Reports of the new world order as defined by the fascist dictator, AWOL deserter, miserable failure, George W. Bush.
Also exposing the liar, Tony Blair,
and the zionist fascist, Ariel Sharon.
All readers can now post comments on any of the stories in this blog by clicking on the link below.
Few of More Than 30 Absent Troops Offer Explanation
"A survey of 1,935 soldiers in Iraq published last week by the military newspaper Stars and Stripes found that 49 percent rated morale in their unit as low or very low."
By Steve Vogel - Washington Post Staff Writer - October 21, 2003
More than 30 soldiers who came home from Iraq for two weeks of leave have failed to show up for their flights back to the combat zone, military officials said yesterday.
The soldiers, among more than 1,300 troops so far in the first large-scale home leave program since Vietnam, have yet to be declared absent without leave -- a violation of military law, said Army Col. Paris Mack, the Pentagon official overseeing the program.
A week after return flights began, 28 soldiers had not made it to Baltimore-Washington International Airport for the journey back to Iraq, said Air Force Maj. Mike Escudie, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command in Tampa. Six others did not make yesterday evening's flight out of BWI for unknown reasons, said Lt. Col. Robert Hagen, an Army spokesman.
Escudie said "a small number" have been granted emergency extensions by military commanders because of extenuating circumstances, including deaths in the family. Military officials could not say how many presented valid reasons or how many others had failed to contact authorities.
"Many of them are understandable due to illnesses or canceled airline flights," Escudie said. One soldier was unable to board his flight to BWI because he lost his wallet, while another had a sick baby, Hagen said.
But a military advocacy group cited two cases in which service members called to say they do not want to return to the long and difficult mission in Iraq.
"Ultimately, every one of these cases will be looked into and there will be a determination if there are any mitigating circumstances," said Marine Maj. Pete Mitchell, a Central Command spokesman.
Mack said the soldiers who have missed their flights are "definitely a concern," but she added that the Army had anticipated that some soldiers would not return, and that the numbers thus far are small.
"If you put it into the context of the 1,200-plus who have returned, it's not a large number," Escudie said.
Mack said no consideration is being given to curtailing or canceling the leave program because of the absent soldiers. "The program is going very well," she said.
* A survey of 1,935 soldiers in Iraq published last week by the military newspaper Stars and Stripes found that 49 percent rated morale in their unit as low or very low.
* Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center in Silver Spring, said the absences demonstrate that "there is a morale problem." Robinson said he had been contacted by two soldiers home on leave who do not want to return to their units
One of the soldiers, a National Guardsman from Florida, missed his scheduled flight back to Iraq three days ago, Robinson said. "I told him he needs to get his [rear end] back to Iraq," Robinson said.
* "I definitely don't want to go back there," the guardsman told a reporter for CBS News. "I think most people -- if not all people who are there -- don't want to be there." The soldier did not return a message left on his cell phone yesterday. "He's on the run," Robinson said.
Soldiers failing to return from leave on schedule is an old story for the military, but nonetheless potentially a significant problem for commanders. Soldiers could face demotion or jail time for the offense.
"We had the same problem in Vietnam," said retired Marine officer Gary Solis, who commanded a company in Vietnam and later wrote a history on military law during that war.
Solis, of Alexandria, said the combination of "Australian women and Australian beer" kept several of his Marines from returning from leave on time.
The leave program from Iraq, which unlike in Vietnam is bringing soldiers home to the continental United States to reunite with their families, may make it even more difficult for soldiers to return, Solis said.
"It's a lonely thing to do, but then that's the soldier's duty," he said.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
Note:
I have received the following forwarded message:
Hi, Greetings from Hanoi. I just spoke with an Iraqi friend. Iraqis have been coming to Vietnam, mostly for business reasons - Vietnamese things are cheap. They're saying that Americans are paying Iraqis in the neighborhood of $5,000.US to get smuggled out of Iraq through Turkey to get the hell out of there. The final destination of these deserting American military personnel is, of course, unknown.
"LONDON, Oct. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Plans for US President George W. Bush to make a triumphant procession during his state visit to Britain next month have been abandoned by the British government for fear of anti-war protests, the British Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported on Sunday. "
By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Contributing Foreign Editor
http://canoe.ca/Columnists/margolis_sep28.html>Toronto Sun
September 28, 2003
President Bill Clinton was impeached by a Republican-controlled Congress for lying about sex. President George W. Bush and aides lied the United States into a stupid, unnecessary colonial war that has so far killed more than 305 Americans and seriously wounded more than 1,400. It has also cost many thousands of Iraqi dead, and $1 billion US weekly.
Lying about sex is an impeachable offence; lying the nation into war apparently is not.
I was no Clinton fan, but give me his iffy morals any day over Bush's Mussolini-like strutting. Sen. Edward Kennedy is absolutely correct when he calls Bush's Iraq war a "fraud" concocted to win the next elections.
A fraud and an epic blunder.
Last week, Bush received a glacial and scornful reception at the United Nations that symbolized the world's contempt and disgust for his administration. Not since Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on the speaker's rostrum has a major leader so embarrassed himself and his nation before the world body.
In his UN speech, Bush again claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and "ties" to terrorism. Days later, U.S. intelligence teams that scoured Iraq for four months reported no traces of weapons or terrorism links - the pretext used by Bush and his neo-conservative handlers for unprovoked war against Saddam Hussein.
The White House was left choking on its own grotesque lies.
Incredibly, VP Dick Cheney, a prime architect of the Iraq war, actually claimed recently that Iraq still had mobile germ labs, though U.S. and British inspectors debunked this claim last June. The "special" intelligence network created by neo-conservatives is still apparently feeding disinformation to America's leadership.
This latest humiliation came only days after Bush finally admitted Iraq was not, as most Americans were misled into believing, behind the 9/11 attacks.
No wonder world leaders gave Bush the cold shoulder, and even usually timid UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned against "dangerous acts of unilateralism" - a pointed reference to the bellicose Bush administration.
Unfortunately, many Americans still do not understand how gravely the Bush White House has damaged and sullied their nation's once noble reputation.
Dangerous aggressor
Recent polls show that even among traditional friends abroad, America is no longer regarded as a champion of freedom, democracy and human rights, but increasingly as a dangerous aggressor bent on imperial domination and exploitation.
America's most precious and proudest asset, its moral reputation, has been gravely damaged by the Bush White House. The only positive note: rising anti-Americanism is largely associated in the eyes of non- Americans with the persona of George Bush, a man who projects almost all the negative stereotypes foreigners hold of Americans.
Bush's blinkered core supporters in middle America simply don't understand or don't care what the rest of the world thinks of their nation, which, since 9/11, has wrapped itself in a cocoon of xenophobia and self-righteous rage.
The White House's mouthpiece media, led by Fox News, have simply blanked out world opinion and endlessly chorused administration war propaganda.
A fascinating March study of network TV news by New York's Fairness and Accuracy in Media shows how Americans were misled into war by outrageously biased programming on Iraq.
The analysis found: a) 76% of all commentators about Iraq on TV were present or former government officials; b) only 6% of commentators expressed skepticism regarding the need for war - when 61% of the public supported more time for diplomacy and inspections; c) on the four TV networks, less than 1% of sources were identified with anti-war groups.
And more than two-thirds of commentators were from the U.S., 75% either present or former government or military officials. The small number of foreign commentators mostly came from nations like Britain and Israel which were backing Bush's war policy.
In short, the major networks, under White House prompting, beat the war drums and blatantly excluded commentators with contrary views, giving Americans a badly warped view of world events.
No wonder so few Americans understand what is going on abroad, how the outside world really sees them, or why America has so many enemies overseas. Small wonder many Americans are turning for balanced news to the CBC, BBC and the Internet.
Citizens of the old Soviet Union suffered the same information isolation. Like Americans since 9/11, they were force-fed agitprop and patriotic pap disguised as news, and deprived of all knowledge of the real world around them.
Back to reality. Bush's UN speech was another attempt to mislead Americans into believing the horrid mess in Iraq - entirely the creation of Bush and the neo-cons - is somehow the fault of the UN.
French President Jacques Chirac proposed the U.S. hand Iraq over to UN control. But Bush, still lusting for Iraqi oil and fearful his family foe, Saddam Hussein, would return to thumb his nose at him, foolishly scorned this wise proposal.
Bush is praying his hit teams will assassinate Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein before next year's elections. But even that may not save him from the growing anger of defrauded Americans who are slowly realizing that his Iraq war was a political version of the giant Enron swindle.
Eric can be reached by e-mail at margolis@foreigncorrespondent.com.
-----Original Message-----
From: Judith Karpova [mailto:dahlia@ix.netcom.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2003 6:38 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: November 14 Speak-Out by Iraq Humanitarian Travelers
Dear Friends and Supporters,
For those new to my informational support list, my name is Judith Karpova. I was a US Human Shield in Iraq. I did not stay thorugh the war, but left Iraq on March 9 and worked for the next several weeks in the Human Shields office in Amman, Jordan, to assist other Shields leaving Iraq in contacting their national media. During the time the two of us spent together in Iraq I became good friends with Faith Fippinger, a US retired schoolteacher who stayed through the bombing and volunteered at several Iraqi hospitals. She, Ryan Clancy and I all received letters from the Treasury Department, and Faith and Ryan received follow-up calls from them threatening to seize their business assets, pensions, social security; to ruin them. I am assisting in publicizing her targeting by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Following is a two-part message. The first part concerns a speak-out of pre-war US travelers to Iraq, who have not thus far come to the attention of the Treasury or Justice Departments. They are stepping forward publicly to support those humanitarian travelers who are currently being threatened or prosecuted, such as Faith Fippinger, Ryan Clancy, and Voices in the Wilderness. The second part is in response to those who have offered donations and sent queries as to how they may help in the defense of these enlightened, brave people.
Apologies for any duplications. Please let me know if you want further background information or if you do not wish to receive future messages on this topic. Please distribute.
Judith Karpova
dahlia@ix.netcom.com
I – November 14 Speak-Out
The U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments insist on pursuing charges against several individuals and groups that have traveled to Iraq. In support of these people, and to assert the right of US citizens to be informed and to communicate information, others who have travelled to Iraq but have not thus far been targeted are stepping forward to fully acknowledge that they have also traveled to Iraq and are standing in solidarity with those charged.
On Friday, November 14, 2003, 10 press conferences will take place in various cities throughout the U.S., where humanitarian travelers to Iraq will stand in solidarity with their fellow travelers who have been targeted by the U.S. government on charges of breaking the sanctions before and during the war and occupation. Press conferences will take place across the country on Friday, Nov. 14th in the following cities (10:00 AM WEST COAST, 1:00 PM EST, etc):
New York City, NY
Syracuse, NY
Chicago, IL
Minneapolis, MN
Montgomery, AL
Seattle, WA
Los Angeles, CA
San Francisco, CA
Philadelphia, PA
Washington, D.C.
At these press conferences, individuals who have traveled to Iraq for humanitarian purposes will gather and read a joint statement of solidarity with their fellow humanitarian travelers. We're looking for individuals who would like to join the list of signers, as well as people who would like to support us in other ways: organizational endorsements, publicity help, press conference attendees, etc. If you or someone you know might be interested in attending and/or participating in this action and/or signing the joint statement, please respond to BJohns99@aol.com.
Thank you for your time. Also, to receive a copy of the text of the joint statement, please contact BJohns99@aol.com.
II – Offers of Funds for the Defense of Faith and Iraqi Travelers
In response to people who have offered to contribute to the defense of these travelers, Faith and Ryan have stated that though they thank people for such offers, they categorically decline to receive any money from anyone. They urge people to write to their Congresspeople, and participate in the ongoing call-in campaign to OFAC (the Office of Foreign Assets Control) and the Justice Department (contact me for information on this if needed: dahlia@ix.netcom.com).
However, there are several projects related to Human Shields activities people can support.
One is a very powerful 22 minute documentary by a Debra Hussong, a Florida filmmaker which features Faith Fippinger and the mother of another US Human Shield, Ben Joffe-Walt, a young man I also knew personally in Iraq. I have seen it and it makes a profound impact. Funds sent to her will be used to publicize her film and defray travel expenses for US humanitarian travelers to Iraq to accompany showings. For more information contact Debra Hussong, DAH Media, at dhm7@infionline.net
Another is the establishment of a childrens' shelter in Iraq. Below is the email I received yesterday from fellow Shield Donna Mulhearn of Australia. I personally know and completely trust the people she refers to who will be initiating that project; these people stayed through the bombing and I believe that because of them, the humanitarian infrastructure where they were sited was not destroyed:
From Donna Mulhearn
Hello human shields, friends and supporters,
Have you heard about Our House - Iraq? It is a project that some former human shields will be pioneering in Baghdad very soon.
It will be a children's shelter which will provide accomodation in houses and day-to-day care for the many orphans and street kids of Baghdad who have fallen through the cracks and ended up sleeping on the street.
The project will work in partnership with a local orphanage which is bursting at the seams. The wonderful Iraqi staff will help us set up houses close to the orphanage and we will work together.
The project will be funded totally by public donations by friends and supporters. An appeal has been launched in the UK and Australia. The support has been fantastic.
With so many aid agencies withdrawn from Iraq, this is a way to support direct work on the ground in Iraq.
There are a few ways that you can help:
1. Remember all those Iraqi dinar notes that you carried around in bundles? Well did you end up having leftovers that you still have? You might want to keep one or two as a souvenir, but why not donate the rest to us? You can send them to me, and I can take them with me when I leave on November 18. The old currency will be used for another 3 months and will be very useful for us. You can send it to: Donna Mulhearn, 27 Lenton Parade, Waterloo, NSW, 2017 Australia. Thanks!
2. You could come and join us as a volunteer.
3. You could make a donation to our funds. In the UK: Lloyds TSB sort code: 30-97-07 Account name: Our House - Iraq, account number: 00723748. In Australia you can deposit into Commonwealth Bank account named: Our House - Iraq, account number: 2231 10207377
4. Is there anyone in America who can set up an account for us and do an appeal there?
5. Please pass this on to all your e-mail lists and networks.
This is an exciting project that will provide help and hope to the children in Baghdad.
It is being driven and will be staffed by Uzma, Rory, myself, Helen and Kevin and I'm sure others I don't know about. Many other volunteers are keen to come.
It will probably begin in mid-November.
Thanks for your support. I will be sending out regular stories from Baghdad. Please let me know if you'd like to go on my list.
peace and solidarity
Donna
donnamulhearn@yahoo.com.au
By Mark Benjamin
United Press International
Forwarded by Tom Cahill
Monday 06 October 2003
WASHINGTON - Unexplained blood clots are among the reasons a number of U.S. soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom have died from sudden illnesses, an investigation by United Press International has found.
In addition to NBC News Correspondent David Bloom, who died in April of a blood clot in his lung after collapsing south of Baghdad, the Pentagon has told families that blood clots caused two soldiers to collapse and die. At least eight other soldiers have also collapsed and died from what the military has described as non-combat-related causes.
A disturbing parallel has also surfaced: soldiers becoming ill or dying from similar ailments in the United States. In some cases, the soldiers, their families and civilian doctors blame vaccines given to them by the military, particularly the anthrax or smallpox shots.
Some of the soldiers who died suddenly had complained about symptoms suffered by Bloom -- including pain in the legs that could indicate problems with blood clots.
"If there is a significant number of deaths of this type, it would make you wonder what was going on," said Rose Hobby, whose brother-in-law, Army Spc. William Jeffries, died of a massive lung blood clot and swelling of his pancreas on March 31 after being evacuated from Kuwait.
"How many others are out there?"
"I would say that that number of cases among young healthy troops would seem to be unusual," Dr. Jeffrey Sartin, an infectious diseases doctor at the Gundersen Clinic in La Crosse, Wis., said about blood clot deaths. Sartin, a former Air Force doctor, last spring treated a soldier who might have died from anthrax or smallpox side effects.
"I am not aware that there were this many cases" during the first Gulf War, Sartin said.
The Pentagon has been investigating cases of a mysterious pneumonia that has killed two soldiers and put 17 more on ventilators. Besides the pneumonia, there do not seem to be any unexpected health trends given the number of troops in the region, said Army Surgeon General spokeswoman Virginia Stephanakis.
"We are not seeing larger numbers of most illnesses than we could have expected," Stephanakis said. "We have not seen any red flags. As far as I know, there has not been a huge red flag other than the pneumonia."
UPI's investigation found 17 soldiers who died of sudden illnesses. Families say they are bewildered by the deaths.
"Bill just dropped. They thought he had been shot. That is how suddenly it happened," said Rose Hobby, the woman whose 39-year-old brother-in-law William Jeffries collapsed in Kuwait.
After being evacuated from Kuwait to Rota, Spain, he was in intensive care for a week before dying, Hobby said in a telephone interview from Evansville, Ind. A doctor in Spain said Jeffries had "the largest pulmonary embolism he had ever seen," Hobby said. Jeffries also had a swelling of the pancreas, often caused by heavy drinking or some drugs. Jeffries was not a drinker, Hobby said.
Jeffries was back in the United States just days before his death to attend his own father's funeral. He had a scab on his arm from his recent smallpox vaccination. Hobby said she does not know if he got anthrax shots also, like most soldiers in the region.
Patrick Ivory arrived in Germany Aug. 16 to see his 26-year-old son, Army Spc. Craig S. Ivory, before he died. By then, Craig Ivory was already brain dead from a blood clot that hit his brain on Aug. 11.
"I had to make a decision to turn off life support, which was the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life," Patrick Ivory said in a telephone interview from his home in Port Matilda, Pa.
In other cases of apparently healthy soldiers who died suddenly in Operation Iraqi Freedom, families told UPI they have gotten few answers from the military. Local media reports have quoted military officials saying some of the deaths were apparent heart attacks; they have occurred from the beginning of the conflict through last week.
"If anybody has a right to know what my husband died of, it is me," said Lisa Ann Sherman, whose husband, Lt. Col. Anthony Sherman, suddenly clutched his chest and died Aug. 27 in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. "The only thing they (the military) had to tell me was severe myocardial infarction," or a heart attack.
Anthony Sherman, 43, was a marathon runner and a triathlete.
Sherman said her husband complained of pain in his legs after getting anthrax shots. She said she has since learned that he went to sick call complaining of pain in his legs on the day he died. NBC's Bloom, who also got the anthrax and smallpox vaccines, complained of pain in his legs, presumably from a blood clot that has been attributed to cramped quarters in his armored vehicle.
"I am very suspicious about the true reason behind my husband's death," Sherman said.
The Pentagon said side effects from the anthrax vaccine are generally mild and rare.
In one case, however, the military said the anthrax vaccine did cause a soldier's chronic blood-clot condition.
Capt. Jason M. Nietupksi says he has suffered severe reactions to three anthrax shots given to him in the Army Reserves in February 2000, when he was 29 years old. Nietupski said the vaccine caused chronic fatigue, a skin reaction and a blood clot condition called Deep Vein Thrombosis. Nietupski described intense pain in his legs caused by the clots from that condition.
Nietupski is on blood thinners for the rest of his life. His records from the military state his blood clot condition was caused by the anthrax shots.
"CPT Nietupski had multiple adverse medical problems associated with three anthrax vaccinations he received while assigned to the 8th United States Army," read the results of a military line-of-duty inquiry report. "A condition described as Deep Vein Thrombosis, chronic fatigue and Steven Johnson's Syndrome all are adverse reactions that developed in this previously healthy individual from the anthrax vaccine. Evaluation by Walter Reed Physicians state (sic) that his symptoms are related to the anthrax vaccine."
The anthrax vaccine label warns of infrequent reports of heart attacks or strokes among people who have taken that vaccine. Both heart attacks and strokes can be caused by blood clots.
With smallpox shots, top Pentagon health officials released a study in June that said 37 soldiers have had a swelling of the tissue around the heart probably caused by the vaccine and eight other "cardiac events" occurred within a fortnight of getting the vaccine, including heart attacks. The Pentagon said they had seen no deaths that might have been caused by the smallpox vaccine.
Civilian officials have disagreed, at least in one case.
In the April 4 death of Army Spc. Rachael Lacy of Lynwood, Ill., a civilian doctor who treated her and the civilian coroner who performed her autopsy said the smallpox and anthrax vaccines the Army gave her March 2 in preparation for her deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom might have caused her death. Lacy had pneumonia and a swelling of the tissue surrounding the heart, among other things.
The Deputy Director of the Military Vaccine Agency, Col. John D. Grabenstein told UPI in August that Lacy's death has not been classified by the military as related to either vaccine.
"Rachael Lacy is still in the unexplained death program" at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Grabenstein said.
"By Jonathan Weisman and Anitha Reddy
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 9, 2003; Page A01
As the House today takes up President Bush's $87 billion spending request for Iraq and Afghanistan, the debate over the bill is increasingly focused not just on the amount of money but also on who will get it.
Of the $4 billion a month already being spent in Iraq, as much as a third is going to the private contractors who have flooded into the country."
"First account of US methods from UK detainee
Vikram Dodd
Saturday October 4, 2003
The Guardian
A British businessman arrested as a suspected terrorist has told The Guardian that US agents threatened him with beatings and rape in an attempt to break him. "
"World renowned scientist Dr. Rosalie Bertell confirms that 'US military scientists are working on weather systems as a potential weapon. The methods include the enhancing of storms and the diverting of vapor rivers in the Earth's atmosphere to produce targeted droughts or floods.' Already in the 1970s, former National Security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski had foreseen in his book 'Between Two Ages' that:
'Technology will make available, to the leaders of major nations, techniques for conducting secret warfare, of which only a bare minimum of the security forces need be appraised... [T]echniques of weather modification could be employed to produce prolonged periods of drought or storm.'"
