Kirk Smith: War/Peace/Security

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States

Thu, 10 Jul 2003 07:24:53 GMT

08 Jul 03

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission), an independent, bipartisan commission created by congressional legislation and the signature of President George W. Bush in late 2002, is chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. The Commission is also mandated to provide recommendations designed to guard against future attacks.

The Commission released its first interim report on July 8, 2003.

The Commission held its third public hearing on 'Terrorism, Al Qaeda, and the Muslim World' on July 9, 2003 in Washington, DC. [National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States]

Britain: Parliamentary Probe Exposes Lies on Iraqi Weapons

Thu, 10 Jul 2003 01:47:32 GMT

Part 3: Foreign Secretary Jack Straw

by Robert Stevens and Richard Tyler

07 Jul 03

The following is the conclusion of a three-part series of articles. Part 1: Clare Short, Robin Cook and Andrew Gilligan was posted July 3. and Part 2: Andrew Wilkie and Dr Ibrahim al-Marashi was published July 4.

The Foreign Affairs Select Committee investigation into whether Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labour government distorted intelligence material to justify its war against Iraq is to publish its report today.

From extensive leaks to the press, there is every reason to suppose that the Labour-dominated parliamentary committee will largely exonerate the government. However, some of the testimony given to the inquiry contradicts such a conclusion clearly exposing the way the British 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]

A Diplomat's Undiplomatic Truth: They Lied

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 13:34:39 GMT

by Robert Scheer

08 Jul 03

They may have finally found the smoking gun that nails the culprit responsible for the Iraq war. Unfortunately, the incriminating evidence wasn't left in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces but rather in Vice President Dick Cheney's office.

Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson publicly revealed over the weekend that he was the mysterious envoy whom the CIA, under pressure from Cheney, sent to Niger to investigate a document - now known to be a crude forgery - that allegedly showed Iraq was trying to acquire enriched uranium that might be used to build a nuclear bomb. Wilson found no basis for the story, and nobody else has either.

What is startling in Wilson's account, however, is that the CIA, the State Department, the National Security Council and the vice president's office were all informed that the Niger-Iraq connection was phony. No one in the chain of command disputed that this 'evidence' of Iraq's revised nuclear weapons program was a hoax. [WorkingForChange]

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]

U.S. Retaliates Over War Crime Immunity Demand

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 19:18:26 GMT

by Bill Vann

05 July 03

In a further bid to place U.S. officials and military personnel beyond the reach of war crimes prosecution, the Bush administration cut off military aid to about 35 countries that failed to meet a June 30 deadline for signing bilateral immunity agreements.

Washington had demanded such deals with all the countries that have signed on to the International Criminal Court (ICC), using the threat of the aid cutoff to impose its will on foreign powers that are considered U.S. allies. At least 90 have reportedly resisted the U.S. blackmail effort. The Bush administration claims that 51 nations have signed immunity agreements, seven of them 'secretly.' [World Socialist Web Site]

The Civilian Toll Is Rising in Aceh

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 01:04:04 GMT

by Step Vaessen

03 Jul 03

The Indonesian military is claiming it now has control over the whole of Aceh province - six weeks after the battle started to crush the rebels. But Jakarta insists the war on the GAM separatists will continue. With many of the rebels now hiding in the hills, more and more civilians are getting caught up in the violence. [Radio Netherlands]

Liberia: No Immunity for Taylor

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 07:41:45 GMT

03 Jul 03

If U.S. troops are sent to Liberia, they should not make any deals that involve a withdrawal of the indictment of President Charles Taylor by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Human Rights Watch said today...

The Special Court for Sierra Leone recently indicted Taylor as one of those 'bearing the greatest responsibility' for war crimes (including murder and taking hostages); crimes against humanity (rape, murder, extermination, sexual slavery); and other serious violations of international humanitarian law (use of child soldiers) committed in Sierra Leone. The indictment charges that Taylor actively supported the rebel Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone's ten-year civil war.

The indictment was announced on June 4, 2003 while Taylor was in Ghana attending peace talks on the recently intensified Liberian conflict. News reports today suggest that the United States is considering sending peacekeepers to Liberia. [Human Rights Watch]

In the Land of Guantanamo

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 07:26:52 GMT

by Ted Conover

29 Jun 03

In the Land of Guantanamo: A surreal society has emerged at the tip of Cuba in which rules are the only common language and prisoners and guards alike feel marooned. [The New York Times Magazine]

West Africa's Wars: A Region in Flames

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 06:47:42 GMT

03 Jul 03

ABIDJAN, FREETOWN AND MONROVIA. Taken as a whole, West Africa's crisis is one of the world's worst. The regional war has claimed perhaps half a million lives, and continues to blight millions more. This is why it is not only hysterical crowds outside the American embassy who are begging Mr Bush to send troops. France, Britain and the UN are demanding the same. [The Economist]

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]