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http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1057562414455

After months of diplomatic stalemate over North Korea's nuclear programme, analysts are predicting that the crisis is approaching a pivotal phase... On Monday, hopes of a peaceful resolution were raised when Kim Jong-il, North Korea's reclusive leader, held talks with a senior Chinese envoy in Pyongyang and received a letter from Hu Jintao, China's president... Diplomats speculated that Mr Hu's letter may have proposed a compromise solution involving North Korea and the US talking directly within a multilateral forum. As North Korea's closest ally and biggest aid donor, China has strong influence over Pyongyang.

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bush in senegal. report from the ground

http://www.sunmt.org/bushsenegal.html

More than 1,500 persons have been arrested and put in jail between Thursday and Monday. Hopefully they will be released now that the Big Man is gone

The US Army's planes flying day and night over Dakar. The noise they make is so loud that one hardly sleeps at night

About 700 security people from the US for Bush's security in Senegal, with their dogs, and their cars. Senegalese security forces were not allowed to come near the US president

All trees in places where Bush will pass have been cut. Some of them have more than 100 years

All roads going down town (where hospitals, businesses, schools are located) were closed from Monday night to Tuesday at 3 PM. This means that we could not go to our offices or schools. Sick people were also obliged to stay at home. National exams for high schools that started on Monday are postponed until Wednesday.

Bush's visit to the Goree Island is another story. As you may know Goree is a small Island facing Dakar where from the 15th to the 19th century, the African slaves to be shipped to America were parked... Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, and before them, Nelson Mandela, the Pope, and many other distinguished guests or ordinary tourists visited it without bothering the islanders. But for "security reasons" this time, the local population was chased out of their houses from 5 to 12 AM. They were forced by the American security to leave their houses and leave everything open, including their wardrobes to be searched by special dogs brought from the US. The ferry that links the island to Dakar was stopped and offices and businesses closed for the day.

...Other humiliating things happened also. Bush did not want to be with Senegalese or use our things. He brought his own armchairs, and of course his own cars, and meals and drinks. He came with his own journalists and ours were forbidden inside the airport and in place he was visiting. Our president was not allowed to make a speech. Only Bush spoke.

...We have the feeling that everything has been done to convince us that we are nothing, and that America can behave the way it wants, everywhere, even in our country. Believe me friends, it is a terrible feeling. But according to a Ugandan friend of mine, I should not complain because it Uganda one of the country he is going to visit, Bush does not intend to go out of the airport. He will receive the Ugandan President in the airport lounge.

...There are now thousands of Senegalese who believe that for all Americans the world is their territory.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55857-2003Jul14?language=printer

If President Bush is not reelected, we may look back on last Thursday, July 10, 2003, as the day the shadow of defeat first crossed his political horizon... The headlines announced by John Roberts, substituting for Dan Rather on CBS, were: "President Bush's false claim about Iraqi weapons; he made it despite a CIA warning the intelligence was bad. More Americans say U.S. is losing control of Iraq. Also tonight, food lines in America; they're back and getting longer."

Brian Williams, filling in for Tom Brokaw on NBC, began: "War zone. Two more Americans dead in Iraq, and now the general who led the war says the troops could be there four more years."

Peter Jennings on ABC... described Colin Powell's news conference as "damage control," an effort to explain "why the president used some false information in his State of the Union address to justify attacking Iraq."

...On that black Thursday for the administration, first-time unemployment claims pushed the number of Americans on jobless relief to the highest level in 20 years. And the most troubling pictures on any of the three broadcasts were those of a line of cars, stretching out of sight down a flat two-lane road in Logan, Ohio -- jobless and struggling families waiting for the twice-a-month distribution of free food by the local office of America's Second Harvest.

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things are tough all over.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/13/1058034876397.html

A New Jersey plastic bag company has sued New York City for refusing to pay for 100,000 body bags it had ordered after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre... "The true reason the city belatedly attempted to reject the body bags was that there were far fewer bodies recovered from the World Trade Centre disaster site than the City had anticipated when it placed the order," the suit said. The death toll from the attack on the World Trade Centre was 2795.

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well, maybe not ALL over.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40613-2003Jul10?language=printer

The Bush administration doled out $1.44 million in bonuses to 470 political appointees last year, according to an Office of Personnel Management report... The cash awards went to about 19 percent of the 2,478 political appointees who ranked below those confirmed by the Senate and therefore were eligible for the bonuses. The average award of $3,064 represented a little more than 3 percent of the average salary of $99,583 earned by eligible appointees.

...The highest average bonuses were handed out at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where six political appointees received average awards of $11,783... At the Appalachian Regional Commission, the sole eligible political appointee, who earned $119,682 last year, received a $10,000 bonus.

The Clinton administration ended the practice of giving such bonuses to most political appointees in 1994 after questionable payments to some outgoing aides in the final days of the administration of President George H.W. Bush... White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. overturned the ban on annual cash awards for political appointees in a memo sent to Cabinet members and agency heads on March 29, 2002... The 2002 bonuses have come at a time when the government's 2 million civilian employees have been reeling from administration moves to limit pay increases, open up more government jobs to bidding from private contractors and rewrite personnel rules at the Defense and Homeland Security departments.

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things that make you go hmmm.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/6278685.htm

They are among America's larger companies: Verizon Communications, AT&T Wireless, Barnes & Noble booksellers and Dole Food Co. But in the government's contractor database, they are listed as small businesses. The mistaken designations, contained in records obtained by The Associated Press, mean the government has overstated the contract dollars that are going to small business... "The numbers are inflated. We just don't know the extent," said David Drabkin, senior procurement officer for the General Services Administration. Drabkin, whose agency maintains the records entered by contracting officials across the government, said the GSA is working to ensure accurate entries in the future, but past errors are "not something we can clean up overnight." Once a company's status is mischaracterized, it stays that way through the life of a contract -- which can be 20 years.

...Among the contractors designated as small businesses in the records obtained by the AP [is]... KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root. KBR is one of the world's largest providers of oil field services and part of the company Vice President Dick Cheney ran before taking office in 2001. The government had awarded the company a total of $76,700,000.00 to extinguish oil-well fires in Iraq and restart that country's oil industry after the war to oust Saddam Hussein.

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http://slate.msn.com/id/2085481/

Americans shouldn't just be skeptical of what the president says about WMD. They should be skeptical of what he says about GDP. In economic policy even more than in war policy, the Bushies have successfully suppressed, manipulated, and withheld evidence to serve their policy purposes.

...Last year, for example, the administration stopped issuing a monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics report, known as the Mass Layoff Statistics program, that tracked factory closings throughout the country. The cancellation was made known on Christmas Eve in a footnote to the department's final report—a document that revealed 2,150 mass layoffs in November, cashiering nearly a quarter-million workers.

...The administration deep-sixed a study commissioned by then Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill that predicts huge budget deficits well into the future... "The study's [analysis of future deficits] dwarfs previous estimates of the financial challenge facing Washington," wrote the FT [Financial Times]. According to the FT, a Bush official said the study was merely a thought exercise.

...The annual Adverse Effect Wage Rate establishes the minimum wage that can be paid each year to about 50,000 agricultural "guest workers" in the H2A Program. From AEWR's 1987 inception until 2000, the Department of Labor released the report in February. But in 2001, DOL withheld the wage figure until August, and only published it after the Farmworker Justice Fund threatened a lawsuit. In 2002, the DOL held up the report until May, again releasing it only after the prospect of legal action. The delays helped big agricultural firms, largely in the tobacco states and the South, by allowing them to pay their field workers last year's lower wages, saving the employers millions of dollars.

...To heighten the impression that Social Security is running out of money (thereby strengthening the case for allowing workers to divert money from the system into private retirement accounts), the administration has predicted shortfalls far in the future by relying on preposterously long forecast periods... Meanwhile, even as it relies on 75-year projections for Social Security, the same document replaces traditional 10-year budget projections with five-year ones, claiming the longer-term numbers were unreliable.

...Important economic data that casts a bad light on administration policies has been expunged from government Web sites. The Department of Labor removed a report showing the real value of the minimum wage over time, claiming it was "outdated." With no minimum wage hike since 1997, the Web site would have shown minimum-wage workers faring increasingly poorly under the Bush administration.

...Earlier this year, a study predicting mediocre job growth from Bush's proposed $674 billion economic stimulus plan disappeared from the Council of Economic Advisers' Web site. The study forecast an average increase of only 170,000 jobs—0.1 percent of the workforce—every year through 2007.

...We've seen the future, and it's been deleted.

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http://www.latimes.com/la-na-deficit15jul15235621,0,43323.story

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is expected to acknowledge today that the federal budget deficit could top $450,000,000,000.00 this fiscal year — 50% more than it estimated only last winter and, in dollar terms, the largest deficit on record... The sources said the estimates may not include some of the unexpectedly high costs of policing post-war Iraq. As a result, the deficit could end up being still higher.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A56336-2003Jul14?language=printer

President Bush yesterday defended the "darn good" intelligence he receives... Bush's position was at odds with those of his own aides.

...The president's assertion that the war began because Iraq did not admit inspectors appeared to contradict the events leading up to war this spring: Hussein had, in fact, admitted the inspectors and Bush had opposed extending their work because he did not believe them effective.

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http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/6290141.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Before the war, Bush and members of his cabinet said Saddam was harboring top al-Qaida operatives and suggested Iraq could slip the terrorist network chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons. Now, two former Bush administration intelligence officials say the evidence linking Saddam to the group responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was never more than sketchy at best.

"There was no significant pattern of cooperation between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist operation," former State Department intelligence official Greg Thielmann said this week. Intelligence agencies agreed on the "lack of a meaningful connection to al-Qaida" and said so to the White House and Congress, said Thielmann, who left State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research last September. Another former Bush administration intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, agreed there was no clear link between Saddam and al-Qaida.

...A United Nations terrorism committee says it has no evidence - other than Secretary of State Colin Powell's assertions in his Feb. 5 U.N. speech - of any ties between al-Qaida and Iraq. And U.S. officials say American forces searching in Iraq have found no significant evidence tying Saddam's regime with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

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http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=7/15/03&Cat=2&Num=038

TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency)– Former Iraqi diplomat revealed that the U.S. had given the toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein the most sophisticated espionage equipment, an Arab TV reported. The equipment were of the most sophisticated technology that even the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries were denied of, said Salah Omar al Ali in an interview with the Aljazeera Television Network.

Omar al-Ali also said that the former Iraqi regime used the equipment in order to control and monitor telephone conversations between Iran and the other neighboring countries... The former Iraqi ambassador to the UN, went on to say that concurrent with the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, Saddam agreed on the opening of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) office in Baghdad. The office furnished the Iraqis with crucial intelligence information obtained from the Iranian warfronts, he also added.

...The Iraqi diplomat, had served as the Iraqi ambassador in Sweden, Spain and the United Nations since 1968. He resigned from his political and Baath Party posts following his differences with Saddam Hussein. He defected to the West in 1984.

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rummy explains everything

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030713-secdef0384.html

STEPHANOPOULOS: ...What do you say to those people who are worried about this? What can you say --

RUMSFELD: The truth.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And what is it?

RUMSFELD: You tell them the truth... We've been there less than 10 weeks. Is that bogged down? How long were we in Germany? How long were we in Japan?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you expect American troops will have to stay that long in Iraq?

RUMSFELD: I have no idea. You don't listen. I said I don't know the answers to those questions... Is it an important thing to be doing? Yes. Is it tough? You bet. Are more people going to be killed? You bet. Does it cost some money? You bet. Can we tell the world or anybody else precisely what it's going to cost or how long it's going to last? No. Would we love to be able to do so? You bet.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Secretary Rumsfeld, thank you very much.

RUMSFELD: Thank you.

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the opposite of support

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=LRX5TSWAZBP1YCRBAELCFFA?type=reutersEdge&storyID=3091188

Under fire and unwanted by Iraqis, the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division in the volatile town of Falluja was bitterly disappointed Tuesday by a decision to keep them in Iraq indefinitely. "It's a big shock," said Sergeant Josh Holt of Montgomery, Alabama... The division was the first American unit to enter Baghdad during the war and has been in the Gulf since September. Thirty-seven soldiers from the division have been killed in the war and its aftermath... "We were told three times we would be going home in a couple of months. It is not a good time to announce this. We are demotivated," said Sergeant Chris Grisham, a military intelligence officer.

American soldiers were not the only ones angered by the decision to keep them here... "We boil inside when we see these American soldiers drive by. There is no security here. If they stay we will fight them with our weapons," said Ahmed Abdel Razak... A man stopped his car to happily tell him that he heard a U.S. tank was attacked.

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http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003%20News%20archives/July%20/12n/Germany%20Says%20No%20Troops%20to%20Iraq%20Without%20UN%20Mandate.htm

BERLIN/MADRID, 12 July 2003 — Germany set strict conditions yesterday before it would consider sending troops to Iraq... Berlin wants a “request (for troops) from a legitimate Iraqi interim administration and a clear UN mandate” before it even discusses the issue, government spokesman Bela Anda said.

...French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said in an interview on Thursday that France would only join the force if it had UN backing.

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http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003%20News%20archives/July%20/15%20n/Iraqi%20groups%20warn%20other%20countries%20against%20sending%20troops%20to%20Iraq.htm

DUBAI - Two previously unknown Iraqi groups on Tuesday warned countries against sending troops to Iraq, where U.S. troops are facing daily attacks, Arab television channels said on Tuesday. “We strongly reject and will resist with weapons any military intervention under the umbrella of the United Nations, the Security Council, NATO, or Islamic and Arab countries,” a group calling itself the Iraq Liberation Army said in a statement shown on the Dubai-based al-Arabiya television.

...India said on Monday it would not send troops to Iraq without a United Nations mandate, rejecting a request from Washington for help in the war-torn nation.

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/14/1058034950801.html

The United States has called for an international conference in October of dozens of nations - many of which opposed the war to oust Saddam Hussein - to raise billions of dollars to restore Iraq's economy... Potential donor nations say they are uneasy about financing a military occupation.

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new blog out of iraq, by mojo_vera@hotmail.com. much love to mojo! since these entries are punctuated by "..." so mrs. henry's elisions will look like this: " . . . . "

http://turningtables.blogspot.com/

7.14.2003...a friend of mine got the bronze star yesterday...he left with the first wave way back in the day...off through the desert with the tanks . . . . . they were shot with artillery...they were carpet bombed...mortars were flying...he said iraqi dead bodies were everywhere and i asked him if he took any pictures..."why would i take pictures? i'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to forget it"...dumb question...

. . . . i had been wondering about whether or not the iraqis were stripping the vehicles or if the soldiers were doing it...turns out that the majority of the field stripping was done by us...we take everything that we can use...i mean everything...right down to the windshield washer squirters...hoses... hoods...tires...reflectors...and once the vehicle has been totally cannibalized the unit that did it is supposed to blow the vehicle up so that the enemy can't use it...

. . . . 7.13.2003...i had heard that there were iraqi barracks on this compound...and some swimming pools...i went looking for both today...i found them . . . . the first pool was in doors...it was very majestic...big and curved...the far side had a diving board...and behind it there was 2 story sauna...with windows...wooden...i've never seen anything like it...a sleepy looking female soldier sat in a lawn chair while iraqi pool guys cleaned and chlorinated...there were giant industrial size drapes that enclosed the pool area...they were pulled shut and there were signs that said 'no swimming'...moving on...

i walked around the back side of the compound...i've never been back there...there was a lot more carnage...but there's a lot of that...it's not really surprising anymore...i passed an orchard...it looked broken...i'm sure it can be fixed...

i could see the barracks poking up over an inner wall...i've driven past it and the disaster behind that wall intimidated me...i didn't go back there...today i clawed my way over the wall and the carnage was immediate...it looked like a war zone...well duh...

the bullets ripping up the sides of the wall...debris under every foot fall...a warehouse blown to every square inch of the inner perimeter...i found a u.s. issue desert boot...just one...on the ground...very weird...some body took it off really quick for some unknown reason...i hope it wasn't the kind of reason that required a medivac...

a bomb left a crater in the middle of the warehouse leaving the warehouse not a warehouse...there were giant rolls of insulation piled up and blown over by the explosion...i crawled threw a window because i couldn't make my way around the wreckage . . . . inside the barracks...on the walls there are hand prints...and names written in bad english...tell salam i found raed...he wrote his name with his finger next to a really bad self portrait...it probably wasn't him...how many raeds could there possibly be...who knows...

everything was stripped...every light...every socket...door handle...toilets and sinks...

. . . . up on the 3rd floor...bricks and drywall everywhere...so much destruction...at first it appears like there were explosions up here...but as i inspect closer it looks more like all the walls have been kicked over...bored g.i.'s destroying shit...in the middle there are two big holes in the walls...

. . . . it's hot and i'm tired...i go to find the other pool...its in doors and on the second floor of a building...it's a lot smaller then the first one but the water is just as wet...i lose the shirt quick...because i'm in shape...the chlorine hurts my eyes...it's so nice...i just prop my head against the wall and float for about 20 minutes...i actually forget about everything i've seen today...

. . . . 7.11.2003...i've speaking with an ex-navy seal who now holds political office . . . . he feels that as a soldier i should keep quite about all of my political beliefs...i, as a soldier, feel that i do have the right of free speech with in the realm of the army...there are things that i can not speak about...my chain of command...the president...their decisions...and the like...

. . . . the members of the military do not make their voices heard enough...we are the silent fighters...because the majority of us do not pay attention to the decisions that are made for us in the capital...

i actually have been performing an 'experiment'...i've been asking random soldiers who the vice president of the united states is...a very simple question...but i found a surprising answer...the majority of those i asked did not know the answer nor do they care...this is bad...our lives are at stake...our country as well...and we do not even pay attention...

. . . . 7.10.2003...the ants are back...holy shit they piss me off...they're trying to escape the heat...

. . . . 7.9.2003...i didn't know what it was at first...it was a popping sound...like someone slamming books on top of the table outside...i ignored it for a second and tried to go back to sleep...then someone ran into the tent and grabbed their rifle and dropped it...i sat up...the popping continued...and then it went automatic...it was so close...in a flash i'm out side...no shirt...no shoes..."what the hell's going on"...

outside...troops standing...rifles in hand...staring through the center of tent city into the woods...a second later i've got my shoes on and my rifle...it's was so close...and still it continued . . . . i wipe my brow on my sleeve...then it's over...there's a silence...and it lasts...i don't know if i should cheer...or talk about it...figure out what the hell just happened...or just go get back in bed...

. . . . after about 6 months of it...every morning...like an alarm clock...you just roll over and ignore it...pretend it wasn't happening...because your totally safe in here...inside the wire...there are guys out there whose sole purpose in life is to keep those other guys out...and they do a great job...and you start to take it for granted...you try not to...but it's an everyday thing...it's your life...and the things that occur daily...on schedule...just get put to the back of the mind and forgotten about...you don't mean to do it...but you have to make a life out here...so you have to accept things as normal...like stop lights and traffic...like your mom's dinner everyday and your fathers paycheck weekly...or like mortars in the morning and small arms fire in the afternoon...it just kind of happens...with out you thinking about it...

. . . . 6.15.2003...a puppy dog came into my tent yesterday...i saw him...kinda sneaking...like puppy dogs do...one foot in...he looks around a little bit...second foot in...he looks a little more...takes a sniff...peeks around some more...i leaned up out of my cot and said "what you doin"...and the puppy froze...i held my hand off the cot and he flopped over to it...he was soft...

i could feel the muscles in my face working in ways they weren't used to...tightening...cheeks squeezing up into my eyes...lips spreading apart over my teeth...i was smiling...

when i saw him...the little iraqi puppy dog...i smiled...i smiled so big and i realized that i haven't smiled in 5 months...

. . . . i've seen the pack of dogs around the camp...resembling grey hounds...real skinny with long legs...they chase some kind of iraqi antelope through tent city...and we get excited...you can see their ribs through their thin layer of skin...tongues flapping out the side of their long snouts...shifty eyes sizing up everything and everyone around them...scared...their all wild...but smart enough to take a hand out...

i miss owning a pet...i've always had one my entire life until i joined the army and i forgot for a long time what it was like to have that little tail flapping and paws jumping up on you when you come home...they're always so glad to see you...i guess it's just one more thing to put on the list of things i will never take for granted again...that list is starting to get quite long...

. . . . 6.11.2003...i read, last night, that the north koreans are starving to the point of cannablism...they are digging up dead bodies and selling them...they are kidnapping children and slicing them up then selling the meat on the black market...people know what it is but the still buy it...this "special meat"...because they are that hungry...this consumes me and it hurts...i can barely think about anything else but this...it eats at the back of my mind...i'm tired...i want to tune out from the world...the news is to much and think it is weighing on me...it's pile is becoming to deep to let light through towards the bottom where i live...i read articles of bias towards islam about speeches of bias towards the infidels...everyone pointing fingers...people glad we are at war just as long as it's not their sons and daughters fighting in it...making their opinons heard from the comfort of their arm chairs...i need to simplify my life...i need to worry about little things...i need to come home and tune out...

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http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-chickenrun15jul15235621,0,4455001.story

FALLOUJA, Iraq — Sgt. Jason McGinn's Humvee convoy pulled up in front of the Saud ibn abi Wakas mosque with a load of frozen chickens Monday... McGinn's psychological operations unit was making the delivery as part of its efforts to win over clerics and civilians alike in this city west of Baghdad that has been a center of Sunni Muslim resistance to the U.S. military occupation.

The imam, a slender, bearded young man, stared hard at McGinn and shook his head indignantly. "We would rather eat rocks than eat chickens from Americans," he spat out. "Even the poorest person in Fallouja doesn't want chickens from you." McGinn's unit was brusquely turned away at three of the four mosques it visited.

...Mohammed Hamad Fayath, a Fallouja resident who served as an interpreter for McGinn's unit, said some imams were riled by the sudden arrival of heavily armed soldiers — and did not want to be seen by their followers as cooperating with occupiers. "Imagine if armed Muslim soldiers went to churches in America to give away chickens," Fayath said. "Would they be welcomed?"

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/14/1058034941240.html

This is the new Iraq, where US soldiers are redrawing the city one English name at a time. "Just go down Main Street until you hit Virginia Avenue and take a left," a Military Police (MP) officer recently told an AFP correspondent, drawing a finger along a glossy US Defence Department satellite map spread across the hood of a Humvee in downtown Baghdad. The black-and-white, metre-square map was overlayed with neon-coloured city streets whose names looked better placed on a layout of Washington. Oklahoma and Pennsylvania replaced street names in the industrial section of the old city framed by historic Al-Rashid and Khulafa streets.

In the world of the occupier, name familiarity breeds security, said Major Dean Thurmond of the US Army's Combined Joint Task Force Seven... "It's for the sake of communication and security and making sure everyone is on the same sheet of music," he added.

..."Uday's palace has a new name," said one officer at OP Beach. "We call it the Love Shack." Several streets in Baghdad were renamed by Saddam during his 24-year rule. Residents speak about the need to change them back to the originals, but there has yet to be a functional Iraqi government to deal with such matters.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=424006

'We didn't win this war, not at all," said reserve infantryman Eric Holt, on guard outside the Republican Palace in Baghdad. "I don't know what I'm doing here and I don't like what's happening in this city," continued the 28-year-old from New York State. "It ain't right for the folks here. You know, there are a whole lot of our girls getting pregnant just so they can go home quick." ...A spokesman said any soldier who fell pregnant would almost certainly be dishonourably discharged from the army and might even face a court martial, unless she was pregnant by her husband.

Prostitutes have now appeared. Rana, a 21-year-old Iraqi woman from Saddam's home town of Tikrit, said she had been working as a prostitute for a month near the army barracks in Abu Nawaz Street, central Baghdad. Most of her clients are US soldiers. She charges $50 for a night, including a room in a hotel in nearby Saddoon Street. A receptionist at the hotel, where rooms are $30 for a twin, said there was no prostitution before the invasion. "We don't want our women to do these things," he said, adding that soldiers also try to sell handguns to make money. "They come in here and ask if I want to buy small guns a few times a week but we don't need any, we have a Kalashnikov."

..."We're working 14 hours a day guarding and on patrol," a 21-year-old female reservist from Oklahoma said. "I finish and go straight to sleep then wake up an hour before duty, shower and start again. I don't think I can take an extra six months." ...Her colleague, a 26-year-old reservist from Houston who was studying to become a police officer, said she planned to quit the army as soon as she got home. "I've been in the army eight years and I can't do it any more, not after this."

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http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3079032

A U.S.-backed Iraqi governing council will meet for the first time on Sunday... The council... will have a Shi'ite Muslim majority, Adel Abed al-Mahdi, spokesman for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said... The council will have 25 members roughly reflecting Iraq's religious and ethnic makeup -- 13 Shi'ites, five Sunnis, five Kurds, one Christian and one Turkmen. Shi'ites, who form 65 percent of the population, were persecuted during the 35-year rule of Saddam's Baath Party.

The council will have some executive powers like nominating ministers, reviewing laws, signing contracts and approving the national budget as well as a role in appointing members of a committee to draft a new constitution ahead of free elections. Bremer has the power to overrule the council's decisions.

...There was no letup in the attacks against U.S. occupation forces.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/15/international/worldspecial/15HOLI.html?ex=1059296225&ei=1&en=1e3592aae372cb2f

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 14 — In its first official act on Sunday, the new Iraqi Governing Council abolished all old state holidays. But today thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad to joyfully flout that directive, commemorating the coup that ended the monarchy July 14, 1958.

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http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/07/15/offbeat.agenda.cards.ap/index.html

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A high school teacher, fed up with the Bush administration's playing cards featuring Saddam Hussein, "Chemical Ali" and other most-wanted Iraqis, is now selling her own deck, "Operation: Hidden Agenda." Kathy Eder's 55 cards show pictures of the president, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others along with quotes, mostly from journalists, questioning the rationale for the U.S.-led war. The backs of the cards feature a 1983 photograph of Rumsfeld shaking Hussein's hand.

...The $9.95 deck of cards are being made by Texas-based Liberty Playing Cards, one of the companies that prints the government's "Most Wanted" cards. Once the product became available online and at a few bookstores, Eder said she sold 3,000 decks in three weeks. She's already placed a second order for 5,000 decks. Eder has pledged to donate half her profits to five nonprofit organizations that promote nonviolence and provide aide to Gulf War veterans and Iraqis.

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http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/breaking/breakingnewsarticle.asp?feed=OBR&Date=20030714&ID=2702271

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has made a major new oil find containing estimated reserves of more than 38 billion barrels, making it one of the world's biggest undeveloped fields, a senior oil official was quoted as saying Monday... The find, combining three neighboring oilfields, had been discovered close to the southern port city of Bushehr... The find could still rival the world's two other leading undeveloped fields... [including] Iran's Azadegan, discovered four years ago, holds about 26 billion barrels with recoverable reserves of nine billion. Tehran is looking for a foreign partner to invest in it but there no is deal in place yet for its development.

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http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20030715a2.htm

TEHRAN (Kyodo) Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has announced that Iran and Japan are close to clinching a $2,800,000,000.00 deal to develop the massive Azadegan oil field despite U.S. objections, Iran's official news agency reported Monday. "Despite American pressures, the Azadegan oil deal with Japan is nearing finalization," he was quoted as saying by the Persian daily Khorassan, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

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http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030712-104212-6831r.htm

HONOLULU — The Japanese navy is preparing to build two small aircraft carriers, the first in more than 60 years, Japanese and U.S. officials said. The plan for the warships is further evidence that Japan is gradually shedding the pacifist cocoon in which it has wrapped itself since its devastating defeat in World War II.

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pakistan gazes at iran 'n' the e.u.

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/jul2003-daily/15-07-2003/world/w7.htm

TEHRAN: The US administration has been wielding the stick against Iran by lumping it into its "axis of evil" and following up with almost daily accusations of misconduct. The European Union has preferred to go for the carrot. Seeing negotiations as the way ahead, EU member states have been dangling what could be a lucrative trade and cooperation agreement in exchange for concessions in four areas of major concern: Iran's nuclear programme, contacts with groups deemed "terrorist", the Middle East peace process and human rights.

...The EU has been at the forefront of pressure on Iran to allow tougher International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections of its suspect nuclear programme, something that Iran has resisted but will nevertheless continue discussing with the IAEA in the coming weeks. But its verbal efforts to reassure the world... have to some extent been undone by an announcement... that it had conducted a successful final test of a ballistic missile capable of hitting Israel.

...On human rights, the EU has watched Iran's elected reformist camp -- with whom it is engaging -- show its powerlessness when it comes to defending the right to peaceful protest against a crackdown by unelected hardline institutions.

...On terrorism... the Europeans also appear deeply frustrated. Some diplomats accuse Iran of attempting to use al-Qaeda detainees -- some of whom are believed to be senior -- as bargaining chips. And on the Middle East crisis, EU appeals that Iran tone down its anti-Israeli rhetoric have been quickly followed up by the praising of Palestinian suicide bombers at Friday prayers here. "The clock is ticking as far as the European approach is concerned, and the warning signs have been hoisted," a European ambassador said.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3060861.stm

Iran's reformist President, Mohammad Khatami, has said he will resign if the country's people want him to. "We are not masters of people but servants of this nation. If this nation says we don't want you, we will go," he was quoted as saying by the government-owned daily, Iran. The move comes amid growing public dissatisfaction over the elected president's failure to fulfil promises of democratic reforms and a reduction in the power of the unelected hardline Islamic clerics.

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http://www.irna.ir/en/head/030715174434.ehe.shtml

Tehran, July 15, IRNA -- Iran needs to pay serious attention to security in the region given its 8,755 kms of land and sea borders with as many as 15 countries, said an official here Tuesday. Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs Ali-Asghar Ahmadi told a national seminar on borders that the meeting had been organized to exchange views on a variety of topics, including policy of good neighborliness and relations with neighbors, scientific approach to protection of security on borders, strong and weak points of the country's border control policies and geographic, social, cultural, political and economic menaces.

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meanwhile back at the ranch

http://www.irna.ir/en/head/030715140456.ehe.shtml

Tehran, July 15, IRNA -- EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said he was happy with the results of international nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei's last week visit to Iran and Tehran's 'positive' cooperation with IAEA, Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Talking to Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi by telephone, Solana also welcomed Tehran's constructive stance and its transparent performance in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, it added.

The EU foreign policy chief described the European Union's relations with the Islamic Republic as 'good' and hoped that the two sides' cooperation would expand in the 'light of mutual understanding on their issues of interest'.

...The International Atomic Energy Agency demands that Iran sign the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which could allow more intrusive inspections of Iran's nuclear energy facilities. Tehran says it would sign the protocol provided that nuclear powers lift their sanctions on Iran and help the country acquire the know-how for peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Kharrazi criticized recent statements of certain European officials, who had said Iran's signing of the Additional Protocol could still be inadequate, for 'creating problems in the process of cooperation' between Tehran and IAEA. "The question to ask is if so, what's the good of signing it by the Islamic Republic of Iran," the minister said, adding Iranian people have the right that the 'ambiguities' surrounding the Additional Protocol are removed.

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http://www.irna.ir/en/head/030715004430.ehe.shtml

Construction work on phase 3 of a highway between Iran and Afghanistan started from zero point of the border post near Zabol on Monday. The managing director of Sistan and Baluchestan Province Roads and Transportation Head office, Hossein Qorbani told IRNA, "Phase 3 of the Iran-Afghanistan Transit Highway, that will include the construction of fifteen kilometers of the said highway, will join the main square of Zabol's Zahak district to the border post, and from there to the Silk Bridge in Afghanistan."

...He also said that the construction of the Silk Bridge over Parian River, that is at the border between Iran and Afghanistan, near Zabol Border Post, too, is a part of the project aimed at facilitating the export of goods from Iran to Afghanistan, and from there to the Central Asian republics.

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG15Ag01.html

In recent weeks, two major incidents along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border have laid bare the new complexities in the area. And a large part of the blame for these two incidents lies with the United States's duplicitous role in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The first of the two incidents occurred on July 4, a Friday afternoon at... a Shi'ite mosque in Quetta in the western Pakistani province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan... Three killers, apparently including a suicide bomber, attacked the mosque: 53 were killed and 57 injured.

...The second incident occurred three days later, on July 7, when about 2,000 Afghan demonstrators, protesting the Pakistan army's alleged occupation of Afghan territory in the Nangarhar and Kunar provinces along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, climbed the Pakistan embassy walls in Kabul and broke windows and furniture. Pakistan promptly closed the embassy.

...The bad blood developed between Islamabad and Kabul, both virtual client states of the United States, will continue to bring death and mayhem for some time to come... It is rather well known that al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants have been avoiding the US dragnet by hiding in Balochistan and in Pakistan's tribal agencies (FATA) bordering Afghanistan. The Balochi Shi'ites... have been providing the Americans and the Pakistanis intelligence about al-Qaeda and Taliban militia in the province... But while their intelligence was accepted, neither the Americans nor the Pakistanis saw it necessary to provide the Shi'ite sources with adequate security.

It is certain that more killings will ensue, likely precipitating full-fledged sectarian violence between Shi'ites and Sunnis in already-troubled Pakistan that may, sooner or later, embroil the keeper of the Shi'ite faith - Iran. Indeed, some in Washington, particularly the neo-conservatives thumping to "take out" the Iran regime, would like to get Tehran involved in the brawl. This crude layer of the American political mainstream hopes that such action by Tehran would provide the "smoking gun" to justify a regime change in Iran to the hapless American populace... The fact is that under the guidance of its Afghan-born expert, Zalmay Khalilzad, the Bush administration has been pursuing a policy that will not only set Pakistan and Afghanistan on the road to confrontation, but also threaten to tear down the already-stretched fabric of Pakistani society.

To repeat the ABCs of this situation: the key players in Pakistan on whom the US is relying to eradicate Taliban extremists are the very individuals who created the Taliban... The results are plainly visible. First, two Pakistani provinces - Balochistan and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) - are now under fundamentalist control and Islamic laws, reminiscent of the Taliban-imposed so-called Dark Age laws, are being put in place in the NWFP. Second, the bordering tribal agencies, where Islamabad's writ never ever reached, have become the hideouts of the al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

...If Musharraf has turned out to be an American puppet, it was not, perhaps, intended. His switch from being a pro-Taliban to pro-American and anti-Taliban - a move made to receive protection from Washington - made him a puppet. By contrast, Hamid Karzai, the interim leader of Afghanistan, was always an American puppet. He knows better than most that he had virtually no credentials to take up the job that was handed to him by a group of bullying Americans at the UN-organized international conference in Bonn at the close of 2001. Nobody knows better than Karzai the problem of being a puppet of Washington.

...Meanwhile, Americans are out there "fixing" things. One of the things that the Americans "fixed" is drug production... Following the American invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 and subsequent removal of the Taliban from power, competing agencies within the US government set about... adopting policies to "short-cut" the process of Afghan reconstruction. One of these short-cuts involved a deal with the warlords. The deal was to allow the warlords to grow poppy, so that these warlords could buy arms and recruit militia to strengthen their ranks. In return, they would not only provide the Americans with the intelligence on where the al-Qaeda and the Taliban are hiding, but would also provide the Americans with fighters. What came of this approach? The first thing that happened is that poppy fields and the poppy growers took over Afghanistan. In the year 2002, about 3,750 tons of opium was harvested. In cold cash, this translates conservatively into anything between US$5-6 billion for the warlords.

The second thing that the policy did was further weaken Karzai, who was running from pillar to post to get some cash to show some "improvement" in living conditions in Kabul to justify his and the Americans' presence, and he was deprived of revenue... As a result, the Afghan warlords, who were virtually eliminated by the Taliban, are now stronger than ever. In a few more years, these warlords will be strong enough to kick out their American benefactors and American puppets.

As if these developments do not portend a bad enough future for the immediate region, Washington felt compelled to introduce another. By pressurizing the Pakistan army to comb the border areas to ferret out the al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the Americans have given Pakistani troops a free hand to occupy Afghan territory and maintain control of the Taliban and al-Qaeda operations... United Nations officials and heads of aid agencies say that the security situation has worsened and that aid and reconstruction is blocked in southern Afghanistan, or one third of the country, because of increasing Taliban activity.

According to reports, the mob that attacked the Pakistan embassy in Kabul was well organized... Pakistan's ambassador to Kabul, Rustam Shah Mohmand, accused the Karzai government of inciting the mob... Prior to this, Musharraf, while in the US, criticized the Afghan leader for his limited control over Afghanistan and for having a government which was not fully representative of the ethnic mosaic that represents Afghanistan. The Karzai cabinet has... only a handful of the Pashtun community - the largest community in Afghanistan... Pakistan [is] close to the Pashtun-dominated Taliban militia.

...The American puppet in Kabul said that he was seeking clarification from the virtual American puppet in Islamabad concerning his statements... On the same day, Karzai issued a tough statement accusing Musharraf of interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs. The Humpty Dumpty of the US war on terrorism has taken another fall, and it is not at all clear that the divisive forces in Washington will be able to put it together again.

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=13169968&method=full&siteid=50143

ONE of the Britons due to face trial at Guantanamo Bay has tried to kill himself. Feroz Abbasi, 23, attempted to hang himself with a towel - one of the few possessions allowed in the harsh Cuban detention centre... The US has said Abbasi and fellow Briton Moazzam Begg, 35, from Sparkbrook, Birmingham, will be among the first to face military courts which could order their executions.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,998461,00.html

Senior ministers are resigned to the prospect that the two British prisoners who face US military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba cannot be repatriated to stand trial in UK courts because the legal barriers to such a political compromise are insurmountable. The stalemate has become hugely embarrassing to Tony Blair...The Britons are among six designated prisoners - held incommunicado for 18 months since the Afghan campaign - facing secret justice before a military tribunal. If they plead not guilty, they could risk the death penalty for alleged terrorist offences... British lawyers say that intelligence or interrogation-based evidence would make it hard for the crown prosecution service even to try to mount a successful prosecution and that, in any case, defence lawyers would argue that lack of access to their clients for 18 months rendered a fair trial impossible.

The news that the British government was giving up hopes of repatriation came as the wife of one of the British men... asked that her husband be repatriated and face justice in a British court. Mr Begg, 35, was arrested in Pakistan where he had been running an Islamic school.

...Family and friends of Mr Abbasi say they are extremely concerned for the mental health of the former computing student from south London.

...Since the camp opened there have been 28 reported suicide attempts involving 18 of the inmates.

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http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6735016%5E401,00.html

THE US-led coalition said today it will dismantle makeshift prison camps erected during the pandemonium that ensued in its war on Iraq... Prisoners will be sent to renovated and refurbished facilities including Abu Gharib, a notorious prison under ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, US army Major General Donald Campbell said. Thirty prisons are now in operation and between 3,000 to 4,000 people are currently in custody, said Campbell.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=424505

Tony Blair was rebuffed yesterday over attempts to give international backing to military action to topple the brutal leaders of failed states like Iraq. A summit of 14 world leaders refused to endorse a joint statement which proposed waiving the legal ban on intervening in foreign states if governments failed to protect their citizens from repression or "state failure".

...The leaders, including the South African President, Thabo Mbeki, the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, New Zealand's Prime Minister, Helen Clark, and the Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, said that "the global challenges of poverty, protecting the environment and human rights, promoting development and peace and combating terrorism require a step change in the confidence and capacities of our global institutions. These must be based on respect for international law and founded on multilateralism."

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13169845_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-DON-T-DUB-ME--DUBYA-name_page.html

TONY BLAIR has ditched plans to receive a "thank you" medal from President Bush next week for backing the war on Iraq. The Prime Minister and the President scrapped the ceremony as it would have triggered a furious backlash in Britain... Pictures of a smiling Mr Blair having the Congressional Gold Medal pinned on him by President Bush would have been beamed around the world at a time when British and American soldiers are still losing their lives in Iraq. It would have been a public relations catastrophe.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3060779.stm

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has apologised for using false intelligence reports to justify sending troops to Iraq as part of the US-led coalition. Mr Howard cited the now discredited claims that Iraq tried to buy uranium from the African country of Niger when he was making the case for sending troops to Iraq during an address to Parliament.

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http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=720c6eb5-bdb2-4986-bb7c-8c7ec42aa376

Canadian defence scientists are leading an international effort to devise protection against new and more powerful terrorist explosives designed to flatten buildings and rupture people's internal organs. The weapons, referred to as thermobaric explosives, were developed during the Cold War in the Soviet Union, but there are concerns the devices may have now made their way into the hands of terrorists or rogue nations.

...Russia used thermobaric bombs against Chechen rebels during its war in that breakaway republic in the mid-1990s. In an attempt to dislodge al-Qaeda and Taliban forces from caves in Afghanistan the U.S. also rushed into production thermobaric weapons. At least 10 were believed to have been used in that war. Other terrorist explosions, such as Timothy McVeigh's 1995 truck bomb that killed 168 people in Oklahoma City and the Bali blast, are similar to thermobaric weapons. The Bali explosion killed more than 200, including two Canadians.

...The defence agency hopes to eventually develop computer software that will allow military engineers to quickly determine whether the structure of a building might be vulnerable to a thermobaric explosion... Similar technology could also help combat engineers and officers determine how to best build field fortifications.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/13/national/13IMAG.html?ex=1058673600&en=8ec515f7c81b4fe6&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Photographers, picture editors and even administration officials say that no other administration has moved as forcefully as the Bush White House to limit the access of outside news photographers to the president. [the white house's official photographer's work is provided to news outlets instead --mrs.h] ...Newspapers often run White House photos without crediting the White House, an article last month in Editor & Publisher said. Many times the credit line lists a news service that distributed the photo.

...[for example,] The Oval Office photograph taken by [Eric Draper, the chief White House photographer] the morning after the war against Iraq commenced showed the president, Vice President Dick Cheney and George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, engaged in what looked like a tense discussion. Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, looked on. White House officials say that allowing a group of news photographers in for that scene would have compromised security and changed the character of the meeting.

...Dirk Halstead, a former Time photographer who covered the White House, [commented,]... "I really think we're going to come up short on an historical basis from the standpoint of `What were these people really like?' ...Eric's pictures are there, but they are suspect because he's working for the president."

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helen thomas says goodbye to ari fleischer

http://www.smh.com.au/cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl?path=/articles/2003/07/11/1057783357455.html

His last day in the White House will be July 14, Bastille Day. He expressed hope that at his final briefing he would be accorded "a brief, momentary honeymoon, easy, nice, softball questions, Helen behaving herself, hopefully". I confess I did ask Ari some tough questions - questions I would have much preferred to ask the President if he had been accessible, like: "Why would we kill thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians to take out one man?"

When Ari departs, I will miss my sparring partner in the White House press room.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-2907412,00.html

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Cold War-era sirens may be revived as terrorism warnings. Cities including Oklahoma City, Chicago and Dallas have upgraded their outdoor warning systems with a type of siren that can carry voice announcements... The sirens can be particularly useful to people who are not listening to the radio or watching television.

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to hell. in a handbasket. even as we speak.

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1356380&nav=168XGqk0

It's a new form of adult entertainment, and men are paying thousands of dollars to shoot naked women with paint ball guns. They're coming to Las Vegas to do it. This bizarre new sport has captured the attention of people around the world, but Channel 8 Eyewitness News reporter LuAnne Sorrell is the only person who has interviewed the game's founder.

...Hunting for Bambi is the brainchild of Michael Burdick. Men pay anywhere from $5000 to $10,000 for the chance to come to the middle of the desert to shoot what they call "Bambis" with a paint ball gun. Burdick says men have come from as far away as Germany. The men get a video tape of their hunt to take home and show their friends. Burdick says safety is a concern, but the women are not allowed to wear protective gear -- only tennis shoes.

Burdick says hunters are told not to shoot the women above the chest, but he admits not all hunters follow the rules. "The main goal is to be as true to nature as possible. I don't go deer hunting and see a deer with a football helmet on so I don't want to see one on my girl either," said Burdick. The paint balls that come out of the guns travel at about 200 miles-per-hour. Getting hit with one stings with clothes on, and when they hit bare flesh, they are powerful enough to draw blood.

...[Burdick] explains the game to three women early one Monday morning. "You have to collect four flags throughout the course. Some are easy for you and some are not easy," said Burdick. The woman begin stripping down to their tennis shoes and start running to dodge the paint balls that go buzzing by.

"We got a hit," said George Evanthes, who just shot and hit one of the women in the behind. "It was sexy. Let's put it that way," said Evanthes.

The women who take part in this bizarre game get paid $2,500 if they escape unscathed. Even if a paintball hits them, they walk away with $1,000. "As you can see this is not lethal, and it wasn't meant to hurt anybody. Just good clean fun," said Evanthes.

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to HELL.

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jul/07132003/utah/utah.asp

FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD Ian August set three simple goals last July 11 while camping with a wilderness therapy program [similar to a teenage 'boot camp' --mrs.h] in the Sawtooth Mountain area west of Delta. Write a poem before dinner if at all possible, he wrote in his journal. Do day hike without falling down and crying. Go to bed very, very, very early.

Six days of sweltering heat in the west desert with the Skyline Journey program were taking a toll on the Austin, Texas, teen. "We went on a day hike today, and I got dehidrated [sic] so I was the last one to to [sic] the little waterfalls," Ian wrote, adding, "I layed [sic] down and rested a lot there." Two days later, Ian August was dead -- though it would be hyperthermia, not dehydration, that killed him.