Archives for October 2003

No al-Qaeda connection Found: Kay US weapons inspector David Kay admitted that his team’s exhaustive sifting of documentation on Iraq’s weapons programs turned up no evidence of any link to al-Qaeda whatsoever. Proponents of the war often cited the danger that Iraq would give WMD to al-Qaeda as a justification for attacking Iraq.

Bangladesh Division Ruled Out Bangladesh told US Secretary of State Colin Powell that it would not send troops to Iraq, only peace-keepers. Moreover, it would only send peace-keepers if an elected government of Iraq asked Bangladesh for them. Since there is unlikely to be an elected government of Iraq until early 2005 at the earliest, […]

References Hirst on Syria: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/ story/0,3604,1056693,00.html Bangladesh: http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/ publish/article_5329.shtml No al-Qaeda link to Iraq: http://www.brunei-online.com/ bb/mon/oct6w2.htm

No American-Imposed Constitution – al-Mudarrisi Prominent cleric Taqi al-Mudarrisi in Karbala warned the US Sunday not to attempt to impose on Iraq a constitution that was inappropriate to it. He also warned against a sort of loose Federalism that would divide the country along ethnic lines. He went on to suggest that even some form […]

Secret Deal between US and Iran on Iraq The United States entered into secret negotiations with the Iranian regime with regard to Iraq, according to al-Zaman. It said that Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asafi gave an interview in which he detailed the negotiations. The paper alleges that Iran agreed to cease interfering in […]

One US Soldier Killed, three Wounded. Guerrillas in Sadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad, killed one US soldier from the 4th Infantry Division and wounded another late Friday. Two US soldiers were also wounded in the unemployment riots in Baghdad on Saturday(see below).

Iraqis Forbidden to work for Some US Contractors The New York Times finally broke the story on Saturday of the US rebuilding efforts in Iraq being overly expensive because there is a failure to use experienced, reasonably priced Iraqi contractors. The situation is even worse than the Times suggested, however. It isn’t just that some […]

Novak Leak Outs CIA Front Company The CIA uses fictional or semi-real companies as fronts sometimes, and Ambassador Joe Wilson’s wife used one as a cover. Columnist Robert Novak’s irresponsible outing of her as a CIA operative has now led to her company also being outed. Since other agents have presumably used that company as […]

Cook Says Blair Knew Iraqi WMD no Threat British PM Tony Blair at one point alleged that Iraq could launch a WMD strike on Europe within “45 minutes.” He appears, however, to have known that this charge was simply untrue. Former Foreign Minister Robin Cook alleges that Blair assured him before the Iraq war that […]