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After five years of daily Almanac posting, I'm taking a few weeks to put my energy into a few things that need doing, including my nearly finished novel. I might pop in from time to time, but for about a month I hope you'll excuse me from regular posting. In the meantime, you might like to use the menu bar at the top of this page for plenty more at the Almanac. Thanks, dear reader.

AWB knew of Iraq kickbacks: inquiry

Australia: "Wheat exporter AWB knew it was funding Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein's regime with hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks, and paid middlemen to hide the massive evasion of UN sanctions, an inquiry has been told.

"But the company's former chief executive, the first witness at an official inquiry into the affair, denied any knowledge of where the money was going or how the payments were arranged.

"The Commission of Inquiry into AWB's deals under the corruption-ridden UN oil-for-food program was told it was impossible to believe AWB's claims that it did not know $300 million of its money was being funnelled to Saddam.

"AWB maintains it was the unwitting victim of an elaborate ruse and had no idea the inflated trucking fees it paid to a Jordanian company, Alia, were ending up in the dictator's pocket."
The Age

"The Australian Wheat Board (AWB) is the Australian company which oversees the exports of grain, paticularly wheat.

"Originaly a government body, the AWB still acts as a single desk for the sale of Australian wheat.

"Normally a low profile organisation, the AWB made headlines in late 2005 when it was revealled that it had been, at best, careless about kickbacks to the Iraq Government. At the insistance of the Iraq Government, the AWB agreed to pay 'transportation fees' of around $AUD 300 million to a firm that it knew was not involved in the transportation of Australian wheat. At the same time, the price per ton was raised by an amount equal to the 'transportation fees' [1]"
Wikipedia

AWB website

Tagged: iraq, corporation, corporations

Nuke row: Just what is it that Iran is doing wrong?

By Alexander Hamilton

"Anyone who knows Iran knows two things. One is that there is nothing which excites Iranians as much as getting locked into hard bargaining over something they sense the other party wants. The second is that, of all Middle Eastern countries, Iran is the most nationalistic. Challenge them over what they regard as their sovereign rights and you will get head-on collision.

"The international community has managed to get sucked into the former and locked into the latter. There was no need for this. Nor is there any need for the confrontation to spiral out of control now, with dire warnings of referral to the UN Security Council, the imposition of sanctions and the scarcely veiled threat of military action, if not by the US then Israel. All this will do is to stiffen the resolve of the Iranians, undermine the authority of the United Nations and offer proof to those within Iran who argue the need for a mightier military to face down a sea of enemies. What it won’t do is to get the Iranians to back down on their present course of enriching uranium.

"And why shouldn't they? Before President Bush, together with Chirac and Jack Straw and even the Russians, get too sanctimonious and before the international community gets too carried away with implicit threats it is worth asking: Just what is it that Iran is doing wrong?.

"Tehran’s case is that, as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is perfectly entitled to pursue an active program of nuclear power. It is equally entitled, with inspection by the UN, to develop uranium enrichment so long as it is for peaceful purposes. The US and the European case is not so much that they quarrel with Iran’s rights, although they believe that Iran deliberately disguised its uranium enrichment ambitions for years in breach of its treaty obligations. ...

"Iran will go down the enrichment route. Of that the international community needs to be clear. It won’t accept anything less, certainly not after what it regards as the half-hearted offers of the Europeans to make it give up. It also needs to face up to how little it can do to stop it. Iran is too important an energy supplier to be isolated and too proud to be bullied. Invade them and you will create a xenophobic uprising, drive them into a corner and they will double their efforts to gain military might.

"The international community has a lever in that Iran is prepared for stringent inspections to make sure of its peaceful purposes. It should pursue that control for all it is worth. At the same time we should do what we should have done from the start, and have so singularly failed to do at the urgings of Washington and Jerusalem, and that is to treat it as a regional power of individual strength and worth. You may not like the regime (indeed it is pretty dislikeable) but Iran is a player in the Middle East. And in the wreckage of President Bush’s wider Iraq policy, it’s time we engaged with it as such."
Source (originally in Independent, by subscription)

Tagged: iran, nukes, nuclear, usa, un

Investigator convinced secret CIA jails exist

"The man appointed by the Council of Europe to investigate allegations the US has run secret detention centres says he is absolutely sure they exist.

"Swiss MP Dick Marty says he believes the CIA has kidnapped up to 150 terrorism suspects and transported them to secret locations in eastern Europe where they can be tortured.

"He has accused the US of violating human rights and has attacked European nations for what he calls their 'shocking passivity' in the face of such violations.

"His preliminary report is due to be handed to the Council of Europe later this month."

BBC via ABC

Tagged: guantanamo, rendition, torture, usa, cia, australia, human+rights, civil+rights

What should we believe?

We live in extraordinary times with potential for a much worse future.

The only way we can stop the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld policy of torturing suspects is to spread the word as fast as possible. So please read up on it, and spread the word, through your email address book, blogs, websites, letters to the editor and especially e-lists. Tell as many people as you can today that civilised people will not accept torture, not now, not ever.
Pip Wilson

"Hidden evidence over Mamdouh Habib's torture claims suggests the Australian Government suppressed critical facts in the case and repeatedly misled the public. Marian Wilkinson reports.

"SOON after Mamdouh Habib arrived in chains at the US base at Guantanamo Bay he was taken to the prison hospital to be examined by military doctors. It was May 2002 and the broken Habib had just spent six months in an Egyptian jail being interrogated by that country's notoriously ruthless security police.

"The evaluation of Habib by the military psychiatrist was blunt, according to a summary revealed to the Herald. Habib reported 'a history of intrusive thoughts of an incarceration in a foreign country two months prior, nightmares of beatings and increased startle responses as well as hyper-arousal symptoms'.

"It was the first of many indications that Habib had been tortured in Egypt.

"The military psychiatrist diagnosed Habib with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and a third psychiatric disorder. His 'issues', according to the psychiatrist, included 'recollection of torture he experienced in a foreign country'. The US doctors began treating Habib with antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs.

"Days before that evaluation, the then Australian attorney-general, Daryl Williams, told reporters that 'US authorities have advised that Mr Habib is in good health' ..."
Sydney Morning Herald


Google Mamdouh Habib :: Google News Guantanamo torture
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Amnesty International publishes fresh torture testimonies and calls for closing down of Guantanamo

More news from the Bush/Howard war on human rights

David Hicks denied acess to Australian lawyer
"As Australian terror suspect David Hicks begins his fifth year in detention at Guantanamo Bay, his Australian lawyer's latest attempt to travel to Cuba has been rejected.

"David McLeod says the Government isn't providing enough legal aid funding to adequately represent Mr Hicks, and the latest refusal for legal aid is just another in a long list of basic rights that Mr Hicks has failed to receive since his capture in 2001."
ABC

Google David Hicks :: Google News David Hicks Guantanamo
Track new stories about David Hicks Guantanamo – create an email alert


Tagged: guantanamo, rendition, torture, usa, cia, australia, human+rights, civil+rights

Bush advisor: President has legal power to torture children

"John Yoo publicly argued there is no law that could prevent the President from ordering the torture of a child of a suspect in custody -- including by crushing that child’s testicles.

"This came out in response to a question in a December 1st debate in Chicago with Notre Dame professor and international human rights scholar Doug Cassel.

"What is particularly chilling and revealing about this is that John Yoo was a key architect post-9/11 Bush Administration legal policy. As a deputy assistant to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, John Yoo authored a number of legal memos arguing for unlimited presidential powers to order torture of captive suspects, and to declare war anytime, any where, and on anyone the President deemed a threat.

"It has now come out Yoo also had a hand in providing legal reasoning for the President to conduct unauthorized wiretaps of U.S. citizens. Georgetown Law Professor David Cole wrote, 'Few lawyers have had more influence on President Bush’s legal policies in the 'war on terror’ than John Yoo.'

This part of the exchange during the debate with Doug Cassel, reveals the logic of Yoo’s theories, adopted by the Administration as bedrock principles, in the real world.

Cassel: If the President deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?

Yoo: No treaty.

Cassel: Also no law by Congress. That is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo.

Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that.

The audio of this exchange is available online at revcom.us

From revcom.us via InformationClearingHouse

Tagged: rendition, torture, human+rights, civil+rights, usa, bush

Congo 'world's deadliest crisis for 60 years'

"The civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed 3.9 million lives, according to a study.

"It says starvation and disease caused by a conflict, which began in 1998, were by far the greatest killers.

"The results of the study, conducted by the International Rescue Committee, a New York-based relief agency, are published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

"'Congo is the deadliest crisis anywhere in the world over the past 60 years,' said Richard Brennan, the study's main author. 'Ignorance about its scale and impact is almost universal and international engagement remains completely out of proportion to humanitarian need.' The committee found that Congo's war claimed 38,000 lives every month in 2004."
Telegraph (UK)

Congo Remains World's Deadliest Humanitarian Crisis, Study Says
The Democratic Republic of Congo - Global Issues

Track new stories about Congo -- create an email alert, or use RSS (Google "Congo")

In the Almanac Scriptorium (Congo page), we have a graphical representation of the situation -- one dot per 100 people dead

Tagged: congo, africa

The high cost of free trade

"Business with the United States looks one-sided a year after the controversial deal was done, write Mark Metherell and Matt Wade.

Australia: "WHEN the free trade agreement with the United States kicked in a year ago, Bill Rush saw his big chance. His company, Australian Defence Apparel, makes ceramic plates to be worn over bulletproof vests to protect troops against armour-piercing fire.

"The Australian-owned company has beaten German and Israeli competition to supply the British Army and London Metropolitan Police with its plates. The prospect of a $40 million-plus sale to the US Army beckoned.

"But Rush was soon to find that 'free' trade with the US isn't what it seems. While Australia has removed barriers to the US supplying the Australian Defence Force, the US Army used a legislative ban on foreigners supplying clothing or fabric to block purchase of the Australian product ...

"The pact that the Government forecast would give a $6 billion lift to the Australian economy over 10 years has produced a trade reversal for the junior partner.

"Figures for the first 10 months of last year reveal that Australia's exports to the world's economic giant have slipped while US sales to Australia have boomed, widening the trade gap by an estimated $1 billion to top $10 billion."
Sydney Morning Herald

[Well spotted, Baz le Tuff.]

Tagged: globalisation, globalization, free+trade, australia, usa, neo-colonialism

Fallen Marine's father calls for end of war

A Life, Wasted

Let's Stop This War Before More Heroes Are Killed

By Paul E. Schroeder

Jan. 3, 2006

Early on Aug. 3, 2005, we heard that 14 Marines had been killed in Haditha, Iraq. Our son, Lance Cpl. Edward "Augie" Schroeder II, was stationed there. At 10:45 a.m. two Marines showed up at our door. After collecting himself for what was clearly painful duty, the lieutenant colonel said, "Your son is a true American hero."

Since then, two reactions to Augie's death have compounded the sadness.

At times like this, people say, "He died a hero." I know this is meant with great sincerity. We appreciate the many condolences we have received and how helpful they have been. But when heard repeatedly, the phrases "he died a hero" or "he died a patriot" or "he died for his country" rub raw.

"People think that if they say that, somehow it makes it okay that he died," our daughter, Amanda, has said. "He was a hero before he died, not just because he went to Iraq. I was proud of him before, and being a patriot doesn't make his death okay. I'm glad he got so much respect at his funeral, but that didn't make it okay either."

The words "hero" and "patriot" focus on the death, not the life. They are a flag-draped mask covering the truth that few want to acknowledge openly: Death in battle is tragic no matter what the reasons for the war. The tragedy is the life that was lost, not the manner of death. Families of dead soldiers on both sides of the battle line know this. Those without family in the war don't appreciate the difference.

This leads to the second reaction. Since August we have witnessed growing opposition to the Iraq war, but it is often whispered, hands covering mouths, as if it is dangerous to speak too loudly. Others discuss the never-ending cycle of death in places such as Haditha in academic and sometimes clinical fashion, as in "the increasing lethality of improvised explosive devices."

Listen to the kinds of things that most Americans don't have to experience: The day Augie's unit returned from Iraq to Camp Lejeune, we received a box with his notebooks, DVDs and clothes from his locker in Iraq. The day his unit returned home to waiting families, we received the second urn of ashes. This lad of promise, of easy charm and readiness to help, whose highest high was saving someone using CPR as a first aid squad volunteer, came home in one coffin and two urns. We buried him in three places that he loved, a fitting irony, I suppose, but just as rough each time.

I am outraged at what I see as the cause of his death. For nearly three years, the Bush administration has pursued a policy that makes our troops sitting ducks. While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that our policy is to "clear, hold and build" Iraqi towns, there aren't enough troops to do that ...
Washington Post

Tagged: bush, iraq, war, peace, army, marines, military, war+on+terror

Chinese bloggers still persecuted

"The development of blog in 2005 is fast and influential. Compared with early years when blog was first introduced, 2005 is the booming year of Chinese Blogosphere in terms of the number of blogs, quality of posting and recognition of blogging ...

"For some reasons like censorship, Chinese blogs are very slow to adopt the grassroots news concept, or citizen journalism. The people who treated blog as a media are still very few; instead they are inclined to express feeling of life rather than political opinion.

"The biggest question for Chinese blogs is still the censorship issue. As the blogosphere evolved, so did the great firewall. Blogsome, Typepad and Blog-City were blocked in succession, and Blogspot, after a short interval, were still blocked by the government. The policy that require every website to resigster administrator’s real name, and the Regulation on Internet Information and News Services, have put rigid control and restriction blogger. Whatever the consequence of such measures are, the censorship will influence the development of blog to a very large proportion."
Global Voices Online

Tagged: china, blog, blogs, bloggers, blogging, human+rights, civil+rights, liberty, communism