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Recent
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July
11, 2003
David
Lindorff
An Iraq War & Occupation Glossary
July
10, 2003
Ron
Jacobs
Dealing with the Devil: the Bloody
Profits of General Dynamics
Sean
Donahue
Bush and the Paramillitaries: Coddling Terrorists in Colombia
Yemi
Toure
Who Outted Bush in Afrika?
Robert
Jensen
Politics and Sustainability: an Interview
with Wes Jackson
Ali
Abunimah
US Leaves Injured Iraqis Untreated
Joanne
Mariner
Federal Courts, Not Military Commissions
Website
of the Day
Electronic Iraq
July
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Is the Media Finally Turning on
Bush?
David
Krieger and Angela McCracken
10 Myths About Nuclear Weapons
Mickey
Z.
Why Speak Out?
Lee Sustar
The Great Medicare Fraud
John
Chuckman
The Worst Kind of Lie
Gary Leupp
"Pacifist" Japan and the Occupation of Iraq
Website
of the Day
Hail to the Thief:
Songs for the Bush Years
July
8, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Bully on the Bench: the Pathological
Dissents of Scalia
Alan
Maass
Nights of Fire and Rage in Benton Harbor
Chris
Floyd
Troubled Sleep: Getting Used to the American Gulag
Linda
S. Heard
America's Kangaroo Justice
Brian
Cloughley
They Tell Lies to Nodders
Charles
Sullivan
Bush the Christian?
Saul
Landau
The Intelligence Culture in the National Security Age
Website
of the Day
Occupation Watch
July
7, 2003
William
Blum
The Anti-Empire Report
Harvey
Wasserman
The Nuke with a Hole in Its Head
Ramzy
Baroud
Peace for All the Wrong Reasons
Simon
Jones
What Progressives Should Think About
Iran
Lesley
McCulloch
Fear, Pain and Shame in Aceh
Uri
Avnery
The Draw
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July
4 / 6, 2003
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
The Lipstick Librarian
July
3, 2003
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Meaning of Gettysburg
Thomas
W. Croft
There Was a Reason They Called It the Casino Economy
David
Lindorff
Outlawing Subversives: Hong Kong
and the US
John
Chuckman
Lessons from the American Revolution
Jackson
Thoreau
New Far-Right Scheme: Impeach Supreme Court Justices
Stan
Goff
"Bring 'Em On?": a Former
Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's Invitation for Iraqis
to Attack US Troops
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July 2, 2003
Diane
Christian
Good Killing and Bad Killing
Richard
Falk
After Iraq, Does UN War Prevention Have a Future?
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Bush Administration: Causing Repetitive Stress
Justin
Podur
Uribe's Onslaught Across Colombia
Reuven
Kaviner
Prosecuting Ben-Artzi, the Refusenik
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/2
July
1, 2003
Sasan
Fayamanesh
Weapon of Choice: Nukes, Israel and
Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Sex and the Supreme Moralizer: Scalia
and the Sodomy Cops
Susan
Block
A Love Supreme: Our Assholes Belong
to Ourselves
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: No, No Bono
David Lindorff
Weapons in Search of a Name
Gary
Leupp
Occupation, Resistance and the Plight of the GIs
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/1
June
30, 2003
Karyn
Strickler
The Do-Nothings: an Exposé
of Progressive Politics in America
Col. Dan
Smith
The Occupation of Iraq: Descending into the Quagmire
Tim
Wise
Race and Destruction in Black and White
Neve Gordon
The Roadmap and the Wall
Chris
Floyd
The Revelation of St. George: "God Told Me to Strike Saddam"
Elaine
Cassel
Kentucky Woman
Uri
Avnery
Hope in Dark Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/30
Website
of the Day
Bush El Hombre
June
28 / 29, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Meet Steven Griles: Big Oil's Inside
Man
Laura
Carlsen
Democracy's Future: From the Polls or the Populace?
Alan Maass
You Call These Democrats an Alternative?
C.Y.
Gopinath
Bush and Kindergarten
Noah Leavitt
Bush, the Death Penalty and International Law
Joanne
Mariner
Rehnquist Family Values
Ignacio
Chapela
Tenure, Censorship and Biotech at Berkeley
Bob
Scowcroft
Bush's Squeeze on Organic Farmers
Jon Brown
Tom Delay: "I am the Government"
Kam
Zarrabi
Keep Your Hands Off Iran, Please!
Ron Jacobs
Big Bill Broonzy's Conversation with the Blues
Julie
Hilden
Fear Factor: Art, Terror and the First Amendment
Adrien
Rain Burke
The Anarchists' Wedding Guide
Adam
Engel
US Troops Outta Times Square
Poets'
Basement
Witherup, Guthrie, Albert, Hamod
June
27, 2003
Jason
Leopold
CIA: Seven Months Prior to 9/11 Iraq
Posed No Threat to US
David
Vest
Supreme Silence: Bush's Bunker-Hunker
David
Lindorff
The Catch and Release of "Comical
Ali"
Ray McGovern
Cheney, Forgery and the CIA
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/26
Website
of the Day
John Kerry, Teresa Heinz & Ken Lay: The Politics of Hypocrisy
June
26, 2003
Sen.
Robert Byrd
The Road of Cover-Up is a Road to Ruin
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Instructed the CIA to Investigate
Hans Blix
Paul
de Rooij
Ambient Death in Palestine
Chris Floyd
Mass Graves and Burned Meat in Bush's New Iraq
Elaine
Cassel
Wolfowitz as Lord High Executioner
CounterPunch
Wire
Musicians Unite Against Sweatshops
Sheldon
Hull
Squatting in Mansions
Ben Tripp
A Guide to Hating Almost Anyone
Uri
Avnery
The Best Show in Town
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
Ordinary Vistas:
The Photographs of Kurt Nimmo
June
25, 2003
Bruce
Jackson
Buffalo Cops Wage War on Pedal Pushers
Mickey
Z.
The New Dark Ages
David Lindorff
Indonesia's War on Journalists
Dan
Bacher
Butterflies and Farmworkers Confront USDA and Riot Cops
Adam Federman
"Success is Not the Issue Here"
Elaine
Cassel
"Ain't No Justice": Fed Judge Quits, Assails Sentencing
Guidelines
Bill Kauffman
My America vs. the Empire
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
You Are Being Watched:
Elevator Moods
June
24, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Indemnity
Holocaust Denial at the High Court
Roya
Monajem
A Message from Tehran: Is It Worth
It to Risk One's Life?
John
Chuckman
The Real Clash of Civilizations
David Lindorff
WMD Damage Control at the Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/24
June
23, 2003
Marc
Pritzke
Washington Lied: an Interview with
Ray McGovern
Conn
Hallinan
The Consistency of Sharon
Wayne Madsen
Commercials, Disney & Amistad
Edward
Said
The Meaning of Rachel Corrie
Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/23
June
21 / 22, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
My Life as a Rabbi
William
A. Cook
The Scourge of Hopelessness
Standard
Schaefer
The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor
Ron Jacobs
US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets
Harry
Browne
The Pitstop Ploughshares
Lawrence
Magnuson
WMD: The Most Dangerous Game
Harold
Gould
Saddam and the WMD Mystery
David Krieger
10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Avia
Pasternak
The Unholy Alliance in the Occupied Territories
CounterPunch
Summer Reading:
Our Favorite Novels
Todd Chretien
Return to Sender: Todd Gitlin, the Duke of Condescension
Maria
Tomchick
Danny Goldberg's Imaginary Kids
Adam Engel
The Fat Man in Little Boy
Poets'
Basement
Guthrie, Albert & Hamod
June 20, 2003
Walter
Brasch
Down on Our Knees
Robert
Meeropol
The Son of the Rosenbergs on His Parents Death and Bush's America
Russell
Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Grannies and Baby Bells
Norman
Madarasz
Pierre Bourgault: the Life of a
Quebec Radical
Gary
Leupp
Bush on "Revisionist Historians"
Steve
Perry
Bush's Lies
Marathon: the Finale
Hot Stories
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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July
12, 2003
Two Years in the Making
The
Mini-War Against Iraq Prior to 9/11
By JASON LEOPOLD
While the Bush administration is beset by questions
about the accuracy of intelligence information the President
cited in building a case for war against Iraq, the White House
hawks have still not fully explained how Iraq became a target
of the administration shortly after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
The administration has maintained that
Iraq had ties to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist organization
and that the country posed an imminent threat to the United States
because of its enormous stockpiles of chemical and biological
weapons, which was used as the reasons to justify the war. But
the Iraq/al-Qaeda link has been disputed due to a lack of evidence
and the weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found.
The hawks continuously point to 9-11
when discussing the war, however, Bush and his cronies, such
as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser
Condoleeza Rice and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz
were already engaged in an eight month long mini-war with Iraq
prior to 9-11, while Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network
was putting the finishing touches on its plan to attack the U.S.
When terrorists destroyed the World Trade
Center and part of the Pentagon, the Bush administration quickly
set its sights on dismantling al-Qaeda and the Taliban government
in Afghanistan that protected them. But the administration also
targeted Iraq and the public is still wondering why.
A look back at the first 240 days of
Bush's presidency will answer that question and show that the
hawks in the administration had begun to lay the groundwork for
what would become "Operation Iraqi Freedom" long before
weapons of mass destruction became the excuse for waging a war.
As Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz
said in a recent interview with Vanity Fair magazine, the administration's
claims that Iraq possessed WMD and posed an imminent threat to
the U.S. was used simply to justify a preemptive strike and build
public support for war. Iraq was not an immediate threat to the
U.S., Wolfowitz said.
Indeed, months before 9-11, Wolfowitz
said in an interview with CNN that "wars might happen tomorrow
in North Korea and Iraq," but Wolfowitz made it clear that
North Korea was more of a threat to the U.S. than Iraq given
the U.S. defeat of Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
"We face enormous conventional threats
from North Korea," Wolfowitz said during the July 28, 2001
CNN interview.
A week before Wolfowitz's interview with
CNN, Bush said Saddam Hussein remained a menace and a threat
to U.S. and international security a decade after the Gulf War.
National Security Adviser Rice, in an interview with CNN's "Late
Edition" July 29, 2001, said Bush "has reserved the
right to respond when that threat becomes one that he wishes
no longer to tolerate."
"I can be certain of this and the
world can be certain of this: Saddam Hussein is on the radar
screen for the administration." The administration will
look into using "military force (against Iraq) in a more
resolute manner and not just a manner of tit-for-tat with them
every day," she said.
During Bush's presidential campaign he
promised he would take a tougher stance against Saddam Hussein
than his predecessor President Clinton did.
Bush made good on his promise hours after
he was sworn into office in January 2001. Before 9-11, U.S. and
British aircraft would regularly patrol southern and northern
Iraq to prevent Iraqi forces from attacking Kurds in the north
and Shiites in the south and to provide early warning of Iraqi
troop movements toward Kuwait. Iraq considered the no-fly zones
illegal and vowed to shoot down any American or British pilot
caught patrolling the airspace, which Iraqi military forces attempted
to do on several occasions. U.S. and British military aircraft
would respond by dropping bombs over northern Iraq, killing dozens
of civilians.
From Bush's first hours as President
in January 2001 up until September of that year, the administration
stepped up its bombing campaigns in Iraq and increased the rhetoric
that Iraq's former President, Saddam Hussein, grip on power would
soon come to an end.
But it wouldn't be an easy task for the
administration. Intelligence agencies said they lacked firm evidence
that Iraq was rebuilding its chemical and biological weapons
arsenal.
"It's the lack of knowledge,"
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said during a Defense
Department briefing on Jan. 23, 2001. "I don't think our
knowledge of the activities inside those facilities is any greater
than it was before" United Nations weapons inspectors were
kicked out of Iraq in 1998. "We don't know what's going
on in those facilities.''
But despite Quigley's Pentagon briefing
saying there was no evidence to support claims Iraq had WMD,
the Bush administration said Iraq had rebuilt a series of factories
suspected of producing chemical and biological weapons and that
military force would be used, if necessary, to disarm Iraq. The
administration offered no evidence to back up its allegations,
but it would mark the first time the administration laid the
groundwork for what would eventually turn into a war.
On Jan. 24, 2001, the International Atomic
Energy Agency contradicted claims by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld
that Iraq may be pursuing a banned weapons program.
The IAEA praised Iraq for cooperating
with a January 2001 inspection just as Iraq prepared to sit down
with the U.N. to determine whether broader monitoring of its
nuclear and other weapons programs could resume, and as the Bush
administration made clear it will take a hard line on Iraq.
China, France and Russia, pressed for
sanctions against Iraq to be suspended. But days before the <U.N.-Iraq>
meeting in February 2001, U.S. and British military aircraft
patrolling the no-fly zones over Iraq bombed some sites near
Baghdad putting the talks in jeopardy.
China, Russia and France sharply criticized
the U.S. and British patrols of the no-fly zones over northern
and southern Iraq and bitterly condemned the bombings, saying
it was done deliberately to endanger the talks between Iraq and
the U.N. to lift sanctions.
The sanctions were never eased and for
the next seven months, the U.S. and the British intensified the
bombing campaigns over Iraq, targeting the country's air defense
systems. On Aug. 25, 2001, U.S. and British warplanes attacked
a mobile-radar in southern Iraq, and on Aug. 28, 2001 they hit
an Iraqi aircraft command and control facility.
The last assault, prior to "Operation
Iraqi Freedom," by U.S. and British military was Sept. 4,
2001, a week before terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center
and part of the Pentagon. Immediately after the terrorist attacks,
Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz suggested that the U.S.
launch a preemptive strike against Iraq. Two years later, the
Bush administration is being accused of cooking intelligence
information to justify the war.
Jason Leopold
can be reached at: jasonleopold@hotmail.com
Weekend
Edition Features
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
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