Friday, July 19, 2013

Tony Blair, David Kelly, mosque bombing kills at least 20


Wednesday, the UK's Iraq Inquiry posted the following:

 The Inquiry has today published an update on its progress that Sir John Chilcot sent to the Prime Minister on Monday 15 July.
As the letter explains, the Inquiry has made significant progress with writing its report.  It has begun a dialogue with the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, about material the Inquiry wishes to include in its report covering discussions in Cabinet and Cabinet Committees, Mr Blair's notes to President Bush, and records of discussions between Mr Blair and Mr Brown and Presidents Bush and Obama.
The Inquiry has concluded that it will  be in a position to begin the process of writing to individuals that may be criticised at the end of the month, with letters containing the provisional criticisms to follow at the end of October.  That will be a confidential process.
The Inquiry's final report will be submitted to the Prime Minister as soon as possible after that process is complete and any representations received from individuals have been considered.
The Prime Minister replied to Sir John's letter on 17 July.

The Iraq Inquiry began held public hearings from November 24, 2009 to February 2, 2011 as it attempted to explore how the UK ended up in the Iraq War.  John Chilcot is the Chair of the inquiry. A report was expected some time ago. Of the Blair-Bush letters, The Week notes:

 The letters between Blair and President George W Bush were written in 2002 and are believed to show that Blair was offering to support America if Bush decided to attack Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein long before the Cabinet or the Commons gave their assent to the war. And long before the sexed-up report on Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction and phoney intelligence were found to give the invasion a legal fig-leaf.
Chilcot is still battling to stop the correspondence being kept secret



 Christopher Hope (Telegraph of London) adds, "Sir John also wishes to highlight previously unknown correspondence between Mr Blair and Gordon Brown and other communications with US presidents. The Prime Minister said Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, was aiding the inquiry on releasing this information."  Meanwhile, also on England and the Iraq War, Huffington Post UK reports:
On Friday it was alleged that that the Ministry of Defence banned the new head of the Armed Forces from contributing to a book, which probes the competence of British military performance in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Times reported that officials ordered the suppression of six chapters written by serving generals to appear in British Generals in Blair’s Wars, including one written by the new Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Houghton.

They can cover up their lies, for now at least, they can't cover up how they destroyed Iraq.

Iraqi Spring MC reports that Nouri's SWAT forces have spent the morning forcing Baquba stores to close. Maybe they should have been focused on doing actual work and not terrorizing shop owners?  Iraqi Spring MC reports the Abu Bakr Mosque in Diyala's Wajihiya district was bombed.  Reuters counts 20 dead. NINA counts at least 60 injured.  It's not as though Nouri's SWAT forces contributed nothing however, Iraqi Spring MC notes that they are preventing concerned Iraqis from making blood donations to help the victims of the bombing.

On violence, Kawkeb al-Auwsi (Global Research) explores the targeting of doctors:

 It is not an exaggeration, or scaremongering, to talk about the grave risks to which doctors are exposed by clans and families, especially when committing a medical error and causing the death of the patient.
The predicament facing the medical sector in Iraq needs to be addressed as a whole through a comprehensive study to establish the causes and to put forward recommendations and solutions that would change the chaotic reality to a more satisfactory state of affairs and allow Iraqi citizens feel satisfied and content.
Among the many problems faced by this sector, is the random distribution of newly graduated doctors, irrespective of their personal and social circumstances, instead of appointing them near their homes and families in their cities of origin. This dilemma is faced especially by female doctors in Iraq which is suffering from chaos and lawlessness.



On the topic of doctors, British scientist Dr. David Kelly died ten years ago.  Press TV explores the death in a video report (with text) and David Halpin writes about it at Global Research.


The following community sites -- plus Adam Kokesh, Jody Watley, The Diane Rehm Show, Susan's On the Edge, the ACLU, Chocolate City and Antiwar.com  -- updated last night and this morning:



 We'll close with this from the Center for Constitutional Rights:

 Contact: press@ccrjustice.org
July 18, 2013, New York – Following news reports that the ex-CIA chief in Milan who was convicted in absentia in Italy for his role in the 2003 rendition-to-torture of “Abu Omar” has been detained in Panama, upon the request of the Italian Justice Minister, the Center for Constitutional Rights issues the following statement:
After years of fighting impunity for U.S. torture, the Center for Constitutional Rights welcomes reports that Panama has detained former CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady in response to an international arrest warrant for his role in the “extraordinary rendition” of Abu Omar from Milan to Egypt.  While the United States refuses to investigate or prosecute its own officials for torture and other serious breaches of domestic and international law, other countries like Italy have been willing to place the demands of justice above politics.

U.S. officials who have thus far evaded any accountability for their role in a global torture program should take today’s development as a warning sign. The U.S. must not exert the same pressure to block the extradition of Lady from Panama to Italy to face justice that it put on European countries earlier this month to ground Bolivian president Evo Morales’s plane when it believed whistleblower Edward Snowden could be on board. It is time for an end to impunity and the start of a new chapter of accountability for U.S. officials who committed torture.
 
CCR has sought accountability for U.S. torture under universal jurisdiction in France, Germany, and Canada, and has an ongoing case in Spain. In addition, CCR represented Canadian rendition victim Maher Arar.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.






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