Interested in dates/events in history? Try Hyperhistory: http://www.hyperhistory.com/

Link to Lost Worlds at your leisure, if that is your pleasure.

Contact via the convenient (and virus-free): e-mail form

US is blasted on Guantanamo: THE US should heed the warning of one of Britain's most senior judges that the continuing denial of justice to foreign suspects held Guantanamo Bay `Would lead to the gradual erosion of fundamental civil rights of US citizens", said the UK dally. Lord Steyn rightly described the detentions as "a monstrous failure of justice" and the proposed prosecutions as "kangaroo courts" where the military acted "as interrogators, prosecutors, defence counsel, judges and, where death sentences were imposed, executioners too". Even though Steyn's indictment came only in a lecture in London, not from the bench of an international court "it placed the US firmly in the dock of international legal opinion". The US had "finally received the searing indictment that it deserves". (EDITORIAL COMMENT, Weekend Australian 29-30 November 2003)

Year 2003

Website on situations in Iraq: The Iraq Foundation, set up by Iraqi expatriates in 1991 and with useful links to other relevant sites: http://www.iraqfoundation.org/

And Lost World's 2003 prize for stupidity and lack of humility goes to...

Topical Words: McJob

The Associated Press reported last Saturday that Jim Cantalupo, the Chairman and CEO of the fast-food firm McDonald's, had published an open letter to Merriam-Webster about the recently-published 11th edition of their Collegiate Dictionary. He complained about the inclusion in that work of the word "McJob", and for defining it as "low paying and dead-end work".

The affairs of dictionary makers are rarely controversial. But it does occasionally happen that words, or their definitions, become contentious. And this isn't the first time that "McJob" has been in the headlines. A report in the Independent newspaper in Britain in 1997 claimed that the Oxford English Dictionary had been advised on legal grounds not to include the word, though this never led to anything and the term is in the online OED.

There are several problems with Mr Cantalupo's objections. Not the least of them, as Merriam-Webster was quick to point out, is that they don't define the word in those pejorative terms, but use the phrase "a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement". They are not alone: the fourth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, for example, says it is "A job, usually in the retail or service sector, that is low paying, often temporary, and offers minimal or no benefits or opportunity for promotion".

The online OED says: "An unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector". There's little that Mr Cantalupo can dispute here; however unflattering it might appear to be to his organisation, that is indeed what people mean by the term.

Critics might also argue that he should have complained five months ago, when the Collegiate was first published. Actually, he's more like 17 years too late. "McJob" appeared in the Washington Post in 1986, though it was the publication of Douglas Coupland's book Generation X in 1991 that popularised it. In the decade since, it has spread around most of the world.

The job of dictionaries, their editors argue, is to reflect the way that the language is actually being used. Merriam-Webster rightly say that the word is in wide general use (not just on the Internet, as Mr Cantalupo asserts in his letter). They comment: "In editing the Collegiate Dictionary, we bear in mind the guidance offered by Noah Webster that the business of the lexicographer is to collect, arrange, and define, as far as possible, all the words that belong to a language, and leave the author to select from them at his pleasure and according to his judgment'".

Mr Cantalupo also objects on the grounds that "McJOBS" is a registered trademark of McDonald's used for the company's training program for mentally and physically-challenged people. McDonald's has actually trademarked dozens of terms beginning in "Mc", such as McDouble, McDrive, McExpress, McFamily, McFlurry, McHero, McKids, McKroket, McMaco, McMenu, McMusic, McNifica, McNuggets, McOz, McPlane, McPollo, McRib, McRoyal, McScholar, McSwing, and McWorld (for the full list, see http://www.mcdonalds.com/legal/). This plethora of terms, and the determined attempt on the part of the company to associate "Mc" with McDonald's in the public mind, has been all-too successful.

A whole range of sarcastic or deprecatory "Mc" words has grown up. Examples include "McPainting" (an unoriginal, paint-by-numbers type of work), "McTheatre" (for hyped-up big-budget musicals that are low on musical and artistic quality), and "McPolicy" (a political policy which is mainly cosmetic). (McMadness has not yet entered the lexicon, which seems a pity.)

Another is "McMansion", which entered the lexicon in Britain a decade ago as a derogatory term for modest new homes, the architectural equivalent of the hamburger. Related to these is "McDonaldisation", dating from about 1975, which the online OED defines in a carefully non-derogatory way as "The spread of influence of the type of efficient, standardized, corporate business or culture regarded as epitomized by the McDonald's restaurant chain. More widely: the spread of the influence of American culture". This spread might result, some say, in a "McWorld".

One can't help feeling that McDonald's is on a loser, complaining about just one example of a widespread trend, especially one that has been stimulated by their own trademark practice. A famous libel case brought by the firm in the UK in the 1990s resulted in the term "McCensorship" being widely used. I'm watching for it to reappear.
Editor's Note: Is Corporate America losing its sanity? Do these people know there's a big wide world out there, including more than 1 billion Chinese people? When are US folk going to get real? Where do people go once they become this unrealistic in the US? (Well, some of them emigrate to Australia, is what we find in Australia.) This was emailed to Lost Worlds on 15 November 2003 by an Australian, lifted from World Wide Words, a weekly newsletter about words from Bristol, UK. (no reply needed)
The last thing this website ever wants to see is a The McInternet or even a McWebsite, although there are a lot of McWebsites. Enough is enough! - Ed

Update of 10 February 2007: Regarding the US moves in Iraq in 2003, it now seems that, as a headline reads, “war evidence 'dubious'”. A top-level Pentagon official, Douglas Feith, (at the time being under-secretary for defence policy at of Dept. of Defence), provided intelligence material of “dubious quality” to shore up the case the White House was developing for its invasion of Iraq. An early and bi-partisan 2007 report on the matters from US Defence Inspector -General has been cited as a “devastating condemnation” of Feith's role, which involved drumming up national and international support for possible US intentions. In particular, against the conclusions of the wider US intelligence community, Feith concluded that Saddam Hussein's regime was not a rival to Al-Qa'ida, but was co-operating with “The Base”. Feith's material apparently had some influence on the views of Vice-President Dick Cheney. Feith developed his views via statements made in 2002 and 2003. (Re reporting on a recent US classified Pentagon report in Weekend Australian, 10-11 February-2007)

At Lost Worlds - The Website on 18 December 2003 - Quite a day!

We Finally Got Our Frankenstein... and He Was In A Spider Hole

By Michael Moore - in the US - arriving here 18 December 2003
Date: 14-15-16 December 2003
From: mailinglist@michaelmoore.com

Thank God Saddam is finally back in American hands!

He must have really missed us. Man, he sure looked bad! But, at least he got a free dental exam today. That's something most Americans can't get.

America used to like Saddam. We LOVED Saddam. We funded him. We armed him. We helped him gas Iranian troops.

But then he screwed up. He invaded the dictatorship of Kuwait and, in doing so, did the worst thing imaginable -- he threatened an even BETTER friend of ours: the dictatorship of Saudi Arabia, and its vast oil reserves.

The Bushes and the Saudi royal family were and are close business partners, and Saddam, back in 1990, committed a royal blunder by getting a little too close to their wealthy holdings. Things went downhill for Saddam from there.

But it wasn't always that way. Saddam was our good friend and ally. We supported his regime. It wasn't the first time we had helped a murderer. We liked playing Dr. Frankenstein. We created a lot of monsters -- the Shah of Iran, Somoza of Nicaragua, Pinochet of Chile -- and then we expressed ignorance or shock when they ran amok and massacred people.

We liked Saddam because he was willing to fight the Ayatollah. So we made sure that he got billions of dollars to purchase weapons. Weapons of mass destruction. That's right, he had them. We should know -- we gave them to him!

We allowed and encouraged American corporations to do business with Saddam in the 1980s. That's how he got chemical and biological agents so he could use them in chemical and biological weapons. Here's the list of some of the stuff we sent him (according to a 1994 U.S. Senate report):
* Bacillus Anthracis, cause of anthrax.
* Clostridium Botulinum, a source of botulinum toxin.
* Histoplasma Capsulatam, cause of a disease attacking lungs, brain, spinal cord, and heart.
* Brucella Melitensis, a bacteria that can damage major organs;
* Clostridium Perfringens, a highly toxic bacteria causing systemic illness;
* Clostridium tetani, a highly toxigenic substance.

And here are some of the American corporations who helped to prop Saddam up by doing business with him: AT&T, Bechtel, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical, Dupont, Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM (for a full list of companies and descriptions of how they helped Saddam, go to: www.laweekly.com/ink/03/23/news-crogan.php )

We were so cozy with dear old Saddam that we decided to feed him satellite images so he could locate where the Iranian troops were. We pretty much knew how he would use the information, and sure enough, as soon as we sent him the spy photos, he gassed those troops. And we kept quiet. Because he was our friend, and the Iranians were the "enemy." A year after he first gassed the Iranians, we re-established full diplomatic relations with him!

Later he gassed his own people, the Kurds. You would think that would force us to disassociate ourselves from him.

Congress tried to impose economic sanctions on Saddam, but the Reagan White House quickly rejected that idea -- they wouldn't let anything derail their good buddy Saddam. We had a virtual love fest with this Frankenstein whom we (in part) created.

And, just like the mythical Frankenstein, Saddam eventually spun out of control. He would no longer do what he was told by his master. Saddam had to be caught. And now that he has been brought back from the wilderness, perhaps he will have something to say about his creators.

Maybe we can learn something... interesting. Maybe Don Rumsfeld could smile and shake Saddam's hand again. Just like he did when he went to see him in 1983 (you can find a photo at: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/ )

Maybe we never would have been in the situation we're in if Rumsfeld, Bush, Sr., and company hadn't been so excited back in the 80s about their friendly monster in the desert.

Meanwhile, anybody know where the guy is who killed 3000 people on 9/11? Our other Frankenstein?? Maybe he's in a mouse hole?

So many of our little monsters, so little time before the next election.

Stay strong, Democratic candidates. Quit sounding like a bunch of wusses. These bastards sent us to war on a lie, the killing will not stop, the Arab world hates us with a passion, and we will pay for this out of our pockets for years to come. Nothing that happened today (or in the past 9 months) has made us ONE BIT safer in our post-9/11 world. Saddam was never a threat to our national security.

Only our desire to play Dr. Frankenstein dooms us all.

Yours, Michael Moore

www.michaelmoore.com

For a look back to the better times of our relationship with Saddam Hussein, see the following:

Patrick E. Tyler, "Officers say U.S. aided Iraq in war despite use of gas," New York Times, 18 August, 2002. See: www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0818-02.htm

"U.S. Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual Use Exports to Iraq and their possible impact on health consequences of the Gulf War," 1994 Report by the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. See: www.gulflink.osd.mil/medsearch/FocusAreas/riegle_report/report/report_index.htm

William Blum's cover story in the April 1998 issue of The Progressive, "Anthrax for Export." See: www.progressive.org/0901/anth0498.html

Jim Crogan's 25 April-1 May, 2003 report in LA Weekly, "Made in the USA, Part III: The Dishonor Roll." See: www.laweekly.com/ink/03/23/news-crogan.php

"Iraq: U.S. military items exported or transferred to Iraq in the 1980s," United States General Accounting Office, released 7 February, 1994. See: www.fas.org/man/gao/gao9498.htm

"U.S. had key role in Iraq buildup; trade in chemical arms allowed despite their use on Iranians and Kurds," Washington Post, 30 December, 2002.

www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52241-2002Dec29?language=printer

"Iraqgate: Saddam Hussein, U.S. policy and the prelude to the Persian Gulf War, 1980-1994," The National Security Archive (US), 2003. See: www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/publications/iraqgate/iraqgate.html

But who said... ?

But really, who said a society where men can fire guns in the air when they feel euphoric about something, in front of world TV cameras, is ready for democracy? Might a little education about gun control be in order both in Iraq and the US? - Ed

But who said Michael Moore is an untrustworthy US radical?

Oddly enough, and almost in a similar vein as compared to Moore, in today's Australian newspaper (18 December 2003), regarded as mainstream media, is a raft of criticisms of current US action and policy. As follows:

Page 7 - Vatican anger at "cow" treatment of Hussein: A top Vatican official, Cardinal Renato Martino, has criticised US military for showing footage of Hussein being treated "like a cow".

Martino sees it as "illusory" to imagine that Hussein's arrest would heal the damage the Vatican opposes.

"I felt pity to see this man destroyed, (the military) looking at his teeth as if he were a cow", Martino said, adding, "It seems to me to be illusory to hope that this will repair the dramas and the damage of the defeat for humanity that a war always brings about."

Cardinal Martino says the Vatican would rather see Hussein put on trial by an "appropriate institution".

Also on p. 7, under the headline "Wood cage awaits tyrant", we find that the Baghdad Clock building, once used to display gifts to Hussein and his personality cult from his admirers around the world, will be used as the venue of his courtroom, where Hussein will be held in a wooden cage.

Noting the ironies of the former leader once being feted by world leaders, the item mentions, "There was even [in the Clock building] a seal of the Senate of California, donated in the 1980s when Hussein was fighting Washington's arch-enemy, Iran, with chemical weapons."

Hussein was using chemical weapons with the approval of the US' wealthiest state? Really?

On p. 8, Dr. Hans Blix, one-time inspector seeking weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, is quoted as saying, "My guess is there are no weapons of mass destruction left." (Hussein himself denies to his captors he had any stocks of WMD.) Blix says he does not think that Hussein's capture will result in the discovery of any nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in Iraq. Blix feels that Iraq destroyed any such weapons in 1991 and that the arguments given about such weapons stocks given early in 2003 were "not sufficiently well-based".

Meanwhile, the hunt in Iraq is now on for the current most-wanted man there, "Hussein's most loyal killer", Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, said to be only semi-literate years ago, 61-years-old now, a one time ice-seller on Mosul's streets, and a coup-plotter in 1968, the man who ordered the devastations by gassing of Kurds in 1988 (the village of Halabja near the border with Iran), and led the violent campaign against the southern Marsh Arabs.

Douri suffers from leukemia, and in another anti-coup for the world intelligence community, in 1999 he was "almost captured" in Switzerland while undergoing treatment there.

Then, on p. 13, appear two seemingly-confused articles by two noted newspaper columnists.

First is Simon Jenkins, once an editor of The Times in London, who declares he is against the death penalty, BUT.

Variously, and now in Iraq, Jenkins suggests, "the only good Hussein is a dead one. After finding him, the Americans should have used an Iraqi special forces unit to deal with him on the spot. An Iraqi, not an American, should have announced his death to the world."

"If US forces can kill Iraqis daily, with no judicial or disciplinary response, why are they fastidious about killing the one Iraqi whose mere existence inspires such anti-American hatred? If the coalition can drop bombs on suspect houses in Tikrit and wipe out a dozen children in Afghanistan for possibly sheltering the Taliban, why go so gentle on Hussein? ... Hussein's humiliation on TV... the flagrant breach of Geneva Convention rules against the use of prisoners for propaganda, a breach vehemently protested against by Britain and the US when Hussein did likewise." ...

"Coalition ineptitude may have taken eight months to achieve what should [Hussein's capture] have taken a week" ... As regarding the US wanting Hussein to be be tried by Iraqis, Jenkins wants to know why the US did not trust the Serbs to try Slobodan Milosevic?

Milosevic, Jenkins says, was kidnapped by Americans and spirited away to The Hague. Since there is not the appropriate governmental or legal machinery in Iraq so far to mount a major trial, Jenkins [like the Vatican?] wants to see an off-shore tribunal, under the UN, or at The Hague court as more appropriate.

Suddenly, too, in terms of US-coalition propaganda, Hussein's crimes are not international, they are internal, and "weapons of mass destruction are off the radar." Will an international trial be too embarrassing for the US and Britain - more so if there is a presumption of innocence before proof of guilt arises, allowing Hussein to defend himself, the right to subpoena and cross-examine witnesses? One of whom might be Donald Rumsfeld and various CIA men "who turned a blind eye" to Hussein's mass murders in the 1980s.

"We are mad to think that putting this man [Hussein] on trial in Iraq - or probably anywhere - and hurling at him atrocity stories and abuse will win hearts and mind across the Middle East." "The British prime minister claims the right to kill Iraqi citizens by using cluster munitions. How can he deny those civilians the right to kill Hussein?" Those civilians want Hussein dead.

"The US and Britain are living a fantasy over Iraq. They think they can snap their fingers and conjure a democracy and a judiciary into being overnight, so they can extract themselves from the imbroglio as soon as possible.

But Iraq has no government and no law and order. Its policemen are murdered daily. One-third of its fledgling army has resigned because millions of dollars that should go on [army] pay has been siphoned off to a US firm in surplus fuel profits."
Oh really? Jenkins doesn't name this firm. Its name as reported on Australian TV already begins with a H - Ed

Next to Jenkins appears an article by Mark Steyn, a columnist for major newspapers in Canada and UK.

Steyn, who seems to be more in a Marx Brothers mode, says, "I've come to the conclusion that the entire international system needs to be destroyed..."

He thinks the bearded, captured Hussein looked like a wino around the back of London's Waterloo Station." ... "For the Palestinians, who never met a loser they weren't dumb enough to fall for (the Mufti, Nasser, Yasser), Hussein still has an honoured place in the pantheon of glorious has-beens. But for millions of Iraqis a monster has shrivelled away into a smelly bum too pathetic even to use his pistol to enjoy the martyrdom he urged on others." ...

Referring to something illogical that Hussein reportedly said, Steyn notes the contradictions of the arguments for-or-against Hussein being tried either in Iraq, or internationally. At which point he despairs of "the comprehensive failure of the international order", and amid the rampant contradictions he finds around the world, ergo, the entire international system needs to be destroyed. Still, this might not be a US priority until or unless G. W. Bush obtains a second term?

Steyn thinks that the view of the European media and the US Democrats is that, "It's the stupidity, stupid." Steyn fantasises that Condoleeza Rice might be US president around 2013.

But oh well, Steyn concludes. "Cheer up, there'll be a new quagmire along in a minute."

In the face of all this from Michael Moore and the offerings from The Australian on 18 December 2003, only six sleeps before Christmas, all this website can suggest as a verbal Christmas present is - forget about US plans for a missile shield, go find yourself a sanity shield! And if you find one, tell other people how to use it, PLEASE!
Take a holiday, stop reading newspapers and watching TV and avoid being surrounded by illusions and fantasies, contradictions, Dr. Strangelove logic, anti-social attitudes, crazy irony, miscalculations, propaganda, and confusions about what to do about State Criminality. Take it easy! Don't worry, be happy!
Note also that the Scottish Isles/Outer Hebrides currently seem fairly peaceful. But, above all, survive first, grow second. Basically, try to avoid the world's mad elephants sitting on you, whichever direction they are coming from. -Ed

And Lost World's 2003 Prize for Stupidity and Lack of Humility goes to... McDonald's! Yep, them hamburger people

Topical Words: McJob

Note from the Editor of Lost Worlds: Is Corporate America losing its sanity? Do these people know there's a big wide world out there, including more than 1 billion Chinese people and about 1 billion Indians? When is Corporate America going to come down from the upper floors, get real and get a life? Really, where do people go once they become this unrealistic in the US? To the moon? Into some kind of clinic for a rest?

The Associated Press reported last Saturday that Jim Cantalupo, the Chairman and CEO of the fast-food firm McDonald's, had published an open letter to Merriam-Webster about the recently-published 11th edition of their Collegiate Dictionary. He complained about the inclusion in that work of the word "McJob", and for defining it as "low paying and dead-end work".

The affairs of dictionary-makers are rarely controversial. But it does occasionally happen that words, or their definitions, become contentious. And this isn't the first time that "McJob" has been in the headlines. A report in the Independent newspaper in Britain in 1997 claimed that the Oxford English Dictionary had been advised on legal grounds not to include the word, though this never led to anything and the term is in the online OED.

There are several problems with Mr Cantalupo's objections. Not the least of them, as Merriam-Webster was quick to point out, is that they don't define the word in those pejorative terms, but use the phrase "a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement". They are not alone: the fourth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, for example, says it is "A job, usually in the retail or service sector, that is low paying, often temporary, and offers minimal or no benefits or opportunity for promotion".

The online OED says: "An unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector". There's little that Mr Cantalupo can dispute here; however unflattering it might appear to be to his organisation, that is indeed what people mean by the term.

Critics might also argue that he should have complained five months ago, when the Collegiate was first published. Actually, he's more like 17 years too late. "McJob" appeared in the Washington Post in 1986, though it was the publication of Douglas Coupland's book Generation X in 1991 that popularised it. In the decade since, it has spread around most of the world.

The job of dictionaries, their editors argue, is to reflect the way that the language is actually being used. Merriam-Webster rightly say that the word is in wide general use (not just on the Internet, as Mr Cantalupo asserts in his letter). They comment: "In editing the Collegiate Dictionary, we bear in mind the guidance offered by Noah Webster that the business of the lexicographer is to collect, arrange, and define, as far as possible, all the words that belong to a language, and leave the author to select from them at his pleasure and according to his judgment'".

Mr Cantalupo also objects on the grounds that "McJOBS" is a registered trademark of McDonald's used for the company's training program for mentally and physically challenged people. McDonald's has actually trademarked dozens of terms beginning in "Mc", such as McDouble, McDrive, McExpress, McFamily, McFlurry, McHero, McKids, McKroket, McMaco, McMenu, McMusic, McNifica, McNuggets, McOz, McPlane, McPollo, McRib, McRoyal, McScholar, McSwing, and McWorld (for the full list, see http://www.mcdonalds.com/legal/). This plethora of terms, and the determined attempt on the part of the company to associate "Mc" with McDonald's in the public mind, has been all-too successful.

A whole range of sarcastic or deprecatory "Mc" words has grown up. Examples include "McPainting" (an unoriginal, paint-by-numbers type of work), "McTheatre" (for hyped-up big-budget musicals that are low on musical and artistic quality), and "McPolicy" (a political policy which is mainly cosmetic).

Another is "McMansion", which entered the lexicon in Britain a decade ago as a derogatory term for modest new homes, the architectural equivalent of the hamburger. Related to these is "McDonaldisation", dating from about 1975, which the online OED defines in a carefully non-derogatory way as "The spread of influence of the type of efficient, standardized, corporate business or culture regarded as epitomized by the McDonald's restaurant chain. More widely: the spread of the influence of American culture". This spread might result, some say, in a "McWorld".

One can't help feeling that McDonald's is on a loser, complaining about just one example of a widespread trend, especially one that has been stimulated by their own trademark practice. A famous libel case brought by the firm in the UK in the 1990s resulted in the term "McCensorship" being widely used. I'm watching for it to reappear.

The above was emailed to Lost Worlds on 15 November 2003 by an Australian, lifted from World Wide Words, a weekly newsletter about words from Bristol, UK. (no reply needed)
The last thing Lost Worlds - The Website ever wants to see is a The McInternet or even a McWebsite, although there are a lot of McWebsites. Enough is enough! Christmas is coming already. McOz indeed! What effrontery! What gall! What a bloody hide! Get real! Get a bloody life! McBah! McHumbug! - Ed

More updates...

2003: Outbreak in Southern China of SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. It shortly turns up in Toronto, Canada, and causes a world-wide health scare. It seems to still be active by late December 2003.

Advertisement

27 December 2003: Is era of post-Christendom closer at hand?: Dire predictions arise about the outcome of Christianity's recent battle for dominance with neo-pagan beliefs that might have been common when the Church began 2000 years ago. Some church leaders now suspect that humanity's "search for inner happiness" has become Christianity's main rival. In Australia, such questions have lately been examined by National Church Life Survey, researcher Dr. Ruth Powell. Paganism, witchcraft and atheism are surging in popularity. Children are growing up with no reference points drawn from traditional beliefs.

Capture of Saddam Hussein: Raiding coalition forces 600-strong in Iraq capture Saddam Hussein, who is possibly given up by a relative, hiding in a 1-2-metre-deep storage bin fitted with an air vent and a fan, in a farmyard by a mudbrick building near his home town, Tikrit. US troops reportedly were on the verge of throwing a grenade into his spider-hole when he surrendered. A US military spokesman calls his hiding place "a spider-hole". (Several such holes-in-the-ground have been shown on Australian TV, none seem to be the same one.) Hussein is long-bearded, unkempt, looks tired and seems resigned to his fate. He had with him several weapons and US$750,000 in cash money. He is probably being held securely by US forces at Baghdad airport. Hussein reportedly says he had no program for using weapons of mass destruction, such allegations had been dreamed up by his enemies. The reward outstanding for information-leading-to Hussein has been US$34 million. This news arrives only a few days after the re-establishment of planning for self-government in Iraq. Question arises: should he have an Iraqi or an international trial? Iraqis seem to think, in Iraq. (TV reports in Australia, 14-15 December 2003)

Re “spider hole capture”: March 2005: Matters amazing for US propaganda - This website is suddenly emailed on the notion that the entire media story on the US' capture of Saddam Hussein from a “spider hole” was fabricated, a false story. All sorts of opinions are getting about. Follows the fruit of just a little sudden netsurfing on these possibilities. - Ed * *..* A former US Marine who helped *capture* *Saddam* *Hussein* says the "*Spider* *Hole*" was a fabrication of the military. Ex-Sgt. Nadim Abou Rabeh, *...* www.tribemagazine.com/board/ showthread.php?s=&threadid=8814 *.* people made up the term "*spider*-*hole*". Secondly, I'm glad we caught *Saddam*. *...* While the temptation is to respond to *Hussein**'s* *capture* with "Now that *...* www.thetalentshow.org/archives/000655.html - 21k - Cached - Similar pages *Capture* Created And Fabricated For Public Consumption *...* It almost seems like *Saddam* *Hussein* was captured in the first hours of the *...* then put into his "*spider* *hole*", to be "discovered" for our troops. *...* www.prisonplanet.com/Capture_Created_ And_Fabricated_For_Public_Consumption.html - 14k - Cached - Similar pages Scrutiny Hooligans: The Real *Capture* of *Saddam* *Hussein* *...* ousted Iraqi President *Saddam* *Hussein* said the public version of his *capture* was fabricated. *...* No *Spider* *Hole*. No disoriented, abandoned leader. *...* scrutinyhooligans.blogspot.com/ 2005/03/real-*capture*-of-*saddam*-*hussein*.html - 48k - Cached - Similar pages Was *Saddam* *Hussein* captured by the Kurds and held for US forces? *...* Date Trees and Flies in the Ointment: The US ''*Capture*'' of *Saddam* *Hussein* *...* missing details about how *Saddam* *Hussein* came to be in his "*spider* *hole*". *...* www.oldamericancentury.org/*saddam*_*capture*.htm - 94k - Cached - Similar pages – (Noted on this website, 17 March 2005)

US irrationality in Iraq December 2003: : US officer in Iraq in charge of military prisons, Brig-General Janis Karpinski, gives an interview about her job at Abu Ghraib prison to newspaper St Petersburgh Times. She claims that for many detainees, conditions are better than in their homes, so good they might not want to leave. The interview a month later earns Karpinski an official admonition and a quiet suspension. She was later replaced (when CBS broke Hersh's story) by Major-General Geoffrey Miller, earlier a commander of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, Cuba.
By May 2004, US Senator Ted Kennedy on Australian TV has said that in Iraq, prisons were "re-opened under new management - US management".
Some of this item is based on an extracted article from The New Yorker by US investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh in Sydney Morning Herald on 8-9 May 2004. Hersh was the US journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre (March 1968) of the Vietnam War. Check website: www.newyorker.com.

6 December 2003: US administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer and his convoy near Baghdad airport are targets of an assassination attempt which fails. (BBC world radio news report late 19 December 2003)

Late 2003: World Bank chief economist for West Bank and Gaza, Sebastien Dessus tells world press that "More than fifty per cent of Palestinians live in poverty." (Reported as early as 4 July 2003)

Late 2003: Liberia: Africa's oldest republic has now been in an almost continuous state of civil war for 20 years. In 1989, President Charles Taylor provoked an insurrection with Libyan backing that became a seven-year civil war killing up to 150,00 people. In 1999, another rebellion developed, from fighters of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy which has been controlling more territory in the north and west.

Late 2003: Piracy or unpoliced waters?: In the first three months of 2003 were 100 attacks on merchant ships worldwide, with 145 people killed. In 2003 were 370 attacks at sea and 25 hijackings. Piracy risk spots lately are Indonesia (about 103 incidents), Bangladesh (32 incidents) and India (18 incidents). Areas where security is deteriorating seem to be Somalia, South America, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Guyana. (Source: International Maritime Bureau)

Tolerating religious intolerance in Italy: "An Italian court order to remove crucifixes from an infants and primary school at the request of a Muslim activist caused shockwaves in the traditionally Catholic country, Agence France Presse has reported. The situation is that Adel Smith, aged 43, an Italian-Egyptian convert to Islam, has obtained a court order for the removal of all crucifixes from the walls of a school in the central Italian town of 'Aquila. The Guardian has reported that Smith converted to Islam in 1987, and has described the crucifix as "a small body on two wooden sticks". He has sought to have prayers from the Koran displayed at his children's school. (Italy has about 800,000 Muslims). Smith also objects to Dante's famous cycle of poems, The Divine Comedy and wants to deleted from the school syllabus. Italian newspaper La Republica warns that the decision could increase religious tensions. Reported w/e 8 November 2003, Weekend Australian.

US irrationality in Iraq: 5 November 2003: MG Ryder following orders from Sanchez reports on the US-managed prison system in Iraq and recommend improvements. Ryder's report is issued on 5 November and mentions potential human rights abuses plus training and manpower issues. The work of guards needed to be separated from those of military intelligence personnel. Following, US senior officers running the war in Iraq are advised of issues. Hersh feels Ryder's examination was either a failure or a cover-up. Ryder's report is contradicted by a report from fellow-general Taguba.
Some of this item is based on an extracted article from The New Yorker by US investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh in Sydney Morning Herald on 8-9 May 2004. Hersh was the US journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre (March 1968) of the Vietnam War. Check website: www.newyorker.com.

US irrationality in Iraq: October 2003: There appears at the Abu Ghraib US military prison near Baghdad a staff-sergeant named Ivan L. Frederick II. Frederick has had six years' experience (under strict guidelines on prisoner treatment) as a guard with Virginia Department of Corrections, and is "a natural leader". Frederick and his followers' activities (without guidelines on prisoner treatment) later annoy a group of protestors and whistleblowers about harsh treatment meted out to detainees, including sleep deprivation and naked detainees intimidated by guard dogs. Frederick's own communications to home indicated his actions stemmed partly from the wishes of CIA officers, linguists and interrogation specialists employed by private defence contractors.
(One such private defence contractor [mercenaries?] is CACI International, a spokesperson for which, its CEO Jack London, has said that that CACI has by 8 May 2004 received no formal communication from the US army about any complaints. CACI is said to have lately gained renewed business with the Pentagon, including one contract worth US$650 million.)
One of the most effective whistleblowers has been Joseph Darby, a reservist in 372nd Military Police Company, who originally placed an anonymous protest note under the door of a superior, detailing allegations of sexual and physical abuse of detainees by some members of his unit. He later came forth with a sworn statement. The allegations have been backed up by "hundreds of explicit photographs".
Some of this item is based on an extracted article from The New Yorker by US investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh in Sydney Morning Herald on 8-9 May 2004. Hersh was the US journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre (March 1968) of the Vietnam War. Check website: www.newyorker.com.

November 2003: Completion in Australia of a survey/report on the quality of military intelligence used prior to Australia making its decision to participate in the Iraq War. (According to front page of Sydney Morning Herald, 2 March 2004) This report recommends amongst other things, an independent inquiry into Australia's intelligence agencies, government statements possibly being worded "more strongly" than Australian intelligence judgement due to being based on British and US assessments, overstatements of WMD threat levels, some intelligence arising from untested sources, and some intelligence agency understaffings.

October 2003: Re looting of treasures of antiquity in Iraq in 2003: Items under threat included: a solid gold Sumerian harp from 3360BC, 2000-year-old ceramic jars and urns, a 5000-year-old alabaster Uruk vase, a bust of an Akkadian king dated about 2300BC, "the ram in the thicket", a statue of a deity from 2600BC; tablets with Hammurabi's legal code, one of the world's earliest legal documents, a sculpted head of a Sumerian woman, priceless copies of The Koran, fittings and furniture from 9th-Century palaces, mathematics texts that reveal a knowledge of Pythagorean geometry 1500 years before Pythagoras, a 2300BC image of the God Abu and his consort, cuneiform tablets, and 100,000-year-old stone tools from the Kirkuk area.

October 2003: In Lost World's part of Australia, Christadelphians (based in Lismore 2480 NSW at PO Box 105, see www.biblexplore.org) are giving more lectures on Bible prophecies. Titles are given such as: "Israel: A sure sign of the Establishment of God's Kingdom on Earth" - "God's Kingdom on Earth revealed by the Prophet Daniel" - "How Christ's Coming will change the World ".
You too can: "Explore Bible prophecies that have, for thousands of years, foretold present and future world events. You will see prophecies that demonstrate the accuracy of the Bible. See how easily the Bible clears up any misunderstanding about the Kingdom of God and the destiny of the world. See how the message of the Gospel can help you prepare for Christ's coming and invite you to participate in the future purpose of God"

15 October 2003: China sends its first man into space, the third nation to do so since the early 1960s.

14/15 October 2003: Russian expedition returns from Mount Ararat in Turkey and says there are three sites which may reveal artefacts associated with Noah's Ark. (Australian TV news item)

14 October 2003: Hunt for Saddam Hussein reportedly hots up in Iraq in the area of Tikrit, his home town. (TV item)

13 October 2003: TV reports arise that escaped Jemaah Islamiah bomber Fathur Rohamn al-Ghozi has been killed in a gunfight with Philippines police. It was reported by 1 August 2003 that three gunmen helping to protect him had just been killed in the southern Philippines after fighting government troops (in southern Lanao del Norte province).

Australia's national broadcaster, ABC, has been found guilty of "serious bias" in its reporting of the Iraq War, in breach of its own editorial policy - all such charges relate to AM, the broadcaster's morning current affairs radio program. (Reported 10 October 2003)

10 October 2003: Potential for deep schism arises in world-wide Anglican Church, especially in Africa, on issues related mostly to male homosexuality. Conferences on such issues are being held around the world.

October 2003: The uproar in the world Anglican Church over issues raised by gay clergy, or not, is not confined to Christian denominations. As reported by 5 July 2003 in Australia, a leading Buddhist monk in Thailand, Phra Payom Kalayano has called for more rigorous screening of candidates seeking to don saffron robes, as too many homosexual men were becoming monks. (Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend 5-6 July 2003 reporting Nation newspaper in Thailand)

United Kingdom: After "painstaking research into royal eating habits" at Windsor Castle, made possible only as royal officials kept a regular, daily "Bill of Fayre", or record of their menus, tourists in the UK can now inspect the royal diets. The food archives were begun in the reign of Richard II (1377-1399), and continued to the reign of Elizabeth 1, to the present. To Elizabeth I's time, the royal cook book was called "The form of Cury", evidently a record of highly-spiced and marinaded foods. (Reported Sydney Morning Herald 4-5 October 2003)

The wonders of geological science? The Himalayan Mountains may 450 million years old, or nine times older than previously thought, according to a controversial new dating study. The continental crush which raised them may not have been as recent as we have been told. (Reported 4-5 October 2003 in a very small item in Sydney Morning Herald)

Synchronicity? New poll results arise in the US saying that Americans do not think the Iraq War was worth the effort, just as a report is released that US weapons experts have found no evidence of Iraq had any program of creating weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, scandal continues in Washington over allegations about the "outing" of the identity of a CIA agent (Valerie Plame) being manipulated from high political levels as revenge on her husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson, who publicly asked questions about US government policy on Iraq. It is illegal in the US to reveal the name of a CIA agent in public. (Reported Sydney Morning Herald 4-5 October 2003)

5 October 2003: Israeli F-16 jets strike deep into Syria, attacking a Palestinian refugee camp about 22km from Damascus on the eve of Yom Kippur. Syria is technically at war with Israel and wants return of Golan Heights.

4 October 2003: A suicide bombing by Islamic Jihad of a restaurant on Israel's coastal town Haifa kills 19 people.

US Govt is lately seeking US$600 million from Congress to continue the search in Iraq for "conclusive evidence" that Iraq's government had an illegal weapons program. Meantime, reports arise from World Bank economists that a four-year reconstruction period in Iraq could cost US$36 billion. (Reported 3 October 2003)

Mukhlas, leader of the gang that planned the Bali Bombing on 12 October 2002, is now the third terrorist to be sentenced to death. Mukhlas, 43, is the most senior member of Jemaah Islamiah so far to be found guilty, and is the 16th of the 29 accused of complicity in the bombing. After the sentence was delivered, he leapt to his feet, punched the air and shouted. (Reported 3 October 2003)

Exodus and gold plundered from Egypt: In what seems a loony-tunes report, Lost Worlds finds that lawyers from Egypt and Europe, using information from the Old Testament, are considering a plan to sue the world's Jews for "plundering" gold from Pharonic Egypt during the Exodus. (See Exodus 12: 35-36.) Whereas, some Jewish commentaries have suggested that as the Hebrews led by Moses had been enslaved, they were owed some compensation. But it has also been asked if any such legal suit would exceed a sensible statute of limitations? (Reported 13 September 2003 in Australia)

6 September 2003-October 2000: Riots in Israel which kill 14 people. The later Or Commission results on the matter, reported in Australia by 6 September 2003, includes amongst other remarks that successive Israeli governments had consistently discriminated against Arab sectors, and predicts increasing boiling points.

September 2003: Will the poetry of Michelangelo finally appear in print? They might, as edited by scholar Jonathan Nelson, published by Electa. One view is that his poems are "shot through with inner torment". Michelangelo had intended his 80 poems to his "muse", Vittoria Colonna, the Marchesa di Pescara, although she died before he could publish.

September 2003: The Iraqi archaeological treasures problem: The prized 5200-year old statue of the Lady of Warka, feared lost, has been recovered after months of investigation. It had been buried in an orchard on the outskirts of Baghdad, and attempts had been made to sell it. About 10,000 artefacts are still missing, but an original estimate of 170,000 missing items had been incorrect, as many items had been "hidden", though perhaps for too-varied a set of motives.

Reported September 2003: Right, left and wrong in Colombia: The minimum age permitted for military recruitment under the Geneva Convention is 15. In Colombia, the recruitment of minors for military work is punishable by 6-10 years in prison. Reportedly, there are 11,000 boys and girls fighting in the Colombian civil war for leftist rebel bands or rightist paramilitary squads. Some 80 per cent of the young combatants fight for the two main leftist revolutionary groups. Only Burma and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa have more child combatants. Source: Human Rights Watch/Los Angeles Times.

3000BC: The Dawn of the Dingo?: DNA data released at a recent conference at University of New South Wales, Sydney, on origins of modern humans, seems to indicate that the Australian Dingo may be the descendant of a single pregnant female dog brought to Australia from Indonesia about 3000BC. Some 211 dingos from all states of Australia have been compared in terms of their mitochondrial DNA by researchers, geneticist Alan Wilton and Prof. Peter Savolainen of Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. The oldest Dingo remains in Australia have otherwise been dated around 3500 years ago, or about 1500BC. It anyway seems that only a few dogs, a pair, or just one pregnant dog started the Australian population. In return, it seems that lice common to kangaroos have been found on dogs in "South East Asia". The research on human origins presented at the conference tended to support the "out-of-Africa" theory. (Reported 30 September 2003 in Australia)

Evidence has arisen in Australia that Jemaah Islamiah about the time of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, sent a militant from Malaysia for about a year to train recruits for "terror operations" in Sydney's nearby Blue Mountains area. The suspect has been in prison in Malaysia since he arrived home in 2001. (27-28 September 2003, Weekend Australian)

The UN Future?: New York Times welcomes Kofi Annan's challenge to the UN General Assembly to step into the 21st Century and editorialises, "The UN is increasingly perceived as an antiquated relic of the Cold War." Chicago Sun-Times sees a beleaguered institution "under physical assault by terrorists in Iraq and rhetorical assault by those who have come to question what purpose the UN is serving in this complex, violent world," and it's really "an expensive stage for the tin-pot dictators of the world to tweak the nose of the US in prime time." The Melbourne Age sees it differently, with the US' latest remarks meaning the US does not see the UN is irrelevant. (Days before 27 September 2003)

26 September 2003: US is now under pressure from UN for a speedy handover of power in Iraq, and will give Iraqis six months to draw up a constitution to pave a way for election of a new national government early in 2004. US here hopes for support from France and Russia.

US irrationality in Iraq: September 2003: Sanchez orders MG Ryder to review the US-managed prison system in Iraq and recommend improvements. Ryder's report is issued on 5 November. Major-General Taguba later finds that between September and December 2003 were many instances of "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" in US-run military prisons. It is thought by May 2004 that pressure on US prison guards and "operatives" for results increased after suicide bombings against the UN HQ in Iraq earlier in August, following which the commander of Guantanamo base in Cuba, Major-General Miller, went to Baghdad with a team of interrogation experts. The abuse now being complained of seems to have begun by about the third week of September 2003.
Some of this item is based on an extracted article from The New Yorker by US investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh in Sydney Morning Herald on 8-9 May 2004. Hersh was the US journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre (March 1968) of the Vietnam War. Check website: www.newyorker.com. See also other stories in SMH of 8-9 May 2004.

26 September 2003: The case of terrorist Hambali... When captured in Thailand (at Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok) he was planning to relocate his Jemaah Islamiah operation to Bangladesh, with a view to influencing sleeper cell(s) in Pakistan for the future. This and other possibilities suggest that JI is not now an exclusively South East Asian movement.

26 September 2003: UN has ordered a near-complete withdrawal of its staff from Iraq in a major blow to plans to give UN a greater role in Iraq's future. UN has suffered two bomb attacks on its Baghdad compound.

26 September 2003: Convicted Bali Bomber Ali Imron orders his lawyers not to appeal against his life sentence for terrorism, so that he can show he feels remorseful. Imron has already apologised many times to the families of the 202 people killed by the bombings.

Nature or Nurture? Is a sense of fairness an evolutionary thing or not? Humanity expends vast numbers of words on claims that views on justice are a large part of civilization, and also reside near the seat of the human soul, does we not? These philosophical views are now being monkeyed around with by researchers in Baltimore, US, checking some behaviour from Brown Capuchin Monkeys, especially their females. The monkeys have been trained to exchange plastic tokens for treats of a slice of cucumber, but if another monkey gets a better deal for a token, say a grape, they become rather peeved. Monkeys feeling shortchanged might even throw away their token, or their cucumber, rather devaluing things. The peeves of the non-grape-recipients increased as the experiment went on. "Now debate is raging over whether this sense of fairness is an evolutionary thing or an example of behaviour learned in captivity." (Lost Worlds rather idly wonders if it might be more useful to ask a child rather than an adult?) (Reported from a recent issue of journal Nature in Editor section, Weekend Australian, 20-21 September 2003)

800AD-1600AD: Unexpected in the Amazon region: Researchers are surprised to find evidence of "civilization" in the Amazon Rainforest region, spread about a 39sq/km area at the headwaters of the Xingu River, a 1000-year-old network of towns and villages, evidence of a complex, sophisticated society aware of "mathematics, astronomy and other sciences", The area was occupied 800AD-1600AD. There were about 19 villages each housing about 2500-5000 people, spaced 2.5-3.5 km apart, and connected by straight roadways up to 45 metres wide. The people utilised ditches, bridges, irrigation, ponds, causeways, canals. One view is, "not earth-shattering, but not expected in the Amazon". Researchers involved include Robert Carneiro of American Museum of Natural History, lead archaeologist Michael Heckenberger, of University of Florida and Jim Petersen, archaeologist of University of Vermont. See from this date a forthcoming issue of journal Science (Reported Sydney Morning Herald, 20 September 2003)

Leader of Anglicans in Australia, Bishop George Browning, at an annual synod expressed views that with international politics driven by Christian, Jewish and Islamic extremism, "The war on terror is producing nothing but terror." He feels that President Bush should spend a few days in an Iraqi village to try to understand local fears and hopes, and that Israeli PM Ariel Sharon should spend a few nights in West Bank Palestinian cities, for the same reasons. Browning sees unfortunate links between recent US insistences on "new world order" and globalisation, and feels there are serious theological issues involved. He is also sceptical that despite the US being "the most evangelised country on earth", as it hardly seems more godly. Are religious conversion experiences to be associated with US insularity, arrogance and lack of compassion? (13 September 2003)

13 September 2003: A decision by Israeli government "in principle" to expel Yassar Arafat gains swift reaction in Palestinian circles. Loyalists to him rally and news wires buzz. Some views are that Arafat is an "immovable obstacle to peace", others differ.
NB: Newspaper headlines in Australia by 7 July 2001 ran: "Israeli Cabinet split over strike to remove Arafat".

Near 11 September 2003: Second anniversary of 9/11. Osama bin-Laden's deputy Ayman Zawahiri releases a video, on which he is quoted as saying: "Rely on God, and pounce on the Americans just as lions pounce their prey, and bury them in Iraq's graveyard".

Infrasound - soundless music, spooks and hauntings: Fascinating new scientific research arises on inaudible "soundless music" that can manipulate human emotions. It's called "infrasound", and can lead to spooky experiences that the brain takes to be supernatural. The research has been conducted by Richard Lord, a physicist at Britain's National Physical Laboratory at Teddington, London. Composers including Sarah Angliss were also involved in the experiments. The results have just been presented to a conference of British Association for Advancement of Science.

Infrasound is noise below 20 hertz, the lowest frequency the ear can identify with comfort, and has been called "soundless music". For the experiments, which were "double-blind" and conducted with 750 interviewees hearing musical works interspersed with infrasound, the eerie sound was produced at 17Hz, from a loudspeaker attached to a 7-metre length of sewer pipe at 86 decibels - the equivalent with audible sound of standing beside a busy road.

It is mostly inaudible, but most people can detect its presence, describing it as "a throbbing hum felt through the body". Reactions can include shivers down the spine, extreme sorrow, coldness, anxiety, a raised heart rate and butterflies in the stomach. Infrasound can have a profound effect on human emotion even if a person is unaware it is present. Infrasound is detectable only when played at very high amplitudes. It can occur naturally, as with wind, thunder; or from an elephant or whale, which use it for communication. Man-made sources for it include traffic noise, aircraft, factories and organ pipes.

So-called "supernatural" associations as reactions to hearing infrasound include: spiritual awakenings, ghostly visitations, the spine-chilling reputations of haunted houses, spiritual inspiration as provided by sacred organ music, claims about hauntings, feelings experienced in religious settings such as cathedrals. In a haunted house, people may notice infrasound due to wind causing windows, doors or panels to vibrate, or this could be due to distant traffic noise, noise from aircraft, or anything vibrating at a low frequency, such as air-conditioners or refrigerators. Some organ pipes are calibrated to vibrate at less than 20Hz, and so their infrasound cannot be heard, but it can be felt.

Some "secular symptoms" of hearing infrasound can be motion sickness and sick building syndrome. The researchers say that hearing infrasound may make a person's current emotional state more vivid. It can also cause (or seem to cause?) candles to flicker, loose paper to quiver or fall, variations in lighting, cold draughts, claustrophobia and magnetic fields. (Just perfect for adding the finishing touches to your ideal haunted house! - Ed)
(Reported 10 September 2003 in The Australian Higher Education supplement, article by Mark Henderson)

The UN should take on the burden of the Iraq mess only if the US cedes control - sub-headline to an article by Prof. Amin Saikal, director of Centre for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Australian National University. (Sydney Morning Herald, 5 September 2003)

1 September 2003: Accused Indonesian cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, soon for sentencing on treason and other charges, has reportedly sent a seven-page letter to US President Bush threatening him with "punishment by Allah".

Egypt's chief of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, has expressed unhappiness over recent claims that a not-unknown mummy in Egypt is that of the renowned beauty, Queen Nefertiti , wife of Akhenaten and co-ruler with him. Hawass feels the mummy in question is of a man. The new claims have come from a mummification specialist from the UK's University of York, Joann Fletcher. Hawass is general secretary of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. The mummy in question is from a well-known tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings at Luxor. Confusion exists over the gender of the mummy, which reveals no evidence of male genitalia, but Hawass says he is sure the mummy is not a woman. He adds, the fact that the ears of the mummy are double-pierced does not mean the body was a woman, and another male mummy beside the disputed mummy also has pierced ears. Mr Hawass says the disputed mummy's hips are also too slim to be those of a woman, whereas Nefertiti had six children. However, the mummy will be x-rayed to see if the person had given birth. Mr Hawass also said Nefertiti died at age 35, but a UK team had reported the disputed mummy to be of a person aged 18-30. (Reported 1 September 2003)

Reports arise in Australia about the 29th August assassination of Iraqi ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, who led the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. However, his brother and deputy, Abdul-Aziz, may exert fresh control. Recognising US unwillingness to deal with anything like an Iranian Islamic regime, al-Hakim had decided to cooperate with coalition forces and downplay points on religious extremism. Al-Hakim like other clerics had been imprisoned by Hussein's regime; about 1983, some 125 members of his family had been arrested, and five of his brothers killed. Chalabi has said, "His murder removed an important man who had worked to stabilise the situation. It can only be aimed at creating sectarian strife." Hakim's brother has called for the US to leave Iraq. (1 September 2003, The Australian)

1 September 2003: A "sizeable majority" of US people surveyed believe the UN should take over the reconstruction of war-torn Iraq.

May 2003: per 1 September 2003 - Osama bin-Laden and Al-Qa'ida - five months ago, ie. May 2003, an Al-Qa'ida Summit, a decision to use biological weapons, for a terror attack that will be "unbelievable". (From Newsweek in US quoted on Australian TV)

30 August 2003: While Australians are concerned/unconcerned about lack of action in Australia against sex-slave rackets, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian authorities have freed about 1000 people forced to work in "slave-like conditions" on two coffee plantations in north-eastern Brazil.

Re October 1400: Chaucer murdered?: Monty Python comedian Terry Jones, who enjoys medieval studies, has developed a theory that courtier to Richard II, and author of The Canterbury Tales, poet Geoffrey Chaucer, was murdered after Henry IV came to power in 1399. Jones has developed the theory with Alan Fletcher, a lecturer in Medieval Studies at University College, Dublin. Their book is entitled, Who Murdered Chaucer? When Chaucer died, no official record was kept and there are no records of a will or any elaborate funeral. Other oddities of Chaucer's situation, they feel, demand attention. (Reported 18 August 2003)

Australian journalist Paul McGeough identifies a new guerrilla movement in Iraq which is becoming well-organised, wishes to uphold Islam, and is not merely action from die-hard supporters of Saddam Hussein. He feels, this could be a protracted guerrilla war for US troops. Sydney Morning Herald, 16-17 August 2003)

1579: More maritime history mystery: Fresh controversy arises over whether history should be rewritten with the case of English pirate Francis Drake, and the Golden Hind voyage: did Drake discover Alaska? A new book, The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, by Samuel Bawlf argues that Drake was forbidden from publicly reporting his discovery due to fear of the Spanish becoming aware of English moves. Working from study of maps and Drake's mention of a "frozen zone" where natives shivered in their furs and snow scarcely melted even in summer. Bawlf argues for a thorough rewrite of the history of Elizabethan discoveries. The English he said had an ambitious plan to find the North-West Passage and found an empire in the Pacific. Part of the problem is lack of information on Drake's whereabouts in the summer of 1579, a question long and hotly debated on the US' western coasts. Bawlf, a Canadian, believes Drake spilled details to his personal map-maker, Abraham Ortelius, who is said to have invented the atlas. Bawlf feels that a map showing four non-existent islands off the coast of California are the shapes of actual islands further north, including Vancouver Island. Sceptics are reportedly unconvinced, and some sceptics still believe that Drake went no further north on these West American coasts than Mexico. (Reported 16 August 2003)

Columnist Zheir Abdallah writing in the London-based Arab daily Al-Hayat, has launched out with some advice for the world: Arabs who hate the West are their own worst enemies, possibly frustrated that since the West's industrial revolution, Arabs and most Muslims have contributed almost nothing of scientific value. Hatred of the West can go as far back as The Crusades and is not helped at all by the West's and the US' embrace of Israel at the expense of the Palestinians... "But Arabs should remember that they invaded and occupied important parts of Europe hundreds of years before the Crusades." Increasingly since 1948, Arab states overly preoccupied with Israel have installed decreasingly impressive leaders, "not so intelligent and more tyrannical".
(Days before 16 August 2003, cited in Editor section, Weekend Australian, 16-17 August 2003)

15 August 2003: Reported capture (possibly in Thailand) of Al-Qa'ida Number 3 operative, Hambali (proper name, Riduan Isamudin). Authorities are saying very little about their success.
Note: 2003 from 25 December 2000: Amrozi, later one of the Bali bombers of October 2002, has been ordered by major Al-Qa'ida operative, Hambali, to blow up churches in an East Java district as a "warm-up" for later bombing operations. Amrozi said that the noted Philippines terrorist Fathur Rahman alias Ghozi, was related to Amrozi's wife. (Reported in Australian newspaper, 20 June 2003)

15 August, 2003: Massive power blackout in New York and adjoining areas stretching into Canada, thought to be due to a lightning strike, not terrorism. Historically, the biggest blackout in US history.

13 August 2003: Radical Moslem demonstrators in Indonesia accuse Australian PM John Howard of being "a terrorist" and want him to be tried for war crimes. Australia they say has denigrated the Moslem faith. Meanwhile, ASIO now believes Australia will soon be subject of "a catastrophic attack". (Midday TV news)

12 August 2003: Wall Street Journal in US reports that Australian David Hicks held by US at Guantanamo Bay will plead guilty.

11 August 2003: Reports arise that Al-Qa'ida terrorists who have infiltrated Iraq from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have formed an alliance with former intelligence agents of the Hussein regime to right a common enemy, the US. The alliance is known as Jaish Mohammed - the army of the prophet Mohammed, which is led by a Saudi that one British newspaper has been asked not to name for fear of jeopardisation of security operations.

11 August 2003: Abu Bakar Bashir "warns" the Indonesian government not to "discredit Muslims wanting to perform their religious duties," , nor should the government "arrest clerics, religious leaders or religious teachers because that will anger God". Bashir messages from his jail cell to urge Muslims to adhere to their faith without fear of being labelled as "terrorists". This comes as Indonesian authorities believe there may be a link between Jemaah Islamiah and the suicide bombing last Tuesday of the Marriott Hotel by Asmar Latin Sani.

Australians receive warning that international flights (Qantas) may become targets for ground-to-air missiles launched by terrorists. (10 August 2003, Australian evening TV news)

Sources at Australia's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre in Canberra are this weekend quoted as saying, "... expect to see further terrorist bombings in the next six months and ... expect to see it spreading out geographically beyond Indonesia. The real weak point is the southern Philippines and also southern Thailand." So far, about 80 Jemaah Islamiah operatives have been detained. JI is said to be re-infiltrating Ambon, where a three-year Christian-Moslem war has taken thousands of lives. Similarly for Poso, in Central Sulawesi. (Sulawesi is east of Borneo, Ambon is east of Sulawesi.) In a related report, it is thought that JI has about 1500 active members, of whom about 190 have been imprisoned since December 2001. JI members have lost their training camps and can now operate only in small squads but are as zealous as ever.
In other remarks this weekend, US military officials in Iraq in charge of the hunting squad, Task Force 20, are admitting they don't know whether they are closer to finding Saddam Hussein or not. Hussein is believed to be moving location each few hours. Also, the US-led team hunting further evidence of Hussein's weapons of mass destruction may next month produce a dossier on its findings. (Reported 9-10 August 2003 in Weekend Australian)

Advertisement

9 August 2003: A mathematician (Prof. James Murray in England) reports that using two lines of algebra, he has produced a way to predict with almost total accuracy (94 per cent) which newly-wed couples will enjoy a happy marriage. Murray reports on his methods in his book, Mathematics for Marriage.

Indonesia: One of the Bali Bombers, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, ("the smiling assassin") receives the death penalty for "a crime against humanity", but in a day or so he and his lawyers decide to appeal against the sentence. Earlier, Amrozi has spoken of his wish since childhood to become a martyr for Islam. (Reported 8 August 2003)

Indonesia: The Marriott Hotel of Jakarta has been suicide-bombed, with 10 people killed and almost 150 wounded. Most of the victims were innocent locals. The attack has quickly been linked to Jemaah Islamiah. (5 August 2003) Note: By 12 August, responsibility for this attack is claimed by Al-Qa'ida, which disapproves of the denigration of the faith of Islam in Indonesia by US and Australia.

4 August 2003: Reports arise from London that UK weapons expert, Dr. David Kelly, who suicided last month, had concluded by 1995 that Hussein's regime in Iraq had built and tested "a dirty bomb" during the time of the Iran-Iraq War, for use against Iranian troops. (The Sunday Times) (Note: It is reported by 23 August in Australia that Kelly some five months before his death, and if Britain helped invade Iraq, had predicted that he would be found "dead in the woods".

4 August 2003: British Museum has been holding "undisclosed talks" with Greek government re ideas of returning (or "lending") the Elgin Marbles to Athens for 2004's Olympic Games. The 2300-year-old statues and panels were removed in 1801 by Lord Elgin, who was then British ambassador to Constantinople, sold to the British Government and placed in the British Museum. Greek began to negotiate a return of the marbles in 1983.

4 August 2003: Daughter of Saddam Hussein Raghad (aged 36) and Rana (34) have appeared before the international media (Arab satellite TV station Al-Arabiya) suggesting their father's regime fell, and so quickly in Baghdad, because of "betrayal". Those whom Hussein had trusted most had let him down the most. At noon on the day US tanks rolled into Baghdad, their father sent them with a car and driver from his special security forces and ordered them to leave their house. With them at the time was the wife of their brother, Qusay, and her children. The daughters later met their mother, (Sajida) and another sister, Hala on the outskirts of Baghdad. Raghad described her father as a good and loving father, also loving to his grandchildren. Also, she said he would not be telling anyone where he was. The Hussein daughters have been granted refuge in Jordan.
Note: It was reported in Australia by 27 May 2003 (Sydney Morning Herald) that Hussein had been betrayed by three of his cousins, senior military officers and a cabinet minister (who was evacuated by US forces). Head of the Republican Guard, Maher Sufian al-Tikriti, once considered "a shadow of Hussein" had told his troops not to fight when US forces entered Baghdad on 8 April, an anonymous source had said. Also, one senior military officer had a son, who headed the office of Qusay Hussein, who had done likewise. Rumours had spread that Saddam Hussein had been killed in a strike of 7 April. (Hussein has been President, Prime Minister, chairman of Revolutionary Command Council and "tyrant", 1979-2003, as Sydney Morning Herald put it once during 2003)

1550BC-1575BC: When the Kushites almost conquered Egypt?: The Egyptians were prone to covering-up their reverses, and a new case of this involving Kush (the Sudanese) has just been discovered. The source of new information is the richly-decorated rock-cut tomb of Sobeknakht, a governor of Elkab, "an important provincial capital city" during the latter part of Egypt's 17th Dynasty. (Near Thebes, in Upper Egypt). Sobeknakht was an hereditary prince and his tomb, long ago looted, revealed 22 lines of hieroglyphics painted in red and appearing as tomb grime was removed.
The researcher-spokesman is Vivian Davies, an Egyptologist with British Museum. The tomb was discovered February last and now Davies is quoted as saying, "This is the discovery of a lifetime, one that changes the textbooks". The tomb's hieroglyphics report a battle that was unprecedented "since the time of the god", or, the beginning of time, as the Kushites, who were a superpower, which Egypt was not at the time, swept to invade the entire region, pillaging and taking precious objects as symbolic and real loot.
It had been known that Egyptian treasures including statues, stelae and an elegant alabaster vessel had been found in a royal Kushite tomb at Kerma - unexplained. These were war trophies. Evidently, Davies has said, "Each of the four main kings of Kush brought back treasures looted from Egypt." Their purpose was to harrass and dominate, not to occupy Egypt. The alabaster vessel taken to Kerma had been inscribed for Sobeknaht's spirit, he being governor and hereditary prince of Nkeheb, and was looted from his tomb, where the inscription indicates that his area suffered a "ferocious invasion" by Kush armies and their allies from the Land of Punt (southern coast of the Red Sea), plus a few tribal peoples. Sobeknahkt organised a counter-attack, later writing, "Kush came ... aroused along his length... he having stirred up the tribes of Wawat... the land of Punt and the Medjaw..." A decisive role was played for Egypt by "the might of the great one, Nekhbet", the vulture-goddess of Elkab, "strong of heart against the Nubians, who were burned through fire"... the chief of the nomads fell.
Meanwhile, the new tomb-site is "enormous" and possibly has other secrets to reveal. This was one defeat and time of trouble the Egyptians hushed-up, and indications are that Kush was less barbaric and weak than historians have thought. Kush in fact had a complex society, "with vast resources of gold", and it dominated trade routes into the heart of Africa. Kush also eventually conquered Egypt in the 8th Century, BC. (Reported in Australia 4 August 2003)

Plight of Iraq's Marsh Arabs makes for surprises: Before 2003's Iraq War, the plight of Iraq's Marsh Arabs (the Madan) had aroused concern world-wide. Saddam Hussein had drained their marshes. Now, the Marsh Arabs are found to be ambivalent about returning to their old lifestyle, and are seriously tempted to enjoy many fruits of the modern world. Their way of life has existed for 4000-5000 years, and they're believed to be descended from the Sumerians. Their home has been the marshes of Southern Iraq, near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, an area of about 78,000 sq/km. They lived semi-nomadically, building houses of reeds, fishing and herding water buffalo. In 1980 they numbered about 200,000. After the "First Gulf War" they rose as part of the Shia Revolt and were later suppressed by Hussein's regime. But with the suppression, Hussein's troops found it difficult to move in the marshes, so he had them drained for other reasons as well. To allow military movements during the Iran-Iraq War, because they hold about 50 per cent of Iraq's proven oil reserves, and to punish Shias hiding out in the region. But in any case, water retention projects upstream in Turkey and Syria have reduced water flows to the marshes area; now, perhaps only 30 per cent of the area could be usefully reflooded. Now, the Marsh Arabs face unemployment, poverty and prejudice, and especially where they are educated, they want two worlds, the old and the new; or are prepared to reject the old. Some now grow barley and wheat and make more money than they did before 1990. Two waves of harrassment have displaced many of them, in 1981 from near the Iranian border, and in 1991. (Reported 2-3 August 2003 in Weekend Australian, article by Stephen Farrell)

2-3 August, 2003: This weekend are buried the bodies of Saddam Hussein's two sons, Uday and Qusay, and a grandson, Qusay's teenage son Mustafa, all killed on 22 July by US forces attacking their hideout in the northern Iraq city of Mosul. The funeral was attended by about 40 men from Hussein's tribe. The bodies before burial had been tended by Red Crescent, which acted as a go-between for US forces in dealing with the Hussein family. US forces near the burial area said that locals said they did not want to make "a big deal" of the funeral arrangements.

Muslims open mosque in Granada, Spain, after 500 years. (2 August 2003)

Outrage in Saudi Arabia: Reactions in Saudi Arabia to the 9/11 attacks and a resulting US congressional report are that "the report oozes institutional racism". Congress is into the blame game and does not care whom it harms in the process. The report is "a charter for Saudi-bashing". Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister is quoted as saying, "It is an outrage to any sense of fairness that 28 blank pages are considered substantial evidence to proclaim the guilt of a country that has been a true friend of the US for over 60 years". (The reference to blank pages recognises that the US Govt chose not to publish some of the report.) (2 August 2003)

July 2003: In a recent survey of opinion in US, 12 per cent of those surveyed thought that Joan of Arc was the wife of Noah!

30 July 2003: Accused Bali Bomber Amrozi says he is not afraid of dying and is looking forward to becoming a martyr, a childhood dream. He predicts his mission will be continued by his generation's children and grandchildren. He has been quoted variously as singing his own-written songs, such as: "This is us, the warriors of Allah. We are not shaken by the death penalty; always continuing jihad, whatever happens... Get rid of cruel Zionists; get rid of the Christian filth; yell to Allah, Alluah Akbar; this is my song." He has harsh words for his younger brother and co-accused, Ali Imron (the repentant one), while his older brother Mukhlas is also accused of co-planning the Bali atrocity.

27 July or by 1 August 2003: Saddam Hussein has allegedly issued a new voice-tape in which he calls on Iraqis to continue resisting coalition forces. The current US chief administrator of Iraq is Paul Bremer, says national elections may be held within a year.
Note: For an on-the-ground report from Baghdad on what it was like, see Salam Pax, Salam Pax: The Baghdad Blog. Text Publishing, September 2003. (A Net blogger using wordplay for his nom de plume, Latin and Arabic words for peace) - Ed

25 July 2003: The US: As an 850-page report from a joint House and Senate intelligence committee(s) on the 9/11 Twin Towers attack appears, families of victims are reportedly damning it as "incomplete" and suggest the US government is covering up [a variety of] Saudi Arabian involvements in the atrocity.

23 July 2003: Lifting the lid on Jemaah Islamiah: If reports are accurate, the lid has been lifted off the inner workings of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) and the operations of cleric Abu Bakar Bashir by a Malay named Mohammed Nazir bin Abbas, 34-years-old, who was been flown to Bali to give evidence at the trial of Mukhlas, "the alleged ringmaster" of the Bali bombings. Mukhlas (Ali Ghufron) in 1990 married Nazir's sister, about the time the two men were befriended by Bashir. Later, the two travelled to Pakistan and elsewhere for "military training" and the idea of Jemaah Islamiah began to take root, to consider four main regions of activity, and meetings were held twice-yearly. Yet, Nazir also seemed to think that the Bali Bombing was done in a style not-agreed on by JI. But now partly-exposed, JI is now partly crippled.
Note: By 14 June 2003 it was reported in Australia that a witness against Mukhlas has said that JI activities connected with the Bali Bombing had been partly funded by Al-Qa'ida/Osama bin-Laden.

22 July 2003: Saddam Hussein's two sons, Uday and Qusay, and a grandson, Qusay's teenage son Mustafa, are killed by US forces attacking their villa-hideout in the northern Iraq city of Mosul. There follows a controversy on whether or not photographs of their bodies should be shown by media in Iraq, partly in order to convince Iraqis that the Hussein regime is truly finished. The man who betrayed their hideout - said to be its owner - to US forces has been paid a US$30 million bounty and "relocated to another country". The question of showing such pictures provoked strong debate in Australia.

Loch Ness keeps its secrets: "Scientists say traces of a 150-million-year-old dinosaur found on the banks of Loch Ness in Scotland are from a seawater-marine animal, not a freshwater specimen, and not "the Loch Ness Monster". The specimen was a 10-metre long plesiosaur. (18 July 2003)

Scientists have thought that the spaces between the galaxies are mostly empty, but now arises a view that they may be littered with "millions of orphaned stars". Perhaps, some are "massive clusters of orphans left homeless by collisions that destroyed entire galaxies". One commentator here is Michael West, an astronomer from University of Hawaii, in Sydney for a meeting of International Astronomical Union. West's team had used the Hubble Telescope to check out Abell 1185 - several thousand galaxies 400 million light years away. They found "hundreds of clusters each with up to a million stars each" (Reported 18 July 2003)

18 July, 2002: Controversy continues in world media over the credibility or lack of it of UK-US claims re Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, as Prime Minister Blair is to visit Washington. At the same time, US forces in Iraq now agree they are involved in "a classic guerrilla war".

History versus Theology: In Iran, a history lecturer has been given the death sentence for "insulting Islam and questioning clerical rule". Widespread protests mean his sentence has been reduced to four years and he has suspension of a previous sentence of 74 lashes. (Reported 14 July 2003)

Fresh claims arise that US soldiers in Iraq may have found evidence of an Iraqi program for weapons of mass destruction. Some evidence has been sent to the US for examination. (Weekend Australian, 12-13- July 2003)

11 July 2003: British PM Tony Blair "caves in to pressure" and appeals to the US for the repatriation of two British terrorist suspects currently held at Guantanamo Bay. An opposition view in Australia is that the like Australian suspect, David Hicks, should be returned to Australia to face the Australian justice system.

It's the oil, stupid, the other oil! Reports arise that "African oil to cut American reliance on Persian Gulf. This is aided by improved technology for finding oil in deep water off the West African coast and a US drive to decrease reliance on Persian Gulf oil. It is also easier to load West African oil onto tankers without need for long pipelines. All this may be more so if things go badly for the US in the Middle East. Deeply-committed carers for the environment as they are, US folk burn about 20 million barrels of oil per day, about 25 per cent of the world's production. (12 July 2003)

Indonesian police have swooped on three more Jemaah Islamiah operatives and arrested them in Jakarta. With them was a list of possible future targets. Further confirmation also arises that cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is leader if JI, though not necessarily to be implicated in the Bali Bombing. (Reported 12 July 2003)

11 July 2003: Claims arise over weeks in Iraq that "a highly-trained assassin" is on the streets of Baghdad, stalking US soldiers. In other news, a Syrian-backed Hezbollah group vows not to disarm, "despite growing US pressure on Damascus to discipline such Shiite Moslem guerrillas. Iraq has allegedly stashed billions of dollars in cash from oil deals with foreign firms in banks in Lebanon and Jordan, say Iraqi and Arab bankers. Amounts of US$500 million or more are cited.

Australian "Al-Qa'ida suspect" David Hicks from Adelaide, so-called combatant from Afghanistan, may face the death penalty once tried by the US and is being advised to consider a 20-year prison sentence in return for a guilty plea. (He has not by 9 July been formally charged by the US with anything.) His acting lawyer in Adelaide is Franco Camatta. Hicks seems likely to be tried by a US military tribunal and has been held for 19 months so far without his legal status as an Australian or anything else being clarified, and may even be unaware of the extent of his plight. It is unclear whether if Hicks is sentenced, he would serve his time in Australia or the US. (Reported 8 July 2003)

UK: A British parliamentary committee has "sharply criticised" the government's handling of intelligence information on Iraq's weaponry, but has fallen short of concluding that the government doctored any available information. (Reported 8 July 2003)

6 July 2003: Death in Germany from shrapnel wounds suffered due to an ambush in Iraq of Jeremy Little, from Sydney, a TV news sound recordist for NBC (US). Little had been travelling with a US military convoy.

Australian Taliban fighter David Hicks faces execution if found guilty by a military commission in US. (Reported 4 July 2003)

5 July 2003: Reports arise in Sydney Morning Herald in Australia that the architects of the Bali Bombing had intended to target the Sari Club by Kuta Beach the previous Friday night, 11 October, partly as fewer locals would be on the streets, but the explosions were delayed as bombs were not yet ready. The bomber Mukhlas in his recent writings has suggested the bombings were motivated by hatred of "the enemies of Islam", resentment of Australia's 1999 "occupation" of East Timor, and resentment of Australia's role with the US in confronting Saddam Hussein. Mukhlas says his team made efforts to kill only westerners at the Sari Club and Paddy's Irish Bar. The Sari Club bombed weighed 1000kg, a symbolic comment on the one-tonne bombs being dropped on Muslims by Americans in the Middle East. Mukhlas' recent writings by July 2003 indicate he hates the UN, the US and its allies, and believes he is fighting a holy war. He views Westerners as dirty animals who deserve to be wiped out. Mukhlas claims to have fought alongside Osama bin-Laden in Afghanistan against Soviet Union forces. (See also, entry for 12 October 2002)

Indonesia: Prosecutors have called for the death penalty for alleged Bali bomber Amrozi bin Nurhasyim just as police have found other senior suspects on the bombing matter. Also, a senior prosecutor has only lately connected the Al-Qa'ida network to Jemaah Islamiah (JI) re the Bali atrocity. Newly arrested has been a logistics commander for the Bali bombing, named Idris, aged 35., who had been planning other bombings. Others of his associates are now being sought. Meantime, Amrozi has told a court "he had planned to rid Indonesia of the plague of Westerners by violence." Judges are expected to deliver their summation by the end of July. In other news today on the Bali bombing, Indonesian police have arrested "a classroom full" of JI members maybe implicated in the Bali bombings, including the superior of Idris, Imam Samudra, and the group's regional head, Mukhlas, brother of Amrozi. The group's treasurer is in custody in Malaysia. Various other JI suspects are still at large. (Reported in The Australian, 1 July 2003. In Sydney Morning Herald of 19 November 2002, it is noted that Samudra's family has been out of touch with him for up to 12 years, indicating a secret style of life. His older sister Alyiah says he has been home only once, two years ago (in 2000), to replace a lost identity card, when he spoke only to his mother. She said his real name is Abdul Azis. Yet another sister, Yuli, says that Samudra had visited home five years ago with his wife and three children. Samudra is also alias Hudama)

US forces in Iraq are becoming increasingly edgy about attack threats from loyalists to Saddam Hussein who are attacking coalition forces with increasing frequency. The US response is termed, Operation Desert Sidewinder. Since 1 May when war officially ceased, about 63 US troops have been killed, about one-third in ambushes. It is becoming increasingly important to the US that Hussein be captured, if he is still alive. (Reported worlds news 1 July 2003)

China's mysterious Ba kingdom resurfaces: Circa 1AD and earlier: China's Ba Kings ruled Sichuan, Hunan and parts of Southern China before mysteriously disappearing about two thousand years ago. Now, a new Ba site has been uncovered by researchers from Sichuan Archaeology Institute, perhaps the most important yet. It is a spectacular tomb about 2500 years old, probably belonging to a ruler of the Ba Kingdom. Found have been more than 500 bronze objects - spears, swords, blades, tomahawks, ceremonial objects - plus the skeletons of two women and a man, probably human sacrifices from a king's entourage. Some 31 tombs have been found in an area nearby their location, about Luo Jiaba. The origins, social structure and culture of the Ba people remains largely unknown. The artefacts predate by 200 years the celebrated "entombed warriors" at Xi'ian in Shanxi province.
(Reported The Australian, 1 July 2003)

Hunting for Osama bin-Laden, again: In Afghanistan recently, Taliban-leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has announced formation of a council to launch a holy war against foreign troops and the Western-backed government of Hamid Karzai. Thousands of US and Pakistani troops have meantime launched an assault on remnants of the Taliban and fugitives of Al-Qa'ida. Various world media outlets worry about the survival/resurgence of warlords in Afghanistan, who will probably slow reconstruction efforts and also keep going the drug trades. See www.eurasianet.org for other comment. (Reported by 28 June 2003 in Australia)

27 June 2003: Return appearance for Comical Ali: Iraq's former information minister, Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf, dubbed Comical Ali for his views on Iraqi resistance to encroaching US forces, has appeared on Arabic TV to tell how he had given up to US forces, was interrogated, then released. He has not been part of the US' "most wanted pack" and US president Bush has gone so far as to say, "He was my man, he was great... Somebody accused us of hiring him and putting him there [in Baghdad]. This has been al-Sahhaf's first public appearance since the 9 April fall of Baghdad. Some of his classic lines include, at a press briefing held within earshot of US gunfire and moving armoured vehicles, "I triple guarantee you, there are no American soldiers in Baghdad." Also, "They are nowhere near the airport... They are lost in the desert .... they are retarded..." "Rumsfeld, he needs to be hit on the head." But this date also means reports that in Iraq, loyalists to Hussein's regime have begun to kill locals who are co-operating with Coalition forces. A female electrical engineer in charge of an area of Baghdad north of the Tigris has been shot dead on her doorstep. An official driver has had his car grenaded. Iraqi oil pipelines have been blown-up to retard reconstruction. (Weekend Australian, 28-29 June 2003)

544 million years ago: Australia a cradle of modern life forms? After three million years of single-celled life on Earth, complex plants and animals burst into life as part of The Cambrian Explosion - which has remained difficult to explain. Now, three Australian researchers have suggested that 580 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into South Australia triggering a formerly-unknown mass extinction, leading to the emergence of new life. The suggestion works against earlier-known theories that a succession of global ice ages caused The Cambrian Explosion. These surprise findings arose from inspection of 2000 rock samples taken from 30 drill holes (up to 2km deep) bored in South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory. Before an impact, "only about six species of leiospheres existed (smooth, round organisms). After an impact appeared 60 species of spiky organisms called acritarchs. The Australian researchers were paleontologist Kathleen Grey of Geological Survey of Western Australia, Perth, and geologist Clive Calver, molecular geneticist Simon Easteal at Australian National University, and Malcolm Walker, head of Macquarie University's Centre for Astrobiology in Sydney. The discussion has appeared in a new issue of journal Geology. (Reported in Weekend Australian, mid-year, 2003)

Possible remains found of Saddam Hussein. DNA testing will be conducted. (Oddly, very little more was heard on this news item - Ed) (Reported as a rumour from Iraq on TV news, Australia, 23 June 2003)

"An Ohio truck driver who assisted Osama bin-Laden in Afghanistan had helped devise a plan to destroy New York's Brooklyn Bridge (with gas cutters, called in Australia, oxy-acetylene torches) and other US targets.... He is allegedly Lyman Faris, 34, of Columbus, Ohio, who met bin-Laden in 2000 at an al-Qa'ida training camp. Faris may have been asked to help plan a second wave of attacks after 11 September 2001. Faris has been talking with US legal authorities since 1 May if not earlier, about helping the US delve into al-Qa'ida operations. Originally from Kashmir, he first arrived in the US in 1994, and later married. He had meeting in 2000, 2001 and early 2002 about such plans. (Reported in The Weekend Australian, 21-22 June, 2003)
It was reported 17 June 2003 and earlier by Newsweek that the same plan to blow the Brooklyn Bridge was also revealed by captured Al-Qa'ida operations chief Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who also spoke of plans to blow up grounded airlines and to derail passenger trains.

21 June 2003 re 8 October 2002: Claims arise in Australian newspapers of 21 June 2003 that the Australian government was warned two days before the Bali bombing (by Office of National Assessments) that Jemaah Islamiah operatives were at large in Indonesia. Bali mastermind Imam Samudra was mentioned in this context by 10 October last.

An Australian-New Zealand research team has found more than 100 new species of marine life cruising the deep-sea mountain ranges of the northern Tasman Sea between Lord Howe and Norfolk islands. Among the finds were a new species of skate, a relative of the stingray. A member of the team was Tim O'Hara, a curator of marine creatures with Museum Victoria, (Reported 21 June 2003)

Circa 19 June 2003: Iraq: Capture of one of Saddam Hussein's top aides/bodyguards, Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, staying in the house of an ordinary Iraqi family of Tikrit who gave him a refuge due to traditional Arabic custom of protecting guests. The capture arouses fresh speculation on whether Hussein is alive or dead.

16 June 2003: Australian prime minister John Howard says: "We went to war in a just cause, on a proper legal basis, to liberate an oppressed people." Commenting in The Weekend Australian, 21-22 June 2003, editor-at-large Paul Kelly writes that Australia went to war on Iraq not to liberate its people, not to disarm Hussein's WMDs, but because of Australia's alliance with the US. Kelly writes also: "The historical judgement on the Iraq War will be that it involved a degree of duplicity. No other conclusion is tenable... that on the afternoon of 11 September, 2001, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz then decided that here was a rationale for "doing Iraq", pushing the WMD excuse as a simple desire for regime change would not be found acceptable.
Near Kelly's article in the same issue, columnist Matt Price quotes Mr. Howard speechifying in 1995:
"The prevailing mood towards governments around the world today is one of mistrust. There is intense cynicism especially [among] the young, towards most aspects of government. It is undeniable that a major cause of the reduced respect for government has been the deterioration in simple trust and confidence [that] used to exist between people and their governments. As well, honesty is being swamped by cynical election campaigns based on fear, or the big scare, or the massive lie."

According to new information, Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has been helping to run a centre for Islamic militants called Camp Abu Bakar in the Southern Philippines, which is run by Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and was supposedly (say sources in Singapore) established in 1997. Some information here has come from Suriyadi Mas'ud (accused of making bombs that killed three and wounded 15 people in a McDonald's outlet in Eastern Indonesia in 2002), who has been testifying at the trial for treason against Indonesia of cleric Bashir. (Reported 18 June 2003)

News release of 14 June 2003: The oldest-known fossils of modern human beings have been found in Ethiopia, reports science journal, Nature. Three skulls estimated to be 160,000 years old show a mix of primitive and modern features suggesting they are of our immediate ancestors. Also adding weight to the "out of Africa" theory of human origins.

US irrationality in Iraq: June 2003: Janis Karpinski, a US army reserve brigadier-general is named commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade and placed in charge of military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski is the only senior female commander in the war zone. Installed due to her operations and intelligence officer experience who had service with Special Forces and with the 1991 Gulf War; however she has never run a prison system. Her staff inexperienced in prisoner-handling in three large jails include eight battalions and 340,000 army reservists. The main prison later coming to attention, earlier used by Hussein's regime, is Abu Ghraib, about 30km west of Baghdad, which had seen torture, weekly executions and "vile living conditions" in 3mx3m cells. (Karpinski's AP newsphoto rather makes her look like an escaper from the set of the Dr. Strangelove movie. - Ed)
Some of this item is based on an extracted article from The New Yorker by US investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh in Sydney Morning Herald on 8-9 May 2004. Hersh was the US journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre (March 1968) of the Vietnam War. Check website: www.newyorker.com.

Sunday Times in UK reports that British archaeologist Joann Fletcher may have identified the mummy of Queen Nefertiti, the step-mother of Tutankhamun, of Egypt's 14th Century. Partly by examination of a wig found in a relevant tomb in Egypt. (Reported 14 June 2003 in Australia)

Mid-2003: Of nearly 100 suicide attacks since 2000, Hamas has carried out the greatest number (according to New York Times.) (The acronym HAMAS can be read as an Arabic word for zeal - it stands for Harakat al Mugawama al Islamiya.)

The world's oldest man is apparently 132 year's old, Habib Miyan. He wishes to visit Mecca before he dies and two British strangers have offered to pay his way. (Reported 14 June 2003, BBC News Online)

Only 47 of about 8000 most valuable items from the Baghdad Museum are still missing, according to a UN investigation team. The world-famous Treasures of Nimrud are safe, as they were hidden in a vault beneath Central Bank in Baghdad. About 3000 pieces still remain unaccounted for. (By 16 April, it had been reported in Australia that "flames had engulfed" Baghdad's National Library, destroying many centuries-old manuscripts.) (Reported 14 June 2003)

14 June 2003): Baghdad Museum: "The most valuable item" looted from the Baghdad Museum mysteriously reappears as three men use a battered car to return it. It was The Sacred Vase of Warka, dating from 3200BC, a limestone bowl from Sumerian times, discovered by German archaeologists in 1940, "the Mona Lisa of Mesopotamian art".

Scandal for archaeology in Japan: A Japanese archaeologist named Shinichi Fujimura, sometimes known as "The Hands of God", has been committing archaeology-fraud for 30 years. He has been found to have fabricated finds at 159 of 178 sites he has worked on. His "finds" included stone tools (Japan's Middle Paleolithic Age), and some artefacts once dated to 100,000 years ago. He had been thought to have pushed back dates on human activity in Japan by 30,000 years, but now information on his views are being deleted from textbooks. (Reported 13 June 2003 though such reports had arisen months earlier from Japan by a correspondent for The Scotsman named Julian Ryall)

13 June 2003: Claims being made (and later well-publicized) by UK archaeologist Joanne Fletcher, that she may have found the mummy of Queen Nefertiti in a tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings have been dismissed by Egypt's chief of antiquities, Zahi Hawass.

11 June 2003: Iraq: Chalabi suggests that Saddam Hussein is still alive, and staying alive by way of constant moving with the help of about $US1.3 billion he stole from Iraq's banks about 13 March 2003.

US intelligence officials have been told by two top Al-Qa'ida leaders that their group has had no link with the regime of Saddam Hussein. The possibility had been discussed but was rejected by Osama bin-Laden. Reports to this effect have been circulated in the US since late 2002, though not in public. (Reported 10 June 2003)

Mixed Bali motives: Further motives have been discussed for conducting the Bali Bombing. Motives are now to include: the island's mainly Hindu population should have revenge taken on them for loss of life of 200 Moslems massacred by Hindus in Gujarat, India. Other motives are said to have been: Bali is a favoured tourist destination for US and Australian travellers, plus people from other countries which have been mistreating, attacking and humiliating Moslems across the world. (The drunken hedonism - decadence? - of Westerners holidaying on Bali has also been mentioned.) (Reported 7 June 2003)

6 June 2003: Afghanistan government soldiers have killed 40 Taliban fighters in three southern border villages near the Pakistan border as increased "rebel activity" intensifies.

2-3 June 2003: New York Times records views of columnist William Safire, re the controversy over mistakes made with intelligence reports relating to the Iraq War, that it was also an intelligence mistake, but a wise one, as it turned out, to believe that Iraq's 50,00-strong Republican Guard would put up a fierce battle to retain control of Baghdad, where casualties from street-fight-battles would be highly costly. Coalition tactics were predicated on fierce resistance which did not eventuate. Safire regards Hussein as "a genocidal maniac", and says he invited invasion by his contempt, there was no "intelligence hoax".

2 June 2003 and 94 million years ago: Discovery of a new dinosaur, weighing up to a whopping 80 tons, up to 30 metres from nose to tail, and one of the biggest animals ever to walk on the earth. Specimen found in a shallow tidal channel in a mangrove swamp of 94 million years ago. Hence its name, Paralatitan stromeri (tidal giant). It is a species of titanosaurid, discovered at an Egyptian oasis, western desert, Bahariya oasis, south-west of Cairo. This dinosaur was vegetarian. Discovered by a team from University of Pennsylvania led by doctoral student Joshua Smith and backed by a film company. Also involved was paleontologist Pat Vickers-Rich from Monash University, Australia. Amongst the bones was a fang of the African predator/carnivore, carcharadontosaurus. The site had earlier been examined by researchers (a century ago, led by Bavarian geologist Ernst Stromer who was looking at the Upper Cretaceous period) who left their artefacts with a Munich museum, destroyed by bombing during WWII. The beast lived between 146 millions years (Late Cretaceous period) and 64 million years ago at a time when its area was perhaps like the Florida Everglades today. The find may perhaps shed more light on the fragmentation of the ancient supercontinent, Gondwanaland, and like artefacts to the find have only before been found in South America and Madagascar. (Reported 2 June 2003, see a recent issue of journal Science).

2 June 2003: Day one of the trial in Indonesia of accused Bali bomber Imam Samudra, who after he appears in court repeatedly yells to his defence lawyers, Allahu Akbar. (God is Great/Magnificent!)

May 2003: Red Cross in Iraq begins to regularly express concerns over general patterns displayed of US military of "mistreatment of detainees". A Red Cross report on such matters, now leaked to The Wall Street Journal, was passed to certain British authorities in February 2004. Amnesty International reported its concerns to the UK Ministry of Defence by May 2003. (Reported in Sydney Morning Herald on 11 May 2004)

May 2003: per 1 September 2003 - Osama bin-Laden and Al-Qa'ida - five months ago, ie. May 2003, an Al-Qa'ida Summit, a decision to use biological weapons, for a terror attack that will be "unbelievable". (From Newsweek in US quoted on Australian TV)

30 May 2003: Newspaper headlines indicate unease growing in the US and UK about "false pretexts" being used for prosecution of the war on Iraq. Controversy continues for months re this unease. It is also said in the US that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been making "unsolicited attempts" to contribute to US foreign policy. President Bush is about to take off on a world tour to assess a wide range of problems including the "road map to peace" between Israel and Palestinians.

24 May 2003-1998: In the US in 1998, the Clinton administration made plans to kidnap Osama bin-Laden from Afghanistan, but did not proceed as they did not know where he actually was. At the time, bin-Laden was suspected as the financier of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing and of being implicated in the 1998 attacks by Al-Qa'ida on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 263 people including 12 Americans. (Reported 24-25 May 2003, Sydney Morning Herald)

Terrorism can be rational: "These are very normal-sounding individuals who have basically been bred to hate from very early on"... This view comes from Professor Jerrold Post, of George Washington University and founder of the CIA's Centre for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behaviour. Post has interviewed 21 Islamic extremists in prisons in Israel/Palestine. He said they talked calmly and rationally about their violent acts, including murder. He says suicide bombers are not crazy and are often seen as models of exemplary behaviour in their societies. (Reported 24-25 May 2003, Sydney Morning Herald)

Australia targeted: Australia has evidently been targeted for a 9/11-type terrorist attack from Al-Qa'ida, newspapers indicate, following hearing of a new tape from "The Base". The tape is thought to come from bin-Laden's associate, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and exhorts Muslims... "O Muslims, muster your resolve and hit the embassies of America, England, Australia and Norway, their interests, their companies and their employees ... Set the ground ablaze under their feet... Kick these criminals out of your homelands..." Al-Zawahiri is No. 2 on the FBI's list of 22-most-wanted terrorists, and he is regarded as the ideological mastermind of Al-Qa'ida, active in hardline activities since the 1960s. (Reported 23 May 2003)

Leader of the US forces against Iraq, General Tommy Franks, aged 57, has decided to retire and will step down later in 2003. (Reported 23 May 2003)

The looting of Iraq's archaeological treasures continues as treasure hunters visit known sites and steal urns, statues, vases and cuneiform tablets, some dating back 3000 years or more. Particularly popular is Isan Bakhriat, once site of Isin, an Aramean city dating around 1900BC. (Reported 23 May 2003)

"The NSW Government has launched an inquiry into the way the Red Cross promoted its fundraising and distributed donations to victims of the Bali bombings." (Reported 23 May 2003, Sydney Morning Herald, and by 8 August 2003 arises an exoneration of Red Cross as to any wrongdoing.)

23 May 2003: Celebrations reported of the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa. (See book, Judy and Tashi Tenzing, Tenzing and the Sherpas of Everest.

23 May 2003 and earlier: Children as young as 12 have been shot in the back as they run through rice paddies as part of the current set of problems afflicting troubled Indonesian province, Aceh. Military men have been accused of conducting a massacre. Meanwhile, up to 150,000 civilians in Aceh may face starvation because crop irrigation systems are being destroyed. (The Dutch subjugated Aceh 1873-1903, leaving as many as 100,000 Acehese people dead, and losing 12,500 Dutch, mostly to cholera. The Acehese later chose to be part of Indonesia, but their rebels currently disagree.)

"France, Russia and Germany have agreed to support a United Nations Security Council resolution that would put the United States and Britain in control of Iraq until an independent government is established." (Reported 23 May 2003, Sydney Morning Herald)

Saudi Arabia has announced "strict new guidelines" to stem unregulated flows of funds from Saudi Arabia to overseas Islamic charities. Funding to some groups in Indonesia has been frozen due to concerns some of them are involved in "terrorism". (Reported 22 May 2003.

22 May 2003: Headlines re Iraq: Intelligence agencies under microscope to see if they got it right in Iraq. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Retired CIA officers are to examine classified intelligence reports used by the US government concerning Iraq's possession of unconventional weapons. The review has been called by the office of US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.

22 May 2003-30 August 1999: Later apprehended for alleged human rights violations, a former military chief for East Timor, Brigadier-General Tono Suratman, who controlled Indonesian troops on East Timor till "a bloody independence vote" on 30 August, has been found not guilty by Indonesia's human rights court. (Reported 22 May 2003 in world news)

16 May 2003: By Now, both US and Russia are reportedly worried about any ambitions Iran may have to become a nuclear power.

The retired Texas oil executive who will head up the US-led reconstruction of Iraq's oil industry is Phillip Carroll, who says he knows he will face accusations of a conflict of interest as he has investments in US companies seeking oil contracts with Iraq. (Reported 16 May 2003)

Japan: A different sort of Armageddon fails to eventuate. A Japanese cult named Pana Wave has been believing that an unknown 10th planet will approach Earth, cause our planet to tip, and cause massive earthquakes, a day or two ago. The cult is based in Central Japan and also seeks haven from electromagnetic waves directed at its members by "communists". Wearing white clothing helps deflect these waves. Reactions to the cult in Japan generally swing between amusement and "feelings of disturbance". (Reported 16 May 2003)

US grandmother confesses: A New York woman now aged 60, Marion "Mimi" Fahnestock, nee Beardsley, has confessed she had an affair with US President John F. Kennedy when she was a teenage intern with the White House. The affair lasted from June 1962 to November 1963. She has never before discussed the matter. The story was uncovered from archives by US historian Robert Dalleck as he worked on his biography of JFK, An Unfinished Life. (Reported 16 May 2003)

As the US prepares to send hundreds of military police and 15,000 troops from the 1st Armoured Division into a restive Baghdad, congressman at home in the US are becoming concerned that the US has won the war, but is losing the peace. (Reported 16 May 2003)

Reuters reports that film found in Iraq proves the cruelty of Saddam Hussein's regime. The film shows three men being executed by having explosives packed around their bodies and then being blown up. The men themselves had been convicted in 1985 of a bomb attack that killed children in Baghdad. (Reported 16 May 2003)

10 May 2003: Japan launches a space probe to travel 300 million kilometres, land on a 500m-long asteroid (1998SF36), extract a core sample (around 2005) and return "the priceless sample" by 2007 to earth. The asteroid orbits between Mars and Jupiter.

Coalition forces in Iraq are now examining stores of 25 tonnes of documents amid the ruins of the Iraqi foreign ministry. It is thought that the building holds some secrets relevant to "the truth about weapons of mass destruction" and links to Al-Qa'ida, and how Iraq's Ba'ath Party actually worked. It is discovered that by 25 December 2002 a German PR company had offered its services to the Hussein regime to influence world opinion. (Reported in Weekend Australian 3-4 May 2003)

3 May 2003: Reports arise of Taliban and other guerrilla bands in Afghanistan targeting American soldiers, foreigners and the new government there. Government control merely surrounds Kabul and many Afghans say their country is controlled by "thieving warlords".

Child sacrifice: 2-3 May 2003: Priest sentenced to die: A court has sentenced a priest to die for sacrificing a nine-year-old child to appease a goddess in the eastern state of India, Jharkhand. The child's parents had complained to police.

2-3 May 2003: US moves to "reduce the impression" of excessive influence on affairs in Iraq and appoints a high-level civilian, Paul Bremer, a former counter-terrorism director for the US' Reagan administration, to head the selection of a transitional government and to take control over various civil functions. About the same dates, the chief UN humanitarian official for Iraq arrives back in Baghdad to begin assessing the urgencies of humanitarian needs. He is Ramiro Lopes da Silva.

2 May, 2003: US forces makes their second assault on Hussein's home town of Tikrit in Northern Iraq.

2 May 2003: US President George W. Bush arrives on the deck of the US' and the world's largest warship/aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, off the coast of San Diego, California, to declare victory of The Battle of Iraq. Bush warns variously, that the US might strike pre-emptively against more countries which support terrorism.

US makes "a rare call" on Israel to stem civilian deaths during current Palestinian/Israeli problems. (2 May 2003)

"I take it you wouldn't deny there is deep suspicion of US motives in Iraq, and to put it bluntly, you just can't liberate dead children. How many more incidents like this [the shooting of Iraqi civilians, including small children in the town of Fallujah] can your relationship with the Iraqis bear?" (Circa 1-2 May 2003 or earlier: Australian ABC TV journalist Tony Jones on news program "Lateline" to US Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice in pre-recorded interview)

US irrationality in Iraq March-April 2003: Abu Ghraib: A major terror-prison used by Hussein's regime, is looted-destroyed in various chaos. Later it is renovated by US authorities to be a US military prison. Floors are tiled, cells cleaned/repaired with medical facilities, toilets and showers installed. By September a motley lot of several thousand prisoners are inside - women and teenagers, often civilians. They later fall into three categories: common criminals, detainees held as security risks for coalition forces, and some suspected leaders of local insurgency groups.
Some of this item is based on an extracted article from The New Yorker by US investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh in Sydney Morning Herald on 8-9 May 2004. Hersh was the US journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre (March 1968) of the Vietnam War. Check website: www.newyorker.com.

To week ending 26 April 2003: US has so far spent about US$33 billion on the war with Iraq. Der Speigel in Germany has opinion that the post-Iraq landscape in Europe is a looming shift "not unlike that which enveloped Europe after the discovery of the New World", with "crass contrasts" evident in policy goals on both sides of the Atlantic.

Circa 26 April 2003: Lebanon: Daily Star newspaper warns US to not make same mistakes in Iraq as made by British in early Twentieth Century... to "avoid importing preferred Iraqi leaders, midwifing an alien governance system, marginalising powerful indigenous religious, tribal and ethnic identities, hand-picking tribal and commercial elites who enjoy disproportionate local power, using local actors and then spitting them out when they are no longer needed..."

Circa 26 April, 2003: In Arab News, writer Fawaz Turki suggests that a US retired army general is not the most appropriate person to help rebuild Iraq, as he is an army contractor who helped develop the Arrow missile defence system for Israel, and is a supporter of Sharon's Israeli treatment of Palestinians. But the International Herald Tribune suggests that Garner has helped create a thriving autonomous Kurdish region in Northern Iraq, an achievement.

To 26 April, 2003: The Washington Post suggests that the question of whether or not to lift UN sanctions on Iraq ought to be beyond debate, as the UN Security Council disagrees, maybe due to "cynical diplomacy" from Russia and France. (Official website of Iraqi National Congress is said to be: www.inc.org.uk/)

21 April 2003: US will provide US$600 million worth of one-dollar bills for use as an interim currency to help restart Iraq's shattered economy. By now, US troops reportedly have "discovered three underground prisons containing hundreds of political prisoners," at a secret prison area at Salman Pak, 35km south of Baghdad - plus another unnamed site. Before Baghdad fell, the guards of these prisons had tried to drown the prisoners before fleeing.

Australian SAS troops have found "a vast trove" of weaponry at a major air base in Iraq, including air force equipment and munitions, nuclear, biological and chemical protective equipment. The Australians also found bunkers capable of withstanding nuclear, chemical or biological attack and training manuals on weapons of mass destruction. (Reported 19-20 April, 2003 in Weekend Australian)

The "power vacuum" in the administration of Baghdad has apparently been filled by the somewhat mysterious figure of a Shi'ite dissident, Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, who has stepped from 24 years in exile. He has lately been in London, and has already hosted a meeting of tribal leaders, promised to re-establish basic urban services, and now resides at The Iraq Hunting Club, formerly used by Saddam Hussein and his relatives. (Reported 19-20 April, 2003 in Weekend Australian)

US special forces in Baghdad, Iraq, have captured a half-brother of Saddam Hussein who has been implicated in "allegations of torture and genocide". He is Barzan Hasan al-Tikriti, the second of Hussein's three half-brothers. Some intelligence sources regard Barzan as a weak link in the top level of Hussein's former regime. Another half-brother, Sab'awi Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, was arrested about 12 April, the third is in hiding possibly in Damascus, Syria. In other world-reported news, University of Chicago archaeologist, Prof. McGuire Gibson, says he suspects the looting of ancient art treasures in Baghdad was a deliberate planned action, linked to outside-Iraq interests, not a response to the power vacuum in Baghdad following the fall of the Hussein regime. World-wide alerts have been issued concerning artefacts known to have been stolen.
More than 2000 unmarked graves have been found in a field on the outskirts of Kirkuk in an area once dominated by the Hussein regime by way of a large military base.
The former Iraqi Information Minister, Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf, known as "Comical Ali" for his unbelievable responses to the encroach of US-led forces to Baghdad, has now inspired a talking plastic doll made in the US. Some of Comical Ali's lines included: "there are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!" - "our initial assessment is that they will die". - "We are winning." - Lying is forbidden in Iraq." - "We're going to drag the drunken junkie nose of Bush through Iraq's desert, him and his follower dog Blair... There are 26 million Saddams in Iraq." - "Who is this dog Franks in Qatar?" - "They have started to commit suicide under the walls of Iraq." - (Reported 19-20 April, 2003 in world news/Weekend Australian)

Advertisement

"US President George W. Bush is sending a taskforce of 1000 scientists, intelligence analysts and arms technicians to Baghdad to intensify the increasingly urgent hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction." Meantime, medicine and food handled by aid agencies on the Iraqi borders cannot be moved due to sustained security concerns. (Reported 19-20 April, 2003 in world news/Weekend Australian)

Vienna: Famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal says he will soon close his files because his work of tracking down the perpetrators of The Holocaust has been completed. He has tracked down more than 1000 Nazi war criminals and was instrumental in the capture of Hitler's close associate, Adolf Eichmann. (Reported 19 April 2003)

19 April 2003: It is reported (by 26-27 July in Weekend Australian) that Hussein and his two sons held out in Baghdad for at least a week after its fall on 19 April, according to a son of a former bodyguard of Uday Hussein. They were convinced they could keep the city held. When the US made its first strike on a house where Saddam was believed to be meeting, Saddam and Uday in fact were on the other side of the city in one of their safe houses owned by friends/relatives. The Hussein three used dozens of such safe houses, and Saddam did suspect he had an informant in his camp. He asked the suspect to organise a safe house behind a restaurant in the Mansour district, arrived there, and left again almost immediately - the house was bombed 10 minutes after Hussein left it. Hussein had the suspect informant quickly executed. When Baghdad fell on 19 April, the Hussein three were in separate houses in Adhamiya, a Sunni area loyal to Hussein. Hussein did a televised walkabout there on 17 April. Two days later he and his sons appeared at a mosque in Adhamiya for Friday prayers, to astonishment of others present, as US troops patrolled only a few kilometres away. By then, Hussein believed he had been betrayed by his military commanders. The three sometimes move from house to house in ummarked cars under the noses of US forces. On 4 April, Hussein is shown walking in Baghdad's residential area, Mansour, as buildings smoulder in the background.

Doubt cast on identity of "brother of Jesus": In October 2002 was discovered an ossuary (box of human bones), of "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus", according to an inscription in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. The inscription was translated by scholar Andre Lemaire, of the Sorbonne in Paris. Commentators now doubt the matter, though a Canadian documentary claims to have conducted scientific tests which vindicate believers in the implications of the translation. Linguists and antiquities experts have been debating issues, while a statistician (Camil Fuchs from Tel Aviv University) has estimated that the given combination of names could have come from only three families given the dates in question. Claims are also made of different "handwriting" for the inscription and that there are misspellings. The said James was leader of the Christians of Jerusalem after Jesus' death and is said to have been stoned to death in AD62. (Reported 19 April 2003)
Update: By 19-6-2003, it is declared in world TV reports that the box is indeed ancient, but the inscription is a modern forgery. Hence, the artefact is a fake!

14 April 2003: Date for the fall to US forces of Saddam Hussein's home town, Tikrit, to north of Baghdad.

12 April 2003: Newspapers report: International aid officials say looting mobs threaten deepen the humanitarian and health crisis in Iraq. Even hospitals are being looted. US government is now moving to enlist support of allied nations for post-war reconstruction and financing of Iraq. As well, Iraqis are now being assessed in light of proposals for future government of the country.

12 April 2003: A noted Islamic cleric, lately in Iraq from exile in London, and co-operating with American forces, Sheik Abdul Majid al-Khoei, has been killed by a mob at Najaf at one of the holiest shrines of Shi'ite Islam. There had been some dispute about control of the mosque, which is thought to be the tomb of Ali, son-in-law of the prophet Mohammed, the figure who is also thought to be one of the causes of the seventh-century split between the minority Shi'ite grouping and the majority of Sunni Muslims.

Also reported by 12 April 2003: Heavy fighting has been going on for about three weeks near Qaim, Iraq, on the Syrian border, between coalition forces and members of Iraq's Special Republican Guards and Special Security Forces. This is about 275km north-west of Baghdad, along the Euphrates River and the strength of the resistance leads US spokesmen to think that the Iraqis may be defending Scud missiles or other weapons caches. However, a Qaim compound was destroyed by aerial bombing in 1991. UN weapons inspectors had also examined a Qaim site before the present invasion, uncovering no evidence of banned weapons. Coalition forces are meantime stepping up an air bombardment of Hussein's home town, Tikrit, as they plan a ground assault on the area. More weaponry has just been flown in from Europe. In a more legal zone of concern, humanitarians around the world are asking coalition forces to preserve documents handled by Hussein's elaborate security apparatus so that evidence of outrages is retained for future use. This is in a context of widespread looting of government offices "from Basra to Baghdad". Meanwhile, The Jordan Times wants the US to now leave Iraq to the Iraqis. The Jakarta Post says Hussein was a tyrant and so was Soeharto for 32 years. Chicago Tribune mutters and warns about "the harder slogs of birthing a new government".

Reported in Australia 12 April 2003: Saddam Hussein's lifestyle revealed: US forces now occupy one of Hussein's "residences" as part of a palace complex that stretches for three kilometres along the Tigris River. The complex is comprised of "dozens of compounds" and in one bedroom are found Hussein's double-breasted Italian suits, by Canali and Luca; silk ties, and Colgate toothpaste. It appears Hussein left this luxury in a hurry. The palace included 142 offices, 64 bathrooms, 19 meeting rooms, 22 kitchens, "countless bedrooms", one movie theatre, five "huge ballrooms", and one ballroom the size of a football field. Yet another compound had "vast supplies of TV sets", Moet champagne, Russian vodka, American cigarettes, 150 Persian carpets, French wines, items often used as gifts to loyalists of the Ba'ath Party. It is estimated that of the Iraqi population of 24 million, about 1.5 million belong to the party, which has 25,000 full members.

8-9 April 2003: The fall of Baghdad to US and coalition forces. The focus of the war now moves to Northern Iraq. In Baghdad, the injured overwhelm hospitals at rate of 10 an hour. UN fights to give itself a useful post-war role. Reports are that looting in Baghdad is rife, with some looters being shot. Fights erupt over control of two key bridges in central Baghdad. US tank fires shell at Palestine Hotel, killing five journalists. US planes bomb Iraq Ministry of Planning.
Update of 4 August 2003: Daughter of Saddam Hussein Raghad (aged 36) and Rana (34) have appeared before the international media (Arab satellite TV station Al-Arabiya) suggesting their father's regime fell, and so quickly in Baghdad, because of "betrayal". Those whom Hussein had trusted most had let him down the most. At noon on the day US tanks rolled into Baghdad, their father sent them with a car and driver from his special security forces and ordered them to leave their house. With them at the time was the wife of their brother, Qusay, and her children. The daughters later met their mother, (Sajida) and another sister, Hala, on the outskirts of Baghdad. Raghad described her father as a good and loving father, also loving to his grandchildren. Also, she said he would not be telling anyone where he was. The Hussein daughters have been granted refuge in Jordan on "humanitarian grounds".

8 April 2003: Battle in Iraq ensues over the key Jumhuriya Bridge across the Tigris River as US forces try to close in on a huge Iraqi military complex, make new thrusts deeper into Baghdad and make a second attempt to kill Hussein. One US military view is that hundreds of non-Iraqi Muslim fighters are putting up a fiercer fight than Iraq's Republican Guard or regular army. A missile has hit the Baghdad office of Al-Jazeera TV, giving rise to recriminations.

8 April, 2003: In Baghdad, Saddam Hussein reportedly visits a central Baghdad area, Azamiya, with his son Qusay. By this date, Hussein knows he has been betrayed by some close to him, and that US forces had been receiving information on his whereabouts since about the night of 19 March.

7 April 2003: US forces attempt a second decapitation strike against Hussein. Result is 14 civilians killed and locals deny Hussein was in a destroyed residence.

7 April, 2003: The border between Syria and Iraq has been largely sealed. The matter is followed to 3 May by increasingly tough US-British talk to Syria about its alleged backing of terrorism and smuggling-out of Iraqi oil.

In its effort to isolate-then-destroy Saddam Hussein, US now prepares for surgical air and ground strikes as US forces mass on southern outskirts of Baghdad. But militarily, it will not be a siege situation, says one military spokesperson. One intent is to take out Baghdad's ability to communicate with the rest of Iraq. A statement issued yesterday, presumably from Hussein, indicates he still hopes to engage US troops in gruesome street-fighting. Local temperatures seem set to zoom to 40 degrees. (The Australian, 5-6 April 2003)

US Government has "coerced" Pacific Island Nauru with secret deals to outlaw off-shore banks in the hope of shutting down safe havens for terrorist funding. (Reported 5 April 2003)

5 April 2003: About 30 coalition tanks in a dawn raid move to the centre of Baghdad.

By 3 April 2003, day 14 of the war, from an international institute in Europe, a commentator speaking to BBC speaks of Arab "incendiary despair" in areas such as Jordan - leading to destabilisation, and of a sense of collective victimhood imposed by US-Israel, while the role of TV station Al-Jazeera ignites new aspirations for Arab youth. TV coverages continue, suggesting there will probably be popular uprisings in Baghdad/Iraq till Hussein is actually gone. Turkey agrees to send US military and humanitarian aid to n/w Iraq through its own territory, per visit by US secretary-of-state Colin Powell. By 12.30am eastern Australian time, coalition forces are now 30km from Baghdad as heavy armour is travelling faster than expected, and is getting through "thin" corridors held by Republican Guard. Yemeni irregulars arrive in Baghdad, "terror-trained Islamic fighters". BY about 10.30am, TV provides a glimpse into torture chambers used by Hussein's regime, used "not uncommonly". Two divisions are Republican Guard are "destroyed". British and Iraqis fight fiercely in Basra. In Malaya, Moslem protestors chant John Lennon's, song, "Give Peace a Chance", and an old man says, "This is a not a lack of civilization, it is not a religious war, it is an oil war". Malaysia's acting prime minister says it is "a war of choice". It is now Iraq, who is next? Malaysia continues unhappy with US policy and calls for resignation of Kofi Annan at UN. In France, anti-war protesters deface a memorial to allied soldiers of World War Two.
By 11.30am, coalition forces reach the so-called red zone around Baghdad. By 12.45pm+, the Baghdad division of Republican Guard is reported destroyed, hit by artillery and air strikes. BBC (Humphrey Hawkes) wonders why no weapons of mass destruction have been found yet.
On 3 April 2003, mid-evening TV, Australian commentators conclude that Hussein is dead. By 11pm, the TV news question is: is there a trap, where are Iraq's "elite Republican Guards". And Al-Jazeera's TV coverage from Baghdad is curtailed by Baghdad.

By 2 April, 2003, US General J. Garner (in UK newspaper The Guardian) will run the US-government regime of Iraq/Baghdad. US fights three divisions of Republican Guard south of Baghdad and make "very rapid pace". View of the US military is that Battle for Baghdad and assault has started properly. Towns are taken south of Baghdad and US take a bridge across the Euphrates.

US and coalition forces capture Baghdad airport

1 April 2003: Baghdad is now being bombed around the clock, day and night. The infrastructure of the Iraqi regime is methodically "being picked apart", according to TV news reports. Claims and counter-claims are made regarding human shields from the West being injured by US forces or not, claims which journalists find hard to verify. As well, differences arise between coalition forces re interpretation of rules of engagement, especially where a British soldier is injured by a US pilot. Claims are made about Iraqi civilians killed near Nadjif; of about 13 women and children, seven are killed near a coalition checkpoint. Syria's highest religious authority has officially called for a jihad against foreign troops in Iraq.
In Australia, popularity of leader of the opposition, Simon Crean, is now regarded as a "casualty of war". About 80km from Baghdad, and at Basra, is fierce fighting. A figure is dropped of 9000 bombs used in 12 days. Azzu Baya in Iraq's south is captured by British after brutal street fighting.
Moslem backlash grows. From Egypt arise predictions of "100s of bin-Ladens". This war will have horrible long-term consequences. Will the peace be worse than the war? New waves of terrorism attacks are predicted.

3000BC: Reports arise by 1 April 2003 that in a desert area near Cairo, a 5000-year old mummy is found in a wooden coffin found within an area of mud-brick tombs from Egypt's First Dynasty.

Coalition suspects Iraq has remnants of its airforce, perhaps about 300 serviceable planes, and is uncertain to what use they might be put. (Reported BBC TV, 1 April 2003)

Protests continue in the Islamic world against the war, eg., in Pakistan, Islamabad. An Iraqi official spokesman promises to "turn the desert into graves". (1 April 2003)

Early April 2003: Iraq's supreme cleric for Shia Islam, the Grand Ayatollah Mirza Ali Sistani, issues a religious decree asking his followers to not impede coalition forces. (Sistani has spent 15 years under house arrest on the orders of Hussein.)

Early April 2003: During the First Gulf War, Peter Arnett reporting from Baghdad for CNN (because he ended up virtually trapped there), became a media hero. Now he is a media anti-hero. This time around he becomes a media anti-hero, fired. As one of the "embedded media" workers during the Iraq war and working for NBC, Arnett had reported that the US war plain had "failed because of Iraqi resistance". NBC promptly fired him and now he works for the UK's Daily Mirror. Part of the comment on the situation in the media is that in 2003, tens or even hundreds of thousands of weblogs were commenting on the war, a win at least for the Internet.

Headlines 1 April 2003: Coalition supply lines are being protected, while threats to them are not specified. Water shortages in Basra pose increasingly serious public health problems. US forces around Basra, seeking cousin of SH, "General Chemical Ali", say they have found Iraqi gear for use in conditions of chemical warfare. Iraq accuses coalition of lying about the speed and force of its advances. More fighting around Mosul. In Baghdad, Iraq's Information Ministry building has been bombed, also an international telecommunications tower, cutting international telephone links. Iraqi Republican Guard has units to south of Baghdad, hence that area lately being heavily bombed while coalition forces moving north are now about 80km south of Baghdad. Possible second thoughts on use of "embedded journalists" arise in military circles in US, and reports arise also of recriminations arising in Washington/Pentagon re war plan faltering, with US Secretary of Defence "on defensive". (According to Lateline, ABC TV Australia on 31 March 2003).

Some American troops in Iraq are being rationed to one meal a day. (ABC Australian radio on 30 March 2003, ABC night TV on 31 March 2003)

Updates: Iraqi expatriates in Jordan begin to return to Iraq to try to defend their homeland. The Indonesian radical Islamist group Jemaah Islamiah is reportedly willing to send suicide bombers to operate in Iraq. General Franks says the war strategy is "on track" and consolidating outside Baghdad. Mosul in the north of Iraq is being bombarded and Baghdad heavily bombed all night by "hundreds of sorties". Southern Iraq gives much stiffer-than-anticipated resistance to coalition forces heading north for Baghdad (last week's sandstorm about Baghdad said to have slowed the coalition's advance). Coalition troops reportedly find a factory for production of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Some 4000 suicide martyrs have volunteered to Iraq's regime to harrass coalition forces, while on Iraq's coast rise fears of use of suicide-boats. (Reported 31 March 2003)

Follows a few choice remarks from editor-at-large for The Australian, Paul Kelly, from his weekend column. US miscalculates Iraq: In 1991 the US deluded itself about a possible fall of the Hussein regime, and it does it again re this year's Iraq War. The US administration has demonised by underestimated Hussein, whose people know that if they confront his security apparatus, they will die. In a recent book by Kenneth Pollack, The Threatening Storm, are warnings to both the Western Left and Right about the difficulties of regime change in Iraq. Iraq also has a "shadow state" comprised of families, tribes and clans, whose loyalties may be unpredictable. A BBC journalist is quoted as saying, "Being in Iraq is like creeping around in someone else's migraine. The fear is so omnipresent you could almost eat it." (Kelly comments, "Most analysts believe the Republican Guard will fight to the end", which turned out to be quite wrong.) It is the US' civilian leaders, not military, who have underestimated the extent of Iraqi resistance. US aims are complex and partially contradictory. A mild version of possibilities is that post-war Iraq will be a land where Islamic terrorism, suicide bombers and guerrilla war thrive. Hussein has it planned that a US military win means a US political defeat (which with hindsight seems an astute observation). (The Australian, 29-30 March 2003)

Updates: US denies it has put further advances on hold for six days or so due to strong Iraqi resistance and needs to re-secure supply lines. In US, President Bush is now criticised for not preparing the American people for prospect of a drawn-out conflict. Argument arises that coalition forces now need to be more ruthless and to revise strategy of trying to keep civilian casualties low. Australia is possibly considering sending more military personnel to Iraq. (30 March 2003)

Baghdad last night has one of its worst nights for air strikes to its southern (s/w) fringe; also to centre and north; the Medina Division of the Republican Guard is a target pointed to by a US military spokesman. Saddam Hussein has sacked his chief of air defence. More suicide bombers are reportedly recruiting themselves from various Middle Eastern countries to go to Iraq - and Iraq's ambassador to UN on TV defends the views of suicide bombers as dignified, honourable and patriotic (to either Iraq or to Islam itself). British forces in Basra hunt out senior Ba'ath Party members from houses (sounds of women's screams in the background of the footage's soundtrack). China's government surprisingly allows an anti-war protest to be held. Jakarta's biggest anti-war protest yet held today. Children in Bethlehem, Israel, protest against war in Iraq. Anti-war protests reported in Seoul, South Korea. Media question arise whether US is winning the propaganda war.
Media naval-gazing department: One Western view is that Al-Jazeera Arabic TV has possibly helped to galvanise Middle Eastern support for Iraq. Al-Jazeera it is noted has a tendency to "Hollywoodize" latest war footage, much of it being vision that is quite distressing. But then, will 900 "embedded journalists" soon start asking too many awkward questions of the coalition military? The war now seems to threaten the financial stability of several world airlines and emergency talks on assistance are being held. (Reported 30 March 2003)

Archaeology in Iraq: One report rises on risks to Iraq's invaluable archaeological sites, partly as some were damaged in the 1991 First Gulf War (see desert-storm.com for relevant figures here). Some sites in danger may be at Uruk (one site for the origins of literacy), at Ur, the city which produced Abraham, Patriarch of Monotheism, and which also had a notable royal cemetery. Also, Babylon, its site near the old course of the Euphrates River (a river which has changed its course). Allied forces are estimated to move over about six sites of old city-states of Iraq, plus some sites holy to Shi'ite Moslems, plus some mosques and shrines. (Some such sites which the Iraqi regime defiled after 1991 due to uprisings at end of 1991 Gulf War. (Reported 30 March 2003)

Updates: Iraq: Australian SAS forces are now 100km from Baghdad (they stopped a US journalist not long thrown out of Baghdad and are "very professional", he said). Bombing of Baghdad has continued, often with laser-guided bombs. Republican Guard positions near Baghdad have been carpet-bombed. In Najaf, a suicide-taxi-driver has killed four US marines (3rd Infantry), and Iraq's regime reportedly warns the US of more of this both in Iraq and in the US. An Iraqi general wearing civilian clothes has been captured. Streetfighting has begun on the outskirts of Baghdad. Near the Kirkuk oilfields of Iraq, Kurds from the north have been pushing Iraqi troops south amid fears the Iraqis will use chemical weapons, and also while trying to avoid any risk from "friendly fire" from US forces. The Iraqis have been abandoning their equipment. Hundreds of thousands of anti-war demonstrators have marched in Jakarta, Indonesia. Malaysian anti-war demonstrators have left coffins outside Australian High Commission (tear gas finally used to disperse them). (Reported 30 March 2003)

In a town near Baghdad, US troops have found Iraqi army suits for use in terms of deployment of chemical/biological weapons in a hospital used by Iraqi army units, arousing fresh fears of facing such weapons from their enemy. In Baghdad a major telephone exchange is taken out, cutting both military and civilian lines. (Reported 29 March 2003, early morning commercial TV news Australia)

29 March 2003: Cook Memorabilia: A walking stick claimed to have been made from the spear which killed Capt. Cook in Hawaii has sold for more than AUD$400,000 at an auction in Scotland.

29 March 2003: According to a recent US study of the fossilized remains of "a caveman", researchers conclude that Neanderthal people were just as dextrous manually as modern homo sapiens.

As bunker-busters now rain on Baghdad, spokeswomen Donna Mulhearn for 12 human shield activists is speaking via satellite TV, eg., about "getting used to a new style of bomb". About how much of the world's resources lately are used to improve weaponry? Is peace a serious alternative worth such risks? It is now a heavy night in Baghdad, there is a sick feeling of dread in Mulhearn's stomach; it has been possible to get only one-two hours sleep per night. Local children are reportedly becoming literally sick with shock at the sound of explosions and taken to hospital. (Reported 29 March 2003, early morning commercial TV news Australia)

Head of UN Development Program complains eloquently on Australia's ABC TV that many problem zones around the world are being ignored while Iraq is so prominent in the news. Al-Jazeera broadcasts that more Baghdad civilians have been killed by strikes. (Reported 29 March 2003)

Washington: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warns Syria that US has information that military equipment including night-vision goggles is being funnelled through Syria to Iraq, and that US seriously disapproves. Iran has other warnings from US to consider. (Reported 29 March 2003, BBC TV)

First shipment of humanitarian aid arrives at Iraq's port, Umm Qasr. (Reported 29 March 2003)

International Monetary Fund comments on possibilities arising from a long vs a short war, financial markets now display "hesitancy", discussion of impacts of supply disruptions, while international air tourism is already suffering from Iraq war. (Reported 28 March 2003)

28 March 2003: Headlines in Australia: Siege of Baghdad - Bush calls in 100,00 more troops. This will increase coalition forces by around 80 per cent, to around 225,000 by the end of April. One US military commander says the enemy turns out to be different from the one they had wargamed against, an enemy using attack-tactics which seem bizarre/unconventional. A US Abrams tank gunner is quoted as saying, "Their technology is sad, so out-dated..." A present US aim is to isolate Baghdad. British defence secretary Geoff Hoon says British forces have found "undeniable evidence" that Hussein has made preparations to use chemical and biological weapons against advance of British troops. (Reported 29-30 March, 2003, The Australian)

British forces engage "greatest tank battle since World War Two" near Basra, taking out 14 Iraqi tanks. Fears are expressed that Iraqi troops are prepared to use chemical weapons. (Reported 28 March 2003)

US President Bush promises that the war in Iraq will take "...however long it takes". An extra 120,000 US footsoldiers will now be sent to Iraq, going on active duty in April. Allied forces are to be doubled, to a total of 245,000. US ground forces are 100km from Baghdad, preparing to surround it. The bombing of Baghdad intensifies during this war which is "more difficult than anticipated". (Reported 28 March 2003)

Lloyd's of London reports that ship insurance costs for ships moving near Iraq have doubled in the past 48 hours. The extra costs will hit ships providing humanitarian aid. (Reported 28 March 2003)

Huge anti-war protests in Iran, in Cairo in Egypt, in Palestine on the Gaza strip and West Bank after Friday prayers, and in Turkey. A protestor from Austria landed a light plane at St Peter's, The Vatican, and was taken into custody. (Reported 28 March 2003)

26 March 2003: Australian navy divers begin clearing mines from Umm Qasr port and Persian Gulf shipping channels.
Australia's general Peter Cosgrove (months later) has told a conference that the US military success in the Iraq War was deeply indebted to the use of "first-generation network-centric warfare technologies", which gathered and enabled the better co-ordination of information from laptop computers, mobile phones, global positioning systems, ship-to-ship chatrooms (and a linked intranet) and a mission-specific website - just for Australian forces.

24 March 2003: Australian navy divers cross into Iraq behind coalition forces.

Updates: Up to 1000 air sorties are being flown per day. Commentator says that Iraqi roads simply cannot handle the volume of traffic the US forces wish to travel. Under-estimations of degree and extent of Iraqi resistance. Mentions of US Pres. Bush Senior's early 1990s betrayal of Kurds and the people of Basra by failing to support their uprisings. Kurds feel that now is a very important time in history - which has been long and hard - for their dream of an independent state. (Reported 28 March 2003, TV news Australia, 7.30pm)
Timeline on troubled Kurdish history: 1920: Ottoman Empire collapses, Turkish Govt. of Sultan Muhammad VI agrees to Treaty of Sevres to allow an independent Kurdish state. 1922: Kemal Ataturk rejects treaty and abolishes the Sultanate. 1978: Abdullah Ocalan helps create Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), seeking Kurdish independence. 1984: PKK seeks a state in South-eastern Turkey. 1988: Iraq Govt, cracks down on Kurds in Northern Iraq, killing about 180,000 and relocating about two million. 1991: Allied forces set up a no-fly-zone Kurdish haven in Northern Iraq. 1992: Turkey attacks PKK bases in Iraq. 1993: Turkey grants limited autonomy to Kurds. 1995: Turkey attacks PKK bases in Iraq. About 30,000 Kurds have been killed and two million displaced in uprisings against Turkey. (Reported 24 March 2003, Sydney Morning Herald)

Check out:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/27/1048653796512.html/
Dear Netsurfers, Lately, Lost Worlds has been cynically wondering why with the reporting of the US invasion of Iraq, we are now hearing so little of "globalisation and free trade". One of our Australian friends promptly points out to us a highly-relevant article handled by Margo Kingston of The Sydney Morning Herald, at the above URL. Recommend you read it - Ed (28 March, 2003)
Australians wishing to donate aid for children can phone hotline 1300 134 071 or check the UNICEF Australia website at: http://www.unicef.org.au/ (Reported 24 March 2003)

Sex Museum in India: The Kama Sutra aside, India has now produced an educationally-oriented sex museum in Mumbai, the brainchild of medical Dr. Arvind Shah. The museum named Antaranga, or Inner Self, is located in a near century-old building by a red-light district, and has exhibits designed to inform on human reproduction. India is widely regarded by Indians as being hidebound about candid discussion of sex. (Reported 24 March 2003)

Palestine: The proposed new prime minister of Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, is to be invited to visit Washington soon after he takes office. US is hoping to restart The Middle East Peace Process in an aftermath of the war with Iraq. It is thought that whomever Abbas appoints to Cabinet, Yassar Arafat will retain overall control of security forces. (Reported 24 March 2003)

The legality in International Law of coalition moves against Iraq has been in great contention around the world. In Britain, a legal adviser to the Foreign Office for 30 years, Elizabeth Wilmhurst, has resigned in protest at her government's interpretation of relevant legal advice and lack of a second UN resolution. (Reported 24 March 2003)

Headline in Sydney Morning Herald: "North Korea jittery as it realises it could be next target for US". (24 March 2003)

Given TV reportage, what is a little surprising with this war is that even on the Iraqi side, so many military men are prepared to say in public, "It wouldn't be surprising if..." Is this partly because the technologies being used are actually highly improved? Also, the US phrase from the Vietnam War, "winning the hearts and minds of the people" is now being used regarding Iraq. Is this phrase likely to take as badly in Iraq as it did in Vietnam? The phrase first arose as used by the British in Malaya during the 1950s emergency there, with respect to the Chinese of Malaya, who were being given a hard time by Malayans. That is, it was accepted by people who were migrants in Malaya, not exactly locals, Chinese who were being drawn to Communism at the time. To date, the history of use of the phrase suggests that it is less likely to be adopted by locals in a war zone - and that it has been used far more successfully by the British than the US - who in Vietnam produced the remarkable phrase - "We had to destroy the village in order to save it" -Ed. (By 28 March 2003)

Secretary-general of UN says he is becoming "increasingly concerned" about humanitarian-type problems arising in Iraq. (Reported 27 March 2003)

US forces have broken up the Republican Guard column proceeding south from Baghdad. (Reported 27 March 2003)

British journalists are asking pointier and more probing questions of coalition central command military, vis-a-vis other remarks from many "embedded journalists" out in the field. (Reported 27 March 2003)

Australia now wonders in its Parliament if US will horn in on Australia's former wheat trade to Iraq. Other questions arise in media about any sorts of "trade wars" breaking out during the reconstruction phases for post-war Iraq. (Reported 27 March 2003 on ABC TV, on Lateline)

Rhetoric vs Originality?: President Bush at his military command HQ for the Iraqi effort in a speech to heighten the morale of the forces uses the quasi-Hitlerian phrase, "Peace through Strength", and promises, "We will be relentless in our pursuit of victory." (Reported 27 March 2003 at 2.47am, BBC TV on Australian ABC TV)

In Middle-Iraq, units of the Republican Guard are moving south toward Baghdad, to try to retake it from coalition forces. (Reported 27 March 2003)

1000 US paratroopers open up a second front in Northern Iraq, falling from as low as 1000 feet to secure an airfield so US can fly in tanks etc., ... "a very machismo drop" as noted by an embedded CNN journalist. (Reported 27 March 2003)

Arab TV station Al-Jazeera makes media waves by broadcasting footage of corpses and carnage of the bombed-out marketplace in Baghdad, subject of an attack from a rocket or two of unknown derivation, with 15 killed, while western TV sanitises its images, and US military goes into what is remarked in Australia as "denial mode" about the rockets having been from coalition forces, or not. Al-Jazeera also reports plaintive scenes of Basra civilians hurt from being caught in crossfires. Basra meantime has no clean water and coalition forces may have to admit that there will be no popular uprising there against Hussein's regime. The Iraqi Information Minister is Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf; the Foreign Minister is Naji Sabri. (Reported 27 March 2003)

Various Middle Eastern governments trying to address various issues right now are facing "serious backlashes" from their populations. (Reported 27 March 2003, early evening TV news, Australia)

Suicide speedboats?: Australian naval ships, especially Kanimbla, seem now to fear threats from suicide boat-bombers, while it has lately been discovered that the Iraqi coast now displays far fewer speedboats in general. (Reported 27 March 2003)

Iraq not shocked and awed - yet: It is now assumed that the war in Iraq will take 30 days. President Bush has asked Congress for an extra amount of money for continued prosecution of current events that no one seems to be able to report quite correctly - it has been said it is from US$75-80 billion - of which about US$8 billion might go to Israel. As for estimates of how long the war will take, suddenly between 25th and 27th March is mention on Australian ABC TV of it taking as long as two months, or "many years". Associated are mentions of political imperatives versus military outcomes - liberation or invasion. (Reported 25-27 March 2003)

Rocket attack destroys TV station infrastructure in Iraq so that Hussein can no longer talk to his nation. Risk assessment is now being canvassed on whether a popular uprising from Basra against Hussein's regime might spread in unpredictable ways, eg., spreading to the Kurds of Northern Iraq, maybe finally provoking a civil war in Iraq, that is, a war-within-a-war. (Reported 26 March 2003)

UK prime minister Tony Blair on TV says coalition forces are now 100km from Baghdad - where "an absolutely blinding" sandstorm now rages. The distance closes to 70-60km. Baghdad is said to be ringed on the map by Republican Guard deployed in concentric circles, while the Guard is said to be authorised to use chemical weapons. Locals reportedly say the coalition forces are not welcome in Baghdad. (Reported 25 March 2003)

US public reportedly becomes increasingly sceptical about US efforts in Iraq. From 72%, now only 25 % believe things are going well. (Reported 27 March 2003)

The first hint surfaces on the Net in the US in "Online Journal", albeit amongst denials of its being something based on a mere conspiracy theory, that some kind of indictment should be issued against President G. W. Bush and some of his advisers. It is not clear, by whom the matter should be issued. Also, hints that it was not Islamic-inspired terrorists who guided the jet-bombs of 9/11. (These "hints" dated 24 March 2003)

24 March 2003: Hussein again appears on Iraqi TV with his son Qusay and a Ba'ath party official, and deliberately mentions battles at Umm Qasr to indicate his address has been recorded in the past 48 hours.

OPLAN 1003 V: Shock and awe: "This will be a campaign unlike any other in history... characterised by shock, by surprise, by flexibility and by the employment of precise munitions on a scale never before seen, and by the application of overwhelming force." United Combatant Commander, General Tommy R. Franks. (Reported 24 March 2003)

Pentagon adviser Richard Perle and his recent activities are comprehensively bucketed in an article impossible to paraphrase. Perle is one of the neo-conservative rump of advisers gathered around President G. W. Bush, a remarkably small number of men now dominating US foreign policy, who include Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Bill Kristol. (Reported 24 March 2003, Sydney Morning Herald/New York Times)

Hungary has rejected US request to close Iraq's embassy in Budapest. Romania denies it needs US advice on shutting Iraq's mission in Bucharest. (Reported 24 March 2003)

Fired oil wells in southern Iraq may be under control in 3045 days, experts say. The fire-controllers will be from Boots and Coots International Well Control of Houston, Texas, contracted by the US Govt. (Reported 24 March 2003)

Witnesses have said that about 50 people have been killed in Northern Iraq near the Iranian border by a coalition two-hour missile barrage. (Reported 24 March 2003)

"Expect the ground war to take at least a month." Much attention is being paid to port facilities at Umm Qasr and to the two airfields of Basra, both to be used by coalition forces. Hundreds of coalition trucks will be needed to convoy supplies some 400km between Kuwait and Basra. After Hussein's regime is gone by about mid-April, pacification and occupation may take a further two months, with possibility of a low-level guerrilla war by remnants of resistance. Situations will normalize by about June. Some 50,000-100,000 coalition troops may be needed to police Iraq for five years, with Germany and France participating. This will all cost a vast amount of money. "It is tempting to ask who wrote the script for all this. Surely Osama bin-Laden could not be that clever." Military commentator Major Charles Heyman in The Sydney Morning Herald. (Reported 24 March 2003)

Australian forces continue making deep reconnaissance missions in Iraq. At Faw, east of Basra, now under coalition control, hundreds of Iraqi soldiers have surrendered. In Baghdad, the Iraqi regime is said to be in crisis, denying proof of enemy's rapid advances and pleading for help from UN Security Council and Arab leaders. (Reported 24 March 2003)

Large peace demonstrations in Madrid, Spain, tens of thousands of protesters march in Sydney, Australia. In Oslo Norway, police dogs are used against peace protesters. UK press is reporting a nation with opinions about the war deeply divided. (Reported 23 March 2003)

DNA discoverers attack religion: The two much-feted discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953, Dr. Francis Crick (86) and James Watson (74), have used the 50th anniversary of their discovery to attack religion. Both are outspoken atheists. Crick has said that his distaste for religion was one of the motives for his original work. He feels, the God hypothesis is rather discredited. He is reported as saying, "I went into science because of these religious reasons, there's no doubt about that. I asked myself what were the two things that appear inexplicable and are used to support religious beliefs: the difference between living and non-living things, and the phenomenon of consciousness." He argues that many claims made by specific religions over 2000 years have been proved false. Watson, once a Catholic but disillusioned with the church over the Spanish Civil War issues, says, "Every time you understand something, religion becomes less likely." (Ironically, the leader of the Human Genome Project, Francis Collins, is a devout Christian; he took over in that position from Watson in 1993. Polls in the US indicate that 70-80 per cent of people believe in a personal God.)
(Reported in Sydney Morning Herald, weekend 22-23 March 2003)

Pakistan: Pakistan's government recognises "deep anguish" felt by their people about the invasion of Iraq. This Sunday, Islamists from six different Islamist parties are protesting vigorously. It is possible they also wish to weaken their government's commitment to hunt down members of Al-Qa'ida (23 March 2003)

Religious views in Australia: Sydney: Anglican dean of Sydney, Dr. Phillip Jensen, tells his congregation that the war in Iraq does not have his church's blessing, nor God's. God is not on either side, he said. Also, hawks who are pleased, excited and even thrilled about the war should look to themselves and repent, since they are well and truly out of step with God. The leader of Australia's Uniting Church, Rev. Prof. James Haire, condemns the war, abhors the mixed signals given out by US and Australian PM John Howard, and said, "If the US, Britain and Australia truly believe in justice for oppressed peoples, they would have done more for the Iraqi population much sooner, and would have acted against other oppressive regimes in places like Burma, China, Zimbabwe and Sudan." (23 March 2003)

US and Turkey hold urgent talks re Turkish fears of restless Kurds in Northern Iraq becoming full-on separatists, possibly provoking a civil war, or, a war-within-a-war. (Reported 23 March 2003)

Iraq: So far, no Iraqi stocks of weapons of mass destruction have been discovered by coalition forces. CNN Los Angeles reports a demonstration against its office there which "seemed" to be more an anti-media protest. (Or, maybe an anti-media-bias protest? - Ed) (Reported 23 March 2003)

Australian evening TV and other media today reports indicate 500,000 protestors as estimated by police have marched past Parliament and Downing Street in London. In Iraq, 14 UK men have been killed in two days. At the Vatican, Pope denounces this war yet again. US forces secure a bridge across the Euphrates River. (Reported 23 March 2003)

Australian Dept. Foreign Affairs warns of a possible terrorist attack endangering Australians in Surabaya, Indonesia; official travel warnings are issued. (Nothing came of this matter.) (Reported 23 March 2003)

Advertisement

Estimates have varied greatly on what the Iraq invasion will cost the US. One figure given has been as high as US$150 billion. Today, a financial commentator on Australian TV estimates the moves will cost the US about US$90 billion, less than 1% of US GDP. The cost of the war is neither here nor there, what is most important are the consequences. (23 March 2003)

23 March 2003. Australian TV cameraman for ABC TV, Paul Moran, working in Iraq with journalist Eric Campbell is killed by a suicider car bomb (taxi) planted by extremists in Iraq's Kurdestan area. Turkey denies it has sent 1500 troops as reported yesterday into Northern Iraq. In Spain, 250,000 protest against the war in Iraq. Students in Egypt insist their country send military aid to Iraq. In UK, tens of thousands protest in London, one protester saying that any moves against Iraq should be a fully-international UN-inspired coalition, not US-led and US-dominated. Baghdad was heavily bombed overnight and Iraq has set oil trenches afire to try to confuse enemy weaponry.

22-23 March: Iraq: A heavy sandstorm is expected in Iraq, more so about the Baghdad area. Winds expected of 80km per hour, and military actions may be hampered.

A relevant book: Andrew J. Bacevich, American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of US Diplomacy. nd?

A world expert on use of biological/chemical weapons, Joseph Cirincione, says he doubts Iraq will be using such WMD due to the high associated cost of "diplomatic fallout". In other areas, he suggests that the list of countries suspected of having such biological WMDs includes: Israel, Iran, Russia, North Korea, Syria, Libya, and possibly India, Pakistan, China, Egypt and Sudan. (22 March 2003)

22 March 2003: Taiwan has become the world's 100th government to recognise Scientology as a religion.

22 March 2003: US forces warned of dangers of suicide bombers. Officers have been issued with orders on handling capitulating Iraqi forces which do not wish to engage hostilities.

Iraq: Headlines of 22 March 2003: Old-style tank assault. Second missile blitz. Iraqi troops surrender. Coalition forces head across southern desert for Baghdad. British forces face stiff opposition about Umm Qasr as they head for Basra (where oil wells are reportedly set alight). Baghdad, Basra and Mosul are under missile attack but the "shock and awe" tactics have not actually started yet. Worldwide protests, with more than 1000 people arrested in San Francisco. Stampede at its airport as Kuwait is under fire. The search is on by US for US$6 billion that Saddam Hussein's inner circle may have stashed around the world. President Bush has ordered the seizure of already-frozen US$1.4 billion in Iraqi government money held in US banks since 1990. Bombing reported around Mosul in Northern Iraq.

22 March 2003: Australian newspaper columnist Hugh Mackay: "So we might be appalled, but we shouldn't be surprised that this Prime Minister is the one whose folly has compromised our nation's integrity."

US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld has appealed to Iraqi citizens not to flee their homes, but stay home and await instructions from coalition-forces' broadcasts. US-led forces now ready for major operations. He also wants Iraqi troops to not set fire to oil wells and tells them, "See your orders for what they are, the last desperate gasp of a dying regime." US intelligence reportedly believes Hussein and two sons were in a compound struck by missiles, with one son possibly killed. (Reported 22 March 2003)

Reports are that the Arabic hard-news TV station, Al-Jazeera, has been so successful in keeping its Arabic audience (up to 250 million people), that three rival Arabic news channels are on the planning boards. (22 March 2003)

Headlines on 22 March 2003: Fears have arisen in Turkey that an independent Kurdish nation will arise in Iraq, unsettling the balance of Kurds in Turkey; Turkish troops have moved into Northern Iraq's Kurdish areas against the wishes of US government. Iraq's 51st Infantry Division, which has been guarding Basra in Southern Iraq - 8000 men - has surrendered, whilst 1000s of other Iraqi soldiers are said to have surrendered. US 7th Cavalry using tanks invades Iraq from the west, moving 150km in, meeting little resistance. Two UK helicopters collide over international waters, killing all seven personnel on board, collision attributed to accident, not enemy action.

Saddam Hussein reportedly offers "substantial cash rewards" to Iraqi soldiers who kill or capture enemy personnel. By now, Turkey has allowed US warplanes to use its air space for attack of key targets of Baghdad/Northern Iraq. New York Post declares... "this conflict was handed to America by history" (Reported 22 March 2003)

US feels by now that is was indeed Saddam Hussein on recent disputed TV clip speaking to his nation. US feels that in Iraq, about 50 per cent of three Iraqi divisions will refuse to fight. (21 March 2003)

Iraq has 2-4 oil wells been set afire overnight. US "shock and awe" style attacks are in full force, and on network TV, one retired US general feels that this will all be over fairly quickly. (21 March 2003)

Further discussion on TV networks on whether Saddam Hussein is still alive or not; have his body doubles been stepping in? Rumsfeld in US pleads with Iraq military to not exercise a scorched-earth policy - to not destroy Iraq's resources and infrastructure. French police find traces of rycin poison in a Paris train station. (21 March 2003)

On 21-3-2003: World-wide protests continue against the war, some peaceful, some violent. Predictions are that after Friday prayers today, the scale of Islamic protest around the world against the war on Iraq will become evident. US finds that the numbers of nations in "the coalition of the willing" is growing.
UK PM Blair in an address to the nation says as part of any justification for US to invade Iraq, that post 9/11, "America did not attack Al-Qa'ida", which is not quite true, as the US most certainly attacked the Taliban regime in Afghanistan which had given a home - and a base - to Al-Qa'ida (which means "the base") (21 March 2003)

21 March 2003 - The US-Iraq war begins: The war was supposed to begin at 1pm on Friday, 21 March according to an official US war plan, "OPLAN 1003 V", which was first drafted from January 2002, to 20 versions. US CIA operatives began secret work in Iraq by June 2002. Somewhat earlier than 1pm 21 March, Washington time, 31 special operations units - about 300 men - would drop into western and southern Iraq to join undercover coalition forces already there, to take out military infrastructures. There would be up-to-a-48-hour window for this before the war actually began. Bush issued an ultimatum to Hussein on 17 March to go into exile from Iraq. However, CIA director George Tenet on Wednesday 19 March told the US National Security team that he knew where Hussein and his top aides would soon be, at Dora Farm, Baghdad, a well-bunkered but semi-isolated spot. Should a strike be made on the location? The US war plan was changed, and a shrike would be made, which brought forward a start date for the war. The US sent F-117A fighters to drop 2x900kg bombs on Dora Farm. Then US ships fired Tomahawk missiles to it. General Tommy Franks the next morning advanced the first ground operations by 24 hours. (It since appears that the strike did not kill Hussein or his top aides.) (Reported 24 March 2003, Sydney Morning Herald/Washington Post)

By 21 March, Australian newspaper headlines include: "Resistance light as US troops cross border into Iraq". "Airport stampede as Iraqi missiles thud into Kuwait". However, it seems that two of Iraq's missiles were hit by US Patriot missiles and one broke up in mid-air. By today, coalition troops occupy Az Zubayr and Umm Qasr while moving to Basra, troops move across Al Faw peninsula, across the southern Iraq desert from Kuwait toward Baghdad, Mosul and Basra are bombed as are government ministries and palaces in Baghdad; and troops are lined up on Turkish-Iraqi border.

Friday 21 March 2003: 2.50pm, Red Cross informs on overnight attacks on Baghdad. 3pm, Turkey's parliament allows US overflight rights. 4.10pm, Artillery attacks in Southern Iraq signal start of a ground assault. 5.09pm, Central Baghdad hit by missiles. 8.20pm, British forces say ten Iraqi Scud missiles are fired at allied troops in Kuwait, two are intercepted by Patriot missiles. Later, explosions reported in areas of Basra and Mosul.

Iraq and Saddam Hussein: A video clip of Hussein's speech against the expected US strikes was expected, but doubt exists as to whether the tape actually arising is/was pre-recorded or not? Has he survived? He had called for a jihad and an uprising of patriots against the invaders. A US order to strike Baghdad (a "decapitation strike") had been given about 1.40pm (Aust EST), as CIA human intelligence had it that they knew where Hussein and maybe five of his henchmen would be hiding out at a certain time. The location was hit with Cruise and Tomahawk missiles from US air and submarine forces, this order to fire being given much earlier than anyone on any side expected Hussein however has dated his national-morale-boosting TV speech at 20 March, so had he been got before or after he made the TV speech? Or not got at all? (Hussein's speech already broadcast on international TV.) President Bush shortly after this strike announced the "start of the war". It is already reported that some Iraqi divisions of conscripts wish to surrender - their locations not mentioned. (TV news in Australia of 20 March 2003 by 7pm)

20 March 2003: A date given in world newspaper reportage for beginning of the US-led campaign to topple the regime in Iraq of Saddam Hussein. Shortly the US closes its embassy in Pakistan for an indefinite period due to country-wide protests against the war in Iraq. Near Kabul in Afghanistan, security operations by US forces have been stepped-up "20 per cent". In a recent issue of Science magazine, US archaeologist from Chicago, Prof. McQuire Gibson, has made an eloquent plea about the risks of major looting of art treasures during major conflict in Iraq. Many thousands of archaeological sites are still unexplored, the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad needs special protections. Gibson said that "Iraq is ancient Mesopotamia, where the earliest civilization was developed in the fourth millennium." It has been ruled by Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Leleucid Greeks, Parthians and Sasanians from Iran. Later by Arabs.

Thursday 20 March 2003: US-imposed deadline for Hussein and his two sons to leave Iraq expires by noon. By 1.45pm, explosions heard over Baghdad. By 1.50pm, US White House says "The opening stages of the disarmament of the Iraqi regime have begun." The war starts with an unsuccessful "decapitation strike" on Hussein at a meeting in Baghdad. He appears later on TV, "a little rattled". By 2pm, Australia informs that its forces have begun combat operations. By 2.08pm, Iraqi state radio reportedly taken over by US military. By 3.01pm, US issues global warning on risks of potential terrorist attacks. By 4.30pm, Iraqi TV carries address by Hussein vowing Iraq will be victorious. In Australia, prime minister Howard delivers televised address to nation. At 8.15pm, Iran closes its airspace. By 8.32pm, Kuwait air raid sirens sound and citizens don gas masks. By 8.51pm, US says Iraq has fired four missiles into Northern Kuwait, which Baghdad later denies.

US military propaganda increasingly emphasises the present-day pinpoint accuracy of its weaponry, much-enhanced since the First Gulf War, and later disasters during Balkans crises. It is possible that two of Iraq's Scud missiles are sent to Kuwait, but miss their targets. (20 March 2003)

Quote: The United Nations was intended to prevent wars but since it was formed there have been 250 that have not been put down... (BBC website on 20 March 2003 at about 4am Aust EST)

19 March 2003: By the time US Cruise missiles began to strike Baghdad, only hours on 19 March after the US deadline for Saddam Hussein to quit Iraq, "Australians were the first into action in the war", as President Bush told Australian PM, John Howard. These were SAS troops operating in Western Iraq, eliminating threats of ballistic missiles on Israel and disrupting Iraqi troop movements. (Reported 19 April 2003)
(Reports say that when the Iraq War broke out, many Moslem clerics began to recommend that Arab countries sell oil for Euros, not US dollars, in order to damage the US economy.)

Greenpeace activists embarrass Canberra and Australian Govt. by chaining themselves in the early morning to fence of The Lodge, residence of Australian prime minister. They are taking up the prime minister's invitation of only yesterday that if anyone disagrees with his position on Iraq, they should take it up with him and not with members of Australia's defence forces now on active duty. Prime Minister has to leave by a back door to get to his day's work.
(Non-Australian readers of this item should be aware that this protest contains an element of the Australian sense of humour so strong, that non-Australians may find it quite unbelievable, blasphemous, fantastic, etc., but not to worry, the national sky does not fall in and unfortunately, nor do the PM's spirits - Ed). (On 19 March 2003)

19 March 2003: Claims arise by 27 May that due to betrayal of Hussein, US forces begin to receive regular information on his whereabouts.

Iraq: Saddam Hussein chairs meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council and Ba'ath Party leadership. According to The Weekend Australian, 26-27 April, 2003, this is the day President George W. Bush decided to modify existing battle plan and try to "decapitate" the Hussein regime, due to a tip from a CIA spy on Hussein's current whereabouts. Internationally, peace demonstrations receive much publicity. Tens of thousands of demonstrators hit the streets in the US, where 1000 were arrested in San Francisco. Violence reportedly erupted at peace demos in Egypt, Spain, India, Belgium, Switzerland and Lebanon. Various demonstrations were held in "Asia" and Australia, Syria, Belgium. (19 March 2003)

18 march 2003: Further Labor Party revolt in UK as two government ministers including Robin Cook resign in protest at Blair's position on Iraq. In US, Pres. Bush gives Saddam Hussein and his two sons and their top aides, 48 hours to leave Iraq. Not surprisingly, Bush is ignored in Iraq.

Australian National Icon now properly protected as war looms: By 18 March 2003, due to recent hilarious security-lapse situation, Sydney Opera House is now "under 24-hour-guard".

18 March 2003. The Sydney Opera House protestors, Will Saunders and David Burgess, are this week sentenced for nine months' period detention jail and to be fined more than AUD$150,000. Their supporters have already raised $40,000 of the fine monies. Both men have said they will appeal their sentence. (Reported in Weekend Australian 31 Jan-1 Feb 2004)

18 March 2003: Headlines read: America ready to attack without UN sanction. Saddam Hussein is quoted as saying, "The battle between us will take in any place where there is a sky, land and water throughout the entire globe."

Shock and awe: US propaganda ensures that the entire world knows very well that their military intention is to use enough firepower to "shock and awe" Iraqi forces into submission. (17 March 2003)

From US: President Bush says, "Tomorrow is a day of truth for the world." (17 March 2003)

Same difference : "Our armies do not come into your cities and your lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators. Your wealth has been stripped of you by unjust men... The government of Iraq, and the future of your country, will soon belong to you... We will end a brutal regime... so that the Iraqis can live in security."
General F. S. Maude, commander of British forces, to the people of Mesopotamia in 1917. (As noticed in a cartoon by Australian cartoonist Leunig on 10-11 July 2004 in Sydney Morning Herald)

"Don't expect the people of this region to receive you with flowers and perfume". Remarks to the US from Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Meantime, Australian journalist Paul McGeough in Baghdad says that Saddam Hussein has not been seen in public since early 2001, yet he is on TV every night, sometimes for as long as an hour. Saddam's son Qusay, 36, is commander of Iraq's Republican Guard. (Reported Sydney Morning Herald, 15 March 2003)

15 March, 2003: Publication of new book, Why Terrorism Works, by Alan Dershowitz, professor of Law at Harvard University.

The US bid to topple Saddam is putting the future of the globe in the balance." Headlined view of a major article in Sydney Morning Herald, weekend, 15-16 March 2003. (Note: Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq in 1979, some eleven years after the then-underground Ba'ath Party mounted a coup that Hussein had helped organise.)

"We really distrust people who invoke the Almighty and do it in such a cowboy way." Sydney Morning Herald columnist Alan Ramsey on 15 March 2003 on Australian attitudes to views of President G. W. Bush expressed on matters religious)

Sydney, Australia: The third oldest-surviving bridge in Australia, built in 1837, has just been uncovered at 60-70 William Street, Kings Cross, due to excavations for a housing development. The bridge was built on a site which from 1793 was part of an area granted to the first Commissary of NSW, John Palmer, by Thomas Brodie, who charged £156 for his work. The bridge will be preserved in a basement room of the new housing development. (Reported 15 March 2003)

Indonesia; Head of Jemaah Islamiah, Abu Bakar Bashir, implicated in the Bali Bombing, has filed a lawsuit against Indonesia's police chief in the light of compensation for his detention. (Reported 15 March 2003)

Slavery in Brazil: "Attacking one of Brazil's most shameful but deeply-rooted social problems, the country's newly-elected government has announced a sweeping initiative aimed at wiping out the use of slave labour. (Reported New York Times, 15 March 2003)

Pakistan: Al-Qa'ida operative Khalid Sheik Mohammed, allegedly the mastermind behind 9/11, now in the hands of Pakistan military officials for the past fortnight after being captured on March 1 in Rawalpindi, a military town near Islamabad, has said he had a meeting with Osama bin-Laden last December. But he has also told two other contradictory stories, one that bin-Laden may be dead. Mohammed was caught after information arose from other arrests made by Pakistan, including that of Ramzi Binalshibh, who allegedly helped plan the 9/11 attacks from Germany. (Reported 5-15 March 2003.

US has threatened to withdraw from "an increasingly chaotic debate" at the UN, so opening the way of US president to declare war within days. A French veto on US hopes for a fresh UN resolution authorising military action at the UN seems certain. UK has accused France of "poisoning" efforts to secure a peaceful resolution and its diplomats fear a rift between UK and France may fester for years. Declining to support the US are Mexico, Pakistan, Chile and Guinea; Sweden opposes military action against Iraq without a UN mandate. US hopes that when Turkey's parliament sits this week, it will grant access to US troops waiting to go into Iraq, while in Turkey itself, the nation's highest court has decreed that the country's largest pro-Kurdish party is now banned, as it is acting as a front for separatist rebels. There are in Iraq more than 200 UN weapons inspection staff who might be soon given 24-48 hours to evacuate. An Iraqi defector from Republican Guard has said that Iraqi army is confident it can withstand massive US bombing as it has hidden "vast amounts of military equipment in civilian areas". (Reported 15 March 2003)

Washington: In a classified report for US State Dept., deep doubt is expressed that installing a new regime in Iraq will help foster the spread of democracy throughout the Middle Eastern world via the so-called "democratic domino theory". Specialists' fears are that long-term anti-Americanism will foster the rise of Islamic-controlled governments hostile to the US. The editor Khalid M. Batarafi of a daily paper in Saudi Arabia, Al-Madinah, says that most Saudis now believe that "an attack on Iraq is only a first step in a Zionist-Christian campaign to redraw the Middle East so that it becomes a place that completely serves their interest." (Reported 15 March 2003)

Serbia: Sniper assassination probably by criminal gangs of prime minister of Serbia, Zoran Djindjiic, following an unsuccessful attempt on his life a month earlier. (12/13 March 2003)

12 March 2003: Serbia: Mafia-style assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic in broad daylight. By 29 March, two major suspects, Dusan "Siptar" Spasojevic, leader of a gang called Zemun, and former special police commander, Milan "Kum" Lukdvic, have been killed in a shootout with police. Djindjic had an important role in the ousting of Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000.

Advertisement

Boycott Fun: (Lost Worlds Editorial) It's just become international vomit time. Don't like US foreign policy right now? (12-3-2003) Well, due to current arguments about UN veto powers to be exercised the French way by the French, the US world-wide propaganda machine is now advertising a sudden US' dislike of French foreign policy/products. Now you don't buy French Fries in Washington, you buy "Freedom Fries". French wine has gone into the gutter, French pastries are not selling (and folk in the US are persisting with this nonsense over days, too!). Lost Worlds disapproves mightily of US in-house immaturity with this sort of crap-rhetoric. And IT'S VERY SIMPLE!!! KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! Tit-for-tat, if you don't currently like US foreign policy, DON'T BUY US PRODUCTS!! Leave the Chevvy on the levee, buy a car from South Korea and improve its morale. Empty out those bottles of Coca-Cola right now and don't buy any more! Boycott US movies. Don't buy their latest software. Slow down and avoid US-style fast food. Bye-bye Miss American Pie! -Ed

Embassies around the world may see a wave of expulsions of Iraq's diplomats, who are suspected of spying. The White House in US - using a CIA list of "probables" - approached 60 countries last week with such suspicions. Australia becomes the only country to co-operate by expelling a diplomat who arrived only recently in Australia. (Reported 11 March 2003)

11 March 2003: Australia: Andrew Wilkie resigns from Australia's Office of National Assessments and becomes a whistleblower to the press on the questions of quality of intelligence reports guiding decision to go to war on Iraq. He finds that talking to the press is "just about the worst moment of my life".

In Sudan, The Khartoum Monitor took the liberty of allowing a columnist to suggest that the history of Islam in Sudan had not always been peaceful. The result is that Sudan's security services have confiscated all copies of Sunday editions of two newspapers. Censorship? (Reported 11 March 2003)

Email in Afghanistan: Afghanistan is now about to begin use of its new international .af domain for websites and email addresses. Various people in Afghanistan regard this as an excellent new statement of Afghanistan's sovereignty. (Under the Taliban regime, all non-governmental use of email and websites was punishable by death.) (Reported 11 March 2003)

2003-1994: In 1994, a terrorist car-bomb attack destroyed a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people, injuring 200. Now, a judge has asked Interpol to arrest four Iranian diplomats for planning and financing this attack. A spokesman for Iranian Foreign Ministry has dismissed the allegations as "Zionist rumours". (Reported 11 March 2003)

North Korea currently fears US will make a pre-emptive strike on it, leading it to make another test of a newly-developed anti-ship cruise missile over the Sea of Japan. Japan meantime is "monitoring" such situations. (Reported 11 March 2003)

UN weapons inspectors have apparently discovered in Iraq a new variety of rocket designed/reconfigured from a conventional cluster munition-design to spread bomblets filled with chemical or biological agents. It is not known when the redesigned units were produced. (Reported 11 March 2003)

Iran has signalled its opposition to any move to suspend OPEC oil production quotas if Iraq is attacked. Meantime, US has urged UN's nuclear watchdog operations to examine Iran's nuclear program. (Reported 11 March 2003:)

February 2003: In the US, the CIA and some other intelligence agencies (at the Pentagon or State Dept.) feared that any post-war period in Iraq would pose "more problems than the war", and warned of resistance to any US-led occupation. Fears were held of obstruction, resistance, armed opposition, while members of The Republican Guard and the Ba'ath Party were thought already to be planning post-war resistance. One prediction given to Congress was that the US would several hundred thousand occupation troops would be needed to re-stabilise Iraq. (As reported in The Australian newspaper, 10 September 2003)

Last February the UN appealed for contributions of US$120 million for its humanitarian aid if a war with Iraq breaks out. So far it has been given US$30 million by the world's richest nations. (Estimates by the way are that the US will spend about $US90 billion on any war with Iraq.) (Reported 11 March 2003)

Kuwait: All forces poised and preparing to attack Iraq have just been ordered to switch their timepieces to Greenwich Mean Time, otherwise known as Zulu Time, to enhance necessary synchronisation of activities world-wide. (Reported 10 March 2003)

Evolution and an Orang-utan discovery: Researchers say they have found teeth fossils in Northern Thailand belonging to the closest ancestor of the orang-utan. These are the first such ape fossils unearthed in South East Asia. (See a recent issue of journal, Nature.) (8 March 2003)

8 March 2003: Reports arise that American and Pakistani forces are closer to finding bin-Laden, possibly in the eastern part of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, in provinces named Chitral and Baluchistan. Nothing further comes of this optimism, which is partly due to analysis of phone activity and partly due to the recent arrest of one of bin-Laden's aides, Khalid Sheik Mohammed. And oddly enough, about now arises notice of a new autobiography of Saddam Hussein, titled, Men and a City, in which he recalls his childhood, etc.

Since mid-2002 to about March 2003: Iraq: US air war commanders embark on plan named Southern Focus to disrupt Iraq's military command and control systems managed with use of fibre-optic cables. The attacks on installations using such cabling was justified in public as reactions to Iraqi violations of no-fly zone requirements. Some 606 bombs had been dropped on 391 "carefully selected targets" before overt hostilities began. (From Sydney Morning Herald, 22 July 2003 citing The Guardian and New York Times)

Iraq begins destroying its banned Al-Samoud-2 missiles, but too late according to UK and Australia. (Reported 7 March 2003)

Qatar: A meeting of Islamic leaders in Qatar turns into an insult-hurling contest. Iraqi delegate Izzat Ibrahim, the No. 3 man in Hussein's regime, blasted Kuwait for its links with the US. When Kuwait objected to this, Ibrahim shouted, "Sit down, you minion, you agent! Shut up you monkey! A curse on your moustache!" (Reported 7 March 2003) :

In 2000, a UN report concluded that the condition of Iraq's oil refineries was "lamentable". In 2003, Fadhil Chalabi, head of the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies, about US$30 billion would be needed to revitalize Iraq's oil industry. Lately, more than half Iraq's oil fields are shut down. It cost US$20 billion to redevelop the near-700 oil wells Hussein blew up when his troops departed Kuwait in 1991. (Quoted 7 March 2003)

9/11 Mastermind?: The Australian government is also interested in knowing more of the recently-captured alleged Al-Qa'ida mastermind of the 9/11 attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, according to Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer. Australia would wish to know more about his role in terrorism in South-East Asia, links to Jemaah Islamiah, and attempts to blow up Australian, US and British missions in Singapore in 2001. Foreign secretary of the Philippines, Blas Ople, has said that Mohhammed had "been put in charge of South-East Asia" by Osama bin-Laden.
Mohammed is on record as saying, "About two-and-a-half years before the holy raids on Washington and New York... we started planning for a martyrdom operation inside America... It was eventually decided to leave out nuclear targets for now..." An interviewer asked him, "What do you mean, "for now"? Mohammed answered, "For now means 'for now'."
By now, US intelligence operatives have become worried that two of Mohammed's nephews and one of their cousins may take up his cause. They are in various unknown parts of the Middle East, but may be planning Al-Qa'ida-type operations in Europe. Mohammed, 37, is a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani. (Reported 5 March 2003)

Turkey's refusal to let US troops use its bases for any invasion of Iraq could delay a war-start until late March or early April. (Reported 5 March 2003)

Aceh, Indonesia: Thousands of villagers have been protesting against alleged extortion by separatist rebels. Their protest turned into a riot, where a mob burned three cars and ransacked the office of an international monitor overseeing a recent peace deal between the Indonesian Government and the rebels. (Reported 4 March 2003)

Suggestions arise in Australian media that "Saudi money" had backed the Bali bombing, via information arising from a US lawyer now engaged in certain class actions about 9/11. (Any such money would probably then have been funnelled through Wahibism-based "schools of Islam".) (4 March 2003)

3 March 2003: Newspapers try to second-guess US strategies for any war on Iraq. The suggested outline in one newspaper is that: there will be a combination of the tank tactics of the 1991 Gulf War, the speed of the overnight 1989 US takeover of Panama, and the precision bombing of the 2001 US campaign in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, canny Arabs are buying up "undeveloped sites" in the more desirable areas of Baghdad and Basra in anticipation of a rising property market.

Claimed arrest of one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attack on US - a suspect who is also accused of lately plotting attacks on the Australian High Commission in Singapore. (2 March 2003)

Indonesia: "Indonesian police have accused alleged terrorist leader Abu Bakar Bashir (leader of Jemaah Islamiah) of trying to overthrow the Indonesian government, which is a capital offense, but have delayed pressing charges over a series of church bombings. Bashir reportedly regards Osama bin-Laden as "a true Muslim fighter". (Weekend Australian, 1-2 March, 2003)

Story appears in Australian press on "Saddam Hussein's tortured childhood". (Weekend Australian, 1-2 March, 2003)

France: A major ancient burial site with about 40 tombs dating to Fifth Century BC has been discovered, next to a river near village of Vasseny, in northern region of Aisne. (Reported 1 March 2003)

US reportedly believes that some Iraqi Republican Guard units are pulling back from the Mosul area in the north to defend key cities more south, such as Tikrit and Baghdad. Meanwhile, humanitarian aid workers are predicting massive food shortages in Iran if a war proceeds. (Reported 1 March 2003)

Alleged Indonesian terrorist leader Abu Bakar Bashir has been handed over to prosecutors by Indonesian police on a treason charge, but charges against him of masterminding a bombing campaign against Christians have been dropped, his lawyer says. No date is yet set for his trial. (Reported 1 March 2003)

1 March 2003: US House of Representatives imposes total ban on human cloning.

1 March 2003: "The majority of the council do not think it is time to go to war." France's UN ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere. Weekend Australian 1-2 March reports that UN/international delegates have suggested that Pres. Bush "muzzle" his Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld if he wants to ease "European misgivings" about situation with Iraq. Rumsfeld as dismissed such suggestions as coming from "old Europe".

News Items: 1 March 2003: A leaked copy of report from chief weapons inspector Hans Blix suggests Iraq's efforts to disarm are "very limited so far," as Baghdad agrees in principle to destroy its Al-Samoud-2 missiles. Turkey delays a key vote in its parliament to allow US troops into Turkey "amid signs of strong disagreement". The Iraqi opposition warns of "serious consequences" if Turkey sends its troops into Northern Iraq. World oil prices again surge, with New York crude hitting a post-Gulf War high. US presses NATO nations to discuss possible roles in a post-war Iraq. Reports arise that a major element of the Iraqi Republican Guard has moved out of Northern Iraq towards home-town of Hussein, Tikrit, a US military official says.

1 March 2003: Sydney Morning Herald remarks that President Bush says the following on "the paradox that war on Iraq is expected to bring peace in the Middle East" - "A liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region". (Bush on 22 March 2003 in the same newspaper is quoted as saying, "The United Nations has not lived up to its responsibilities, so we will rise to ours.") By early March, long and concerned essays begin to appear in newspapers on the realism of any US plans for reconstruction in post-war Iraq - the question of winning the peace. Incidentally, Iraq has a population of 24 million speaking four main languages - Arabic, Kurdish, Assyrian and Armenian - but only 12 per cent of its 435,000 sq/km is arable.

Newspaper headlines: Childhood wounds of the Butcher of Baghdad: a psychiatric expert on Saddam Hussein tells that the trauma of rejection by his mother turned the Iraqi leader into a murderous tyrant. In the view of Dr. Jerrold Post, a psychiatrist and professor at George Washington University, Hussein has been characterized as displaying malignant narcissism, extreme grandiosity and self-absorption which blocks empathy with others, a paranoid outlook given to perceptions of being surrounded by enemies, no sense of constraint or conscience, and a willingness to use whatever aggression is needed to accomplish goals. (Reported 1 March 2003 in The Australian)

UK: Re war on Iraq, Blair battles biggest backbench revolt in a century. About 122 of 415 politicians, or a third of Blair's backbenchers, are still doubtful a war on Iraq is justified. (Newspapers various, reported 28 February 2003)

28 February 2003: US President Bush hints at the prospect of the rise of "a truly democratic Palestinian state". In Britain, re Iraq War prospects, PM Tony Blair reportedly faces the biggest backbench revolt from Labour politicians seen in the UK in more than a century.

In Iraq, Saddam Hussein now agrees to destroy his disputed Al-Samoud missiles. Criticism arises very quickly in Australia of suggestions that Australia should adopt a missile shield program. (28 February 2003)

TV-reported 26 February 2003, Hussein has "suddenly discovered new documentation" on the destruction of certain Iraqi weaponry in 1991 and later.

Police in New Zealand report finding cyanide-laced letters sent to certain embassies in New Zealand, the letters probably related to recent moves against Iraq. (25 February 2003)

Mahatir's remarks in Malaysia: At a conference of leaders of non-aligned countries, prime minister/president of Malaysia, Mahatir, gave a keynote speech suggesting that a war has broken out between "the West and Islam". He also attacked the greed and urge-to-dominance of major Western governments. (Huntingdon's "clash of civilizations" theory here?) (Reported 24-25 February 2003)

Greenpeace personnel in UK have stopped activity (temporarily) at 100 UK petrol stations run by Esso, saying that Esso is backing US moves against Iraq, claims which Esso denies. (TV evening news, (25 February 2003)

The UN: US now lays out a rough timetable for the UN to make a second resolution (following Resolution 1441) for latest moves against Iraq, suggesting that military action may begin in "only days". 7 March is one date suggested. (24 February 2003)

22 February 2003: Meetings are soon to be held in Kurdish Northern Iraq of Iraqi opposition groups who are said to be growing angry over US plans to set up a military government in Baghdad once Hussein's regime is gone. A name often mentioned as one of Iraq's opposition politicians, Chalabi, is not regarded as popular.

2003: Confidential Australia government defence department documents indicate that the SAS and other Australian forces sent to Afghanistan (in November 2001) to fight Taliban forces had "severe side effects" from an anthrax vaccine bought from the UK. (The entire vaccination program for the 1550-strong force for Afghanistan was "suspended for two months". This was not told to the Australian troops bound for Iraq.) On HMAS Darwin in 2003, 97 crew aboard of 251 reported ill after being given "the controversial" vaccine, an adverse reaction of 38 per cent. However, the adverse reactions generally lasted no more than 48 hours. (Reported front page The Weekend Australian, 21-22 February 2004)

21 February 2003: Two days before British PM Tony Blair is to meet the Pope at the Vatican, the Pope makes a new plea for peace, seen to be weakening Blair's case for a "moral war" on Iraq.

Involvement in a war against Iraq will cost Australia about AUD$3.37 billion or US$2 billion, economic modellers have forecast. The also estimate any war would wipe about 2% off global growth by 2005, with some costs extending for a decade. Australia has not promised any after-war commitments. (Reported 21 February 2003)

Britain's two most senior churchmen, one an Anglican, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams and one a Catholic, Archbishop of Westminster, Cormac Murphy O'Connor, have "directly challenged" the position of their prime minister, Tony Blair, on the moral case for a war against Iraq. They feel the crisis be engaged through the agency of the UN, there should not inaction or passivity either, and they have also called on Iraq to comply with UN resolutions. Today is the latest date for weapons inspectors to give a report to the UN Security Council. (Reported 21 February 2003)

Columnist Daniel Mahoney writes: "The rise of French-bashing in the US is as mindless as the rampant anti-Americanism in Western Europe. Provincial Americans ignorant about Europe are as bad as self-satisfied Europeans ignorant about the US. Much anti-Americanism is "predictable". Many Americans and Australians believe that France has little more than a reckless, irrational desire to obstruct US efforts to combat terrorism. France may however be concerned about "American overreach". (Reported 21 February 2003 in The Australian)

Terrorism expert Clive Williams has issued a "chilling warning" that Australia and/or its national airline, Qantas, can now be regarded as a prime target for terrorist attack. Australia is now target No. 4 behind US, UK and Israel. (TV evening news, 21 February 2003)

An aide to Uday Hussein has defected to the West and been spirited out of Lebanon, according to an Iraqi opposition spokesman. The defector's name is Adeeb Shaabanm but the story has also been denied in various circles. (15 February 2003)

Newspaper headlines: US, Britain draft war resolution: As weekend of global anti-war protests begin, UN meets to decide Iraq's fate. (15 February 2003)

1AD: Thessaloniki, Greece: Archaeologists in north-eastern Greece have discovered a Roman burial site with well-preserved remains of chariots and horses in their Evros region, near the border with Bulgaria. It is possible the chariots were being used to take bodies to a cremation site where horses would also be killed for the ceremony. Excavations began last September and continue. The finds are said to be unique in Greece. (Reported 15 February 2003)

UN weapons inspectors (Hans Blix and Mohamed El Baredei) in Iraq due to deliver another report on situations in Iraq. (14 February 2003)

White House avoids peace poets: On 12 February 2003, US First Lady Laura Bush was to host a poetry symposium on the works of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman, but has postponed it due to the (very likely) risks that contemporary poets will burst out with anti-administration rhetoric.

12 February 2003: The translated text of the message from Osama bin-Laden broadcast yesterday on Al-Jazeera is published in today's Australian newspaper.

Headlines: North Korea warns any final showdown with US will be a nuclear one. Meanwhile, Scott Ritter, a former UN chief weapons inspector who advocates no war with Iraq has commented on the risks of a nuclear crisis with North Korea, suggesting that North Korea may put ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads on alert as US has put B-52s on alert at Guam. (Reported 8 February 2003)

US spanks Australian sceptics: Due to "trenchant criticism" of Washington's approach to Iraq, Labor Party officials in Australia are being chastised by US ambassador to Australia, Tom Scheiffer, who regards the criticism as "not very helpful" to the US-Australian relationship. US is unhappy that Australia's Labor Party claims that Prime Minister John Howard is "deceiving the Australian people" over commitments Australia has made to go to war with Iraq, as this is tantamount to calling President Bush a liar. (Reported 8 February 2003)

Intelligence work versus plagiarism? Dr. Ibrahim al-Marashi, a Ph.D candidate in Monterey, California, working on today's intelligence operatives, last September published an article in Middle East Review of International Affairs which article was later made into an Internet version. Now, puzzlement circles the world as it is found that slabs of his Net article have turned up in an official British intelligence report on Iraq which was also used by US secretary of state, Colin Powell, in his recent address to the UN Security Council arguing for extra UN support for a US-led move on Iraq. The British-written dossier preserves one misplaced comma from Marashi's article. Marashi said no one had been in touch with him about use of material in his article. (Reported 8 February 2002)

Democracy and Theocracy: "When it comes to democracy, the rights of man and equality, God is only a recent convert." Spanish socialist Josep Borrell Fontelles, on the issue within the European Union of whether the Deity merits a mention in a proposed constitution. The Pope wishes God to be mentioned, and so presumably do Moslems living in Europe. (Reported 8 February 2003)

Power play continues at the UN level, where Britain and the US both feel that Iraq will continue to stall for extra time as weapons inspections continue, the US will seek another UN resolution on the US' use of force in Iraq, and France, China and Russia may use their veto powers against approving the use of US-led force. Germany continues to wish for a peaceful resolution to ongoing problems. Turkey's parliament has given permission for US to use Turkish bases and ports for "possible use" in a war with Iraq. US meantime now believes that Saddam Hussein has authorised Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons against any invading forces. (Reported 8 February 2003)

Remarks ON IRAQ from sometime-leader of The Australian Democrats to Australian Parliament as emailed to Lost Worlds from the US via Australia
From: Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja (South Australia), 4 February, 2003...
"Like many, I came to parliament this week acutely aware of my responsibilities as an elected representative of South Australians. Surveys and polls over the last few months, including today, have demonstrated that the vast majority of Australians are opposed to Australia's involvement in a US-led war against Iraq. Today I speak together with those Australians.
I share their deep concerns and I share the many, many questions that they and others in this chamber have.
I want to make two things very clear from the outset. Firstly, I deplore the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and I am appalled by the atrocities that have been committed in the name of that dictatorship. I want the Iraqi people to be democratically governed and to have their fundamental human rights respected. I also want the Iraqi people as I want the people of Zimbabwe, North Korea, China, Tibet and Burma, among others to be protected from human rights abuses and to have the opportunity to freely elect their political representatives.
Secondly, I am unequivocally opposed to the development, storage and use of weapons of mass destruction whether by India, Pakistan, Iraq, France, Russia or indeed the United States of America. Yet despite my very strong feelings on these issues I do not support Australia's involvement in military action against Iraq.
War is not just another strategy to achieve desired ends. War is a desperate measure. Only the most exceptional circumstances can ever justify the killing of other human beings. Not only must war be eminently justified but its objectives must be clear and precise. The objectives of military action against Iraq are anything but clear at this stage. The reasons given by Tony Blair, George W. Bush and, indeed, our own [Australian] Prime Minister for such military action do not assist us. In fact, they simply raise more questions.
These are questions they have failed to answer and questions that I know many Australians would like the Prime Minister to address. It is disappointing that we did not have question time today as that would have enabled us to ask the government some of these questions. In the absence of question time, I am going to put on notice and put on the public record a number of the questions that we have.
We know that Iraq has consistently failed to meet its obligations relating to disarmament and weapons inspections following the Gulf War. Of course it is vitally important to ensure that Iraq complies with these obligations. But, if the war is about forcing Iraq to comply with international law, why are we contemplating illegal military action to achieve this compliance?
It simply does not make sense to break the law, in this case, in order to enforce it. Nor does it make sense to abandon the procedures of the United Nations in order to enforce the resolutions of the United Nations. The inconsistency indeed, the hypocrisy of this was illustrated in the recent State of the Union address given by President Bush. The President accused Iraq of being in contempt of the United Nations. He then went on to make it clear that the United States would not depend on the decisions of others.
We do not need to rely on the words of President Bush to understand the attitude of the United States towards international law on occasions. If the United States is so committed to international law, as outlined by President Bush, then how does it explain the imposition of embargoes on the supply of food and medicine to Cuba when such embargoes have been repeatedly condemned by UN resolutions and described as `serious violation of international law'?
The United States has also ignored international law, specifically the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Beijing rules, when it has executed people who were under the age of 18 when they committed a crime. What legal or moral authority does the United States have to make other countries comply with their international obligations when this is its own track record?
The [Australian] Prime Minister has consistently stated that the purpose of any proposed war would be to address the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. If this is the purpose, then why are we not also going to war against North Korea? Many nations around this world have weapons of mass destruction. The United States, as we know, has an abundance of such weapons.
For a nation which professes such a strong opposition to weapons of mass destruction, it is interesting to note that the US remains the only nation which has ever resorted to the use of nuclear weapons during military warfare. It also refuses to sign the protocol to the biological weapons convention.
Yet the fundamental distinction that is relied upon is that weapons of mass destruction in the hands of so-called rogue states, which has been referred to repeatedly today, present a particular threat to international security.
There is no doubt that Iraq is a rogue state. What is not clear, however, is what exactly defines a rogue state and why we are not pursuing military action against other rogue states that possess weapons of mass destruction. If a rogue state is one which is not democratically governed, then what about North Korea? If it is a state in which human rights abuses occur, then what about China? How does the United Kingdom justify the exportation of key nuclear weapons-grade material to Iran? If the US and the UK are so opposed to weapons of mass destruction, why is it that neither country will rule out the use of nuclear weapons in military action against Iraq?
If the [proposed] war is really about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, why has President Bush said that the voluntary exile of Saddam Hussein would be one way to prevent the war?
This brings me to the issue of regime change. There are many reasons to abhor the regime of Saddam Hussein and to seek an end to the suffering of the Iraqi people under that regime. We have all heard the stories of torture and murder. They appall us all.
The stories that we hear appall me; they anger me; they grieve me. Yet while the United States and Australia condemned these practices in Iraq, neither country was prepared to support the optional protocol to the convention against torture. If the purpose of the war is really to topple a cruel and undemocratic dictatorship, then why aren't we also going to war against Zimbabwe? The Prime Minister will not even stop the Australian cricket team from playing in Zimbabwe as a sign of our opposition to that regime; yet he will risk the lives of Australians to put an end to Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.
If the war is to save the Iraqi people, why does Washington intend to adopt a strategy in which 800 missiles could be launched on Baghdad, where almost five million Iraqis live? If the purpose of this war is to achieve regime change, what exactly are we hoping to change the regime to? How will it work? What is the post war assistance that we are going to offer Iraq? None, according to our Prime Minister, who told us last week that Australia would not be involved in any such rebuilding process.
It appears that none of the reasons given for this war really stack up, which begs the question: what is the real underlying motivation for this war? Some suggest oil; others suggest US imperialism. I am not going to speculate on those allegations, but one thing is clear: no persuasive argument has been made to justify any military action against Iraq at this stage.
The [Australian] Prime Minister tells us that the decision as to whether or not Australia should participate in this war weighs heavily on him. I say to the Prime Minister: this is not your burden to bear. When faced with such a grave decision, the Prime Minister should turn to the Australian people. That is what democracy is all about. That is what differentiates regimes such as that of Saddam Hussein and those of democratic governments.
It is time to change the rhetoric in this debate. It is time we stopped restricting the debate to the terms dictated by George W. Bush, our Prime Minister or even Tony Blair. Going to war against Iraq does not demonstrate leadership. It demonstrates failure. The Prime Minister risks associating his premiership with a rush to failure. War represents failure because it gives up on those things that characterise decent civilisation: negotiation, rational discussion, persuasion, the use of international goodwill and the offer of help in return for cooperation.
If the combined brains of the international community cannot avoid war, we have failed desperately. John Winston Howard should have regard to another Winston Winston Churchill. Despite his great reputation as a wartime leader and warrior chief, despite the glory that came his way, Churchill said it best when in the fifties he said: `To jaw-jaw is better than to war-war.' He said this in Washington. Let the Prime Minister go to Washington and jaw-jaw.
We the people do not want war. We do not want to send our younger or older Australians to terrible fields of conflict to use disgusting weaponry against each other, against their fellow human beings, and to risk them returning to their homeland injured, limbless and demented by the horrors they have witnessed or coming home dead.
We want people to live peacefully without the deaths of thousands, if not millions, on our conscience. We want to face the problems that we have; we do not want to create new ones. We want to write our history. We want to say sorry. We do not want to create more and more reasons for being sorry. There are no sufficient reasons for being involved in this conflict. There are no reasons to include Australians; bring the troops home."
[Ends - Some of this message has been edited -Ed]

Advertisement

Indonesia: Indonesia's Minister for Justice and Human Rights, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, says Australia has "not seriously" attempted to extradite people smuggler Abu Quassey, (real name, Mootaz Mohammdad Husan), connected with the SIEV-X, which sank in October 2001, drowning Iraqi and Iranian refugees. (Reported 1 February 2003 in Sydney Morning Herald)

1 February 2003: Splits appear within the European Union about backing for US-led action against Iraq.

US and UK are now holding talks at Camp David, the US presidential retreat, on fresh moves to build UN-international support for their moves against Iraq. There may only be weeks before the US invades Iraq. Meanwhile, Czech Republic's defence minister, Jaroslav Tvrdik, has likened Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler. Germany will not support military action in any circumstances. US has also suggested that Hussein retire into exile as an acceptable move for avoidance of military action, and as promoted by some Arab/Saudi leaders. The exile option might include exemption from prosecution for about 100 of Hussein's top aides. Exile options were discussed in Iraq last December with Hussein's son, Qusay. (Lost Worlds feels that Hussein ought to be brought to book by the UN at The Hague as soon as possible, though how this could be accomplished without bloodshed while the UN is so powerless is the serious question.) (Reported 1 February 2003)

Geneva: Iraq has accused Israel of keeping biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, causing a stir a UN conference on disarmament. (Reported 1 February 2003)

The terrorist group suspected of the Bali bombings had been planning another attack in Indonesia scheduled for late 2002, Indonesian police reveal. This attack had been foiled by the arrest of Imam Samudra and Ali Imron. It is only a few days since Indonesian investigators have for the first time directly linked JI and Abu Bakar Bashir to the Bali bombing which killed 192 people including 88 Australians. Samudra is believed to have been the mastermind of the Bali bombing, while Imron drove the Mitsubishi van containing the main cache of explosives used. Bashir is also now held to have been behind Indonesian church bombings on Christmas Eve, 2000. So far, 29 people have been arrested in connection with the Bali bombing. (Reported 1 February 2003 in Sydney Morning Herald)
For background on Bashir, see the link below:
NB: In June 2002 a senior Al-Qa'ida figure, Omar al-Faruq, claimed that Bashir had authorised him to use Jemaah Islamiah operatives to bomb western embassies as at website ...
http://www.abcasiapacific.com/news/bali_news/insight_3.htm/

Admitted Al-Qa'ida operative, the "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid, has now been sent to jail for life after a dramatic two-hour hearing in Boston which was attended by six of the American Airlines crew who subdued his attempts to blow up their plane on 22 December, 2001. Reid spoke of a broad war against the US, partly due to the deaths of two million children in Iraq. Reid's sentencing is the first successful conviction so far of an Al-Qa'ida operative since 9/11. The sentencing judge, Chief US District Judge William Young, spoke of Reid's "delusional quest to destroy democracy and the United States of America in the name of religion". (Reported 1 February 2003, originally from The Boston Globe)

Hero scorns an admirer: President G. W. Bush admires Nelson Mandela (now 84), the hero of South African politics and human rights, but the compliment is not returned. The White House has now angrily rejected remarks by Mandela, who has called Bush arrogant, and possibly racist due to his willingness to bypass the UN, which currently has a black man as secretary. Mandela also said the US and UK are undermining the UN, that the scenario unfolding about Iraq is a tragedy. He also suggested that the US population should demonstrate against Bush's policies and vote him out of office, and derided Tony Blair as no longer prime minister for Britain but a foreign minister for the US. (Mandela was speaking to International Women's Forum on the theme of Courageous Leadership for Global Transformation.) (Reported 1 February 2003)

Quoted 1 February 2003: "Before I can just stand up and say we need to invade Iraq, I guess I would like to have better information." Former US general Norman Schwarzkopf.

Amsterdam: A Rembrandt self-portrait "hidden for centuries" is now being shown in Amsterdam at Rembrandt Museum after identification as a Rembrandt-signed work of 1634 painted over by one of his students, who reworked the painting as a depiction of a Russian aristocrat. Rembrandt expert Ernst van de Wetering who examined the painting during the 1990s. (Reported 1 February 2003)

Naples, Italy: Italian police have arrested 28 Pakistanis in Naples on unspecified terrorism-related charges. (Reported 31 January 2003)

US after use of satellite spy photos now fears that North Korea is now moving to produce about six nuclear weapons at Yongbyon nuclear facility, which already houses about 8000 nuclear fuel rods. North Korea is reportedly not making any attempt to hide the activities the US complains of. (Reported 31 January 2003)

30 January 2003: Nelson Mandela launches his opinion of US President G. W. Bush onto the world stage: "A president who has no foresight and cannot think properly is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust."

UN chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Hans Blix, delivers his "damning" report, indicating Iraq's failure to comply, refusal to accept disarmament, failure to list weapons stocks. Many still believe that there is a need to give Iraq more time for compliance, presenting a timing problem for those with other plans. NB: Hans Blix is former Swedish foreign minister. (Reported 28 January 2003)

25 January 2003: Headlines read: Bali inquiries uncover murky network of Jemaah Islamiah. Police have been scouring a house in Denpasar where chemicals were used to make the car bomb used for the Bali Bombing last 12 October.

25 January 2003: In UK, police have been cracking down on groups of Islamic radicals, some of whom, US officials believe, may have been planning to lace the food supply of a British military base with the poison, rycin. This however has not been fully confirmed at all.

Australian prime minister John Howard has invoked Australia's alliance with the US as "a primary reason" for sending troops to the Iraq war theatre. Meanwhile, an article in The Weekend Australian suggests, "The UN Security Council is the only body empowered by the UN charter to authorise the use of force against a member state." The Times reports that a Pentagon department is creating a blueprint for a post-Hussein Iraq, termed Operation Provide Comfort, involving seizure of the country's oilfields and weapons stockpiles, military rule of the population, rebuilding of schools, roads and hospitals, and rewriting of the constitution. This new department is headed by retired army Lt-General Jay Garner. (Reported 25 January 2003)

China presents fossil of four-winged dinosaur: Researchers from The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing have discovered fossil remains of six specimens of a four-winged dinosaur which lived in China 130 million years ago. Called Sinornithosaurus, about one metre long, living at Liaoning in northeastern China, it had feathered hind limbs and a long, feather-fringed tail. Its shoulder joints resemble those of flying bird. A co-researcher is Prof. Pat Vickers-Rich, a paleontologist from Monash University, Australia; the Chinese researchers are Xing Xu, Zhong-he Zhou and Richard Prum, writing in a recent issue of Nature. The discovery adds to theories that some birds evolved from tree-dwelling animals.
The Australian newspaper, 23 January 2003.

Deadline lives: Time is nearly up, Bush tells Saddam. France has threatened to veto UN support for a strike against Iraq, while the US might go into Iraq without UN sanction. Russia, China, France, Germany and weapons inspectors in Iraq all call for more time for inspections to continue.
World headlines, 23 January, 2003.

Ridiculous remark of the year already: "As we approach war with Iraq, it's becoming obvious that George W. Bush is really a modern Winston Churchill. He is prepared to ask the tough questions and face the tough threats, which others evade because of intellectual cowardice or wishful thinking. Like Churchill in the 1930s, Bush is immensely unpopular with the chattering classes, while the public is understandably confused."
Greg Sheridan, Foreign Editor of The Australian newspaper, 23 January 2003, p. 9. (Confused, Greg, confused? Who confused? -Ed)

Britain seems agog with claims that up to nine Algerian asylum seekers have been working to set up terrorist cells which will use rycin poison to achieve their aims. (Reported 11 January 2003)

7 January 2003: Indonesia has been unable to find any direct evidence of links between JI and Al-Qa'ida, according to a senior security official in an exclusive interview with The Australian.

7 January 2003: Australian government denies that Australian commandos and intelligence operatives are "already involved in covert operations" ahead of a planned invasion of Iraq.

Elizabeth I's way with words: UK: Queen Elizabeth II is to make public a largely unknown few lines of poetry by Elizabeth I to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Elizabeth 1. Once, probably in the 1570s, the Virgin Queen became annoyed with the jealousy of one of her admirers, Robert Cecil, son of her Treasurer/secretary, William Cecil. She wrote to him: "No crooked leg, nor bleared eye, no part deformed out of kind, nor yet so ugly can be as in the inward suspicious mind." Other artefacts are to be made public for the anniversary. (Reported 7 January 2003)

Orthodoxy or Death or just Eviction at Mount Athos?: Religious feelings are running high about dealings between Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox Church. About 107 dissident - or ultra-Orthodox - monks from Esfigmenou monastery in Greece, by the Aegean Sea, are being evicted by police by a deadline of 28 January. The monastery originated in about the 11th Century and for 30 years now has been flying flags saying "Orthodoxy or Death". Some of the dissidents believe the Pope is the AntiChrist. Mount Athos has 23 monasteries, and is on a peninsula where no women or even female animals are allowed to step. The evictions arise since the Mount Athos administration, the Orthodox Church of Greece, and government at Athens have all become a little impatient. Some of the evictees will probably live as hermits, others are expected to export their zeal to other monasteries. (Reported 7 January 2003)

Iraq: One of the mysteries of Iraq is a religious sect which eludes explanation. It's known as Yazidi, and is seen as eclectic, using ideas drawn from several faiths including Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam. The caliphs of the Ottoman Empire persecuted the Yazidis (who ethnically are Kurds) during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, though their history may extend back to the 13th Century. There are about 300,000 Yazidis in Iraq, though some live elsewhere, in Turkey, Syria, Iran, the Caucasus and Germany. The sect lacks any form of written text. (Reported 4 January 2003)

Amsterdam: Dutch archaeologists have discovered foundations of a wooden watchtower built on the banks of the Rhine River by Roman soldiers, dated about 2000 years ago. The tower, at De Meern, about 35km s/e of Amsterdam, was part of a chain of observation posts along the then-border of the Roman Empire. Chief archaeologist for the project has been Erik Graastal. (Reported 4 January 2003)

Mecca Cola attacks Iconic American Imperialism with fizz: Now bottled in Paris, France, Mecca Cola is a new fizz-drink weapon for a Moslem-led boycott of its enemy, Coca-Cola. Years ago, lawyer Tawfik Mathlouthi, a French radio journalist made his name with Radio Mediterranee in Paris. Now he's put AUD$287,000 into bottling a Coca-Cola taste-alike, and is building his own bottling plant as his drink takes off. Mecca Cola was released only two months ago, but already, sipping it is regarded as a propaganda weapon, an act of protest against US policies. Mathlouthi says he will give 20 percent of his cola's profits to help Palestinian children and to charitable organisations with no connections with terrorists, and that he plans a Moslem Colonel Sanders operation - Halal Fried Chicken (HFC). He'll also probably benefit from ongoing boycotts of many US products in Arab countries. (Reported 2 January 2003)

President Bush has warned that a major attack on the US by Iraq or any other enemy could cripple the US economy. The remarks were not unrelated to his government's attitude to Iraq, while he said he thought that problems with North Korea could be resolved diplomatically.
(Reported 2 January 2003 in Sydney Morning Herald)

Pirates "steal Santa Claus": A Turkish-based Santa Claus Foundation has called on Italy to return the remains of Saint Nicholas, which were stolen by pirates in the eleventh century. The remains are housed at the Saint Nicholas Basilica in Bari, southern Italy, overseen by Rev. Gerardo Cioffari, who says the Turks are interested only in tourism and don't properly venerate Saint Nicholas. (Reported 2 January 2003)

Somewhat sceptical about reports on the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US? Then these websites are for you:
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CRG204A.html/
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/GOF110A.html/

Note: By September 2000: Lost Worlds' had made the following comment:
In too many places around the world, are claims that Moslem separatists want to set up many separate states. Has anyone interviewed these separatists about the following:
(1) What do they want, and why?
(2) What are their theories of sovereignty and of government?
(3) What are their views on the (non-Koranic) rule of law?
(4) Who pays for their food and weaponry?
If the UN is not asking such questions, why not? Also, is the CIA interested at all?

The following question arrived to Lost Worlds via e-mail on 3 June 2002:
Hello, Do you/did you have any premonitions of the 9/11 attacks on the WTC at your website? Here's what I painted:
http://www.september11news.com/Mysteries3.htm/

Best regards,

Charles Burwell (artist)
http://web.wt.net/~anart/index.html/
" I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country. "
--Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US president 1801-1809
" Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power."
--Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), Fascist Dictator of Italy

All very eerie - Ed

Following is an edited extract (partly in order to give you the links) from an article sceptical about official US positions concerning the 11 September 2001 jet-bomb attacks.
Original Message was from Michael C. Ruppert, sent to/from The Wilderness (a US vehicle of opinion) by Thursday 16 May 2002
Subject: The Lie Won't Stand - Copyright Statement Included -- Please Distribute Widely
THE LIE WON'T STAND: Bush Administration Explanations for Pre-9-11 Warnings Fail the Smell Test: Warnings Received From Heads of State, Allied Intelligence Services Specifically Warned of Suicide Attacks by Hijackers - Insider Trading Also Clearly Warned of Attacks - By Michael C. Ruppert - [© Copyright 2002, From The Wilderness Publications, www.copvcia.com. All Rights Reserved.]
See a May 16 story in The New York Times...
Claim is made in Ruppert's story: According to a 14 September 14 2001 report in the Internet newswire online.ie, German police, monitoring the phone calls of a jailed Iranian man, learned the man was telephoning U.S. intelligence agencies last summer to warn of an imminent attack on the World Trade Center in the week of Sept. 9. German officials confirmed the calls to the U.S. government for the story but refused to discuss additional details. And according to a story in Izvestia on 12 Sept., Russian intelligence warned the US last summer that as many as 25 suicide pilots were training for suicide missions involving the crashing of airliners into important targets.
Many other direct warnings were received by the U.S. government and have been documented in FTW's 9-11 timeline located at:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/02_11_02_lucy.html/

Claim also: That in 1996 -- as reported by the German paper Die Welt on 6 December (2001?) and by Agence France Presse on 7 December... - Western intelligence services, including the CIA, learned after arrests in the Philippines that Al-Qa'ida operatives had planned to crash commercial airliners into the Twin Towers. Details of the plan, as reported by a number of American press outlets, were found on a computer seized during the arrests. The plan was called "Operation Bojinka." Details of the plot were disclosed publicly in 1997 in the New York trial of Ramsi Youssef for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
As reported by New York Times, CNN and Washington Post (among others), re ... disclosure of FBI memoranda originated by field agents in Arizona and Minnesota that warned of a possible hijack attempt by bin Laden's followers. In both cases the suspects were taking flight lessons... According to Newsweek and New York Times, FBI agents in Phoenix submitted a classified memorandum in July [2001] naming Osama bin Laden and tracking the activities of possible Middle Eastern terrorist suspects who had enrolled in local flight schools. The memo, according to the Times, stated bin-Laden's followers "could use the schools to train for terror operations."
See views of researchers such as Jared Israel at:
http://www.tenc.net/
Re: INSIDER TRADING: "FTW has spent months on this important story that proves foreknowledge of the attacks by people who also profited from them."
Such insider trading is pointed to by... the placement of large numbers of "put" options on stocks of companies directly affected by the 11 September attacks. They include: United Air Lines, American Air Lines, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, AXA Reinsurance, Munich Reinsurance and Swiss Reinsurance. Put options are a leveraged bet that a stock's price will fall dramatically. As CBS news noted on 26 September 2001, the peak of trading activity occurred just before the attacks. There was a jump in United Air Line's put options 90 times (not 90 percent) above normal between 6-10 September, and 285 times higher-than-average on 6 September... It is uncontested that only United and American stocks had this level of put buying before the attacks. No other airlines were affected.
Note: FTW has undertaken a more detailed investigation of this trading activity and hopes to have a more comprehensive report within 4-6 weeks - say, by the third week of June 2002.
See comments on levels of coincidence, from Dylan Ratigan of Bloomberg Business News, interviewed 20 September on Good Morning Texas. Also from John Kinnucan, principal of Broadband Research, as quoted in San Francisco Chronicle, and Montreal Gazette on 19 September... To quote 60 Minutes from 19 September, "Sources tell CBS News that the afternoon before the attack, alarm bells were sounding over unusual trading in the U.S. stock options market."
For more information on so-called 9-11 insider trading, visit: http://www.copvcia.com/

Brief history of a website: [Item arriving to Lost Worlds by 4 June 2002]
Not long after the 11 September attacks, Tom Flocco in Philadelphia began researching the insider trading alleged in connection... but found publication difficult.
Tom's series was finally published with Mike Ruppert of From the Wilderness (FTW) one of the publications and websites to break through the corporate media fog on the issues. Kyle Hence of Rhode Island read Tom's work and offered to help research the insider trading issues.
Tom and Kyle realized the need for broader cooperation between researchers and investigators in the search for extra truth about the attacks. Kyle began fleshing out ideas for an edited compilation of the finest work on the subject. Frustrated with the unanswered questions surrounding the attacks that were not being addressed by the government or corporate media, they decided to bring together investigators, researchers, and victims and their attorneys for an event at the (US) National Press Club . This event would raise those questions and seek answers and accountability.
Tom then called Catherine Austin Fitts , an investment banker in Hickory Valley, Tennessee. Catherine expressed concern that not only were we not getting answers, but that the response [to the attacks] was harming our (US) national and financial security. Is the War on Terrorism making us less safe in the US and abroad, not more? Are our tax dollars rewarding failure as opposed to investing in safety?

It was necessary to develop a flow of investigation that avoided traditional dead ends... [and since]... there is a growing and powerful free press of news, radio and video that has grown up around the internet ... [can a media free of corporate influence and control shift power back to the forces of democracy?] ...
Catherine knew Miles Thompson, a New Zealand software developer living in New York. Miles' brother, Alastair, is editor of Scoop Media in New Zealand, and has been a leader in publishing MalContentX and other unanswered questions on 11 September. (Miles was one of those who escaped through the dust a few blocks away from the impact zone.)
Miles agreed to lead volunteers to build a website that would create a voice and picture for many unanswered questions flowing in from throughout the world. New Zealanders and some people from Indymedia NYC helped out.
From: Catherine Austin Fitts, Former Assistant Secretary, HUD (1st Bush Administration), President, solari.com
See also:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0202/S00014.htm/
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0206/S00001.htm/
Scoop has also republished articles by Linda Minor: (Whose articles are recommended - Ed)
http://www.scoop.co.nz/archive/scoop/stories/95/ba/200205140937.3dd6ffce.html/
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/6/2/62018.shtml/

Meanwhile, it is not just the SEC and FBI that are still mired in the alleged 11 September profiteering probe. Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Spain have their own investigations running, but as with their US counterparts, nothing has been forthcoming. A rare break in the silence has been the apparent impromptu courtroom outburst of assistant U.S. attorney Kenneth Breen, who recently accused Amr Ibrahim Elgindy, an Egyptian-born stockbroker on trial in San Diego, with knowing in advance about the attacks and capitalizing on 10 September 2001.

[Top of Page]

Stop Press: For late entries

Recent burial of one of Asia's most wanted terrorists, Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi, in The Philippines following an autopsy which established he was probably shot at long range, the official version of reasons for his death. (Reported 18 October 2003, Sydney Morning Herald)

Religious freedom sacrificed on the altar of the state?: A law banning religious clothing from French state schools could have global implications for secularist philosophy, warns Waleed Aly. FOLLOWING the recommendation of a committee of French MPs, French president Jacques Chirac yesterday called for a new law banning conspicuous forms of religious dress in public schools. Not surprisingly, this has met an angry response from French religious leaders; the implications for their congregations are obvious. The significance of the recommendation, however, is counter-intuitive. It has more profound implications for secularism than it does for those it immediately affects. This is because it threatens the paradigmatic foundations of liberal secular thought. To the extent this decision embodies a development in secularist philosophy, it wages war on itself. Secularism appeals to people because it expresses resistance against the authoritarian evil of an ideological dictatorship. It promises a society in which religious and other minorities can live free from repression, not having to conform to and live in accordance with a world view to which they do not subscribe. An inviolable separation was erected between church and state or, more generically, the sacred and the secular. Christianity, once a powerful imperial force in its own right, now rendered such things unto Caesar. Religious communities could practise their respective faiths, but theological jurisprudence would play no conceptual role in government, which was to be freed from the bounds of religious law. lt was a freedom enhancing theory. Chirac's call, however, is the antithesis of this. It denies freedom. It creates an aggressively anti-religious symbolism that says that if religious beliefs are to exist at all, it is best they exist where they cannot be seen. This does not even respect the separation of church and state, much less fortify it. Rather, it represents the annihilation of church by state. The tragic irony of this is that if the proposed ban becomes law, the French parliament risks effectively moulding all people into an artificially created, authoritarian homogeneity. The state will have become publicly hostile to certain modes of religious expression that have no effect on governmental administration. The rhetorical effect of this is the creation of a dominant, governmentally-approved ideology to which one must adhere at points of public intersection. That sounds eerily like the theocracies from which many secularists seek refuge. It does not leave church and state to operate in their respective spheres. Instead, it is in serious danger of replacing the medieval Christian church with a new, secular church. Secularism may well entail that, in pursuit of a free society, government is not encumbered by religious law, but the logical consequence is that secularism must be encumbered by its own philosophical foundations. Chirac threatens to shake these foundations. If secularism moves in this direction globally, it will have become the very oppression it purports to remedy. (Published in The Australian, 19 December 2003, article by Waleed Aly, a Melbourne lawyer on the executive of the Islamic Council of Victoria.)

“The Indonesian president, Megawati Soekarnoputri, joined a standing ovation for her Malaysian counterpart, Mahatir Mohamed, after he called on the Muslims to consider Jews as their enemy, it has been revealed.” All 57 leaders at a Conference of Islamic Nations summit applauded the comments, being from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia etc. (Reported 18 October 2003, Sydney Morning Herald)

Contact via the convenient (and virus-free): e-mail form

1 February 2003: US space shuttle Columbia explodes, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

<p>Theologygate in USA: "Rumsfeld defends holy war general" reads the headline.

The US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has declined to criticise a senior Pentagon intelligence official, Lt-General William "Jerry" Boykin, who has told Christian gatherings that Muslims worship "an idol and not a real God". Boykin apparently sees struggle with Islamic radicals as a fight with Satan by "a Christian nation". Not surprisingly, civil rights group The Council on American-Islamic Relations wants Boykin removed from his post. (Reported Sydney Morning Herald, 18 October 2003)</P>

2003: The Human Genome Project current target date for completion of sequencing of all human DNA. (Item on history of development of research on human genetics.)

View these domain stats begun 18 December 2005