Thursday, July 03, 2003

West Africa's Wars: A Region in Flames 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] 11:47:42 PM  Google It!

Iraqis Call For Self-Rule 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] 10:23:10 PM  Google It!

Ten Appalling Lies We Were Told About Iraq 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] 10:12:14 PM  Google It!

French Court Frees Iranian Group Leader 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] 1:50:39 AM  Google It!

Britain: Parliamentary Probe Exposes Lies on Iraqi Weapons 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] 12:20:14 AM  Google It!