Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Posted here Wednesday, May 26, 2004 at 10:47:47 PM     Clearing the record of distortions.. Ritter's War Stephen Marshall, Manhattan,  May 26, 2004 http://www.guerrillanews.com/war_on_terrorism/doc4541.html In the late summer and fall of 2002, six months before the invasion, former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter hit the major networks, claiming that the Bush administration was "deliberately distorting the record in regards to weapons of mass destruction." Despite his radical position, Ritter's credentials as a U.S. Marine and fearless weapons inspector made him impossible to ignore. So he became the most visible opponent of the administration's assertion that Saddam was a threat to the United States. And, in response, the corporate media did everything in their power to assassinate his character. We decided to trace the media coverage that Ritter received during September, 2002. ********

Posted here Wednesday, May 26, 2004 at 4:54:26 PM     The infighting over the new PM for Iraq is more like Gilbert and Sullivan than we would like. Too complicated to follow here. My guess is you are tracking.. Bush's five speeches make it all like a five act drama that is supposed to end with the audience going home, and Iraq being in the hands of Iraqis. I expect the fire department won't let us leave the theater, thanks to homeland security. ********

Posted here Wednesday, May 26, 2004 at 4:51:49 PM     Direct.. to report http://web.amnesty.org/report2004/index-eng WASHINGTON, May 26 (UPI) -- The U.S.-led war on terror is "bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle," and has made the world more dangerous, the human rights group Amnesty International said in its latest report Wednesday. The group's 2004 report criticizes the United States and its allies, along with militant groups worldwide, for what it calls "the most sustained attack on human rights and international humanitarian law in the last 50 years." ********

Posted here Wednesday, May 26, 2004 at 2:36:45 PM     First report of Gore's speech. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/politics/26CND-GORE.html?hp ********

Posted here Wednesday, May 26, 2004 at 2:28:58 PM     Important, just like in a chess game cleaning up the pieces. Perle was a castle in this game. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&;c=Article&cid=1085523609417&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724 LONDON, England—One of the ideological architects of the Iraq war has criticized the U.S.-led occupation of the country as "a grave error." Richard Perle, until recently a powerful adviser to U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, described U.S. policy in post-war Iraq as a failure. "I would be the first to acknowledge we allowed the liberation (of Iraq) to subside into an occupation. And I think that was a grave error, and in some ways a continuing error," said Perle, former chair of the influential Defence Policy Board, which advises the Pentagon. However "the first to acknowledge..." when so many others *started* from there. He goes on to say With violent resistance to the U.S.-led occupation showing no signs of ending, Perle said the biggest mistake in post-war policy "was the failure to turn Iraq back to the Iraqis more or less immediately. "We didn't have to find ourselves in the role of occupier. We could have made the transition that is going to be made at the end of June more or less immediately," he told BBC radio, referring to the U.S. and British plan to transfer political authority in Iraq to an interim government on June 30. If we had not been occupiers, what of the 3000 person embassy, and the military bases in US hands? Is he willing to let those go and to have let them go? What about the Iraq and Israel connection that was supposed to be importnat to him? ********