A SIGN

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There are times when you can’t get the full story (the full picture.) This time it was a recent incident concerning a university in Kirkuk, which had an Arab sign then a Kurd sign, now an Arab sign. It seems to be a sign of trouble, more than trouble with a sign.

The Kurds have had 10 years of moderate peace and development. They still have that. Part of the trouble is fear, and another part is power. Groups are vying to be ALL POWERFUL when they should be vying for a compromise of SHARED POWER.

The caretaker government is just that--caretaker. Although it may give individuals a jump-start political career, it is just as likely to end the political careers of the careless. If the Kurds are grumbling (as Kurdo is) and not working on candidates (political processes) they aren’t gearing up for the elections. They are “missing the boat” and it may sail without them.

We worked hard to bring Democracy; we are holding it out with extended arms; the weight is heavy. Don’t hop on top of it and jump up and down, that makes the weight heavier. The more people who labor to lift the lighter the load will be. Grab hold, and help to share the load so that you are able to lift it up and carry it the distance.

Share the load; share the power; share the freedom.

AGAIN and AGAIN

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Each day that goes by, our soldiers (around in the world) should know that we appreciate them.

From those “holding down the fort”, to those leaving US, and to those coming home, you need to know that you are important. You need to know that we think about you and we APPRECIATE WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

And Sincerely. . .(to you, at home or abroad) Thank You!

PRISONER XXX

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Al Jazeera

FOX

At a news conference today, Rumsfeld said that the request to take custody of the prisoner came first by phone call and was followed-up by a letter. The prisoner was not given the usual tracking number; but, Rumsfeld stated that the prisoner was not lost in the system. He was not identified to ICRC personnel.

This will happen from time to time. Some high-value targets, with important information, will not appear on the roster because it gives us an advantage.

GIVE SAADI A RIDE

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Washington Post

Top Iraqi Official Objects To Treatment as POW
(That's former Iraqi Official!)


General Amir Saadi was a former liaison between Saddam and the UN Weapons Inspectors. The complaints are that Saadi has been in solitary confinement since April, 2003, and Saadi complains:

"My daily high is the exercise in fresh air, one hour in the morning, another in the afternoon," he wrote in another message that month. "These two hours are frequently curtailed" and "the twice weekly showers are sometimes missed."

Obviously, he has some fresh air, and some showers. Saadi must be getting enough to eat; he’s still alive and he’s not complaining about torture. He is in communications with someone; and, has the FREEDOM to complain. (his complaints are not censored) Possibly if he gets his mashed potatoes and a hug he will tell US all he knows.

Saadi was classified as a prisoner of war by U.S. authorities a month after his surrender. The Geneva Conventions say prisoners of war "may not be held in close confinement except where necessary to safeguard their health." They also may not be "threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind," if they refuse to answer questions, according to the conventions.

There’s that word “UNPLEASANT” again. And, is “close confinement” the same as “solitary confinement?” Or, is “close confinement a 2ft. by 3ft. cell where you can’t stand. Also, does it mean if we do not ask him questions, we can torture him?Should we permit Saadi to mingle? Is he missing his annual birthday party?

I think he should have “fresh air” for more than 2 hours a day. I think he should take pleasant rides to improve his frame of mind. Why not take Saadi on some convoy trips?

Saadi, who studied chemistry in England, rose in the Iraqi army to participate in the weapons programs that created shells, rockets and bombs that delivered VX and mustard gas to Kurds in northern Iraq and to Iranians in the 1980s. In 2000, he became adviser to Hussein for scientific affairs, setting him up to be liaison to U.N. inspectors.

It's cooler in northern Iraq, in the mountains.

WORLD SCREAM

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HYPOTHETICALLY

EQUALITY is good; but, the US is not receiving equal press, equal condemnation, and not receiving equal treatment in the world. We need to change our tactics.

We are to protect the prisoners from any UNPLEASANTNESS? Treat AQ equal to the shoplifters and car thieves? (Sometimes, unpleasantness is not getting mashed potatoes for dinner. Certainly, it is running out of bathroom tissue.)

Barking dogs; naked prisoners; underwear on heads; too much light; not enough sleep; we need different tactics. Should we treat prisoners equally to achieve the admiration of the world? If not the achievement of admiration, could we settle for the world pretending ignorance (of our new “equal footing.”) This may be a banquet for thought.

Could we institute a new tactic of kidnapping; slow beheading; maiming and burning bodies--hanging them for all to see; we bury (you try to find) and take video before we execute? Why bother to have a trial? What if we assume the tactics of the enemy and take off all the uniforms?

Well, there would be a collective WORLD SCREAM! Ah…BUT, would we notice the difference?

REVAMP U.N.

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Promises and Illusions

Are the only changes in the United Nations to be superficial? Will the U.N. have a face-lift to give a different look? Will it be more attractive and wear more jewelry—-have a more luxurious appearance?

I’m more interested in the underpinnings, the underwear of the United Nations. It appeared to be the promise of a cleaning, a sanitation, a thorough washing. It may be another perception of cleanliness.

It may be the old joke about the line of soldiers, doing something similar. They were changing their underwear: “Harry, you change with Joe; Mike, you change with John . . .!”

The promise of change meets the illusion of action culminating in the reality of the same underwear.

PERCEPTION OF TRUST?

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UPDATE:
ROSETT OFFs the UN (Jun 16)


United Nations STAFF responses have just told the world about the “old boys’ network” and the “troubles” at the U.N. During an interview (this morning) the words “PERCEPTION OF TRUST” were mentioned as a necessary requirement for the U.N.

The U.N. staffers are a gauge of the honesty of the U.N. If the staffers do not trust, how can “we the people” of the world trust in the U.N.? They are the insiders; they are the pulse. Staffers, around the world, know more of the "inner workings" of organizations than most individuals involved in these very organizations. (These people can see reality, where we can see the illusion of reality.)

DO NOT GIVE US PERCEPTION, WE NEED REALITY! Perception is the problem, not the goal. TRUST IS THE GOAL; VERIFICATION IS THE GOAL; TRUTH IS THE GOAL! Perception is an opinion; reality is a fact.

“Trust. . . .but, VERIFY! We verified. The reality is that we no longer trust. The staffers are in agreement that verification will indicate a network (a web) through which you must bend (twist crookedly) to become included. We are beyond the “PERCEPTION OF TRUST” and to the reality of lifting “the lantern” looking for the “honest man.” (We may not find him at the U.N.)

". . .GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH!"
"GIVE ME HONESTY (IN THE U.N), or GIVE ME W.O.T.H.F.U.!

[W.O.T.H.F.U. = WORLD ORGANIZATION TREATY HEROES' FREEDOM UNITIES]

A LITTLE LATE

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The previous post was written earlier in the day; but, not entered until after the day's activities of graduation.

The ceremonies were this morning. A dinner was this evening. By the time we finished eating, I was convinced even my fingers gained weight.

THE INJUSTICE SYSTEM

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Today is the 10th anniversary of the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. For 10 years, a killer has roamed free; while the victims do not move from their final place. The killer was given a reprieve; there is no reprieve from death for Ron and Nicole. Two children have no mother; parents have no child.

Was there justice? No, there was bias; there were games; there was smoke and mirror magic with slight-of-hand (in glove.) The scales of justice were tilted by prejudice and by money.

It was an example of THE INJUSTICE SYTEM.

IN FULL

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During these past few days: civilian feet walked, military feet marched, people stood silently, and veterans saluted; some cried, others smiled, and many smiled through their tears, . . .this was celebration of a life.

It was not the sorrow of death which cuts life short and was not life unfulfilled. This was life in full.

Goodbye, Mr. Reagan. Well done.

FLAT-LINE HUMOR

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and Death.

Much of the United States is observing the life and death of President Ronald Reagan. Of all things, the man had a sense of humor.

While watching the events surrounding the memorial activities, watching Reagan’s casket transported into the Reagan Library, I experienced “Flat-Line.” Sometimes, this is the moment of death, when the hospital machines buzz and the life-screen (monitor) shows a flat line. The FLAT-LINE was my TV screen and signaled the death of that TV, as I knew it (for many years.) It wasn’t monumental—just a minor event in daily life.

While I was TV-less, I composed a short blog about the painful event. It hurts the pocketbook to buy another TV, and hurts the back trying to remove the old and replace with the new. Not an important blogging moment. . .just life. So, I entered it into the posts and clicked.

Up came a sign indicating it wouldn’t work, wasn’t going to work, it was broken, too! (Blogspot was Busted--although temporarily)

One TV goes; another TV appears to continue the job; and, life goes on because of the transitional efforts. Is this the simplicity of Chauncey “Chance” Gardiner (of the film “Being There?”)

[Note: the film "Being There" (1979) with Peter Sellers was under discussion in the thread "Planet Reagan" at almuajaha.com]

Roan--RESPONSES

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(posted here, at Road of a Nation and the forum site)

1. Everyone, who expected to be at the top, is disappointed; but, almost everyone is at the top in representation. The “top” is no longer a peak where one man sits looking down; the “top” is a plateau overlooking the scene and the events from a more comprehensive view (a wider perspective.)

2. No single group got everything. The Kurdish achieved (at least) two important positions: Foreign Minister and Vice-President. The world is a busy place; but, most look up (pay attention) when an IRAQI SPEAKS. While the GC seemed to work within itself, the transitional government is speaking to the world, telling the world what Iraqis want, and need, and what Iraqis are requesting.

3. (IMHO) It is likely that Dr. Kay expected to find WMD within a reasonable period of time, discovered that there were no “stockpiles”, that finding WMD was less a process of searching and more a process of putting puzzle pieces together to find out what happened. Kay stated that he believed WMD would be uncovered bit by bit over decades; and that, he saw some evidence that WMD were taken to Syria. Therefore, after spending months searching, he (personally) felt he could be doing other things.

4. Our relationship with France appears to be improving. We will not know until we understand the (final) UNSCR draft which becomes the actual Resolution. Whether or not France sends troops (under the UN umbrella) is less important than that the Resolution is a good one; and, that “peacekeeping troops” are sent to Iraq and able to contain the violence.

THE HIDDEN MONEY

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UNSCAM ALERT:

NYTimes

TIMES ARTICLE: “Lockboxes, Iraqi Loot and a Trail to the Fed”

This is a lengthy article on the trail of the money found during the early days of the War in Iraq.

It puts the lie to “TRUST. . .BUT, VERIFY and changes it to: VERIFY, VERIFY, VERIFY!

Watching SMARTY

With only minutes to go until the start of the Belmont Stakes, SMARTY JONES has become a favorite.

There are many pasttimes for Americans; and, some years it's the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. This year, more than others, it is more than interesting.

SMARTY JONES has won 2 legs of the Triple Crown. We haven't had a Triple Crown Winner for about 26 years. This may be the year.

Anyone who watched the Preakness was undoubtedly fascinated with the speed, and the ease with which this special horse crossed the finish line. Good Luck to Smarty Jones.

[Note of disappointment: SMARTY didn't win. What a time to lose the first race! (Well, Kentucky stables have already offered approximately 30 million in fees.) We have to wait more years for a Triple Crown Winner.]

PRESIDENT REAGAN (40) 1911 - 2004

Ronald Reagan died today, at age 93. (AM)

1981 Reagan Inauguration Speech: (referring to Arlington Memorial Cemetery)

Under one such marker lies a young man--Martin Treptow--who left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire.

We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, "My Pledge," he had written these words: "America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone."

ANOTHER LINK--UNSCAM

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UNSCAM

and

THE FRENCH BETRAYAL OF AMERICA

(excerpt)

by Kenneth R. Timmerman
Publisher: Crown Forum (New York).
Expected on sale date: March 16, 2004
Copyright © Kenneth R. Timmerman, 2004.

[Note: the following is only part of the excerpt. UNSCAM has more, plus links (if you care to purchase.)]

From the very start, Saddam violated even these generous UNrestrictions. He began with the money: Saddam insisted the UN use the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) as the sole repository of Iraqi funds, perhaps hoping that his friends in France would look the other way so he could dip into the account for other purposes. When that didn’t happen, the deposits built up – until more than $13 billion in unspent cash had accumulated in the BNP account in New York. “The BNP sent the UN an embarrassed letter,” says former World Bank economist and Middle East specialist Patrick Clawson, “asking them to reduce the Iraq escrow account by spreading it across several different banks.” The Iraq account had become the single-largest cash accounts on the BNP books, and “had become a problem with their regulators,” Clawson told me.[xvii]

Next, Saddam turned to fooling export licensing authorities, using techniques that had been tested and proven by Hussein Kamil, Amir Rashid, Amir Hamoody al-Saadi, Safa Habobi and others during the 1980s. Under the guise of “civilian” projects, he imported dual-use equipment which was intended for biological weapons labs, chemical weapons plants, ballistic missile production, or his clandestine nuclear weapons development program. Throughout the seven years of the Oil-for-Food program, oil sales worth more than $50 billion was approved by the UN’s Office of the Iraq Program. [xviii] “The holes in the sanctions were big enough to drive a missile launcher through,” a former Congressional staffer who tracked the trade told me.

[. . .] The French simply didn’t consider Iraqi weapons of mass destruction a threat. It was an attitude that I would hear repeated again and again by French officials and politicians from all sides of the political debate. “Even if Saddam has these weapons, so what?” was the refrain. “He has never threatened France.” [...]

LINK ADDITIONS

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New Links: (right side)

COMMAND POST

CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (1993)

syzygyjob.net WAR ISSUES DISCUSSIONS

CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION

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1993

CW Convention


The Chemical Weapons Convention is opened for signature at a January signing ceremony in Paris; 130 countries show support for the CWC and for international disarmament by signing the Convention. In February 1993, a Preparatory Commission is set up in The Hague to prepare for the entry into force of the Convention.

CWC Article 6

Many of the chemicals that can be used to produce chemical weapons may also be used for peaceful purposes. For instance, thiodiglycol, a Schedule 2 chemical, is an ingredient in both felt pen ink and textile dyes, as well as a precursor of mustard gas. Furthermore, it may be possible to convert or reconfigure equipment in some chemical production facilities to produce chemical weapons agents or their precursors. To ensure that abuses do not occur, the Convention places reporting and routine inspection requirements on industrial facilities that produce, process, transfer or consume the following Scheduled chemicals in quantities above particular thresholds.

CHALABI (New Yorker)

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(Jane Mayer “The Manipulator”, New Yorker 6/7/04)

"I clarified the picture," Chalabi says

Chalabi tells Mayer, "There is a smear campaign that says that I am responsible for the liberation of Iraq. But how bad is that?"

New Yorker

(Ritter on Chalabi)

Scott Ritter, who knew Chalabi from his work on the U.N.'s weapons-inspection team in Iraq, tells Mayer that in the late nineties Chalabi confided to him his plans to run Iraq once America had liberated it. Ritter, who strongly opposed the war, also says that "Chalabi spoke of benefitting financially from Iraq's oil reserves," Mayer reports. Chalabi's office denies this. In January, 1998, at his apartment in London, Chalabi met with Ritter about weapons inspection. "I should have asked him what he could give me," Ritter says. "Instead, I let him ask me, 'What do you need?' " The result? "We made the biggest mistake in the intelligence business: we identified all of our gaps." During the course of their meeting, Ritter says, he told Chalabi of his suspicion that Saddam may have had mobile chemical- or biological-weapons laboratories. "We made that up!" Ritter says. "We told Chalabi, and, lo and behold, he's fabricated a source for the mobile labs." According to Ritter, Chalabi later described a clear vision of Iraq's future—with himself in charge. Ritter says, "He told me that, if I played ball, when he became President he'd control all of the oil concessions, and he'd make sure I was well taken care of." Chalabi's office denied Ritter's account, calling him a liar. Ritter says he left the meeting without agreeing to work for Chalabi.

Francis Brooke tells Mayer that Chalabi's sophisticated marketing operation at the I.N.C. was "an amazing success." Brooke met Chalabi when they both worked at the Rendon Group's Iraq project, a London-based C.I.A.-funded program to influence global opinion on Saddam Hussein. According to Brooke, the Rendon Group signed a secret contract with the C.I.A. that guaranteed the company a ten-per-cent management fee on top of whatever money it spent on the campaign. "We tried to burn through forty million dollars a a year," Brooke says. "It was a very nice job." By 1993, Chalabi had gained control of the I.N.C. The U.S. government had given more than $120 million to the group, which was cut off from government funding shortly before the recent raid on Chalabi's Baghdad home and office. Tensions between Chalabi and the C.I.A. began over financial questions. "The agency didn't know how he spent his money," one former I.N.C. associate says. "All transactions were cash." Brooke also says that he got a phone call from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in February, 2001, promising that Saddam would be toppled this time and that he would resign if he couldn't accomplish it, an account that Wolfowitz calls "nonsense."

" For his part, Chalabi says, "I think I have more of a future than the C.P.A."

PEOPLE OF INTEREST

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THE WATCH LIST (revised) ----- the persons of notice

Ahmed Chalabi—added (Iranian Code)
Mohamed El Baradei
Hans Blix
Scott Ritter
Jacques Chirac
David Albright

Robin Cook? (resigned, re-elected?)
Claire Short (resigned)
Dr. David Kelly (suicide, Hutton Inquiry)
George Galloway (faded from scene)

Cure: Watch the activities around them, read about them, try to figure them out.

THE IGNORE LIST----persons of note
(promote discord in the world, as authority figures; they have undermined America)
Former President, Jimmy Carter
Former General, Ramsey Clark
Cure: revoke the passports while they are out of the country.

DELETE BUTTON LIST—automatically deletes any statements (past, present, future)
Rush Limbaugh
Michael Moore
Cure: Instantly deaf, can’t hear you.