DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER

U.S. contracting firm accused of bilking millions and running wild in Iraq:

Custer Battles security guards have also been accused of firing at unarmed civilians. They have been accused of crushing a car filled with Iraqi children and adults.

http://cbsnewyork.com/national/WildContractor

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Jaafari's Government Falling Apart, Already
Friday, April 29, 2005

I didn't find a SINGLE news item in any of the mainstream media about what happened in Iraq two days ago.

Not a single news item about it!

The Sunni Arabs Front, that includes both The National Front and The National Dialogue Council, announced their withdrawal from the Government, just few hours after Jaafari finished his "partial" announcement. Jafari's partial announcement didn't declare 7 of the most important positions: oil minister, defense minister, electricity minister, industry minister, human rights minister, and two vice-prime-ministers. Other Sunni Iraqis, like the PM Mishaan Al-Juburi the head of The Reconciliation and Liberation party, asked the rest of the Sunni Arabs to withdraw from Jaafari's government.

The story behind the mass Sunni withdrawal from the government is that Sunni Arabs had a clear deal with Jaafari about announcing a national political agenda before announcing the government, including "very important" points like asking the occupation forces to schedule their withdrawal from Iraq. Jaafari decided to announce the government with what seems to be a side agreement with Ghazi Al-Yawer alone.

Sheikh Ghazi Mash'al Ujail Al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab with no party affiliation and the head of the Iraqiyun List, appears to be the last Sunni in the government now. Al-Yawer seems to be trying to fill the Sunni Arabs gap himself [insert a mean comment about his big body here]. In his official statements Al-Yawer said that Sunni Arab leaders may pull out from the new government if they aren't given more cabinet seats, and then he called for quick completion of the formation of the new Iraqi government and to appoint two Arab Sunni ministers in the ministries of defense and human rights who remained unoccupied in the new formation. Elyawer expressed his hope that this will be made within the two coming days.

Clearly the Sunni Arab Iraqis now are not a part of Jaafari's government.

I don't know whether this Sunni withdrawal would be just another nail in the coffin of the US project in Iraq, or a coup de grâce.

http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2005/04/jaafaris-government-falling-apart.html

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Ex-UN envoy:
U.S. feared discovery of prison abuse
By Deborah HoranTribune staff reporter
04/29/05 "Chicago Tribune"

- - Cherif Bassiouni, the DePaul University law professor who last week lost his post as UN human-rights investigator in Afghanistan, said Thursday he believed the U.S. pushed him out to hide abuses in American-run prisons in the country and the possible transfer there of as many as 200 prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"They have two groups of people they want to hide--the people in Afghan prisons and the people they transfer from Guantanamo," Bassiouni said in an interview. "The bigger exposure is the transfer of about 200 people from Guantanamo.

"Bassiouni said he had heard reports the U.S. plans to transfer prisoners to Afghanistan from Guantanamo before opening the prison in Cuba to international inspectors.

He called the move part of a "well-known game" that governments around the world use to ease prison conditions and hide torture victims before allowing human-rights inspectors into facilities.

"The U.S. can say, `Oh, we released them,'" Bassiouni said. "Where? They'll probably fudge on the answers.."

Got word via e-mail.

Bassiouni, who took up his post in April 2004, was informed last Friday via e-mail that his two-year mandate would not be renewed. The e-mail came the same day that he submitted a 24-page report that criticized the United States and other countries for not allowing him and other inspectors into coalition forces' facilities.

On Friday, the 53-member United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted the recommendations outlined in Bassiouni's report.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8704.htm
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0504290198apr29,1,2834109.story?

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From the Song Ve Valley to Abu Ghraib::

That first investigation found that "a total 18 soldiers committed crimes, including murder and assault but no one was ever charged" according to the Blade, even though as the newspaper determined, Rumsfeld's office was sent a copy of the report.

http://www.thisisrumorcontrol.org/node/2133

http://www.thisisrumorcontrol.org/node/1762

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Defense Department Invokes Geneva Conventions to Withhold Torture
PhotosApril 29, 2005
NEW YORK -- In a federal court brief filed late last night, the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the government’s claim that turning over photographic evidence of detainee abuse in Iraq would violate the Geneva Conventions.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: media@aclu.org

CIA Improperly Refusing to Confirm or Deny Existence of Documents Reported in the Media, ACLU Says

"Until now, this administration has shown only contempt for the Geneva Conventions, and it has built its policies dismissing the application of international humanitarian law," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "It's simply astounding that the Defense Department has now invoked the Geneva Conventions to suppress evidence that prisoners have been abused. The government cannot cloak its attempts to protect itself from public embarrassment in a newfound concern for the Geneva Conventions.

"Through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the ACLU and the New York Civil Liberties Union have sought the release of photographs and videotapes, in addition to documents, that would shed light on the systemic abuse of detainees held by the United States overseas. The Defense Department has refused to turn over photographic evidence, stating that to do so would violate the government's obligations under the Geneva Conventions.

In its reply brief, the ACLU argued that the release of photographs would not infringe the personal privacy of the detainees depicted if all identifying details were redacted. The ACLU also submitted declarations from leading international law experts stating that releasing the photographs would be consistent with the Geneva Conventions. One expert noted that photography exposing inhumane conditions at German and Japanese concentration camps played a powerful role in the historical development of the Geneva Conventions themselves.

The ACLU also questioned the sincerity of the government's commitment to the Geneva Conventions, pointing to previous declarations from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that the Conventions do not apply to detainees held at Guantánamo Bay or in Afghanistan. Recently, the ACLU obtained a memo signed by Lieutenant General Ricardo A. Sanchez authorizing 29 interrogation techniques for use in Iraq, including several techniques that the group says clearly violate the Geneva Conventions. Among other things, the Sanchez memo allowed interrogators to use military dogs "to exploit Arab fears" and to subject detainees to painful stress positions and extended isolation.

"The Geneva Conventions were intended to protect prisoners, not to provide governments with a basis for withholding evidence that prisoners have been maltreated," said ACLU attorney Jameel Jaffer. "It's disgraceful that the Defense Department is attempting to contort the Conventions in this way.

"The ACLU also charged in its brief that: >>>continued"

http://www.aclu.org/news/NewsPrint.cfm?ID=18156&c=206

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N-Korea calls President Bush a 'hooligan’:

North Korea today called US President George W Bush a "hooligan" and said it expected no solution of the international standoff over its nuclear programme during the Bush administration.

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=45889