The Rag Blog

As it turns out, it does not matter if Iran “stands-down” from its attempt to enrich uranium, a suggestion made by Mohamed El Baradei, head of the IAEA, while in attendance at the elitist confab in Davos, Switzerland.

It doesn’t matter because “Iran’s efforts to produce highly enriched uranium … are in chaos and the country is still years from mastering the required technology,” according to Guardian. “Iran’s uranium enrichment program has been plagued by constant technical problems, lack of access to outside technology and knowhow, and a failure to master the complex production-engineering processes involved,” writes Peter Beaumont, citing “a number of Western diplomats and technical experts close to the Iranian program.”

Of course, the revelations will not stop the neocons and the Israelis from attacking the Muslim nation, as the reason for the attack has nothing to do with nukes or any possible threat Iran may or may not pose to Israel. It’s all about taking out the next “rogue nation” on the “axis of evil” roster, a laundry list of mass destruction plotted out years ago, well before Bush stumbled into office, thanks to Supreme Court appointment.

Naturally, the Guardian revelations will find their way to memory hole in short order and the Iran demonization effort, gleefully pimped by the corporate media, will continue in earnest, just as it did in 2002, as the neocons prepared to kill 650,000 Iraqis.

Iraq, after more than a decade of debilitating sanctions, claiming the lives of more than a million Iraqis, 500,000 of them children, was no more a threat to the United States than Guinea-Bissau. Saddam Hussein’s stab at Arab nationalism, and the moderate successes of Ba’ath socialism in regard to health care and education, was considered a threat to Israel, however, as Israel likes its Arab neighbors enfeebled, poverty-stricken, ruled by greedy despots, and wracked by sectarian divisions, this would not be allowed to stand.

Ditto Iran. According to Israel and the neocons, Iran is simply too proud—the primary reason it will not admit its problems with uranium enrichment—and although the country has many a problem, not least of all the alienation of young people from an austere Islamic leadership, it irks Israel that Iran’s influence is growing in the neighborhood among traditionally downtrodden Shia Muslims, kicked around once too often by arrogant Sunni Muslims, from the Gulf emirates to Lebanon and beyond. Israel hankers to knock Iran down a few notches, even by way of “tactical” nukes, if need be.

1-James McDougal – Clinton’s convicted Whitewater partner died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness in Ken Starr’s investigation.

2 -Mary Mahoney – A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown. The murder happened just after she was to go public with her story of sexual harassment in the White House.

3- Vince Foster – Former Wite House councilor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at Little Rock’s Rose Law firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head, ruled a suicide.

4- Ron Brown – Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman. Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown’s skull resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors. The rest of the people on the plane also died. A few days later the air Traffic controller commited suicide.

5- C. Victor Raiser II- Raiser, a major player in the Clinton fund raising organization died in a private plane crash in July 1992.

6-Paul Tulley – Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotel room in Little Rock, September 1992. Described by Clinton as a “Dear friend and trusted advisor.”

7-Ed Willey – Clinton fund raiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the woods in VA of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died on the same day his wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several Clinton fund raising events.

8-Jerry Parks -Head of Clinton’s gubernatorial security team in Little Rock. Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock. Park’s son said his father was building a dossier on Clinton. He allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house.

9-James Bunch – Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a “Black Book” of people which contained names of influential people who visited prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas.

10-James Wilson – Was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent hanging suicide. He was reported to have ties to Whitewater.

11-Kathy Ferguson- Ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead in May 1994, in her living room with a gunshot to her head. It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as if she were going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones lawsuit. Kathy Ferguson was a possible corroborating witness for Paula Jones.

12-Bill Shelton – Arkansas State Trooper and fiancee of Kathy Ferguson. Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancee, he was found dead in June, 1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the grave site of his fiancee.

13-Gandy Baugh – Attorney for Clinton’s friend Dan Lassater, died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client was a convicted drug distributor.

14-Florence Martin – Accountant & sub-contractor for the CIA, was related to the Barry Seal Mena Airport drug smuggling case. He died of three gunshot wounds.

15- Suzanne Coleman – Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General. Died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, ruled a suicide Was pregnant at the time of her death.

16-Paula Grober – Clinton’s speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death December 9, 1992. She died in a one car accident.

17-Danny Casolaro – Investigative reporter. Investigating Mena Airport and Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparently, in the middle of his investigation.

18- Paul Wilcher – Attorney investigating corruption at Mena Airport with Casolaro and the 1980 “October Surprise” was found dead on a toilet June 22, 1993 in his Washington DC apartment. Had delivered a report to Janet Reno 3 weeks before his death.

19-Jon Parnell Walker – Whitewater investigator for Resolution Trust Corp. Jumped to his death from his Arlington, Virginia apartment balcony August 15, 1993. He was investigating the Morgan Guaranty scandal.

20-Barbara Wise – Commerce Department staffer. Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death unknown. Died November 29, 1996. Her bruised, nude body was found locked in her office at the Department of Commerce.

21-Charles Meissner -Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special security clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash.

22-Dr. Stanley Heard – Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane crash. Dr. Heard, in addition to serving on Clinton’s advisory council personally treated Clinton’s mother, stepfather and brother.

23-Barry Seal – Drug running pilot out of Mena Arkansas, death was no accident.

24-Johnny Lawhorn Jr. – Mechanic, found a check made out to Bill Clinton in the trunk of a car left at his repair shop. He was found dead after his car had hit a utility pole.

25-Stanley Huggins – Investigated Madison Guaranty. His death was a purported suicide and his report was never released.

26- Hershell Friday – Attorney and Clinton fund raiser died March 1, 1994 when his plane exploded.

27-Kevin Ives & Don Henry – Known as “The boys on the track” case. Reports say the boys may have stumbled upon the Mena Arkansas airport drug operation. A controversial case, the initial report of death said, due to falling asleep on railroad tracks. Later reports claim the 2 boys had been slain before being placed on the tracks. Many linked to the case died before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury.

THE FOLLOWING PERSONS HAD INFORMATION ON THE IVES/HENRY CASE:

28-Keith Coney – Died when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck, July 1988.

29-Keith McMaskle – Died, stabbed 113 times, November 1988.

30-Gregory Collins – Died from a gunshot wound January 1989.

31-Jeff Rhodes – He was shot, mutilated and found burned in a trash dump in April 1989.

32-James Milan – Found decapitated. However, the Coroner ruled his death was due to “natural causes.”

33-Jordan Kettleson – Was found shot to death in the front seat of his pickup truck in June 1990.

34-Richard Winters – A suspect in the Ives / Henry deaths. He was killed in a set-up robbery July 1989.

THE FOLLOWING CLINTON BODYGUARDS ARE DEAD:
36 – Major William S. Barkley Jr.
37 – Captain Scott J. Reynolds
38 – Sgt. Brian Hanley
39 – Sgt. Tim Sabel
40 – Major General William Robertson
41 – Col. William Densberger
42 – Col. Robert Kelly
43 – Spec. Gary Rhodes
44 – Steve Willis
45 – Robert Williams
46 – Conway LeBleu
47 – Todd McKeehan

Quite an impressive list!

WASHINGTON – From high-dollar fraud to conspiracy to bribery and bid rigging, Army investigators have opened up to 50 criminal probes involving battlefield contractors in the war in Iraq and the U.S. fight against terrorism, The Associated Press has learned.

Senior contracting officials, government employees, residents of other countries and, in some cases, U.S. military personnel have been implicated in millions of dollars of fraud allegations.

“All of these involve operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait,” Chris Grey, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, confirmed Saturday to the AP.

“CID agents will pursue leads and the truth wherever it may take us,” Grey said. “We take this very seriously.”

Battlefield contractors have been implicated in allegations of fraud and abuse since the war in Iraq began in spring 2003. A special inspector general office that focused solely on reconstruction spending in Iraq developed cases that led to four criminal convictions.

WASHINGTON — Convinced this is their moment, tens of thousands marched Saturday in an antiwar demonstration linking military families, ordinary people and an icon of the Vietnam protest movement in a spirited call to get out of Iraq.

“I just can’t sit by and watch the war continue if there is anything I can do to stop it,” said Stefani Barner, 28, of Mt. Clemens, a member of Military Families Speak Out; her husband, Robert, is an aircraft mechanic in the Michigan National Guard.

Celebrities, a half-dozen lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, and protesters from across the country rallied in the capital under a sunny sky, seizing an opportunity to press their cause with a Congress restive on the war and a country that has turned against the conflict.

Marching with them was Jane Fonda, in what she said was her first antiwar demonstration in 34 years.

“Silence is no longer an option,” Fonda said to cheers from the stage on the National Mall. The actress once derided as Hanoi Jane by conservatives for her stance on Vietnam said she had held back from activism so as not to be a distraction for the Iraq antiwar movement, but needed to speak out now.

The rally on the Mall unfolded peacefully, although about 300 protesters tried to rush the Capitol, running up the grassy lawn to the front of the building. Police on motorcycles tried to stop them, scuffling with some and barricading entrances.

United for Peace and Justice, a coalition group sponsoring the protest, had hoped 100,000 would come. Police, who no longer give official estimates, said privately the crowd was smaller than that.

Conyers, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, threatened to use congressional spending power to try to stop the war.

“George Bush has a habit of firing military leaders who tell him the Iraq war is failing,” he told the crowd. “He can’t fire you.” Referring to Congress, he added: “He can’t fire us.

“The founders of our country gave our Congress the power of the purse because they envisioned a scenario exactly like we find ourselves in today. Now only is it in our power, it is our obligation to stop Bush.”

About 40 people staged a counterprotest, including Army Cpl. Joshua Sparling, 25, who lost his leg to a bomb in Iraq.

WASHINGTON — Virginia Sen. John Warner’s words betray the guilt he still carries about the Vietnam War and help explain why this pillar of the Republican establishment is leading a bipartisan revolt against the war plans of a president in his own party.

“I regret that I was not more outspoken” during the Vietnam War, the former Navy secretary said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office. “The Army generals would come in, ‘Just send in another five or ten thousand.’ You know, month after month. Another ten or fifteen thousand. They thought they could win it. We kept surging in those years. It didn’t work.”

Is that a lesson for what’s going on in Iraq?

“Well, you don’t forget something like that,” he answers. There is a long pause, he closes his eyes and his voice gets softer. “No. You don’t forget those things.”

More than 30 years after Vietnam, Warner is once again watching as generals propose additional troops. But this time, he’s not staying silent. In a rebuke to President Bush, Warner is leading an effort to have the U.S. Senate declare a lack of confidence in the administration’s plans to send 21,500 additional soldiers into the Iraqi war zone.

Washington told Tokyo it is displeased with recent remarks by Japan’s defense minister that were critical of the U.S. decision to invade Iraq, Kyodo News reported Sunday.

Last Wednesday, Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma told a news conference that U.S. President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq “based on an assumption that weapons of mass destruction existed was a mistake.”

The proximity of the remarks to Bush’s State of the Union address drew complaints through diplomatic channels in Washington, Kyodo News agency said in a Tokyo-datelined story, citing unidentified diplomatic officials.

Reporting from inside the courtroom in the CIA leak-related trial of Scooter Libby this week revealed that former White House spokesman Ari Fleisher sought immunity from prosecution because he was worried he might have committed treason — and even fearred he was in jeopardy of receiving the death penalty:

It turns out Ari Fleischer will be the next witness, once court resumes Monday [Jan. 29, 2007]. The defense team wants to note — for the jury’s benefit — that Fleischer demanded immunity before he would agree to testify, because this might cast Fleischer’s testimony in a different light.

And here Fitzgerald makes a nice little chess move: Fine, he says, we can acknowledge that Fleischer sought immunity. As long as we explain why. Turns out Fleischer saw a story in the Washington Post suggesting that anyone who revealed Valerie Plame’s identity might be subject to the death penalty. And he freaked. Of course, if Fleischer was this worked up about it during the time period in question, that suggests Libby would have been, too. (Which again undermines the notion that Libby had much bigger fish to fry.)

Can we extrapolate from this that the normally uber-unctious Fleischer was feeling a wee bit — what’s the word — guilty?

With the prospect of a lethal injecution put to rest, Fleischer spilled the beans. In particular, he told prosecutors that he learned Plame’s identity from Libby in the summer of 2003. Now Libby’s lawyers are now firing back, questioning the conditions of Fleischer’s immunity deal:

Defense attorneys are skeptical [and] are preparing court documents demanding to know exactly what Fleischer promised in exchange for immunity.

“I’m not sure we’re getting the full story here,” defense attorney William Jeffress said in court.

It is doubtful anyone will be charged with treason in this matter, even though it is clear that exposing the identity of a secret agent was the aim of this enterprise, and that it was done on direct orders from the vice president.

In December, the writer John Le Carré along with Jason Stearns, analyst with the International Crisis Group think tank, wrote about the current situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They noted that the recent swearing in of Joseph Kabila as president of the Democratic Republic ended a peace process that had followed seven years of war. Close to 4 million people have died and even now, on average, 1,200 people a day are dying from disease and malnutrition that are the result of the war and logistical collapse.*

“But,” they write, “dubious mining deals between the Congolese government and international corporations may be threatening the nation’s chances of rising from the ashes.” They point out that 10 years ago the Congo ranked high among the world’s producers of cobalt, copper, coltan and industrial diamonds. However, now three quarters of the population live on less than a dollar a day. One quarter—15 million people—must survive on a single meal a day.

As part of the peace process, the World Bank has organised the privatisation of the Congo’s state-owned mining company, Gecamines. It paid out $45 million to retire 10,000 mining workers. While the bank was overseeing this transition, the Kabila-led government negotiated mining contracts in 2005 with three corporations: Phelps Dodge (recently bought by Freeport McMoran to form the world’s largest publicly traded copper company), Global Enterprises Company and Kinross-Forrest. The deals are said to amount to 75 percent of Gecamines’ mineral assets.

According to Le Carré and Stearns, two of these deals have been examined by the Canadian law firm, Fasken, Martineau and DuMoulin. They concluded that the share of the profits going to the Congolese government would be “minimal, if any.” They found that no competitive bidding process took place and that the price of the mining property sold was “guesswork.” Le Carré notes that for “a minimal return” the Congo regime has “signed away millions—if not billions—of dollars’ worth of copper and cobalt for 35 years.”

An internal memo dated September 2005, written by the World Bank’s mining expert Craig Andrews and sent to Pedro Alba, the bank’s director for the Congo, is quoted by both the Financial Times and Africa Confidential. It states that the deals had not been through a “thorough analysis, appraisal and evaluation” before being approved and that the assets transferred to the companies exceeded the “norms for rational and highest use of the mineral assets.” Andrews wrote that the World Bank could be seen as risking “perceived complicity and/or tacit approval” of the deals.

One of the NGOs that have followed the deals is Rights and Accountability in Development. Its director told the Financial Times that “those now in control of the process are the very same people who nodded through some of the most controversial deals of the last three years.”

Africa Confidential points out that a similar process to the sale of Gecamines has taken place with regard to the state diamond company, Société Minière de Bakwanga (MIBA). Several deals, they note, “have given politicians and managers kickbacks or stakes in private firms.” They state that many of the natural resource projects of the Congo are financed through the London Alternative Investments Market, where “inexperienced” companies “have reaped huge rewards.”

According to the Financial Times, the Congo government is set to review the contracts, but “in spite of the reviews, no substantial changes are expected.” The deal was in fact part of the peace process as warring factions of the Congo elite helped themselves to handouts derived from the sales. The Financial Times explains that the government “was seen by western diplomats as deeply corrupt, but necessary to put an end to war in a country central to the region’s stability.”

The American public and the US Congress are getting their backs up about the Bush Regime’s determination to escalate the war in Iraq. A massive protest demonstration is occurring in Washington DC today, and Congress is expressing its disagreement with Bush’s decision to intensify the war in Iraq.

This is all to the good. However, it misses the real issue – the Bush Regime’s looming attack on Iran.

Rather than winding down one war, Bush is starting another. The entire world knows this and is discussing Bush’s planned attack on Iran in many forums. It is only Americans who haven’t caught on. A few senators have said that Bush must not attack Iran without the approval of Congress, and postings on the Internet demonstrate world wide awareness that Iran is in the Bush Regime’s cross hairs. But Congress and the Media – and the demonstration in Washington – are focused on Iraq.

What can be done to bring American awareness up to the standard of the rest of the world?

In Davos, Switzerland, the meeting of the World Economic Forum, a conference where economic globalism issues are discussed, opened January 24 with a discussion of Bush’s planned attack on Iran. The Secretary General of the League of Arab States and bankers and businessmen from such US allies as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates all warned of the coming attack and its catastrophic consequences for the Middle East and the world.

Writing for Global Research, General Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy on Geopolitical Affairs and former Joint Chief of Staff of the Russian Armies, forecasted an American nuclear attack on Iranby the end of April. General Ivashov presented the neoconservative reasoning that is the basis for the attack and concluded that the world’s protests cannot stop the US attack on Iran.

There will be shock and indignation, General Ivashov concludes, but the US will get away with it. He writes:

“Within weeks from now, we will see the informational warfare machine start working. The public opinion is already under pressure. There will be a growing anti-Iranian militaristic hysteria, new information leaks, disinformation, etc…. The probability of a US aggression against Iran is extremely high. It does remain unclear, though, whether the US Congress is going to authorize the war. It may take a provocation to eliminate this obstacle (an attack on Israel or the US targets including military bases). The scale of the provocation may be comparable to the 9/11 attack in NY. Then the Congress will certainly say ‘Yes’ to the US president.”

The Bush Regime has made it clear that it is convinced that Bush already has the authority to attack Iran. The Regime argues that the authority is part of Bush’s commander-in-chief powers. Congress has authorized the war in Iraq, and Bush’s recent public statements have shifted the responsibility for the Iraqi insurgency from al-Qaeda to Iran. Iran, Bush has declared, is killing US troops in Iraq. Thus, Iran is covered under the authorization for the war in Iraq.

Both Bush and Cheney have made it clear in public statements that they will ignore any congressional opposition to their war plans. For example, CBS News reported (Jan. 25) that Cheney said that a congressional resolution against escalating the war in Iraq “won’t stop us.” According to the Associated Press, Bush dismissed congressional disapproval with his statement, “I’m the decision-maker.”

Everything is in place for an attack on Iran. Two aircraft carrier attack forces are deployed to the Persian Gulf, US attack aircraft have been moved to Turkey and other countries on Iran’s borders, Patriot anti-missile defense systems are being moved to the Middle East to protect oil facilities and US bases from retaliation from Iranian missiles, and growing reams of disinformation alleging Iran’s responsibility for the insurgency in Iraq are being fed to the gullible US media.

General Ivashof and everyone in the Middle East and at the Davos globalization conference in Europe understands the Bush Regime’s agenda.

Why cannot Americans understand?

Why hasn’t Congress told Bush and Cheney that they will both be instantly impeached if they initiate a wider war?

Jan. 24 – The White House has quietly amended a key executive order to tighten the president’s grip on federal agencies that enforce health, safety and environmental protections.

The new order, issued last Thursday, gives the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) enhanced tools to oversee and interfere with federal regulations on everything from warning labels on medicines to safety standards for construction worksites.

In a statement responding to the executive order, the watchdog group Public Citizen called the initiative “an appalling arrogation of power,” charging the White House with claiming more executive will over federal agencies while circumventing congressional oversight.

The new powers build on a Clinton-era executive order that authorized OIRA to use cost-benefit analysis and other market-based calculations to evaluate rules and regulations proposed by federal agencies. Under that order, OIRA can compel executive-branch agencies, like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Fish and Wildlife Service, to change proposed public-health, environmental and other regulations according to White House priorities.