Through silence and lies, most of the Western mainstream media have been cooperating with the “US-led invasion of Iraq”, and therefore they are directly responsible for “an illegal act that contravened the UN charter” or, to use the Nuremberg trials’ words, “the supreme international crime.“

http://www.thecatsdream.com/blog/2005/12/face-of-war.htm


From Information Clearing House

Ray McGovern writes that despite the gathering storm of opposition to his approach to the war in Iraq, the speech was bereft of new ideas, calling to mind the words of Emerson: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120105I.shtml

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/01/D8E7H2EG0.html


Informant: NHNE

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/1130-03.htm


Informant: John Calvert

by William Fisher, TomPaine.com

Bush just appointed a guy to be deputy director of USAID who believes Muslims will burn in hell.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051201/bushs_newest_crusader.php

BACKGROUND: *Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth*

[In November 2005, PLATFORM published an unprecedentedly detailed study of Big Oil's plan for exploiting Iraq's oil wealth. -- As the press release announcing the study says, this is the first study to attempt to calculate the cost to the Iraqi people of the oil contracts being imposed upon it.[1] -- "Control of Iraq's future oil wealth is being handed to multinational oil companies through long-term contracts that will cost Iraq hundreds of billions of dollars." -- No wonder the resistance to American plans is considerable. -- The Bush administration's plans for Iraq, of course are predicated on the notion that most Americans and Iraqis are too thick to be able to see the arrangements described here for what they are: a design to rip off Iraq's oil wealth. -- Primarily the work of researcher Greg Mottiett, the study is called *Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth*. -- While a clever pun, this title is not really accurate, since the U.S. plan is anything but a crude one. -- Perhaps *Refined Design* would have been a better title. -- UFPPC has posted the text of Greg Mottiett's *Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth* in HTML format in three parts: Part I:
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3704/ "Executive Summary" & Section One: "The Ultimate Prize: Anglo-American Interests in Gulf Oil"; Part II:
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3705/ Section Two: "Re-Thinking Privatization: Production Sharing Agreements," Section Three: "Pumping Profits: Big Oil and the Push for PSAs," Section Four: "From Washington to Baghdad: Planning Iraq's Oil Future," & Section Five: "Contractual Rip-Off: The Cost of PSAs to Iraq"; and Part III:
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3706/ Section Six: "A Better Deal: Options for Investment in Iraq's Oil Development," & Section Seven: "Conclusion." -- PLATFORM is a 20-year-old London-based group of activists, environmentalists, artists, and social scientists working on issues of social and environmental justice; in recent years, the group has concentrated on the role of British companies in the global hydrocarbon economy. --Mark]


1.

Unraveling the Carbon Web

CRUDE DESIGNS -- THE RIP-OFF OF IRAQ'S OIL WEALTH

Platform November 2005

http://www.crudedesigns.org/

Control of Iraq's future oil wealth is being handed to multinational oil companies through long-term contracts that will cost Iraq hundreds of billions of dollars.

*Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth* reveals that current Iraqi oil policy will allocate the development of at least 64% of Iraq’s reserves to foreign oil companies. Iraq has the world’s third largest oil reserves.

Figures published in the report for the first time show:

--the estimated cost to Iraq over the life of the new oil contracts is $74 to $194 billion, compared with leaving oil development in public hands. These sums represent between two and seven times the current Iraqi state budget.

--the contracts would guarantee massive profits to foreign companies, with rates of return of 42% to 162%.

The kinds of contracts that will provide these returns are known as production sharing agreements (PSAs). PSAs have been heavily promoted by the U.S. government and oil majors and have the backing of senior figures in the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Britain has also encouraged Iraq to open its oilfields to foreign investment.

However, PSAs last for 25-40 years, are usually secret, and prevent governments from later altering the terms of the contract.


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Acton Institute
by Jay W. Richards

11/30/05

Because environmental policies perpetuate certain notions about the human person, and because these notions have real world consequences, Christians have little choice but to engage the debate over the environment. In particular, we should strongly challenge the misanthropic strain in the modern environmental movement. Human beings aren't an accident. We are an intended part of God's good creation. And while God called everything he created 'good,' he only called human beings, whom He created in his own image, 'very good.' That doesn't mean God has given us a free pass to do whatever we want...

http://tinyurl.com/aezkn


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Slate
by Fred Kaplan

11/30/05

The most remarkable thing about the document President George W. Bush released today, titled National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, is that it was released today (and written not much earlier -- it's authored by the National Security Council and dated November 2005). It is symptomatic of everything that's gone wrong with this war that, after two and a half years of fighting it (and four years after starting to plan it), the White House is just now getting around to articulating a strategy for winning it. To put this in perspective: From December 1941 to August 1945, the U.S. government mobilized an entire nation; manufactured a mighty arsenal; played a huge role in defeating the armies, air forces, and navies of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan; and emerged from battle poised to shape the destiny of half the globe. By comparison, from September 2001 to December 2005, the U.S. government has advanced to the point of describing a path to victory in a country the size of California...

http://www.slate.com/id/2131262/?nav=tap3


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AntiWar.Com
by Aaron Glantz

12/01/05

While George Bush explains his 'victory strategy' for Iraq to the American people, his Pentagon chief has already thrown out the most obvious option. There will be no immediate troop withdrawal, cautioned Donald Rumsfeld, because 'quitting is not an exit strategy.' But why not? What's wrong with cutting and running? It's time for the U.S. military to leave Iraq. It's not just the increasing death toll and the still-missing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. It's not even the tens of billions of dollars in handouts to giant corporations like Bechtel and Halliburton. We need to leave Iraq because we're not wanted there...

http://www.antiwar.com/glantz/?articleid=8191


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Reason
by Jacob Sullum

11/30/05

The first time she was asked to show identification while riding the bus to work, Deborah Davis was so startled that she complied without thinking. But the more she thought about it, the less sense it made. That's how Davis, a 50-year-old Colorado woman with four grown children and five grandchildren, ended up getting dragged off the bus by federal security officers, who handcuffed her, took her to their station, and cited her for two misdemeanors. Davis, who is scheduled to be arraigned on December 9, is risking 60 days in jail to show her fellow Americans that they don't need to blindly obey every dictate imposed in the name of security...

http://www.reason.com/sullum/113005.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp