Irak 145

'''Illegal'' Execution Enrages Arabs By Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily.
BAGHDAD, Jan 2 (IPS)

The execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein carried out at the start of the Muslim festival Eid al-Adha has angered Iraqis and others across the Middle East.* Saddam Hussein was hanged on what is held to be a day of mercy and feasting in the Islamic world. It is usually celebrated with the slaughter of a lamb, which represents the innocent blood of Ishmael, who was sacrificed by his father, the prophet Abraham, to honour God. Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, the Kurdish judge who had first presided over Saddam Hussein's trial told reporters that the execution at the beginning of Eid was illegal under Iraqi law, besides violating the customs of Islam. Amin said that under Iraqi law "no verdict should be implemented during the official holidays or religious festivals." While Iraqi Shias, particularly those in the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, view the execution as a sign that Allah supports them, many Sunnis across Iraq and the Middle East now see Saddam Hussein as a great martyr. "Saddam Hussein is the greatest martyr of the century," Ahmed Hanousy, a student in Amman in Jordan told IPS. A 50 year-old man in Baghdad said "the Americans and Iranians meant to insult all Arabs by this execution." Others see the execution in all sorts of ways. Sabriya Salih, a 55-year-old man from Baghdad who was evicted from his home by Shia death squads told IPS "I am happy for this end. I have too much to worry about now, but look what a holy death Saddam received." Salih paused and added: "He died at the holiest moments of the year with pilgrims just finishing their pilgrimage ceremonies hailing "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) as if God meant to give him that glory." In official expression of anger, Libya denounced the timing of the execution and announced three days of official mourning. Eid celebrations were cancelled. The government of Saudi Arabia also condemned the timing of the execution. Many Iraqis said they were disturbed by the footage just before the execution. "They surprised us by showing the video," 40-year-old Um Sammy told IPS in Baghdad. "I was busy preparing sweets for my guests when I heard my little kids crying in terror. All the children were terrified." A nine-year-old girl from Fallujah who is a refugee in Baghdad said she cried when she saw the footage on television. "Why did they do it in Eid? Why did they put it on TV to scare us?" Later, shots of the execution taken by a witness from a mobile phone showed Saddam being taunted by his executioners in his final moments. The video has exacerbated tensions between Sunnis and Shias, who follow Islam in different ways. First broadcast by al-Jazeera Sunday, the shots recorded someone praising Muhammad Bakr al-Sadr. Al-Sadr, founder of the Shia Dawa party and an uncle of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was executed by Saddam in 1980. This, coupled with images of Saddam smiling at those taunting him from below the gallows, has evidently drawn widespread sympathy for Saddam. The Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars issued a statement condemning the execution. The Association said this was an execution carried out by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "for the Americans." The fact that those hanging Saddam praised al-Sadr is evidence that the Mehdi Army militia of Muqtada al-Sadr controls at least a large portion of Iraq's security forces. This underscores Sunni views that the security forces have been deeply infiltrated by Shia militias.'

Lees verder: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16051.htm

Mazin Qumsiyeh

'"The best jihad is when a person speaks the truth before a tyrant ruler."
The prophet Muhammad (PBUH, from authenticated Hadith)

"You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments that stand
out are the moments when you have done things for others." Henry Drummond

January 1, 2007 we spent a few hours taking turns reading the
names of the 3000 US military personnel killed in Iraq interspersed with
reading a few hundred selected names from the hundreds of thousands of
Iraqis killed.

Despite the rain, there were over 50 of us attending in New
Haven, CT. Similar events were held in hundreds of cities around the US. I
was especially touched reading names of whole families killed in Iraq. It
helps one focus on what is important and what we need to do. It could not
have been a more fitting beginning to the new year as it helps us focus our
energy and remember why we work for peace and why this war and colonial
occupation (and all wars and occupations) must stop.
If you do not want to read the following highlights of 2006, you can skip to
end for a hopeful message.

Notable highlights for 2006:
- Over 1200 Lebanese, 660 Palestinians, and 67 Israelis were killed as a
result of Israeli colonization, occupation, and greed in Lebanon and
Palestine. Tens of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian homes were
destroyed (see images of one section of Beirut before and after here (look
at areas outside of "offices of Hizballah)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14252208
The number of Palestinians killed (660) is more than three times those
killed in 2005 (197), see http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/807007.html
- A study showed that the US occupation of Iraq resulted in over 655,000
Iraqi deaths (excess deaths over expected). This ongoing genocide is larger
than that in any other place in this year.
- We reached 3000 US military personnel killed and 15,000 injured in the
illegal war on and occupation of Iraq. Hundreds of "contractors"
(privatized military/security services, aka mercenaries) were also killed.
- Jimmy Carter publishes a book that mildly uses apartheid to describe
Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and thu8s stimulated
discussion. He was criticized by many of us for failing to recognize
apartheid inside the Green line (manifest in Israel's "basic laws").
Zionists viciously attacked him in the US media. See "The Ludicrous Attacks
on Jimmy Carter's Book: Carter's Real Sin is Cutting to the Heart of the
Problem," By NORMAN FINKELSTEIN

http://www.counterpunch.org/finkelstein12282006.html
- Israel and the US under Zionist lobby influence impose a suffocating siege
of the occupied territories (using the excuse of Palestinians voting for
those they do not approve of). The siege worsens an already dire colonial
occupied economy and results in massive poverty for millions.
- The US government (under Zionist influence) vetoes a number of UN Security
Council Resolutions that try to get Israel to comply with International law.
- The genocide in Congo goes unreported and undiscussed (as is the ongoing
Iraq genocide) because of the political need to focus at what the Sudanese
government did or did not do in Darfur to stop that ongoing atrocity.
- As if any further proof is needed that US policy in Iraq is to create
sectarian violence to justify its ongoing occupation, the timing and
scripted hooded execution of Saddam Hussein will leave no doubt. Executed
on the first day of the Sunni Eid Al-Adha (the day before the Shi'a Eid) and
the way the hooded US agents spoke of Al-Sadr illustrate this was very
scripted to achieve the maximum sectarian division (unedited graphic
clandestine video of the US led execution at
http://one.revver.com/watch/130549 ). It is also instructive that he was
executed without ever being tried for the most heinous (US supported) crimes
(like the chemical attacks in Kurdish areas). He was not allowed to reveal
the extent of US complicity in the earlier crimes of his US supported
regime.
- The US government ratifies the destruction of civil liberties, implements
domestic spying without warrants, ratifies use of torture, abolishes habeas
corpus and spreads fear and ignorance. (Number of people killed by
lightening or by other trivial causes exceeds by many fold those killed by
non-state terrorism in 2006).
- Stock market goes up 16% (Exxon Mobil stock up 35%).
- Hugo Chavez re-elected by 70% of the vote and the rejection of US imposed
policies also spreads through other Latin American countries. US policies
(influenced by Zionists) also fail with Lebanon, Iran, and North Korea among
others. Right-wing candidates allied with the US lose in Spain, Italy, and
other countries.
- Boycotts, divestments, and sanctions similar to those implemented against
apartheid South Africa are now being implemented against apartheid Israel.
Dozens of groups in the west (unions, churches etc) have adopted the
Palestinian civil society call to action. A call for boycott at The World
Economics Forum in Davos generated much discussion (see
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/theworldeconomicsforumcontroversy/ and
http://www.pacbi.org/ and http://stopthewall.org/news/boycot.shtml )
- UN Civil Society Conference in September slams Israeli apartheid http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1300.shtml
These and many other stories were little covered in 2006 by the Zionist
leaning US mainstream media (they were covered in Europe and other parts of
the world). When they were covered in the US, the coverage was heavily
biased and totally distorted.
But Health Effects Need
Scrutiny

The tradition of investigative journalism seems to be dying off in favor of
sensationalism, fear mongering, and frivolity. I noted today that CNN
(which also has an Israeli lobbyist as key anchorman, ex AIPAC employee Wolf
Blitzer) is acting like the Nazi disinformation office by spreading lies and
distortions about the execution of Saddam Hussein (see this ridiculous peace
of PR): http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/02/

saddam.execution/index.html
And in equally useful news on CNN "Rolls Royce to unveil convertible"
(costing $405,000)
http://www.cnn.com/2007/AUTOS/01/01/rolls_convertible/index.html
On the other hand, Fox News today continued to provide free promos for
racist Rudy Giulliani's bid to become a US president! If you thought Bush
was bad, this guy makes Bush look like mother Teresa (he visited Israel more
times than many of the districts in NY City, he was voted by Israelis as
best presidential candidate fore Israel, he doled more money on a NY Israel
parade than on many needed services in NYC, and on and on):

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,240626,00.html
and the theater of the absurd continues.
So we ask again: What really happened to the five Israelis apprehended
briefly on 9/11/01 and why was this important story dropped? See http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fiveisraelis.html
Memories of Bethlehem by Mazin Qumsiyeh http://imeu.net/news/article003992.shtml
Yet, the internet gives us hope as people are getting more news from other
sources. Emails and websites reach millions with news stories censored in
the US media. Polls showed persistent erosion of support for wars and
occupations everywhere. Polls showed that despite the billions spent on
propaganda, psyops and more, that people are aware of the greatest dangers
in the world today (US and Israeli governments top the list in European
polls). And if you want reasons for hope in 2007, read this: "Why Hope?"
http://www.markandval.blogspot.com/
http://www.counterpunch.org/schneider12272006.html
BTW, upcoming national events
January 4 as congress opens, in Washington DC "World Can't Wait: Drive out
the Bush regime" see http://www.worldcantwait.net/
January 27, there will be a march and rally in Washington against the war.
See http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
March 17 (4th anniversary of war on Iraq). March on the Pentagon. See
http://www.internationalanswer.org/
May the new year bring you all love and peace
Mazin Qumsiyeh
http://qumsiyeh.org/
"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on
the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of
compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in
this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it
destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places
- and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this
gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this
spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in
however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future.
The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we
think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is
itself a marvelous victory." Howard Zinn (You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving
Train: A personal history of our times, p. 208)

Dave vs. Carl: The Insignificant Championship Series. Who will win?
http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwsp0070000001msn/direct/01/?

href=http://davevscarl.spaces.live.com/?icid=T001MSN38C07001

De Commerciele Massamedia 20

Opvallend was dat, op Trouw na, alle Nederlandse ochtendkranten de inmiddels overbekende beelden van het ophangen van Saddam Hoessein op hun voorpagina hadden afgedrukt. NRC.Next was zelfs een stapje verder gegaan door het dode gelaat van de dictator, hangend in de strop, groot af te beelden, kennelijk in de overtuiging daarmee hun jonge publiek, dat te weinig tijd heeft om langere teksten te lezen, op deze manier te plezieren. We mogen daaruit concluderen dat er bij de lezers van de AD, Volkskrant, en NRC.Next een grote behoefte bestaat om deze weerzinwekkende beelden te zien. Waar die behoefte op stoelt, is buitengewoon interessant om te onderzoeken. Onderhuids broeit er van alles in de geest van de beschaafde democratische en Verlichte Westerling. Elke generatie schijnt een behoefte te hebben aan een portie geweld en gruwelijkheid. In de ene cultuur meer dan in de andere. Men hoeft maar een geschiedenisboek te lezen over onze christelijke cultuur en een ieder kan weten hoe die door de eeuwen heen op geweld is gebaseerd. Dat zou tot enige bescheidenheid moeten leiden, maar niets daarvan.

Hoe het ook anders kan, toont Democracy Now, gemaakt voor mensen die wel tijd en zeker ook belangstelling hebben voor de complexiteit van het bestaan

´The Hanging of Saddam Hussein: A Roundtable Discussion on International Law, the U.S. Role, the Kurdish Response and the Media's Glossing Over of U.S. Ties to Saddam.

Democracy Now! talks to Param Preet Singh of Human Rights Watch; international law expert Richard Falk; Najmaldin Karim, President of the Washington Kurdish Institute; and Professor John Collins.

It was a grisly scene. Just after dawn Saturday, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging in Baghdad.
A video released on the internet, filmed on a cellular phone, showed men preparing to execute Hussein. As the men with Hussein argue over how best to tie the noose, others behind the cameraman begin a series of chants including, "Muqtada muqtada," a reference to the Shia cleric Muqtada al Sadr. As Saddam Hussein interrupts to mock al Sadr, the men tell him "go to hell." The jeering continues as the noose is placed around Hussein's neck. He says the testimony once, then as he is in the middle of repeating it a second time, the door below him opens and he drops to his death. Afterwards the chants continue. Hours later, the video was shown around the world, drawing massive protest.
U.S. President George Bush hailed the execution as "the end of a dark era" for Iraq. Just hours earlier, Hussein had been transferred from U.S. custody to the custody of the Iraqi government. Last week, Hussein lost his final appeal and was sentenced to death by hanging for ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite Iraqis at Dujail in 1982. Yet while many Iraqis celebrated Hussein's demise, the execution was also met with worldwide condemnation. Egypt, Libya, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and the Vatican protested the hanging. Rallies were held in India and Pakistan throughout the weekend. In the Iraqi city of Samarra Monday, Sunni demonstrators stormed the Al-Askiriya mosque carrying a mock coffin and a photograph of Hussein. Iraqi Kurds protested the timing of Hussein's death--he was killed before hearing the majority of the counts against him. Human Rights groups also criticized the execution.
Param Preet Singh, counsel for the International Justice Program of Human Rights Watch.
Najmaldin Karim, President of the Washington Kurdish Institute.
Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton University and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of more than twenty books and was a founding member of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms.
John Collins, Associate Professor of Global Studies at St. Lawrence University. author of Occupied by Memory: The Intifada Generation and the Palestinian State of Emergency and co-editor of Collateral Language: A User's Guide to America's New War.´

Lees en luister verder http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/02/1526255

National Geographic

Het januari nummer van de Nederlandse editie van National Geographic heeft een goed gedocumenteerd artikel over het gevaar dat het Amazone gebied bedreigt. Het wordt als volgt ingeleid

´De marktkrachten van de globalisering nemen bezit van het Amazonegebied, dat in rap tempo ten onder gaat. Voor natuurbeschermers is het vechten tegen de bierkaai. De afgelopen dertig jaar zijn in de strijd om land honderden doden gevallen, en talloze mensen worden met de dood bedreigd door lieden die dik verdienen aan de diefstal van grond en hout. In dit wilde Westen vol wapens, kettingzagen en bulldozers zijn overheidsinstanties vaak laks, corrupt en krachteloos. Naast veehouders en houthandelaren doen nu ook sojaboeren mee aan het landjepik, waardoor de verwoesting van de machtige Braziliaanse wildernis nog harder gaat.Wie vlees van met soja gevoerd vee eet, is mede schuldig aan de verwoesting van het Amazonegebied. Bent u het eens met deze stelling? Geef uw mening op ons forum.´

Zie http://www.nationalgeographic.nl/magazine/index.php?itemid=567

Irak 144

De International Herald Tribune bericht

´U.S. questioned Iraq on rush to hang Saddam.

BAGHDAD: With his plain pine coffin strapped into a U.S. military helicopter for a predawn journey across the desert, Saddam Hussein, the executed dictator who built a legend with his defiance of America, completed a turbulent passage into history on Sunday.
Like the helicopter trip, just about everything in the 24 hours that began with Saddam's being taken to his execution from his cell in a U.S. military detention center in the post-midnight chill of Saturday morning had a surreal and even cinematic quality.
Part of it was that the Americans, who turned him into a pariah and drove him from power, proved to be his unlikely benefactors in the face of Iraq's new Shiite rulers, who seemed bent on turning the execution and its aftermath into a new nightmare for the Sunni minority privileged under Saddam.
The journey, 180 kilometers, or 110 miles, aboard a Black Hawk helicopter, brought Saddam's body to Camp Speicher, a U.S. military base north of Tikrit named for a U.S. Navy pilot who was lost over Iraq in the first hours of the Gulf war in 1991. From there, an Iraqi convoy carried Saddam's body to Awja, the humble town beside the Tigris River that Saddam, in the chandeliered palaces that became his habitat as ruler, spoke of as emblematic of the miseries of his lonely and impoverished youth.
The U.S. role extended beyond providing the helicopter that carried Saddam home. Iraqi and U.S. officials who have discussed the intrigue and confusion that preceded the decision late on Friday to rush Saddam to the gallows have said that it was the Americans who questioned the political wisdom — and justice — of expediting the execution, in ways that required Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to override constitutional and religious precepts that might have ensured Saddam the prospect of a more dignified passage to his end.´

Lees verder http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/01/africa/web.0101iraq.php

The Empire 116

'Let's Do It Again!
Doubling Down on the Imperial Mission in 2007.
By Tom Engelhardt

Okay, folks, it's time for a year-opening sermon. And like any good sermon, this one will be based on illustrative texts, in this case from 2006, and inspirational passages plucked from them. Its goal, as in any such quest, will be to reveal a world normally hidden from us in our daily lives.
Every day, it seems, essential choices are being made in our names by our top officials, civilian and military, many of whom, as the year ended, only reaffirmed that our country is headed down an imperial path in the Middle East and elsewhere, a path based on dreams of domination and backed, above all else, by the principle of force. No matter their disagreements over the administration's Iraq catastrophe, on this, agreement has remained so widespread as to make all discussion of the basics seem beside the point. Despite recent failures on the imperial path, consideration of other paths remains almost inconceivable.
Naturally, the continual act of choosing the path we are on, and the hardly noticed Pentagonization and Homeland Securitization of our own society that goes with it are never presented to Americans as such. If no alternatives to what we are doing are ever suggested, then logic is with the doers, no matter the staggering problems on the horizon.
In fact, what we do in the world -- how, for instance, we choose to garrison the planet -- is seldom presented as a matter of choice at all. Either it's been forced on us by "them" -- the rogues, the jihadis, the madmen, the evil ones -- and so is the only path to our obvious safety (as defined by our betters in Washington); or it's so obvious that nothing needs to be done but reaffirm it. As in all Washington debates at this moment, what's truly important is simply to decide how to make that imperial path less rocky and those dreams of domination that pass for American "security" more achievable (or even, as in Iraq, less noticeably catastrophic).
End of introduction to sermon. Now to the illustrative texts and examples.
Expand the Mission
For my first text, let me take an e-letter that the college-age daughter of a friend received the other day from a Marine Corps Officer Selection Officer, inviting her to "an awesome summer training program called the Platoon Leader's Course." Think of it as Marine Corps summer camp. No uniforms ("This is not ROTC!"), but reasonable amounts of moolah. Here's some of what was on offer to her, part of a desperate military's Iraq-era appeal to citizenly duty:
"You will earn approximately $2,400 (six weeks) or $4,000 (ten weeks) plus room and board during the training. How's that for a summer job?... You will not incur any obligation to the Marine Corps even after completing the training. (You can choose whether or not to continue with the program)... Tuition assistance will be available to you after you complete training this summer. You could potentially earn $8,000 to $25,000 for school, depending on graduation date."
Imagine! The Marine Corps is willing to pay young people to go to a uniform-less summer camp to test their "leadership potential," with no commitment to the Corps necessary. Consider that; then consider what was certainly the President's only significant decision of the holiday season past -- to permanently expand the U.S. military by as many as 70,000 troops.
Now, as in some old math problem, the question is: How do you connect these two points. (Hint: Not with a straight line.)
Faced with a public shot across the bow in testimony before Congress by Army Chief of Staff Peter J. Schoomaker, who warned that the Army "will break" under present war-zone rotation needs, President Bush responded on December 19th. He brought up the "stressed" nature of the U.S. Armed Forces and, while still officially hesitating about his "way forward" in Iraq, said, "I'm inclined to believe that we do need to increase our troops -- the Army, the Marines. And I talked about this to Secretary [Robert A.] Gates, and he is going to spend some time talking to the folks in the building [the Pentagon], come back with a recommendation to me about how to proceed forward on this idea." All this was, he added, "to meet the challenges of a long-term global struggle against terrorists."
Ah… that makes things clearer.'

Lees verder: http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=152999

De Bush Bende 35

'Bush Silences a Dangerous Witness.
By Robert Parry.

Like a blue-blood version of a Mob family with global reach, the Bushes have eliminated one more key witness to the important historical events that led the U.S. military into a bloody stalemate in Iraq and pushed the Middle East to the brink of calamity.
The hanging of Saddam Hussein was supposed to be – as the New York Times observed – the “triumphal bookend” to George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. If all had gone as planned, Bush might have staged another celebration as he did after the end of “major combat,” posing under the “Mission Accomplished” banner on May 1, 2003.
But now with nearly 3,000 American soldiers killed and the Iraqi death toll exceeding 600,000 by some estimates, Bush may be forced to savor the image of Hussein dangling at the end of a rope a little more privately.
Still, Bush has done his family’s legacy a great service while also protecting secrets that could have embarrassed other senior U.S. government officials.
He has silenced a unique witness to crucial chapters of the secret history that stretched from Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979 to the alleged American-Saudi “green light” for Hussein to attack Iran in 1980, through the eight years of the Iran-Iraq War during which high-ranking U.S. intermediaries, such as Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates, allegedly helped broker supplies of war materiel for Hussein.
Hussein now won’t be around to give troublesome testimony about how he obtained the chemical and biological agents that his scientists used to produce the unconventional weapons that were deployed against Iranian forces and Iraqi civilians. He can’t give his perspective on who got the money and who facilitated the deals.
Nor will Hussein be available to give his account of the mixed messages delivered by George H.W. Bush’s ambassador April Glaspie before Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Was there another American “green light” or did Hussein just hear what he wanted to hear?
Like the climactic scene from the Mafia movie “Casino” in which nervous Mob bosses eliminate everyone who knows too much, George W. Bush has now guaranteed that there will be no public tribunal where Hussein gives testimony on these potentially devastating historical scandals, which could threaten the Bush Family legacy.
That could have happened if Hussein had been turned over to an international tribunal at the Hague as was done with other tyrants, such as Yugoslavia’s late dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Instead Bush insisted that Hussein be tried in Iraq despite the obvious fact that the Iraqi dictator would receive nothing close to a fair trial before being put to death.
Hussein's hanging followed his trial for executing 148 men and boys from the town of Dujail in 1982 after a foiled assassination attempt on Hussein and his entourage. Hussein's death effectively moots other cases that were supposed to deal with his alleged use of chemical weapons to kill Iraqi civilians and other crimes that might have exposed the U.S. role.
[For details on what Hussein might have revealed, see Robert Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege or Consortiumnews.com’s “Missing U.S.-Iraq History” or “The Secret World of Robert Gates.”]
Thrill of the Kill
Some observers think that Bush simply wanted the personal satisfaction of seeing Hussein hanged, which would not have happened if he had been sent to the Hague. As Texas governor, Bush sometimes took what appeared to be perverse pleasure at his power to execute prisoners.
In a 1999 interview with conservative writer Tucker Carlson for Talk magazine, Bush ridiculed convicted murderer Karla Faye Tucker and her unsuccessful plea to Bush to spare her life.
Asked about Karla Faye Tucker’s clemency appeal, Bush mimicked what he claimed was the condemned woman’s message to him. “With pursed lips in mock desperation, [Bush said]: ‘Please don’t kill me.’”
But a more powerful motive was always Hussein’s potential threat to the Bush Family legacy if he ever had a forum where he could offer detailed testimony about the historic events of the past several decades.
Since stepping into the White House on Jan. 20, 2001, George W. Bush has made it a top priority to conceal the history of his father’s 12 years as Vice President and President and to wrap his own presidency in a thick cloak of secrecy.
One of Bush’s first acts as President was to sign an executive order that blocked the scheduled release of historic records from his father’s years. After the 9/11 attacks, Bush expanded his secrecy mandate to grant his family the power to withhold those documents from the American public in perpetuity, passing down the authority to keep the secrets to future Bush generations.'

Lees verder: http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/2006/123006.html