Nelson Mandela On 'Small Man' Bush

Nelson Mandela had reportedly condemned former US President George W Bush as a "small man" who was seeking to dominate the world over his decision to invade Iraq, adding that his decision of deposing Saddam Hussein was not because of a massive stockpile of weapons of mass destruction , but because he wanted to tap into Iraq's oil reserves.
According to the Telegraph, the South African freedom fighter-turned-world leader is said to have believed strongly in the West as a force for good and felt betrayed by Bush''s unilateral grandstanding, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair''s support for it.
In 2003, when the decision was taken to invade the country without the backing of the UN, Mandela, a Nobel Peace Laureate, reportedly called Peter Hain, the then Welsh Secretary and former anti-apartheidactivist, to "breathe fire" about it.
Hain said that Mandela expressed his strong dislike for the US leader when the two men met shortly after the Iraq invasion.
"He described George Bush as a small man. He felt very strongly about the way the Bush presidency was seeking to dominate the world. He felt dismay and sadness about the decision of two countries to which he felt very close," the paper quoted Hain, as saying.
"He is part of a generation that looked very much to the West, that saw the Westminster parliament as the mother of parliaments, Britain as a force for good in the world along with America and he felt betrayed," he added.
The revelation came shortly after the launch of Bush''s book, Desicion Points (his spelling) in which he has stressed that his decision to invade Iraq was right, and that "no one was more shocked or angry" than him that WMD's were not found. A few dead and diseased and bereaved and homeless Iraqis might be a bit more angry - just one of the inaccuracies in Desicion Points.

Iraqi Deal Damaging To Democracy

"The Shiite-Sunni power struggle has now been transplanted into the government and potentially institutionalized. Maliki and Allawi are bound together in deep, personal enmity for one another. That will make governing that much more difficult." "The core question is now how much decision-making authority Allawi's new council will have and thus how much he will be able to check the prime minister's extensive power. Allawi must now grab control of those parts of Iraqi security forces that Maliki took under his wing during his first term. Those who remember just how ruthless the prime minister was will not be overcome by optimism." Various German media takes here.

Wolves In The City take : welcome to the Shiaocracy and a secular, Iran-orchestrated debacle. Thanks, Dubya. Freedom, eh?

Crime And Punishment In Iraq And Elsewhere

From Raskolnikov's Dream Sequence (Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky):

He dreamt that the whole world was condemned to a terrible new strange plague that had come to Europe from the depths of Asia. All were to be destroyed except a very few chosen. Some new sorts of microbes were attacking the bodies of men, but these microbes were endowed with intelligence and will. Men attacked by them became at once mad and furious. But never had men considered themselves so intellectual and so completely in possession of the truth as these sufferers, never had they considered their decisions, their scientific conclusions, their moral convictions so infallible. Whole villages, whole towns and peoples went mad from the infection. All were excited and did not understand one another. Each thought that he alone had the truth and was wretched looking at the others, beat himself on the breast, wept, and wrung his hands. They did not know how to judge and could not agree what to consider evil and what good; they did not know whom to blame, whom to justify. Men killed each other in a sort of senseless spite. They gathered together in armies against one another, but even on the march the armies would begin attacking each other, the ranks would be broken and the soldiers would fall on each other, stabbing and cutting, biting and devouring each other. The alarm bell was ringing all day long in the towns; men rushed together, but why they were summoned and who was summoning them no one knew. The most ordinary trades were abandoned, because everyone proposed his own ideas, his own improvements, and they could not agree. The land too was abandoned. Men met in groups, agreed on something, swore to keep together, but at once began on something quite different from what they had proposed. They accused one another, fought and killed each other. There were conflagrations and famine. All men and all things were involved in destruction. The plague spread and moved further and further.

Anti-Muslim Sentiment In The US

US Election Poster 

The recent surge of Islamophobia in the United States has become a growing concern for US Muslims as more human rights violations are being reported.

There is a growing concern over civil rights abuses of Muslims, including unlawful arrests, detention and violence -- especially against those in prison.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace recently held a forum in Washington DC addressing these concerns.

Professor John Esposito of Georgetown University, a speaker at the forum, told Press TV, "You will find lawyers of every possible background, basically saying it is very difficult for a Muslim accused in our society to get a fair trial.”

From Here

British Interrogators Face War Crimes Probe

Any prosecutions would be almost unprecedented. In 2006, one British soldier pleaded guilty to a war crime charge arising out of his mistreatment of Baha Mousa, the Iraqi hotel receptionist who was tortured to death by British troops in Basra three years earlier. He was jailed for a year and expelled from the army. Six of his comrades were cleared of a number of serious charges. No other member of the British armed forces has ever been convicted of a war crime.
Faced with the possibility of more servicemen being accused of war crimes, MoD officials have been increasingly 'concerned' in recent days about the damaging effect such charges would have upon the 'morale and reputation' of the services (oh yes?).
The MoD has been unable to explain why the films were made, or why training material used to instruct would-be interrogators in techniques that appear to breach the Geneva conventions was not disclosed to the court.

More Here

Saved By Torture. Thanks, Dubya

From Dubya's Memoir

''Three people were waterboarded and I believe that decision saved lives,” he wrote. “Their interrogations helped break up plots to attack American diplomatic facilities abroad, Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf, and multiple targets in the United States.”

Mr Bush provided no further details of the alleged intended attacks, and it was not clear whether their supposed ringleaders were ever brought to justice. Neither did he address the fact that waterboarding did nothing to prevent the bombings in London on 7 July 2005.

Almost two years since he left the White House as one of the least-loved presidents of modern times, the book he is promoting promises to be |America’s publishing event of 2010. In an interview to publicise the memoir, Decision Points, Mr Bush reasserted his belief that waterboarding did not amount to torture. Asked if it was ever used on the captured al-Qa’ida leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he told The Times: “Damn right!”

Condemnations of this lunacy are already ringing all over the world. More here.

Wikileaks Log - Graphical Illustrations

Various statistical illustrations of the Wikileaks log of US/Coalition atrocities in Iraq: HERE.