The picture painted by the US mainstream media (MSM) is one that rarely reports experiences and views from Iraqis living in Iraq and reports US Department of Defense and Neo-conservative assertions with favorable bias. Contradicting news reports and polls, even if confirmed by multiple news sources, are not reported by the MSM. This has been observed by many non-MSM journalists, for example the Sami Ramadani of the UK Guardian who was a political exile from Saddam's regime and is a senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University and even disclosed by Dan Rather of CBS.
Below is a list of Bush administration stories that the MSM was slow to debunk or still refuses to debunk. Along with the official story you will find facts that debunk the official story that first appeared in the Washington Post, the UK Guardian, BBC Online, the Zogby polling institute, CommonDreams.org and Truthout.com news services, Pentagon websites and Pacifica Radio Network interviews. Many of these stories may be new to the reader and an examination of the date the original story broke will show the delay the MSM has introduced in getting the story to you if at all.
As the picture and representations of the war in Iraq got slowly debunked in the MSM, the US reason for being in Iraq keeps changing. What is most important to note is that each picture of the war in Iraq turns out to be vastly misleading and prolongs the carnage in Iraq.
Rumsfeld (Nov 14, 2002) - "within a week, or a month Saddam could give his WMDs to al Qaeda, which could use them to attack the United States and kill 30,000 or 100,000 human beings"
Prior to invasion, Hans Blix, former UN Chief weapons inspector asked, "How can the U.S. be 100% sure Iraq has WMDs and 0% sure of where they are?"
An ABC news Iraq Uranium Imbroglio article chronicles the discovery, well before the invasion, that the uranium theories were "bogus and unrealistic."
Jun 4, 2003 - The US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz - who has already undermined Tony Blair's position over weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by describing them as a bureaucratic excuse for war - has now gone further by claiming the real motive was that Iraq is swimming in oil. The latest comments were made by Mr Wolfowitz in an address to delegates at an Asian security summit in Singapore at the weekend, and also reported today by German newspapers Der Tagesspiegel and Die Welt.
David Kay (Jan 28, 2004): CIA's chief weapons inspector, Dr. Kay, said that Iraq possessed no stockpiles of so-called weapons of mass destruction (WMD) nor related production facilities.
White House (Jan 12, 2005): ABC's Peter Jennings reports, "The Bush administration has given up the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. A final report from the Iraq Survey Group to be published soon basically contradicts nearly every prewar argument about weapons of mass destruction made by Mr. Bush and his senior officials."
June 21, 2005 - The Blair government confirms the existence and validity of the July 23, 2002 Downing Street Memos. The first of these memos states that "It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided... But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbors, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran". This document continued to state, "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" clearly showing intent for lies to support an invasion of Iraq.
Feb 3, 2006 - Second leaked memo from Bush's meeting with Blair reveals Bush and Blair did not actually believe Iraq had WMDs. Blair promised to support Bush with troops regardless.
Zarqawi had been active in the Iraqi insurgency and was finally killed by US forces on June 8, 2006. Zarqawi never used any WMDs during his insurgency attacks.
On April 23, 2006, CBS News 60 Minutes revealed that Tyler Drumheller, the former chief of the CIA's Europe division said CIA Director George Tenet attended a high-level White House meeting in the fall of 2002 that included Bush, Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice. In this meeting Tenet informed the White House that a high-level informant said Iraq "had no active weapons of mass destruction program."
Tenet believing Iraq had no WMDs so close in time to the invasion and being the Director of the CIA clearly constitutes reasonable doubt that Iraq had WMDs. However President Bush never revealed any doubt in his subsequent statements.
It is the false certainty of Bush's statements that constitutes propaganda. The 60 minutes expose shows Bush knowingly gave false statements to Congress and the American people.
These assertions are disputed by:
CIA Director George Tenet (October 2001): "Iraq is unlikely to use chemical or biological weapons unless it was attacked." A group of retired CIA officials also warned that "an invasion of Iraq would ensure overflowing recruitment centers for terrorists into the indefinite future."
Condoleezza Rice (March 22, 2004): "The president returned to the White House and called me in and said, I've learned from George Tenet that there is no evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11."
Richard Butler, the former head of UNSCOM, stated it's more than a little bit hypocritical to sanction a nation to prevent it from developing a few WMDs for "national security" when we develop thousands of times as many for the same reason; nor could Butler address the issue of why Israel is freely allowed to keep and develop many times as many WMD despite breech of security council resolutions.
Feb 2003: France, Germany and Russia to not vote for a war against Iraq in the U.N. Security Council. France is ready to veto any British or American resolution for war against Iraq.
The 2003 US military and homeland security increased by $2000 tax dollars per U.S. family. The U.S. military budget is almost 300 times the military budget of Iraq whose weapons were also purchased from NATO countries and whose army is one third what it was in the Gulf War.
June 26, 2005 - US Lieutenant-General Michael Moseley, who commanded air forces during the Iraq War, admitted in a briefing that the air war against Iraq began 9 months before the official invasion dropping more than 600 bombs on 391 Iraqi targets. Moseley stated these raids "laid the foundations" for a quick allied conquest.
As the enormity of the rout was clear by April 15, 2003, the Pentagon itself was dismissing the Iraqi forces as a paper army. In other words a weak army that, in US paper reports, was made out to be a much bigger threat than they really were.
This assertion is disputed by:
July 18, 2004 - Downing Street has admitted to The Observer that repeated claims by Tony Blair that '400,000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves' is untrue, and only about 5,000 corpses have so far been uncovered. Mass graves were common during the Iran-Iraq war in cases where the bodies could not be identified.
Sept 7, 2005 - Saddam Hussein will go on trial on October 19, along with several aides, accused of killing 143 Shi'ite villagers after a failed assassination bid at Dujail in 1982. Pres. Jalal Talabani reports that Saddam has confessed to such killings. However Saddam's defense may claim the killings were a legal response to an uprising and assassination attempt. Saddam may face other charges as investigations continue. Talabani claims Saddam will not face the death penalty if convicted.
US governments essentially called accomplices to Saddam's brutal dictatorship
Feb 6, 2003 - Commerce Dept. estimates Iraqi civilian death toll from 1990-1991 Gulf War at 165,500. Most civilians (incl. 32,195 children) died from collateral damage to medical facilities, supplies, power grid and the water system and the subsequent US-enforced sanctions. Now 50% of Iraq is children under 17.
March 7, 2003 - Chief UN inspector Hans Blix is confident Iraq under their control, citing:
Apr 29, 2002 - Bush Administration found to be behind coup attempt in Venezuela. The US had been considering a coup to overthrow the elected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, since last June, a former US intelligence officer claimed yesterday. It is also alleged that the US navy aided the abortive coup, which took place in Venezuela on April 11 with intelligence from its vessels in the Caribbean. Evidence is also emerging of US financial backing for key participants in the coup.
Scott Ritter, the former head of UNSCOM stated, "The Bush administration has no intention of disarming Iraq through inspection. Their intention is regime removal, and using weapons inspections as a way to trigger military action that will achieve regime removal."
Feb 20, 2003 - A short war with 2 years for rebuilding would cost the world $1 Trillion by 2010, a MIT study stated. The losses would come from budget deficits, loss of investments and jobs and increased oil and consumer prices.
Tony Blair (April 8, 2003) "We are the friends of the Iraq people."
George W. Bush
Donald Rumsfeld
Mar 27, 2003 (Whitehouse press release) - "News accounts today paint a vivid picture of joy and relief inside Iraq. American and coalition troops are being welcomed by smiling Iraqis."
Paul Bremer (March 2004) - "Over 200,000 Iraqis are serving in the security forces... 2500 schools rehabilitated... 3 million children vaccinated... 1 million Iraqis have phone service... Iraqi currency is up and Iraqi athletes will compete in the upcoming Olympics!"
Whitehouse
This picture of the invasion and occupation is disputed by:
Colin Powell (1992, Foreign Affairs journal): "The Gulf War was a limited-objective war. If it had not been, we would be ruling Baghdad today at unpardonable expense in terms of money, lives lost and ruined regional relationships."
White House (Feb 7, 2002): The White House declares that the United States will not apply the Geneva Conventions or grant prisoner-of-war status to captured Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters. [as reported on CNN]
Popular Mechanics (Jan 24, 2003): US plans "Shock & Awe" bombing on Iraqi cities with WMDs including 3000 cluster bombs and up to 800 cruise missiles. The US claims the bombing is highly targetted. Yet according to US Central Command, none of the 55 Most Wanted Iraqis (Saddam's henchmen) were killed in the initial bombing. 43 are in US custody; 2 were killed while trying to apprehend them in the summer of 2003; 10 are missing and presumed at large.
July 21, 2004 - The US military purchased 1,500,000,000 bullets for use in the coming year. (This amounts to 58 bullets for every Iraqi adult and child)
Jan 23, 2004 - Zogby poll shows Arab Americans increasingly against Bush. 44% voted for Bush in 2000 and only 28% planned to vote for Bush in 2004.
May 10, 2004 - The International Committee of the Red Cross, assigned to monitor compliance with the Geneva Convention, reported violations at Abu Ghraib and Baghdad Airport prisons by coalition forces. The Red Cross reports that the soldiers were hooded so as to remain anonymous and act with impunity. None of the detainees knew why they were incarcerated and were held primarily for interrogations. Military intelligence officials told Red Cross monitors that 70 to 90 percent of the captives were arrested by mistake.
Oct 2004 - The so-called "Iraqi National Guard" is being financially forced to do the "dirty work" of US occupation--including the widespread invasion of mosques and the interrogation of prisoners.
Oct 29, 2004 - The British medical journal Lancet reports that 100,000 civilians have died as a result of the war, many of them children. The journal conducted a random Iraqi survey compiling household death certificates and asking circumstances and cause of deaths. The poll estimates that 85% of all violent deaths in Iraq were generated by coalition forces and that many of these deaths are due to US air strikes.
Nov 2004 - Shortly after the Nov. 2, 2004 U.S. elections, Iraqi City of Falluja destroyed by U.S. and Allawi Forces
Nov 2004 - In addition to the artillery and the warplanes dropping 500, 1000, and 2000-pound bombs, and the murderous AC-130 Spectre gunships that can demolish a whole city block in less than a minute, the Marines had snipers criss-crossing the whole town. For weeks, Fallujah was a series of sometimes mutually inaccessible pockets, divided by the no-mans-lands of sniper fire paths. Snipers fired indiscriminately, usually at whatever moved. Of 20 people I saw come into the clinic I observed in a few hours, only five were "military-age males." I saw old women, old men, a child of 10 shot through the head; terminal, the doctors told me, although in Baghdad they might have been able to save him. This hospital closing (not the only such that I documented in Iraq) also violates the Geneva Convention.
Nov 2004 - Far from "breaking the back" of the resistance, the American assault on Fallujah has been followed by the most widespread and intense fighting since the occupation began. Mosul, Iraq's third- largest city, was briefly taken over by guerrillas and is still hotly contested, even after some of the U.S. troops from Fallujah were shifted there. The same is true of some neighborhoods in Baghdad. U.S. authorities have admitted that four of the country's 18 provinces, comprising about half of the country's area (all of the country west and north of Baghdad, Iraq except Kurdistan) and much of its population, are to a large extent out of their control.
Nov 2004 - The White House denies that it approves torture. But after US elections it acted aggressively to stop a new law that would make it illegal for the CIA to torture Iraqis. Ultimately Pres. Bush signed the bill but added a signing statement that voided the anti-torture provisions.
Jan 14, 2005 - Army reserve Spec. Graner was convicted, in military court, of 10 charges of abusing Iraqi prisoners. Graner claimed to be operating under orders. The military judge had ruled senior US officers did not need to testify about their roles in the abuse.
Feb 1, 2005 - Zarqawi-style sectarian violence is... condemned by Iraqis across the political spectrum, including supporters of the Iraqi resistance... however the US is claiming Zarqawi is representative of the resistance.
July 13, 2005 Christian Peacemaker Team in Baghdad reports that arbitrary and indefinite detentions without fair trials in Iraq continues to be a major reason for creating insurgents and suicide bombers. (as reported on Democracy Now)
October 23, 2005 (UK Ministry of Defense) - In August the UK MoD conducted a poll of Iraqis and found that 82% are "strongly opposed" to the presence of coalition troops; 67% feel less secure because of the occupation; and less than 1% believes the coalition forces are responsible for any improvement in security! 43% of Iraqis also believe conditions for peace and stability have worsened. (Reported in the Sunday UK Telegraph and commondreams.org)
November 13, 2005 (USCENTAF) - Lt. Col. Kwiatkowski: "Shifting the mechanism of the destruction of Iraq from soldiers and Marines to distant and safer air-power would be successful in several ways. It would reduce the negative publicity value of maimed American soldiers and Marines, would bring a portion of our troops home and give the Army a necessary operational break. It would increase Air Force and Naval budgets, and line defense contractor pockets. By the time we figure out that it isn't working to make oil more secure or to allow Iraqis to rebuild a stable country, the Army will have recovered and can be redeployed in force." (reported in truthout.com)
Nov 29, 2005 (Former Iraq Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi): "Human rights abuses in Iraq now are as bad, or worse, than they were when Saddam Hussein was in power."
Many journalists (editorandpublisher.com) confirm widespread evidence of Shiite Death Squads which have executed hundreds of Sunnis.
January 11, 2006 - US warplanes have carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Iraq in the past 2 years, almost daily dropping 500 lb bombs in urban heavily populated targets with suspected insurgents.
Feb 16, 2006 - Iraqi Human Rights minister Zuhair al-Chalabi called for all Iraqi inmates in US custody to be handed over to the Iraqi government. Request was dismissed by US forces.
Iraq Inc. reports that Halliburton and Bechtel are running plantation-style operations in Iraq with different pay scales based on race and nationality. They have outsourced most of their work to non-Iraqi foreigners whom they trust more than Iraqis. Iraqi unemployment rates are reported to be as high as 75%.
June 2, 2006 - Prime Minister al-Maliki called the alleged Nov. 19, 2005, Haditha revenge killing of 24 civilians by US forces a "horrible crime". P.M. Al-Maliki also said "This is a phenomenon that has become common among many of the multinational forces... no respect for citizens, smashing civilian cars and killing on a suspicion or a hunch. It's unacceptable."
June 8, 2006 - Pentagon officials confirm that Iraqis killed in town of Ishaqi were deemed "collateral damage". The Marines involved were exonnerated from any wrongdoing. According to US rules of engagement, Iraqis who are killed enroute to or while attempting to kill an insurgent are considered collateral damage and are legal killings under military law.
October 10, 2006 - With 95 percent certainty, scientists estimated that the Iraq war and its aftermath have resulted in the deaths of between 426,000 and 794,000 Iraqis so far. 75% of these deaths are male. 31% are coalition forces (mainly US forces) killing Iraqis directly or by airstrikes. 85% of the deaths occurred after the initial Shock and Awe bombing.
October 23, 2006 - 1.6m Iraqis have Fled Their Country Since the War with approx. 500,000 going to Jordan and 450,000 going to Syria. This exodus continues at a rate of 40,000 per month.
US Brig-General (April 8, 2003) - "We shoot them down like the morons they are."
Chant reportedly taught to U.S. Marines during training: "We're gonna rape, kill, pillage and burn, gonna rape, kill, pillage and burn!!" Also, "Throw some candy in the school yard, watch the children gather round. Load a belt in your M-60, mow them little bastards down!!"
Private N. Boggs (April 8, 2003) - after shooting a defenseless Iraqi girl "I did what I had to do. I don't have a big problem with it... I think they thought we wouldn't shoot kids. But we showed them we don't care."
Corporal R. Dupre (March 30, 2003) - "The Iraqis are sick people and we are the chemotherapy. I am starting to hate this country. Wait till I get hold of a friggin' Iraqi. No, I won't get hold of one. I'll just kill him."
April 29, 2005 - The US Military continues to use depleted Uranium (DU) bullets in Iraq despite strong links to the Gulf War Syndrome and the Balkan War Syndrome which still affects 1 in 3 veterans. DU is a by-product of enriching uranium for reactor fuel. DU is "depleted" only in the sense that most of its fissile U-235 isotope has been removed. What's left, mainly U-238, is a heavy metal toxin which clings to DNA and even trace amounts cause cancer and fetal abnormalities. For public safety reasons, by US law, nuclear-fuel processors have to dispose of DU in protected, regulated sites. Observers report the impact of DU bullets fling uranium-oxide fragments and dust into the air, some in the form of aerosolized particles less than a micron in diameter. The Pentagon denies these reports and insists all the DU dust falls to the ground within a 50 meter radius from the impact site and is subsequently safe for soldiers and local populations. Dr. Durakovic, a retired US Army colonel and the former head of nuclear medicine at a VA hospital in Wilmington, Delaware, reported finding DU in the urine of 18 out of 30 Desert Storm veterans.
George W. Bush
These assertions are disputed by the following:
Jay Garner (May 2003) - the retired general appointed to administer the country, said last week that the United States would not tolerate an Islamic republic in Iraq, nor would the US allow the nearly 700,000 Baath party members to be involved or represented in the new government.
May 2003: Pres. George Bush signs Executive order 13303 stating
... any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment, or other judicial process is prohibited,
and shall be deemed null and void, with respect to all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein
"In other words, if ExxonMobil or ChevronTexaco touch Iraqi oil, anything they or anyone else does with it is immune from legal proceedings in the US," explained Jim Vallette, an analyst in Washington DC. "Effectively Bush has unilaterally declared Iraqi oil to be the unassailable province of US oil corporations," Vallette added. (http://www.corpwatch.org)
Nov 12, 2003 - Gallup poll showed 43 percent of the Iraqis believed coallition forces invaded primarily "to rob Iraq's oil." While 37 percent believed the US acted to get rid of Saddam Hussein's regime, only 5 percent thought it did so "to assist the Iraq people," the poll found. The poll also showed that doubts about the U.S. motives for invading had led to doubts about Washington's commitment to creating an independent democratic government in Iraq. Most Iraqis felt the Iraqi Governing Council was totally under U.S. control.
2004-2005 Iraqi insurgents have been fighting in favor of elections and a timetable for US withdrawl. The Sunnis fear a religious Islamist government that would arise from a majority election and are demanding regional autonomy to protect themselves from it. US substitutes Iraqi democractic self-government with delayed elections and excuses for delaying transfer of power.
Feb 17, 2004 - Bremer Says He Has Final Say on Iraq's Basic Law
June 27, 2004 - U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer has issued a raft of edicts revising Iraq's legal code and has appointed at least two dozen Iraqis to government jobs with multi-year terms in an attempt to promote his concepts of governance long after the planned handover of political authority. Among the most controversial orders is the enactment of an elections law that gives a seven-member commission the power to disqualify political parties and any of the candidates they support. Bremer also has appointed Iraqis handpicked by his aides to influential positions in the interim government. He has installed inspectors-general for five-year terms in every ministry. He has formed and filled commissions to regulate communications, public broadcasting and securities markets. He named a public-integrity commissioner who will have the power to refer corrupt government officials for prosecution. "They have established a system to meddle in our affairs after transfer of political authority," said Mahmoud Othman, a member of the now defunct Governing Council.
Nov 2004 (AP) - The Allawi regime ordered the Iraqi press to obey three rules: First, they were forbidden to use any "patriotic descriptions" for the armed resistance (which is fighting to drive a foreign occupier from their country). Second, they were ordered to report that the Allawi government expressed "the ambition of most of the Iraqi people." Third, they were supposed to report that "these military operations were a liberation and did not come about until all peaceful means were attempted."
Oct 2004 - Election of US-appointed President Hamid Karzai rigged
Oct 2004 - US continues to force Iraqi Police to work "in line" with US Special Forces. In the recent rounds of fighting, huge numbers of pro-U.S. Iraqi police simply deserted in cities across Iraq (often joining the insurgents with weapons and vehicles). These Iraqi forces, and especially their officers, are now sharply targeted by the insurgent forces-- and many are deserting.
Jan 18, 2005 - According to Sabah Al Mukhtar, the London-based President of the League of Arab Lawyers, the Iraqi election is not only fatally flawed, it is illegal. Under the Vienna Convention, an occupying force has no right to change the composition of occupied territories socially, culturally, educationally or politically. "Bremer personally appointed the overseers for the election", says Al Mukhtar, thus, far from 'free and fair' and heralding Iraqi 'democracy' they are entirely engineered by Bush's man.
Jan 28, 2005 - Zogby poll finds majorities of both Sunni Arabs (82%) and Shiites (69%) favor U.S. forces withdrawing either immediately or after an elected government is in place. The poll also found that only the Kurdish Iraqis believe the U.S. will help Iraq over the next five years, the remainder believing the U.S. will hurt Iraq through more loss of life. The poll also showed that 60% of Iraqis do not want an Islamic state like Iran.
Jan 30, 2005 - Analysts noted that the Bush administration initially resisted the idea of holding elections this soon and only succumbed under pressure from Iraq's most powerful cleric, Grand Ayatollah Sistani. It was Sistani who demanded one-person, one-vote elections. The first US administrator of Iraq, Jay Garner agreed with Sistani and wanted to hold free elections in mid-2003 but was subsequently fired.
Feb 1, 2005 - George Bush and Tony Blair made heroic speeches right after the 2005 Iraqi Election implying that Iraqis had voted to approve the occupation. Those who insist that the US is desperate for an exit strategy are misreading its intentions. The facts on the ground, including the construction of massive military bases in Iraq, indicate that the US is digging in to install and back a long-term puppet regime. For this reason, the US-led presence will continue, with all that entails in terms of bloodshed and destruction.
Feb 17, 2005 - The United Iraqi Alliance party wins 140 out of 275 seats. Among other things, their party platform: a) demands a timetable for withdrawl of U.S. troops; b) a depoliticized military; c) a state guarantee of a job; d) social security and medical coverage; e) house construction and education etc. all paid for by oil revenues.
Oct 18, 2005 - Amid Sunni charges of rampant election fraud and disenfranchisement, the Shi'as and Kurds passed a new Iraqi Constitution. This constitution was written in secret (under US supervision) by the Shiite-Kurd majority over the objections of token Sunnis in the room. Voters did not have access to it prior to election and 50 of its 130 clauses were not finished prior to the election. The pillars of the new constitution are: Sharia-style Islamic courts; Federalist Shiite and Kurdish states that control nearly all Iraqi Oil revenues; The now Sunni dominated city of Kirkuk to be given to Kurds.
ABCNews/Time/BBC/Der Speigel (all pro-war news agencies)
UK Ministry of Defense (October 23, 2005) - In August the UK MoD conducted a poll of Iraqis and found that 82% are "strongly opposed" to the presence of coalition troops; 67% feel less secure because of the occupation; and less than 1% believes the coalition forces are responsible for any improvement in security! 43% of Iraqis also believe conditions for peace and stability have worsened. (Reported in the Sunday Telegraph/UK and commondreams.org)
Feb 16, 2006 - Iraqi Human Rights minister Zuhair al-Chalabi called for all Iraqi inmates in US custody to be handed over to the Iraqi government. Request was dismissed by US forces.
March 10, 2006 - The Iraqi Army consists of non-Sunnis in roughly 100 divisions of 800-900 soldiers as part of the US Army. The Iraqi Army is not an autonomous army reporting to the elected government of Iraq, nor does it have an autonomous division within the US Army.
Neo-conservative commentators at the American Enterprise Institute wrote last week what amounted to an obituary of the Bush freedom doctrine. "Bush killed his own doctrine," they said, describing the final blow as the resumption of diplomatic relations with Libya. This betrayal of Libyan democracy activists, they said, came after the US watched Egypt abrogate elections, ignored the collapse of the "Cedar Revolution" in Lebanon, abandoned imprisoned Chinese dissidents and started considering a peace treaty with Stalinist North Korea.
2001 Statement from the UN Security Council: "The US continues to fund and support the longest occupation of any country in the history of the world, namely Palestine."
This assertion is disputed by the following:
Frm. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger - "Oil is too important a commodity to be left in the hands of the Arabs."
(Pre-1991 Gulf War) Pres. G.H.W. Bush: "Our jobs, our way of life, our own freedom and the freedom of friendly countries around the world will suffer if control of the world's great oil reserves fell into the hands of that one man, Saddam Hussein."
Jan 27, 2003 - Editor, Oil and Gas Intl. - "France and Russia have been warned they must support the US military invasion and occupation of Iraq if they want access to Iraqi oilfields in a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq."
Apr 13, 2003 - All U.S. officials tied to corporate kickbacks for war, control and reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Jay Garner, etc. with ties to Bechtel, SteveDoring Services, IRG, Fluor Corp., SY Coleman, Northrop Grumman, Halliburton, DynCorp, Chevron, J.P. Morgan Chase, Qualcomm, Lucent, United Defense Industries, and The Carlyl Group.
May, 2003 - US troops are primarily focused on protecting the Iraqi Oil pipelines, the Coalition Provisional Authority and building 14 permanent military installations in Iraq.
Jun 4, 2003 - The US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz - who has already undermined Tony Blair's position over weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by describing them as a bureaucratic excuse for war - has now gone further by claiming the real motive was that Iraq is swimming in oil. The latest comments were made by Mr Wolfowitz in an address to delegates at an Asian security summit in Singapore at the weekend, and also reported today by German newspapers Der Tagesspiegel and Die Welt.
Nov 12, 2003 - Gallup poll showed 43 percent of the Iraqis believed coallition forces invaded primarily "to rob Iraq's oil." While 37 percent believed the US acted to get rid of Saddam Hussein's regime, only 5 percent thought it did so _"to assist the Iraq people," the poll found. The poll also showed that doubts about the U.S. motives for invading had led to doubts about Washington's commitment to creating an independent democratic government in Iraq. Most Iraqis felt the Iraqi Governing Council was totally under U.S. control.
Feb 18, 2005 - Hassan Juma'a Awad is general secretary of Iraq's Southern Oil Company Union and president of the Basra Oil Workers' Union. His unions are 23,000 members strong and in 10 oil and gas companies in Iraq. The union has already shown it is able to stand its ground against one of the most powerful US companies, Dick Cheney's KBR, which tried to take over their workplaces with the protection of occupation forces. In August 2003 they took a strike action that shut down all oil production for three days resulting in Paul Bremer increasing their wages from on average $35/day to $76/day minimum. They reject and will oppose all U.S. moves to privatize Iraqi oil industry and national resources and regard it as a form of neo-colonialism... an attempt to impose a permanent economic occupation to follow the military occupation.
Bush admitted that Iraqi Oil interests were involved in the occupation of Iraq when he provided a new answer to Cindy Sheehan's question, "What was the noble cause that my son died for?" On Aug 30, 2005 President Bush said: "If Zarqawi and bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks. They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions." In other words, the US war effort in Iraq must continue because control of Iraqi oil is at stake.
Nov 22, 2005 - Iraqis face the dire prospect of losing up to $200bn of the wealth of their country if an American-inspired plan to hand over development of its oil reserves to US and British multinationals comes into force next year. The new Iraqi constitution has apparently opened the way for greater foreign investment. Yesterday's report said the use of production sharing agreements (PSAs) was proposed by the US State Department before the invasion and adopted by the Coalition Provisional Authority. "The current government is fast-tracking the process. It is already negotiating contracts with oil companies in parallel with the constitutional process, elections and passage of a Petroleum Law," the report, Crude Designs, said.
January 23, 2006 - Iraqi election results: Out of 275 seats, 128 seats go to the Shiite religious bloc SCIRI, 53 seats for the Kurdish warlord parties, 44 seats for religious Sunnis, 11 seats for secular Sunnis, 25 seats for Iyad Allawi's Alliance. The election appears to focus on Kurdish and Shiite support for the new Iraqi federation of autonomous regions.
Iraq Inc. reports that US reconstruction funds are not allowed for raw materials, medical supplies, food, fertilizer or capital equipment (e.g. water pumps). For these items, JP Morgan Chase manages the "Trade Bank of Iraq" which has mortgaged $2.4 Billion in Iraq's future oil revenues and does not allow bidding by non-coalition suppliers.
Also check out Traveling Soldier's analysis and opinion and West Point Grads Against the War.
Greg Palast's latest book contains some unique reporting, see Iraqi Oil Timeline.
March 10, 2006 (Pentagon) - The Iraqi Army consists of non-Sunnis in roughly 100 divisions (of 800-900 soldiers each) within the US Army. The Iraqi Army does not have an autonomous division within the US Army.
According to Bush, the US forces have confirmed 3 out of 4 of his own criteria, namely democratic, representative and at peace with its neighbors. Bush's last criteria, "to be able to defend itself", is highly disputed as follows:
August 4, 2004 (Major Thomas Neemeyer): The only way to stomp out the insurgency of the mind would be to kill the entire population.
Oct 29, 2004 - The British medical journal Lancet reports that 100,000 civilians have died as a result of the war, many of them children. The journal conducted a random Iraqi survey compiling household death certificates and asking circumstances and cause of deaths. The poll estimates that 85% of all violent deaths in Iraq were generated by coalition forces and that many of these deaths are due to US air strikes.
Jan 28, 2005 - Zogby poll finds majorities of both Sunni Arabs (82%) and Shiites (69%) favor U.S. forces withdrawing either immediately or after an elected government is in place. The poll also found that only the Kurdish Iraqis believe the U.S. will help Iraq over the next five years, the remainder believing the U.S. will hurt Iraq through more loss of life.
March 4, 2005 - "Having foreigners around is the wrong way to approach a disgruntled population," said one senior Iraqi security forces official. "Foreign armies are a problem, not a solution. They should be kept in barracks to provide backup for the Iraqi forces, which alone should have powers of arrest and detention."
March 17, 2005 - Mr. Aljibury, once Ronald Reagan's "back-channel" to Saddam, claims that plans to sell off Iraq's oil, pushed by the US-installed Governing Council in 2003, helped instigate the insurgency and attacks on US and British occupying forces. (Greg Palast@BBCnews)
October 23, 2005 (UK Ministry of Defense) - In August the UK MoD conducted a poll of Iraqis and found that 82% are "strongly opposed" to the presence of coalition troops; 67% feel less secure because of the occupation; and less than 1% believes the coalition forces are responsible for any improvement in security! 43% of Iraqis also believe conditions for peace and stability have worsened.
March 11, 2006 - 72% of American soldiers in Iraq think the US should get out within the next year. 75% of the National Guard and Reserve units support withdrawl within 6 months! (Zogby poll)
Feb 24, 2006 - Iraq is awash with rumours about the collusion of the occupation forces and their Iraqi clients with sectarian attacks and death squads: the US is widely seen as fostering sectarian division to prevent the emergence of a united national resistance. Evidence of their involvement in Wednesday's anti-Sunni reprisals was picked up in the Times, which reported that after an armed attack on the al-Quds Sunni mosque in Baghdad the gunmen climbed back into six cars and were ushered from the scene by cheering soldiers of the US-controlled Iraqi National Guard. Live coverage of Wednesday's demonstrations on Iraqi and Arab satellite TV stations clearly showed, the popular mood has been anti-occupation rather than sectarian.
There is a contradiction in Bush's first two criteria and the US forces leaving. If Iraq was "democratic" and "representative" of their people's wishes, the Iraqi people would rather take their chances without the US forces than with the US forces and interference. Thus the US forces are required to leave in order for Iraq to achieve Bush's first two criteria.