MOHAMED ATTA WORKED FOR ELITE U.S.—GERMAN GOVERNMENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM
Tariq Aziz in US Custody
WASHINGTON, April 24 -- Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has been taken into US custody, local television reports said Thursday.The reports quoted US defense officials as saying that Aziz is in US custody. US Central Command headquarters in Qatar has yet to confirm the reports.It was unclear whether Aziz, ranking 43 on Washington's list of55 most wanted Iraqi officials, surrendered to the US forces in Iraq or was caught by the forces. ABC television said he had givenhimself up. Aziz, who served as Iraqi foreign minister during the 1991 Gulfwar, was widely perceived as the speaker of the Iraqi government of President Saddam Hussein, but not considered one of the inner-circle decision-makers.
MOHAMED ATTA WORKED FOR ELITE U.S.—GERMAN GOVERNMENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM
world exclusive by Daniel Hopsicker copyright 2003 MadCowMorningNews
VENICE, FL—April 24 For at least four years while living in Hamburg during the 1990’s terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta was part of a 'joint venture' between the U.S. and German Governments, the MadCowMorningNews has learned, an elite international “exchange” program run by a little-known private organization with close ties to powerful American political figures like David Rockefeller and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, reported MadCowMorning News
"The jointly-funded government effort picked up the tab for Atta on sojourns in Cairo, Istanbul, and Aleppo in Syria during the years 1994 and 1995 and employing him as a “tutor” and “seminar participant” during 1996 and 1997.," the report said. Moreover Atta’s financial relationship with the U.S.—German government effort, known as the may even extend back to his initial move from Egypt to Germany in 1992, after being “recruited” in Cairo by a mysterious German couple dubbed the “hijacker’s sponsors” in a recent news account in the Chicago Tribune.
In the years before he became a ‘terrorist ringleader,’ Atta was enjoying the patronage of a government initiative overseen by the U.S. State Department and the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, the German equivalent of the U.S. Agency currently supervising the secretive bidding race for tens of billions of dollars of post-war reconstruction contracts in Iraq, the Agency for International Development. Full Report
US says shots at journalists' Baghdad hotel "justified"
MADRID, April 24 -- The United States told Spain on Thursday that the shots American forces fired more than two weeks ago at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel which killed two journalists, including a Spaniard, was a "justified" defense act.In a letter to the Spanish Foreign Ministry, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said US forces were ordered to defend themselves against any threat.
"The use of force was justified in view of hostile fire that seemingly came from the spot identified as Palestine Hotel," Powell said. On April 8, US tanks fired at the Palestine Hotel, an international media center in Baghdad, killing two cameramen, Spaniard Jose Couso, of Telecinco Channel, and Ukrainian Taras Protsyuk, of the British news agency, Reuters. Three other Reutersmembers were injured.
Some journalists staying in the hotel said the attack was deliberately launched in revenge for the news footage of Iraqi civilians killed during US bombings, which was broadcast worldwide. The journalists said they never heard any shots fired from the hotel. The governments of Spain and Ukraine had asked Washington to explain the attack on the hotel. Spain and Ukraine supported the military operation of US-British forces in Iraq and the ousting of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Iran refutes US charges of interference in Iraq
TEHRAN, April 24 -- Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi Thursday refuted US charges that Tehran is interfering in Iraq by sending agents to southern Iraq to "destabilize the shiite population".At a joint press conference with his visiting French counterpartDominique de Villepin, who arrived in Tehran early Thursday for a one-day visit, Kharrazi said "it is very interesting that Americanshave occupied Iraq and are now accusing its neighbor of interferingin that country."
He was referring to an allegation by US Defense Secretary DonaldRumsfeld that agents trained and equipped in Iran had infiltrated into Shiite-dominated southern Iraq, with the aim of expanding Iran's influence among the Iraqi Shiites.Kharrazi and De Villepin held official talks on Thursday, focusing on bilateral relations, Iraq's reconstruction and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
De Villepin stressed that Iraq's territorial integrity should bemaintained and the United Nations should play a "pivotal role" in Iraq's reconstruction."Iraq's neighbors, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran, can play an important role in Iraq's reconstruction," De Villepin said
US forces to stay as long as necessary in Iraq: Bush
US President George W. Bush said Thursday that the US forces would remain in Iraq as long as necessary and suggested that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein might have been killed or wounded. Asked if that could take as long as two years during an exclusive interview with NBC's "Nightly News" program, Bush said: "It could ... or less. Who knows?" Bush said US forces were laying foundation for a democratic Iraq and "we want to leave as soon as we've accomplished our mission." "People wonder if Saddam Hussein is dead or not. There's some evidence that suggests he might be," Bush said. "We would never make any declaration until we were more certain."
"But the person that helped direct the attacks believes that Saddam at very minimum was severely wounded," he said. The US leader also warned Iran against interfering with Iraqi politics. "We certainly hope that Iran will allow Iraq to develop into a stable and peaceful society," he said. "We have sent the word to the Iranians that that's what we expect."
US journalist charged with smuggling stolen Iraqi paintings
WASHINGTON, April 23 -- A US television news engineer faces smuggling charges after being caught with stolen Iraqi paintings when he returned from Iraq, federal officials said Wednesday. Benjamin James Johnson, an employee of Fox News, was arrested at Dulles Airport near Washington last Thursday after he was foundwith paintings of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and one of his sons, Uday Hussein.
An affidavit filed with a criminal complaint against him said Johnson, who was "embedded" with US troops in Iraq, gathered up the paintings at a palace belonging to Uday. The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that US Customs agents have seized paintings and military weapons from returning US journalists in the past several days.
Museums, offices and homes were widely looted in Baghdad over two days following the fall of the city. Thousands of antiquities were stolen from the Iraqi National Museum, which housed a priceless collection dating back 7,000 years to the Sumerian civilization. Meanwhile, a commanding officer of US forces in Iraq said Wednesday that five American soldiers were investigated for possible involvement of the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a cache of money in Iraq. No one has been charged.
BBC leader criticizes US coverage of war against Iraq
LONDON, April 24 -- BBC Director-General Greg Dyke said Thursday that many US television coverage of Iraq war had lacked impartiality and risked losing credibility if they continued in this way."Personally I was shocked while in the United States by how unquestioning the broadcast news media was during this war," he told a conference at the University of London.
"If Iraq proved anything, it was that the BBC cannot afford to mix patriotism and journalism. This is happening in the United States and if it continues, will undermine the credibility of the US electronic news media," he said in a speech.Dyke singled out Fox News, the most popular US cable news network during the war, for its "gung-ho patriotism."
"We are still surprised when we see Fox News with such a committed political position," said Dyke.Dyke said he believed many American broadcasters had shied awayfrom criticizing the pro-war stance of President George W. Bush because they feared appearing unpatriotic, particularly in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.Meanwhile, he urged British broadcasters to retain their impartiality and not to become "Americanized."
"Far from wanting a narrow, pro-American agenda, there is a real appetite in the US for the BBC's balanced, objective approach," he said. "For the health of our democracy, it's vital we don't follow the path of many American networks," he announced.
The state-funded BBC was among British media outlets criticizedby some lawmakers earlier this month for airing comments and claims by Iraqi officials alongside those of British leaders. Dyke defended the BBC in the face of accusations that the broadcaster had been soft on Saddam Hussein's government, some of which came from the British government."In times of war, British governments of every persuasion have sought to use the media to manage public opinion...it's only a problem if the BBC caves in," Dyke said.
US forces worse than Saddam, Iraqi Shiite leader charges
A prominent Iraqi Shiite cleric, saying he was detained and beaten by US forces, charged that American methods were "worse" than those employed by the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein."Our arrest by the Americans was worse than the arrests that Saddam ordered against our students," Sheikh Mohammed al-Fartusi told Abu Dhabi television.Full Report
CIA: Hizbullah cells in U.S. could strike if Syria pressed
Wednesday, April 23, 2003U.S. agencies have warned that Hizbullah has been recruited by Syria to prepare massive retaliatory attacks in any confrontation between Damascus and Washington, reported World Tribune.
U.S. officials said the CIA and State Department have warned that Iran and Syria could employ Hizbullah to launch attacks against U.S. interests in the Europe, the Middle East and North America. They said the Shi'ite movement is seen as more entrenched in the West than Al Qaida and could have up to 12 cells in the United States alone.
"It has a significant presence of its trained operatives inside the United States waiting for the call to action," Sen. Bob Graham, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said. "In recent years they have been infiltrating into this core in the United States ? people who have gone through their training camps and have the skills of terrorist activity."
Israel Perhaps the Major Beneficiary of U.S.-led Invasion
Analysis - By N Janardhan
DUBAI, Apr 23 (IPS) - It is the U.S.-led forces that occupy Iraq after invading it more than a month ago, but the biggest beneficiary of Gulf War III - without firing a bullet - is Israel, say Middle East analysts.Notwithstanding the political and economic interests that the United States had in targeting Iraq, says Umaimmah al-Jalahmmah, ”the Jews were the driving force behind the war, with powerful pro-Israel lobbies in Washington seeking the destruction of one of the main threats to the Jewish state.”Al-Jalahmmah is professor of Islamic studies at King Faisal University in Saudi Arabia.
PV Vivekanand, chief editor of 'The Gulf Today' newspaper, agrees when he speaks of ”the marriage between the Jewish lobby in the United States and the symbols of Christian extremism in Washington.” The two Middle East specialists see themselves vindicated by the views expressed in the now-famous white paper written in 1996 for the then Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu - titled 'A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm' - in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. Full Report
US recruits Ba’athist police and functionaries for new Iraqi state
The widespread reinstatement by the US military of Iraqi police and functionaries in Baghdad and other cities is further verification that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with “liberation” or democracy. The Bush administration intends to enforce the US occupation of the country with substantial elements of Saddam Hussein’s repressive apparatus.
Some 2,000 Iraqi police are already back on the streets of Baghdad, with thousands more returning to the streets of other cities and towns. A newly reemployed police captain, Moshtaq Fadhel, bluntly summed up to USA Today his policing philosophy: “In Iraq you can’t get any information without giving a beating.” The US military has appointed Zuhair Al-Noaime as the city’s police chief. Noaime joined the Iraqi police in 1966 and held the rank of general before the US invasion. According to an account in the British Independent of April 21, “neighborhood watches” operating in Baghdad are, in fact, the former informer networks of the Ba’athist political police, the Mukhabarat. An Iraqi policeman told the newspaper: “Maybe they have found another master.” More
More than half of Iraq's top 'weapons sites' searched with no result
American forces are changing their search strategy after coming up empty at most of the top suspected weapons sites in Iraq, officials said Wednesday.And the White House appeared to be trying to scale back expectations that weapons of mass destruction will be found. Troops on the ground have searched more than 80 sites that prewar U.S. intelligence judged the most likely hiding places for chemical and biological weapons as well as evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program, Defense Department officials said on condition of anonymity. Full Report
Israel's Secret Weapon
The United States and Britain are preparing to wage war on Iraq, for its undisclosed weapons of mass destruction. Israel's nuclear, biological and chemical capabilities have remained un-inspected.Meanwhile Mordechai Vanunu has been imprisoned for 16 years for exposing Israel's secret nuclear bomb factory to the world. Vanunu is seen as a traitor in his own country. He has been abandoned by most of his family and has spent 11 years in solitary confinement. Today only an American couple, who have legally adopted him, are among the few visitors he is permitted. This film is the story of the bomb, Vanunu and Israel's wall of silence Full Report
