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MORAL COWARDS ALL
Great Funding Increase for Iraq War - Another $70 Billion!
MIDDLEEAST.ORG - MER - Washington - 2 November:
With the extraordinary unprecented voter turn-out in the United States
just being reported as fact rather than plan -- especially young and
new first-time voters -- the neoliberals of the Democratic Party may be
about to replace the neoconservatives of the Republican Party after
all. If so that will certainly change style and rhetoric from
official Washington, in addition to personalities. But just how
different the actual policies will be remains to be seen; and one
should not be too optimistic about that in view of the overall
realities of American politics in Washington these days.
As for Iraq the course is already quite set, the conquest of Falluja is
about to be unleashed, the U.S. staged and manipulated January election
will be difficult to further postpone as well as to control, and both
American parties are quite on record insisting they must push forward
onto victory one way or another. Indeed, even the leaked plan for
another $70 billion in war funding -- this on top of the previous huge
emergency spending packages -- plus the new reports of 100,000+ Iraq
civilians killed have drawn little willingness in Washington to try to
find a less than military way out of the Iraqi quagmire.
Scott Ritter's "The War on Iraq has made Moral Cowards of us all" article should have appeared in the U.S., rather than in The Guardian in the U.K. The article about more mega-billions for the Iraq war did appear in the U.S., on the front-page of The Washington Post last Monday.
The war on Iraq has made moral cowards of us
all
More than 100,000 Iraqis have been killed -
and where is our shame and rage?
By Scott Ritter*
11/01/04 "The Guardian" --
The full scale of the human cost already
paid for the war on Iraq is only now becoming clear. Last
week's
estimate by investigators, using credible methodology, that more than
100,000 Iraqi civilians - most of them women and children - have died
since the US-led invasion is a profound moral indictment of our
countries. The US and British governments quickly moved to cast doubt
on the Lancet medical journal findings, citing other studies.
These
mainly media-based reports put the number of Iraqi civilian deaths at
about 15,000 - although the basis for such an endorsement is unclear,
since neither the US nor the UK admits to collecting data on Iraqi
civilian casualties.
Civilian deaths have always been a tragic reality of modern war.
But the conflict in Iraq was supposed to be different - US and British
forces were dispatched to liberate the Iraqi people, not impose their
own tyranny of violence.
Reading accounts of the US-led invasion, one is struck by the
constant, almost casual, reference to civilian deaths. Soldiers and
marines speak of destroying hundreds, if not thousands, of vehicles
that turned out to be crammed with civilians. US marines acknowledged
in the aftermath of the early, bloody battle for Nassiriya that their
artillery and air power had pounded civilian areas in a blind effort to
suppress insurgents thought to be holed up in the city. The infamous
"shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad produced hundreds of deaths, as did
the 3rd Infantry Division's "Thunder Run", an armoured thrust in
Baghdad that slaughtered everyone in its path.
It is true that, with only a few exceptions, civilians who died as
a result of ground combat were not deliberately targeted, but were
caught up in the machinery of modern warfare. But when the same claim
is made about civilians killed in aerial attacks (the Lancet study
estimates that most of civilian deaths were the result of air attacks),
the comparison quickly falls apart. Helicopter engagements apart, most
aerial bombardment is deliberate and pre-planned. US and British
military officials like to brag about the accuracy of the "precision"
munitions used in these strikes, claiming this makes the kind of modern
warfare practised by the coalition in Iraq the most humanitarian in
history.
But there is nothing humanitarian about explosives once they
detonate near civilians, or about a bomb guided to the wrong target.
Dozens of civilians were killed during the vain effort to eliminate
Saddam Hussein with "pinpoint" air strikes, and hundreds have perished
in the campaign to eliminate alleged terrorist targets in Falluja. A
"smart bomb" is only as good as the data used to direct it. And
the
abysmal quality of the intelligence used has made the smartest of bombs
just as dumb and indiscriminate as those, for example, dropped during
the second world war.
The fact that most bombing missions in Iraq today are pre-planned,
with targets allegedly carefully vetted, further indicts those who wage
this war in the name of freedom. If these targets are so precise, then
those selecting them cannot escape the fact that they are deliberately
targeting innocent civilians at the same time as they seek to destroy
their intended foe. Some would dismiss these civilians as "collateral
damage". But we must keep in mind that the British and US governments
made a deliberate decision to enter into a conflict of their choosing,
not one that was thrust upon them. We invaded Iraq to free Iraqis
from
a dictator who, by some accounts, oversaw the killing of about 300,000
of his subjects - although no one has been able to verify more
than a
small fraction of the figure. If it is correct, it took Saddam decades
to reach such a horrific statistic. The US and UK have, it seems,
reached a third of that total in just 18 months.
Meanwhile, the latest scandal over missing nuclear-related high
explosives in Iraq (traced and controlled under the UN inspections
regime) only underscores the utter deceitfulness of the Bush-Blair
argument for the war. Having claimed the uncertainty surrounding Iraq's
WMD capability constituted a threat that could not go unchallenged in a
post-9/11 world, one would have expected the two leaders to insist
on
a military course of action that brought under immediate coalition
control any aspect of potential WMD capability, especially relating to
any possible nuclear threat. That the US military did not have a
dedicated force to locate and neutralise these explosives underscores
the fact that both Bush and Blair knew that there was no threat from
Iraq, nuclear or otherwise.
Of course, the US and Britain have a history of turning a blind eye
to Iraqi suffering when it suits their political purposes. During the
1990s, hundreds of thousands are estimated by the UN to have died as a
result of sanctions. Throughout that time, the US and the UK maintained
the fiction that this was the fault of Saddam Hussein, who refused to
give up his WMD. We now know that Saddam had disarmed and those deaths
were the responsibility of the US and Britain, which refused to lift
sanctions.
There are many culpable individuals and organisations history will
hold to account for the war - from deceitful politicians and
journalists to acquiescent military professionals and silent citizens
of the world's democracies. As the evidence has piled up confirming
what I and others had reported - that Iraq was already disarmed by the
late 1990s - my personal vote for one of the most culpable
individuals
would go to Hans Blix, who headed the UN weapons inspection team in the
run-up to war. He had the power if not to prevent, at least to
forestall a war with Iraq. Blix knew that Iraq was disarmed, but in his
mealy-mouthed testimony to the UN security council helped provide
fodder for war. His failure to stand up to the lies used by Bush and
Blair to sell the Iraq war must brand him a moral and intellectual
coward.
But we all are moral cowards when it comes to Iraq. Our collective
inability to summon the requisite shame and rage when confronted by an
estimate of 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians in the prosecution of an
illegal and unjust war not only condemns us, but adds credibility
to
those who oppose us. The fact that a criminal such as Osama bin Laden
can broadcast a videotape on the eve of the US presidential
election
in which his message is viewed by many around the world as a sober
argument in support of his cause is the harshest indictment of the
failure of the US and Britain to implement sound policy in the
aftermath of 9/11. The death of 3,000 civilians on that horrible
day
represented a tragedy of huge proportions. Our continued indifference
to a war that has slaughtered so many Iraqi civilians, and will
continue to kill more, is in many ways an even greater tragedy: not
only in terms of scale, but also because these deaths were
inflicted
by our own hand in the course of an action that has no defence.
* Scott Ritter was a senior UN weapons inspector in Iraq between 1991
and 1998 and is the author of Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass
Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America - WSRitter@aol.com
Increase in War Funding Sought
Bush to Request $70 Billion More
By Jonathan Weisman and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 26, 2004; Page A01
The Bush administration intends to seek about $70 billion
in emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next
year, pushing total war costs close to $225 billion since the invasion
of Iraq early last year, Pentagon and congressional officials said
yesterday.
White House budget office spokesman Chad Kolton emphasized that
final decisions on the supplemental spending request will not be made
until shortly before the request is sent to Congress. That may not
happen until early February, when President Bush submits his budget for
fiscal 2006, assuming he wins reelection.
But Pentagon and House Appropriations Committee aides said the
Defense Department and military services are scrambling to get their
final requests to the White House Office of Management and Budget by
mid-November, shortly after the election. The new numbers underscore
that the war is going to be far more costly and intense, and last
longer, than the administration first suggested.
The Army is expected to request at least an additional $30 billion
for combat activity in Iraq, with $6 billion more needed to begin
refurbishing equipment that has been worn down or destroyed by
unexpectedly intense combat, another Appropriations Committee aide
said. The deferral of needed repairs over the past year has added to
maintenance costs, which can no longer be delayed, a senior Pentagon
official said.
The Army is expected to ask for as much as $10 billion more for its
conversion to a swifter expeditionary force. The Marines will come in
with a separate request, as will the Defense Logistics Agency and other
components of the Department of Defense. The State Department will need
considerably more money to finance construction and operations at the
sprawling embassy complex in Baghdad. The Central Intelligence Agency's
request would come on top of those.
"I don't have a number, and [administration officials] have not been
forthcoming, but we expect it will be pretty large," said James Dyer,
Republican chief of staff of the Appropriations Committee.
Bush has said for months that he would make an additional request
for the war next year, but the new estimates are the first glimpse of
its magnitude. A $70 billion request would be considerably larger than
lawmakers had anticipated earlier this year. After the president
unexpectedly submitted an $87 billion request for the Iraq and
Afghanistan efforts last year, many Republicans angrily expressed
sticker shock and implored the administration not to surprise them
again.
This request would come on top of $25 billion in war spending
allocated by Congress for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The two
bills combined suggest the cost of combat is escalating from the $65
billion spent by the military in 2004 and the $62.4 billion allocated
in 2003, as U.S. troops face insurgencies that have proven far more
lethal than expected at this point.
"We're still evaluating what our commitments will be, and we will
submit a request that fully supports those commitments," Kolton said.
The senior Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of
anonymity, said final figures may be shaped by the outcome of the
presidential election and events in Iraq. But assuming force levels
will remain constant in Iraq at about 130,000 troops, the final bill
will be "roughly" $70 billion for the military alone, he said.
In making cost estimates for the supplemental budget request,
Pentagon officials have distanced themselves from the Bush
administration's public optimism about trends in Iraq. Instead, they
make the fairly pessimistic assumption that about as many troops will
be needed there next year as are currently on the ground.
The latest request comes on top of three earlier emergency spending
bills approved by Congress in support of the war. In August, Congress
approved $25 billion for the war as a bridge to the larger request the
president promised for early 2005. Last October, lawmakers passed an
$87.5 billion emergency spending measure that included $65 billion for
combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. An additional $18.6 billion
of that money went to Iraqi reconstruction.
Congress approved the first war spending measure in April 2003, a
$78.5 billion measure that included $62.4 billion for combat and $7.5
billion for foreign assistance.
The White House has been careful to keep the war spending numbers
"close to the vest," Dyer said. But Pentagon officials have been
working on the request for two to three months, even as they put
together their far larger budget request for fiscal 2006, the Pentagon
official said.
The Iraq war has proven so costly because of the unexpectedly
intense opposition from insurgents. That has led the Pentagon to keep
far more troops in Iraq than it planned.
At the end of the invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003, Pentagon
officials expected to be able to radically trim the occupation force by
the end of that year to perhaps 50,000 troops or less. Instead, they
maintained a force of about 130,000 personnel there and have
supplemented that force with about 20,000 civilian contractors.
On top of paying the wages of the all-volunteer force and the
contractors, the military has paid for building dozens of bases and
keeping a high-tech force equipped with computers, communications gear
and expensive modern weaponry.
Yale University economist William D. Nordhaus estimated that in
inflation-adjusted terms, World War I cost just under $200 billion for
the United States. The Vietnam War cost about $500 billion from 1964 to
1972, Nordhaus said. The cost of the Iraq war could reach nearly half
that number by next fall, 2 1/2 years after it began.
A Pentagon spokeswoman declined to comment. "We are going to let OMB
talk for the administration on this issue," Marine Lt. Col. Rose-Ann
Lynch said.
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November 2004
Condi Rice - Weakest and Worst Sec State in Washington Memory (November 29, 2004)
"So we are to have a new Secretary of State who dreadfully misjudged the terrorist threat leading up to 9/11 and then misled America and the world about the case for invading Iraq. As if that's not disturbing enough, look who is succeeding her
as the President's National Security Adviser... I'm not making this up; it's all on the record. So instead of putting America's foreign policy in the hands of people who might have restored the country's credibility in the world, the President has turned it over to two of the people who helped to shred it." -Bill Moyers
US in Iraq 'worse than Hitler'? Turkish Parliament Leader Has His Say (November 28, 2004)
"The occupation has turned into barbarism. The
U.S. administration is committing genocide...in Iraq. "This occupation has entirely imperialist aims." - Mehmet Elkatmis, Head of Tukish Parliament's human rights commission
Islamabad 25 Years Ago Was Forecast of What Has Since Come (November 27, 2004)
Twenty-five years ago, as hate-filled crowds invaded the American Embassy in Islamabad and the 100+ Americans hiding in 'The Vault' feared they would be killed, there was already in the air of international affairs an omen of what was to come. What happened then has since politically metasticized into what is happening today, an escalating 'Clash of Civilizations' with the United States doubly tinged with fundamentalist Crusading zealotry and Israeli Zionist ideology. And the hatreds, despair, and sense of grievance in many places in the world, including today's Pakistan, are still growing....
Washington's War-Mongering Military-Industrial-Government Complex (November 27, 2004)
They could have sub-titled this excellent 48 minute Dutch documentary "Cesspool Washington" for it exposes a significant aspect of how the American capital has incestuously and unethically entertwined big business, big money, and government. Exposed in this documentary is a major part of the U.S. war-making and war-profiteering scene of which few Americans are aware. These realities goe a long way to explain how and why U.S. war policies are what they are.
The CIA's TORTURE AIR (November 26, 2004)
Witnesses have claimed that the suspects are frequently bound, gagged and sedated before being put on board the planes,
CIA Purge Converting Agency To Neoconism (November 25, 2004)
They already have firm control of the Pentagon, which also actually means some 80% of the "Intelligence" Budget. And they've made great progress in recent years taking over the State Department as well as the National Security Council. Now crusading "Neocons" -- many Jewish and nearly all connected over the years with the Israeli-Jewish lobby in Washington -- are determined to finally bring the last resistant power center, the CIA, into line. Washington these days is like the land of the body-snatchers, everyone looking over their shoulders, the fear factor rising higher and higher.
Falluja in Memorium on Thanksgiving (November 25, 2004)
As for the new killing fields of Iraq -- most recently in Falluja, the 'City of Mosques' -- the alternative-media reports that follow from Green Leaf Weekly in Australia and The Village Voice in New York make for devastating reading. "Sorry Faluya"..."Sorry Faluya"...
January Elections - Truth or Consequences (November 25, 2004)
Under the conditions that actually exist -- unprecedented military occupation, extraordinary impoverishment and bribery, still-expanding CIA infiltration, massive propaganda manipulation -- the very concept of 'free and fair' elections takes quite a credibility stretch.
New from MER (November 22, 2004)
New from MER - MER realizes that today situation in the Middle East and in Washington requires new and creative means to provide critical information and independent expert analysis. But this can only be achieved if those who appreciate today's historical moment will dig in and provide the independent financial support necessary. Please make your check to MER and contribute today.
MER
P.O. Box 4918
Washington, DC 20008
Fearing Bush Assassination (November 22, 2004)
Over the weekend during Bush's short visit to Chile there was an extraordinary double display of this concern. First Bush himself got man-handled in a crowd of security people literally having to pull his senior protective body man after him through a small blocking crowd of Chilean security. Later the elaborate State Dinner the Chilean President was putting on was abruptly canceled when the American's demanded that every one of the two hundred carefully selected guests go through metal detectors and possible body frisks. The Chileans said not very dignified, no need; the Americans said too bad, no dinner.
Please read and contribute this weekend, thank you. (November 21, 2004)
If MER is to move forward and have the kind of impact we can and should now have, independent financial support is now absolutely crucial. After all the steps we have taken in recent years to reorganize and improve MER, serious financial support is now the key missing ingredient we must have. Yes we are now positioned to reach far more persons worldwide and to have far greater impact including on radio and TV programs. But this can happen only with your substantial financial support. So please contribute this weekend making your check to MER and sending to:
MER
P.O. Box 4918
Washington, DC 20008
Israel Buys Another Piece of Washington (November 20, 2004)
Read the details about Haim Saban, Ariel Sharon's "close personal friend", keeping all this crucial perspective and context in mind which the nation's 'newspaper of record' largely ommitted.
Please read and contribute this weekend (November 20, 2004)
If MER is to move forward and have the kind of impact we can and should now have, independent financial support is crucial. After all the steps we have taken in recent years to reorganize and improve MER, financial support is now the key missing ingredient if we are to be able to take the steps we now could. We are now positioned to reach far more persons worldwide and to have far greater impact including on radio and TV programs. But this can happen only with your serious financial support. So please contribute this weekend making your check to MER and sending to: MER - P.O. Box 4918 - Washington, DC 20008
Yasser Arafat's Life and Legacy (November 19, 2004)
There are only a small handful of Western journalists who have the background, the credibility, and the conviction, to write with historical depth and considerable insight about the death of Yasser Arafat. David Hirst, still writing for The Guardian after all these years, the man who authored THE GUN AND THE OLIVE BRANCH, is right up there at the top of that list. This article was published in The Guardian last week just as Arafat's death was announced.
Nuke Attack on U.S. 'all but inevitable' warns top CIA official (November 19, 2004)
As the new historic purge of non-neocons roles over Washington, firing, resignations, and fear have the CIA, the State Department, and lesser known sometimes secret U.S. Government agencies in a tizzy. One of those now forced out at the CIA is the man who has headed up the great manhunt for Osama Bin-Laden. He spoke up last year in a book written by 'Anonymous' titled "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror." Just days after leaving the Agency he spoke up on the popular CBS News Program Sixty Minutes.
U.S. and ISRAELI Deceptions...over and over again (November 18, 2004)
Even as Yasser Arafat was being buried last Friday the American President and the British Prime Minister purposefully tried to immediately dim his memory and twist the headlines by holding an unusual joint press conference at the White House. What Bush and Blair spewed forth grabbing TV time that evening from Arafat's Cairo funeral and Ramallah burial twisted and distorted history further beyond recognition. This extraordinary and urgently needed corrective was published by Robert Fisk earlier this week in The Independent.
More on the Arafat 'Stealth Assassination' and Cover Up (November 17, 2004)
With the 'Stealth Assassination' of Yasser Arafat, following a campaign to kill or imprison most of the popular Palestinian leaders that was greatly stepped up when Ariel Sharon became Israeli Prime Minister, the Arab-Israeli conflict does indeed enter a new phase. But the political cancer has already considerably metastacized region-wide and the 'two-state' cure is not really any longer possible.
The Great Sharon Deception (November 16, 2004)
"Deception and lies have been a corner stone in Israeli policy, brought to a new level of perfection since Oslo. While the world believed that Rabin promised to eventually end the occupation and dismantle the settlements,
the number of Israeli settlers actually doubled during his rule. At the same time that Barak declared he intends to dismantle the Golan Heights
settlements, in 1999, he actually poured money into their expansion. As Sharon promised to dismantle at least the illegal settlement posts in the West Bank, their number kept increasing. Still, none of this is ever remembered. Each new lie is received with welcome cheers by the Israeli
peace camp, and by European governments. Since Oslo, every Israeli government knows that all it takes, to ease diplomatic pressure, is to come up with a new 'peace plan'."
To Readers of MER (November 16, 2004)
If MER is to move forward and have the kind of impact we now can and should have financial support making it possible to do so is now the key missing ingredient. We have done so much in recent years. And now we are positioned to reach far more persons worldwide and have far greater impact including on radio and TV programs. Please contribute today making your check to MER and sending to:
MER -
P.O. Box 4918 -
Washington, DC 20008
Powell Out, CIA Purging, Iraq Exploding, Palestinians Erupting (November 15, 2004)
Just hours after once again fronting for U.S. Middle East policies as today's article in The Guardian points out; just hours, after proclaming about the 'new Palestinian leaders' "We know these gentlemen well, and I hope to be able to see them..."; just hours after the extent of the historic purge of the CIA has flashed into the headlines...; Colin Powell has cashed in his chips in a combination of being pushed and walking away while he still can without even further damage to his once considerable reputation.
ARAFAT - The Assassination and The Cover Up (November 13, 2004)
Five critical days before it was officially announced that Yasser Arafat was actually dead -- even as leading media organizations were repeatedly parroting officials to the contrary -- MER not only reported the real news that Arafat was all but legally dead but the important news that he had been 'Stealth Assassinated' by blood poisoning by the Israelis. Below are links to MER articles published from 4 to 12 November about the assassination of Yasser Arafat and the cover up that followed.
Israel's Public Threats Against Arafat Telegraphed the Assassination (November 13, 2004)
These are some of the public threats in the past few years. One can only imagine what has been said when the cameras and microphones were not present.
Sharon's Lethal Words and Cartoons Foretold what was to come (November 13, 2004)
"Speaking of the Palestinians, they were dealt
a lethal blow... It will bring their dreams to an end." -- Ariel Sharon upon returning from his ninth and last meeting at the White House with George W. Bush - 16 April 2004
Public Israeli Threats from top officials to Kill Yasser Arafat (November 12, 2004)
Public Israeli Threats from top officials to Kill Yasser Arafat escalated in recent months. In any murder investigation, or death under suspicious circumstances, an autopsy is done and those who have threatened the person are investigated. But in the case of Yasser Arafat even though his personal doctor of over 20 years 'demanded' an 'official death investigation' and 'autopsy' those in charge worked feverishly to bury Arafat quickly and prevent any serious independent investigation.
NYTimes Articles on Arafat - 1 to 12 Nov 2004 (November 12, 2004)
New York Times Articles on Yasser Arafat
1 to 12 November 2004
ARAFAT Assassination Coverup as quick and limited funeral and burial take place (November 12, 2004)
They are racing now to get the funeral over with very quickly and with no real opportunity for the public outpouring of grief and anger that would result if everything were not so closed and controlled by the military. And they are racing as well to get him quickly buried in a rock tomb. His 'wife' has received a huge payoff, $22 million yearly, for her silence. The top 'new leadership' of the Palestinians that has approved these arrangements are all known to be persons closely connected with the Israelis and supported by the U.S. -- Nabil Sha'ath, Abu Mazen, and Abu Ala -- and all known themselves to be politically and financially corrupt.
ARAFAT ASSASSINATION - Article links, Media Interviews (November 12, 2004)
The personal physician of Yasser Arafat called for an inquiry into the cause of the veteran Palestinian leader's death on Thursday. "I demand an official inquiry and an autopsy ... so the Palestinian people can learn in all transparency what caused the death" of their leader, Dr Ashraf al-Kurdi said on Al-Jazeera television only hours before Arafat was due to be buried... Kurdi, who was Arafat's personal physician for more than 20 years, said he had been surprised by the actions of some members of the veteran leader's office...
Yasser Arafat's 'wife' Suha will receive $22 million a year out of the Palestinian Authority budget. Abu Mazen is said to have personally approved this extraordinary arrangement, and it appears to have silenced Suha Tawil from the 'conspiracy' charges she publicly made Monday.
MER on KTSA San Antonio (November 11, 2004)
Listen to MER on KTSA San Antonio about Arafat's Death; and check links to the past week's MER articles about Arafat.
MER and Media Articles about Arafat on day of his death (November 11, 2004)
"I demand an official inquiry and an autopsy ... so the Palestinian people can learn in all transparency what caused the death" of their leader, Dr Ashraf al-Kurdi said on Al-Jazeera television only hours before Arafat was due to be buried... Kurdi, who was Arafat's personal physician for more than 20 years, said he had been surprised by the actions of some members of the veteran leader's office.
Sharon Kills Arafat? Assassination Coverup Succeeds? (November 11, 2004)
The message is rather clear: "You Arab and Palestinian 'leaders' have much more to fear from us (Israel and the U.S.) if you don't play ball than you do from your own people. On top of all the other leaders we have killed off or imprisoned one way or another, we can even pull off a 'Stealth Assassination' of Nobel Peace Prize winner, former most frequent foreign guest to the White House, and international famed Yasser Arafat because he refused to do as we told him he must. So beware: COMPLY, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."
ARAFAT - Assassination Covered Up As Death Announced (November 11, 2004)
**MER was first, was right, was most insightful**
Days before it was finally officially announced early this morning in the Middle East MER reported that Yasser Arafat was all but legally dead. Even as leading media organizations were parroting contrary and purposefully deceptive information MER not only reported the real news but the important realities. In this case that Yasser Arafat had been 'Stealth Assassinated' by the Israelis with help from as yet undisclosed Palestinians and an American OK.
ARAFAT - How and Where to Properly Bury Him (November 10, 2004)
And when Arafat's body is flown from Cairo to Ramallah representatives of the Arab League, of all the Arab countries, and of all the countries who have long recognized the PLO and long called for a free and independent Palestinian State, should accompany the body whether the Israelis give their 'permission' or not. They should in this way not only show their respects for Arafat the symbolic man but for the imprisoned and all-too-forgotten people he leaves behind, half in refugee camps, half increasingly behind walls and fences in ghettos and concentration camps.
ARAFAT Update (November 10, 2004)
Yasser Arafat has been all but legally dead for many days now. He has been kept 'between life and death' in a very 'complex situation' (to use the crafty words that have come from key officials) for financial and political reasons rather than for medical reasons. By a preponderance of the circumstances and the evidence Yasser Arafat has effectively been stealth assassinated by the Israelis as MER first reported and explained last Saturday.
China Rocks the Geopolitical Middle East (November 10, 2004)
As the Americans expend their power, their money, their blood, and their credibility both Europe and China are on the march. Europe is more often discussed, but the Chinese have been taking important steps into Africa in recent years, and now they are doing so into the Middle East in a bigger way than ever via Iran.
Arafat's Death Announced (November 9, 2004)
MER reported and explained Arafat's death -- indeed his assassination by blood poisoning -- many days ago, in fact last week. This story from Reuters has just moved on the international wires this morning at 9am EST:
Poor Poor People of Palestine (November 9, 2004)
This is hardly the first time MER has commented harshly and candidly about Nabil Shaa'th, or Abu Mazen, or Abu Ala. We have in fact done so for years now as upcoming FlashBack articles will serve to remind. As for Suha Tawil, Arafat's "wife", she has proven time and again what a self-serving extortionist and political witch she has truly been -- taking after her mother Ramonda who managed to steal and embezzle more limited millions from the PLO in her own days before introducing her dumpy daughter to Yasser and moving from Palestine to her luxury-life in exile.
MiddleEast.Org on ARAFAT LIFE and DEATH (November 8, 2004)
PLEASE FORWARD TO FRIENDS AND CONCERNED PERSONS.
AVAILABLE TODAY AT MIDDLEEAST.ORG THIS EXCLUSIVE
INTERVIEW and EDITORIAL ABOUT THE DEATH OF YASSER ARAFAT.
Arafat is Dead - Frantic struggles underway (November 7, 2004)
Yasser Arafat is Dead; likely assassinated by blood poisoning by the Israelis. Frantic struggles and manuevers are underway for power, money, and the symbolism of how and where Arafat will be buried. Arafat's long-time cronies neither of whom has any real popular support but who are trying to take total control of the PLO and the PA with Israeli and U.S. assistance -- Abu Mazen and Abu Ala -- are on the way to Paris.
ARAFAT - How and Where to Bury Him (November 7, 2004)
Far better symbolism than burial under the dictate of Israeli military occupation and today's apartheid conditions is 'temporary' burial of Yasser Arafat in the city where the headquarters of the Arab League is located, indeed in a special crypt on the grounds of the Arab League in downtown Cairo.
Arafat's Murder and Legacy (November 7, 2004)
It's the worst possible end for Yasser Arafat, and more importantly for his life-long quest for justice, dignity, and a free independent Palestinian State.
In the end it appears Yasser Arafat has been killed by fatal poisoning in a kind of stealth assassination by his arch nemesis Ariel Sharon, with help from those inside his own circles.
Arafat passes from history not as the father of a Palestinian State but with his people more fractured and dispossessed and in greater bondage, imprisonment, and impoverishment than ever in their history.
ARAFAT - Stealth Assassination! (November 6, 2004)
Arafat was assassinated by blood poisoning by the Israelis working with some insiders is the conclusion of Professor Hisham Ahmed...
Professor Ahmed lives in Ramallah near the headquarters where Arafat was under house imprisonment for nearly three years. He teaches Political Science at Bir Zeit University and has his Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He has taught at a number of American Universities and been a Fulbright Scholar. Dr. Ahmed was born in Deheishe Refugee Camp near Bethlehem and he is an astute observer of Palestinian affairs and indeed of international affairs.
MER Experts on Arafat's Death (or assassination), Burial Plans, and Legacy (November 5, 2004)
Please pass this information on to persons in the media. Bruzonsky, Hamzeh, and others associated with MER including Palestinians living in occupied Palestine will be available throughout the weekend for radio and TV interviews. The link to this email is: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2004/11/1174.htm
MER can now be reached at all times, 24-hours daily, at MER@MiddleEast.Org and (202) 362-5266.
Persons in the media can reach MER at all times on a special media number -- 202 Number1 (202 686-2371) and Press@MiddleEast.Org
Arafat's Burial, Monies, Powers, and Legacy (November 5, 2004)
"Both Gaza Ghetto and Occupied Ramallah are awful choices for Arafat's burial, especially in view of the worse than Apartheid realities that have taken hold during the years Arafat played, and lost so badly, the 'peace process' game with the Israelis and the Americans."
About MiddleEast.org (November 4, 2004)
Please read carefully and please help make MiddleEast.Org possible.
Arafat Dominates In Death as in Life (November 4, 2004)
Arafat is now likely to be buried not in a free Palestine, not in Jerusalem, not really as the kind of historic figure he so desperately sought to be. Rather he will be likely buried in Occupied Palestine, in the city of Ramallah, behind the new Apartheid Wall, with arch nemesis Ariel Sharon deciding on the place and giving his 'permission'. How sad...how tragic... And the future now on the horizon appears still more gloomy and more bloody than the past now about to be symbolically buried with the body of the single man who has dominated Palestinian history ever since the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1960s.
America, Arafat, and the 'New World Order' (November 4, 2004)
NBC's Chris Matthews: "I believe we live in a country that is really culturally divided now... maybe the way Pakistan and India are."
Democratic Disaster (November 3, 2004)
Even as Americans voted and the world watched considerably now in shock, one of the world's most famous scientists, Stephen Hawking, was declaring the U.S. invasion of Iraq a 'war crime' at a protest in London. Now the aftermath of that history-making invasion, of the new Crusade led by the United States and based on major historic deceptions and manipulations, will return to center stage.
Moral Cowards ALL (November 2, 2004)
Scott Ritter's "The War on Iraq has made Moral Cowards of us all" article should have appeared in the U.S., rather than in The Guardian in the U.K. The article about more mega-billions for the Iraq war did appear in the U.S., on the front-page of The Washington Post last Monday.
Osama Votes Bush Says Fisk (November 2, 2004)
Robert Fisk is the chief Middle East correspondent for the London Independent and one of the most knowledgeable, insightful, and courageous western journalists about the Middle East. He was exclusively interviewed in 1996 by MERTV for a series of four half-hour programs which we will soon Internet broadcast. He was interviewed yesterday on the 'Democracy Now' program about the recent speech by Osama Bin Laden to the 'people of America', about Yasser Arafat, and about the war in Iraq.
Osama Bin Laden's 'October Surprise' (November 1, 2004)
Osama Bin Laden: "I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth year after the events of September 11th, Bush is still engaged in
distortion, deception and hiding from you the real causes. And thus, the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred. So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and shall
tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken, for you to consider."
Iran Next - Part 2 (November 1, 2004)
Tomrrow the American election itself will become history. The likelihood is the Bush/Cheney/neocon regime will remain in power; hard as that still is for so many to imagine and understand. But should the Democrats win the White House Middle East policies will be largely in the hands of the neoliberals and the super money-men like Israeli-Sharon-connected Haim Saban who have far more in common with the neocons than has yet been realized by many who will vote for them. Whatever happens tomorrow the build-up to attacking and if at all possible 'regime changing' Iran is well underway and the showdown increasingly imminent.
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