Wednesday, June 2, 2004

The Profits Of War FEATURED ARTICLES - The Paper Trail - Did Cheney Okay A Deal?, Time - Big shortage of supplies for forces in Iraq, brass admits, NY Daily News - Trucks made to drive without cargo in dangerous areas of Iraq, Knight Ridder Newspapers - Corruption stench as company loses Iraq contract, Sydney Morning Herald - Your bill for the war - How's $4,000 per household sound? Cape Cod Times - Hip-Hop Activism: Will They Come to Vote? AlterNet QUOTE OF THE DAY "We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of the war, for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy." - - Robert L. Jackson, Chief U.S. Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunals KNOW YOUR HISTORY - JUNE 2nd 1989 - - 10,000 Chinese soldiers are blocked by 100,000 citizens protecting students demonstrating for democracy in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. 2002 -- The Tian An Men Concert in Hong Kong. Includes Clash Theatre, Alien, Noisebox, Nelson Hui & Ling Lee, Icestone II, Silence, Paul Meredeth, Gruppo Catalysta, Linda Tong, Shoko Fujioka. http://melior.univ-montp3.fr/ra_forum/cn/20020602_hongkong.html#Anchor-49575 RHINO HERE: Rhino thinks it may be possible for many well meaning American citizens to become so disgusted & disheartened about the 700 dead American youth, the 10,000 plus dead Iraqi civilians & the disclosure of American perpetrated prison tortures & murders, that they may forget why the shrub gang led us into this volitional war. It was the profits. As the recently revealed Enron tapes & the Haliburton emails show, the shrub's closest buds; Big Dick Cheney & Kenny Boy Lay, are all about the profits. Today's blog offers a potpourri of reporting on the shrub gang VP & his profits & the resulting costs to our troops & the American public. Then, on a more positive note, today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is by AlterNet creator & editor, Don Hazen. It's an encouraging look at efforts by leaders of the American Black communities to rally what they refer to as the Hip-Hop Generation to a more politically minded stance. The National Hip-Hop Political Convention is to be a national gathering of that hip-hop generation to vote on, adopt and endorse a political agenda. Using the historical/ cultural framework of hip-hop as a rallying cry for organizing and mobilizing young people they hope to get thousands of people involved in electoral politics on the local, state and federal level. For info on The National Hip-Hop Political Convention check out: http://www.hiphopconvention.org Cheney lied (suprise, suprise) about his influence on Halliburton's no-bid deals: The Paper Trail - Did Cheney Okay A Deal? by Timothy J. Burger and Adam Zagorin, Time, Sunday 30 May 2004 ...Cheney's relationship with Halliburton has been nothing but trouble since he left the company in 2000. Both he and the company say they have no ongoing connections. But TIME has obtained an internal Pentagon e-mail sent by an Army Corps of Engineers official-whose name was blacked out by the Pentagon-that raises questions about Cheney's arm's-length policy toward his old employer. Dated March 5, 2003, the e-mail says "action" on a multibillion-dollar Halliburton contract was "coordinated" with Cheney's office. The e-mail says Douglas Feith, a high-ranking Pentagon hawk, got the "authority to execute RIO," or Restore Iraqi Oil, from his boss, who is Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. RIO is one of several large contracts the U.S. awarded to Halliburton last year.... MORE: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040607-644111,00.html Soldiers died as vital equipment money was stolen by Cheney's Halliburton: Stretched thin - Big shortage of supplies for forces in Iraq, brass admits By RICHARD SISK, NY DAILY NEWS, 8/23/03 Humvees are running on bald tires, and tank treads are falling off armored vehicles as the Army's supply chain is stretched as thinly as the troops in Iraq, top officers and enlisted soldiers said yesterday. The always difficult job of getting beans and bullets to the field also has been complicated in Iraq by increasing Army commitments around the world, Gen. Paul Kern, head of the Army Materiel Command, said at the Pentagon... MORE: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/111425p-100658c.html Halliburton charges millions to move empty trucks; the Sailboat Fuel Scandal. Trucks made to drive without cargo in dangerous areas of Iraq BY SETH BORENSTEIN, Knight Ridder Newspapers, May. 21, 2004 Empty flatbed trucks crisscrossed Iraq more than 100 times as their drivers and the soldiers who guarded them dodged bullets, bricks and homemade bombs. Twelve current and former truckers who regularly made the 300-mile re-supply run from Camp Cedar in southern Iraq to Camp Anaconda near Baghdad told Knight Ridder that they risked their lives driving empty trucks while their employer, a subsidiary of Halliburton Inc., billed the government for hauling what they derisively called "sailboat fuel."... MORE: http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/politics/8726376.htm Halliburton ("one bad apple") steals food money from soldiers: Corruption stench as company loses Iraq contract. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/20/1085028468241.html?from=top5 By Marian Wilkinson, Sydney Morning Herald, May 21, 2004 ...Morris Corporation, a Queensland catering company that has delivered meals to the armed forces in hot-spots from Somalia to Cambodia, was dumped last year by the giant US military contractor Halliburton, losing a $100 million contract to supply meals to US troops in Iraq...   an insider involved in the deal alleges that the Australian-Kuwaiti joint venture was approached by a Halliburton employee seeking kickbacks worth up to $3 million during the contract negotiations. "We're not talking about a paper bag. This guy was after a percentage of your sales every month."... http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/20/1085028468241.html?from=top5 "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!"  --and you will personally pay $4,000 for Halliburton's "services" Your bill for the war - How's $4,000 per household sound? Halliburton thanks you. by Sean Gonsalves, Cape Cod Times, 05.24.04      Amount you owe for the war in Iraq: $4,000. Make check payable to Uncle Sam's Iraq Quagmire Fund. If you dispute any portion of this bill call 1-800-IMPEACH-THIS.  According to Doug Henwood, author of "After the New Economy," $4,000 is the amount that each household will have to fork over in taxes to foot the Iraq occupation bill... MORE: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid?998 7:38:15 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM Line - Hip-Hop Activism: Will They Come to Vote? Hip-Hop Activism: Will They Come to Vote? By Don Hazen, AlterNet, May 26, 2004 The political doomsday possibility of a second Bush term has awakened many who may have been asleep at the wheel, or just disconnected from politics. This is especially true of hundreds of thousands of alienated or apolitical young people who are now open to being organized. Major efforts are underway to reach out to these young voters - both at the grand scale of huge arena Hip Hop concerts and at the grassroots where the method is more hands on. Dire political circumstances have inspired many groups who have been traditionally content to remain outside the political arena. These groups are taking any number of non-traditional approaches to engaging potential new voters. Voting information tables and registration efforts are showing up in the most unlikely places - from malls to beauty salons, where, for example, one organization is attempting to reach unmarried women by distributing "Beauty Kits" that include voter registration material to nail and beauty salons. Nowhere is this new and innovative electoral energy more apparent than in the hip hop community. Here the emergence of an election-oriented, politically sophisticated effort to register and mobilize thousands of younger voters and build a political power base is one of the most promising developments of the election season. An early centerpiece of this grassroots organizing is the ambitious National Hip-Hop Political Convention in Newark, New Jersey slated for June 16-19. The convention, which is likely to attract thousands of activists as well as top-draw musical talent, might also be an early indication of how successful the hip hop effort will be at the local level... MORE: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18800 "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:55:23 AM    comment

© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.