Kirk Smith: Middle East

Is Niger the Smoking Gun? Blair Under Fire as White House Rejects British Intelligence Claiming Iraq Tried to Buy Uranium

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 13:29:07 GMT

by Ben Russell and Andrew Buncombe

09 Jul 03

The White House has dealt a devastating blow to Tony Blair by rejecting as flawed British claims that Saddam Hussein attempted to buy uranium from Africa to restart his nuclear weapons programme.

The Bush administration was in full retreat yesterday with officials admitting that the allegation should not have been included in President George Bush's State of the Union address. The American admission represented the first serious split between London and Washington over the case against Saddam and exploded into a full-scale row in Westminster as Mr Blair told senior MPs that the Government was standing by its story.

Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour backbenchers demanded that Mr Blair release the intelligence behind the allegation to an independent inquiry. [Independent/UK]

In Postwar Iraq, the Battle Widens

Mon, 07 Jul 2003 14:31:35 GMT

by Thomas E. Ricks and Rajiv Chandrasekaran

07 Jul 03

Recent Iraqi attacks on U.S. troops have demonstrated a new tactical sophistication and coordination that raise the specter of the U.S. occupation force becoming enmeshed in a full-blown guerrilla war, military experts said yesterday. The new approaches employed in the Iraqi attacks last week are provoking concern among some that what once was seen as a mopping-up operation against the dying remnants of a deposed government is instead becoming a widening battle against a growing and organized force that could keep tens of thousands of U.S. troops busy for months. [The Washington Post]

The White Man Unburdened

Mon, 07 Jul 2003 14:29:06 GMT

by Norman Mailer

17 Jul 03 Issue

Exeunt: lightning and thunder, shock and awe. Dust, ash, fog, fire, smoke, sand, blood, and a good deal of waste now move to the wings. The stage, however, remains occupied. The question posed at curtain-rise has not been answered. Why did we go to war? If no real weapons of mass destruction are found, the question will keen in pitch. [The New York Review of Books]

Ex-Envoy: Nuclear Report Ignored

Mon, 07 Jul 2003 06:03:52 GMT

By Richard Leiby and Walter Pincus

06 Jul 03

Joseph C. Wilson, the retired United States ambassador whose CIA-directed mission to Niger in early 2002 helped debunk claims that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium there for nuclear weapons, has said for the first time publicly that U.S. and British officials ignored his findings and exaggerated the public case for invading Iraq.

Wilson, whose 23-year career included senior positions in Africa and Iraq, where he was acting ambassador in 1991, said the false allegations that Iraq was trying to buy uranium oxide from Niger about three years ago were used by President Bush and senior administration officials as a central piece of evidence to support their assertions that Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program.

'It really comes down to the administration misrepresenting the facts on an issue that was a fundamental justification for going to war,' Wilson said yesterday. 'It begs the question, what else are they lying about?' [Washington Post]

The Nimrud Gold on Display in Baghdad... For a Few Hours

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 18:17:51 GMT

by Joanna Mackle

03 Jul 03

BAGHDAD, IRAQ. On Thursday 3 July the Assyrian gallery in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, will be open to the public for a few hours and a small part of the gold treasure found in the tombs of the Assyrian queens at Nimrud will be on display. This treasure was evacuated to a vault of the Baghdad Central Bank for safekeeping during the recent war. The opening of this exhibition has provided the staff of the Iraq museum with an opportunity to tidy up the museum after the widespread damage caused by the thefts and looting which occurred during the war. However, this is only the beginning of what will be a very long process of conservation and reconstruction.

A British Museum curator Sarah Collins is now working in the Iraq Museum with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). As part of the international conservation programme the British Museum has invited Iraqi colleagues to London during the summer for training in new techniques and a team of conservators drawing together expertise from around the world will be sent to Baghdad in the autumn. [The Art Newspaper]

Iraqis Call For Self-Rule

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 05:23:10 GMT

by Zaki Yahya in Najaf

03 Jul 03

A conference of 900 Iraqi notables have demanded the quick establishment of an Iraqi government to combat the lawlessness and insecurity that reign three months after the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein and his Ba'athist regime.

The group said the transitional government should have a six-month mandate, renewable once only, to draw up a constitution for the new Iraq. The move puts new pressure on the occupying forces to agree to some form of Iraqi government, rather than the interim political council which the United States now favours. [Institute for War & Peace Reporting]

Ten Appalling Lies We Were Told About Iraq

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 05:12:14 GMT

by Christopher Scheer

27 Jun 03

Today, more than three months after Bush's stirring declaration of war and nearly two months since he declared victory, no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons have been found, nor any documentation of their existence, nor any sign they were deployed in the field.

The mainstream press, after an astonishing two years of cowardice, is belatedly drawing attention to the unconscionable level of administrative deception. They seem surprised to find that when it comes to Iraq, the Bush administration isn't prone to the occasional lie of expediency but, in fact, almost never told the truth.

What follows are just the most outrageous and significant of the dozens of outright lies uttered by Bush and his top officials over the past year in what amounts to a systematic campaign to scare the bejeezus out of everybody. [AlterNet]

French Court Frees Iranian Group Leader

Thu, 03 Jul 2003 08:50:39 GMT

by Pierre-Antoine Souchard

03 Jul 03

PARIS. A French court on Wednesday ordered the release of nine people arrested during a recent broad anti-terrorism sweep, including the leader of an exile group seeking to topple Iran's ultra-religious government, judicial officials said.

But the Paris appeals court said Maryam Rajavi, a leader of the group Mujahedeen Khalq, and one other defendant must first pay bail. Rajavi was ordered to pay about $93,000 and likely will not be released before Thursday, the officials said...

France's counterintelligence agency, the DST, claims the Mujahedeen was planning attacks on Iranian diplomatic missions in Europe and assassinations of Iranian secret agents in Europe. It also claims the group was planning to make its headquarters a nerve center for terrorism after losing its firepower in Iraq, where it mounted attacks on neighboring Iran. [Associated Press]

Britain: Parliamentary Probe Exposes Lies on Iraqi Weapons

Thu, 03 Jul 2003 07:20:14 GMT

Part 1: Clair Short, Robin Cook and Andrew Gilligan

by Richard Tyler
03 Jul 03

The following is the first in a series of articles.

The Foreign Affairs Select Committee investigation into whether Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labour government distorted intelligence material to justify its planned war against Iraq is to publish its verdict on July 8. There is every reason to suppose that the Labour-dominated committee in Parliament will make criticisms of the government that stop short of accusing it of lying—a classic fudge. But some of the testimony given to the inquiry makes this difficult. It stands as a damning indictment of the way the government set out to sell a previously determined decision to go to war by claiming that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. In order that this information does not remain buried amidst thousands of pages of undigested transcripts, the World Socialist Web Site is publishing a précis of the most important testimony given. [World Socialist Web Site]