Found your website two weeks ago. I am flattered by your description of my essay on Iranian-American relations, as well as my website. Hope I can improve on both in the future. :-)

warm regards,
Taymaz

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2006-05-08\178.htm )

Trust but verify

There is a campaign on to liquidate the Iraqi professional classes. Again in a civil war or in the lead up to one that’s all too common and I’m not saying the Israelis or the Kurds wouldn’t love to see a weak leaderless broken up Iraq - they would, they’re very closely allied and there are Israelis all over Kurdistan as military “advisers.” - Not for the first time either. Whether they or their Kurdish allies have the assets outside of Kurdistan to mount a campaign like this is another question entirely and one I’d be open minded on. Not that I’d put it past them just I wonder if they have the assets to do it.

(No criticism of griffon here at all for linking to uruknet btw and the story does give a lot of very true info but whenever anybody in the M.E. starts to point fingers I start to wonder why.)

A likely alternative explanation is that most Iraqi scientists and inteligentsia were Ba’athists, (they didn’t get a choice about that join or die or be persecuted and driven into exile was the choice for everyone but the most junior of the junior,) and a lot of people are determined to wipe out the Ba’ath. Sorting out who is whom, why they did what and to whom, and in temporarily expedient alliance with which other faction, frequently makes my head hurt.

Yet another likely explanation is that in a situation where an outside power wants to foment a civil war such as the US did in both San Salvador and Nicaragua or organise a coup such as Chile or Argentina or Venezuala or Bolivia … well one part of ensuring success is to get their local allies to eliminate by murder terror you name it … all potential sources of opposition. Ask Archbishop Romero’s ghost.

Going on past form I know which one of those alternatives I believe is the most likely particularly given who it is who is founding and organising and continuing to fund the death squads just like they’ve done in the past - proving that to a point where you could take it into a court of law is another matter altogether.

and thank you for your kind words on fdl last night/this morning … appreciated!

Here’s confirmation of something that has been suspected for a long time about Iraqi scientists being murdered.
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m23222&hd=0&size=1&l=e

Declan’s post highlights Blair’s subservience to the oil companies by clearly acting as their spokesman.
It also shows the growing worldwide willingness to call America’s bluff. This is in no small part due to the Iraqi Resistance IMHO. The way I read it, they have shamed more than a few people and peoples around the world. Their example in the Mid-East must be enormous.

David Mamet, and others, have likened the US Administration to poker players who bluff and raise continuously. It works fine for a while but doesn’t end happily (for the bluffer). Everyone’s starting to call them including the Chinese as you noted, Mark. (payback for the insults to Hu)
The danger, in my view, is that America has a history of quickly reverting to Plan B if people don’t acquiesce to their demands. And Plan B is chaos. (If they can’t have it, then no one has it. Or under the cover of chaos, they’ll pull something out of the fire).

Siun, if the Raw Story is reasonably accurate, then it will take some time to get the Carriers in position. Plus, there was an intriguing comment on one of the sites linked here by Prof Foland that the B2 bombers would wait till the next New Moon (if history is a guide) which is May 29.

That’s an intriguing observation about possible future sanction against Iran, Mark. I guess most countries are seriously contemplating economic life without the US.