Report Iraq contractor cost may top 100B
Published: Aug. 12, 2008 at 10:07 AM
WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- A government report indicates that from the invasion of Iraq until the end of 2008 the United States will have spent some $100 billion on private contractors.

George Tenet And White House Admit Iraq's Intelligence Chief Told Them Iraq Had No WMD
August 05, 2008
Ron Suskind was on NPR this morning to discuss his new book The Way of the World, which alleges Iraq's intelligence chief Tahir Jalil Habbush told the US before the war that Iraq had no WMD.

NPR asked George Tenet and the White House for comment, and, remarkably enough, they both essentially admitted this was true.

SUSKIND: What we now know from this investigation is that a secret mission was conducted in which a British manager, intelligence agent, met with the head of Iraqi intelligence in a secret location in Amman, Jordan. And what the Iraqi intelligence chief told the British—and essentially the Americans, because we're all in this together—is that there were no WMD in Iraq. And what that meant is that we knew everything that became so obvious by the summer after the invasion. And the president made a decision essentially to ignore that intelligence...

NPR: We have called key players in Ron Suskind's account...George Tenet says the Iraqi failed to persuade, and a White House spokesman adds that any information the Iraqi may have provided was, quote, "immaterial."

Apparent suicide in anthrax case - Bruce E. Ivins, a scientist who helped the FBI investigate the 2001 mail attacks, was about to face charges.
By David Willman August 1, 2008

A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government's elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution, said people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation.

Ivins, whose name had not been disclosed publicly as a suspect in the case, played a central role in research to improve anthrax vaccines by preparing anthrax formulations used in experiments on animals.

UK military may have used banned interrogation tactics in Iraq: rights panel
Mike Rosen-Molina July 28, 2008 at 10:31 AM ET

[JURIST] The armed forces of the United Kingdom may have used officially-banned tactics to interrogate detainees in Iraq, according to a report [text] released Sunday by Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights [official website]. In previous testimony before the committee, top defense officials had denied the use of "wall standing, hooding, subjection to noise, sleep deprivation and deprivation of food and drink," all of which were prohibited by the UK government in 1972, but recent evidence discovered during an investigation of the Baha Mousa [BBC report; JURIST news archive] case indicated that those techniques may still be in use. The committee called for an investigation into allegations that former Minister of State for the Armed Forces Adam Ingram and Lt. Gen. Robin Brims [profiles] may have lied to the committee:

It Was Oil, All Along
June 28, 2008
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

Oh, no, they told us, Iraq isn't a war about oil. That's cynical and simplistic, they said. It's about terror and al Qaeda and toppling a dictator and spreading democracy and protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction. But one by one, these concocted rationales went up in smoke, fire, and ashes. And now the bottom line turns out to be....the bottom line. It is about oil.

A big lump of coal for Democratic voters and anti-war activists... the House followed the Senate's lead in capitulating to Bush, again....

House Approves $70 Billion More for War
Dec 19, 5:42 PM (ET) By ANDREW TAYLOR
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress approved $70 billion Wednesday for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a bitter finish for majority Democrats who tried to force a change in President Bush's war policy.

The House's 272-142 vote also sent the president a $555 billion catchall spending bill that combines the war money with money for 14 Cabinet departments.

Bush and his Senate GOP allies forced the Iraq money upon anti-war Democrats as the price for permitting the year-end budget deal to pass and be signed. But other Democrats were eager to avoid being seen as not supporting troops who are in harm's way - and avoid weeks of bashing by Bush for failing to provide that money.

"This is a blank check," complained Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. "The new money in this bill represents one cave-in too many. It is an endorsement of George Bush's policy of endless war."...

Operation Iraqi Freedom Exposed: Bush Negotiates Permanent Presence in Iraq
2007-12-03
By Marjorie Cohn

The revelation that Bush will sign an agreement for a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq before his term is up confirms the real reason he invaded Iraq and changed its regime.

It was never about weapons of mass destruction. It was never about ties between Saddam and al Qaeda. And it was never about bringing democracy to the Iraqi people. These claims were lies to cover up the real motive for Operation Iraqi Freedom: to create a permanent American presence in Iraq. With Bush's November 26, 2007 announcement that the United States and Iraq were negotiating a permanent "security relationship," his lies have been exposed...

Ah yes, the plans for permanent occupation of Iraq are finally revealed...
White House Releases "Principles" for Permanent Iraqi Presence By Spencer Ackerman - November 26, 2007, 11:12AM
So it begins. After years of obfuscation and denial on the length of the U.S.'s stay in Iraq, the White House and the Maliki government have released a joint declaration of "principles" for "friendship and cooperation." Apparently President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the declaration during a morning teleconference.

Naturally, the declaration is euphemistic, and doesn't refer explicitly to any U.S. military presence...

How convenient, who ever said anything 'bout benchmarks?...

U.S. Scales Back Political Goals for Iraqi Unity
November 25, 2007 By STEVEN LEE MYERS and ALISSA J. RUBIN
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 — With American military successes outpacing political gains in Iraq, the Bush administration has lowered its expectation of quickly achieving major steps toward unifying the country, including passage of a long-stymied plan to share oil revenues and holding regional elections.

Instead, administration officials say they are focusing their immediate efforts on several more limited but achievable goals in the hope of convincing Iraqis, foreign governments and Americans that progress is being made toward the political breakthroughs that the military campaign of the past 10 months was supposed to promote...

F.B.I. Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause November 14, 2007
By DAVID JOHNSTON and JOHN M. BRODER
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case.

The F.B.I. investigation into the shootings in Baghdad is still under way, but the findings, which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force, are already under review by the Justice Department.

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter...

The U.S. House Just Voted $50 Billion More for War
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2007-11-14
Organizations and individuals who fail to criticize this new funding vote will relinquish the right to criticize the occupation of Iraq. If you silently support funding it, you oblige yourself to remain silent on the horrors of it. We are citizens, not partisans, and only as citizens will we survive this ordeal. If this passes the Senate (or is altered in a conference committee) and is sent to the White House, Bush will have the option of accepting $50 billion more for his ongoing crime. If Bush vetos, or the Senate rejects, or the $50 billion runs out, we'll be back in the House - and with what strength to press for an end to these bills? What strength remains after caving in completely this evening? What peace pledge? What Out of Iraq Caucus? What Progressive Caucus? What opposition party? The silence of millions of Americsns who have demanded an end to funding for the past year or for the past five years is absolutely deafening. It's the sound of our tombs. Speak now, people, or forever forget about peace...

What the hell happened to the the Out of Iraq Caucus???...

(11/14/2007) Liberal Democrats back party's war bill

3 leading House anti-war Democrats said they now back a $50 billion bill that funds the war but calls for most troops to come home by December 2008.

Their support paves the way for the bill's passage Wednesday.

Woolsey-Lee-Waters Support Bill

Secret Source of Phony Iraq Intel Outed Nov 2 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Iraqi defector code-named "Curveball," whose false tales of biological weapons labs bolstered the U.S. case for war, wasn't the prominent chemical engineer he claimed to be and invented stories to help his case for asylum in Germany, a new report says.

"Curveball" is Rafid Ahmed Alwan, who did study chemical engineering but made poor grades and never managed a biological weapons facility, according to CBS'"60 Minutes," which will broadcast on Sunday a report describing how Alwan became a secret intelligence source...

March for Peace Oct 27

msg. from David Swanson...
It has been over 4 ½ years since the invasion of Iraq. Since that time we have discovered more evidence of what was already obvious: that the reasons we were given for going to war were lies. We have lost the lives of over 1 million Iraqi citizens, and 3,833 U.S. soldiers. Over $600 billion of US taxpayer money has been spent on this illegal occupation, and Bush is asking for billions more.

The time has come for the occupation of Iraq to end. Congress is not doing anything, so it is up to us to make a difference. Over 100 groups have come together under the United For Peace and Justice banner to take a stand and have their voices heard. Those voices are saying loud and clear - END THE WAR!
http://www.oct27.org/brave_new_video ...