Irak 11

Mede dankzij de verwoede pogingen van onze bondgenoten om de 'hearts and minds' van de Irakezen te winnen, hebben de Amerikanen nu een shiietisch pro-Iran bewind in Bagdad aan de macht geholpen. Het zal dan ook niemand verwonderen dat de regering Bush in de toekomst geen geld meer heeft voor de wederopbouw van Irak. Na het land te hebben verwoest, moeten anderen het weer gaan opbouwen. De Washington Post bericht: 'BAGHDAD -- The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new funds for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request going before Congress in February, officials say. The decision signals the winding down of an $18.4 billion U.S. rebuilding effort in which roughly half of the money was eaten away by the insurgency, a buildup of Iraq's criminal justice system and the investigation and trial of Saddam Hussein. Just under 20 percent of the reconstruction package remains unallocated. When the last of the $18.4 billion is spent, U.S. officials in Baghdad have made clear, other foreign donors and the fledgling Iraqi government will have to take up what authorities say is tens of billions of dollars of work yet to be done merely to bring reliable electricity, water and other services to Iraq's 26 million people.' Lees verder:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/01/AR2006010101072.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

Bush Resigns

Van collega Peter Schumacher opgestuurd gekregen. In feite is het heel vreemd te denken dat dit nooit zal gebeuren. Het zou heel normaal moeten zijn dat in een democratische rechtstaat deze als een criminele organisatie opererende bende zou worden vervolgd.

Al-Ahram

De Engelstalige weekeditie van de meest gezaghebbende Arabische krant Al-Ahram bericht: 'Imperialism and its young admirers. Democracy talk was a sham, and realists in Washington are getting worried as the vacant character of the neo-cons is exposed for what it is: adolescent, dangerous bravado. Apart from the inevitable readjustments necessitated by having become bogged down in a bloody and intractable situation in Iraq, Washington's policy towards the region remains essentially the same. Spreading democracy was not originally one of its aims, and it was not the goal of the Iraqi parliamentary elections, the Palestinian presidential elections or the Saudi municipal elections, which nonetheless have been cheered as the first tender shoots of a democratic future. Following all these elections, violence in Iraq intensified and spread in new directions. In spite of these elections, the US bore down on regimes that were targets for the policy the US secretary of state dubbed "constructive destabilisation". Meanwhile, Washington's allies in the region have become increasingly bolder in making it choose between accepting them with all their corruption and the spectre of radical political Islam.The US still acts as though it is at the beginning of a historic mission in the region, as Britain had in the wake of World War I. Bush showered Sharon with promises in an exchange of letters in April 2004 that have a strong whiff of the Balfour Declaration. Then, as surreptitiously as Sykes and Picot, the US began to draw up plans for dividing the Middle East. Although these British and French colonial architects used their pens and straightedges to carve their map onto countries, Washington is carving up countries along sectarian and ethnic lines.As awry as things have gone in Iraq, the US administration cannot bring itself to look at that disaster in any way other than how it impacts on its popularity ratings or on its allies in the area who are cringing at the prospect of the growing influence of Iran. The destruction of Iraq and the suffering of the Iraqi people acquire importance only from this perspective. Therefore, the American president sat down with his military chiefs on 28 September to ponder a way to lift the morale of the American public, and came up with the ingenious "plan for victory in Iraq". The "plan" is to enable the Iraqis to defend "the freedom they have won" by building an Iraqi army capable of that aim. Then, once the Iraqi army "stands up" America will "stand down", as the US president so eloquently put it. The "victory plan" is reaping yet more bloodshed and more destruction.' Lees verder: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/775/op201.htm Of: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11433.htm

Iran 4

Het Duitse weekblad Der Spiegel bericht: 'It's hardly news that US President George Bush refuses to rule out possible military action against Iran if Tehran continues to pursue its controversial nuclear ambitions. But in Germany, speculation is mounting that Washington is preparing to carry out air strikes against suspected Iranian nuclear sites perhaps even as soon as early 2006. German diplomats began speaking of the prospect two years ago - long before the Bush administration decided to give the European Union more time to convince Iran to abandon its ambitions, or at the very least put its civilian nuclear program under international controls. But the growing likelihood of the military option is back in the headlines in Germany thanks to a slew of stories that have run in the national media here over the holidays. The most talked about story is a Dec. 23 piece by the German news agency DDP from journalist and intelligence expert Udo Ulfkotte. The story has generated controversy not only because of its material, but also because of the reporter's past. Critics allege that Ulfkotte in his previous reporting got too close to sources at Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND. But Ulfkotte has himself noted that he has been under investigation by the government in the past (indeed, his home and offices have been searched multiple times) for allegations that he published state secrets - a charge that he claims would underscore rather than undermine the veracity of his work. According to Ulfkotte's report, "western security sources" claim that during CIA Director Porter Goss' Dec. 12 visit to Ankara, he asked Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide support for a possibile 2006 air strike against Iranian nuclear and military facilities. More specifically, Goss is said to have asked Turkey to provide unfettered exchange of intelligence that could help with a mission. DDP also reported that the governments of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman and Pakistan have been informed in recent weeks of Washington's military plans. The countries, apparently, were told that air strikes were a "possible option," but they were given no specific timeframe for the operations. Lees verder: http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,392783,00.html Of: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/010106Y.shtml Ondertussen blijven extremisten van Likud in Israel, dat zelf tenminste 150 atoombommen bezit, eisen dat Iraanse nucleaire installaties gebombardeerd worden. 'Likud members: Bomb Iran. In conference organized Saturday night by Minister Yisrael Katz, 400 Likud members vote to 'bomb nuclear reactor before it is too late'; party's central committee expected to convene Sunday to approve change in constitution initiated by Likud Chairman Netanyahu. About 400 Likud members, who took part Saturday evening in a conference organized by Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz in the town of Hod Hasharon, voted by a large majority to "bomb Iran's nuclear reactor before it is too late," in the words of Likud member and Ra'anana Deputy Mayor Uzi Cohen.' Zie: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3193102,00.html

Harper's Magazine Jaaroverzicht

Op deze kaart is in rood aangegeven welk gebied in West-Europa de meest vervuilde lucht heeft. Gemeten aan het gehalte stikstofoxide hangt boven de randstad de meest vervuilde lucht ter wereld. Paul Ford, redacteur van Harper's Magazine schrijft in zijn jaaroverzicht 2005: 'A study showed that 310,000 Europeans die from air pollution each year, and the U.N. predicted that 90 million Africans will have HIV by 2025. An international task force of scientists, politicians, and business leaders warned that the world has about 10 years before global warming becomes irreversible. The U.S. Congress officially ratified President George W. Bush's election victory after a two-hour debate over voting irregularities in Ohio. Terri Schiavo, Johnnie Cochran, Frank Perdue, Mitch Hedberg, Arthur Miller, Saul Bellow, and the pope died, as did the man who wrote the theme song to “Gidget.” An Australian tortoise named Harriet turned 175. General Motors was spending more for health care than for steel, and an increasing number of Americans were heating their homes with corn. El Salvadoran police arrested 21 people for operating a smuggling operation and seized 24 tons of contraband cheese. NASA announced that it wanted to return to the moon.' Lees verder: http://harpers.org/YearlyReview2005.html

Martelen 10

Op de bovenste foto ziet u president George Bush blij de hand schudden van Islam Karimov, sinds 1989 de machtigste man van de Centraal-Aziatische republiek Oezbekistan, eerst als 'communist,' sinds 1991 als 'democraat.' Op de foto eronder ziet u een van de doodgemartelde Oezbeekse slachtoffers van het Karimov-regime. De man, vader van vier kinderen, heeft geen vingernagels meer en is over zijn hele lichaam verbrand door gloeiendheet water. President Karimov is een bondgenoot van het Westen in de strijd tegen 'het terrorisme,' en wordt daarvoor beloond met financiele en militaire steun. Het Westen is op de hoogte van de martelpraktijken in Oezbekistan. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/12/20/german12337.htm De Britse Independent bericht: 'Ex-Envoy to Uzbekistan Goes Public on Torture. Britain's former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, has defied the Foreign Office by publishing on the internet documents providing evidence that the British Government knowingly received information extracted by torture in the "war on terror". Mr. Murray, who publicly raised the issue of the usefulness of information obtained under torture before he was forced to leave his job last year, submitted his forthcoming book, Murder in Samarkand, to the Foreign Office for clearance. But the Foreign Office demanded that he remove references to two sensitive government documents, which undermine official denials, to show that Britain had been aware it was receiving information obtained by the Uzbek authorities through torture. Rather than submit to the gagging order Mr. Murray decided to publish the material on the internet. The first document published by Mr. Murray contains the text of several telegrams that he sent to London from 2002 to 2004, warning that the information being passed on by the Uzbek security services was torture-tainted, and challenging MI6 claims that the information was nonetheless "useful". The second document is the text of a Foreign Office legal opinion which argues that the use by intelligence services of information extracted through torture is not a violation of the UN Convention Against Torture.' Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/123105C.shtml Of: http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article335678.ece En: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3944.htm, http://users.pandora.be/quarsan/craig/telegrams.pdf, http://www.bloggerheads.com/

Gelukkig 2006!!!

GELUKKIG 2006!!!

HAPPY 2006!!!