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Inside Iraqi Corruption Charles R. Smith Tuesday, March 29, 2005 John A. Shaw is a curious example of Washington politics gone mad. Shaw is a veteran government employee who served inside the White House under Presidents Ford, Nixon and Reagan and was an associate deputy secretary in the Department of Commerce. In 2001, Shaw was appointed by Bush Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld to head the newly formed Office of International Technology Security. In this post, Shaw began the difficult task of reforming government controls over the export of sensitive technology to foreign countries. In 2003, Shaw began investigating allegations of...

Here’s betting FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposal on “preserving Internet freedom and openness” doesn’t touch the Institute for Global Communications (IGC) and its offshoot the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). In Net Neutrality, Julius style, some animals are always more equal than others. While some tend to see the Internet as FoxNews.com on one side and HuffPo on the other, it’s really WorldWide Net versus IGC/APC. Plebes of the Net Unite. While citizen journalist bloggers pay Internet server fees and worry about bandwidth, for decades now IGC has been funded by the Tides Foundation.

Iraqi MP defends Lucifer10/08/2005 17:55 - (SA) Baghdad - The devil looked in on Iraq's parliament on Wednesday when a member of parliament upbraided Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari for speaking ill of Lucifer. Kameran Khairi Said, a Kurdish MP and a member of the minority Yezidi community that worshipped the peacock angel, also known as Lucifer, angrily interrupted the prime minister during a parliamentary debate. "Mr Prime Minister and ministers, my speaking out might seem strange to you, but we feel insulted when you repeatedly use the expression in your speeches and statements 'God protects us from the devil'. "Each...

"Charitable" Foundations: ATMs for the Left "Charitable" Foundations: ATMs for the Left By Ben Johnson FrontPageMagazine.com | March 2, 2004 One of the unlamented developments of this election year is the Democratic Party’s retreat to the Left. Although the media claim the party's voters have learned their lesson by settling for the “electable” John F. Kerry, a cursory examination of the Democrats shows they remain animated by anti-Bush furor. The party rank-and-file may have decided they prefer the sing-song cadences of John Kerry or the charming drawl of John Edwards to the red-faced shrieks of Howard Dean, but the message...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed the head of Iraq's Governing Council Monday, increasing fears that instability will make a new Iraqi government unable to function when U.S. occupiers hand it power in six weeks. The killing of Izzedin Salim dealt another major blow to the U.S.-led coalition, battling a Shi'ite Muslim insurgency and a growing scandal over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Salim, a Shi'ite who edited several newspapers, was in the last car of a council convoy waiting to enter the "Green Zone" coalition headquarters when the bomb exploded at a checkpoint in central Baghdad, killing...

WASHINGTON, April 24. — The USA and the top UN envoy to Iraq have decided to exclude the majority of politicians the US-led coalition relied on over the past year when they select an Iraqi government to assume power on 30 June, officials said. The latest shift in policy comes as the US-led coalition faces some contentious and long-standing issues ahead of the power transfer, the Washington Post reported quoting US and UN officials. At the top of the list of those likely to be jettisoned was Mr Ahmed Chalabi, a Shiite politician who for years was a favourite of...

<p>America shows weakness in Iraq by passing the buck to the U.N.</p> <p>Tuesday, April 20, 2004 12:01 a.m.</p> <p>One mystery of the last year in Iraq is that a U.S. occupation that is supposed to midwife democracy has put so little trust in Iraqis. The Bush Administration may be compounding that error now by abdicating decisions about the June 30 transition to Iraqi rule to U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.</p>

Probe to blow lid off massive U.N. scandal Documents prove oil-for-food corruption involving world leaders Editor's note: WorldNetDaily is pleased to have a content-sharing agreement with Insight magazine, the bold Washington publication not afraid to ruffle establishment feathers. Subscribe to Insight at WorldNetDaily's online store and save 71 percent off the cover price. By Kenneth R. Timmerman © 2004 Insight/News World Communications Inc. A team of international forensic investigators is preparing to blow the lid off the much-disputed U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq and will present new evidence of corruption at an upcoming congressional hearing that directly will implicate world...

Members of Iraq's US-appointed governing council have condemned the US military operation in Falluja after four days of bitter fighting. One member described the operation as "genocide" after doctors in the Sunni Muslim city of 300,000 reported 450 deaths and 1,000 injured this week. The fugitive leader of the country's parallel Shia unrest has demanded the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The US has declared a truce in Falluja but fighting continued as night fell. We went into pause but the enemy kept attacking us on the western side of the city - Maj Pete Farnum, US marine officer Late...

BAGHDAD, April 7 (Reuters) - Iraq's U.S.-installed Governing Council has discussed a proposal not to prosecute the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for murder if he agrees to halt a Shi'ite uprising, council members said on Wednesday. They told Reuters after meeting to discuss the violence sweeping Iraq that using more force against the young cleric and his followers could lead to more civilian casualties and bolster support for him. "Iraq could refrain from pursuing the arrest warrant in return for Moqtada renouncing violence," said one Shi'ite council member, who was speaking on condition of anonymity. "The situation would be akin...

Healing Iraq Daily news and comments on the situation in post Saddam Iraq by an Iraqi dentist Wednesday, April 07, 2004 More on Sadr's insurgency Sadr's aide and head of his office in Najaf, Qays Al-Khaz'ali, has declared the latest looting and killing spree going on in several Iraqi southern cities as an Intifada against the occupation. Speaking on behalf of Muqtada, he stated that they will certainly not calm down any soon because the Quran orders them not to; "Fight those who fight against you". And he has also made it clear that they stand united with their 'Sunni...

An Assassination attempt was attempted on the Iraqi Administer of Public Works!

U.N. Will Probe Its Oil for Food Program Phil BrennanTuesday, Mar. 16, 2004 "Mother's-milky though it sounds, the oil-for-food program has enough graft, mismanagement, and Saddam strengthening patronage to turn one permanently against both oil and food. A real critique could occupy volumes -- and does, in fact, occupy much of an exhaustive analysis, titled "Sources of Revenue for Saddam and Sons," recently issued by the Washington-based Coalition for International Justice, a group that monitors human-rights abuses around the world. So wrote Tish Durkin way back in the October 7, 2002 National Journal in a blistering critique of the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A week after Iraqi leaders put aside their differences and signed an interim constitution, differences have resurfaced. This time it's over what role, if any, the United Nations should play in the search for a government that will take over from the U.S.-led coalition on June 30. Iraqi officials and a source close to the U.S.-sponsored political process said that influential Shiite members of the Governing Council don't want the U.N. team of experts that visited Iraq last month to be invited back to help. They charge that veteran U.N. diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, the team's Algerian...

It helps sometimes to put things in historic and metric perspective. The Iraqi Governing Council adopted a constitution on March 8, 11 months after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The German Western Parliamentary Council adopted a constitution--in May 1949, 48 months after the fall of Adolf Hitler. George W. Bush's critics complain of his "rush to war" and unpreparedness for its aftermath, but the 11 months it took to get a constitution was less than the 14 months between his speech naming Iraq as part of the "axis of evil" and the beginning of military action in Iraq. What is...

British Ambassador to Iraq (news - web sites) Mark Greenstock, left, films the historic signing ceremony of the new Iraqi interim constitution on Monday March 8, 2004, in Baghdad, Iraq. The signing came after the council members finally resolved a political impasse sparked by objections from the country's most powerful cleric. Also watching the ceremony is L. Paul Bremer, the US Civilian Administrator in Iraq. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

    Iraqi Governing Council Signs Interim Constitution By Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, March 8, 2004 -- The Iraqi Governing Council celebrated today what council president Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum called "a historic moment, decisive in the history of Iraq" by signing an interim constitution in Baghdad. The new "Transitional Administrative Law" will serve as Iraq's constitution between June 30, when the Coalition Provisional Authority returns sovereignty to the Iraqi people, and completion of a permanent constitution by a directly elected parliament. During a ceremony today in Baghdad, 25 council members signed the 25-page interim constitution that senior...

<p>Unfortunately for Rep. Jeff Flake, he apparently has lost contact with his conservative roots in Arizona. In reading his column "Bush offers migrant plan conservatives can support," I noted several inaccuracies and misstatements that cannot go unchallenged.</p> <p>Conservatives and most liberals do value national security and controlling our borders. Recently conducted polls overwhelming support the enforcement of our immigration laws, including KAET-TV/ASU, GOPUSA, ProjectUSA, News/Insight Magazine and FrontPage Magazine.</p>

BAGHDAD, March 7 -- Shiite Muslim political leaders who had refused to sign the country's interim constitution said Sunday they would approve the document without changes on Monday despite concerns voiced by the country's top Shiite cleric. The reversal appeared to end an embarrassing deadlock over a U.S.-backed document that is designed to prepare Iraq for self-government and enshrine broad protections for individual rights. Officials with Iraq's Governing Council said they hoped to convene a signing ceremony on Monday, resurrecting an event that was canceled on Friday after five Shiite leaders balked at the last minute. A few hours after...

  Democracy 'Messy' but Progress Being Made in Iraq By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, March 6, 2004 – Coalition officials realize that democracy "is messy" and are not discouraged that the Iraqi Governing Council did not sign the Transitional Administrative Law March 5, said officials in Baghdad today. Coalition spokesman Dan Senor said the process for adopting the law, which will serve as the Iraqi constitution after the coalition returns sovereignty June 30, "is on track." The council unanimously had agreed to the law earlier in the week. Senor said the Iraqi Governing Council intends eventually...