posted April 08, 2003 06:06 PM            

Jailed Iraqi children run free as marines roll into Baghdad suburbs

Tue Apr 8,12:30 PM ET Add Mideast - AFP to

BAGHDAD (AFP) - More than 100 children held in a prison celebrated their freedom as US marines rolled into northeast Baghdad amid chaotic scenes which saw civilians loot weapons from an army compound, a US officer said.

Around 150 children spilled out of the jail after the gates were opened as a US military Humvee vehicle approached, Lieutenant Colonel Fred Padilla told an AFP correspondent travelling with the Marines 5th Regiment.

"Hundreds of kids were swarming us and kissing us," Padilla said.

"There were parents running up, so happy to have their kids back."

"The children had been imprisoned because they had not joined the youth branch of the Baath party," he alleged. "Some of these kids had been in there for five years."

The children, who were wearing threadbare clothes and looked under-nourished, walked on the streets crossing their hands as if to mimic handcuffs, before giving the thumbs up sign and shouting their thanks.

It was not clear who had opened the doors of the prison.

Civilians also took advantage of the collapse of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s authority to grab weapons from an army base, said Group Sergeant Jeff Treiber.

As marines were alerted by radio that civilians had seized weapons, Treiber warned that anyone seen to be armed could be a target of US-British coalition forces.

"With the weapons they are becoming combatants," said Treiber. "If they don't take the weapons they will be fine."

Other residents stole air conditioning units, television sets and furniture from government buildings in an echo of the looting that was seen in the southern city of Basra.

A 19-year-old called Haider said people had been ransacking government compounds since the morning to steal weapons and furniture.

"Since the morning, nine o'clock, they have been looting. They are stealing weapons and I took three doors," he said.

At one stage the marines opened fire after coming under attack from snipers, leaving at least two civilians wounded.

One man needed treatment for gunshot wounds to his stomach and left arm.

But his friend, Abdul Amir Jaffa, said he did not resent the Americans despite the shooting.

"Americans are coming to free us," he told AFP.

The marines became increasingly edgy as crowds of people took to the streets to observe their progress.

"It's a problem with so many people in the area. Its hard to tell if there are enemy forces among them. You have to be careful returning fire with civilians all over the place," Lieutenant Anthony Sousa said.

Troops from the Marines' 1st Expeditionary Force also entered Baghdad on the east of the city Tuesday as thousands of armoured vehicles and Humvees poured into the capital for a showdown with Saddam Hussein's troops.

------------------
"Lahn dádzaayú nahikai leh ni' nyelíí k'ehge," Goyathlay (Geronimo)

"Once we moved like the Wind"

posted April 08, 2003 07:44 PM              

I just read that article and was thinking of posting it!! I am glad you did.

I also read an interview of someone who had seen that jail and he said the age range was from toddler to teen.

Oh yes, it is not the oil, definitely not the oil, simply spin put out by opposition!!

Isn't it interesting that within weeks of capturing Khalid Shaikh, the top leader of bin Laden terror, that we went to war with Hussein? Methinks the tie between the two may have been clinched. After all, Hussein was laundering money to supply to the terror network. I think they will find out that Hussein was a "ghost" behind 9/11, although it is a moot point now.

posted April 09, 2003 03:28 AM            

I do not see that, unfortunetly. I think that the brutality waged upon the Iraqi people at the hands of Saddam is simply a convenience in the minds of some of our leaders. It gives them an easy way to win the backing of the people and allows them a smokescreen to hide their true motives behind.

It saddens me to no end.

By William Rivers Pitt

t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Thursday 27 February 2003

"In the counsels of Government, we must guard against the acquisition
of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military
Industrial Complex. The potential for the disastrous
rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let
the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic
processes." - President Dwight Eisenhower, January 1961.

George W. Bush gave a speech Wednesday night before the Godfather of
conservative Washington think tanks, the American Enterprise Institute.
In his speech, Bush quantified his coming war with Iraq
as part of a larger struggle to bring pro-western governments into power
in the Middle East. Couched in hopeful language describing peace and
freedom for all, the speech was in fact the closest articulation of the
actual plan for Iraq that has yet been heard from the administration.

In a previous truthout article from February 21, the ideological
connections between an extremist right-wing Washington think tank and
the foreign policy aspirations of the Bush administration were detailed.

The Project for a New American Century, or PNAC, is a group founded in
1997 that has been agitating since its inception for a war with Iraq.
PNAC was the driving force behind the drafting and passage of
the Iraqi Liberation Act, a bill that painted a veneer of legality over
the ultimate designs behind such a conflict. The names of every
prominent PNAC member were on a letter delivered to President Clinton in
1998 which castigated him for not implementing the Act by driving troops
into Baghdad.

PNAC has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to a Hussein opposition
group called the Iraqi National Congress, and to Iraq's heir-apparent,
Ahmed Chalabi, despite the fact that Chalabi was sentenced in absentia
by a Jordanian court to 22 years in prison on 31 counts of bank fraud.
Chalabi and the INC have, over the years, gathered support for their
cause by promising oil contracts to anyone that would help to put them
in power in Iraq.

Most recently, PNAC created a new group called The Committee for the
Liberation of Iraq. Staffed entirely by PNAC members, The Committee has
set out to "educate" Americans via cable news connections about the need
for war in Iraq. This group met recently with National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice regarding the ways and means of this education.

Who is PNAC? Its members include: Are you ready for this?
* Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the PNAC founders, who served as
Secretary of Defense for Bush Sr.;
* I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's top national security assistant;
* Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, also a founding member, along
with four of his chief aides including;
* Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, arguably the ideological
father of the group;
* Eliot Abrams, prominent member of Bush's National Security Council,
who was pardoned by Bush Sr. in the Iran/Contra scandal;
* John Bolton, who serves as Undersecretary for Arms Control and
International Security in the Bush administration;
* Richard Perle, former Reagan administration official and present
chairman of the powerful Defense Policy Board;
* Randy Scheunemann, President of the Committee for the Liberation of
Iraq, who was Trent Lott's national security aide and who served as an
advisor to Rumsfeld on Iraq in 2001;
* Bruce Jackson, Chairman of PNAC, a position he took after serving
for years as vice president of weapons manufacturer Lockheed-Martin,
and who also headed the Republican Party Platform subcommittee for
National Security and Foreign Policy during the 2000 campaign. His
section of the 2000 GOP Platform explicitly called for the removal of
Saddam Hussein;
* William Kristol, noted conservative writer for the Weekly Standard,
a magazine owned along with the Fox News Network by conservative media
mogul Ruppert Murdoch.

The Project for the New American Century seeks to establish what they
call 'Pax Americana' across the globe. Essentially, their goal is to
transform America, the sole remaining superpower, into a planetary
empire by force of arms. A report released by PNAC in September of 2000
entitled 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' codifies this plan, which
requires a massive increase in defense spending and
the fighting of several major theater wars in order to establish
American dominance. The first has been achieved in Bush's new budget
plan, which calls for the exact dollar amount to be spent on defense
that was requested by PNAC in 2000. Arrangements are underway for the
fighting of the wars.

The men from PNAC are in a perfect position to see their foreign policy
schemes, hatched in 1997, brought into reality. They control the White
House, the Pentagon and Defense Department, by way of this the armed
forces and intelligence communities, and have at their feet a
Republican-dominated Congress that will rubber-stamp virtually
everything on their wish list.

The first step towards the establishment of this Pax Americana is, and
has always been, the removal of Saddam Hussein and the establishment of
an American protectorate in Iraq. The purpose of this is threefold: 1)
To acquire control of the oilheads so as to fund the entire enterprise;
2) To fire a warning shot across the bows of every leader in the Middle
East; 3) To establish in Iraq a military staging area for the eventual
invasion and overthrow of several Middle Eastern regimes, including some
that are allies of
the United States.

Another PNAC signatory, author Norman Podhoretz, quantified this aspect
of the grand plan in the September 2002 issue of his journal,
‘Commentary’. In it, Podhoretz notes that the regimes, "that richly
deserve to be overthrown and replaced, are not confined to the three
singled-out members of the axis of evil. At a minimum, the axis should
extend to Syria and Lebanon and Libya, as well as ‘friends’ of America
like the Saudi royal family and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, along with the
Palestinian Authority, whether headed by Arafat or one of his
henchmen." At bottom, for Podhoretz, this action is about “the
long-overdue internal reform and modernization of Islam."

This casts Bush's speech to AEI on Wednesday in a completely different
light. Weapons of mass destruction are a smokescreen. Paeans to the
idea of Iraqi liberation and democratization are cynical in their
inception.

At the end of the day, this is not even about oil. The drive behind this
war is ideological in nature, a crusade to 'reform' the religion of
Islam as it exists in both government and society within the Middle
East. Once this is accomplished, the road to empire will be open, ten
lanes wide and steppin' out over the line.

At the end of the day, however, ideology is only good for bull sessions
in the board room and the bar. Something has to grease the skids, to
make the whole thing worthwhile to those involved, and entice those
outside the loop to get into the game.

Thus, the payout. It is well known by now that Dick Cheney, before
becoming Vice President, served as chairman and chief executive of the
Dallas-based petroleum corporation Halliburton. During his tenure,
according to oil industry executives and United Nations records,
Halliburton did a brisk $73 million in business with Saddam Hussein’s
Iraq. While working face-to-face with Hussein, Cheney and
Halliburton were also moving into position to capitalize upon Hussein's
removal from power. In October of 1995, the same month Cheney was made
CEO of Halliburton, that company announced a deal that would put it
first in line should war break out in Iraq. Their job: To take control
of burning oil wells, put out the fires, and prepare them for service.

Another corporation that stands to do well by a war in Iraq is Brown &
Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. Ostensibly, Brown & Root is in the
construction business, and thus has won a share of the $900 million
government contract for the rebuilding of post-war Iraqi bridges, roads
and other basic infrastructure. This is but the tip of the financial
iceberg, as the oil wells will also have to be repaired after
parent-company Halliburton puts out the fires.

More ominously is Brown & Root's stock in trade: the building of
permanent American military bases. There are twelve permanent U.S. bases
in Kosovo today, all built and maintained by Brown & Root for
a multi-billion dollar profit. If anyone should wonder why the
administration has not offered an exit strategy to the Iraq war plans,
the presence of Brown & Root should answer them succinctly.

We do not plan on exiting. In all likelihood, Brown & Root is in Iraq to
build permanent bases there, from which attacks upon other Middle
Eastern nations can be staged and managed.

Again, this casts Bush's speech on Wednesday in a new light.

Being at the center of the action is nothing new for Halliburton and
Brown & Root. The two companies have worked closely with governments in
Algeria, Angola, Bosnia, Burma, Croatia, Haiti, Nigeria, Rwanda, and
Somalia during the worst chapters in those nation's histories.

Many environmental and human rights groups claim that Cheney,
Halliburton and Brown & Root were, in fact, centrally involved in these
fiascos. More recently, Brown & Root was contracted by the Defense
Department to build cells for detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The
bill for that one project came to $300 million.

Cheney became involved with PNAC officially in 1997, while still
profiting from deals between Halliburton and Hussein. One year later,
Cheney and PNAC began actively and publicly agitating for war on Iraq.
They have not stopped to this very day.

Another company with a vested interest in both war on Iraq and
massively increased defense spending is the Carlyle Group. Carlyle, a
private global investment firm with more than $12.5 billion in capital
under management, was formed in 1987. Its interests are spread across
164 companies, including telecommunications firms and defense
contractors. It is staffed at the highest levels by former members of
the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations. Former President George H. W.
Bush is himself employed by Carlyle as a senior advisor, as is long-time
Bush family advisor and former Secretary of State James Baker III.

One company acquired by Carlyle is United Defense, a weapons
manufacturer based in Arlington, VA. United Defense provides the Defense
Department with combat vehicle systems, fire support, combat support
vehicle systems, weapons delivery systems, amphibious assault vehicles,
combat support services and naval armaments.

Specifically, United Defense manufactures the Bradley Fighting Vehicle,
the M113 armored personnel carrier, the M88A2 Recovery Vehicle, the
Grizzly, the M9 ACE, the Composite Armored Vehicle, the
M6 Linebacker, the M7 BFIST, the Armored Gun System, the M4 Command and
Control Vehicle, the Battle Command Vehicle, the Paladin, the Crusader,
and Electric Gun/Pulse Power weapons technology.
In other words, everything a growing Defense Department, a war in Iraq,
and a burgeoning American military empire needs.

Ironically, one group that won't profit from Carlyle's involvement in
American military buildup is the family of Osama bin Laden. The bin
Laden family fortune was amassed by Mohammed bin Laden, father
of Osama, who built a multi-billion dollar construction empire through
contracts with the Saudi government. The Saudi BinLaden Group, as this
company is called, was heavily invested in Carlyle
for years. Specifically, they were invested in Carlyle's Partners II
Fund, which includes in that portfolio United Defense and other weapons
manufacturers.

This relationship was described in a September 27, 2001 article in the
Wall Street Journal entitled 'Bin Laden Family Could Profit From Jump in
Defense Spending Due to Ties to US Bank.' The ‘bank’ in question was the
Carlyle Group. A follow-up article published by the Journal on September
28 entitled ' Bin Laden Family Has Intricate Ties With Washington -
Saudi Clan Has Had Access To Influential Republicans ' further describes
the relationship. In October of 2001, Saudi BinLaden and Carlyle severed
their relationship by mutual agreement. The timing is auspicious.

There are a number of depths to be plumbed in all of this. The Bush
administration has claimed all along that this war with Iraq is about
Saddam Hussein's connections to terrorism and weapons of mass
destruction, though through it all they have roundly failed to establish
any basis for either accusation. On Wednesday, Bush went further to
claim that the war is about liberating the Iraqi people and bringing
democracy to the Middle East. This ignores cultural realities on the
ground in Iraq and throughout the region that, salted with decades of
deep mistrust for American motives, make such a democracy movement
brought at the point of the sword utterly impossible to achieve.

This movement, cloaked in democracy, is in fact a PNAC-inspired push for
an American global empire. It behooves Americans to understand that
there is a great difference between being the citizen of a
constitutional democracy and being a citizen of an empire. The
establishment of an empire requires some significant sacrifices.

Essential social, medical, educational and retirement services will
have to be gutted so that those funds can be directed towards a
necessary military buildup. Actions taken abroad to establish the
preeminence of American power, most specifically in the Middle East,
will bring a torrent of terrorist attacks to the home front. Such
attacks will bring about the final suspension of constitutional rights
and the rule of habeas corpus, as we will find ourselves under martial
law. In the end, however, this may be inevitable. An empire cannot
function with the slow, cumbersome machine of a constitutional democracy
on its back. Empires must be ruled with speed and ruthlessness, in a
manner utterly antithetical to the way in which America has been
governed for 227 years.

And yes, of course, a great many people will die.

It would be one thing if all of this was based purely on the ideology of
our leaders. It is another thing altogether to consider the incredible
profit motive behind it all. The President, his father, the Vice
President, a whole host of powerful government officials, along with
stockholders and executives from Halliburton and Carlyle, stand to make
a mint off this war. Long-time corporate sponsors from the defense,
construction and petroleum industries will likewise profit enormously.

Critics of the Bush administration like to bandy about the word
"fascist" when speaking of George. The image that word conjures is of
Nazi stormtroopers marching in unison towards Hitler's Final Solution.
This does not at all fit. It is better, in this matter, to view the Bush
administration through the eyes of Benito Mussolini.

Mussolini, dubbed 'the father of Fascism,' defined the word in a far
more pertinent fashion. "Fascism," said Mussolini, "should more properly
be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate
power."

Boycott the French, the Germans, and the other 114 nations who stand
against this Iraq war all you wish. France and Germany do not oppose
Bush because they are cowards, or because they enjoy the existence of
Saddam Hussein. France and Germany stand against the Bush administration
because they intend to stop this Pax Americana in its tracks if they
can. They have seen militant fascism up close and
personal before, and wish never to see it again.

Would that we Americans could be so wise.

And to be informed is the first step towards becoming wise.

-------
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times bestselling author of two books
- "War On Iraq" (with Scott Ritter) available now from Context Books,
and "The Greatest Sedition is Silence," available in May 2003
from Pluto Press. He teaches high school in Boston, MA.

Scott Lowery contributed research to this report.

posted April 09, 2003 05:06 AM            

This makes me want to puke...

quote:

---

US arms group heads for Lisbon

Directors of one of the world’s largest armament companies are planning on meeting in Lisbon in three weeks time. The American based Carlyle Group is heavily involved in supplying arms to the Coalition forces fighting in the Iraqi war.

It also holds a majority of shares in the Seven Up company and Federal Data Corporation, supplier of air traffic control surveillance systems to the US Federal Aviation Authority. The 12 billion dollar company has recently signed contracts with United Defence Industries to equip the Turkish and Saudi Arabian armies with aviation defence systems.

Top of the meeting’s agenda is expected to be the company’s involvement in the rebuilding of Baghdad’s infrastructure after the cessation of current hostilities. Along with several other US companies, the Carlyle Group is expected to be awarded a billion dollar contract by the US Government to help in the redevelopment of airfields and urban areas destroyed by Coalition aerial bombardments.

The Group is managed by a team of former US Government personnel including its president Frank Carlucci, former deputy director of the CIA before becoming Defence Secretary. His deputy is James Baker II, who was Secretary of State under George Bush senior. Several high profile former politicians are employed to represent the company overseas, among them John Major, former British Prime Minister, along with George Bush senior, one time CIA director before becoming US President.

The financial assets of the Saudi Binladen Corporation (SBC) are also managed by the Carlyle Group. The SBC is headed up by members of Osama bin Laden’s family, who played a principle role in helping George W. Bush win petroleum concessions from Bahrain when he was head of the Texan oil company, Harken Energy Corporation - a deal that was to make the Bush family millions of dollars. Salem, Osama bin Laden’s brother, was represented on Harken’s board of directors by his American agent, James R. Bath.

The connection between the Bush and bin Laden families can also be traced to the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in the 1990s. Members of the Anglo Pakistani bank’s board of directors included Richard Helmes and William Casey, business partners of George Bush senior and former CIA agents. During their time at BCCI both Helmes and Casey worked alongside fellow director, Adnan Khasshoggi, who also represented the bin Laden family’s interests in the US.

The Portugal News has been told by a reliable source that the Carlyle Group meeting in Lisbon will discuss the relationship between the Saudi Binladen Corporation (SBC) and Osama bin Laden. Many US officials claim that the SBC continues to finance his political activities, and has done so for many years. If true, this would place George Bush senior and his colleagues at the Carlyle Group in an embarrassing position. As managers of SBC’s financial investments they might well be accused of indirectly aiding and abetting the United States’ number one enemy.

---

posted April 09, 2003 04:01 PM            

God forbid anyone have any faith in our President so long as we have you to make sure that we hear the lies of the far left press. Tell me, are you so hell bent on hate that you cannot even fathom, for one minute, that Bush really does have a heart?

I really have to question your motivations as you cannot even give credit where it is due. Do you think that a majority of the population is just plain stupid and that you are above the rest because you see conspiracy where none actually exists? (Even the most liberal publication shows that 77% of Americans back this war)

Years from now, when Iraq is well on it's way to being what is once was before the Madman took it over, where will you be? Will you still be waving the bitter flag against any conservative administration? Will be pointing out the one or two factions that still support terror in that country and state "See, this is all Bush's fault. He and his little dog too.....because he killed off the regime there are still terrorists".

Soon you will be blaming natural disasters on President Bush. It is apparant that you hate the man and anyone who supports his administration. I am not sure whether to pity the person that has so much bitterness that they blame all of the ills of humanity on one person / administration or whether to discount them as totally insane.

I haven't even met a flaming tight-a$$ed conservative that hated Clinton as much as you hate Bush. Your posts are long diatribes that spew forth venomous accusations that cannot be proven. What is worse, is that I have countered you many times with laws and regulations that you cannot even begin to address, so you ignore them and then run off to the next weirdo half truth wacked out article that you cannot wait to post. Similar to your accusations that Bush is trying to rape and pillage the environment or that this is all about "blood for oil" or This is all about Junior paying daddy back for his binge drinkin.

My God, get a grip and get off the name calling. According to you, one who touts herself as being open minded, you think a person cannot reform. So does that mean anyone with a history of alcohol, drug or other abuses should just be slaughtered? Maybe we should just lock them up for their past transgressions right? Well, there goes 90% of those celebrities that you so much want to be like.

posted April 09, 2003 05:02 PM            

Don't you even have a response to the *fact* that our 'elected' and formerly elected represetatives are profitting obscenely (to the tune of 1 billion dollars for the Carlyle Group!) off this war?
Doesn't that concern you?

posted April 09, 2003 05:56 PM            

1) Your source is anti-capitalist and will say or do anything to promote ill towards any capitalistic organization, especially those that have any dealings with any conservative administration, past or present.

2) Are you saying that the Turks are not allowed to have any air defense? Or that anyone that works in designing such a program should not make any money?

3) We can also site the French involvement with wanting the regime to stay as is so that they may PROFIT from the multi-BILLION dollar contracts with illegal oil and Saddam's jerk-offs.

4) Add Russia to that as well

5) Add Germany to that as well. We're talking billions in illegal deals (arms as well as oil with Iraq).

6) Why shouldn't people with ties to the CIA, FBI and other security agencies use their skill and expertise in consulting or running a firm that advises on International security, defense and other venture? Should they just retire into obscurity and not earn a living? Is that what you would do?

7) So anyone that has had ties in the past with the Bin Laden family should be locked up and thrown away? Should we now apply that to anyone that is related to a criminal? How about we round up all of Ted Bundy's family and execute them or not allow anyone to do business with them since Bundy was a total sociopath.

Do you know what else the Carlyle company does? Have you even looked into their portfolio or are you just being typical Harpy and trying to build another false case against a person you don't like?

Now let's look at the half truths of your source. You can easily follow along by going to the website at www.thecarlylegoup.com

Carlucci is called the President of the co. with his deputy being James Baker III. In reality Carlucci is:

Frank C. Carlucci
Chairman
Washington, DC

Mr. Carlucci has been a Managing Director of Carlyle since 1989 and the Chairman from 1993 to 2002. As Chairman Emeritus, Mr. Carlucci provides strategic business advice to Carlyle management and investment professionals.

James A. Baker, III
Senior Counselor

Mr. Baker has served at the senior levels of the U.S. government under three different Presidents. He served as the nation’s 61st Secretary of State from January 1989 through August 1992 in the Bush Administration. During his tenure at the State Department, Mr. Baker traveled to 90 foreign countries as the United States confronted the unprecedented challenges and opportunities of the post-Cold War era. Mr. Baker served from 1985 to 1988 as the 67th Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration. Mr. Baker has been the Senior Counselor at The Carlyle Group since 1993.

The Rt. Honorable John Major, CH
Chairman of Carlyle Europe

Former Prime Minister John Major was appointed Chairman of Carlyle Europe in May 2001 and has been a member of Carlyle’s European Advisory Board since 1998.

You're article is biased in that is paints only a partial picture of the company. Anyone with half a brain only has to do a search on the Internet and the companies website to determine the real truth.

I am sure that you can find a number of left wing anti-Bush, Anti-Capitalist, and anti-conservative publications to draw a connection to a conspiracy theory that does not exist.

posted April 09, 2003 06:28 PM              

Right on Pid!

posted April 10, 2003 09:50 AM              

Would also like to tell Pidau, Alena and Leo that you guys have done a great job. I mean, it seemed as though you were being out-numbered on here?!

I stink at debating politics... just an average person. Like I said before... you guys are the voice of the majority. Hey, I don't think anyone could "honestly" say that you guys didn't stick with it!

posted April 10, 2003 11:10 AM              

I don't know why they didn't use them, but thank God/dess they didn't!

However, they did find them. During the CentCom update yesterday morning they were showing the missle delivery systems and barrels and barrels of them. Mustard gas and 3 different types of nerve gases and 2 different blistering agents (mustard gas being one). I would name them for you but I'd have to look them up because I can't remember - I'm really bad with that.

posted April 10, 2003 12:21 PM              

About the WMD, let's not jinx ourselves everyone...

Who knows the new "red line" could be around Saddam's ancestral home of Tikrit...

Personally, I'm nervous, this a very unstable time in Iraq, with all the looting, and ALL THE DAMN CRIMINALS that Saddam released from jail before the war are having a HayDay in the cities

The media... ONCE AGAIN... is exagerating again, "The War is Over"... No it's Not, there are TOO MANY X FACTORS that may still come into play.

I will just continue to pray that we can finish this smoothly & systematically without any tragic atrocities.

posted April 10, 2003 01:43 PM              

LL, hey, I am not a debater, never cared for it, but your points are always well taken, having so much Leo myself, I see your
passion and enthusiasm and know full well they are from the heart with true principles. The word "principle" is a keyword for Leo and being a Fire sign the truth is more important than anything to the Fire Signs. It is a "no spin zone"!!

RRR, actually, there have been several areas of WMD's and their resources found. They simply are not recieving major press attention. The latest was Tuesday, in Al-Tuwaitha. The Marines found an underground subterranean complex,not written about Blix, who had been there two months earlier.

Nuclear Find

This was already written about on Free Republic, two days ago, only today, is it being spoken about on FoxNews Channel.

Donna

posted April 10, 2003 02:24 PM            

Time now to drive a stake through the heart of the Marxist's most cherished lie that the War in Iraq is about oil.

Fact-----the entire oil production of Iraq amounts to about 13 Billion US dollars per year and that's GROSS receipts not NET earnings.

Fact-----after Iraq's oil fields are refurbished, that number is projected to climb to about 20 Billion, again GROSS receipts, not NET earnings.

Fact-----Exxon/Mobil reported GROSS revenues of 204 Billion for the period ending 12/31/02

Fact-----Exxon/Mobil reported NET earnings of 11.1 Billion for the same 1 year period.

Fact-----Exxon/Mobil's NET earnings come close to equaling the total GROSS receipts from all the oil Iraq sells in a one year period.

Fact-----Exxon/Mobil's NET is 5.4% of GROSS revenues.

Fact-----If the same profit percentage is applied to Iraq's total GROSS revenues from oil, their NET earnings would total 702 MILLION, not BILLION.

Fact-----If the US government stole every drop of Iraqi oil production and turned it over to one US oil company, it would represent a minuscule part of their GROSS revenues and NET earnings.

Fact-----Chevron/Texaco has GROSS revenues of 99.5 Billion

Fact-----Conoco/Phillips has GROSS revenues of 57.2 Billion

Fact-----Marathon has GROSS revenues of 31.7 Billion

Fact-----All these companies individually dwarf Iraq's total GROSS revenues from oil.

Fact-----Haliburton's GROSS revenues equal the total Iraqi GROSS revenues from oil
production and Haliburton isn't involved directly in oil production, distribution
refining or transportation.

Fact-----Haliburton is NOT one of the companies which will benefit from refurbishing Iraq's oil fields.

Fact--http://www.newsmax.com/showinside.shtml?a=2003/3/30/155742

Now, are there any more Marxist lies you would like to have exploded with FACTS regarding the reasons for coalition forces removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from Iraq?

jwhop

posted April 10, 2003 02:35 PM            

The fact still remains that our elected and formerly elected leaders profit off the political manuevering of the U.S. government in a BIG way, war being the ultimate money making opportunity for some of them, depending what buisness they are in.
Now, human nature being what it is, do you all honestly believe that they put their desire to make money aside and make decisions based separately from the opportunity for profit?
And..
Do you realize that seldom do we know the true reasons for going to war until 10 years later?

posted April 10, 2003 03:19 PM              

Bob Arnott was just on MSNBC reporting that he had traveled to many of the hospitals in the area and assisted in the care for the many children in the facilities that have been struck by gunfire (he's also a doctor). He said he was unsure what the mood in the hospitals would be but found the doctors and patients to be "ecstatic" that Saddam was gone. He then said that the gunshots were all made by small caliber weapons that the U.S. Army does not have and, when he inquired further about the cause of the wounds, he was told by parents and hospital staff that the paramilitary forces were shooting kids on purpose to make it look like the U.S. forces were inflicting civilian casualties.

jwhop, good points. So good to see you!!

I have said this to several, and I repeat myself, but I believe, and this is pure intuition, that Hussein hired bin Laden to mastermind the 9/11 events. He didn't want his name tied in with it and bin Laden was willing to have his name and his name only be identified with it, for his own purposes. So, each hand fed the other. I know this will come out, it all comes out in the wash, eventually.

posted April 10, 2003 04:56 PM              

From the Marxist Washington Post :

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Companies Selected to Bid on Iraq Reconstruction Initial $900 Million Contract Would Pay for Rebuilding of Roads, Bridges and Other Infrastructure

By Peter Slevin and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 11, 2003; Page A13

The Bush administration, preparing what would be the most ambitious U.S. rebuilding project since the aftermath of World War II, expects in coming days to award a construction contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to begin remaking Iraq, U.S. officials said yesterday.

A few U.S. construction giants -- including the Bechtel Group Inc., Halliburton Co. and Fluor Corp. -- were invited to bid for the work on an emergency basis. Analysts said the companies hope to win the contract and position themselves for such future projects as the repair and development of the country's oil industry.

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From the Marxist BBC NEWS :

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Oil firms 'discuss Iraqi stake' BBC NEWS – 12, March,2003
Oil firms BP and Shell have confirmed they would be interested in developing oil fields in Iraq, in the aftermath of any potential war in the area.

The two groups said suggestions that they had actually sought discussions with the government on the issue were misleading.
But both told BBC News Online that they would expect to be involved in any opportunities in the area following a conflict.

"Shell, like most oil majors, aspires to have commercial activities in the major resource holding countries of the Middle East," a spokesman for Shell said.

'Normal conversation'

Shell said a report in the Financial Times newspaper - suggesting that both groups had held talks with Downing Street and Whitehall officials on the subject - was "highly inaccurate".
"The subject has only come up in normal conversations that we have," Shell said.
But the group has repeatedly argued for what it calls a "level playing field" in the event of post-war development of Iraq's oil fields.
"Shell believes that the management of the Iraqi energy industry and the involvement of foreign oil companies in the aftermath of any conflict with be a matter for whichever authority is in place," the group added.

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Evening Standart. UK

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Giants see post-war oil bonanza
Steve Hawkes, Evening Standard
10 March 2003

IT WAS once famously described by an Opec founder as 'excrement of the devil'. Now oil is bang at the centre of the storm over the motives for military action in Iraq.

President Saddam Hussein is sitting on reserves of at least 115bn barrels, the second-biggest in the world after Saudi Arabia. Popular opinion has it that hordes of empty Exxon tankers would soon form a second line behind any US troops if the call comes to ride into Baghdad. But while the bounty would have the likes of BP and Shell licking their lips, what may happen to Iraqi oil under a new order is not clear.

Raad Alkadiri, director of US oil consultancy PFC Energy, said: 'All things being equal, would Iraq be a major play for these companies? Absolutely, they'd love to be there. But there needs to be a healthy dose of scepticism about the opportunities.'

The presence of BP and Shell in Iraq dates back to the 1920s when they were founder members of the Iraqi Petroleum Company, developing the Kirkuk field in the North-East. They were forced to leave when the Iraqi government nationalised the industry in 1973, and, while both now express an interest in going back, they fiercely deny any contact has been made, even behind the scenes.

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Oh...I cannot forget the Marxist Wall Street Journal...

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"Reports in the Wall Street Journal suggested the
contracts could be worth as much as $900m."

Haliburton "has a history of government contracts" and will be a "leading beneficiary" of the war on Iraq. Mr Cheney should receive huge financial rewards for the war on Iraq through substantial investments in the corporation he once headed.

Iraq is currently the world's second largest source of oil, but the majority of subterranean oil reserves have never been tapped. After the war, when US oil corporations have fully developed the oil industry's potential, Iraq is expected to become the largest single supply of oil on Earth.

"The new oilfields, when developed, could produce up to eight million barrels a day within a few years - thus rivalling Saudi Arabia, the present kingpin of oil."

The world's largest oil corporations are lining-up to exploit what could be the world's greatest supply of oil, and the US government has ensured that companies owned and heavily invested in by America are first in the queue.

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By the way...I am not communist or socialist , I'm not anti- America, pro Saddam or whatever LOGO people are using now...I'm just realist...

Love
Jakie