Laden had rejected entreaties from some of his lieutenants to work jointly with Mr. Hussein.

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