More media indicators of coup…

2004-05-27

Richard Moore

Friends,

The below items are all from mainstream channels in the US or
UK during the past week. The URLs are given for the full
articles, along with the first few paragraphs giving the main
conclusions. The neocons must feel like Noah when the flood
began, except that they may be doubting the seaworthiness of
their ark.

Chalabi serves as perfect scapegoat to excuse those who now 
object to Bush's policies and who formerly supported them. 
But since he is Rumsfeld and Cheney's protogé, the neocons 
can't get by with that excuse themselves. For them, he is
an anchor dragging them down. Either they knew he was 
lying or they look like fools.

The New York Times apology article is in some sense
the most interesting.

Here in Ireland it's difficult to judge American public
opinion. Has anyone noticed any shifts among ardent Bush
supporters?

cheers,
rkm

_________________________________________________
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052304C.shtml

 The Other Prisoners
 By Luke Harding
 The Guardian U.K.

 Thursday 20 May 2004

Most of the coverage of abuse at Abu Ghraib has focused on
male detainees. But what of the five women held in the jail,
and the scores elsewhere in Iraq?

The scandal at Abu Ghraib prison was first exposed not by a
digital photograph but by a letter. In December 2003, a woman
prisoner inside the jail west of Baghdad managed to smuggle
out a note. Its contents were so shocking that, at first, Amal
Kadham Swadi and the other Iraqi women lawyers who had been
trying to gain access to the US jail found them hard to
believe.

The note claimed that US guards had been raping women
detainees, who were, and are, in a small minority at Abu
Ghraib. Several of the women were now pregnant, it added. The
women had been forced to strip naked in front of men, it said.
The note urged the Iraqi resistance to bomb the jail to spare
the women further shame.
_________________________________________________
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052304B.shtml

 List of Detainee Death Inquiries Expanded to 37
 By John Hendren
 The Los Angeles Times

 Saturday 22 May 2004

The Pentagon's higher figure for Iraq and Afghanistan includes
at least eight unresolved homicide cases that may have
involved assaults.

WASHINGTON - Pentagon officials on Friday increased to 37 the
number of detainee deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan that have
prompted investigations, including at least eight unresolved
homicides that may have involved assaults before or during
interrogation.
_________________________________________________
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052404A.shtml

 Gen. Zinni: 'They've Screwed Up'
 CBS News

 Friday 21 May 2004

Accusing top Pentagon officials of "dereliction of duty,"
retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni says staying the course in
Iraq isn't a reasonable option.

"The course is headed over Niagara Falls. I think it's time
to change course a little bit or at least hold somebody
responsible for putting you on this course," he tells CBS
News Correspondent Steve Kroft in an interview to be
broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, May 23, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
_________________________________________________
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052404B.shtml

 Prison Visits By General Reported In Hearing
 By Scott Higham, Joe Stephens and Josh White

 The Washington Post

 Sunday 23 May 2004

Alleged Presence of Sanchez Cited by Lawyer.

A military lawyer for a soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib
abuse case stated that a captain at the prison said the
highest-ranking U.S. military officer in Iraq was present
during some "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner
abuse," according to a recording of a military hearing
obtained by The Washington Post.
_________________________________________________
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052404C.shtml

 Iraq Setbacks Change Mood in Washington
 By Doyle McManus
 The Los Angeles Times

 Sunday 23 May 2004

Lawmakers in both parties as well as some military leaders
fear the occupation is heading for failure. Bush stands firm,
but U.S. goals may be scaled back.

WASHINGTON - President Bush is hearing increasingly bleak
warnings that the U.S. occupation of Iraq is heading for
failure - from Republican and Democratic members of Congress,
current and former officials and even some military officers
still on active duty.
_________________________________________________
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052404E.shtml

 Failure Now May be an Option
 By Timothy M. Phelps
 Newsday

 Sunday 23 May 2004

WASHINGTON -- Since the invasion of Iraq 14 months ago, a
favorite mantra in political Washington has been that
"failure is not an option."

But after the repeated disasters of recent weeks, warnings
of the possibility -- if not the inevitability -- of
"failure" or "defeat" are beginning to echo through the
marble halls of Congress and the ornate conference rooms of
Washington think tanks.

"We need a fast turnaround and we need it right away,"
retired Gen. Joseph Hoar, a former commander of U.S. forces
in the Middle East, told the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee last week. "We're about on the brink of failure."
_________________________________________________
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052504B.shtml
 
 Behind the Walls of Abu Ghraib
 By T. Trent Gegax
 Newsweek

 Saturday 22 May 2004

"Could you stand there while he's in the shower?" Army
Reserve Spc. Diane Liang recalls the plain-clothed American
official asking her. "He'll feel more humiliated if there's
a female present." As a member of the 372nd Military
PoliceCompany, Liang was assisting with interrogations last
January in Tier 1A of Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. When she
walked over, she saw a nude man in a stall with cold water
streaming over his head. For 30 minutes, Liang watched the
shivering prisoner get "softened up" by the "OGA" [Other
Government Agency official, often code for CIA] and two
Military Police [MPs].
_________________________________________________
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052604A.shtml

 The Iranian Spy in the House of Bush
 By William Rivers Pitt
 t r u t h o u t | Perspective

 Wednesday 26 May 2004

George W. Bush is running for a second term on the basis
of his performance in the defense of our national security.
Vice President Cheney has flatly stated that if Bush loses
in 2004, the terrorists win. In truth, however, the
national security of the United States of America has been
raped by these people. 'Rape' is a strong word, but in
truth, is not strong enough to describe what has taken
place. This disaster can be summed up in one name: Ahmad
Chalabi.

Chalabi was the head of the Iraqi National Congress, a
dissident group organized for the purpose of overthrowing
the regime of Saddam Hussein. Chalabi was a beloved ally of
Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney before they came to power with
this administration; Chalabi and his group were the impetus
behind the passage of the Iraqi Liberation Act in 1998,
legislation advocated loudly by Rumsfeld, Cheney and the
neo-conservatives who now occupy this government.

Rumsfeld personally groomed Chalabi to take control of
Iraq once Hussein was removed. This, despite the fact that
Chalabi was convicted of 32 counts of bank fraud in Jordan
and sentenced in absentia to 22 years in prison, despite
the fact that Chalabi had not set foot in Iraq since he was
a teenager, despite the fact that he had no power base and
no credibility in the Middle East. Because the neo-cons
loved him, however, Chalabi saw his opening. More than
anything, he lusted after the oil revenues available from
an Iraq he controlled.
_________________________________________________
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052704C.shtml

 The Times and Iraq
 From The Editors
 New York Times

 Wednesday 26 May 2004

Over the last year this newspaper has shone the bright
light of hindsight on decisions that led the United States
into Iraq. We have examined the failings of American and
allied intelligence, especially on the issue of Iraq's
weapons and possible Iraqi connections to international
terrorists. We have studied the allegations of official
gullibility and hype. It is past time we turned the same
light on ourselves.

In doing so - reviewing hundreds of articles written
during the prelude to war and into the early stages of the
occupation - we found an enormous amount of journalism that
we are proud of. In most cases, what we reported was an
accurate reflection of the state of our knowledge at the
time, much of it painstakingly extracted from intelligence
agencies that were themselves dependent on sketchy
information. And where those articles included incomplete
information or pointed in a wrong direction, they were
later overtaken by more and stronger information. That is
how news coverage normally unfolds.

But we have found a number of instances of coverage that
was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases,
information that was controversial then, and seems
questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed
to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been
more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence
emerged - or failed to emerge.
_________________________________________________
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052704D.shtml

 Abuse of Captives More Widespread, Says Army Survey
 By Douglas Jehl, Steven Lee Myers and Eric Schmitt
 New York Times

 Wednesday 26 May 2004

Washington - An Army summary of deaths
and mistreatment involving prisoners in
American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan
shows a widespread pattern of abuse
involving more military units than previously
known.

The cases from Iraq date back to April
15, 2003, a few days after Saddam
Hussein's statue was toppled in a Baghdad
square, and they extend up to last month,
when a prisoner detained by Navy
commandos died in a suspected case of
homicide blamed on "blunt force trauma to
the torso and positional asphyxia."
_________________________________________________


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Richard Moore (rkm)
Wexford, Ireland
_____________________________
    "...the Patriot Act followed 9-11 as smoothly as the
      suspension of the Weimar constitution followed the
      Reichstag fire."  
      - Srdja Trifkovic

    There is not a problem with the system.
    The system is the problem.

    Faith in ourselves - not gods, ideologies, leaders, or programs.
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