British, U.S. lied about justification for pre-war Iraq airstrikes
Michael Smith
August 5, 2005
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Special to RAW STORY. Michael Smith writes for the London Sunday Times. He broke the Downing Street Memo story.
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Britain and America's reasons for stepping up bombing of Iraq in the ten months leading up to the war in Iraq was a sham, official figures released by the British Ministry of Defense show.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Geoff Hoon, his UK counterpart, said the stepped-up attacks by U.S. and Royal Air Force aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone were a response to increased attacks by Iraqi air defences.
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The minutes of a meeting of Tony Blair's Iraq war cabinet on July 23, 2003, leaked to the London Sunday Times, record Hoon as saying "the US had begun spikes of activity to put pressure on the regime."
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UK ministers have since insisted that the stepped up attacks, which began in May 2002, were a direct result of Iraqi attempts to shoot down allied aircraft and were not, as Hoon suggested, an attempt to provoke a response that would give the allies an excuse for war.
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But figures released last month by the British Ministry of Defense show that in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, with American officials predicting moves to oust Saddam Hussein, Iraq dramatically scaled back its attacks on allied aircraft. ...
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The stepped-up attacks on Iraq's air defences are now widely seen by military analysts as the start of the air war, exposing both Blair and President George W Bush to allegations that they acted illegally.
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The "spikes of activity" began just weeks after Blair and Bush agreed to use military action to bring about regime change in Iraq, something that at the time was illegal under British interpretation of international law.
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A Cabinet Office briefing paper for the July 23 meeting, which was also leaked to the Sunday Times, stated that at a summit with Bush in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002, Blair said "the UK would support military action to bring about regime change."
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Lord Goldsmith, Attorney-General, did not advise that military action against Iraq was legal until Mar. 7, 2003, ten months after the allies stepped up their attacks on the Iraqi air defences.
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Congress, which under the US constitution has to give its backing before the President can order military action, did not do so until October 2002. The war officially began Mar. 21, 2003. (08/05/05 Raw Story / Smith)

FCC Kills Rule on Internet Access
Phone companies no longer have to open high-speed lines to other providers at a discount.
08/06/05 LATimes / Gaither
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Federal telecommunication regulators Friday scrapped rules that phone companies say have limited their ability to compete with cable TV operators in selling high-speed Internet service. But what's good for the companies may be bad for customers, according to advocacy groups, which predicted higher prices, fewer choices and slower innovation as a result of the ruling by the Federal Communications Commission.
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The panel, in a 4-0 vote, ruled that Verizon Communications Inc. and other so-called Baby Bells no longer had to provide discounted access to their high-speed lines for independent Internet service providers such as EarthLink Inc.
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Phone lines carrying data were reclassified as an information service, not a telecommunication service, meaning they don't need to be shared.
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The decision had been expected since June, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an FCC ruling
that cable companies did not have to share their Internet lines with rivals. [...]
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Consumer groups decried the ruling, saying it would allow the phone companies to kick independent Internet providers off their networks or dramatically raise the cost for access, leaving the broadband market controlled by the dominant cable and phone companies.
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"This is a bad day for the Internet," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project in Washington. "It is, however, an inevitable outcome of the Supreme Court decision. I think it means higher prices and less competition and threatens the growth of the Internet." ...
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The effect of Friday's ruling on Internet providers may not be great "because they're not that strong right now anyway," said Patrick Mahoney, senior analyst with Yankee Group.
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Executives with SBC and Verizon said the ruling would, in fact, push them to compete even more aggressively with cable companies. Of the 37.9 million broadband customers in 2004, 56% used cable and 37% used phone companies' digital subscriber lines.
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SBC spokesman Michael Balmoris cited the wireless marketplace as an example of how access providers have struck deals with independent companies to offer services such as streaming video to cellphones.
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"There's this assumption that we will just jack up prices or kick people off," he said. "The critics, they hold tightly to assumptions that no longer exist today."
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Consumers Union wasn't buying it.
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The FCC, said Gene Kimmelman, the group's director of public policy, "continues down the wrong path on deregulation, allowing giant phone companies to tighten their stranglehold on competition, stifle innovation and reach even deeper into the pockets of consumers."

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
NATIONAL CABLE & TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION et al. v. BRAND X INTERNET SERVICES et al.

Iran rejects EU nuclear compromise
Sat Aug 6, 2005 10:43 AM BST
By Parisa Hafezi
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TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran on Saturday rejected the European Union's offer of incentives in return for a suspension of its nuclear fuel work, paving the way for a confrontation that could lead to U.N. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
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The EU said its proposals aimed to allow Iran access to nuclear technology, but block work that could help make an atomic bomb. If Tehran resumed nuclear work, the EU said it would back U.S. calls to refer Iran to the U.N. for sanctions.
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"The proposals are unacceptable and we reject them," senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian told Reuters.
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Washington accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop a nuclear arsenal, but Tehran denies the charge and says its right to convert and enrich uranium for nuclear power stations is recognised by the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
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New Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not specifically mention the nuclear issue as he was sworn in on Saturday, but said: "We are logical and respect international rules, but will not give in to those who want to violate our rights ... The Iranian nation cannot be intimidated."
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The EU -- represented by Britain, France and Germany -- has been working to find a compromise between arch foes Iran and the United States since Tehran's nuclear programme was exposed in late 2002 after 18 years of work carried out in secrecy.
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Mousavian accused the EU of breaking an agreement it made with Iran in Paris, last year. "The proposals do not contain Iran's right to master the fuel cycle," he said. "This is against the NPT and the Paris Agreement." (08/06/05 Reuters / Hafezi)

see also

UN team heading to Iran with nuclear monitoring equipment
VIENNA (AFP) Aug 06, 2005
A UN inspection team is set to leave for Iran to install cameras by "the middle of next week" to monitor a crucial site where Iran wants to resume nuclear fuel work in defiance of the international community, a spokeswoman said Saturday. ... Conversion is a first step in enriching uranium into what can be fuel for civilian power plants but also the raw material for atom bombs.

Iraq's prime minister holds talks on constitution with leading cleric
By Ashraf Khalil, Los Angeles Times
Posted on Sat, Aug. 06, 2005
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BAGHDAD - With negotiations for a new constitution entering a tense final stage, Iraq's Shiite Muslim political leadership ventured out yesterday to rally support for the country's government.
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Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari traveled to the holy city of Najaf to meet with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, the senior cleric whose support for any government initiative is crucial. Jaafari later said the two discussed issues relating to the constitution, but he declined to go into detail. ...
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"Ayatollah al-Sistani does not want to impose dictation on drafting the constitution," Jaafari replied, "but according to my knowledge he hopes that Islam becomes the main source of legislation."
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Jaafari also met with Muqtada al-Sadr, the rebellious young Shiite cleric who is a street-level rival of Sistani. ... Sadr, a staunch opponent of the U.S. military presence in Iraq, said he supported the political process but planned to personally stay away from the writing of the constitution because of "the presence of the occupation." ...
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The leaders and the members of the parliamentary constitutional committee have until Aug. 15 to agree on a final document after refusing to request a deadline extension.
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The drafting process remains deadlocked over a number of issues, such as the prominence of Islamic law, distribution of oil profits, and the Kurdish desire for a decentralized federal system that would preserve their decade-old autonomy. Protracted negotiations among Shiite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish factions have fed simmering discontent in an Iraqi populace enduring its third straight summer of insufficient electricity, tattered infrastructure, and steady insurgent attacks. (Iraq's prime minister holds talks on constitution with leading cleric">08/06/05 LATimes / Khalil via philly.com)

Barzani Claims Agreement on Referendum for Independence in 8 Years
By Foreign News Desk, zaman.com
Published: Friday, August 05, 2005
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Massoud Barzani, elected as prime minister by the local parliament in Northern Iraq, has announced that they have reached an agreement to include an arrangement in the final constitution to provide the Kurdish public right of "national self-determination" eight years later.
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US Ambassador in Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad met with Barzani in the city of Selahaddin after his visits to Suleymaniyah and Kerkuk (Kirkuk).
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Barzani announced after the meeting closed to the press that they had agreed on providing Kurdish public the right of national self-determination in eight years time in the new constitution as he stressed their sensitivity on the constitution.
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Khalilzad, referring to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), warned that they must not allow activities of the terrorist organizations in Northern Iraq and not to disturb neighboring states. (08/05/05 Zaman / Foreign News Desk)

See also Informed Comment / Juan Cole 8/06/2005 06:30:00 AM

It's not that his administration can do no wrong. It's that he can do no wrong. If he picked these people for his administration or for his friends, thay are, by definition, good people who are above suspicion. To say otherwise would be to admit that his judgment is imperfect and that is impossible. Dear Leader is an infallible child. ...
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Honestly, this blind defense of Palmiero has little to do with loyalty. It's about Bush's faith based approach to everything. If he believes it, it must be true. He does not use reason to come to conclusions. He makes decisions based on feelings and beliefs and "instinct." In this case, his instinct is that Palmiero is a good guy and therefore could not have lied. His "instinct" is that creationism makes sense and therefore, is as legitimate as evolution. His "instinct" was that Saddam was a threat and therefore, we had to invade.
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We have a man with a child's mind running this country. Millions of us can see this as clearly as we can see his face on our television screens. People can call me an elitist and a snob for pointing this out but I will never stop. It's like telling me it's rude to notice that the sun came up this morning or that gravity exists. It is observable fact that this president is intellectually stunted. I'm not going to pretend otherwise so that certain people's feelings don't get hurt. I'll lose my mind. (08/06/05 digby 5:04 PM)

And Digby's take on the Bundesdoofus might even be too generous!

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