I would like to copy here a long e-mail I received today and put it up for discussion as it affects the life of all of us, and as often we are not aware of what is happening. I believe this needs to be put an the radar screen! (bold are mine)

Okay, I do it. I came across this story and it just doesn't let me go. But it will be another one of my stories thrown together in a hurry. Some of this I posted already on the open thread. So first a big SORRY for the stile.

I came across this story on the Website called Free Iraq and originally was in Arabic. The story is called:

"Combat terrorism" by causing it.

"A few days ago, an American manned check point confiscated the driver license of a driver and told him to report to an American military camp near Baghdad airport for interrogation and in order to retrieve his license. The next day, the driver did visit the camp and he was allowed in the camp with his car. He was admitted to a room for an interrogation that lasted half an hour. At the end of the session, the American interrogator told him: `OK, there is nothing against you, but you do know that Iraq is now sovereign and is in charge of its own affairs. Hence, we have forwarded your papers and license to al-Kadhimia police station for processing. Therefore, go there with this clearance to reclaim your license. At the police station, ask for Lt. Hussain Mohammed who is waiting for you now. Go there now quickly, before he leaves his shift work".
The driver did leave in a hurry, but was soon alarmed with a feeling that his car was driving as if carrying a heavy load, and he also became suspicious of a low flying helicopter that kept hovering overhead, as if trailing him. He stopped the car and inspected it carefully. He found nearly 100 kilograms of explosives hidden in the back seat and along the two back doors.

The only feasible explanation for this incidence is that the car was indeed booby trapped by the Americans and intended for the al-Khadimiya Shiite district of Baghdad. The helicopter was monitoring his movement and witnessing the anticipated "hideous attack by foreign elements".

The same scenario was repeated in Mosul, in the north of Iraq. A car was confiscated along with the driver's license. He did follow up on the matter and finally reclaimed his car but was told to go to a police station to reclaim his license. Fortunately for him, the car broke down on the way to the police station. The inspecting car mechanic discovered that the spare tire was fully laden with explosives."

I do not have much time for posting and later on reading the comments. But this should not be ignored or lost.

I would like to display this picture, but don't know how, so here the link to the picture.

Update [2005-5-2 14:55:48 by BooMan]: BooMan posts your picture:

And here the link to the BBC article: article.

Thirty years after hostilities ended between the US and Vietnam, relations remain strained by one of America's most notorious weapons during the war, the chemical Agent Orange.
The Vietnamese believe that the powerful weed killer - the use of which was intended to destroy crops and jungle providing cover for the Vietcong - is responsible for massively high instances of genetic defects in areas that were sprayed.

Nguyen Trong Nhan, from the Vietnam Association Of Victims Of Agent Orange and a former president of Vietnamese Red Cross, believes the use of Agent Orange was a "war crime".

This is not only the legacy of Agent Orange, this is also the legacy of the US. And the way it looks the US is going to leave another disastrous legacy in Iraq. DU's and other poisons. It seems cancer rates are already up. We might no be able to avoid seeing this kind of picture coming out of Iraq in 30 years, or maybe even earlier, but we can work to stop it from happening in another place.

Lately I have become aware that there is a tendency to assume that there is just one form of Democracy. At least that is the conclusion drawn listening to Bush. I think this is a very important topic, to realize that Democracy can have many faces. I also believe this is important for Americans. They have a great constitution, but the implementation of it at present is mildly said - challenged. My guess is that over the next two decades Americans will have to make adjustments to their stile of Democracy.

However, reading comments on different websites and following discussions I have observed, again and again, the following questions coming up: "What can we do?" and "How can we do it?" Thus my thought is that maybe it would be helpful, for the International participants of this website, to share how Democracy is handled in their own countries. Sort of a brainstorming, helping the Americans to become more familiar with other democratic systems, as this information seems to be difficult to access through the MSM. I would be interested too, as I have become aware, after reading a diary on dKos that actually I do not know that much about the British Democracy. I also would be interested to learn how democratic systems function in other countries. Well, I start with my own country - Switzerland. Following is an excerpt from a paper I had to write a couple of years ago, just the basics how the Swiss political system is structured:

I read this article this morning and just can't get it out of my mind. Gives a different perspective to the Schiavo case also. It is so sickening, this theater being played at the US Congress and all this talk about the right to live and family values and bla, bla, bla......

Talk about WMD's. Americans will be remembered for a long time in Iraq for their Uranium Depleted Bombs, as in Vietnam for Agent Orange - but why is this topic being ignored? How many more children with deformations will have to be born before we note? How much more has the cancer rate in Iraq to increase? Where is the right to live for this children? Where is the right to live a healthy life for these children?

Information collected for a German project investigating the use of uranium-charged ammunition in Iraq shows that when Iraqi women fear for their children's health, it is with good reason.

After two wars where oil wells were torched, chemical factories bombed and radioactive ammunition fired, the first thing Iraqi women ask when giving birth is not if it is a boy or a girl, but if it is normal or deformed. The number of cancer cases and children born with deformities has skyrocketed after the two Gulf Wars.

"Since 1991 the number of children born with birth deformities has quadrupled," said Dr. Janan Hassan, who runs a children's clinic at a hospital in Basra in southern Iraq. "The same is the case for the number of children under 15 who are diagnosed with cancer. Mostly, it is leukemia. Almost 80 percent of the children die because we neither have medicine nor the possibility to give them chemotherapy."

Doctors have also recorded an extreme rise in cancer cases among adults. "In 2004 we diagnosed 25 percent more cancer cases than the year before and the mortality rate increased eight-fold between 1988 and 1991," said Dr. Jawad al-Ali of the Sadr Hospital in Basra.

But it's not just the DU amunition.

In Iraq, burning oil wells, bombed chemical factories, demolished production sites for chemical weapons and even the use of radioactive ammunition are just a few of the things which may have triggered diseases there.

After the War Comes Cancer

I believe this should also be a topic for Americans, as there has been talk about the Gulf War sickness afflicting US Veterans and I have now doubt also current soldiers serving currently in Iraq.

P.S. how does one link correctly?

This is a trial to write a diary. From reading on Kos and other sites, I have become aware that this world situation is taking a toll on most of us. I guess we all can agree that we would like a better world and most of all peace for all. But what can we do? Well, this morning after talking with a friend on the phone, I decided maybe one thing I can do is to write a diary about this topic.

My friend and I talked about how before the fall of the wall in Berlin, there used to be all those demonstrations for peace and maybe not known to all, there was a world-wide meditation circle, where at 12 noon local time, people where meditating, praying, visualizing or using whatever techniques they had available to them, for peace - just a few minutes. Did it help? Who knows? Fact is, for a while the world seemed to be more peaceful. Maybe it is time to reactivate such a circle again. We have nothing to loose and only to gain. Even if it does not help the world at large, it can help on an individual level to calm a little and deal better with the stress .

In this connection I always think of Gandhi who lived in this world, but never was willing to give up his inner peace and calm, and still, or maybe because of this, became such a powerful force in this world.

Two things I would like to achieve with this diary. Maybe to get this good "force" flowing stronger again and to start a discussion and sharing, on how to best deal on the inner plane with the political situation in this world. We will need some inner strength and endurance if we want to effect a change in this world.

I have been a "New Age-Freak" for many decades now (oh, my God, how time passes) and have learned a few things along the way on relaxation techniques, meditation, yoga and more on this line. Would any of you be interested to learn more about these things in future diaries?