From 4 Corners .….

FELICITY JOHNSTON, UNITED NATION OFFICE [customs enforcement]
OF THE IRAQ PROGRAMME (1999-2003):  

“It is true to say that it was
not their responsibility to carry out the pricing review. That said,
my sympathy only extends so far because every nation has
a responsibility, absolutely, under resolution 661, to ensure that
its nationals comply with the terms of that resolution. 

‘It’s been three years since the U.S. launched its war
against Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. Of course now
almost everybody knows there were no WMDs, and Saddam Hussein posed no threat
to the United States. 

Though some of our soldiers
serving in Iraq still believe they are there because Saddam Hussein was
involved in 9/11, even the administration now acknowledges there was no
connection. Indeed, no one can be absolutely certain why we invaded Iraq. The
current excuse, also given for staying in Iraq, is to make it a democratic
state, friendly to the United States. 

The Prime Minister of Australia has been requested to give a written statement to a Royal Commission.  He will be answering questions regarding possible negligence and corruption within his own Department.

Mr Howard's announcement follows the advance printing of an incriminating broadcast scheduled to be televised on the ABC tonight.  The UN Oil-For-Food program's Customs Officer says national governments are responsible for any bribes sent to Saddam.

Mr Howard has said in a media conference this morning that he will appear personally before the Cole Inquiry if requested to do so.

Selected quotes
from an
Interview: Iraqi blogger Riverbend

By Firas Al-Atraqchi

Sunday 09 April 2006, 11:41 Makka Time, 8:41 GMT

Riverbend's blog Baghdad Burning began to make waves in late 2003 and quickly became one of the most read Iraqi blogs. She offered an Iraqi woman's perspective on the US invasion and the first months after the fall of Baghdad.

Since then, her blog has been adapted into book form by UK-based publishers Marion Boyars and New York-based Feminist Press.

In March 2005, the blog was adapted into a play by a New York-based theatre production company.

The administration of President George W. Bush
is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran, including use of
bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key Iranian suspected nuclear weapons
facility, The New Yorker magazine has reported in its April 17 issue. 

‘As Morpheus explained: “The
Matrix is a system Neo, and that system is our enemy. When you are inside, you
look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters, the
very minds we are trying to save. Until we do, these people are part of that
system and that makes them our enemies. 

You have to understand that most
of these people are not ready to be unplugged and many are so hopelessly
dependent on the system, they'll fight to protect it.”’ 

 

This was sighted in an Albuqurque (USA) Stop The War Newsletter in 2004

Tentative Schedule
Republican National Convention

<!---break>
New York, August 29 - September 2, 2004

Catering Service: Halliburton
Chauffeur Service: Blackwater



OPENING NIGHT. 8:00 p.m.

Presentation of the Confederate Colors, Rush Limbaugh

8:15 p.m. Blessing of the Republican Party and Curse on Satanic
Democrats: Reverend Franklin Graham. 8:30 p.m. Keynote Address: Mel
Gibson (in Aramaic, with subtitles)

9.30 pm. Benediction and Call to Holy War, General William Boykin

SECOND NIGHT

8:00 p.m. Presentation of the Confederate Colors: Judge Charles
Pickering

8:15 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance and Anointment with Crisco Oil, Attorney
General John Ashcroft 8:30 p.m. Quadrennial Compassionate Conservative
Musical Offering of Minstrel Songs and Cakewalk 9:00 p.m. Speech:
Condoleezza Rice

9:30 p.m. Speech: Colin Powell, (cancelled)

9:30 p.m. Video Tribute: Strom Thurmond (with introduction by Trent
Lott)

10:00 p.m. Presentation of Party Platform and No-Bid Contracts, Dick
Cheney

THIRD NIGHT

8:00 p.m. Presentation of the Confederate Colors: Tom DeLay

8:15 pm. Bush Family Tribute:

??? Neil Bush on Family Values

??? Marvin Bush on Saudi Investment Opportunities for Family Members

??? Jeb Bush on Fair Drug Sentencing Guidelines and Election Laws for
Family Members 9:00 pm. Nomination Speech for George W. Bush, Ahmed
Chalabi, (cancelled)

9:30 p.m. Seconding speech, Brent Scowcroft, (cancelled)

9:35 p.m. Seconding Speech, Paul O???Neill (cancelled)

9:40 p.m. Seconding Speech, Christie Todd Whitman (cancelled)

10:00 p.m. Roll Call of States and Counting of Votes, Antonin Scalia

CLOSING-NIGHT

8:00 p.m. Presentation of the Confederate Colors, Karl Rove.

8:15 p.m. Incantation from the Platform to Open Witchcraft Trial of 9/11
Widows at Ground Zero: Richard Perle, William Kristol, Scooter Libby,
Paul Wofowitz 9:00 p.m. Acceptance Speech of Presidential Nominee (Joint
Appearance, Not Under Oath), George W. Bush and Dick Cheney

 

I came across this on a 2004 newsgroup thread, and thought that protest organisers might be interested: (Hit   ctrl +     to enlarge)

DANCARCHY REIGNS IN NEW YORK


I'm about to lead another sortie of dancing fools out into the
streets of Manhattan, so I don't have time to provide a full report.
But I want to dispatch some news from the field in media res.

(Perhaps I will never be able to give you a truly descriptive report.
There have been so many perfect moments already that it would take a
book to contain them. I will leave this enterprise with memories that
I expect to cherish forever.)

After four missions, Dancing in the Streets has exceeded my fondest
expectations. It was my objective, as it usually is, that we afflict
the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, and this is what we have
been doing by all appearances. We generally make the credentialed
Republicans we encounter visibly nervous and spread good will and
humor to most of the rest, including the police, who could well use
it at the moment. People dig it when they see other people dancing
in incongruous places. The most surprising people will join in,
falling on the dance with a kind of hunger.

Republicans were hard to encounter at first. They are being
quarantined behind the blue membrane of the NYPD (for whom my
affection and respect has only increased through this experience). In
addition, they spend much of their time inside the Garden having a
lot less fun than we were. (As several of them told us.) Levels of
engagement have increased with fine-tuning. The results vary, ranging
from the Stepford husband whom we made so nervous that he walked into
a plate glass window to the sweet young delegate from Oklahoma who
tore off his tie and joined us for the balance of the evening.

We've had many interactions with the police. They certainly weren't
interested in arresting us, though they kept us moving. Several of
them said wistfully they wanted to join us. In general they only
interfered because they are trying to maintain as familiar a peace as
they can. Major variations from standard reality worry them. But not
enough to go maximum on us.

We did have one of our members detained yesterday near Madison Square
Garden when a Secret Service agent thought there was something
suspicious about her and subjected her to a long, aggressive, and
surreal interrogation. Also, last night, we were set up on by a
dickhead cop with a megaphone who followed close behind us down the
block yelling (at about 130 db) that we should keep moving, which we
were. He'd had a long day though. We were right in an area where
about 500 protesters had been arrested a little earlier and he was
still working off the adrenalin.

Generally though, we found that as long as we proceeded along as we
danced, the cops were perfectly fine with it. It was stopping and
inhibiting pedestrian traffic that bugged them. Eventually they let
us do that as well. On Monday we found a deserted stretch of sidewalk
across from Crobar, where the American Gas Association was hosting a
"Wild Western Jamboree" and danced there for a good half hour without
getting anything but dire looks from the Republicans coming out of
the club. (These expressions were enhanced by the fact that most of
them were wearing really cheesy straw hats they'd been given inside.)

People ask us who we represent. We tell them that we are from The
Party. (And if you think the Republicans have a grand party, you
should see us...) We've been taken for Republicans several times,
and, and by sartorial appearance, we could easily pass. On numerous
occasions, people have thought we might be born again Christians,
dancing in joy for the Lord. (Now why they think born again
Christians would be dancing to the likes of ZZ Top, I don't know.)

Here is the note I sent out to the dancers after last night's foray:

Yay!

We just had another brilliant expedition into elephant country. We
encountered many of our quarry, converted a few, and made the rest so
nervous you would have thought their thin smiles might shatter their
faces. One of them said that he knew we were mocking George Bush.
"How are we doing that?" we asked. "By dancing," he snarled.

And that, my pesky friends, is paydirt.

Also a direct hit was the pair of fellows we passed at one point.
"What is that?" one asked the other. "That's happy people," his
friend provided. That recognition was common and heart-filling.

So we are psyched to launch again tomorrow. We're going to skip the
morning session. 11 am is rough on a hot day if you've been dancing
hard until 2:30 am the night before.

So we will have missions beginning at 5 and 10. As before, the 5 pm
launch will be from the southeast corner of Bryant Park. The 10 pm
foray will be from Serena, a bar beneath the Hotel Chelsea on 23rd
between 7th and 8th. Be there or miss a marvelous opportunity to
enjoy the human comedy in all its forms.

And to those members of The Party who contributed so immeasurably to
the cause of Dancarchy tonight, you are stardust, you are golden.

Rhythm and Joy,

Barlow


In any case, this is such a wonderful experience that I believe I
might turn it into a regular practice. I envision the dancing
equivalent of Critical Mass, the bicycle action. Perhaps we could
call it Critical Dance. I imagine gathering on, say, the second
Friday of every month, and dancing forth in increasing numbers.

If you're at all interested in joining us now, we have, as noted
above, two expeditions venturing forth today, as noted above.
Probably late for the 5:00 pm unless you're close to Bryant Park, but
there will be another tonight and probably a couple tomorrow. (TBA)

This is, as I hoped, a gas, gas, gas.

Yippie-ti-yo,

Barlow



--
**************************************************************
John Perry Barlow, Cognitive Dissident
Co-Founder & Vice Chairman, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Berkman Fellow, Harvard Law Schoo

 

 
‘From the beginning, there were
ominous signs that the Iraqis weren't going to play the game right. More than a
few neo-con hearts were broken by the Iraqi refusal to greet us with flowers
and champagne as we marched into Baghdad, and the snub still hurts. Just this
week, Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum and an unrepentant hawk,
complained about "the ingratitude of the Iraqis for the extraordinary favour
we gave them: to release them from the bondage of Saddam Hussein's
tyranny." 

From today’s SMH
Letters page …… 

In the firing line

Apart from cameras that should always be working, one of the key airport
security measures is to check for gunpowder residue on selected travellers. A
few days ago airport security guards stopped me for a check even though I had
not fired a gun for 40 years, but the Irish clay pigeon shooting team was
allowed to pass. 

From American Progress …..
American
Progress 

The US Withdraws Support From UN Human Rights
Council  

In 1946, under the leadership of Eleanor
Roosevelt, the United States led the way in creating the first U.N. human
rights commission.  

It's a horrible question to ask, but upon hearing that Messrs Downer and Vaille are to testify at the AWB Commission next week, and on rereading Haifa Zangwana's piece on the assasinations of academics ( currently on page 3 of Webiary home page) I was struck by one of those horrible trains of thought.

Kays Juma was a Professor of Agriculture in Iraq. He would have had a detailed knowledge of the status quo of agriculture-based aid activities in Iraq, and the fact he was also an Adelaide-resident probably would have motivated him to be aware of details such as the differences in Ausaid and USaid agriculture programs and the methodology of their implementation. As an academic he would have been privy to more information than would have been supplied to the CPA.