by WILLIAM J. KOLE
VIENNA, Austria - From the deserts of the south and west to the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq is awash in weapons sites - some large, others small; some guarded, others not. Even after the U.S. military secured some 400,000 tons of munitions, as many as 250,000 tons remain unaccounted for.
Attention has focused on the al-Qaqaa site south of Baghdad, where 377 tons of explosives are believed to have gone missing - becoming a heated issue in the final days of the U.S. (...)
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Iraq Awash in Arms Sites, Some Unguarded
1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
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2 More Iraq Arms Stashes In Focus
1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
Looters unleashed last year by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq overran a sprawling desert complex where a bunker sealed by U.N. monitors held old chemical weapons, American arms inspectors report.
Charles Duelfer’s arms teams say all U.N.-sealed structures at the Muthanna site were broken into. If the so-called Bunker 2 was breached and looted, it would be a new case of restricted weapons being at risk of having fallen into militants’ hands.
Separately, Human Rights Watch said Saturday (...) -
U.S. left ammo site unguarded
1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
by MIKE FRANCIS
Six months after the fall of Baghdad, a vast Iraqi weapons depot with tens of thousands of artillery rounds and other explosives remained unguarded, according to two U.S. aid workers who say they reported looting of the site to U.S. military officials.
The aid workers say they informed Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the highest ranking Army officer in Iraq in October 2003 but were told that the United States did not have enough troops to seal off the facility, which (...) -
On The Road To Civil War
1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
1 commentEverybody in Israel is talking about the Next War. The most popular TV channel is running a whole series about it. Not another war with the Arabs. Not the nuclear threat from Iran. Not the ongoing bloody confrontation with the Palestinians...
by URI AVNERY
Everybody in Israel is talking about the Next War. The most popular TV channel is running a whole series about it.
Not another war with the Arabs. Not the nuclear threat from Iran. Not the ongoing bloody confrontation with the (...) -
Why the coalition forces must withdraw from Iraq
1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
by Peter Dale Scott
In 1991, after the Gulf War, President George H.W. Bush proclaimed, "The specter of Vietnam has been buried forever in the desert sands of the Arabian Peninsula." But the specter he and the Pentagon had feared for over a decade, of a devastating shrinkage of U.S. influence following a military withdrawal, had always been a phantom.
That "specter," of defeat in Vietnam, proved in time to be as harmless as a Halloween ghost. Asia did not tip as predicted toward the (...) -
Why Bush will restart the draft if re-elected
1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
7 commentsA major terrorist attack could easily serve as the pretext for setting the draft in motion.
By Sen. Tom Harkin
President George W. Bush may or may not have a secret plan to reinstate the draft. But this is besides the point. The deteriorating facts on the ground in Iraq, plus the Bush doctrine of acting pre-emptively and unilaterally against hostile regimes, will soon leave him no choice. If Bush is re-elected, he will have to restart the draft.
Indeed, Bush has already imposed stage (...) -
Mideast Experts Hope for, but Don’t Expect, Easy Transition
1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
By Laura King Seeing any potential heir as a threat, Arafat never groomed a successor. Now observers fear a violent power struggle.
Jerusalem - Whenever someone close to Yasser Arafat has dared to try to persuade him to do something he didn’t want to do, the famously temperamental Palestinian leader has had a favorite reply.
"Mish waatu," he would say in Arabic. "It is not the time."
Sometimes he would utter it lightly and dismissively; other times he would scream it (...) -
Iraq : journalist says insurgency has and will use missiles
1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
Seymour Hersh gives an inside view of Iraq and foreign policy Journalist says insurgency has and will use missiles
By Daniela Perdomo
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, who most recently broke the story of the abuses at the Iraqi prison Abu Ghraib with the CBS news program "60 Minutes," gave a scathing portrait of U.S. policy in Iraq in the Terrace Room on Friday.
"Let’s begin by questioning the word ’democracy,’" Hersh said by way of introduction, hinting at what would (...) -
News Video Is at Center of Storm over Iraq Explosives
1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
By Mark Mazzetti
Reporters taped troops apparently finding munitions. A Pentagon photo implies otherwise.
Washington - On April 18, 2003, a television news crew from Minnesota videotaped U.S. troops in Iraq using bolt cutters to break through chains and wire seals on the door of a dusty bunker and finding explosives stored inside.
The video did not appear significant at the time, particularly because it did not reveal weapons of mass destruction.
But now, days before a (...) -
A Soldier Speaks PART 5: Robert Sarra
1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
This Marine was a true believer in the reasons for the Iraq war. He talks to AlterNet about his loss of moral certainty, the gift of wisdom and "regime change" at home.
By Lakshmi Chaudhry
Editor’s Note: This is the last in a series of profiles of some of the tens of thousands of Iraq War veterans who have come home bearing the scars of battle - emotional and physical wounds that may never heal unless the nation pays them the attention and care that they deserve. We at AlterNet believe (...)