Report - Commission On Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan

A new report by this non-partisan group illustrates what everyone knew. Billions down the drain to enrich criminal and sadistic mercenaries. Thanks, Dubya. Thanks, O.

UK Mercenary First To Be Convicted In Iraq

The story here is not really about drunken mercenaries shooting each other. Give us more of that. The screaming story is that this is the first westerner to be convicted in an Iraqi court since the botched invasion and occupation in 2003. This despite the hundreds of deaths of mainly ordinary Iraqis (at checkpoints and elsewhere) which the mercenaries have perpetrated. It is an eloquent testiomony to the crass contempt the US led (by the nose) Coalition have always had for Iraqi lives and communities. Fitzimmons should rot in jail but there should be a large number of his colleagues sharing the accommodation with him.

Poverty In Baghdad

BAGHDAD: Faleha Hassan lives in a tiny house in central Baghdad with 11 other family members and, like thousands of protesters across Iraq , does not believe her leaders have done anything to make her life better.

“The politicians and the officials and the leadership, they don’t care about us – they have a lot of money but they don’t think about others,” laments the 67-year-old, surrounded by her grandchildren, sitting on the floor of the home in which she has lived for decades. “No one thinks about us. Not the officials.”

Hassan, her children and her grandchildren suffer from what has proved a persistent problem in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein: poverty.  The elderly woman’s only surviving son, Wissam, sells food to visitors entering the nearby Abdul Qader al-Gailani shrine in the center of the capital, but usually earns a meager 5,000 Iraqi dinars a day, or about $4. An Iraqi MP, by contrast, makes more than 80 times as much. Her husband has become too frail to continue helping Wissam, and another son, Mohammad, was killed in a suicide bombing at the shrine in January 2007. A ration program, which during the Saddam-era included so many goods that Hassan said the family would sell the excess, has since been dramatically reduced. That puts the family firmly below the government-defined poverty line of $2.2 per person per day, along with more than a fifth of all Iraqis, an estimated seven million people, a number that would rise were it not for the ration program received by about six million families.

And while ministers have ambitious plans to slash that figure in the coming years, experts and, crucially, the people affected, are unconvinced.

“Poverty in Iraq is shallow,” Deputy Planning Minister Mehdi al-Alak says during an interview in his office on the banks of the Tigris river. “Most people are close to the poverty line … so if policies and procedures are followed, the rate will decline.It is not very difficult [to reduce poverty] in Iraq .”

On paper, he would seem to be correct: the country’s vast energy stores – Iraq has the fourth-highest level of proven oil reserves in the world – all but guarantee it will have a steady and increasing source of income for decades to come. The country was not always grappling with such a problem. A U.N. report released at the beginning of the year notes that, “In the past, Iraq was regarded as one of the most developed countries in the Middle East,” but the organization’s Arab Human Development Report rated Iraq 17th out of 21 regional countries in terms of human development in 2005.

“Wars and sanctions have contributed to a marked deterioration in Iraqis’ standard of living in recent years,” this year’s U.N. report noted.

But experts lament that Iraq still has glaring problems that make it difficult to envision poverty levels declining at the rate the government hopes, from 22 percent now to 16 percent by 2015. Unless there are sustainable measures, they will easily fall back,” says Khalid Mohammad Khalid, an Amman-based Iraq programme analyst with the United Nations Development Program.

From Here 

Raymond Davis - No Diplomatic Immunity!

From former Ambassador Craig Murray(see blog links at the right).
There are five circumstances in which Raymond Davis, the American killer caught in Pakistan, might have diplomatic immunity. They are these.
1) He was notified in writing to the government of Pakistan as a member of diplomatic staff of a US diplomatic mission in Pakistan, and the government of Pakistan had accepted him as such in writing.
2) He was part of an official delegation engaged in diplomatic negotiations notified to the government of Pakistan and accepted by them.
3) He was a member of staff of an international organisation recognised by Pakistan and was resident in Pakistan as a member of diplomatic staff working for that organisation, or was in Pakistan undertaking work for that organisation with the knowledge and approval of the Pakistani authorities.
4) He was an accredited diplomat elsewhere and was in direct tranist through Pakistan to his diplomatic posting.
5) He was an accredited courier carrying US diplomatic dispatches in transit through Pakistan.
2) to 5) plainly do not apply. The Obama administration is going for 1). My information, from senior Pakistani ex-military sources that I trust, is firmly that the necessary diplomatic exchange of notes does not exist that would make Davis an accredited US diplomat in Pakistan, but that the State Department is putting huge pressure on the government of Pakistan to overlook that fact. This passes a commonsense test – if the documents did exist. La Clinton would have waved them at us by now.
Another article here from Glen Greenwald

Delusions Of A Mad Tinpot Leader

The picture below shows the haggard features of a washed up, soulless, discredited narcissist who is not even welcome in his own country and despised by his own people. Ghaddafi doesn't look too great either.

Emerging Middle East Democracies - Profits Come First

David Cameron is facing criticism for including defence industry representatives in the trade delegation on his tour of the Middle East, amid concerns that British-made equipment could be used to suppress the current wave of popular unrest. The Foreign Office has already revoked a series of export licences for Libya and Bahrain in the wake of the government crackdowns on protesters in those countries. Speaking at the Civitas think tank in London, Liam Fox said that such issues should be dealt with on a "case-by-case" basis, depending on how events developed in the countries concerned. "We have to recognise that countries have a right of self-defence and not all of them have a defence industry so they will always buy externally," he said. "I want to make sure the United Kingdom - within the limits that we set ourselves ethically on defence exports - is getting a healthy slice of that."There are a great deal of unknowns still out there and we will have to look at things on a case-by-case basis."

The phrase ‘a healthy slice’ is revealing here. It smacks of course of the shareholders and directors of arms firms getting Fox’s preference over the democracy and freedom seeking peoples of the crumbling middle eastern dictatorships. Simple, basic Toryism in other words. It provides a good gauge by which to measure the value of the words of William Hague, Fox and Cameron himself about supporting ‘the emerging democracies’

Eight Years of Abuses and Impunity

'The Iraqi government is a party to a number of international treaties that clearly define the role of governments in preventing human rights abuses, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention Against Torture. However, the report found that it has often failed to enact and enforce commensurate legal and penal codes.

A large portion of the HRW report focuses on the rights of women and girls. “The biggest victims in Iraq,” says one female rights activist interviewed in Baghdad in 2010, “are young women.”

Before the 1991 Gulf War, the rights of women in Iraq were “relatively better protected than other countries in the region,” thanks to a series of legal reforms promulgated by the Ba’ath Party, “specifically aimed at improving the status of women in both the public and private spheres,” the report states.'  Human Rights Watch Report Here.

Michael Ware On Iraq

More about Michael Ware at Mahalo.com

Japan To Hold Iraq War Inquiry?

Most of all, I came to realize the opacity of the Japanese government's decision-making process regarding the Iraq War.

"I believe it would be appropriate to support the United States should it resort to the use of military force."

So said Junichiro Koizumi, then Japan's prime minister, when he met reporters on March 18, 2003, two days before the Iraq War started.

Shigeru Ishiba, then chief of the Defense Agency, now the Defense Ministry, says this was the first time he heard Koizumi state that Japan would support the Iraq War.

"There had been no discussion of whether to support the Iraq War at meetings of Cabinet members," he says.

Even the then chief Cabinet secretary, Yasuo Fukuda, says he never heard Koizumi say explicitly, "We will support the Iraq War" before the conflict began. From Here

Obama Joins Likud

'A friendly US, concerned for Israel's fate, should have said no. An America that understands that the settlements are the obstacle should have joined in condemning them. A superpower that wants to make peace, at a time when Arab peoples are rising up against their regimes and against the US and Israel, should have understood that it must change the old, bad rules of the game of blanket support for the ally addicted to its settlements.' From here.

Fair Game - Tell Me Lies About Iraq

'Beyond Wilson and Plame's woes, her outing also put at risk Iraqi scientists who had provided her with information about Saddam's weapons programmes and whom she had promised to help reach safety amidst the post-invasion chaos. The film suggests that some of them, and their families, may have died as a result of her exposure.

And all of it was about the US administration's determination not to take into account any evidence that suggested Saddam had neither WMD nor the capacity to produce them. They didn't want to hear that aluminium tubes purchased by Iraq were almost certainly not meant for atomic centrifuges. They didn't want to know there was no yellowcake. They didn't want to listen to the scientists Plame had contacted - who said not only that Saddam's weapons programmes had been destroyed years before and were still in disarray, but were incredulous that the US could not have been aware that this was the case.' More here.

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun - Pink Floyd

Escape with Wolves In The City to expiation and oblivion.

Iraqi Demonstrations - Amnesty International Press Release

As Iraqi Demonstrations Continue, Protestors are Killed and A Governor Flees

Posted by: Shatha Almutawa, February 18, 2011 at 8:12 AM

On Thursday nine Iraqis were killed and 47 injured at a protest against corruption and unemployment in Sulaimaniyah, a Kurdish city.
Earlier this week Latif Hamad al-Turfa, the governor of Kut, a city south of Baghdad, fled his office to police headquarters as 3,000 protesters stormed his building. Police then opened fire on the demonstrators, killing one and injuring 50.
Protesters across Iraq have taken to the streets demanding electricity, clean water, food and an end to government corruption. Widows and orphans demonstrated in Kirkuk, calling for government assistance.
According to Reuters, “The government has delayed the purchase of F-16 fighter jets to put $900 million of allocated funds into rations and bought 200,000 tonnes of white sugar this month to support the plan.”

In the meantime Iraqi youth are continuing to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to call for more protests. A demonstration is planned in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on February 25.

Protests In Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and Iraq

By David Walsh 17 February 2011

Populations across the Middle East and North Africa continue to express opposition to their respective governments, demanding political rights and pressing for economic gains, in an unprecedented wave of unrest and resistance. The movement, among peoples oppressed by their own ruling elites in alliance with imperialism, has sent shockwaves through Washington, London, Paris and the capitals of all the great powers.

The tiny island nation of Bahrain (population 1.2 million) witnessed a third day of major protests Wednesday, as demonstrators stood their ground against the regime of King Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. At least two protesters have been killed by security forces, and the funeral for one, 20-year-old Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima, on Tuesday, attracted some 10,000 people (the equivalent in the US of a protest of three million).

Another memorial procession Wednesday, to honor 31-year-old Fadhel Ali Almatrook, killed when riot police opened fire on the previous day’s funeral march, also attracted thousands of protesters to the streets of Manama, Bahrain’s capital. The second procession was not attacked by police, as the government—frightened by the mass movement—pulled back its security forces. Many women joined the funeral march February 16.

Bahrain’s interior ministry has announced that the policemen alleged to be responsible for the shootings have been arrested pending investigation. This attempt to scapegoat a few individuals, for decisions taken at the highest levels of the government, has not impressed the population.

Anti-government protesters in large numbers have occupied the central Pearl Roundabout in Manama, pledging to make it their version of Cairo’s Tahrir Square. They are demanding political rights and the resignation of the king’s uncle, Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, from the position of prime minister he has held since 1971. In the eyes of many, the prime minister is the embodiment of wealth and corruption. The demonstrators are also calling for the release of political prisoners.

Many Bahrainis are staying off work to join the protests. One protest Facebook page shows two young men holding signs; one reads, “Skipping work until the regime falls,” and the other, “No Sunni, No Shiite, all our demands are legitimate. My people want democracy, a constitution and freedom.”

The US and other Western powers are extremely concerned by developments in Bahrain. Peter Goodspeed, in Canada’s National Post, commented candidly February 14: “But if Bahrain were to undergo the kind of democratic transformation that Egypt just experienced, the ramifications for U.S. foreign policy could be severe. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, allowing the United States to station 15 warships, including an aircraft battle group, in the very heart of the Persian Gulf.

“The island state off the coast of Saudi Arabia provides Washington with a perfect base from which it can protect the flow of oil in the Persian Gulf, keep an eye on Iran and support pro-Western Gulf monarchies against potential threats.”

Demonstrators in Bahrain have been reminded in a practical manner about US support for the reactionary royal family in that country. A photograph taken by the head of foreign relations at Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Maryam Alkhawaja, shows canisters of US-made tear gas used in recent days against protesters. The gas comes from NonLethal Technologies in Homer City, Pennsylvania.

A December 2009 US diplomatic cable, released by WikiLeaks and published in the Guardian February 15, boasts about the billions accruing to American corporations from contracts with Bahrain and the “excellent relationship” its government officials enjoy with Washington.

Yemen

Police shot and killed two protesters in Yemen’s major southern city, Aden, and wounded at least four others, as the government stepped up its campaign of violence and intimidation. A 21-year-old, Mohammed Ali Alwani, was shot after police attacked demonstrators, said his father. The other dead man was identified as Yassin Askar. Wednesday marked the sixth day in the new wave of protests in Yemen.

According to Al Jazeera, police in Aden fired shots in the air to break up around 500 protesters; one of the victims was shot in the back. The demonstrators threw stones at the cops, set tires and vehicles on fire and stormed a government building. Associated Press reports that the demonstration, in the Mansoura district, “included students and workers.”

The anti-government forces in Aden chanted “The people want to overthrow the regime,” and “It’s time to leave, Ali,” referring to Yemen’s US-backed dictator, President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Hundreds gathered Wednesday night outside the police headquarters in Mansoura, demanding the release of those detained during the protests earlier in the day. They expressed outrage over the fatal shootings.

In Taiz, in southwestern Yemen, thousands of students continue to do battle with the regime, occupying streets and pledging to remain there until Saleh leaves office. Police in Taiz have arrested more than 100, and 30 students have been injured in attacks launched by pro-Saleh thugs.

In the capital Sana’a hundreds of students gathered to protest, but came under attack by pro-government forces, armed with batons, stones and wooden daggers. “The thugs and supporters of the ruling party [Saleh’s General People’s Congress] … want to massacre the students,” declared Radwan Masud, the head of Sana’a University’s student union. Masud added that 10 students were injured in the attack.

Also on February 16, some 120 judges spent the second day in a sit-in outside the justice ministry in Sana’a, demanding greater independence for the judiciary and the firing of the entire Supreme Judicial Council, including the justice minister. They are also demanding higher salaries.

Significantly, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports, “Workers in Sana’a also gathered at several state-owned companies to demand that their managers step down. They too called for higher wages.”

In response to the unrest, Saleh canceled a scheduled visit to Washington, where he was to meet his patrons.

The official opposition, the JMP (Joint Meeting Parties, or Common Forum), continues to make conciliatory noises, but the New York Times reports that “a rift is emerging between the student organizers, who have called for the president to step down immediately, and the established opposition groups … who would prefer to move more slowly toward political reform.”

Abullah Al-Faqih, professor of political science at Sana'a University, told the Guardian: “This is what both Saleh's ruling party and the opposition feared most—loud and violent protests organised by people that have no allegiance to any of the political parties.

Libya

Protests erupted Tuesday and Wednesday in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, apparently triggered by the arrest of a human rights lawyer, Fathi Terbil. The BBC reports that Terbil “represents families of more than 1,000 prisoners allegedly massacred by security forces in Tripoli’s Abu Salim jail in 1996. He was later said to have been freed.”

According to media reports, the families of the prison massacre victims began protesting Terbil’s incarceration outside police headquarters Tuesday night, when bystanders joined them, started chanting anti-government slogans. The protest, including as many as 2,000 people, lasted all night and resumed Wednesday morning. Police, firing rubber bullets, and pro-government elements violently dispersed the crowd.

Al Jazeera reports that two individuals, Khaled El Naji Khanfar and Ahmad Shoushaniya, were killed by police in protests in the Libyan city of Al Bayda, east of Benghazi, on Wednesday. Hundreds of protesters reportedly torched a police station; some 38 people were injured.

In Zentan, 120 kilometers south of the capital Tripoli, demonstrators marched through the streets and set fire to security headquarters and a police station, writes Al Jazeera.

A “day of rage,” organized online, is planned for February 17 in Libya, calling for the end of the regime. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has been in power in the oil-rich North African country since 1969.

Iraq

The wave of protest in Iraq against government corruption, unemployment and wretched public services entered a new stage Wednesday. A protest by 2,000 people against lack of jobs and electricity in the eastern Iraqi city of Kut, some 160 kilometers south of Baghdad, turned deadly when private guards employed by the provincial government fired directly into the crowd. Reports differed as to the number of fatalities, between one and three; some 50 people were injured. One of the dead was a 16-year-old boy shot in the chest. After the shooting outside the Wasit provincial government headquarters, the enraged crowd attacked the building, an eyewitness told the Washington Post, “as the governor escaped through a back door with his bodyguards … Footage broadcast on Iraqi television showed black smoke billowing from the headquarters as protesters clambered over walls into the compound. Other members of the provincial council also reportedly escaped, and the Iraqi army was called in to quell the turmoil.”

According to Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, “Iraqi security troops reinforcements rushed into the city and blocked the entrances of the city to prevent people of the surrounding suburbs and villages from pouring into the city to support the demonstrators, the source added.”

The crowd reportedly set fire to three buildings, the offices of the Wasit provincial council, the governorate’s main administration building and the governor’s official residence.

The New York Times cited the comments of one of the protesters, Ali al-Wasity: “We had a delegation that went up and asked for the governor to step down … They refused to come out and talk to us.” When the security officers opened fired, Wasity continued, “I was feeling that we are not a free country,” he said. “We are under a dictatorship system. I tell them one thing: we will not stop going out on protest unless the governor steps down and leaves us.” The Times report went on: “We have received many calls from all around the province, and they told us that they will be joining us,” Mr. Wasity said. “Now there is a curfew, but we will not stop. We will do it again and again.”

Curveball - Powell 'Demands Answers'

A bit late for the tough questions, Colin, no? Perhaps before millions of lives were destroyed in one way or another, hundreds of thousands fatally, would have been a better time. The narrative which books you a berth in the same corner of hell as Bush, Cheney and Rumsfelt goes as follows:
Powell's landmark speech to the United Nations on February 5, 2003, cited intelligence about Iraq leader Saddam Hussein's bioweapons programme gained from a defector, code-named Curveball.

But he has now admitted that he lied to topple the dictator, in an interview with the Guardian*.
"It has been known for several years that the source called Curveball was totally unreliable," Mr Powell said.
"The question should be put to the CIA and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) as to why this wasn't known before the false information was put into the (report) sent to Congress, the president's state of the union address and my 5 February presentation to the UN."

You might have thought of testing or querying some of the 'intel' yourself, I would have thought. Pass the parcel is the new Iraq game. Somebody should develop a version for Playstation - the title 'Curveball' has a ring to it. Or 'Grand Theft - Iraqi Oil'.

*The defector, real name Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, admitted for the first time this week that he lied to the BND, Germany's secret service, by claiming in 2000 that Iraq had mobile bioweapons trucks and had built clandestine factories.

Democracy? Electricity First In Iraq

By Anwar Faruqi - BAGHDAD

As Arabs demand democracy, Iraqis want electricity

As other Arab nations call for democracy in the wake of uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, Iraqis are waging their own power campaign, demanding more electricity.

While pro-democracy protests have spread to other Arab countries to oust autocratic rulers, in Iraq where Saddam Hussein's dictatorship was overthrown by the 2003 US-led invasion, protesters have different ambitions. Peaceful protests decrying a lack of basic services such as electricity and water have grown across Iraq over the past two weeks, with demonstrators venting anger at Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government. Borrowing from the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia where the Internet charged uprisings that toppled unpopular in both countries, some of the protests across Iraq also have been mobilised by Facebook.

Groups called "No Silence," "Baghdad Is Not Kandahar" and "Blue Revolution" organised a Valentine's Day protest in Baghdad on Monday to denounce corruption and "greed" among Iraqi officials, calling on them to provide jobs and improve electricity, water and sewage facilities.
Now, Facebook groups are abuzz with calls for a February 25 protest in Baghdad that is being billed as a "Revolution of Iraqi Anger," urging citizens to converge in large numbers to protest against a number of woes, with electricity at the top of the list.
"Our goal is not to change the government. We only want reforms," said Karnas Ali, one of the organiser's of the Valentine's Day protest.
Inam Wahid, one of hundreds of protesters at another Baghdad rally, said his home had been without electricity for five days, while a banner at a protest on Tuesday in the western city of Fallujah read, "There is no life without electricity."
Angry Iraqis staged violent demonstrations last summer in several southern cities over power rationing as temperatures reached 54 degrees Celsius (130 degrees Fahrenheit) and air conditioners sat idle.
A nationwide survey released this month by Washington's International Republican Institute showed Iraqis polled last summer believed that basic services like electricity were the country's biggest single problem, even ahead of the persistent and deadly insecurity.
In August 2003 Paul Bremer, the top American official in Iraq who led the post-invasion Coalition Provisional Authority, promised that, "About one year from now, for the first time in history, every Iraqi in every city, town and village will have as much electricity as he or she can use and will have it 24 hours a day, every single day." He soon learned there was no quick fix: Nearly eight years later, Iraqis get no more than 8 hours electricity per day.
Iraq's entire electricity network -- from generation plants to hub stations and transmission lines -- took a beating under the 1980-88 war with Iraq, the 1991 Gulf War, more than a decade of UN sanctions that followed, and finally by the US invasion in 2003.

According to a master plan produced by US firm Parsons Brinckerhoff for the Iraqi electricity ministry and unveiled last month, a whopping $80 billion dollars of investment is needed over the next 20 years to meet Iraq's power needs, about the same amount as the country's entire 2011 national budget.

It said that if the plan's investments and recommendations are implemented on schedule, "capacity will be sufficient to meet the demand of Iraq with adequate reserves by 2013 or 2014."

But the government's worries are more immediate: what to do before temperatures and tempers soar next summer? Currently, power generated domestically or imported from Iran and Syria totals no more than 6,500 megawatts, while demand is estimated at 13,500 megawatts, and growing.

Privately-owned generators, which in neighbourhoods across the country churn out about 5,000 megawatts, make up some of that shortfall, but not everyone can afford to pay for private supplies.

"The biggest issue in electricity, in my view, is the difference between supply and demand," said Brigadier General Jeffrey Buchanan, the spokesman for US forces in Iraq.

He said supplies have been increasing at a trot, but demand has been galloping ahead as Iraqis, starved of consumer goods by more than a decade of sanctions following Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, have gone on a spending spree as import duties have been slashed and new products have flooded shops.

Now, international technology brands like Panasonic, Toshiba, LG and Samsung entice consumers with billboards mushrooming across the war-ravaged capital.

"Much of the equipment needed to boost generation has already been bought and delivered to Iraq," said Adel Mahdi, advisor to the electricity minister. But he cautioned it would take at least 12-18 months before the equipment can be installed and brought online.

"By next summer we will have only an extra generation capacity of 1,500 MW, but this will be swallowed up by the increase in demand," Mahdi said.

"I expect the situation next summer to be the same as it was last summer. This means that this summer we will have no more than eight hours of electricity a day across Iraq."

Afflux D'Immigres Tunisiens En France

Les autorités françaises sont en alerte. Questionné ce mardi à l'Assemblée nationale sur cette préoccupante situation, le ministre de l'Intérieur et de l'Immigration, Brice Hortefeux, a délivré un message de fermeté. 'Un étranger en situation irrégulière a vocation à être reconduit dans son pays d'origine sauf situation humanitaire particulière', a déclaré l'hôte de la Place Beauvau tout en ajoutant que 'la règle qui s'appliquera, c'est celle de notre politique migratoire'. En clair, les candidatures à l'exil seront appréciées avec discernement, et au cas par cas. Il s'agit, considère-t-on dans son entourage, de ménager les bonnes relations avec le nouveau pouvoir en place et d'accompagner ce grand mouvement de démocratie qui s'est exprimé ces dernières semaine. 'Ce n'est l'intérêt ni de la Tunisie qui l'a parfaitement compris, ni de l'Europe, ni de la France que d'encourager et d'accepter ces migrations clandestines', a martelé Brice Hortefeux pour qui 'la réponse doit être une réponse européenne'.

Iraqi Defector Admits Lies in Bioweapons Fiasco

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, who fled Iraq in 1995, confessed that he made up the stories of mobile bio-weapons trucks and clandestine factories in Iraq in an attempt to bring down Saddam Hussein's regime.

The defector told The Guardian that he watched in horror as his claims were lapped up by the Bush administration and used to justify the invasion of the country in 2003. "Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right," Mr al-Janabi said. "They gave me this chance. I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that and we are proud that we were the reason to give Iraq the margin of democracy."

He claimed that American officials suggested that his co-operation would make it easier for his Moroccan-born wife and child to join him in Germany.

Mr al-Janabi initially spoke to the German secret service, the BND, but the information was passed to the CIA and was eventually included in a notorious 2003 speech at the United Nations by Colin Powell, then US Secretary of State.

He said that when he complained to his German handlers that they had violated an agreement not to pass his information to a third country, he was silenced and placed in lockdown for around 90 days.  -  From the Telegraph.

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• Named, the defector who misled US 

  04 Nov 2007

Mr al-Janabi, who had previously maintained his claims were true, made his admissions in a series of interviews in Germany, where he has been granted asylum He said he had told a German official, who he identified as Dr Paul, about mobile bio-weapons trucks in 2000. The BND identified him as a Baghdad-trained chemical engineer and approached him in March that year looking for information about Saddam's regime.

"I had a problem with the Saddam regime," he said. "I wanted to get rid of him and now I had this chance."

Mr al-Janabi portrayed the BND as gullible and so eager to elicit details from him that they gave him a Perry's Chemical Engineering Handbook to help communicate.

"They were asking me about pumps for filtration, how to make detergent after the reaction," he said. "Any engineer who studied in this field can explain or answer any question they asked."

Depleted Uranium - Press Release From Dr. Bill Wilson MSP

MSP sends dossier on depleted uranium to Defence Secretary:  come clean on dirty bombs! Character assassination used to silence DU opponents. Dr Bill Wilson MSP (SNP) has sent the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, a dossier containing what he describes as “significant evidence pointing to the devastating effects of depleted uranium (DU) on the health of armed services personnel and civilians, and of the UK and USA’s attempts to suppress such evidence and prevent the investigation of the effects of DU” and called on the UK Government to take appropriate action. DU = dirty bombs Dr Wilson said, “There is much talk about terrorists potentially using ‘dirty bombs’, i.e. weapons which emit radiation and indiscriminately affect anyone in the vicinity, yet the USA, the UK and Israel have deployed many tonnes of DU-tipped shells.  DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years and the microscopic uranium oxide dust that DU shells produce on impact can be blown hundreds of miles, inhaled and ingested.  If these are not dirty bombs then what are they? “There is considerable evidence that thousands of armed services personnel, their families and countless civilians have been and are continuing to be affected by DU in many ways, suffering, for example, premature death, respiratory problems, cancers, stillbirths and birth deformities. Character assassination “Furthermore, I have seen enough evidence to believe that those who are brave enough to look into the effects of DU risk losing their jobs and worse.  Character assassination is one tool in the armoury of those who seek to silence truth-seekers.  I have received emails scurrilously attacking the credibility of one my informants.  Unfortunately for the defender of DU, I happened already to hold various documents disproving his baseless allegations.  It was an eye-opening insight into the ruthlessness of the pro-DU lobb  “I have urged Liam Fox to investigate the impact of DU on the health of UK service personnel and civilians.  I have also requested him to: ·         acknowledge the validity of the precautionary principle as it pertains to the potential health effects of DU; ·         comply with UN resolutions pertaining to DU; ·         cease to use all DU weapons (for example, CHARM 3 120 mm anti-tank rounds), and to ·         clean up the mess left in theatres of war where DU weapons have been used by allied troops (this to include such measures as oiling radioactive dust to prevent it being carried by the wind and barricading heavily contaminated sites such as destroyed tanks, where clean-up is not practical and where children are currently free to play).” Dr Wilson concluded by saying, “I am not holding my breath, but it would be wonderful if the coalition government did the right thing here, took the moral high ground and turned its back on dirty bombs, once and for all.  In the meantime I am asking the Scottish Government to look into the health of armed services veterans and their families resident here, as I have little faith that the UK Government will do so.” - ends - Contact Dr Bill Wilson MSP Tel +44 (0) 782 459 6994 / 131 348 6805 / 141 840 2772 Fax +44 (0) 131 348 6806 / 141 889 4693 E-mail Bill.Wilson.msp@scottish.parliament.uk Website www.billwilsonmsp.com/ Notes to Editors 1. Full text of letter with links to the evidence 08 February 2011 The Right Honourable Liam Fox MP, Secretary of State for Defence MOD Ministerial Correspondence Unit Floor, Zone A Main Building Whitehall, London SW1A 2HB Dear Mr Fox The health of service personnel and civilians exposed to depleted uranium There is considerable evidence for depleted uranium (DU) having a harmful effect on health and serious grounds for believing that the UK Government and the Ministry of Defence have been failing in their duty to look after service personnel and civilians. I would like to draw your attention to a statement on the MoD website: “Of course, the Government would consider carefully any reliable medical or scientific data that may emerge concerning the incidence of ill health in Iraq.”  You will know that the UK Government effectively attempted to impede the investigation of the association between DU and ill health by voting against UN Resolution 65/55 on Depleted Uranium, which called on state users of depleted uranium weapons to reveal where the weapons have been fired when countries affected by them ask for such information.You will be aware of abundant, and growing, evidence concerning the incidence of ill health in Iraq, which I assume you are investigating.  You could start by responding to this peer-reviewed article:  Busby, C.; Hamdan, M.; Ariabi, E. Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2010, 7, 2828-2837 (http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/7/2828/). It has been suggested that the Royal Society takes the view that depleted uranium (DU) is safe.  The Royal Society itself spoke out voicing concern that its original paper was misinterpreted as implying that this was the case. I draw your attention to the following (full documents attached): ·        Evidence presented by Dr Keith Baverstock, of the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Eastern Finland, to the Belgian Defence Committee on the toxicity of DU ( “Presentation to the Defence Committee of the Belgian House of Representatives: 20 November 2006.”;  http://kbaverstock.org/EVIDENCDETOBELGIANCOMM.pdf ).  Note that he emphasises the precautionary principle, a concept apparently unknown to the UK and US Governments and the MoD/DoD, and states, “I think it is clear that the major risk assessments of the health impact of DU have not addressed the genotoxic hazard and it is conspicuously absent from much cited assessments of toxicity such as that by Priest (21). It is also the case, as far as I am aware, that no specific body has been assigned the responsibility to produce the necessary evidence that DU oxide dusts do not pose a hazard to health. ·        A BBC article, dated 1 November 2006, quoting Dr Baverstock attacking reports that DU is relatively innocuous (“Depleted uranium risk 'ignored'”;  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6105726.stm ). ·        Evidence presented by Dr Chris Busby, Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, rebutting a Home Office article denying the effects of DU (http://www.greenaudit.org/du_the_home_office_and_kosovo_refugees.htm). ·        Evidence presented by Dr Chris Busby rebutting the Royal Society claim that DU presents little risk (http://www.llrc.org/du/subtopic/durs.htm). ·        Evidence presented by Martin Hooper, emeritus professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Sunderland, also rebutting the Royal Society claim that DU presents little risk (http://www.cadu.org.uk/info/reports/hooper.htm). ·        The Royal Society itself has stated that “both soldiers and civilians [are] in short and long term danger” (“Scientists urge shell clear-up to protect civilians. Royal Society spells out dangers of depleted uranium”; http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/apr/17/highereducation.science/print). ·        An information card issued to UK service personnel clearly stating that DU “has the potential to cause ill health” (http://www.billwilsonmsp.com/images/DU/du_info_card.jpg). ·        Documentation from Major Doug Rokke Ph.D., employed by the US army to devise protocols for dealing with DU safely, citing extensive evidence of the effects of DU and presenting evidence for a deliberate policy of suppression/denial/cover-up on the part of the US and UK governments and the DoD/MoD (http://www.billwilsonmsp.com/images/DU/du_gulf_war_jun_2005_to_nov_25_2006.pdf). ·        At least two former UK service personnel have been found, by due legal/medical process, to have suffered as a result of DU exposure, one winning a pension appeal on that basis, and the other being found to have died as a result of exposure to it (“First award for depleted uranium poisoning claim”; http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/first-award-for-depleted-uranium-poisoning-claim-1.94325 and “Press Release : NGVFA (National Gulf Veterans and Families Association) Gulf War Veterans Support Coroners Findings and Concerns”;http://www.ngvfa.org.uk/news/newsitem.asp?item=48&from=fp ). ·         “Successive [UK] governments have resisted calls for a public inquiry into the harmful effects of depleted uranium ammunition to avoid compensation claims, which could potentially cost them hundreds of millions of pounds”  (“Fewer than 10 Gulf war troops had uranium poisoning”;http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/fewer-than-10-gulf-war-troops-had-uranium-poisoning-1.94280). ·        A memorandum, dated 1 March 1991, which is an order, on the part of the US army, to suppress information regarding the health effects of DU (http://www.grassrootspeace.org/twomemos.html). ·        An article titled “ITEM OF INTEREST”, which is a “Defense Nuclear Agency Memo” written by Gregory K. Lyle, LTC, USA concerning what “can, must or should be done with the millions of expanded rounds of depleted uranium ordinance” in Iraq.  It notes that clean up procedures “were not meant to support shipments of thousands of DU rounds from site restoration.”  It goes on to note “As Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD), ground combat units, and the civil populations of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq come increasingly into contact with DU ordnance, we must prepare to deal with the potential problems.”  Further, “Alpha particles (uranium oxide dust) from expanded rounds is a health concern but, Beta particles from fragments and intact rounds is a serious health threat, with a possible exposure rate of 200 millirems per hour on contact.”  The memo warns that “specific DoD guidance concerning the disposition of DU material in the post combat period/restoration phase is currently lacking.”  The writer hoped that “expression of our concerns over the side effects of DU use will help ensure protection for our troops and allies.”  This memo is undated – Dr Rokke says he received it around the same time he received the Los Alamos memo in 1991. (http://www.grassrootspeace.org/twomemos.htm) ·        The UK state has previously attempted to deny the effects of radiation on service personnel (“Opinion: battling against the legacy of Britain’s nuclear tests”; http://politics.caledonianmercury.com/2011/01/21/opinion-battling-against-the-legacy-of-britains-nuclear-tests/). ·        The testimony of Dr Asaf Durakovic, former Chief of Nuclear Medicine at the veterans’ hospital in Wilmington Delaware, would seem to indicate deliberate (and potentially murderous) attempts to suppress information regarding the effects of DU, and the callous exposure of service personnel to it (“The NI Interview. Asaf Durakovic. Felicity Arbuthnot meets a respected scientist fighting on behalf of American Gulf War veterans.”;http://www.newint.org/features/1998/09/05/interview/ ). ·        The UK Atomic Energy Authority sent a report in 1990 to the UK Government estimating that if 50 tonnes of DU were left in the Gulf area should there be a war, this would lead to an estimated 50,000 extra cancer deaths in a decade.  In 1999 experts were estimating that there might be 900 tonnes remaining, dispersed by the wind (“Poisoned Legacy. Felicity Arbuthnot investigates the worldwide spread of cancers and deformities since the Gulf War.”; http://www.newint.org/features/1999/09/05/poisoned/). ·        A Vanity Fair article summarising the case against DU as it stood in December 2004.  It refers to the work of Dr Asaf Durakovic and Major Doug Rokke, the apparent attempts to silence/sideline them when their findings proved inconvenient, and the experiences of various US service personnel and factory workers exposed to DU.  (“Weapons of Self-Destruction.  Is Gulf War syndrome—possibly caused by Pentagon ammunition—taking its toll on G.I.’s in Iraq?”; http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2004/12/iraq200412) I hope you will not continue to turn a blind eye to the considerable evidence that exists and will not continue to refuse to take adequate measures to investigate the impact of DU on the health of UK service personnel and civilians.  I also request you to: ·        acknowledge the validity of the precautionary principle as it pertains to the potential health effects of DU; ·        comply with UN resolutions pertaining to DU; ·        cease to use all DU weapons (for example, CHARM 3 120 mm anti-tank rounds), and to ·        clean up the mess left in theatres of war where DU weapons have been used by allied troops (this to include such measures as oiling radioactive dust to prevent it being carried by the wind and barricading heavily contaminated sites such as destroyed tanks, where clean-up is not practical and where children are currently free to play). I thank you, in anticipation, for acting to protect the health, both of UK service personnel and civilians in Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia and Afghanistan. Aefauldlie Dr Bill Wilson MSP 2. Related previous releases http://www.billwilsonmsp.com/index.php?option=com_search&Itemid=5&searchword=depleted+uranium&submit=Search&searchphrase=exact&ordering=newest ********************************************************************** For latest news and information about all aspects of Parliamentary business, MSPs and our work, visit the Parliament's website athttp://www.scottish.parliament.uk/. For information about how you can visit the Parliament, go to http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/visitingHolyrood/index.htm. Watch Parliamentary business live at http://www.holyrood.tv/