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Cosmic Iguana - Voice of the Evildoers
Cosmic Iguana - Voice of the Evildoers
Ask not for whom the Iguana stalks, the Iguana stalks for you...
War, politics, religion... & other stuff you shouldn't talk about over dinner...
Dedicated to the proposition that GW Bush and Saddam Hussein are figments of our unconscious minds
Cost of the War in Iraq
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According to Amnesty International, Iraq executes "scores" of political prisoners every year, at least 31 confirmed last year. How
long would it have taken Saddam to execute the 6000+ Iraqi civilians we've killed this year? Figure it out.
Cosmic Iguana UPDATED Highlights!
Bush Deified!
Governor Arnold?
Uday & Qusay Get Medals
Aliens Find WMDs!
Republican Affective Disorder
Iraqi Looter's Festival
Ashcroft Eats Babies!
Crypto-Fascists on Parade
The Manchurian President
Tatu Terrorist Organization?
Why They Hate Us
Psychic Bubba?
Shock'N'Awe
My Inner Saddam
America as SUV
Don't Watch TV
Iraqi Baseball
Survivor: Iraq
France Attacks!
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NEW! Focus on Intelligence The Spy Game by manis2society
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*Bill "Morpheus" Bojangles
*Unnamed Iraqi Civilians
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LEAGUE OF LIBERALS
SADDAM CAUGHT..... WAR OVER..... LET'S GO HOME!
Note: Comments (sigh) working again...
Saturday, December 20, 2003
DID THE KURDS ACTUALLY CAPTURE SADDAM?
Debka.com last week claimed last week that Saddam was already a prisoner
[-*-] before the US captured him. This article from the Sunday Herald may support that:
By early Sunday – way before Saddam’s capture was being reported by the mainstream Western press – the Kurdish media ran the following news wire:
“Saddam Hussein, the former President of the Iraqi regime, was captured by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. A special intelligence unit led by Qusrat Rasul Ali, a high-ranking member of the PUK, found Saddam Hussein in the city of Tikrit, his birthplace. Qusrat’s team was accompanied by a group of US soldiers. Further details of the capture will emerge during the day; but the global Kurdish party is about to begin!”
LINK
Friday, December 19, 2003
JOSE PADILLA'S THOUGHT CRIMES
Jose Padilla's case is significant for many reasons, but one that is often ignored is that he apparently DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. He never possessed any "dirty bomb", he is accused of simply "planning" to possess one.
On what evidence that charge is made we simply do not know. His attorney may not know either, she hasn't been allowed to meet with him since two weeks after his arrest 18 months ago. Yesterday's court decision may change that if it is not reversed by the Supreme Court. But at this point the case is essentially this: that the US government may arrest a US citizen, make up a reason and hold him without trial or access to an attorney for as long as they want.
Remember the circumstances: During the week of May 25, 2002 Colleen Frawley of the Minneapolis FBI was alleging that the FBI headquarters failed to pursue evidence that could have prevented the 9-11 catastrophe. Out of nowhere, John Ashcroft interrupts his trip to France to announce that the FBI arrested a “dirty bomber”.
In fact, he had been in custody for 3 weeks without any charges being filed.
Was he guilty of that, or was he a pawn in the Administration attempt to cover up their greatest scandal?
The fact that they refused to let him meet with any attorney is suggestive of the latter. There is no imaginable security or other risk to allowing him access to a court appointed attorney. The excuse that his attorney might “tip off” the other “terrorists” can hardly be valid now after 18 months.
This case is not about Presidential ability to wage war, or about the war on terror, but about the government to pluck a US citizen off an airline or the streets and hold him incommunicado for years without charges or access to a lawyer simply because it wants to.
If the Bush Administration succeeds in their appeal, it will mean that they have the ability to arrest anyone at any time and hold them as long as they want for any reason they make up so long as it sounds scary. That is the precedent this case sets whether Jose Padilla is guilty of anything or not.
OF IRAQI MOLES AND MEN
'Gold Mine'
Saddam Hussein’s Loyalists Infiltrated U.S. Operations in Iraq
By Martha Raddatz, Dec. 18, ABCNEWS
— Agents for deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have penetrated the U.S.
command in Iraq, ABCNEWS has learned. As a result, they have the potential to undermine U.S. authority.
Among the documents found in Saddam's briefcase when he was captured last weekend was a list of names of Iraqis who have been working with the
United States — either in the Iraqi security forces or the Coalition Provisional Authority — and are feeding information to the insurgents, a U.S. official told
ABCNEWS.
"We were badly infiltrated," said the official, adding that finding the list of names is a "gold mine." [-*-]
- I've said for 3 months that Iraq had moles inside the PRC, but this news is not to be taken at face value. Saddam having a briefcase full of names of all Iraqi agents violates the most elementary notions of "need to know" operational security. More likely it is a disinformation attempt to get Iraqi moles to quit and discover who they are that way or at least to get them to pause in their activity for a while, while they try to figure out if this information is true.
Thursday, December 18, 2003
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
Albright's joke about "banking" arrests joins growing list of Bush theories [*]
More food for thought: Saddam, Uday and Qusay were known to have at least several doubles each, none of whom have been accounted for.
Isn't it possible any or all of them could have been doubles that were killed or captured?
Certainly that would account for why "Saddam" was living in such a rathole. The Baathists would know that the Americans might use doubles as real and would therefore try to hide them. But they certainly wouldn't go first class. Stashing someone underground with a pistol and a few hundred thou is about right for a double.
What about "banking" arrests, as Madeline Albright "jokes"?
"Dirty bomber" Jose Padilla (arrested weeks before) was announced in the middle of the Colleen Frawley (Minnesota FBI) denunciation of 9-11, Uday and Qusay killed during Niger uranium scandal, and Saddam captured during Halliburton overpricing scandals. Each succeded in knocking the scandals off the front page.
Coincidence? Possibly. But only if you postulate that there were so many scandals that 3 of 3 could happen at the same time as the arrests and captures. Mathematicians should have an easy time figuring out the odds on that one.
On the other hand, "banking" the operations shows a foresight that has clearly been lacking in the rest of the McWar on Terror.
What is the answer? Clearly Jose Padilla was "banked". The rest? I'm more inclined to go with the "doubles" theory.
I'm "joking" of course.
PS: Some emailed me (hey get a clue, thats what comments are for) asking what about the DNA match? My answer is THEY said they had a DNA match. They also said there were Iraqi drones with CBW ready to attack us. I rest my case....
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
EXPECT ANOTHER NORIEGA
During trial, Hussein may try to implicate Western leaders LINK
But don't get your hopes up. Noriega had the goods on Bush's dad, but look how much of that ever got out....
Iguana Vacation
The Iguana will be vacationing for the next seven days, so expect sporadic posting. I WILL try to do at least one post per day so don't go away...
McWAR ON TERROR UPDATE
Major blogger and posting problems cannot keep the Iguana from at least one Mcwar on Terror (tm) update...
Insurgents or Protesters? 18 Are Killed in Clashes with US Troops
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad, 17 December 2003
While Washington and London were still congratulating themselves on the capture of Saddam Hussein, US troops have shot dead at least 18 Iraqis in the streets of three major cities in the country.
Dramatic videotape from the city of Ramadi 75 miles west of Baghdad showed unarmed supporters of Saddam Hussein being gunned down in semi-darkness as they fled from Americans troops
link
Plus 18 Iraqis killed by a roadside bomb. Link
I'd say they are getting it from both sides. Be very afraid if the McWar on Terror comes to YOUR land!
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
MEMORY DRONES ON
It seems like another world, a parallel universe, if you will, looking back at what we were being fed a year ago about Iraq. Now (see article below),people are skeptical it really happened :
Iraq: Bush Tells Americans Saddam Is An Imminent Threat
By Andrew F. Tully, RADIO LIBERTY
...Bush said the United States and the world cannot afford to wait -- as some have suggested -- for Saddam to abandon his programs of weapons of mass destruction, as required by the United Nations under the terms of the cease-fire that ended hostilities in the 1991 Gulf War. "The longer we wait, the stronger and bolder Saddam Hussein will become. We could wait and hope that Saddam does not give weapons to terrorists or develop a nuclear weapon to blackmail the world. But I'm convinced that is a hope against all evidence," Bush said. SOURCE
Iraqi Drones May Target U.S. Cities
Monday, February 24, 2003, FOXNEWS
WASHINGTON — Iraq could be planning a chemical or biological attack on American cities through the use of remote-controlled "drone" planes equipped with GPS tracking maps, according to U.S. intelligence.
The information about Iraq's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program has caused a "real concern" among defense personnel, senior U.S. officials tell Fox News. SOURCE
Rumsfeld Describes Threat of Iraq's Drones and Bioterror
Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2003, NEWSMAX
Iraq's chemical and biological weapons are far more advanced now than during the Gulf War, and its remote-controlled planes are a threat to Americans, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned today. SOURCE
- Of course as we know now it is all moot.
LATE NIGHT JOKES
from Leno via Newsmax:
# "America’s most-wanted groundhog”, Saddam Hussein captured in Iraq over the weekend. Great job American Army! As I’m sure you know by now, he was captured in a hole under a farmhouse. Apparently he was doing the Iraqi version of "The Simple Life”.
# The rumor was that he was brutalized during the arrest. That was according to his brother, Jermaine Hussein.
# They showed video of Hussein being inspected by a doctor. And then they took a DNA sample from him. Which had to be humiliating. One day your president of the country the next day you’re being forced to give a DNA sample. And Clinton said, "tell me about it.”
# At the time of his capture, he had $750,000 in cash on him. They think he may have been trying to buy three gallons of gas from Halliburton.
# Boy, I got screwed, I paid way too much for my Christmas presents this year. I was really overcharged. I bought them all on the Halliburton store. $61 million.
# The Pentagon says that Dick Cheney’s old company Halliburton has been overcharging the government in its "no bid" contract in Iraq. Boy, how bad are you overcharging when The Pentagon notices?
source
BAD VIBES & TEXAS JUSTICE: BUSTED FOR SELLING A VIBRATOR
Woman Faces Charge for Selling Sex Toys
By ANGELA K. BROWN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
CLEBURNE, Texas (AP) - Joanne Webb intended to spice up marriages and earn extra cash by selling erotic toys.
Instead, the former fifth-grade teacher and executive board member of the Burleson Chamber of Commerce faces criminal charges and embarrassment after a police sting.
"It's ludicrous to think that the government can step into our bedrooms," said Webb, who has been married 20 years and has three children.
Webb was one of 3,000 consultants for Passion Parties, a San Francisco-based company whose representatives set up Tupperware-type parties for women who feel more comfortable buying marital aids in a private home than at an adult bookstore or on the Internet.
"We're doing a wonderful service, and we're not doing anything wrong," company President Pat Davis said.
A consultant since June and the first Passion Parties' consultant charged with obscenity in the company's 10-year history, Webb was charged with a misdemeanor under the state's obscenity law.
Adult stores sell sex toys around the law by posting signs that say "sold only as novelties." Webb didn't do that and faces up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine if convicted....
LINK
REMEMBER THE DRONES?
Senators were told Iraqi weapons could hit U.S.
Nelson said claim made during classified briefing
By John McCarthy, FLORIDA TODAY, 12/16/03
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Monday the Bush administration last year told him and other senators that Iraq not only had weapons of mass destruction, but they had the means to deliver them to East Coast cities.
Nelson, D-Tallahassee, said about 75 senators got that news during a classified briefing before last October's congressional vote authorizing the use of force to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Nelson voted in favor of using military force.
Nelson said he couldn't reveal who in the administration gave the briefing.
The White House directed questions about the matter to the Department of Defense. Defense officials had no comment on Nelson's claim.
Nelson said the senators were told Iraq had both biological and chemical weapons, notably anthrax, and it could deliver them to cities along the Eastern seaboard via unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones...
LINK
PROTECTING YOUR FREEDOM? I THINK NOT.
FTAA rally Miami Nov 20, 2003
"This is not America"
Salon.com, 12/15/03
In Miami, police unleashed unprecedented fury on demonstrators -- most of them seniors and union members. Is this how Bush's war on terror will be fought at home?
link
CNN B.S. DETECTOR CATCHES BUSH RED-HANDED
CNN attached mind reader to camera
HOW WELL IS BUSHCO DOING IN THE WAR ON TERROR? NOT WELL, APPARENTLY
U.S. Is Losing Focus on Terror Fight, Panel Says
Associated Press, Tuesday, December 16, 2003; Page A35
The effort to protect Americans from terrorism "appears to have waned" since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as both the government and its citizens worry more about the latest disaster or health crisis, a federal commission said yesterday.
In calling for the government to refocus on anti-terrorism efforts, the advisory panel also backed an independent board to make sure that efforts to monitor suspected terrorists do not infringe on Americans' civil liberties. The commission is chaired by former Virginia governor and Republican Party chairman James S. Gilmore III.
The report was the last of five by the nonpartisan panel created by Congress in 1998....
LINK
McDERMOTT AGREES SADDAM ARREST WAS TIMED TO DROWN OUT HALLIBURTON OVERPRICING SCANDAL
Wash. Congressman Questions Saddam Timing
By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer, December 16, 2003, 9:16 AM EST
WASHINGTON -- The Washington congressman who criticized President Bush while visiting Baghdad last year has questioned the timing of the capture of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., told a Seattle radio station Monday the U.S. military could have found Saddam "a long time ago if they wanted." Asked if he thought the weekend capture was timed to help Bush, McDermott chuckled and said: "Yeah. Oh, yeah."
The Democratic congressman went on to say, "There's too much by happenstance for it to be just a coincidental thing."
When interviewer Dave Ross asked again if he meant to imply the Bush administration timed the capture for political reasons, McDermott said: "I don't know that it was definitely planned on this weekend, but I know they've been in contact with people all along who knew basically where he was. It was just a matter of time till they'd find him.
"It's funny," McDermott added, "when they're having all this trouble, suddenly they have to roll out something." ...
LINK
HALLIBURTON IS STILL AT IT
Halliburton gets more work in Iraq
Tuesday 16 December 2003, AL JAZEERA, 6:11 GMT
The US military has said Vice President Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton was allocated $222 million more last week for work in Iraq, at the same time as a Pentagon audit found the firm may have overbilled for some services there.
Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root has now clocked up $2.26 billion under its March no-bid contract with the US Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild Iraq's oil sector.
LINK
WHOOPS, THEY'RE SNEAKING THROUGH PATRIOT II
Global Research Via WRH:
While CNN and other media outlets are rejoicing because of the capture of Saddam Hussein, Bush again introduced new legislation last Saturday which increased the federal powers to investigate and reduces the privacy rights of American citizens.
link
- I should point out that Saturday is ordinarily the day you do something you don't want alot of press about (since the Sunday paper is already printed) and especially if you know Saddam's arrest is imminent.
NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE PUBLISHES DOCUMENTATION OF US SUPPORT OF SADDAM IN 80s
Its all there. Rumsfeld's trip to Baghdad, aid to Iraq so the regime "won't collapse", secret and illegal weapons shipments to Iraq, knowledge of its use of chemical weapons, etc.
The report concludes:
The current Bush administration discusses Iraq in starkly moralistic terms to further its goal of persuading a skeptical world that a preemptive and premeditated attack on Iraq could and should be supported as a "just war." The documents included in this briefing book reflect the realpolitik that determined this country's policies during the years when Iraq was actually employing chemical weapons. Actual rather than rhetorical opposition to such use was evidently not perceived to serve U.S. interests; instead, the Reagan administration did not deviate from its determination that Iraq was to serve as the instrument to prevent an Iranian victory. Chemical warfare was viewed as a potentially embarrassing public relations problem that complicated efforts to provide assistance. The Iraqi government's repressive internal policies, though well known to the U.S. government at the time, did not figure at all in the presidential directives that established U.S. policy toward the Iran-Iraq war. The U.S. was concerned with its ability to project military force in the Middle East, and to keep the oil flowing.
link
Joe Bob Iguana sez, check it out!
TUESDAY McWAR ON TERROR (tm) ROUND-UP
3 protestors killed in Ramadi, and crowds overran the mayor's office in Fallujah (link) after police ran off, US Troops Kill 11 Iraqis in Samarra Gunfight, 8 police were killed in the outskirts of Baghdad, the day after 17 were killed in Khalidiyah. The high in Baghdad was 64 degrees and the low was 53.
McWar on Terror (tm) is Cosmic Iguana's way of saying the BUSHCO war on terror is as real as Worldcom stock.
Monday, December 15, 2003
SCARE TACTIC OR PROPHECY? NEWSWEEK PREDICTS NEW TOTAL INTERNET CONTROLS
A Net of Control
Unthinkable: How the Internet could become a tool of corporate and government power, based on updates now in the works
By Steven Levy, Newsweek International
Picture, if you will, an information infrastructure that encourages censorship, surveillance and suppression of the creative impulse. Where anonymity is outlawed and every penny spent is accounted for. Where the powers that be can smother subversive (or economically competitive) ideas in the cradle, and no one can publish even a laundry list without the imprimatur of Big Brother. Some prognosticators are saying that such a construct is nearly inevitable. And this infrastructure is none other than the former paradise of rebels and free-speechers: the Internet....
...In September Walker posted his fears in a 28,000-word Web document called the Digital Imprimatur. The name refers to his belief that it’s possible that nothing would be allowed to even appear on the Internet without having a proper technical authorization.
How could the freedom genie be shoved back into the bottle? Basically, it’s part of a huge effort to transform the Net from an arena where anyone can anonymously participate to a sign-in affair where tamperproof “digital certificates” identify who you are. The advantages of such a system are clear: it would eliminate identity theft and enable small, secure electronic “microtransactions,” long a dream of Internet commerce pioneers. (Another bonus: arrivederci, unwelcome spam.) A concurrent step would be the adoption of “trusted computing,” a system by which not only people but computer programs would be stamped with identifying marks. Those would link with certificates that determine whether programs are uncorrupted and cleared to run on your computer.
The best-known implementation of this scheme is the work in progress at Microsoft known as Next Generation Secure Computing Base (formerly called Palladium). It will be part of Longhorn, the next big Windows version, out in 2006. Intel and AMD are onboard to create special secure chips that would make all computers sold after that point secure. No more viruses! And the addition of “digital rights management” to movies, music and even documents created by individuals (such protections are already built into the recently released version of Microsoft Office) would use the secure system to make sure that no one can access or, potentially, even post anything without permission....
MORE
WAS SADDAM ALREADY A PRISONER?
Indications Saddam Was Not in Hiding But a Captive
DEBKAfile Special Report, December 14, 2003, 6:55 PM (GMT+02:00)
...After his last audiotaped message was delivered and aired over al Arabiya TV on Sunday November 16, on the occasion of Ramadan, Saddam was seized, possibly with the connivance of his own men, and held in that hole in Adwar for three weeks or more, which would have accounted for his appearance and condition. Meanwhile, his captors bargained for the $25 m prize the Americans promised for information leading to his capture alive or dead. The negotiations were mediated by Jalal Talabani’s Kurdish PUK militia.
These circumstances would explain the ex-ruler’s docility – described by Lt.Gen. Ricardo Sanchez as “resignation” – in the face of his capture by US forces. He must have regarded them as his rescuers and would have greeted them with relief.
From Gen. Sanchez’s evasive answers to questions on the $25m bounty, it may be inferred that the Americans and Kurds took advantage of the negotiations with Saddam’s abductors to move in close and capture him on their own account...
...His capture had become a matter of national pride for the Americans. No kudos would have been attached to his handover by a local gang of bounty-seekers or criminals. The country would have been swept anew with rumors that the big hero Saddam was again betrayed by the people he trusted, just as in the war.... MORE
- The possibility that Saddam was being negotiated for is supported by this article from December 3, 2003:
LaHood: Hussein's capture imminent
Pantagraph, 12/03/03
BLOOMINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood held his thumb and forefinger slightly apart and said, "We're this close" to catching Saddam Hussein.
Once that's accomplished, Iraqi resistance will fall apart, said the five-term Republican congressman from Peoria who serves on the House Intelligence Committee.
A member of The Pantagraph editorial board -- not really expecting an answer -- asked LaHood for more details, saying, "Do you know something we don't?"
"Yes I do," replied LaHood.... link
FREEDOM OF SPEECH, ASSEMBLY NOT ALLOWED IN TIKRIT
U.S. Troops Disperse Pro-Saddam Protest in Tikrit
Mon December 15, 2003 04:45 AM ET
TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers Monday used batons to break up a demonstration in Tikrit to protest against the capture of Saddam Hussein near his hometown, witnesses said.
Chanting "We sacrifice our blood and souls for you Saddam," scores of people gathered outside Tikrit university to denounce Saturday's arrest of Saddam, who was born and captured near the town.
"God is Greatest, America is the enemy of all peoples," they shouted with their fists raised.
Shortly afterwards U.S. soldiers charged the protest, beating and arresting some protesters, the witnesses said.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military. LINK
- As WRH comments: "Bringing Democracy to Iraq" does not mean clubbing people who do not agree with the occupation forces. I guess we .... hate their freedom?
US VOTES PRO-WMDs
173 to 1
MATT BIVENS, THE NATION, 12/12/2003 @ 5:27pm
It was barely noted in the media, but this week the UN General Assembly voted on a series of resolutions on disarmament and security. And as the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy reports, "The United States consistently voted against the most important resolutions on nuclear and space disarmament."
The vote for bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty into force was 173 yeas against one truculent American nay.
We long ago signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty -- the treaty we roll up and use to smack the noses of places like Iran when they seek nuclear weapons -- and Article Six of the NPT requires us to work toward eliminating our own nuclear weapons stocks. Yet a Japan-sponsored resolution calling for all states to keep their word on this point was approved with 164 yeas against 2 nays -- with the United States and India opposing.
A resolution calling for negotiations to prevent nuclear weapons in space was adopted by a vote of 174 to zero. There were four abstentions: The United States and three client states, Israel, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. (Those three may object to such a dismissive characterization -- but when a place like Micronesia implies it can't countenance any roadblocks in its inexorable march to domination of outer space, then I'm sorry but the client-state shoe fits.)...
LINK
NEDRA PICKLER MEET SADDAM HUSSEIN
As most serious denizens of the blogosphere know, today [Dec 15] is Nedra Pickler Day, in honor of the AP reporter who does so much to export Fox-style reporting to the rest of the media, mostly by undermining Democrats statements by strange non-sequiters. But the sword can cut both ways.
How about this: [Baghdad] Saddam Hussein was captured yesterday, according to Coalition forces. They neglected to mention that Saddam did not have Weapons of mass destruction, nor help Osama Bin Laden, nor are they actually even a coalition, since the US calls all the shots.
- Hmm, that actually is pretty good.... I guess we know why Nedra writes like that, she actually thinks that Democrats are guilty of the same reality warping that gives Republicans such a good name...
HEY, WHAT HAPPENED TO HALLIBURTON?
Friday it was big news. They even had to change their name, and Bush was going to make them pay back their overcharges. Now... nothing....
Funny about that...
"Whether he's in a hole or in jail, it does nothing for me..."
Saddam Arrest Cheer Fades Into Iraqi Ire at U.S.
By Joseph Logan, Mon Dec 15, 5:03 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Joy at the capture of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) gave way to resentment toward Washington Monday as Iraqis confronted afresh the bloodshed, shortages and soaring prices of life under U.S. occupation.
The morning after Iraq's U.S. governor revealed the ousted strongman was a disheveled prisoner, Iraqis flooded the streets to snatch up newspapers emblazoned with photos of the man who ruled them by fear, now humbled and captive.
Many were ecstatic to see Saddam captured and hoped he would answer for his deeds but said they would not rush to thank America -- in their eyes the source of their problems since a U.S.-led coalition toppled Saddam in April.
"I hope that we get the chance to try him our way, to let everyone who suffered make him taste what he had made us taste," said Ali Hussein, 29, a stationery shop owner who said he was still dizzy with joy.
"But whether he's in a hole or in jail, it does nothing for me today, it won't feed me or protect me or send my children to school," he said.... LINK
A DEAL FOR SADDAM?
Analysis / Saddam could be offered deal
By Ze'ev Schiff, Haaretz Correspondent
ATHENS - Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein could be offered a deal in which he would give his captors information on if and how he hid weapons of mass destruction and if he smuggled some of them into Syria. In exchange, he would face life imprisonment and not be executed for war crimes, senior Iraqis attending a conference here on the future of the region have hinted... LINK
- One problem, it don't look he GOT any!
ALTERNATE REALITIES
UN Inspector: Little New in US Probe for Iraq Arms
Bush: Invasion Shows 'Clear Evidence' of Saddam's WMD Program
SADDAM GETS "EXTREME MAKEOVER"
Saddam after capture
-Now we should hook him up with Paris Hilton...
Sunday, December 14, 2003
MAYBE IT REALLY ISN'T SADDAM?
...[THE] news came Sunday at 5:14 a.m., in a call from national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. The president, a renowned early bird, was already waking up. Rice told him that the U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, had just phoned her with the news that the DNA was a match.... LINK
- Excuse me, where did they get Saddam's DNA to match it with?
Update: Someone suggested they matched it with his sons. And how did they identify THEM? By dental records, supposedly. As if Uday and Qusay went to a public dentist. Sounds suspicious to me....
"Saddam Hussein, former employee of the American federal government, was captured near a farmhouse..."
We Caught The Wrong Guy
By William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Perspective, Monday 15 December 2003
Saddam Hussein, former employee of the American federal government, was captured near a farmhouse in Tikrit in a raid performed by other employees of the American federal government. That sounds pretty deranged, right? Perhaps, but it is also accurate. The unifying thread binding together everyone assembled at that Tikrit farmhouse is the simple fact that all of them – the soldiers as well as Hussein – have received pay from the United States for services rendered.
It is no small irony that Hussein, the Butcher of Baghdad, the monster under your bed lo these last twelve years, was paid probably ten thousand times more during his time as an American employee than the soldiers who caught him on Saturday night. The boys in the Reagan White House were generous with your tax dollars, and Hussein was a recipient of their largesse for the better part of a decade.... MORE
SADDAM HUSSEIN: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY
"Saddam Hussein the captive is talkative and being cooperative," said Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the top US commander in Iraq. ...
.... But Adnan Pachachi, who sits on Iraq's US-installed Governing Council, said Saddam showed no remorse when council members met with him to identify the ex-president after his capture.
"We found him obviously tired and haggard but he was unrepentant and even defiant," Pachachi told a press conference in Baghdad. "He told us he was a just and firm ruler." LINK
-OK, so which is it?
New Blogs to Check out:
#1- Clone cone's: What is the Point?
#2 - KIck the Leftist's: Big Corporate vs. 13 y/o girl
US CAPTURES EX-CIA AGENT SADDAM JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS AND WAR-CRIMES TRIALS
In another startling coincidence, US occupation forces captured Saddam Hussein just outside Tikrit just as preparations for a war crimes trial were completed in Baghdad. Earlier in the year, Saddam's sons were killed the very week the Niger uranium scandal dominated the news and threatened the Bush Administration.
"We're extremely pleased," exulted US Viceroy for Iraq Paul Bremer, "We were hoping we wouldn't have to go into an election year with Saddam still at large and now we don't. Plus that Halliburton stink was starting to really heat up..."
On a more serious note, I reprint the following:
Exclusive: Saddam key in early CIA plot
By Richard Sale, UPI Intelligence Correspondent, published 4/10/2003 7:30 PM
U.S. forces in Baghdad might now be searching high and low for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but in the past Saddam was seen by U.S. intelligence services as a bulwark of anti-communism and they used him as their instrument for more than 40 years, according to former U.S. intelligence diplomats and intelligence officials.
United Press International has interviewed almost a dozen former U.S. diplomats, British scholars and former U.S. intelligence officials to piece together the following account. The CIA declined to comment on the report.
While many have thought that Saddam first became involved with U.S. intelligence agencies at the start of the September 1980 Iran-Iraq war, his first contacts with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim.... link
-Maybe Saddam can get time off for services rendered.
Cosmic Iguana - Voice of the Evildoers
Ask not for whom the Iguana stalks, the Iguana stalks for you...
War, politics, religion... & other stuff you shouldn't talk about over dinner...
Dedicated to the proposition that GW Bush and Saddam Hussein are figments of our unconscious minds
Cost of the War in Iraq
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According to Amnesty International, Iraq executes "scores" of political prisoners every year, at least 31 confirmed last year. How long would it have taken Saddam to execute the 6000+ Iraqi civilians we've killed this year? Figure it out.
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LEAGUE OF LIBERALS
SADDAM CAUGHT..... WAR OVER..... LET'S GO HOME!
Note: Comments (sigh) working again...
Saturday, December 20, 2003
LINK
DID THE KURDS ACTUALLY CAPTURE SADDAM?
Debka.com last week claimed last week that Saddam was already a prisoner
[-*-] before the US captured him. This article from the Sunday Herald may support that:
By early Sunday – way before Saddam’s capture was being reported by the mainstream Western press – the Kurdish media ran the following news wire:
“Saddam Hussein, the former President of the Iraqi regime, was captured by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. A special intelligence unit led by Qusrat Rasul Ali, a high-ranking member of the PUK, found Saddam Hussein in the city of Tikrit, his birthplace. Qusrat’s team was accompanied by a group of US soldiers. Further details of the capture will emerge during the day; but the global Kurdish party is about to begin!”
Friday, December 19, 2003
JOSE PADILLA'S THOUGHT CRIMES
Jose Padilla's case is significant for many reasons, but one that is often ignored is that he apparently DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. He never possessed any "dirty bomb", he is accused of simply "planning" to possess one.
On what evidence that charge is made we simply do not know. His attorney may not know either, she hasn't been allowed to meet with him since two weeks after his arrest 18 months ago. Yesterday's court decision may change that if it is not reversed by the Supreme Court. But at this point the case is essentially this: that the US government may arrest a US citizen, make up a reason and hold him without trial or access to an attorney for as long as they want.
Remember the circumstances: During the week of May 25, 2002 Colleen Frawley of the Minneapolis FBI was alleging that the FBI headquarters failed to pursue evidence that could have prevented the 9-11 catastrophe. Out of nowhere, John Ashcroft interrupts his trip to France to announce that the FBI arrested a “dirty bomber”.
In fact, he had been in custody for 3 weeks without any charges being filed.
Was he guilty of that, or was he a pawn in the Administration attempt to cover up their greatest scandal?
The fact that they refused to let him meet with any attorney is suggestive of the latter. There is no imaginable security or other risk to allowing him access to a court appointed attorney. The excuse that his attorney might “tip off” the other “terrorists” can hardly be valid now after 18 months.
This case is not about Presidential ability to wage war, or about the war on terror, but about the government to pluck a US citizen off an airline or the streets and hold him incommunicado for years without charges or access to a lawyer simply because it wants to.
If the Bush Administration succeeds in their appeal, it will mean that they have the ability to arrest anyone at any time and hold them as long as they want for any reason they make up so long as it sounds scary. That is the precedent this case sets whether Jose Padilla is guilty of anything or not.
OF IRAQI MOLES AND MEN
'Gold Mine'
Saddam Hussein’s Loyalists Infiltrated U.S. Operations in Iraq
By Martha Raddatz, Dec. 18, ABCNEWS
— Agents for deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have penetrated the U.S.
command in Iraq, ABCNEWS has learned. As a result, they have the potential to undermine U.S. authority.
Among the documents found in Saddam's briefcase when he was captured last weekend was a list of names of Iraqis who have been working with the
United States — either in the Iraqi security forces or the Coalition Provisional Authority — and are feeding information to the insurgents, a U.S. official told
ABCNEWS.
"We were badly infiltrated," said the official, adding that finding the list of names is a "gold mine." [-*-]
- I've said for 3 months that Iraq had moles inside the PRC, but this news is not to be taken at face value. Saddam having a briefcase full of names of all Iraqi agents violates the most elementary notions of "need to know" operational security. More likely it is a disinformation attempt to get Iraqi moles to quit and discover who they are that way or at least to get them to pause in their activity for a while, while they try to figure out if this information is true.
Thursday, December 18, 2003
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
Albright's joke about "banking" arrests joins growing list of Bush theories [*]
More food for thought: Saddam, Uday and Qusay were known to have at least several doubles each, none of whom have been accounted for.
Isn't it possible any or all of them could have been doubles that were killed or captured?
Certainly that would account for why "Saddam" was living in such a rathole. The Baathists would know that the Americans might use doubles as real and would therefore try to hide them. But they certainly wouldn't go first class. Stashing someone underground with a pistol and a few hundred thou is about right for a double.
What about "banking" arrests, as Madeline Albright "jokes"?
"Dirty bomber" Jose Padilla (arrested weeks before) was announced in the middle of the Colleen Frawley (Minnesota FBI) denunciation of 9-11, Uday and Qusay killed during Niger uranium scandal, and Saddam captured during Halliburton overpricing scandals. Each succeded in knocking the scandals off the front page.
Coincidence? Possibly. But only if you postulate that there were so many scandals that 3 of 3 could happen at the same time as the arrests and captures. Mathematicians should have an easy time figuring out the odds on that one.
On the other hand, "banking" the operations shows a foresight that has clearly been lacking in the rest of the McWar on Terror.
What is the answer? Clearly Jose Padilla was "banked". The rest? I'm more inclined to go with the "doubles" theory.
I'm "joking" of course.
PS: Some emailed me (hey get a clue, thats what comments are for) asking what about the DNA match? My answer is THEY said they had a DNA match. They also said there were Iraqi drones with CBW ready to attack us. I rest my case....
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
EXPECT ANOTHER NORIEGA
During trial, Hussein may try to implicate Western leaders LINK
But don't get your hopes up. Noriega had the goods on Bush's dad, but look how much of that ever got out....
Iguana Vacation
The Iguana will be vacationing for the next seven days, so expect sporadic posting. I WILL try to do at least one post per day so don't go away...
link
McWAR ON TERROR UPDATE
Major blogger and posting problems cannot keep the Iguana from at least one Mcwar on Terror (tm) update...
Insurgents or Protesters? 18 Are Killed in Clashes with US Troops
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad, 17 December 2003
While Washington and London were still congratulating themselves on the capture of Saddam Hussein, US troops have shot dead at least 18 Iraqis in the streets of three major cities in the country.
Dramatic videotape from the city of Ramadi 75 miles west of Baghdad showed unarmed supporters of Saddam Hussein being gunned down in semi-darkness as they fled from Americans troops
Plus 18 Iraqis killed by a roadside bomb. Link
I'd say they are getting it from both sides. Be very afraid if the McWar on Terror comes to YOUR land!
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
MEMORY DRONES ON
It seems like another world, a parallel universe, if you will, looking back at what we were being fed a year ago about Iraq. Now (see article below),people are skeptical it really happened :
Iraq: Bush Tells Americans Saddam Is An Imminent Threat
By Andrew F. Tully, RADIO LIBERTY
...Bush said the United States and the world cannot afford to wait -- as some have suggested -- for Saddam to abandon his programs of weapons of mass destruction, as required by the United Nations under the terms of the cease-fire that ended hostilities in the 1991 Gulf War. "The longer we wait, the stronger and bolder Saddam Hussein will become. We could wait and hope that Saddam does not give weapons to terrorists or develop a nuclear weapon to blackmail the world. But I'm convinced that is a hope against all evidence," Bush said. SOURCE
Iraqi Drones May Target U.S. Cities
Monday, February 24, 2003, FOXNEWS
WASHINGTON — Iraq could be planning a chemical or biological attack on American cities through the use of remote-controlled "drone" planes equipped with GPS tracking maps, according to U.S. intelligence.
The information about Iraq's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program has caused a "real concern" among defense personnel, senior U.S. officials tell Fox News. SOURCE
Rumsfeld Describes Threat of Iraq's Drones and Bioterror
Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2003, NEWSMAX
Iraq's chemical and biological weapons are far more advanced now than during the Gulf War, and its remote-controlled planes are a threat to Americans, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned today. SOURCE
- Of course as we know now it is all moot.
source
LATE NIGHT JOKES
from Leno via Newsmax:
# "America’s most-wanted groundhog”, Saddam Hussein captured in Iraq over the weekend. Great job American Army! As I’m sure you know by now, he was captured in a hole under a farmhouse. Apparently he was doing the Iraqi version of "The Simple Life”.
# The rumor was that he was brutalized during the arrest. That was according to his brother, Jermaine Hussein.
# They showed video of Hussein being inspected by a doctor. And then they took a DNA sample from him. Which had to be humiliating. One day your president of the country the next day you’re being forced to give a DNA sample. And Clinton said, "tell me about it.”
# At the time of his capture, he had $750,000 in cash on him. They think he may have been trying to buy three gallons of gas from Halliburton.
# Boy, I got screwed, I paid way too much for my Christmas presents this year. I was really overcharged. I bought them all on the Halliburton store. $61 million.
# The Pentagon says that Dick Cheney’s old company Halliburton has been overcharging the government in its "no bid" contract in Iraq. Boy, how bad are you overcharging when The Pentagon notices?
LINK
BAD VIBES & TEXAS JUSTICE: BUSTED FOR SELLING A VIBRATOR
Woman Faces Charge for Selling Sex Toys
By ANGELA K. BROWN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
CLEBURNE, Texas (AP) - Joanne Webb intended to spice up marriages and earn extra cash by selling erotic toys.
Instead, the former fifth-grade teacher and executive board member of the Burleson Chamber of Commerce faces criminal charges and embarrassment after a police sting.
"It's ludicrous to think that the government can step into our bedrooms," said Webb, who has been married 20 years and has three children.
Webb was one of 3,000 consultants for Passion Parties, a San Francisco-based company whose representatives set up Tupperware-type parties for women who feel more comfortable buying marital aids in a private home than at an adult bookstore or on the Internet.
"We're doing a wonderful service, and we're not doing anything wrong," company President Pat Davis said.
A consultant since June and the first Passion Parties' consultant charged with obscenity in the company's 10-year history, Webb was charged with a misdemeanor under the state's obscenity law.
Adult stores sell sex toys around the law by posting signs that say "sold only as novelties." Webb didn't do that and faces up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine if convicted....
LINK
REMEMBER THE DRONES?
Senators were told Iraqi weapons could hit U.S.
Nelson said claim made during classified briefing
By John McCarthy, FLORIDA TODAY, 12/16/03
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Monday the Bush administration last year told him and other senators that Iraq not only had weapons of mass destruction, but they had the means to deliver them to East Coast cities.
Nelson, D-Tallahassee, said about 75 senators got that news during a classified briefing before last October's congressional vote authorizing the use of force to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Nelson voted in favor of using military force.
Nelson said he couldn't reveal who in the administration gave the briefing.
The White House directed questions about the matter to the Department of Defense. Defense officials had no comment on Nelson's claim.
Nelson said the senators were told Iraq had both biological and chemical weapons, notably anthrax, and it could deliver them to cities along the Eastern seaboard via unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones...
link
PROTECTING YOUR FREEDOM? I THINK NOT.
FTAA rally Miami Nov 20, 2003
"This is not America"
Salon.com, 12/15/03
In Miami, police unleashed unprecedented fury on demonstrators -- most of them seniors and union members. Is this how Bush's war on terror will be fought at home?
CNN B.S. DETECTOR CATCHES BUSH RED-HANDED
CNN attached mind reader to camera
LINK
HOW WELL IS BUSHCO DOING IN THE WAR ON TERROR? NOT WELL, APPARENTLY
U.S. Is Losing Focus on Terror Fight, Panel Says
Associated Press, Tuesday, December 16, 2003; Page A35
The effort to protect Americans from terrorism "appears to have waned" since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as both the government and its citizens worry more about the latest disaster or health crisis, a federal commission said yesterday.
In calling for the government to refocus on anti-terrorism efforts, the advisory panel also backed an independent board to make sure that efforts to monitor suspected terrorists do not infringe on Americans' civil liberties. The commission is chaired by former Virginia governor and Republican Party chairman James S. Gilmore III.
The report was the last of five by the nonpartisan panel created by Congress in 1998....
LINK
McDERMOTT AGREES SADDAM ARREST WAS TIMED TO DROWN OUT HALLIBURTON OVERPRICING SCANDAL
Wash. Congressman Questions Saddam Timing
By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer, December 16, 2003, 9:16 AM EST
WASHINGTON -- The Washington congressman who criticized President Bush while visiting Baghdad last year has questioned the timing of the capture of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., told a Seattle radio station Monday the U.S. military could have found Saddam "a long time ago if they wanted." Asked if he thought the weekend capture was timed to help Bush, McDermott chuckled and said: "Yeah. Oh, yeah."
The Democratic congressman went on to say, "There's too much by happenstance for it to be just a coincidental thing."
When interviewer Dave Ross asked again if he meant to imply the Bush administration timed the capture for political reasons, McDermott said: "I don't know that it was definitely planned on this weekend, but I know they've been in contact with people all along who knew basically where he was. It was just a matter of time till they'd find him.
"It's funny," McDermott added, "when they're having all this trouble, suddenly they have to roll out something." ...
LINK
HALLIBURTON IS STILL AT IT
Halliburton gets more work in Iraq
Tuesday 16 December 2003, AL JAZEERA, 6:11 GMT
The US military has said Vice President Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton was allocated $222 million more last week for work in Iraq, at the same time as a Pentagon audit found the firm may have overbilled for some services there.
Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root has now clocked up $2.26 billion under its March no-bid contract with the US Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild Iraq's oil sector.
link
WHOOPS, THEY'RE SNEAKING THROUGH PATRIOT II
Global Research Via WRH:
While CNN and other media outlets are rejoicing because of the capture of Saddam Hussein, Bush again introduced new legislation last Saturday which increased the federal powers to investigate and reduces the privacy rights of American citizens.
- I should point out that Saturday is ordinarily the day you do something you don't want alot of press about (since the Sunday paper is already printed) and especially if you know Saddam's arrest is imminent.
link
NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE PUBLISHES DOCUMENTATION OF US SUPPORT OF SADDAM IN 80s
Its all there. Rumsfeld's trip to Baghdad, aid to Iraq so the regime "won't collapse", secret and illegal weapons shipments to Iraq, knowledge of its use of chemical weapons, etc.
The report concludes:
The current Bush administration discusses Iraq in starkly moralistic terms to further its goal of persuading a skeptical world that a preemptive and premeditated attack on Iraq could and should be supported as a "just war." The documents included in this briefing book reflect the realpolitik that determined this country's policies during the years when Iraq was actually employing chemical weapons. Actual rather than rhetorical opposition to such use was evidently not perceived to serve U.S. interests; instead, the Reagan administration did not deviate from its determination that Iraq was to serve as the instrument to prevent an Iranian victory. Chemical warfare was viewed as a potentially embarrassing public relations problem that complicated efforts to provide assistance. The Iraqi government's repressive internal policies, though well known to the U.S. government at the time, did not figure at all in the presidential directives that established U.S. policy toward the Iran-Iraq war. The U.S. was concerned with its ability to project military force in the Middle East, and to keep the oil flowing.
Joe Bob Iguana sez, check it out!
TUESDAY McWAR ON TERROR (tm) ROUND-UP
3 protestors killed in Ramadi, and crowds overran the mayor's office in Fallujah (link) after police ran off, US Troops Kill 11 Iraqis in Samarra Gunfight, 8 police were killed in the outskirts of Baghdad, the day after 17 were killed in Khalidiyah. The high in Baghdad was 64 degrees and the low was 53.
McWar on Terror (tm) is Cosmic Iguana's way of saying the BUSHCO war on terror is as real as Worldcom stock.
Monday, December 15, 2003
MORE
SCARE TACTIC OR PROPHECY? NEWSWEEK PREDICTS NEW TOTAL INTERNET CONTROLS
A Net of Control
Unthinkable: How the Internet could become a tool of corporate and government power, based on updates now in the works
By Steven Levy, Newsweek International
Picture, if you will, an information infrastructure that encourages censorship, surveillance and suppression of the creative impulse. Where anonymity is outlawed and every penny spent is accounted for. Where the powers that be can smother subversive (or economically competitive) ideas in the cradle, and no one can publish even a laundry list without the imprimatur of Big Brother. Some prognosticators are saying that such a construct is nearly inevitable. And this infrastructure is none other than the former paradise of rebels and free-speechers: the Internet....
...In September Walker posted his fears in a 28,000-word Web document called the Digital Imprimatur. The name refers to his belief that it’s possible that nothing would be allowed to even appear on the Internet without having a proper technical authorization.
How could the freedom genie be shoved back into the bottle? Basically, it’s part of a huge effort to transform the Net from an arena where anyone can anonymously participate to a sign-in affair where tamperproof “digital certificates” identify who you are. The advantages of such a system are clear: it would eliminate identity theft and enable small, secure electronic “microtransactions,” long a dream of Internet commerce pioneers. (Another bonus: arrivederci, unwelcome spam.) A concurrent step would be the adoption of “trusted computing,” a system by which not only people but computer programs would be stamped with identifying marks. Those would link with certificates that determine whether programs are uncorrupted and cleared to run on your computer.
The best-known implementation of this scheme is the work in progress at Microsoft known as Next Generation Secure Computing Base (formerly called Palladium). It will be part of Longhorn, the next big Windows version, out in 2006. Intel and AMD are onboard to create special secure chips that would make all computers sold after that point secure. No more viruses! And the addition of “digital rights management” to movies, music and even documents created by individuals (such protections are already built into the recently released version of Microsoft Office) would use the secure system to make sure that no one can access or, potentially, even post anything without permission....
WAS SADDAM ALREADY A PRISONER?
Indications Saddam Was Not in Hiding But a Captive
DEBKAfile Special Report, December 14, 2003, 6:55 PM (GMT+02:00)
...After his last audiotaped message was delivered and aired over al Arabiya TV on Sunday November 16, on the occasion of Ramadan, Saddam was seized, possibly with the connivance of his own men, and held in that hole in Adwar for three weeks or more, which would have accounted for his appearance and condition. Meanwhile, his captors bargained for the $25 m prize the Americans promised for information leading to his capture alive or dead. The negotiations were mediated by Jalal Talabani’s Kurdish PUK militia.
These circumstances would explain the ex-ruler’s docility – described by Lt.Gen. Ricardo Sanchez as “resignation” – in the face of his capture by US forces. He must have regarded them as his rescuers and would have greeted them with relief.
From Gen. Sanchez’s evasive answers to questions on the $25m bounty, it may be inferred that the Americans and Kurds took advantage of the negotiations with Saddam’s abductors to move in close and capture him on their own account...
...His capture had become a matter of national pride for the Americans. No kudos would have been attached to his handover by a local gang of bounty-seekers or criminals. The country would have been swept anew with rumors that the big hero Saddam was again betrayed by the people he trusted, just as in the war.... MORE
- The possibility that Saddam was being negotiated for is supported by this article from December 3, 2003:
LaHood: Hussein's capture imminent
Pantagraph, 12/03/03
BLOOMINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood held his thumb and forefinger slightly apart and said, "We're this close" to catching Saddam Hussein.
Once that's accomplished, Iraqi resistance will fall apart, said the five-term Republican congressman from Peoria who serves on the House Intelligence Committee.
A member of The Pantagraph editorial board -- not really expecting an answer -- asked LaHood for more details, saying, "Do you know something we don't?"
"Yes I do," replied LaHood.... link
FREEDOM OF SPEECH, ASSEMBLY NOT ALLOWED IN TIKRIT
U.S. Troops Disperse Pro-Saddam Protest in Tikrit
Mon December 15, 2003 04:45 AM ET
TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers Monday used batons to break up a demonstration in Tikrit to protest against the capture of Saddam Hussein near his hometown, witnesses said.
Chanting "We sacrifice our blood and souls for you Saddam," scores of people gathered outside Tikrit university to denounce Saturday's arrest of Saddam, who was born and captured near the town.
"God is Greatest, America is the enemy of all peoples," they shouted with their fists raised.
Shortly afterwards U.S. soldiers charged the protest, beating and arresting some protesters, the witnesses said.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military. LINK
- As WRH comments: "Bringing Democracy to Iraq" does not mean clubbing people who do not agree with the occupation forces. I guess we .... hate their freedom?
US VOTES PRO-WMDs
173 to 1
MATT BIVENS, THE NATION, 12/12/2003 @ 5:27pm
It was barely noted in the media, but this week the UN General Assembly voted on a series of resolutions on disarmament and security. And as the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy reports, "The United States consistently voted against the most important resolutions on nuclear and space disarmament."
The vote for bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty into force was 173 yeas against one truculent American nay.
We long ago signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty -- the treaty we roll up and use to smack the noses of places like Iran when they seek nuclear weapons -- and Article Six of the NPT requires us to work toward eliminating our own nuclear weapons stocks. Yet a Japan-sponsored resolution calling for all states to keep their word on this point was approved with 164 yeas against 2 nays -- with the United States and India opposing.
A resolution calling for negotiations to prevent nuclear weapons in space was adopted by a vote of 174 to zero. There were four abstentions: The United States and three client states, Israel, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. (Those three may object to such a dismissive characterization -- but when a place like Micronesia implies it can't countenance any roadblocks in its inexorable march to domination of outer space, then I'm sorry but the client-state shoe fits.)...
LINK
NEDRA PICKLER MEET SADDAM HUSSEIN
As most serious denizens of the blogosphere know, today [Dec 15] is Nedra Pickler Day, in honor of the AP reporter who does so much to export Fox-style reporting to the rest of the media, mostly by undermining Democrats statements by strange non-sequiters. But the sword can cut both ways.
How about this: [Baghdad] Saddam Hussein was captured yesterday, according to Coalition forces. They neglected to mention that Saddam did not have Weapons of mass destruction, nor help Osama Bin Laden, nor are they actually even a coalition, since the US calls all the shots.
- Hmm, that actually is pretty good.... I guess we know why Nedra writes like that, she actually thinks that Democrats are guilty of the same reality warping that gives Republicans such a good name...
HEY, WHAT HAPPENED TO HALLIBURTON?
Friday it was big news. They even had to change their name, and Bush was going to make them pay back their overcharges. Now... nothing....
Funny about that...
"Whether he's in a hole or in jail, it does nothing for me..."
Saddam Arrest Cheer Fades Into Iraqi Ire at U.S.
By Joseph Logan, Mon Dec 15, 5:03 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Joy at the capture of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) gave way to resentment toward Washington Monday as Iraqis confronted afresh the bloodshed, shortages and soaring prices of life under U.S. occupation.
The morning after Iraq's U.S. governor revealed the ousted strongman was a disheveled prisoner, Iraqis flooded the streets to snatch up newspapers emblazoned with photos of the man who ruled them by fear, now humbled and captive.
Many were ecstatic to see Saddam captured and hoped he would answer for his deeds but said they would not rush to thank America -- in their eyes the source of their problems since a U.S.-led coalition toppled Saddam in April.
"I hope that we get the chance to try him our way, to let everyone who suffered make him taste what he had made us taste," said Ali Hussein, 29, a stationery shop owner who said he was still dizzy with joy.
"But whether he's in a hole or in jail, it does nothing for me today, it won't feed me or protect me or send my children to school," he said.... LINK
A DEAL FOR SADDAM?
Analysis / Saddam could be offered deal
By Ze'ev Schiff, Haaretz Correspondent
ATHENS - Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein could be offered a deal in which he would give his captors information on if and how he hid weapons of mass destruction and if he smuggled some of them into Syria. In exchange, he would face life imprisonment and not be executed for war crimes, senior Iraqis attending a conference here on the future of the region have hinted... LINK
- One problem, it don't look he GOT any!
ALTERNATE REALITIES
UN Inspector: Little New in US Probe for Iraq Arms
Bush: Invasion Shows 'Clear Evidence' of Saddam's WMD Program
SADDAM GETS "EXTREME MAKEOVER"
Saddam after capture
-Now we should hook him up with Paris Hilton...
Sunday, December 14, 2003
MAYBE IT REALLY ISN'T SADDAM?
...[THE] news came Sunday at 5:14 a.m., in a call from national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. The president, a renowned early bird, was already waking up. Rice told him that the U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, had just phoned her with the news that the DNA was a match.... LINK
- Excuse me, where did they get Saddam's DNA to match it with?
Update: Someone suggested they matched it with his sons. And how did they identify THEM? By dental records, supposedly. As if Uday and Qusay went to a public dentist. Sounds suspicious to me....
"Saddam Hussein, former employee of the American federal government, was captured near a farmhouse..."
We Caught The Wrong Guy
By William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Perspective, Monday 15 December 2003
Saddam Hussein, former employee of the American federal government, was captured near a farmhouse in Tikrit in a raid performed by other employees of the American federal government. That sounds pretty deranged, right? Perhaps, but it is also accurate. The unifying thread binding together everyone assembled at that Tikrit farmhouse is the simple fact that all of them – the soldiers as well as Hussein – have received pay from the United States for services rendered.
It is no small irony that Hussein, the Butcher of Baghdad, the monster under your bed lo these last twelve years, was paid probably ten thousand times more during his time as an American employee than the soldiers who caught him on Saturday night. The boys in the Reagan White House were generous with your tax dollars, and Hussein was a recipient of their largesse for the better part of a decade.... MORE
SADDAM HUSSEIN: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY
"Saddam Hussein the captive is talkative and being cooperative," said Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the top US commander in Iraq. ...
.... But Adnan Pachachi, who sits on Iraq's US-installed Governing Council, said Saddam showed no remorse when council members met with him to identify the ex-president after his capture.
"We found him obviously tired and haggard but he was unrepentant and even defiant," Pachachi told a press conference in Baghdad. "He told us he was a just and firm ruler." LINK
-OK, so which is it?
New Blogs to Check out:
#1- Clone cone's: What is the Point?
#2 - KIck the Leftist's: Big Corporate vs. 13 y/o girl
US CAPTURES EX-CIA AGENT SADDAM JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS AND WAR-CRIMES TRIALS
In another startling coincidence, US occupation forces captured Saddam Hussein just outside Tikrit just as preparations for a war crimes trial were completed in Baghdad. Earlier in the year, Saddam's sons were killed the very week the Niger uranium scandal dominated the news and threatened the Bush Administration.
"We're extremely pleased," exulted US Viceroy for Iraq Paul Bremer, "We were hoping we wouldn't have to go into an election year with Saddam still at large and now we don't. Plus that Halliburton stink was starting to really heat up..."
On a more serious note, I reprint the following:
Exclusive: Saddam key in early CIA plot
By Richard Sale, UPI Intelligence Correspondent, published 4/10/2003 7:30 PM
U.S. forces in Baghdad might now be searching high and low for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but in the past Saddam was seen by U.S. intelligence services as a bulwark of anti-communism and they used him as their instrument for more than 40 years, according to former U.S. intelligence diplomats and intelligence officials.
United Press International has interviewed almost a dozen former U.S. diplomats, British scholars and former U.S. intelligence officials to piece together the following account. The CIA declined to comment on the report.
While many have thought that Saddam first became involved with U.S. intelligence agencies at the start of the September 1980 Iran-Iraq war, his first contacts with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim.... link
-Maybe Saddam can get time off for services rendered.