***Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room - 5 JUN 03/Day 78***

Everywhere TexKat goes, or Ragtime Cowgirl transcribes... | 5 JUN 03 | null and void

[TexKat]

US soldiers conduct a house to house search after one US soldier was killed and five injured in an early morning attack in Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday June 5, 2003.

U.S. paratroopers deploy in the restive Iraqi city of Falluja, June 4, 2003. One soldier with the 101st Airborne was killed and five were wounded early June 5 in Falluja when an unknown assailant fired at them with a rocket-propelled grenade, U.S. Central Command said.

U.S. soldier of the 82nd Airborne covers other soldiers, not in the picture, during a house-to-house search for guns in a neighborhood of Baghdad, Wednesday, June 4, 2003.

A U.S. soldier from the 82nd Airborne out of North Carolina goes up the stairs of an Iraqi house during a house-to-house search for guns in a neiborhood of Baghdad, Wednesday, June 4, 2003.

Sgt. Michael Beal, left, from Tennessee, of the 82nd Airborne, uncovers a Kalashnikov in the bedroom of an Iraqi family, right, during a house to house search in a neiborhood of Baghdad, Wednesday, June 4, 2003.

An Iraqi approaches the city hall of Ar-Ramadi about 110 kilometers west of Baghdad as US soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division stand guard outside on Wednesday, June 4, 2003. Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division descended Wednesday in Fallujah and Habaniyah and neighboring towns to quell an increasing anti-American resistance.

[TexKat]

Russia to Ship Nuclear Fuel to Iran

MOSCOW - Russia will ship fuel for a nuclear reactor it's building in southern Iran even if Tehran does not agree to stricter United Nations monitoring, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said it was "actively pushing" for Iran to sign an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency that would grant the U.N. nuclear watchdog broader access to Iran's nuclear sites and information.

[TexKat]

Report: Officer Told U.K. of Iraq Weapons

LONDON - A senior officer within Saddam Hussein's army was the source for a British intelligence claim that Iraq could deploy some weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes, a British newspaper reported Thursday.

Prime Minister Tony Blair is under fire from lawmakers because of the failure to find Iraq's alleged chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, which were his main justification for war.

[TexKat]

United States Shrugs Off Appeals for Return of UN Inspectors

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday shrugged off appeals from Security Council members to let U.N. arms experts back into Iraq as the chief U.N. inspector warned against jumping to conclusions that Iraq had stockpiles of unconventional weapons.

In his last address to the 15-nation body before resigning at the end of June, Hans Blix said Saddam Hussein's government might have destroyed weapons or might have concealed them and now the truth could come out.

"There remain long lists of items unaccounted for but it is not justified to jump to the conclusion that something exists just because it is unaccounted for," Blix said.

[TexKat]

Terrorism's Man in Parliament

BBC News reported that the UK has frozen the assets of the Al-Aqsa Foundation charity because of suspected links to Muslim terrorists. British Chancellor Gordon Brown gave the order to have the Treasury freeze any British assets of Al-Aqsa. Although the charity does not maintain an office in the UK, Gordon’s order is part of the international effort against terrorism.

The Al-Aqsa Foundation is a charity, like the Holy Land Foundation, which purportedly provides aid to the needy in Muslim countries. However, like the Holy Land Foundation and the Benevolence International Foundation, Al-Aqsa is suspected of furnishing funds to Muslim terrorists.

Galloway has been a guest of Al-Aqsa’s South Africa office in Fordsburg, which is alleged to be the home of Hamas' South African Branch. Other visitors to Al-Aqsa South Africa include Ismail Adam Patel who is the leader of Friends of Al-Aqsa in the UK, and the UK supporters of Al-Awda, which is part of the Palestinian Right to Return organization and former Taliban official Nizamuddin Shamzai.

[TexKat]

Some Iraq Analysts Felt Pressure From Cheney Visits (washingtonpost.com)

Vice President Cheney and his most senior aide made multiple trips to the CIA over the past year to question analysts studying Iraq's weapons programs and alleged links to al Qaeda, creating an environment in which some analysts felt they were being pressured to make their assessments fit with the Bush administration's policy objectives, according to senior intelligence officials.

With Cheney taking the lead in the administration last August in advocating military action against Iraq by claiming it had weapons of mass destruction, the visits by the vice president and his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, "sent signals, intended or otherwise, that a certain output was desired from here," one senior agency official said yesterday.

[TexKat]

Britain Says No Asylum for Saddam’s Family

Prime Minister Tony Blair's office Thursday said Britain would not consider asylum applications from members of Saddam Hussein's family who may have committed human rights abuses. Blair's office issued the statement following claims that Saddam's daughters Raghad and Rana and his wife Sajida Khairallah Telfah wish to apply for refugee status in Britain. The deposed leader's cousin, Izzi-Din Mohammed Hassan Al-Majid, lives in Britain and says he will help the daughters apply for asylum in the country. But the prime minister's office appeared to rule out any chance of the women receiving residence permits.

"We will not consider asylum claims from his daughters, wife or any other members of his family who might have been involved in human rights abuses," Blair's spokesman said, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity. He did not say whether there were allegations that Saddam's daughters or wife had been involved in abuses. However, Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes said that if the women lodged an application for asylum, authorities would have to consider it. "As I understand, those people are not even in the country at the moment," Hughes told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "Were they to get to this country, if they made a claim it would have to go through a normal process.

"But what I can say is we certainly are not in the business in any way at all of giving asylum to people who have been in any way connected with a barbarous regime... We are not in the business of giving asylum to members of Saddam Hussein's family." Al-Majid, who fled Iraq in 1995 and was granted indefinite leave to remain in Britain in October 2000, has said that Raghad and Rana wish to live in Leeds in northern England, where he now resides, and that they hope to send their children to British schools. Al-Majid went to Iraq in April after Saddam was deposed and returned to Britain on Thursday, according to airport officials quoted by Press Association. "I have seen the poor conditions in which these two ladies live," Al-Majid was quoted as telling Thursday's edition of The Sun newspaper, referring to Raghad and Rana.

He has said they live with their nine children in a home in Baghdad without electric power. "I believe the UK government will take them in because they (the government) have always been known to protect people and give them asylum," Al-Majid said, speaking from Jordan. Al-Majid is also a cousin of the women's late husbands, brothers Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel and Saddam Kamel, who defected to Jordan in 1995 and announced plans to work to overthrown Saddam. The two were lured back in February 1996 and ordered killed by Saddam on suspicion of passing information concerning Iraq's weapons programs to Western officials.

Saddam's daughters are said to be in a safe-house in Baghdad.

Britain icy on Saddam daughters

"We will not consider claims from any member of his family who may have been involved in human rights abuses -- this includes Saddam Hussein's daughters," a UK Home Office spokeswoman said on Thursday.

A cousin of the former Iraqi dictator, Ezzaldaein al-Majed, returned to Britain Thursday morning on a KLM flight connecting from Jordan through Amsterdam. He told the York Evening Press that Saddam's daughters want to come to England.

Majed told the newspaper: "His daughters had British schools and hospitals in mind when they decided to ask for asylum -- especially the schools."

He indicated the two daughters, Raghad, 35, and Rana, 33, would need financial assistance. Saddam also has a third daughter, Hala.

[TexKat]

Germany to aid first independent EU military operation in Congo

But defense minister excludes deployment of German ground troops

By Aaron Kirchfeld

Germany has offered to contribute medical and logistics support for the European Union's first independent military action in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a speaker for the federal government announced on Thursday.

But Defense Minister Peter Struck denied media reports that Germany would provide paratroopers and engineers for the U.N.-mandated mission. Struck said that beyond contributing medical and transportation airplanes to transport troops and goods from an airport in neighboring Uganda, and sending officers to the French headquarters in Paris, Germany would not supply combat troops.

“That's all that Germany can afford and also what Germany was asked for,“ Struck said, adding that the EU's first non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization military operation “is not an anti-NATO-action, it is a pro-Europe-action.“

The French-led 1,400-strong army intervening in the ethnic conflict in northeastern Congo's Ituri region, approved by the 15 governments of the EU on Wednesday, is seen by many as a political move to assert a common EU military policy. Germany has said that with almost 9,000 Bundeswehr soldiers currently stationed in Afghanistan, the Balkans, and the Horn of Africa, it would be overextended if it were to send troops to the gold-mine region of Ituri, where a four-year long feud between Hema and Lendu militias has, in the last two weeks, led to more than 500 civilian deaths according to reports.

Bundeswehr military experts have signaled that the army is not adequately trained for these dangerous types of operations, in contrast to soldiers from former Congo colonial countries France, which will send a 1,000 troops, and Belgium, which will contribute another 60.

EU leaders have said that the goal is to create enough stability for humanitarian organizations to operate, but the brutal conflict that Unicef says includes thousands of child soldiers and a history of neighboring countries fighting for influence in the mineral-rich area, makes the situation extremely volatile.

“The Balkans and Afghanistan were completely different; the factions there had stopped fighting. In Congo they are still at it,“ retired German army general Klaus Reinhardt said in an interview Tuesday. “It's not right to send in forces first and then think up the objectives afterwards.“ The new U.N. mandate, which was approved by the Security Council last Friday, foresees the EU forces taking over from the current 750 “blue helmet“ soldiers from Uruguay until Sept. 1, when U.N. soldiers, most likely from Bangladesh, will be brought in.

The first EU soldiers are expected in the city of Bunia this weekend to begin the operation, which is the first EU military operation outside of Europe. A German parliamentary mandate is required for German involvement, but approval is expected as long as German ground troops are excluded from the mission. Jun. 6

[TexKat]

Germany favors new EU security doctrine

But country's leading researchers caution against imitating U.S. policy

The German government looks set to approve a new security doctrine that would align the spirit of the European Union's military policy with that of the United States. But the country's five “peace research“ institutes warned the EU Wednesday to refrain from any transatlantic arms race.

“Europe can advocate its vision of law and global cooperation by setting an example, employing convincing policies and using its economic impact, but not as a countervailing military power to the United States,“ Corinna Hauswedell of the Bonn International Center for Conversion, under whose auspices the report was published, told F.A.Z. Weekly.

The new EU proposal, which is expected to be presented this month, reportedly outlines the need to fight the spread of weapons of mass destruction and explicitly includes the use of military force as a means of preventing their proliferation.

The report argues that the new U.S. security strategy presented last autumn, which includes preemptive attacks against potentially threatening countries and organizations, adds to global insecurity rather than creating a favorable environment for solving conflicts. “The Iraq war severely damaged one of the foundations of international law. Such breach of law mustn't reoccur. ... Preemptive wars are to be condemned.“

Regarding the policy guidelines presented by Defense Minister Peter Struck at the end of May, Hauswedell said that she hoped to spark a public debate on the role of the armed forces in Germany. Struck announced that he would shift the focus of the Bundeswehr armed forces to “the prevention of conflicts and crises, the common management of crises and post-crisis rehabilitation.“ Hauswedell said: “It is a realistic assessment to say that the old concept of national defense is outdated, but one shouldn't equate missions like the deployment to the Congo under a U.N. mandate with anti-terrorism strikes. Some 80 percent of all effective anti-terrorism measures since Sept. 11 are attributed to police and intelligence work and not military action.“

Hauswedell went on to say that she did not expect the European Union to agree on a defense strategy similar to the U.S. doctrine that would allow preemptive strikes. “There won't be any consensus for that within the EU,“ she said.

Jun. 6

[TexKat]

Hostages' vehicles found

The Algerian army has found four motorcycles and an all-terrain vehicle belonging to some of the 15 European tourists still missing and believed held by an Islamic group, but there is still no trace of the hostages, officials said. The army said soldiers were led to the vehicles, in a remote desert region some 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of the southern city of Illizi, by members of the nomadic Tuareg people.

The hostages, who include 10 Germans, are being kept together in one location that is known to security officials, Algerian President Bouteflika said during a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, contradicting reports that they had been separated into smaller groups after an army raid freed 17 other Europeans on May 19. Bouteflika suggested negotiations with the kidnappers were not being ruled out. The hostages, who belonged to seven different groups of tourists, were seized between late February and late April while on trips across a desert trail through southern Algeria. mig

Jun. 6

[firewalk]

Thanks (-:

[RightWingMama]

This has been a surreal day...first Raines and Boyd resign, next the Guardian retracts, media at fever pitch with Shrillery's book...what's next?

Oh, I don't know....how bout The Bent One running for Gov. of California or New York???

[TexKat]

Canada's Spies Warn of Growing Weapons Threat

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Islamic extremists with weapons of mass destruction pose an increasing danger to Canada, although the immediate threat remains low, the country's spy agency warned on Thursday.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service said Ottawa's efforts to fight terrorism, including sending troops to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, "has not gone unnoticed" by extremist groups such as al Qaeda.

"The service is aware of emerging terrorist threats and tactics that could have severe consequences for Canadians," CSIS warned in its annual report on security threats.

[TexKat]

A Senator Alert!!

"Truthfulness" of US president on the line over absent Iraqi WMDs: Byrd

WASHINGTON (AFP) Jun 05, 2003 Senator Robert Byrd -- one of the most outspoken critics of US policy in Iraq -- welcomed calls Thursday for a congressional probe into US troops' not having found weapons of mass destruction there, and called into question President George W. Bush's "truthfulness" on the matter. "What amazes me is that the president himself is not clamoring for an investigation," Byrd said from the floor of the Senate.

"It is his truthfulness that is being questioned. It is his integrity that is on the line," the West Virginia Democrat said.

"Yet he has raised no question, expressed no curiosity, about the strange turn of events in Iraq -- expressed no anger at the possibility that he might have been misled."

"How is it that the president who was so adamant about the dangers of WMD, has expressed no concern about the whereabouts of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?" Byrd said.

Byrd, 85, the longest serving member of the senate -- has served in congress' upper chamber 1959, and served in the US House of Representatives for several years before that.

He is not known for being particularly liberal, having belonged once to the anti-integrationist Ku Klux Klan, nor as a pacifist, having been a staunch supporter of the US war in Vietnam.

Yet the conservative southern Democrat has become an unlikely hero of anti-war and anti-occupation forces who have e-mailed copies of his florid tirades decrying the US-led war and its postwar management of Iraq around the globe.

In one of his most controversial rants, Byrd slammed Bush for donning a military flight jacket while greeting victorious US troops on an aircraft carrier immediately after the completion of the war.

"I do not begrudge his salute to America's warriors," Byrd said.

"But I do question the motives of a desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech," he said.

In Thursday's speech he said he was worried that weapons of mass destruction might indeed have been in Iraq's possession recently, but may now be in the hands of terrorists or another nations hostile to US interests.

"The belligerent stance of the United States may have convinced Saddam Hussein to sell of disperse his weapons to dark forces outside of Iraq," he said.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

You overslept!

Good. (^;

US Mobilizes For Offensive Against Saddam Loyalists [Sunnis Attack 3rd Cavalry]
World Tribune Breaking News ^ | June 5, 2003 | David McKernian

Posted on 06/05/2003 3:20 PM EDT by ewing

The United States military has launched a search and destroy offensive against Sunni fighters loyal to deposed President Saddam Hussein.

Thousands of troops from the US 3rd Infantry Division have been deployed in two Iraqi cities.

One force, the size of two battalions, arrived in Falujah, some 65 kilometers west of Baghdad, on Wednesday.

Another task force was deployed around two military airfields in the area of Habbaniyah.

Falujah and Habbaniyah are major transit points from Baghdad to the Syrian border and are said to contain thousands of Saddam loyalists who fled the Iraqi capital during the war.

Sunni insurgents have repeatedly attacked forced from the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, Middle East Newsline reported.
Excerpted - click for full article ^

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Some history re. Falluja:

Iraq Rebuilt Weapons Factories, Officials Say 

Source: New York Times
Published: 1/22/01

 

By STEVEN LEE MYERS and ERIC SCHMITT

ASHINGTON, Jan. 21 — Iraq has rebuilt a series of factories that the United States has long suspected of producing chemical and biological weapons, according to senior government officials. The new intelligence estimate could confront President Bush with an early test of his pledge to take a tougher stance against President Saddam Hussein than the Clinton administration did.

The factories — in an industrial complex in Falluja, west of Baghdad — include two that were bombed and badly damaged by American and British air raids in December 1998 to punish Mr. Hussein for his refusal to cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors, the government officials said.

The new intelligence estimates were mentioned, but without any such specific details, in a report on weapons threats released on Jan. 10 by the outgoing secretary of defense, William S. Cohen. It warned that Iraq had rebuilt at least its weapons infrastructure and may have begun covertly producing some chemical or biological agents.

Last week, the officials provided details on what they said was the reconstruction of the two factories, and the resumption of the production of chlorine at a third in the same complex.

The factories have ostensibly commercial purposes, but all three were previously involved in producing chemical or biological agents and were among those closely monitored by the United Nations inspectors, the officials said. One of the rebuilt factories, for example, is making castor oil used in brake fluid, the Iraqis say, but the mash from castor beans contains a deadly biological toxin called ricin, the officials said.

~~~~

While officials have previously disclosed that Iraq had rebuilt missile plants destroyed in the 1998 strikes, the Jan. 10 report released by Mr. Cohen was the first public acknowledgment of the resumption of work at suspected chemical and biological plants.

"Some of Iraq's facilities could be converted fairly quickly to production of chemical weapons," the report said at one point. It went on to warn, "Iraq retains the expertise, once a decision is made, to resume chemical agent production within a few weeks or months, depending on the type of agent."

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Bush Praises Coalition Troops During Qatar Visit

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2003 – President Bush thanked coalition service members for enlarging "the realm of liberty" during a stop in Qatar today.

Bush spoke to American, British, Australian and Polish service members at the base that served as a headquarters for U.S. Central Command during Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was the last stop of a trip that took him to Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

In 100-degree heat, Bush praised the U.S. soldiers, saying that America had sent them on a mission "to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished."

Bush also addressed the fact that coalition forces have not found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction yet. "We're on the look," Bush said. "We'll reveal the truth."

Bush pledged that Iraq will not serve as an arsenal for terrorists. "We recently found two mobile biological weapons facilities which were capable of producing biological agents," he said.

Saddam Hussein "is a man who spent decades hiding tools of mass murder," the president noted. "He knew the inspectors were looking for them. You know better than me he's got a big country in which to hide them."

He told the service members that each is a credit to the United States and that America is proud of them. "We are in a war on global terror, and because of you, we're winning the war on global terror," he said.

The president pointed out that they have performed brilliantly in all aspects of the war of terror. "In Afghanistan, forces directed from here (in) Qatar, … you delivered decisive blows against the Taliban and against al Qaeda," he said. "And now the people of Afghanistan are free."

In praising the men and women who served in Afghanistan, with Combined Joint Task Force–Horn of Africa and in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Bush said their commitment has made it clear that the United States will hunt terrorists down.

"Our actions sent a long, clear message that our nation is strong and our nation is compassionate," he said. "And we also sent another clear message: Dictators can no longer shield themselves behind innocent people. Those who threaten the security of others now need to worry about their own."

Bush told the service members that there is a lot of work left to do in Iraq, and the United States will stay the course. "We will stand with them as they build a stable democracy and a peaceful future," he said.

He said U.S. forces will take aggressive steps to increase order throughout Iraq and will remove Baathist officials from positions of power and influence.

U.S. and coalition officials will continue to work on the Iraq's infrastructure. "We also understand that a more just political system will develop when people have food in their stomachs, and their lights work, and they can turn on a faucet and they can find some clean water – things that Saddam did not do for them," he said.

"See, he spent more time building luxurious palaces than he did in building an infrastructure to take care of the Iraqi citizens. And the United States and our friends and allies will first take care of the Iraqi citizens."

Bush said he was encouraged that oil is beginning to flow out of Iraq, giving the citizens of the country money to fund a special account on behalf of the Iraqi people rather than being skimmed off by "greedy gangsters."

Bush remembered those who died in the operation to liberate Iraq. "We fight for freedom, and we sacrifice for freedom, and we have lost some of our finest," he noted. He told the service members that those who died served more than just the United States, but the cause of freedom.

"Because of you, America and our friends and allies, those of us who love freedom are now more secure," the president said. "You have justified the confidence that your country has placed in you. You've served your country well. Your commander in chief is grateful. And as importantly, more importantly, millions of American citizens are grateful for what you have done. You believe in America and America believes in you."

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Re. the "world hates America" story all over the news yesterday:

Tim Blair kindly provides more proof that the international/nation press are wankers. VLWC - or mindless, bitter, partisan lemmings - you be the judge.

 "Although anti-US sentiment has waned since March in the 20 countries surveyed.... "

The world LIKES us MORE today than it did before the war.

[Gabrielle Reilly]

>>>>>For the majority of Americans who depend on corporate media for their daily news, this monolithic news structure creates intellectual celibacy, inaction and fear. The result is a docile population, whose principal function within society is to simply shut-up and go shopping. The powerful would like us quiet and consumptive and the corporate media is delivering that message on a daily basis. >>>>>>

Coming from a society without tv or commercialism, many people do not realize how much that influences all of their life. Lives revolve around corporate marketing and fear based selling. It is indeed incredible watching how it is interwoven into the fabric of society.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Chirac The Wimp
Washington Dispatch ^ | June 5, 2003 | Frank Salvato
~~~
Repeating his opinion that the action taken in Iraq was “illegitimate and illegal”, Chirac extolled his arrogance during a press conference given a day after President Bush left for a summit in Jordan that would kick-start the Middle East peace process. What everyone shouldn’t be amazed at is the fact Chirac is displaying his uncanny ability to say one thing and do another, an art form that he has brought to new heights in his quest for the ultimate hypocrisy.

Chirac is a frustrated but committed socialist, the economic and cultural turmoil in his own country stands as testimony to that failed ideal. It is no secret his vision for France is to be the counter-balance to American influence in Europe and throughout the world. It is for this very reason that he spearheaded the campaign to sidetrack the American led initiative to confront Saddam Hussein, that, and to cover-up the fact that his administration had been illegally doing business with the brutal dictator’s regime despite UN sanctions forbidding it. His sentiment is devoutly anti-American while his resolve is weak. He allows himself to be viewed by the world as a leader who only stands on the soapbox of opinion while no one of influence is in his proximity.

~~~