'Empire of a Devil'
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
The New York Times
April 29,2003
"Of course, we've got to reward bad behavior," one American expert said. "That's what nonproliferation is about. That's the history of it, ever since Atoms for Peace. But the country has to stay bought."
There are two alternatives to rewarding bad behavior. One is to acquiesce in the North Korean nuclear program, which would risk widespread proliferation, with terrorists buying plutonium and Japan and South Korea developing their own nuclear weapons.
A second alternative is to continue the administration's failed policy of trying to shun North Korea. Yup, this is the same policy that over the last few months led the North to revive its frozen plutonium program.

Under Uncle Sam's Thumb
The History of Washington's Occupations
By Ashley Smith
CounterPunch
April 30, 2003
Some knowledge of history gives context and sharp contrast to the altruistic language used by leaders in the US to justify military adventures and occupations.

For a further historical account of American international militarism see:

The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War
What America Says Does Not Go
by UZMA ASLAM KHAN
CounterPunch
April 15, 2003

and

The Erosion of the American Dream
It's Time to Take Action Against Our Wars on the Rest of the World
by GORE VIDAL
CounterPunch
March 14, 2003

Financial connections disclosed:
Rumsfeld and N. Korea Reactors
As a board member, what did Donald Rumsfeld know about ABB's deal to build nuclear reactors there? And why won't he talk about it?
FORTUNE
Monday, April 28, 2003
By Richard Behar

Bechtel and Osama bin Laden
THE CONTRACTORS
by Jane Mayer
The New Yorker
April 28, 2003

Where, oh where, are the WMDs?
By Molly Ivins
May 1, 2003
Here are the lines of argument advanced by the administration so far:
• Saddam did have WMDs, but in a wily plot, he poured them down a drain right before we invaded, just so he could embarrass George W. Bush.
• The WMDs are still there, but in some remote desert hiding place that we may never be able to find. "Just because we haven't found anything doesn't mean it wasn't there," one Pentagon source told the Los Angeles Times. Right.
• Saddam had WMDs, but he handed them off to the Syrians just before we came in. Or maybe it was to the Iranians.
• Well, maybe Saddam didn't have huge stores of WMDs, but he had critical blueprints, weapons parts and, most ominously, "precursor chemicals," so he could have manufactured WMDs.
• Well, maybe he didn't have WMDs ready to deliver. The Pentagon has already backtracked on the Scud missile claim.

So far, U.S. "mobile exploitation teams" and other special forces have visited 90 of the top 150 "hot" sites identified by U.S. intelligence. No wonder Hans Blix, head of the U.N. inspection team, says what he got from American intelligence was "garbage."

Rummy's War Plan was "on the cheap," but not in terms of Iraqi lives
Amnesty International
April 30, 2003
EXCERPT
"Deaths of civilian demonstrators must be investigated," says Amnesty International.
AI calls on the USA and the UK to deploy forces in sufficient numbers and with the right training and equipment to restore law and order, until Iraqi police forces can operate effectively. These latest incidents simply confirm the urgent need for police forces, not the military, to be dealing with law and order issues.


Rising Opposition to Occupation of Iraq Threatens Bush Agenda for
Restructuring the Oil-Rich Country
Interview with Mansour Farhang,
Bennington College professor of political science,
Between the Lines
by Scott Harris
May 1, 2003
Audio Link
News that the Bush administration was considering the selection of former CIA director James Woolsey as an advisor to any new U.S.-appointed Iraqi minister of information and the inclusion of the former chief executive of Shell Oil Company on an American-created council to oversee Iraq's oil industry - has done little to quell suspicion of America's motives in the country.

U.S.-BACKED MIDDLE EAST PEACE PLAN RELEASED
A DEBATE BETWEEN ELECTRONIC INTIFADA AND AIPAC
Democracy Now!
May 1, 2003
Audio Link
Under the plan, the Palestinians are required to combat violence against Israelis, adopt a new constitution, and recognize the Jewish state's right to exist in peace and security. Israel must withdraw from the Palestinian areas it has occupied since September 2000, end curfews and roadblocks, halt the expansion of Jewish settlements and dismantle illegal outposts, stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and confiscation of land, and commit to the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
The London Guardian reports the Israelis also want a say in judging the Palestinian efforts and have threatened to abandon the road map entirely if they do not get their way. The "quartet" of foreign players behind the process fear that could effectively hand a veto to the Israelis or to any suicide bomber.

Quote of the Month
"America is the empire that dare not speak its name," Niall Ferguson, the Oxford professor who wrote "Empire," told a crowd at the Council on Foreign Relations here on Monday. He believes that America is so invested in its "creation myth," breaking away from a wicked empire, that Americans will always be self-deceiving — and even self-defeating — imperialists.
"The great thing about the American empire is that so many Americans disbelieve in its existence," he said. "Ever since the annexation of Texas and invasion of the Philippines, the U.S. has systematically pursued an imperial policy.
"It's simply a suspension of disbelief by Americans. They think they're so different that when they have bases in foreign territories, it's not an empire. When they invade sovereign territory, it's not an empire."
Excerpt from Hypocrisy & Apple Pie
By MAUREEN DOWD
New York Times
April 30, 2003

Bush Administration Caught Lying, But Few Seem to Care
New York Times, editorial
by Paul Krugman
April 29,2003
EXCERPT:
Does it matter that we were misled into war? Some people say that it doesn't: we won, and the Iraqi people have been freed. But we ought to ask some hard questions, not just about Iraq, but about ourselves. First, why is our compassion so selective? In 2001 the World Health Organization, the same organization we now count on to protect us from SARS, called for a program to fight infectious diseases in poor countries, arguing that it would save the lives of millions of people every year. The U.S. share of the expenses would have been about $10 billion per year, a small fraction of what we will spend on war and occupation. Yet the Bush administration contemptuously dismissed the proposal.

Or consider one of America's first major postwar acts of diplomacy: blocking a plan to send U.N. peacekeepers to Ivory Coast (a former French colony) to enforce a truce in a vicious civil war. The U.S. complains that it will cost too much. And that must be true, we wouldn't let innocent people die just to spite the French, would we? So it seems that our deep concern for the Iraqi people doesn't extend to suffering people elsewhere. I guess it's just a matter of emphasis. A cynic might point out, however, that saving lives peacefully doesn't offer any occasion to stage a victory parade.

China tells a different version about talks-says 'North Korea will disarm if the US drops its hostile attitude'
By Benjamin Kang Lim in Beijing
29 April 2003
North Korea offered to scrap its nuclear program during talks with the United States in Beijing last week if Washington dropped its "hostile attitude.

Nuclear war risk grows as states race to acquire bomb - now it's Iran?
By Peter Popham
The Independent
29 April 2003
John Wolf, US Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Non-proliferation told a news conference on the first day of a nuclear nonproliferation conference in Geneva, that Iran has "an alarming, clandestine program." to get hold of nuclear technology. "Iran is going down the same path of denial and deception that handicapped international inspections in North Korea and Iraq," he said.

But disarmament experts said that American lack of commitment to non-proliferation was as damaging as the behavior of the proliferators.

A Game of Nuclear Chicken Anyone?
Hawks Plan to Blockade N. Korea
By Richard Wolffe
NEWSWEEK
May 5 issue
“What are they smoking?” Invasions are not "in" this week! Anyway, the gooks only have one or two nucs.

Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Missing WMD's
Where did Saddam hide those weapons, gosh darn it?

Noam Chomsky: The World After the Iraq Invasion
Talk given on April 5, 2003
Boulder, Colorado
Free Speech TV
Audio Link

More Than Three Million Congolese Dead, and No One Notices, Says IRC
by Michael Despines
AlertNet.org
April 30, 2003
If the U.S. and its armed forces are truly motivated by humanitarian causes, why aren't we saving lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo? Dark skin and no oil, we suspect.
EXCERPT: Earlier this month, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said that its studies had found that at least 3.3 million people have died in the war that has gripped the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1998, making it the deadliest documented conflict since World War II.

Interview Fallout: Inquiry to focus on Marine
Las Vegas Review-Journal
April 26, 2003
Las Vegan described how he hunted down, shot Iraqis after attack on unit.

Head of Joint Chiefs Defends Use of Cluster Bombs in Iraq
Los Angeles Times
April 26, 2003
Myers says few fell in populated areas, but reports of casualties from duds persist.

American Power Moves Beyond the Mere Super
By Gregg Easterbrook
The New York Times
April 27, 2003
EXCERPT
The American military is now the strongest the world has ever known, both in absolute terms and relative to other nations... Now only a nuclear state, like, perhaps, North Korea, has any military leverage against the (US).

Paradoxically, the runaway American victory in the conventional arms race might inspire a new round of proliferation of atomic weapons. With no hope of matching the United States plane for plane, more countries may seek atomic weapons to gain deterrence.

Fuzzy Math on Iraq
The NewYork Times
April 27, 2003
EXCERPT
The hard numbers just don't support the White House's rosy claim that once this year's American aid package of $2.5 billion is paid out, Iraq's oil sales will pay all the bills.
Oil will certainly be part of the equation. So should debt relief and aid from other countries, if Washington ever acknowledges that remaking Iraq has to be an international project with full United Nations involvement. But even with this help, a substantial share of the rebuilding costs, at least over the next two to three years, will have to come from the United States Treasury.

Sending a Message by War!
All the Rest Was Pretext
White House Officials Say Privately the Sept.11 Attacks Changed Everything
By John Cochran
April 25, 2003
EXCERPT
To build its case for war with Iraq, the Bush administration argued that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but some officials now privately acknowledge the White House had another reason for war — a global show of American power and democracy.

Leaked Document Reveals Pro-Likud Party Lobby Manipulation of US Media
Introduction by Ali Abunimah,
The Electronic Intifada
25 April 2003
This document was prepared for pro-Israel activists by the public relations firm The Luntz Research Companies and The Israel Project. It specifies tactics that Israel and its US advocates should use to maintain support for Israel and its hardline policies.

NPR Morning Edition
Opponents of War Still Feel White House Chill
April 24, 2003
Audio Link
With Saddam Hussein's regime out of power, many countries that opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq are trying to mend diplomatic fences with the United States. But some nations, including France and Chile, are still getting the cold shoulder from the White House. Some analysts express surprise at the Bush administration's "vindictiveness." Hear NPR's Michele Kelemen.

U.S. Planners Surprised by Strength of Iraqi Shiites
By Glenn Kessler and Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writers
April 23, 2003
Simplistic thinking by neoconservatives creates another void in the peace plan for Iraq.

Rumsfeld calls for regime change in North Korea
By David Rennie in Washington
The Daily Telegraph
April 22, 2003
EXCERPT
A secret Donald Rumsfeld memorandum calling for regime change in North Korea was leaked yesterday, opening a fresh foreign policy split in the Bush administration.

Who wants to ask Rummy what the meaning of  'is' is?
Rumsfeld Denies the U.S. Has Plans for Permanent Iraq Bases
The New York Times
April 21, 2003
EXCERPT
"There has been zero discussion among senior Bush administration officials, the way I define senior, on that subject," Mr. Rumsfeld said.
Howell Raines, executive editor of The New York Times, said: "The story we published was carefully reported and accurately written. In light of Secretary Rumsfeld's statement, we will follow the Pentagon's postwar planning as it develops."

Quote of the Month
Nomination for the Molly Ivin "What Were They Thinking?" also known as "Is There Anybody Here With a Lick of Sense?" Contest:
We knew going in this was going to be the peace from hell, and so far the administration has made every misstep possible. Did it occur to no one that Rumsfeld's chosen puppet, Ahmad Chalabi -- a convicted embezzler, sentenced in absentia to 22 years in prison in Jordan -- might prove a bit sticky? Might even be perceived by the Arab world as a colossal insult?
Molly Ivins
The Star-Telegram
Dallas, TX

FEATURED ITEM:
What Is it Good For?
by Bob Herbert
The New York Times
April 21, 2003
EXCERPT
The blatant war-mongering followed immediately by profiteering (i.e., George Shultz and Bechtel Group) inevitably raise questions about the real reasons American men and women have been fighting and dying in Iraq. President Bush told us the war was about weapons of mass destruction and the need to get rid of the degenerate Saddam. There was also talk about democracy taking root in Iraq and spreading like spring flowers throughout the Arab world.

The two things that were never openly discussed, that never became part of the national conversation, were oil and money. Those crucial topics were left to the major behind-the-scenes operators, many of whom are now cashing in.

The men and women who fought bravely in Iraq, for reasons they felt were noble and unassailable, deserve better.

FEATURED ITEM:
(Emerging democracy in Iraq:US sets Iraqi national policy prior to government being formed)
Pentagon Expects Long-Term Access to Four Key Bases in Iraq
by Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt
The New York Times
April 19, 2003
EXCERPT
A military foothold in Iraq would be felt across the border in Syria, and, in combination with the continuing United States presence in Afghanistan, it would virtually surround Iran with a new web of American influence.

"There will be some kind of a long-term defense relationship with a new Iraq, similar to Afghanistan," said one senior administration official. "The scope of that has yet to be defined — whether it will be full-up operational bases, smaller forward operating bases or just plain access."

FEATURED ITEM:
A Dangerous Groundswell of Resentment is Building Up on the Streets of Baghdad
by Fergal Keane
Published on Saturday, April 19, 2003 by the lndependent/UK
EXCERPT
In everything I have heard and seen in Iraq this past week, the words "pride" and "shame" recur. The elderly writer who was jailed under Saddam but wept when he saw the ransacked museum. It was looted by Iraqis under American eyes. The woman on the corner in Mansur whose husband vanished under Saddam but who railed with anger because Iraqis themselves could not do what America had done. The monster was driven away by foreigners, and Iraqis are as traumatised by this reality as they are by the presence of these strange, muscular, well-armed boys on their streets. So many of those I have spoken with are torn apart by the immense contradiction in their new lives: without American power, they would still live in fear of Saddam. With American power, they feel weak and humiliated.

FEATURED ITEM:
Are We Safer?
Stephen F. Cohen
The Nation
April 17, 2003
EXCERPT
...critics of the war have no reason to regret their views. No sensible opponent doubted that the world's most powerful military could easily crush such a lesser foe. The real issue was and remains very different: Will the Iraq war increase America's national security, as the Bush Administration has always promised and now insists is already the case, or will it undermine and diminish our national security, as thoughtful critics believed?

In the weeks, months and years ahead, we will learn the answer to that fateful question by judging developments by seven essential criteria:...

FEATURED ITEM:
Disorder, Protests Challenge U.S. Occupation of Iraq, Undermining White House Triumphalism
Interview with Roger Normand, executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights, conducted by Scott Harris
Between the Lines
April 14, 2003
EXCERPT
After several weeks of fighting for control of Iraq's largest cities, the Pentagon announced on April 14 that major combat operations were over. But while the president and his administration were jubilant at the victory of the world's most powerful military over a nation battered by 12 years of economic sanctions and a decade of constant bombing, it seemed that the occupation of Iraq would be filled with danger and uncertainty.

FEATURED ITEM:
Why The Anti-War Movement Was Right
Column by Arianna Huffington
April 16, 2003
EXCERPT
From the moment that statue of Saddam hit the ground, the mood around the Rumsfeld campfire has been all high-fives, I-told-you-sos, and endless smug prattling about how the speedy fall of Baghdad is proof positive that those who opposed the invasion of Iraq were dead wrong.

Well, it turns out that, far from being on the verge of destroying Western civilization, Saddam and his 21st century Gestapo couldn't even muster a half-hearted defense of their own capital. The hawks' cakewalk disproves their own dire warnings. They can't have it both ways. The invasion has proved wildly successful in one other regard: It has unified most of the world -- especially the Arab world -- against us.

FEATURED ITEM:
his lineup is ... ah ...
By Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate
April 10. 2003
EXCERPT
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who seems prepared to run the world, favors one Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, an exile-emigre group, as postwar leader (read figurehead-puppet). Chalabi is bitterly opposed by both the State Department and the CIA.

According to Knight-Ridder's Jonathan Landay, American military planes flew Chalabi and 700 troops, the newly named "First Battalion of Free Iraqi Forces," into Nasiriyah on Sunday to be integrated into Gen. Tommy Franks' command.

Landay reports: "Senior administration officials said that Chalabi had had difficulty recruiting enough forces to go into southern Iraq and may have tapped the discredited Badr Brigade, an Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim group, to get his 700 soldiers." Think how happy the Iraqis will be to see some detachment from their old enemy Iran.

Landay also reports: "It was information provided by Chalabi that led Rumsfeld and [Paul] Wolfowitz to a prewar belief that Iraqis would rise up and welcome the invading coalition with open arms, that the Republican Guard would surrender in droves and the government of Saddam Hussein would crumble in a matter of days."

This gets better. Chalabi has been in exile for four decades, and in 1992 he was convicted on multiple counts of embezzlement of hundreds of millions of dollars in Jordan after the failure of his bank there. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison. He escaped from Jordan, reportedly in the trunk of a car, and wound up in London.