United States News Digest
London Times: Cheney Is Running Iraq War Policy
It is Vice President Dick Cheney who is running the Iraq war policy in all its key dimensions, writes the March Times of London, in a piece by Roland Watson titled "The Servant Who Wields Power from the Shadows."
"Quietly, without fanfare, but unmistakably, Dick Cheney is rewriting the American Constitution," asserts Watson. "Nowhere in the 215-year-old document, does it mention the position of Co-President. But that is what Mr. Cheney, nominally President Bush's number two, has become.
"The war with Iraq, in its planning, execution and aftermath, is the latest chapter in that rewriting, but perhaps the most graphic yet. If this drive to topple Saddam Hussein is not the Vice President's baby alone, his claim of joint parentage is beyond dispute.
"Never has a Vice President played such a central role in an Administration, let alone in the policy that will decide its fate.... Amid the chaos of war, these are pivotal times for the taciturn Mr. Cheney."
Watson writes that Cheney "has an uncanny knack, displayed repeatedly over the past 30 years, of wielding quiet but enormous influence from the shadows."
The article concludes with Cheney's view of (his apparent puppet?) George W. Bush: "The notion that the President is a cowboy is not necessarily a bad idea. He cuts to the chase. The leaders who will set the world on a new course, deal effectively with these kinds of threats we've never faced before, will be somebody exactly like President Bush."
'F*** Saddam'Says President Bush
"F*** Saddam. We're taking him out"so said President Bush in March 2002, when he stuck his head into the office of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. This according to a new Time magazine story reported on March 23 in the online Drudge Report. The Time article, by Michael Elliott and James Carney, focusses on Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary.
McCain Getting All Arab Regimes in His Gunsights
To judge from a March 23 op ed in the Washington Post by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Senator is preparing to overthrow all Arab regimes, out of "love." McCain's column repeats no less than three times that the war is not for empire or colonization, but for liberation, not only of Iraq, but the "autocratic rulers [who] have claimed to speak for all Arabs." The "liberation" of Iraq will allow a reversal of the "economic and political devastation accomplished by Baathist national socialism, reactionary Wahhabist zealotry and implacable hatred of Israel," rants McCain. Not wanting to be accused of not naming the names, he continues: "A democratic Iraq could hasten liberalization in Persian Gulf states such as Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar," while Iraq and Syria will be overwhelmed by "democratic revolutionaries," ending "pan Arab fantasies" once and for all.
Americans are doing this, he concludes, "not for empire, not for oil, not for religion, not to shock and awe the world with our astonishing power. They fight for lovethe love of freedom, our own and all humanity's." This is our nation's "real glory."
No wonder they say McCain is nuts.
Cheney Still Insisting on Leading Role in Iraq for Golf Buddy Ahmed Chalabi
Chalabi, a banker who has lived outside Iraq for 45 years, and is on the lam from a fraud conviction in Jordan, is opposed by State Department and CIA officials, but a State official told the Washington Post that "I suspect the Vice President will push that one to the hilt." The Cheney policy is backed up by utopian fanatic Jim Hoagland in his column in the Post March 23, arguing that any effort to allow a "Vichy option"meaning bringing in anyone from within the country who may have "collaborated with Saddam Hussein's vicious occupation [!] of Iraq"must be rejected in favor of a "Free French" approach, equating Chalabi to de Gaulle!
Neo-Con New York Sun Defends Perle, Screams at His Resignation
The March 28 issue of the New York Sun, a Conrad Black/Michael Steinhardt neo-con project, was screaming how Richard Perle, "a brilliant, honest, visionary public servant, is hounded into resignation. Not over an actual conflict of interest," but due to a "calculated smear" pushed by the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., Prince Bandar (whom the Sun links to the Sept. 11 attacks because "15 of the 19 hijackers" came from Saudi Arabia) and by a "left fringe" member of CongressJohn Conyers (D-Mich).
From the language, the neo-cons are truly freaked out. The Sun's comments on Saudi Arabia: "home to hijackers, kidnapper of American children, persecutor of Christians, publisher of anti-Semitic school textbooks ... oppressor of women ... spawner of debauched ... princes...."
On Conyers, the Sun lists every single effort that he has made on behalf of the Palestinians (e.g., protesting F16 attacks on Palestinian civilian apartment buildings), and suggests he is the next Cynthia McKinney, referring to the black Democratic Congresswoman driven from office this past fall as a result of neo-con pressure.
Gore's Campaign Manager Donna Brazile Backs Bush on War
Donna Brazile, who managed Al Gore's disastrous 2000 Presidential campaign, and who has been characterized as a McCain-Lieberman mole crawling around the edges of the Congressional Black Caucus, says that she backs President Bush's war to overthrow Saddam Hussein. She says, according to the March 26 Washington Times, that she is critical of those Democrats who have criticized Bush, such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Tom Daschle, whom she accuses of playing to the anti-war movement.
Brazile is using her relationship with White House adviser Karl Rove to try to arrange a meeting between the Congressional Black Caucus and Bush. Among other things, she wants the CBC to support Bush's faith-based initiative.
In terms of Presidential candidates, Brazile says she could support Dick Gephardt, and "I could support Lieberman. Gephardt or Lieberman."
Powell Says Russian Military Supplies in Iraq Endanger Americans
Secretary of State Colin Powell told Fox-TV that military supplies from Russia present in Iraq, are endangering Americans. The Rupert Murdoch neo-con/empire press outlets are building up a big propaganda campaign against Russia, based on the reports in the Washington Post that the U.S. has charged that Russia has been supplying Iraq with sophisticated military materiel that violates the sanctions. The lead editorial in the March 25 New York Post, "Moscow Betrayal," is a rabid Cold War diatribe. An article by Israeli stringer Deborah Orin reports that Powell told Fox-TV in an interview that the U.S. has confirmed that Russian companies have provided to Iraq "the kind of equipment that will put our young men and women in harm's way." Powell also said that the Russians "had been warned" with plenty of advance notice, that they should not violate the sanctions regime by supplying prohibited items to Iraq.
Interviewed on National Public Radio March 25, Powell exaggerated that there is "widening" support for the "coalition of the willing," and argued with the reporter that the U.S. does have full authorization for occupying Iraq, under UN Resolution 1441, in order to set up a government to replace the one which is defeated. This is the case in any military operation like this one, Powell asserted.
Powell Opposes Major UN Role in Postwar Iraq
Testifying before a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee March 27, Secretary of State Colin Powell made clear the United States would oppose United Nations efforts to encroach on the decision-making powers of the coalition forces in postwar Iraq. Powell said he has discussed the matter with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Powell was asked by Rep. David Vitter (R-La.) whether there were any chance the UN would try to "grab that decision-making control from the coalition that got us there," and give it "to the very group that refused to face reality."
"I don't even see a possibility of that right now," Powell said. "There may be some that think it should go that far, but we would not support an effort as precise as the one you described."
Powell also testified that he favored having "the UN presence in the form of a special coordinator."
U.S. Pressing Russia To Cut Off Alleged Military Cooperation with Iraq
Top Administration officials came out swinging March 24 over U.S. claims to have "credible evidence" that a Russian military company supplied Iraq with equipment that jams GPS satellite signals (used to guide aircraft and missiles), and the company currently has technicians in Iraq helping operate that equipment. Such sales are prohibited under UN sanctions.
The charges, reported in the Washington Post March 23, were denied by Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov early on March 24. "Russia strictly fulfills all its international obligations and has not supplied any equipment, including military, to Iraq in violation of the sanctions regime," he said, reporting that the charges had been investigated.
That denial was rejected. Secretary of State Colin Powell called Ivanov following those remarks, and President Bush called President Vladimir Putin. At the White House briefing, Ari Fleischer said that Putin had assured Bush that he would "look into it," and when asked about Ivanov's denial, Fleischer answered: "I'm certain now, with the phone call that was made to the President, Russia will take a look at what their Russian companies are doing. That's exactly what the Foreign Minister's boss told the President of the United States he would do."
At the State Department briefing, spokesman Richard Boucher stated that the equipment "may pose a direct threat to the U.S. and coalition armed forces," and held the Russian government responsible to "interdict" the alleged activity of Russian private companies. When asked if Powell raised the possibility of U.S. bilateral sanctions against Russia, should the Russian government not act, he left the door open for that, saying, "I don't know if we've gone through the possible legal ramifications or not."
U.S. Ambassador to UN Walks Out of Security Council
John Negroponte, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, walked out of the UN Security Council March 27 after Iraq's envoy accused the U.S. and Britain of waging a "war of extermination," in addition to charging that the U.S. had already arranged in 1997 for contracts to rebuild Iraq. "I did sit through quite a long part of what he had to say, but I'd heard enough," said Negroponte, adding, "I don't accept any of the allegations." Mohammed al-Douri claimed the U.S. had even planned the carving up of Iraq before Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
"Britain and the U.S. are about to start a real war of extermination that will kill everything and destroy everything," al-Douri claimed.
CIA Covert Hit Teams Operating in Iraq
According to a p. 1 Washington Post story by Dana Priest March 29, covert assassination teams from the CIA's paramilitary division and from military special operations have been operating inside Iraq, targetting members of Saddam Hussein's inner circle. These teams of snipers are also trained in demolitions and car bombs, and, "They have reportedly killed more than a handful of individuals." Especially with difficulties in the ground war, these covert units are under pressure to "fire the silver bullet" that will kill Saddam Hussein and supposedly bring down the government, thereby bringing a quick end to the war.
Aside from the dubiousness of such a proposition, the article includes the strange fact that the U.S. government had no objection to its appearance in the press. Reports Priest: "Provided with a detailed account of the contents of this article, U.S. government officials made no request to the Post to withhold any of the story's details from publication, as they have sometimes done in other cases involving ongoing covert operations." This suggests American psychological-warfare operations are also at work.
White House May Cancel Bush Visit to Ottawa
According to the March 27 National Post of Vancouver, British Columbia, the White House may cancel President Bush's scheduled May 5 visit to Ottawa. Beth Poisson, press attaché at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, said, "President Bush is a wartime President now, and so there is some uncertainty about his schedule." The newspaper blamed "increasingly strained relations between the U.S. Administration and the Chretien government" in Canada.
There is growing concern in the White House that President Bush might be heckled by Canadian anti-war demonstrators, and get a hostile reception from Canadian parliamentarians, particularly government MPs, who have made a series of anti-American and anti-Bush remarks in recent months.
"The White House is reviewing whether it would be a productive visit. They are wondering whether it would be constructive," said one U.S. official.
Sources reportedly told the National Post that White House officials remain furious over Jean Chretien's refusal to rebuke Herb Dhaliwal, the Natural Resources Minister, for saying that Bush's decision to go to war proves he is "not a statesman."
Canadian Prime Minister Cancels Trip to Washington
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who has been criticized by the U.S. and by his domestic opposition for keeping Canada out of the Iraq war, has cancelled a trip to Washington, D.C. that was set for April. Chretien was to attend an award ceremony to honor his government's creation of 15 new national parks last year. "He felt it was not appropriate, because of the circumstances, for a leader to go there to receive a personal-achievement award," his spokeswoman Fridirique Tsai said.
The Toronto Globe and Mail of March 28 wrote that relations between Canada and the United States have been on shaky ground recently. Recent polls of Canadians have shown that the majority do not support any Canadian participation in the war in Iraq.
Senator Stevens Will Introduce Airline Aid Bill
According to Reuters wire service, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Ak.) will introduce airline aid this week, attached to the $75-billion war supplemental budget. Stevens, head of the Senate Appropriations Committee, made the announcement after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Other Republicans at the meeting said the amount would be between $1.5 billion and $3.0 billion. Stevens said the mechanism he favored would be for the government to pay the costs of some of the unfunded security mandates imposed on the airlines. The Air Transportation Association is lobbying for $4 billion. Such an amount will not have any serious effect on the approaching bankruptcies of virtually all airlines.
|