Jefferson Corner

Original Post: 18 Oct 2005

Of course the world is looking forward to seeing Saddam stand trial for crimes against his people. As some simply hated Saddam and thought he was a war criminal when he started his war with Iran, I am very happy that finally he will be put on trial. GWU has an excellent resource center and I am taking the liberty to copy it here for the reader. Thank you GWU

“Washington D.C. October 18, 2005 - The National Security Archive today posted a series of declassified U.S. intelligence documents and other U.S. agency reports on Saddam Hussein’s human rights abuses, one of which is the subject of the first trial of Saddam which begins tomorrow in Iraq. The first set of charges concerns Saddam’s responsibility, along with seven co-defendants, for the 1982 massacre of 143 Shiites in Dujail, a town 35 miles north of Baghdad, after an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Saddam. Procedures for the trial are the subject of significant controversy, as reported by the New York Times’ John Burns today. The Archive’s posting gives a preview of the evidence that the U.S. government may be providing to the trial process.

Saddam may face up to a dozen trials for crimes alleged to have been committed by his regime - among them the gassing of Kurds in Halabja and the suppression of a Shiite uprising in the south. However, in September it was reported that the Iraqi government may waive further proceedings if Saddam is convicted in the first trial, a conviction which could bring the death penalty. (Note 1)

During his years in power, the U.S. Intelligence Community produced estimates and studies of Iraq’s foreign and defense policies, its military capabilities and activities, and analyses of the regime’s domestic policies and actions. Other U.S. agencies, both before and after the termination of Saddam’s rule, also produced reports on the regime’s internal activities.

The collection below contains a number of documents produced by U.S. agencies over the last thirty years concerning the Iraqi regime’s policies and activities directed at maintaining itself in power and eliminating or neutralizing opposition to the regime.”

There are a whole lots of people who should stand trail with him, not only his close associates, but all those who supported him and gave him poltical, economic and miliatry support. All should be on trial so that they neverr again support such criminal dictators. I would like to see few of our officials stand trail with him. He pulled the trigger, they gave him the gun

Share This

18 Oct 2005

Before Saddam assumed real power within the Iraqi Baathist party in November of 69, the wonder boy of Iraq used to meet almost every week with the CIA station chief at the US Embassy in Cairo. Saddam was not a stranger to the US, since he was adopted by the US at an early stage of his career. PBS’s “Front Line” had a two-hour documentary on the very warm and loving relationship the US had with Saddam.
The US continued to play a major role in mentoring Saddam and have insisted a number of Arab countries to give him this thug, this criminal legitimacy and power and money.
When Saddam started his proxy war with Iran for an on behalf of some Arab countries and the US, Iraq had over $50 BILLION sitting in international banks and Iraq unlike many of the Gulf countries had a very well educated citizens and a very bountiful agriculture and it has all the things the other Gulf counties did not have.
The US anxious to teach Khomeni, (another evil and war criminal) a lesson for humiliating the Shah and humiliating the US, the Reagan Administration was ready to go into action. It recruited a number of Arab countries to give financial support to Saddam and give him “Arab legitimacy” for his war against Iran. Of course some Arab countries, especially the Gulf States had good reason to fear Khomeni and his new and fire brand Islamic Revolution of Iran. Khomeni is as guilty as Saddam in the Iran –Iraq war and he is as guilty as Saddam for the killing and murder of millions of young and innocent lives and for wasting both countries wealth and its manpower, and for what?
Saddam went to war claiming he is reliving the glorious Arab past and claiming he is the guardian of the Arabs against the barbarian Persians. I know many Arab people went along with Saddam and where cheering him on, even when they knew the man was nothing but a total fraud and criminal.
Saddam went to war and the US was an active party to the war supplying Saddam with critical line of credit and of course satellite photos of the battlefield.
Oh, yah, the present secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld was the emissary to Saddam visiting him twice and offering military, political and financial support at a time when Saddam was using chemical weapons against the Iranian in the battle field and against the Kurds in northern Iraq.
Poor souls tens and hundreds of thousands died, without one single voice of dissent, not in the Arab world, not hear in Washington and not any where in any of the Western capitals. After all Saddam was Washington boy. He can get away with murder and he did.
Well now many years later this hero to many crawled out of his rat hall, like a beggar asking for mercy from the American soldiers who pulled him of his rat hole.
Sometimes, not really, all of the times I blame the Iraqi people for not going out in the millions defying Saddam and bring him down, just like the Iranians when they forced the Shah of Iran to leave in disgrace. Saddam killed millions of them and they could not go out and topple him down. What a pity, because they are now paying the very heavy price, perhaps much more than the one they would have to pay to bring Saddam down.
It makes me wonder about the people in the Arab world. They have no courage and no imagination to defy the odd and go out and topple all of these useless governments and criminal dictatorships. I guess, they are always used to have someone else do the fighting for them and they end up paying a very heavy price in all cases.
Well, Saddam on trial tomorrow and it must be a site to see. I hope his trial does not turn out to be a joke like the “Almahdawi court” the famous criminal courts of the Iraqi revolutions after 58. As a young boy I used to listen to these horrific courts.

Share This

22 OCt 2005

I am one of those people who defended Judith Miller, the New York Times journalist who went to jail rather to protect her source of the news.
Of course I have to admit, I was never a fan of Judith Miller, who I think is little pompous and too cocky for her own good and who of course wrote all of those great articles on weapons of mass destruction that formed the basis and gave this administration the justifications it needed to go to war on Iraq.
Judith Miller was no different from the team of bandits that was promoting the war on Iraq. That team consisted of Richard Perl, Douglas Faith, and Paul Wolfowitz and of course, Scooter Lippy. All of these people for reasons that have nothing to do with the US interest decided to orchestrate and organize the war on Iraq.
Of course Judith Miller, besides being the darling and the spoiled girl of the New York Times was also impeded with the Department of Defense, the CIA and the White House. She had an excellent inside track on what is going in the minds and hearts of all those who were preparing and organizing for the war. Judith Miller used all of these people for her headline catching stories, they used her to promote their war and she was a very willing participant, if not a promoter of this war using the front page of the NYT.
Of course we all know now there was no such things as weapons of mass destructions and we all know that when Bibi appeared on CNN with gas masks, we all knew there was nothing, when the media made headlines of Israel preparedness for Saddam’s weapons of mass destructions, we all knew there was nothing, The only ones who knew there were weapons of mass destructions are the people who are part of the security and intelligence community, who lacked intelligence and have no sense of security and who had access to all of the satellite photos and who had access to that big time crook Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi crooks who was on the payroll of the United States receiving some $300,000 a month for promoting the idea of weapons of mass destructions, and who was the key source of all of America’s intelligence.
Of course by all means taking Saddam was right, but to use all of the lies and to have these lies headlined in the New York Times is not only wrong, it is down right stupid.
I only wonder why did the editors of the New York Times did not put Judith Miller under scrutiny for her reporting, knowing where she stood on the Arab-Israel conflict and where she stood on the Iraq-Israeli conflict. One would think that editors of such an outstanding paper would always raise questions of what if and what if not?
The story of weapons of mass destructions was impeded in the mind of Judith Miller as she went out to write the story and make a good case for it, when there was nothing there.
Judith Miller should, as a professional journalist, should always doubt her sources and should always take that extra step in collaborating the story. I would think that someone who claims to be investigative journalist would go and take that extra step to make sure the story is right. Judith Miller was blinded with her vision of a new Middle East, where others will die based on her stories. Of course now she is all over the headlines. If Bush and the White House lied and others die, then Judith Miller and the New York Times lied and others died. The best thing that the New York Times can do at this time to rebuild its shattered image and integrity is to fire Judith Miller. The New York Times editors and publishers should work very hard to regain the confidence of the American people. What Judith Miller wrote about weapons of mass destructions violates the long-standing credo of “All that is fit to print”. What Judith Miller wrote is “unfit to print” in any paper.

Share This

24 Oct 2005

It is so ironic that we are willing to go to war to defend democracy and to spread the rule of law, when we at home are doing exactly the opposite, by behaving like the dictatorships we defined as the enemy.
That was my conclusion as I read the front-page article in today’s Washington Post ‘FBI Papers Indicate Intelligence Violations” by Dan Eggen.
Of course September 11, made it all possible for government security and intelligence to break the sound barriers and take many legal shortcut to get to potential terrorists. If our government was doing it job in the first place and if our FBI was doing it job in the first place and if our intelligence community was doing its job in the first place, and if we did not align and support those Mujahideens with billions of dollars, we not had September 11th. What happened on September 11th are an indictment of our intelligence and security organizations and an indictment of militant Islam that allowed theses thugs, criminals and murders to commit such a mass murder of innocent people. No one who truly confesses Islam could agree or condones or even find an excuse for what Al-Queda thugs did, and no one could ever find justification or excuses for what our government failed to do.
The Washington Post article speak of a case where the FBI continue to have a suspect under surveillance for 5 years with 16 month of this period without authorization or supervision from the courts.
Of course the FBI claim it was oversight, just like the oversight they committed when they failed to nap these terrorist before they committed their crimes against the American people.
The article also states that the FBI went ahead with it surveillance for some 18 months without filing the necessary papers. I would say this is real contempt for our courts and judicial system. With this in mind and with such a failure on our part why are we going to far away places to spread democracy, when our own freedom are eroding quickly and steadily by our government.
However all is not bad in this county, thanks to people and organizations like David Sobel and his organization the Electronic Privacy Center that sued the FBI to get this kind of information. Thanks God, Allah, G-d, Jesus, Moses, Mohamed and Buddha that we have such men and women like David Sobel and his organizations that went to court and file the necessary law suites under the Freedom Information Act to get such records. This can only happen in this country and as long as we have the contribution we have, American will always be alive and well and on the right side of freedom, notwithstanding what the Right Wingers and the NeoCons what to do and try to shape American in their ugly image.
As a matter of habit and routine, the FBI with contempt for our legal system does not file the necessary documents when they proceed to conduct their surveillance.
The FBI promised, according to the report “ we have set procedures to do the right thing” and we hope they do, so that all of us citizens also do the right thing for our country and our government. The FBI and all of the intelligence community should make it a point to be on the right side of the people. We as citizens are the eyes and ears in the service of our country, committed to its security and freedom, however people who are fearful for their lives and freedom could never be soldier in the service of a country that oppress them and violates their rights. Let us hope that the FBI live up to its mission of protecting the citizens of this country, and abiding by that wonderful documents we call “ constitution” The FBI should remember this is the great USA, not Syria, Iran or Israel.

Share This

Original Post: 25 Oct 2005

Who would ever have imagined, that a young Black women, 42 years old saying “NO” to a bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama would change history and would change America for ever.
Rosa Parks was that woman, who was simply tired of taking all of the bull and crab from Whites and who at a young age, showed she could take care of herself and defend herself with force if necessary from bully young White kids.
In those days in the south lynching of Blacks was elevated into a national past time, where White thugs, educated and uneducated all will get together and drag a young male Black and lynch him for daring to look at “their women”.
Well, Rosa Parks did not get lynched, she was able to lynch a system that tolerated and allowed legal segregation. Who in their right mind would imagine that a young Black woman of 42 years of age would be required to get up from her seat and make room for a White man? I thought in other cultures and in other countries, it is the man, who would get up and allow a young lady to sit down. Oh, I forgot, this was America of the 50’s when Blacks where allowed to ride only in the back of a bus and would have to get off the bus to make room for the Whites. It was America of the 50’s where Blacks could not even drink from the same water tap as Whites. I am not aware of any laws that require Blacks to use and travel on different roads as is the case in Israel now, where the main roads are for Jews, the secondary roads are for Arabs. Same idea.
Rosa Parks and the Black community in Montgomery decided to boycott the bus system that would take their money, the same fare as Whites and only allowed them to sit in the back and even get off to make room for Whites. 381 days made a difference.
Rosa Parks refusing to get up form here seat on the bus on that cold December 1st evening in 1955 and of course she was arrested and fined by the courts. The case was appealed to the US Supreme Court which finally, and after more than a century of segregation realized that segregation is illegal and ruled in favor of Rosa Parks. The ruling came out more than a year after the famous ruling of Brown vs. The Board of Education, which also tore down the walls of segregations in schools.
One would think that in a country like ours, it would be the legislative branch of government that will see that segregation is wrong and would do something about it. In this country, when our Congress does not have the vision or the guts to act to protect the rights of citizens, thanks God for our courts system that can see and decide on what is right and what is wrong. You can call it whatever you want, but the actions of the courts is right in any and all cases that has to do with freedoms and privacy.
The bus boycott in Montgomery propelled a young breacher with so much eloquence to the national scene and the late Dr. Marin Luther King would march on Washington and galvanize the nation and shock it out of it deep rooted racism with his famous speech “I have a dream”. Dr. King spoke for the millions of people here in this country and around the world when he declared” There comes a time, when people are tired of being trampled on by the iron feet of oppression”. Well it seems that oppression continue to be alive and well, all over the world. Thank you Rosa for making a difference and for changing the face of American, may God have mercy on your soul and my you rest in peace. You are courageous women. We will miss you. You can read a nice byline written by Elaine Woo in today’s Los Angeles Times.

Share This

4 Oct 2005

Does joining Al-jazeera new English network channel disqualify one from being a true patriot, verging on treason? I was quite surprised by the reaction I read today on OAL news section on the story of Josh Rushing joining Al-jazeera.

Josh Rushing, the former captain in the US Marine Corps announced that he is joining the new English Channel sponsored by Al-jazeera, that Arabic channel that made headlines and is giving the American media a run for its money.

More surprising are the statements made by those who see themselves as guardian of American loyalty, value and patriotism. I guess these days when every incompetent and corrupt pundit is running for cover and hiding under the shroud of patriotism, I am not so surprised by the attack on Capt. Rushing. These days, any one and every one who does not hold allegiance to the like of Tom Delay or Rush Limbo or that guy on Fox, Bill O’Reilly is labeled as traitor and unpatriotic, as if draft dodgers, and those who had “other important things to do” are defining what is patriotism for all of us Americans.

Cliff Kincaid the appointed and anointed cardinal on patriotism who runs “Accuracy in the Media” criticizes Capt. Rushing joining Al-jazeera and who labeled Al-jazeera as the station that “incites Arabs and Muslims to hate America”. Not only we now have a watch dog to watch over the media and judge their contents, we also have that other wild dog, Campus Watch, that other organization run and operated by neocons with strong ties to Israel that has a chilling effects on the class room, video taping professors and judging them on how they view Israel. Of course if they view Israel favorably, they are accurate and patriots, and if they citizen Israel then they are labeled as intellectual cheats.

For so long, we in American have only one choice to accept and see what some editors or some owners or some lobbyist or some agent of a foreign government making a decision for us on what to see. The media today, especially these days, when news, with few exceptions, is nothing more than a show, a loud mouth show, as we see on Fox and other channels. With the exception of PBS, there are no serious news media and no serious news organizations. No one can match PBS “ Front Line” and being a regular viewer of Al-jazeera, all I can say it match and surpass any news organization here in the US. Of course it does not represent the US administration and it is not beholding to neocons who get this country in trouble and split and chicken out and leave the administration.

Al-jazeera has some great shows, and of course they also have not so great shows, and some even greater documentaries, that NO American media will dare to air, and of course not all of these programs are original Arabic. Many are produced by US documentary produces, but do to the atmosphere of fear that we all feel; no news organizations will dare to air. As for journalist, Al-jazeera has some great journalist that can compete and win with any persons, man or woman on US television. They are not personalities, they are true journalist. The US created “AlHorra” Arabic TV to reach Arab and Muslim audience, so what is wrong with Al-jazeera having an English channel? Capt. Rushing, as a former veteran, I am looking forward to seeing on Al-jazeera English channel.

Share This