George W Bush still lies about Iraqi inspections

Written by http://www.daily.pk

Thursday, 04 December 2008 18:12

It looks as if that pattern – of Bush lying and the Washington press corps nodding along – will continue.
In what’s been called George W. Bush’s first exit interview, the outgoing President continues a lie that he first unveiled several months after launching the Iraq War, justifying the invasion by claiming that Saddam Hussein didn’t let the UN inspectors in.

Like previous times when President Bush has used this lie, it went unchallenged by the journalist who heard the false claim, in this case ABC News anchor Charles Gibson.

According to the text of the ABC News interview, which was released Dec. 1, Gibson asked Bush, “If the [U.S.] intelligence had been right [and revealed no Iraq WMD], would there have been an Iraq War?”

Bush answered, “Yes, because Saddam Hussein was unwilling to let the inspectors go in to determine whether or not the UN resolutions were being upheld.”

Of course, the historical record is clear: Hussein did let UN arms inspectors into Iraq in the fall of 2002 to search any site of their choosing. Their travels around Iraq in white vans were recorded daily by the international news media, as they found no evidence that Iraq had WMD stockpiles, even at sites targeted by U.S. intelligence.

Hussein and his government also declared publicly that they didn’t possess WMD, including providing the United Nations a 12,000-page declaration on Dec. 7, 2002, explaining how Iraq’s stocks of chemical and biological weapons had been destroyed in the 1990s.

However, still set on invading, Bush forced the UN inspectors to leave Iraq in March 2003, a departure that was followed within days by his “shock and awe” attack on Iraq, beginning March 19.

Several months later, with Hussein’s government ousted and with the US military coming up empty in its search for WMD caches, Bush began his historical revisionism by insisting publicly that he had no choice but to invade because Hussein supposedly had barred UN inspectors.

On July 14, 2003, Bush told reporters:

“We gave him [Saddam Hussein] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn’t let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power.”

Facing no contradiction from the White House press corps, Bush continued repeating this lie again and again in varied forms.

On Jan. 27, 2004, for example, Bush said, “We went to the United Nations, of course, and got an overwhelming resolution – 1441 – unanimous resolution, that said to Saddam, you must disclose and destroy your weapons programs, which obviously meant the world felt he had such programs. He chose defiance. It was his choice to make, and he did not let us in.”

• Color of truth

As the months and years went by, Bush’s lie and its unchallenged retelling took on the color of truth.

At a March 21, 2006, news conference, Bush again blamed the war on Hussein’s defiance of UN demands for unfettered inspections.

“I was hoping to solve this [Iraq] problem diplomatically,” Bush said. “The world said, ‘Disarm, disclose or face serious consequences.’ … We worked to make sure that Saddam Hussein heard the message of the world. And when he chose to deny the inspectors, when he chose not to disclose, then I had the difficult decision to make to remove him. And we did.”

At a press conference on May 24, 2007, Bush offered a short-hand version, even inviting the journalists to remember the invented history.

“As you might remember back then, we tried the diplomatic route: [UN Resolution] 1441 was a unanimous vote in the Security Council that said disclose, disarm or face serious consequences. So the choice was his [Hussein’s] to make. And he made a choice that has subsequently caused him to lose his life.”

In the frequent repetition of this claim, Bush never acknowledged the fact that Hussein did comply with Resolution 1441 by declaring accurately that he had disposed of his WMD stockpiles and by permitting UN inspectors to examine any site of their choosing.

Prominent Washington journalists even have repeated Bush’s lie as their own. For instance, in a July 2004 interview, ABC’s veteran newsman Ted Koppel used it to explain why he – Koppel – thought the invasion of Iraq was justified.

“It did not make logical sense that Saddam Hussein, whose armies had been defeated once before by the United States and the Coalition, would be prepared to lose control over his country if all he had to do was say, ‘All right, UN, come on in, check it out,” Koppel told Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now.”

In the real history, Hussein did tell the UN to “come on in, check it out.” But faux reality had become the trademark of the Bush presidency — and its supporters in the press corps.

• Choosing war?

The Washington conventional wisdom eventually embraced another fake belief, that Hussein provoked the war by misleading people into believing that he still possessed WMD.

In line with this bogus version of history, “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley asked FBI interrogator George Piro, who had debriefed Hussein in prison, why the dictator kept pretending that he had WMD even as U.S. troops massed on Iraq’s borders, when a simple announcement that the WMD was gone would have prevented the war.

“For a man who drew America into two wars and countless military engagements, we never knew what Saddam Hussein was thinking,” Pelley said in introducing the segment on the interrogation of Hussein about his WMD stockpiles, which aired Jan. 27, 2008. “Why did he choose war with the United States?”

This “60 Minutes” segment never mentioned the fact that Hussein and his government did disclose that it had eliminated its WMD. Instead Pelley pressed Piro on the question of why Hussein supposedly was hiding that fact:

“Why keep the secret? Why put your nation at risk, why put your own life at risk to maintain this charade?”

After Piro mentioned Hussein’s lingering fear of neighboring Iran, Pelley felt he was close to an answer to the mystery: “He believed that he couldn’t survive without the perception that he had weapons of mass destruction?”

But, still, Pelley puzzled over why Hussein’s continued in his miscalculation.

Pelley asked:

“As the U.S. marched toward war and we began massing troops on his border, why didn’t he stop it then? And say, ‘Look, I have no weapons of mass destruction,’ I mean, how could he have wanted his country to be invaded?”

It apparently never matters to the major U.S. news media (nor to President Bush) that Hussein and the Iraq government did declare that they had no WMD and did let the UN inspectors in to check.

Now, with the new ABC News interview, it looks as if that pattern – of Bush lying about the circumstances of the Iraq War and the Washington press corps nodding along – will continue until Bush’s last days in office.

Source : pakistan daily

Holiday Bombings Kill 27 in Baghdad

By SAM DAGHER and MUHAMMED AL-OBAIDI

Published: September 28, 2008

BAGHDAD — Five bomb attacks struck Baghdad on Sunday, three of them aimed at civilians who were out holiday shopping and strolling. Security sources said at least 27 people had been killed and 84 wounded.

The bombings reinforced fears among a growing number of residents that the security situation in Baghdad was deteriorating, even though over all it remained at the most stable level since the American-led invasion in 2003, according to data measured by the United States military command.

The worst of the bombings, in a bustling market of the central Karada district, seemed intended to inflict casualties on people preparing to celebrate a major holiday at the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.

First, a car bomb blew up in a parking lot on Attar Street. Then as crowds gathered, a second bomb exploded, in what seemed to be an effort to kill or maim bystanders, several witnesses said.

Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta, an Iraqi military spokesman, said the attacks involved a car bomb and a roadside homemade bomb. He put the toll at 13 dead and 46 wounded.

An official at the Interior Ministry, who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, gave a toll of at least 19 killed and 72 wounded.

Police officers at the scene provided a toll of at least 18 killed and 41 wounded. Conflicting tolls are common in the confusion that follows attacks in Iraq.

Ayman Saadi, a resident, said he ran away when the first bomb went off, expecting a second detonation. “We have become accustomed to these traps,” he said.

Nearby, a Karada resident who identified himself as Abbas Jarousha stood in disbelief as he received a call on his cellphone from a stranger who said that he had found Mr. Jarousha’s brother’s phone and that the brother was dead.

The blasts in Karada occurred about 7 p.m. as many people poured onto the streets after the breaking of the daytime fast observed by most Iraqis during Ramadan, which ends Monday. Ramadan is followed by Id al-Fitr, a five-day holiday during which families customarily go out strolling, and children receive gifts and parade in new clothes.

Many people were out shopping on Sunday in Karada, where vendors were selling shoes, clothes, watches and perfume. Attar Street is also home to Jabbar Abu al-Sharbat, a cafe renowned for its pomegranate and raisin juice.

Baghdad was jarred by another explosion shortly before sundown in Shurta, a neighborhood on the city’s southwestern side. A bomb placed in a parked vehicle at a market there killed 12 and wounded 35, according to the Interior Ministry official.

Mizher Abed Hanoush, a Shurta resident, said the attack took place near a Shiite house of worship, or husseiniya, now occupied by the Iraqi Army.

Mr. Hanoush said the husseiniya previously had served as the local base of the Mahdi Army militia of Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shiite cleric. It was taken over by the army in the aftermath of battles this year between Iraqi and American forces and the militia in Baghdad and the south.

Mr. Hanoush echoed concerns voiced by many Iraqis in recent weeks about the fragility of the security situation in Baghdad. “The situation is turning to the worse again, I do not know why,” he said.

Earlier, an Iraqi soldier was killed and three others were wounded when their patrol hit a roadside bomb in Mansour, a neighborhood in western Baghdad. Also, a bomb inside a vehicle exploded on a main road in the Amil neighborhood, killing the driver, the Interior Ministry official said.

Atheer Kakan contributed reporting.

Source : The New York Times

Fifty-five Zionist Companies Said to be Operating in Iraq under Assumed Names

YAKEN NEWS AGENCY, JULY 05, 2008 Published here: Tuesday, July 08, 2008, 05:08 AM

In a dispatch posted at 6:55pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that 55 “Israeli” companies were now working in Iraq under assumed names.

Yaqen reported that the Zionist firms operate in a variety of fields, including infrastructure and marketing. The Zionist Mossad secret police agency had established the Kurdish Lending Bank with its headquarters in as-Sulaymaniyah in the US-founded Kurdish separatist enclave in northern Iraq.

The report indicated that the Kurdish Lending Bank had a secret mission of purchasing vast tracts of agricultural land, oil fields, and residential areas in the vicinity of the cities of al-Mawsil and Kirkuk, both oil-rich cities in northern Iraq. The massive land purchases facilitate the effort by the US-backed Kurdish separatist Peshmergah militia to expel Arab and Turkoman residents of northern Iraq so that the oil-rich area can be annexed to the Kurdish separatist state under US and Zionist hegemony.

Meanwhile the Zionist state exports more than $300 million in goods to Iraq annually. In addition Zionist companies obtain contracts for construction projects in Iraq, thanks to help from USAID, the American agency that oversees the allocation of building contracts in Iraq.

The report indicated that one of the chief beneficiaries of the Zionist presence in Iraq has been former “Israeli” Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak who also formerly served as “Israeli” Minister of Communications.

Translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice.

Source: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m45479&s1=h1 and http://www.zionist-watch.net

“Infiltrasi” Zionis-Israel di Kawasan Iraq

Saturday, 06 September 2008 09:18

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Warga Yahudi asal Iraq ramai-ramai membeli tanah dengan harga lima kali lipat lebih mahal dari harga sebenarnya. Ada usaha “Yahudinisasi” kawasan utara Iraq

Hidayatullah.com–Sumber-sumber pemberitaan melaporkan, Zionis-Israel menaruh perhatian khusus pada kawasan utara Iraq. Koran Al-Bayyinah al-Jadidah dalam laporannya menulis, warga Zionis yang berasal dari Iraq ketika kembali ke negara mereka menaruh perhatian besar ke kawasan Kirkuk, Iraq utara. Bahkan, warga Zionis bersedia membeli tanah di kawasan tersebut dengan harga lima kali lipat lebih mahal dari harga yang sebenarnya.

Sejak dimulainya pendudukan atas Iraq, bau “infilitrasi” Zionis-Israel di negara ini terus meningkat. Basis kekuatan Zionis-Israel bermuara pada daerah utara Iraq, khususnya Kurdistan.

Berdasarkan laporan yang ada, 900 anasir Badan Intelijen Zionis-Israel (Mossad) yang berlindung di balik perusahan-perusahaan fiktif berbondong-bondong masuk ke kawasan Iraq, sejak invasi AS ke Iraq pada tanggal 9 April 2003.

Disebutkan pula, 400 orang dari anasir Mossad memilih bertempat tinggal di Kirkuk. Menurut sumber-sumber pemberitaaan, sebagian anasir tersebut adalah sekelompok warga Kurdi yang pada tahun 1996, Badan Intelijen AS (CIA) memindahkan mereka ke pulau Guam.

Ratusan warga Zionis yang berbondong-bondong mendatangi Iraq, beberapa kali, terbukti terlibat dalam aksi teror atas tokoh-tokoh politik, agama dan akademi Iraq. Bahkan aksi-aksi kekerasan di Iraq seringkali dinilai tidak pernah lepas dari peran warga Zionis di Iraq yang mempunyai hubungan dekat dengan Mossad.

Penyebarluasan friksi antarsuku dan kelompok adalah di antara aktivitas Zionis-Israel di Iraq. Hingga kini, warga Zionis dengan membentuk regu teror, telah membantai 600 ilmuwan Iraq.

Dalam laporan Kementerian Luar Negeri AS yang dirilis beberapa pekan lalu, sejumlah pejabat AS dan Iraq membantu regu-regu teror Zionis-Israel di Iraq. Berdasarkan data yang ada, terdapat seribu nama elit cendekiawan dalam daftar incaran regu teror Zionis-Israel.

Disebutkan, 350 ilmuwan nuklir dan 300 dosen Iraq yang nama mereka tercantum dalam daftar incaran regu teror Zionis, tewas secara tidak wajar.

Pendudukan atas Iraq telah memberikan peluang kepada Zionis-Israel untuk mengoptimalkan aktivitasnya di Iraq di bawah naungan militer AS. Zionis-Israel juga berupaya memenuhi sebagian kebutuhan bahan bakarnya dari minyak Iraq. Pengoperasian kembali jalur pipa Mosul-Haifa merupakan salah satu harapan Zionis-Israel. Lebih dari itu, pencarian pasar untuk penjualan barang-barang Israel juga mendorong rezim ini menaruh porsi perhatian berkali lipat ke Iraq.

Keterkucilan Zionis-Israel selama 60 tahun di tengah negara-negara Arab memaksa rezim ini menginfiltrasi Iraq. Dengan harapan dapat keluar dari keterkucilan tersebut, Zionis-Israel mengirimkan warga-warganya ke Iraq dan membeli kawasan strategis di Iraq dengan harga yang jauh lebih mahal dari harga yang sebenarnya.

Meski Rezim Zionis-Israel berupaya menginfiltrasi Iraq, tapi rakyat negeri Kisah 1001 Malam bersama bangsa Arab lainnya tetap memandang Zionis-Israel sebagai rezim penjajah. Bahkan mereka menghendaki pemboikotan atas barang-barang Israel dan memutus hubungan dengan rezim ini. [irb/cha/www.hidayatullah.com]

Keterangan: Rabbi David Lapp, Direktur JCC Association’s JWB Jewish Chaplains Council memberikan penyematan tiga rabbi Yahudi yang akan dikirim bertugas di Wilayah Iraq. [jcca]