Remnants of War, Just One

There are many for if there is an end it doesn't come for decades later for those invaded and occupied by others. The innocent are the ones who suffer the most and in greater numbers by the destruction and death from the moment of invasion and decades later with what's left behind by those who are ordered to invade and then occupy in these Wars of Choice based on lies or for reasons of material worth a small country can add to a power that wants to control.

This is just one of many of the long running destructive remnants of our generations War of Choice, an extremely destructive Weapon of Mass Destruction, Dioxin, Agent Orange and the others used as we occupied a small country Vietnam for over a decade. Destructive not only to the Vietnamese Civilians, then and now, but also to many soldiers who served in country and elsewhere, where it was stored and packaged for shipment to Vietnam and stored at bases to be sprayed over the country at the whim of the commanders of war.

Scientists have been raising the alarm about dioxins since the 1960s....>>>>>

Agent Orange Continues to Poison New Generations in Vietnam

Deformed fetuses at Ho Chi Minh City's Tu Du Hospital, where doctors blame the high incidence of deformities on the use of Agent Orange during the war. STR New / Reuters

This lonely section of the abandoned Danang air base was once crawling with U.S. airmen and machines. It was here where giant orange drums were stored and the herbicides they contained were mixed and loaded onto waiting planes. Whatever sloshed out soaked into the soil and eventually seeped into the water supply. Thirty years later, the rare visitor to the former U.S. air base is provided with rubber boots and protective clothing. Residue from Agent Orange, which was sprayed to deny enemy troops jungle cover, remains so toxic that this patch of land is considered one of the most contaminated pieces of real estate in the country

Snip

After years of meetings, signings and photo ops, the U.S. held another ceremony in Vietnam on Dec. 16 to sign yet another memorandum of understanding as part of the continuing effort to manage Agent Orange's dark legacy.....>>>>>

In 2007 and 2009, the US Congress allocated a total of US$6 million for efforts to ease the impact of dioxin in Vietnam.

The sum comprises US$2 million under cooperative agreements on providing health, education and social services for the handicapped in Danang. It is part of a larger sum of over US$46 million that the US has provided for assisting Vietnamese people with disabilities.

In September 2009, the US spent $1.9 million helping Vietnam set up a project to treat and contain dioxin left in the Danang airport after war...>>>>>

Put those monetary figures above into perspective, and just on the economic impact to those companies who's products are used in waging and fighting our Wars of Choice. Just take one years, out of the last couple of decades and more, compensation paid to the corporate heads of these companies add in the company perks, written off as company expenses, and the bonuses given. Now think of same for all the executives under these corporate leaders, and these are given out even if these executives prove to be incompetent or try and cover up the known within that corporate world. And that's not even looking at the wealth made from investors especially the big investors!

"If those were in Canada or in the U.S., they would require immediate cleanup," Boivin says.

Snip

But critics believe the U.S. is playing a grim waiting game: waiting for people to die in order to avoid potentially costly lawsuits. For a country currently engaged in two wars, accepting comprehensive responsibility for wartime damages could set an expensive precedent. "They know what the problem is and where it is," says Chuck Searcy, country representative of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. "Why do they now need an environmental impact assessment? They are studying this to death."

Snip

Dow and Monsanto, the chemical's largest manufacturers, eventually shelled out millions in damages to U.S. troops who were exposed to it while it was being used as a wartime defoliant from 1961 to 1971. The U.S. government still spends billions every year on disability payments to those who served in Vietnam — including their children, many of whom are suffering from dioxin-associated cancers and birth defects. In October, the Department of Veterans Affairs added leukemia, Parkinson's and a rare heart disease to the list of health problems associated with Agent Orange. Yet U.S. official policy maintains that there is no conclusive evidence that the defoliant caused any health problems among the millions of exposed Vietnamese or their children....>>>>>

Still, the Vietnamese people (and the government, though more quietly) contend it's the U.S. that should be doing more — much more. Some point out that the U.S. spends only a fraction on Agent Orange cleanup compared to the $50 million it spends every year on searching for the remains of American soldiers missing in action. Thao Griffiths, country director of Vietnam Veterans of America, which works on lingering war issues, points out that the legacy of each is equally painful. "The issue of MIAs for Americans holds the same importance that Agent Orange does for the Vietnamese," she says. And until the issue is resolved, the legacy of the war will continue to haunt both sides....>>>>>

Many Vietnam Veterans, like the VVA, have worked with the Vietnamese in trying to resolve the issues, and guilt, of what our country did to theirs as we occupied it for a number of years. Many were, and still do, travel to Vietnam in that advocacy even before this country finally normalized relations with we once called our enemies.

Faces of Agent Orange {2page pdf}

For Gary Jones, the puzzle that is Agent Orange can be explained, or more to the point, not explained, by two words — “circumstantial” and “coincidence.” The words are at once the core and the conundrum of his Agent Orange experience....>>>>>

Also members of Veterans for Peace helping to build and support orphanages and other needed facilities within Vietnam for the Vietnamese and what we left behind and our Government has yet to compensate for the death and destruction wrought. Like the Veterans Viet Nam Restoration Project and the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign, in this there has been ongoing help in fighting the Chemical Companies in the United States Courts over these past decades.

The Chicago Tribune has a five part series on the legacy of the Dioxins, Agent Orange, left behind and still contaminating the Vietnamese people as well as the American Soldiers, our brothers, who haven't yet perished from their contact with while In-Country or handling it anywhere.


Photo Gallery: The Legacy of Agent Orange

Memories of the Vietnam War are dimming, but veterans and Vietnamese nationals who were exposed to Agent Orange and other dioxin-laced defoliants are still experiencing devastating health effects, and birth defects have brought the impact into a second generation. Yet the U.S. government has yet to make full amends, either in the U.S. or overseas.

Part 1 of 5: For U.S., a record of neglect

U.S. veterans exposed to Agent Orange face delays and a maddening bureaucracy as they seek compensation for related illnesses. In Vietnam, where untold numbers of people suffer from the same maladies and the chemicals continue to poison the environment, government officials wonder how the U.S. can ignore the ongoing effects of the defoliants....>>>>>

Part 2: 'Insult to injury'

For many U.S. veterans, the bureaucratic fight to be compensated for health problems linked to Agent Orange amounts to a new and unexpected war, long after the shooting ended overseas....>>>>>

Part 3: Born into controversy

The most contentious question surrounding the use of defoliants in the war is their impact on citizens, particularly the suspected link between the herbicides and birth defects....>>>>>

Part 4: A poison still potent

New research finds former U.S. airbases in Vietnam remain polluted from defoliants, underscoring the urgency of a solvable problem. The U.S. has done little to clean up the hot spots....>>>>>

Part 5: Danger not averted

The Tribune unearths documents showing that decisions by the U.S. military and chemical companies that manufactured the defoliants used in Vietnam made the spraying more dangerous than it had to be....>>>>>

At each, and on the main page, there are links to video's as well as side links to other information and photo's.

These are the Weapons of Mass Destruction used in mans waging of War and Occupations on others, long lasting, and the defoliants are only one of many remnants of these wars. As we are still occupying two other small countries, in this new century and generation, we are leaving behind many of these same remnants and even more in our use of the modern weaponry or just needs, like burn pits, as we occupy them.

These not only contaminate the ground but also the water supplies as well as getting into the air that is breathed, once in the air they can travel for miles as they are now in our atmosphere, collecting and trapped there and continually moving around the planet.

Add to them the contaminations and pollutions man produces, or uses, especially in industrialized nations, making that which we need or just the materialistic items we crave, and we are contaminating much of our earth, soil, the waters we drink and gather a food supply from, and the air we all breath, collecting and trapped in the atmosphere that sustains not only our lives but that which is living on this planet.

The more we contaminate the faster the planet evolves and that evolution, with the contamination by man, not only continues to kill after our wars but will cause and disfigurements and death of all living things on this planet many already gone and never to return. And we don't know what many benefits they might have had as to disease or in helping sustain a planet of life.

Iraq War Inquiry, Day 14 {With an Article Change Note}

Drip, drip, drip............... more from the faucet of recent history coming out from across the pond. When following this Inquiry, especially in viewing, insert American faces of those known from the cheney/bush administration and multiply the known and unknown ten, twenty, thirty..........times as they were the ringleaders and intelligence manipulators seeking justification to invade and destroy an innocent people and their country.

Just think how long before the Brits found out about the following did our administration and probably many in the 'lockstep rubber stamping congress' know:

Brits 'knew of abuse at Abu Ghraib', says MI6 boss

Britain knew about abuse of Iraqi prisoners, the MI6 boss said yesterday.

Sir John Sawers told the Iraq inquiry UK officials learned of "difficulties" at Abu Ghraib jail in mid-2003. But he said the scale of mistreatment by US troops was "way beyond" what they expected.

He added: "The revelations were definitely a shock to us, as they were to everybody on the American side as well as across the world....>>>>>

MI6 chief reveals advance warning of Abu Ghraib problems

British officials were aware of possible violence against Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison almost a year before revelations of torture and abuse finally emerged, the head of MI6 has revealed.

Sir John Sawers said that poor conditions and possible violent mistreatment of inmates by the US troops running the prison were known within months of the invasion in March 2003. It was not until the Spring of 2004 that cases of physical, psychological and sexual abuse were exposed publicly.

Snip

However, he insisted that the extent of the abuses that eventually came to light were “way beyond” anything that British officials in Iraq had imagined. “We knew of difficulties in the conditions for detainees dating back to June, July of 2003,” said Sir John, who arrived in Baghdad in May 2003 to represent Tony Blair in the Iraqi capital. “But the revelations at Abu Ghraib were definitely a shock to us, as they were to everybody on the American side as well as across the world.”

He added: “We thought the basic problems were about poor conditions and possibly unnecessary violence, but Abu Ghraib was an extra dimension.” Eleven US soldiers were convicted of committing abuses against prisoners within the facility. Two soldiers were sentenced to ten years and three years in prison.

Sir John said that the high-profile inquiry in 2004 into the torture claims at Abu Ghraib marked the low point for the British team working to try to rebuild Iraq after the invasion. “It was then that we realised the scale of the task that was ahead of us and the need to really put our heads down and be in it for the longer term because the insurgency and the violence was clearly not at a peak,” he said. “The Abu Ghraib issues just added another nasty twist to the difficulties that we faced.”...>>>>>

This was already known, and spreading, in Iraq! Any atrocity, any perceived atrocity is known about and word spreading quickly in any occupied country. This not only causes some in these occupied countries to pick up arms and join the fight but it raises the support of the population to that fight keeping an insurgency against an invading occupying force alive and growing. These incidents, while hawks and especially those not willing to serve cheer them on, they bring on devastating blowback of killing and maiming of the soldiers ordered into these theaters and most trying to stabilize and help the innocent people. One incident causes any steps forward to be quickly erased and not forgotten moving any good back into the negatives, many incidents greatly compound the death and destruction.

Every decade or so it seems a few come along and think they're going to do War and Occupation better then any previous actions carried on by megalomaniacs of power and wealth:

Tony Blair might have been put off Iraq war by violent aftermath, says adviser

{Note From the Guardian: This article contained a mistake by the Guardian, which they have now corrected. It attributed incorrectly a quotation to Nigel Sheinwald. As the Guardian explain on their website: "This article was amended on Thursday 17 December 2009. We quoted Sir Nigel Sheinwald as saying Britain was concerned about the prospect of "US marines going in with all guns blazing". In fact he did not use that phrase: it came from a question posed to him by Sir Lawrence Freedman, a member of the Chilcot inquiry. This has been corrected." See Here}

• Government shocked by level of post-war violence

• Inquiry asks if invasion hurt Britain's reputation

The Blair government might not have invaded Iraq had it envisaged the scale of violence it might provoke, Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6 and former adviser to the prime minister, said today.

Very few observers predicted the violence produced by a combination of jihadists, former Ba'athist officials who had melted away immediately after the invasion, and Shia extremists supported by Iraq, he told the Chilcot inquiry.

"Frankly, had we known the scale of the violence, it might well have led to second thoughts about the entire project," said Sawers. "It was not thought through."

Sawers, who was an adviser to Tony Blair and spent three months as Britain's special envoy in Baghdad in 2003, said the only person he could think of who got it right was Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who warned the conflict would create "100 new Bin Ladens".

Snip

There was concern that the US would exacerbate Sunni and Shia insurgencies in both the centre and south of Iraq. The issue was "one of the key things" on the agenda of Blair's agenda at a meeting with George Bush in the US in April that year, Sheinwald told the Chilcot inquiry. It was known, and reported, at the time, that defence chiefs urged Blair to warn Bush of the consequences of US attacks on Falluja, including the use of white phosphorus {my highlight}.

According to previously leaked documents about the April 2004 White House meeting between the two leaders, Bush was so angry about attacks on US soldiers that he allegedly suggested that the offices of the Arabic satellite TV station al-Jazeera should be bombed.

Snip

Referring to the abuse of Iraqi detainees by US soldiers, he added: "The Abu Ghraib issues just added another nasty twist to the difficulties that we faced." As for Britain's role in occupying southern Iraq, Sawers told the inquiry: "We had no plan for handling Basra when we went in"....>>>>>

One needn't have gone back in history to far of the powerful against weaker thought of foes, the Afghan/Soviet debacle, to see what results when invading and not quickly stabilizing and working towards re-building to see what develops. And as the leading power of might bringing in others to be the backups, us here in the United States, have our own very recent history who's lessons were ignored and those welding the push to war this time didn't serve in with many of us. We saw what was to come why didn't they!

Iraq inquiry – live

Two of Tony Blair's foreign policy advisers and the former Ministry of Defence policy director give evidence to the Chilcot inquiry

5.27pm: There are a couple of other quotes that are worth putting up in full. They are from the exchange at 3.41pm. At one point Sawers read out a passage listing the objectives the government had set itself for Iraq in early 2003.

A stable, united and law-abiding Iraq, within its present borders, cooperating with the international community, no longer posing a threat to its neighbours or international security, abiding by all its international obligations and providing effective, representative government, sustainable economic growth and rising living standards for all its peoples.

Sawers said Iraq had achieved those goals.

But Chilcot disagreed. He told Sawers:

The picture that is painted in that statement of objectives is not, I think, what you would find in Iraq today.

5.19pm: Here's what Chilcot said at the very end of the hearing.

I think we have talked a lot about potential, if not final judgements, at any rate provisional judgements about the whole six years. And I think the committee itself is extremely ... aware of the casualty list, the blood. Treasure you can rebuild. Blood you can't get back. I don't know whether at this stage we shall come to the kind of final judgement that these last questions have raised. This may be the first draft of history. But we are conscious throughout of that cost that has been incurred by humankind. I think I'll close with that.

Very curious. What does he mean by that? It didn't sound like a ringing endorsement of the war to me ....>>>>>

Scarlett accused of misleading inquiry

Former MoD expert contradicts claim that Iraq evidence was reliable

Britain's former spy chief has misled the Iraq inquiry by exaggerating the reliability of crucial claims about Saddam Hussein's ability to launch weapons of mass destruction, according to the leading Ministry of Defence expert who assessed the intelligence behind the decision to go to war.

Sir John Scarlett, who was responsible for drafting the Government's controversial 2002 dossier outlining the case for invading Iraq, claimed last week that intelligence indicating Iraq possessed missiles that could be launched within 45 minutes was "reliable and authoritative". But Scarlett's evidence is contradicted by the most senior WMD analyst who saw the original intelligence. Brian Jones said that it was vague, inconclusive and unreliable....>>>>>

Now Blair's key Iraq war aides desert him: Spy chief and top envoy tell inquiry of their doubts

The head of MI6 and Britain's top diplomat yesterday refused to back Tony Blair's assertion that the war in Iraq was worth the human and financial cost.

In testimony to the Chilcot Inquiry, spymaster Sir John Sawers and Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Britain's ambassador in Washington, both admitted they now agonise over whether the UK should have joined the invasion.

They warned that, in doing so, Britain had damaged its reputation around the world.

Snip

Sir John was forced to correct evidence that he gave last week after the panel made clear that his claims were disputed by official documents.

He admitted that the Department for International Development was 'not substantially involved' in Iraq policy in the two years before the war after denying claims from aid officials on Friday....>>>>>

Civil servants intent on evading all responsibility

Chilcot has heard a litany of excuses. Officials are out to blame others

Whatever else the Chilcot inquiry does – and I still believe it won't be much – it will at least have served to remind people just what a disastrous exercise the whole invasion of Iraq was and how Tony Blair must carry the personal responsibility for it. In overall terms the evidence so far has changed little of the picture we already knew. But in testimony after testimony of the players involved it has filled out the picture of war that was fought on the flimsiest of excuses, conducted with the minimum of preparation and pursued in blithe disregard for its consequences.

Which is why, of course, Tony Blair is apparently so furious that Chilcot has rained on his parade just as he was hoping to become President of Europe. And it is why presumably he has chosen to come out and say in a BBC interview last Sunday what we had all suspected but never quite believed would come out in the open – that he was determined on regime change in Baghdad come what may and that, if he hadn't had weapons of mass destruction as a reason, he would have found another....>>>>>

Scarlett will be asked to justify reliability of 45-minute claim

John Scarlett's evidence to the Iraq inquiry has been questioned by a WMD analyst

Pressure on inquiry witness after Independent revealed doubts about his evidence

The Iraq inquiry committee has come under pressure to recall Britain's former spy chief to give further public evidence after allegations that he misled them over Saddam Hussein's ability to use weapons of mass destruction.

Sir John Scarlett, who oversaw the drafting of the government's controversial 2002 dossier outlining the case for invading Iraq, had claimed that intelligence indicating that Iraq could launch missiles within 45 minutes was "reliable and authoritative". But Dr Brian Jones, the most senior WMD analyst who saw the original intelligence, told The Independent that it was vague, inconclusive and unreliable.

MPs from all parties raised concerns about the evidence given by Sir John....>>>>>

Nailing the Iraq Lie

How right Edward Gibbon was when he said history is little more than the register of crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind. But perhaps no register is enough to chronicle the crimes double-speaking and double-dealing politicians routinely commit against humanity.

Look at Tony Blair. You would think two years out of power would have narrowed down the gap between the former British prime minister and what is commonly known as common sense. But then there’s no antidote to hubris.

In the countdown to the Iraq invasion and long since, Blair insisted ad nauseam that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Speaking in the world’s oldest parliament, a grim faced Blair solemnly warned the British public — and the world — that Saddam had the capability and the intent to launch a WMD attack against Britain “within 40 minutes.”

In fact, with his gift of the gab the man once known as Britain’s most successful politician played a crucial role in building the case for Iraq war, and gifting the much-needed legitimacy to with-us-or-against-us Bush and his cowboy coalition....>>>>>

Replace the names and faces of the British Inquiry with those from here, the ringleaders of war, and multiply by whatever high number as to involvement and guilt and we're watching our own Inquiry we fear to hold!!

Watch the Inquiry Live when in Session

Written Transcripts by Date

Oral: The Video's by Date

See how the Inquiry is unfolding on the Sky News Timeline

BBC Iraq inquiry - day by day timeline of evidence given

Tony Blair: {UpDated}

Tony, like our own leaders?, have found their excuses and justifications, they sound an awful lot like those of the bin Ladens and Saddam's of this world!

"Iraq War was right even if there were no WMDs"

Tony Blair would have invaded Iraq even if he had known that there were no weapons of mass destruction in the country, he has admitted.

Mr Blair replied: "I would still have thought it right to remove him. I mean, obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments about the nature of the threat."

He added: "I can't really think we'd be better off with him and his two sons still in charge but it's incredibly difficult... and that's why I sympathise with the people who were against it for perfectly good reasons and are against it now but, for me, in the end I had to take the decision."

Snip

At a memorial service in St Paul's Cathedral in October to honour British military and civilian personnel who served in Iraq, Mr Blair offered his hand to Peter Brierley, whose son, Lance Corporal Shaun Brierley, was killed in 2003. Mr Brierley told him: "I'm not shaking your hand, you've got blood on it."

Asked if the anger of parents like Mr Brierley was "the cross you will always have to bear", Mr Blair said: "Let's be clear, it's worse for them. They have lost their child and it's very sad. If you have lost your loved one but you think you have lost them in a cause that's not worth it, that makes it worse."

Snip

Elsewhere in the interview, to be broadcast this Sunday, Mr Blair said his faith was central to his life and discussed his conversion to Catholicism in 2007, after leaving office. ..>>>>>

Blair feels all the Deaths, Tens of Thousands of Iraqi, Millions of Iraqi Refugee's, Destroyed Country and Sectarianism, 179 British Soldiers, 4370 and Counting U.S. Soldiers, and Total of 4688 Military Coalition Deaths, as well as the Tens of Thousands of Maimed, Physically and Mentally, Soldiers and Civilians was just Hon-key Dory to take down Saddam and Sons.

As well as being a part of the Human Rights Violations the U.S. was carrying out against not only our Laws but International Laws, of which we and the brits along with other countries wrote and enforced as we also condemn others who break them, on Torture and Rendition's, the Rendition's coming in some cases in the occupied theaters but also many from elsewhere.

UK accused of rendition over men arrested in Iraq

A legal rights charity has accused the government of misleading Parliament over two men arrested by the British military in Iraq.

Reprieve says British forces handed the men to the US military who then took them to Afghanistan in 2004.

It says one of them is a Shia rice trader and not part of a banned group linked to al-Qaeda, as ministers claim...>>>>>

Saddam, a dictator who was once good friends with as well as installed in power, with some western powers being involved! We did more to the Iraqi's then Saddam, and his hencemen, could have dreamed of and in only a few years time, And It Continues with the BlowBack on All, Especially the coming generations, there and World Wide, from not only Iraq but the Whole Region as it's caused major shifts and more hatreds!!

BBC Video cuts of the "Fern Britton Meets... Tony Blair" show to be shown on Sunday 13 December at 10am on BBC One.

Tony Blair on choice to remove Saddam Hussein
Tony Blair on choice to remove Saddam Hussein

And Blair talks about his Faith in his decision making
Tony Blair tells Fern Britton how faith influenced decisions

Where do they miss the obvious, when they speak like this, they sound just like those who we label as our enemies and terrorists!

It's 'righteous' to invade another, using as just one of many excuses of WMD's, weapons of mass destruction, as we use WMD's, weapons of mass destruction, to destroy and kill innocent human beings to silence one!

They and All who hide behind the twisted ideologies they've adapted and call Righteous Religious Beliefs, his Christianity, as they pick pieces of Bible Quotes in their justifications!

Sounds just like, well we know who or whom!!

Mission Accomplished!!

UpDate:

Calls for Prosecution for War Crimes!!

Blair Iraq war admission sparks fresh outrage

Tony Blair's admission that Britain would have backed the Iraq war even if he knew it did not have weapons of mass destruction (WMD) sparked outrage Sunday and calls for his prosecution for war crimes.

The former prime minister, who backed the US-led invasion in 2003, told the BBC it would "still have been right to remove" Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein because of the threat he posed to the region.

Lawyers representing the deposed Iraqi leadership said they would seek to prosecute Blair following his remarks, while one newspaper commentator said it was a "game-changing admission" for the ongoing official inquiry into the war.

Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix added: "The war was sold on the WMD, and now you feel, or hear that it was only a question of deployment of arguments, as he said, it sounds a bit like a fig leaf that was held up."...>>>>>

Iraq War Inquiry

Lest anyone forget, even though these are being held in Britain, that the cheney/bush administration, especially rummy, were telling the Inspectors they knew Exactly where the Chem and Bio weapons were located but as the Inspectors kept calling for those locations the administration kept saying they couldn't release that information to them as it would Compromise Intelligence Gathering, and we all remember Powell at the UN, talk about intelligence?!!!!

Iraq war inquiry hears intelligence on Saddam 'patchy' in run-up to conflict

The department's officials told how ministers heard that knowledge of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes was "sporadic" in the years up to the invasion of 19-20 March 2003. In September 2002 the intelligence "remained limited", they heard. Yet Blair that month described Saddam's banned weapons programme as "active, detailed and growing" and said the picture emerging was "detailed and authoritative"...>>>>>

Nick Clegg: crying wolf in 2003 destroyed all trust in Britain's leaders

The opening of the inquiry into the Iraq war reminded me that one of the greatest tragedies of Labour’s foreign policy is that they focused on Iraq, not Afghanistan. They focused on winning the argument for an unjustified war, instead of winning a justified war....>>>>>

One point, raised the last two days and heard again at the end of the video report, is the talk of regime change in Iraq prior to 9/11 having ramped up and going from the U.S. State Department and sanctions to the Pentagon and regime change, directly after that tragic day. I'm getting the picture, already had but clearer now, the Administration wasn't concerned at all with al Qaeda and bin Laden, thus 9/11, they wanted Saddam gone, reason the Ghost Enemy has grown, al Qaeda, and bin Laden and the so called top leaders of are still out there!

Iraq wasn't the biggest threat, war inquiry hears

The Iraq war inquiry in London has heard that Britain's international security chiefs considered Iraq was not as big a threat as three other rogue states.

The Chilcot inquiry has now heard two days of evidence from the most senior Foreign Office officials who received and analyzed intelligence on Iraq for two years before the war and in the year after the invasion.

It has emerged that Britain's Foreign Office also told former prime minister Tony Blair that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction had been dismantled, 10 days before Britain invaded Iraq.

Overnight, the head of international security in that office, Sir William Ehrman, told the inquiry that Britain had never found any evidence to substantiate claims coming from the White House that Saddam Hussein had a link to Al Qaeda.

Snip

"After 9/11 we concluded that the Iraqis had actually stepped further back, that they didn't want to be associated with Al Qaeda," he said.

Snip

Not only were there no nuclear or chemical weapons considered dangerous, but the UK's intelligence community ranked Iraq fourth on a list of states posing the greatest risk to Britain's national security.

Iran, North Korea and Libya were all thought to be bigger threats...>>>>>

Iran has only grown in that region, North Korea has only continued to advance as well, especially in long range rocket development, but Libya a more dangerous threat then Iraq, and now the United States and Libya are good friends according to the cheney/bush administration, Hmmmmm!!

British Officials: Little Pre-War Evidence of al-Qaida-Iraq Link

Two senior British officials say there was no evidence of serious cooperation between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida after the 2003 Iraq invasion, and only sporadic contacts in years before

Snip

Dowes told panel members there was little new intelligence on Iraq or its capacity for weapons of mass destruction since the late 1990s. He said analysts determined those early contacts did not look like collusion, and said he believed U.S. operatives shared that assessment.

Ehrman said there was scattered evidence that Iraq may have possessed disassembled components of chemical-biological weaponry. But he described that data as inconclusive and said analysts generally doubted Baghdad had the technology to deliver such payloads...>>>>>

Britain knew Iraq destroyed weapons but proceeded to invade, inquiry told

SECRET INTELLIGENCE was received by Britain in the days before the Iraq invasion was launched in 2003, indicating Saddam Hussein had destroyed chemical weapons of mass destruction, the Iraq inquiry was told yesterday.

Sir William Ehrman, a senior foreign office figure, said: “We were getting, in the very final days before military action, some intelligence on chemical and biological weapons – that it was dismantled and that Iraq might not have the munitions to deliver it.”...>>>>>

Iraq inquiry focusing on Bush-Blair relationship

Many UK politicians criticised Tony Blair's closeness to George Bush

Tony Blair "sealed his reputation" in America by his support for the US after 9/11, the UK's former ambassador to the US has told the Iraq war inquiry.

Sir Christopher Meyer said Mr Blair and President George Bush "got on" from the moment they met in 2001 and that their relationship "warmed" after that...>>>>>

Iraq Inquiry Digest Everything about the Chilcot Inquiry in one place

Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war Follow the action as inquiry into one of the most contentious decisions of modern times begins hearing evidence

Israel: Remote Control Occupation?

Heading further down the road to total control of masses of people deemed by others as enemies or terrorist while waging terror on them remotely with high tech WMD Robots making or creating even more hatreds and enemies of!!

Baum: New technologies are allowing Israel to maintain control over its occupation remotely

This week, the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erakat, announced that because Israeli settlements continue to grow (with de facto US support) and annex the land planned for a future Palestine, the Palestinians may have to abandon hopes for an independent state. He therefore urged Palestinians to fight for one democratic state where all citizens will be equal. With this announcement, many are wondering what the future of the Israeli occupation would look like. Meanwhile, Israel is continuing its technological evolution of the occupation, making it possible to institutionalize control over the occupation remotely. At the end of October, the joint Israeli-Palestinian Alternative Information Center held a conference in Bethlehem on economy of the occupation. The Real News' Lia Tarachansky attended and spoke to Dalit Baum of Who Profits and Shir Hever, of the Alternative Information Center about the changing face of the Israeli occupation.
Bio

Dr. Dalit Baum is the founder of Who Profits? a project investigating corporate ties to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. She is an Israeli peace activist and a feminist educator, who taught science and women's studies at the University of California at Berkeley and at various Israeli universities.

Shir Hever is an economic researcher in the Alternative Information Center, a Palestinian-Israeli organization active in Jerusalem and Beit-Sahour. Researching the economic aspect of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, some of his research topics include international aid to the Palestinians and Israel, the effects of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories on the Israeli economy, and the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns against Israel. He is a frequent speaker on the topic of the economy of the Israeli occupation.

Remorse for wartime massacre

Remorse for wartime massacre is bringing US, Vietnam closer

Lieutenant William Calley, the only US military officer prosecuted in the infamous massacre at My Lai in Vietnam in 1968, is coming back.

Snip

He will follow in the tracks of Kenneth Schiel, another US veteran who had a hand in the slaughter of 504 peaceful villagers and who returned last year for the massacre’s 40th anniversary.

Throughout the three hours he spent with the surviving villagers, Schiel did nothing but cry. Any questions or attempts at explanation would have been superfluous and pointless.

A survivor’s big hug out of the blue only served to worsen the American’s torment...>>>>>

Vietnam, US make headway at fourth AO meeting

The fourth annual meeting of the Vietnam-US joint advisory committee (JAC) on Agent Orange/dioxin closed Thursday with both sides saying they’d forged closer ties on the issue.

Snip

The scientists will examine health issues related to Agent Orange/dioxin and aid the disabled in identified hotspots.

Since 2006, the US Congress has allocated about $6 million to address the lasting effects of Agent Orange, an amount many experts and those in the international community criticize as being too little compared to what’s actually needed.

Snip

At least 1 million to 4 million of Vietnam’s citizens are believed to have suffered health consequences after being exposed to dioxin but according to Dr. Son, the exact figure is still undetermined....>>>>>>

Mother’s love: a plea to Michelle Obama

An Agent Orange activist calls on the first lady to help dioxin victims in Vietnam.

Vietnamese victims of the defoliant Agent Orange play at a social sponsorship center in Da Nang City June 26, 2009. US warplanes dropped about 18 million gallons of the defoliant on southern Vietnam for most of the 1960s.

The following is a letter sent to Michelle Obama by Secretary of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Association Len Aldis, who has worked for years to spread awareness of Agent Orange victims’ plight.

August 2 marks the beginning of Orange Week, a government program to create Agent Orange awareness through various programs nationwide. Orange Week ends on August 10, 48 years to the day since the US military begin spraying the defoliant on Vietnam.

Dear Michelle Obama,

You can find the Letter Here

Britain-Vietnam Friendship Association


"AGENT ORANGE: 30 YEARS LATER"

“AGENT ORANGE: 30 YEARS LATER” is a drama-documentary about the victims of Agent Orange 30 years after the Viet Nam War.

The goal of this documentary is to make the viewers aware of the impact of dioxin on the environment and the people. The film also underscores the need for compassion and heightens a sense of responsibility for our actions towards each other as stewards of the planet without regard for political differences.....>>>>>Much More Here

Justice for Victims of Agent Orange

I put this together when the Vietnamesse Reps were attempting to get the U.S. Courts to rule on Compensation for Defoliant Victims that still plague that country today.

The Vietnamese government says this has left more than 3
million people disabled.
Please Visit The Following Links

Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign

The Thanh Xuan Peace Village in Vietnam

Agent orange girl determined to overcome her destiny

"Chorus for Justice"

Vietnamese Delegation in U.S. to Sue Chemical Companies for Ongoing
Effects of Agent Orange

Justice for Victims of Agent Orange


'Nam Vets Again Press VA on Agent Orange

Armed with the latest study from the Institute of Medicine, Vietnam Veterans of America is petitioning Veterans Administration Secretary Eric Shinseki to add three illnesses -- including high blood pressure -- to the long list of deadly or debilitating ailments that have been linked to Agent Orange exposure.

The outreach is the latest in a long fight between some Vietnam veterans’ organizations and the U.S. government to connect a wider range of ailments to the chemical defoliant used throughout the conflict to strip away the enemy’s jungle sanctuaries.............

39 years later, Australia finds last Vietnam War missing
The officer in charge of Operation Magpies Return, wing commander Michael Warby (L), assisted by Vietnamese workers, sieves soil at the crash site.

An Australian search team has found the remains of the country's last two missing Vietnam War servicemen, 39 years after their aircraft crashed into a thick jungle, officials said Thursday............

"AGENT ORANGE: 30+ YEARS LATER"

“AGENT ORANGE: 30 YEARS LATER” is a drama-documentary about the victims of Agent Orange 30 years after the Viet Nam War.

Agent Orange is the code name for the major herbicide that was used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War to deny coverage (trees and bushes) of the North Vietnamese guerrilla soldiers.

The film tells the story of several victims of Agent Orange - from the North to the South of Viet Nam - who were exposed to the substance when it was sprayed during the war. It interweaves compelling interviews with images culled from the archives to tell the tales of horror of people, from babies to grandparents, male and female, North and South Viet Nam living with difficult choices to make: pro-life or abortion, alien diseases, deformities, fear, loneliness, suicidal thoughts, pain, and poverty. It is more of a drama than a reportage, or merely an observation.

The goal of this documentary is to make the viewers aware of the impact of dioxin on the environment and the people. The film also underscores the need for compassion and heightens a sense of responsibility for our actions towards each other as stewards of the planet without regard for political differences.....>>>>>Much More Here

Reviews:

** “The film was artistically photographed and edited,….” by Jan Turetsky, L.A. Mentary (1/2009)

** "Despite the horror, the film is at times intensely moving and beautiful, showing also the better side of human nature—qualities like kindness, compassion, and forgiveness." by Reel Earth - Environmental Film Festival (4/2009)

** "The film was stark, powerful and very effective. Courageous to go to those most deeply affected, look into their eyes, and explore the depths of their pain. We were deeply moved." by Alice and Lincoln Day, Producers of "Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives" (6/2009)

Nuclear Disarmament and the Global Trade of Small Weapons

The present administration, as we all know, have done a totally distructive job in the policies it has set forth, with the help of those in congress that fall under the same political umbrella, or at least say they are, Republican and Conservative, as they tried to set about to enforce an Imperialist Presidency!

One has been the total destruction of the Nuclear Disarmament Table of discussion and diplomacy on ridding the Planet of Nuclear Weapons. Instead they threaten other countries with their fear propaganda and than act surprised that these countries start to seek their own defense under the Nuclear Umbrella, and attempt to put fear into the American Public, and others, on the growing Nuclear threats which they themselves have been forcing on others! As the United States developes other uses of Nuclear Weaponry and uses it!

The Ploughshares Fund has been front and center in the attempt to make a Peaceful World without Nuclear WMD's

Their spokesperson was interviewed on NPR's Talk of the Nation today, that spokesperson is actor Michael Douglas.

You can visit the Talk of the Nation page to read a short writeup, which includes this:

"The sight of the ruins left by the nuclear explosions in 1945 may seem a part of old history," Douglas said in an address to the United Nations. "Yet the fact is that the instruments of possible global annihilation ... many on high alert, remain a part of our contemporary history."

As well as listen to the 16min interview, with phone calls, or you can click here to listen

.
He was in Washington to talk to Lawmakers on behalf of The Plowshares Fund.

The saga of a ‘Bent Spear’

6 nukes fly across U.S.; no one notices for 36 hours — how could it happen?

The episode, serious enough to trigger a rare "Bent Spear" nuclear incident report that raced through the chain of command to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and President Bush, provoked new questions inside and outside the Pentagon about the adequacy of U.S. nuclear weapons safeguards while the military's attention and resources are devoted to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The use of, the further developement of, the storage of, Should long ago have been Banned by the international community, with the U.S. leading in their Banning and Destruction!

Instead no one is talking about any of this, while other countries, feeling threatened, especially by the United States, are starting the developement of!

While the U.S. are using Ordinance tipped with Depleted Uranium in the Theaters of Conflict, Iraq and Afganistan, and threatening use to those developing these Weapons of Mass Destruction!

The U.S. is also in the race to develope even more types of ordance that use the Nuclear Warhead!

There use, there storage, there developement should be Banned in this World Community, and the Destruction of those already built should have already been completed, No More Nukes with the U.S. Leading in the Developement of the Laws and Policies to see that that Happens!

If the United States is what it thinks and says it is, A Leader of Democracy, Freedom, Tolerance, Human Rights.............., than it must Lead By The Examples It Professes!

We the people of have allowed our elected leaders, and those in the backround, not elected but very powerful, to control and put forth the opposite in our Policies and Dealings towards others for far too long!