WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 — The Bush administration's optimistic statements earlier this year that Iraq's oil wealth, not American taxpayers, would cover most of the cost of rebuilding Iraq were at odds with a bleaker assessment of a government task force secretly established last fall to study Iraq's oil industry, according to public records and government officials.
The task force, which was based at the Pentagon as part of the planning for the war, produced a book-length report that described the Iraqi oil industry as so badly damaged by a decade of trade embargoes that its production capacity had fallen by more than 25 percent, panel members have said.
Despite those findings, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz told Congress during the war that "we are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."
Similarly, Bush administration officials announced earlier this year that Iraq's oil revenues would be $20 billion to $30 billion a year, which added to the impression that the aftermath of the war would place a minimal burden on the United States. Mr. Bremer now estimates that Iraq's total oil revenues from the last half of 2003 to 2005 will amount to $35 billion, running at a rate of about $14 billion a year.
posted on October 5, 2003 09:15:37 AM
Twelve, The New York Times is not yellow journalism.
Yellow journalism is a type of journalism where sensationalism triumphs over factual reporting. This may take such forms as the use of colorful adjectives, exaggeration, a careless lack of fact-checking for the sake of a quick "breaking news" story, or even deliberate falsification of entire incidents.
posted on October 6, 2003 03:26:39 AM
Helen, you should really read your cut and pastes before posting, you of all people here exemplify Yellow Journalism...
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 — The White House has ordered a major reorganization of American efforts to quell violence in Iraq and Afghanistan and to speed the reconstruction of both countries, according to senior administration officials.
The new effort includes the creation of an "Iraq Stabilization Group," which will be run by the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. The decision to create the new group, five months after Mr. Bush declared the end of active combat in Iraq, appears part of an effort to assert more direct White House control over how Washington coordinates its efforts to fight terrorism, develop political structures and encourage economic development in the two countries.
It comes at a time when surveys show Americans are less confident of Mr. Bush's foreign policy skills than at any time since the terrorist attacks two years ago. At the same time, Congress is using President Bush's request for $87 billion to question the administration's failure to anticipate the violence in Iraq and the obstacles to reconstruction.
On the ground, the Coalition Provisional Authority, charged with actually running Iraq until the Iraqis can take over, is the source of increasing ridicule. “CPA stands for the Condescending and Patronizing Americans,” a Baghdad diplomat told a NEWSWEEK reporter. “So there they are, sitting in their palace: 800 people, 17 of whom speak Arabic, one is an expert on Iraq. Living in this cocoon. Writing papers. It’s absurd,” says one dissident Pentagon official. He exaggerates, but not by much. Most of the senior civilian staff are not technical experts but diplomats, Republican appointees, White House staffers and the like.
Some astute foreign observers think that time is running out. “We are losing the consent of the Iraqi people,” warned John Sawers, British Prime
Minister Tony Blair’s emissary in Baghdad. “We have until Ramadan [Oct. 27-Nov. 25] to turn it around,” Sawers told American officials in Washington two weeks ago. “After that it will be too late.” At least one old Middle East hand is a pessimist. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak recently passed a message to Rumsfeld. It ran roughly: “There’s a 5 percent chance you get Saddam tomorrow, the energy goes out of the resistance and things get dramatically better. There’s a 5 percent chance a car bomb takes out the entire Governing Council, and things go to hell. In between those, it will get better over time, or worse over time. Right now, I say it’s twice as likely that it gets worse.” It’s not known how Rumsfeld responded.
As the Bush administration faces increasing pressure to improve the situation in Iraq, the scramble for contracts is likely to intensify. William Tucker, who served as a White House counsel for President Reagan, recently traveled to Baghdad on behalf of several clients, making use of his longtime friendship with Peter McPherson, another former Reagan staffer, who is the authority's top official in charge of overseeing the Iraqi economy. Companies without connections in the region -- or at the Pentagon -- simply can't hope to compete, says Tucker. "They don't have a clue."
posted on October 6, 2003 09:42:03 PMYellow journalism is a type of journalism where sensationalism triumphs over factual reporting. This may take such forms as the use of colorful adjectives, exaggeration, a careless lack of fact-checking for the sake of a quick "breaking news" story, or even deliberate falsification of entire incidents.
Yea....twelve....just like the New York Times has been doing this past year. All those reports and top honchos being fired for not telling the truth, making up stories, saying they interview people when they hadn't. All those corrections they put on page 16 a month after making a 'mis-statement'.
"Today, Abu Ghraib's political prisoners are giving witness to the apparatus of repression under former president Saddam Hussein. The survivors are providing detailed, firsthand testimony, one at a time, about the system's capricious barbarism. A more complete historical accounting is likely to take years. The prospect of trials, both for the country's onetime leadership and its functionaries, remains distant."
"Among survivors, there is a strong desire that the pain of Abu Ghraib not be forgotten. They want a new legal system to exact retribution, and they want the lessons of the past to be etched into memory as a guarantee of Iraq's future freedom."
posted on October 6, 2003 10:10:20 PM
Hey helen - read this link....see how some areas of Iraq are doing very well. Be on your countries side....be happy for OUR successes in Iraq.....be on our soldiers side they're giving it their all.
"Oct. 04, 2003
Success story in Iraq
In Kirkuk, U.S. soldiers make things happen
By Ken Dilanian
Inquirer Staff Writer
Monte Massey playfully scoops up 12-year-old Ahmed Ali after he got in the way of a soccer match between Iraqi police and U.S. soldiers in Kirkuk.
KIRKUK, Iraq - When they realized that the newly trained local police force desperately needed walkie-talkies, the U.S. troops who patrol Iraq's fourth-largest city didn't wait for civilian bureaucrats to buy them, as have their Baghdad counterparts.
The soldiers in Kirkuk found a dealer and ordered the radios with their emergency funds. They did the same with weapons, vehicles and office furniture.
Today, while many once-looted police stations in Baghdad remain sparsely furnished shells, the ones in Kirkuk, which also were gutted, are freshly painted and sparkling with renovations - including air conditioners, exercise equipment and cafeterias. And while police in the capital struggle with shortages, Kirkuk's force is among the best equipped in the country.
"Security was our top priority, so we couldn't wait," said Col. William Mayville, commander of the 173d Airborne Brigade, the main ground force in Kirkuk. "We're a couple of chapters ahead of the rest of Iraq on a lot of this stuff."
Kirkuk, a multiethnic city of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Assyrians that is 150 miles north of the capital, may be the U.S. military's greatest Iraq success story. Attacks on soldiers are unusual, violent crime is low, and Iraqis have worked with Americans to restore basic services to prewar levels.
posted on October 7, 2003 03:10:15 AM
Linda “be on our soldiers side they're giving it their all”
Like I’ve said before,
YOU LINDA, and some others, of the logically impaired type, are confusing the possible integrity of a soldier with the integrity or lack thereof of those that deploy him!
IF
FOR EXAMPLE:
Assuming we all agree that Hitler was ‘evil’ (it seems to be a term you are keen to embrace)
Does it logically follow that ALL German Soldiers were evil???
IF
Assuming we all agree that Bush has been proven to be a self serving liar & who has proven in the past to be a coward also (ie. when he was called for military service), does it naturally follow that all American troops are self serving cowards too????
OR
Should we NOT judge all Americans by Bush’s standards (or lack thereof) in these cases???
YOU, Linda, insult your own troops by judging them by Bush’s standards (or lack thereof).
You demand many Answers Linda but are yet to explain why Bush chose Kissinger above all other Americans to investigate the truth behind 9/11.
You are also, yet to show me evidence that YOU have NOT concealed WOMD somewhere in Texas;
either that or admit that it’s an impossible ask! LOL
posted on October 7, 2003 06:40:46 AM Iraq Stabilization
Several Clinton administration officials have called on Bush to take the civilian re-construction job away from the Pentagon. The Department of Defense is not qualified to manage such a job.
James Steinberg, deputy national security adviser to President Bill Clinton, said the administration should have given substantial roles to more parts of the government from the beginning of the occupation.
"One of the flaws has been that they basically turned the whole thing over to the Pentagon, when the expertise for political and civil reconstruction resides in the State Department", said Steinberg, the Brookings Institution's director of foreign policy studies. "It was a curious decision".
The Pentagon has always resisted taking on stabilization work and has always seen that as not the military's job.
I wonder why it took George so long to accept this good advice?
posted on October 7, 2003 08:56:03 AM
“What is your problem with Kissinger?
Why should any American explain anything to you?
As a non citizen you are not worthy of any explanations at all... only the crumbs we deem to throw you. “
“you are just some damn nosy anti-american”
As a moral and concerned human I had no choice 1”; My Nose was Pulled In!
1”Pole
You are a Nazi through and through.
Is it true that 72% of serial murderers vote Republican???
Haven’t you heard about Kissinger and the US covert war on Cambodia, which was instigated as nothing more than a public relations exercise to demonstrate a ‘genuine’ alignment with Sth Vietnam.
Or do you think the ‘killing fields’ was a fictitious left wing propaganda ploy too???
Do you think the world will sit back forever while the American PNAC powers that be rape and pillage at free will?
So much concern for the deaths of a mere 3000 on 11/9/01 (the only country in the world with its dates backward) while US hands have been the primary instigators of so many more death that 11/9 is pale in significance.
My comments are not an attack on all Americans only the ones that support a murderous regime such as yours!
Let me repeat your statement:
“Why should any American explain anything to you?”
You don’t need to say that; the world can see that is how you and your representatives feel.
Self serving arrogance.
You are to stupid to see that your nation’s wealth was built on the exploitation of the oppressed and slaves in particular and those same people are still doing your dirty work, not by choice, but duress.
Now your leaders withdraw the prospect of education for these same people and only offer it if they let the military into their children’s young impressionable minds.
Do you know that many nations not only don’t want your GM food, they don’t want your blood or plasma either.
Do you know why; work it out you schmuck!
I also learnt today that a schmuck is the discarded part after a circumcision.
Do you know that 5000 children a year are abducted in Uganda by the extreme Christian group LRA (something like that) Lords Republican Army.
The truth is that you don’t care because it’s not on your home ground.
Every dog has it’s day!
So lather up toy boy.
So much concern for a rag/flag and none for human life.
I have seen actual footage of a ‘certain’ American ‘interest group’ demonstrating on the streets on your turf,
And their call cry???
”Sex Before Eight Or It’s Too Late”
So I suppose you are all in support of American Free Speech but not Anti-Evil-Americans Free Speech!!
It’s clear to me 1” that you have the IQ of a wombat or are doing a damn fine job impersonating one.
An extreme Nationalist Nazi and there are many like you, don’t get me wrong, we have some here too, but they don’t have PNAC resources.
Did I hurt your feelings??
Tough $hit!
This issue is too important to be concerned about pampering your egotistical delusions of grandure!
Your nation is not superior!
It has more military, there is a difference!!
Here is an image to warm the cockles of your nationalistic heart.
Take pride!!!!!!!!
"I saw the bombs. I saw the fire. There was a terrible heat," Kim remembers. "I tore off my burning clothes. But the burning didn't stop. People poured water over me from their canteens. Then I fainted."
She received hundreds of letter from American Vietnam veterans "apologising to me."
It’s refreshing to see that in spite of McCarthyism, many Americans still have a brain of their own and integrity.
Who cares, these aren’t Americans!
Zaire, November 1996 Movie of Dead Babies Being Thrown Into a Dump Truck
This child was born in Iraq in the years since the Gulf War, when over three hundred tons of highly toxic depleted uranium were fired in weapons at Iraq. While there is no direct evidence (or research for that matter) linking depleted uranium exposure with such birth defects, doctors in Iraq report a tenfold increase in certain kinds of birth defects (including webbed or fused fingers and toes, missing eyes and vital organs, and severe brain damage) since the end of the war--and many US Gulf War Veterans have parented children with similar birth defects. Picture courtesy of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's Campaign against Depleted Uranium.
No need to feel any guilt 1”; others are doing it too!
http://users.rcn.com/danmk/du.html
posted on October 7, 2003 04:38:30 PM
Yeah right there yellow kid... speechless...
When anti-american decides he wants to talk about Australia... I will be happy to join in... until such time... he is just another anti-american not worth the sweat off my sack....
AIN'T LIFE GRAND...
posted on October 7, 2003 06:36:31 PMCome to think of it, you even expressed the belief that the deaths of American Men as a result of the attack by Israel on The USS Cole was deserved.
You are one sad sack....
Isreal did not attack the USS Cole... but then again your anti-semitism speaks volumes there eh Adolph...
Zaire, November 1996 Movie of Dead Babies Being Thrown Into a Dump Truck
