World-News

Richard Lardner, of The Associated Press, reports: "ITT Federal Services International, a defense contractor hired to maintain battle gear for US troops in Iraq, repeatedly failed to do the job right. Formal 'letters of concern' were sent to the contractor. Still, the Army didn't fire ITT. Instead, it gave the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based company more work to do. Since October 2004, ITT has been paid $638 million through the Global Maintenance and Supply Services contract."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020408M.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=contractors

http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article16543


Informant: Geraldo Cienmarcos



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blair

CounterPunch
by Robert Fantina

02/03/08

[I]t seems apparent that Mr. Bush expects the people of Iraq to resign their nation to its new status as stepchild to the wealthy American empire, useful only for oil and the cheap labor needed to refine it. He seems to believe, perhaps not incorrectly, that his successor will agree. Unfortunately for the president and whoever follows him into residence in the White House, the Iraqi people have proven themselves unwilling to settle for this second-class standing since the start of his war...

http://counterpunch.org/fantina02022008.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=empire
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Fantina

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/02/6807/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Aaron+Glantz

BAGHDAD is drowning in sewage, thirsty for water and largely powerless, an Iraqi official said today in a grim assessment of services in the capital five years after the US-led invasion.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23155378-5005961,00.html


From Information Clearing House

Three separate but related wars are being waged in this country now, and the third one, against Shiite extremists, is the most worrisome, according to the commander and senior staff of the U.S. Army division patrolling Baghdad.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/02/AR2008020202072.html


From Information Clearing House

By Robert C. Koehler

We've already failed in Iraq, and throughout the Middle East and Central Asia - failed with consequences beyond reckoning. God knows someone will have to take a swig of political courage and acknowledge it one of these days, simply to stop the lie - the lies, a governmental cluster bomb of them - from doing further harm.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19273.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Middle+East
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Central+Asia
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+C.+Koehler

Aijaz Ahmad on Bush's State of the Union address.
http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=899&thisview=item



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=State+of+the+Union
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Aijaz+Ahmad

A lawyer representing nine Iraqi civilians accused British troops on Friday of "off the scale" torture and abuse in Iraq, and Britain's Ministry of Defence said it was re-investigating the case.

http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n132740


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture