Bush's fake sheikh whacked

A special investigative report from inside Iraq by Greg Palast

"Did you see George all choked up? In his surreal TV talk on Thursday, he got all emotional over the killing by Al Qaeda of Sheik Abu Risha, the leader of the new Sunni alliance with the US against the insurgents in Anbar Province, Iraq.

"Bush shook Abu Risha’s hand two weeks ago for the cameras. Bush can shake his hand again, but not the rest of him: Abu Risha was blown away just hours before Bush was to go on the air to praise his new friend.

"Here’s what you need to know that NPR won’t tell you.

"1. Sheik Abu Risha wasn’t a sheik.
"2. He wasn’t killed by Al Qaeda.
"3. The new alliance with former insurgents in Anbar is as fake as the sheik - and a murderous deceit.

"How do I know this? You can see the film - of 'Sheik' Abu Risha, of the guys who likely whacked him and of their other victims.

"Just in case you think I’ve lost my mind and put my butt in insane danger to get this footage, don’t worry. I was safe and dry in Budapest. It was my brilliant new cameraman, Rick Rowley, who went to Iraq to get the story on his own.

"Rick’s 'the future of TV news,' says BBC. He’s also completely out of control. Despite our pleas, Rick and his partner Dave Enders went to Anbar and filmed where no cameraman had dared tread.

"Why was 'sheik' Abu Risha so important? As the New York Times put it this morning, 'Abu Risha had become a charismatic symbol of the security gains in Sunni areas that have become a cornerstone of American plans to keep large numbers of troops in Iraq though much of next year.'

"In other words, Abu Risha was the PR hook used to sell the 'success' of the surge.

"The sheik wasn’t a sheik. He was a fake. While proclaiming to Rick that he was 'the leader of all the Iraqi tribes,' Abu lead [sic] no one. But for a reported sum in the millions in cash for so-called, 'reconstruction contracts,' Abu Risha was willing to say he was Napoleon and Julius Caesar and do the hand-shakie thing with Bush on camera.

"Notably, Rowley and his camera caught up with Abu Risha on his way to a 'business trip' to Dubai, money laundering capital of the Middle East.

"There are some real sheiks in Anbar, like Ali Hathem of the dominant Dulaimi tribe, who told Rick Abu Risha was a con man. Where was his tribe, this tribal leader? 'The Americans like to create characters like Disney cartoon heros.' Then Ali Hathem added, 'Abu Risha is no longer welcome' in Anbar.

"'Not welcome' from a sheik in Anbar is roughly the same as a kiss on both cheeks from the capo di capi. Within days, when Abu Risha returned from Dubai to Dulaimi turf in Ramadi, Bush's hand-sheik was whacked.

"On Thursday, Bush said Abu Risha was killed, 'fighting Al Qaeda' - and the White House issued a statement that the sheik was 'killed by al Qaeda.'

"Bullshit ..."
Greg Palast (with lid dip to cabinnnnnn at pagans4peace)

Categories: bush, iraq, disinfo, disinformation, war+on+terror

Saving Zimbabwe is not colonialism, it's Britain's duty

By John Sentamu, Archbishop of York

"In one of his last actions as Prime Minister, Tony Blair visited Africa to defend his 'thoroughly interventionist' foreign policy towards the continent. At the end of his trip, at a press conference with South African President Thabo Mbeki, the Prime Minister admitted that when it came to the issue of Zimbabwe, only local pressure would do the job. 'An African solution,' he said, 'is needed to this African problem.'

"Yet as the BBC's Sue Lloyd-Roberts demonstrated so vividly on Newsnight last week, in a remarkable piece of television journalism, Zimbabwe cannot any more be seen as an African problem needing an African solution - it is a humanitarian disaster.

"The statistics alone are devastating: the average life expectancy for women in Zimbabwe is 34 years; for men, it is 37. Inflation rages at 8,000 per cent; the shelves are empty of bread and maize; in the hospitals and clinics, children die for lack of vitamins, food and medicine, while the ravages of Aids are exacerbated by government indifference.

"In the cramped townships now home to those supporters of the opposition whose homes Mugabe destroyed in a frenzy of destruction called 'Clean Out the Filth', there is no electricity or fresh running water and sewage spews out of the dilapidated buildings. The first cholera deaths were reported last week.

"The time has come for Mr Brown, who has already shown himself to be an African interventionist through his work at the UN in favour of the people of Darfur, finally to slay the ghosts of Britain's colonialist past by thoroughly revising foreign policy towards Zimbabwe and to lead the way in co-ordinating an international response.

"The time for 'African solutions' alone is now over. Despite his best efforts, President Mbeki has failed to help the people of Zimbabwe. At best, he has been ineffectual in his efforts to advise, cajole and persuade Robert Mugabe to reverse his unjust and brutal regime. At worst, Mbeki is complicit in his failing to lead the charge against a neighbour who is systematically raping the country he leads.

"Britain needs to escape from its colonial guilt when it comes to Zimbabwe. Mugabe is the worst kind of racist dictator. Having targeted the whites for their apparent riches, Mugabe has enacted an awful Orwellian vision, with the once oppressed taking on the role of the oppressor and glorying in their totalitarian abilities.

"Like Idi Amin before him in Uganda, Mugabe has rallied a country against its former colonial master only to destroy it through a dictatorial fervour. Enemies are tortured, the press is censored, the people are starving and meanwhile the world waits for South Africa to intervene. That time is now over ..."
Guardian Unlimited

UK must slay ghosts in Harare, says Sentamu
Tackle Zimbabwe, archbishop
Archbishop hits out at policy on Zimbabwe
Christian Science Monitor - Global Politician
all 138 news articles »

Pets slaughtered for food in meat-starved Zimbabwe

Categories: zimbabwe, uk, poverty

British army chief attacks US as 'intellectually bankrupt' over Iraq

"The former head of the British Army has attacked US postwar policy, calling it 'intellectually bankrupt'.

"General Sir Mike Jackson, who headed the army during the war in Iraq, described as 'nonsensical' the claim by the former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that US forces 'don't do nation-building'. He has also hit back at suggestions that British forces had failed in Basra.

"Mr Rumsfeld was 'one of the most responsible for the current situation in Iraq,' Gen Jackson says in his autobiography, Soldier. He describes Washington's approach to fighting global terrorism as 'inadequate' for relying on military power over diplomacy and nation-building.

"Last week General Jack Keane, a US commander just returned from Iraq, said the security situation in southern Iraq was 'deteriorating' and there was 'general disengagement' by the British military in Basra. But Gen Jackson told the Daily Telegraph, which is serialising his book: 'I don't think that's a fair assessment' ..."
Guardian Unlimited

Categories: iraq, rumsfeld, uk, usa, war+on+terror, military, army