The Intelligence Community

Bush Conceals Names of U.S. Firms That Paid Kickbacks to Saddam

Saddam Hussein siphoned off $10.1 billion from Iraq's oil-for-food program through illegal oil contracts and kickback deals with private suppliers of food and medicine, a congressional agency said Wednesday.
John Negroponte, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Bush administration can identify the private business firms that cut kickback deals with Saddam Hussein, but intends to keep the names secret.
Capitol Hill Blue

Powell admits Iraq evidence mistake

It is the first time Mr Powell has acknowledged key evidence he used to make the case for war may have been wrong, says the BBC's Jannat Jalil in Washington.
BBC
"One of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on Iraq's biological weapons is the existence of mobile production facilities"
-Colin Powell addressing the UN Security Council on 5 February 2003

Mutilated Foreigners 'Strung Up Like Sheep' in Iraq

Jubilant Iraqis yanked the bodies of four foreign contractors – one a woman, at least one an American – out of their burning cars today, dragged the charred corpses through the streets, and hung two of them from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River.
Elsewhere, five American soldiers died in a roadside bombing nearby on one of the bloodiest days this year for the coalition governing Iraq.
Scotsman
NY Times
AP

Protests as U.S. closes Iraqi paper

The U.S.-led civil administration in Iraq closed the Baghdad newspaper Al Hawsa for 60 days, accusing its publishers of inciting violence against coalition troops. The building was sealed, and anyone caught attempting to publish the paper could face up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
CNN

TIC rally; Crawford protesters call for end to war

At 70, the lifelong military man joined in his first anti-war march, walking solemnly from Tonkawa Park toward the only Crawford intersection with a traffic light. With his left hand, the Austin-area resident carried a front corner of an empty flag-draped casket. The casket, Vee said, represented the more than 560 American soldiers who have died in the war that President Bush ordered one year and one day ago with the allied attack on Iraq.
Nader came to Crawford in search of support and petition signatures in his drive to have his name placed on the state's 2004 presidential ballot. He was not welcomed by several in the crowd who yelled, "Don't run, Ralph." But most received his anti-war, anti-Bush message with enthusiasm.
FW Star Telegram

TIC exclusive; TheIntelligenceCommunity.com presents "The Most Controversial Peace Rally of the Year"

Everybody come to see "The Most Controversial Peace Rally of the Year" with hero's Ralph Nader and Alex Jones this Saturday in Crawford Texas, March 20th, the 1st Anniversary of "The War" aka "The War on Iraq", aka "Operation Iraqi Freedom, (which is all part of a larger "War on Terror" which began with the Invasion of Afganistan, which was officially called "Operation Ending Freedom"....er, oops, sorry, that's "Operation Enduring Freedom"). Festivities begin 4 pm with Ralph Nader and Alex Jones at 7 pm. Also there will be musical guests Shanghai 5 and a performance by The Intelligence Community. That's March 20, 2004, in Crawford Texas, 4 pm to 9 pm!
MAP

Nader plans stop in Bush's hometown of Crawford

From 5-9 p.m., a Dallas-based "performance activist" troupe, The Intelligence Community, will sponsor its own anti-war rally with a different set of musicians and guest speakers.
Lori Theis, former state chairwoman in Oklahoma for Nader's 2000 run for president, now works with The Intelligence Community, which asked Nader to speak at its event. Theis said Nader will speak at the end of the first rally to help segue into the second.
The second rally will culminate with a talk by controversial, Austin-based conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones at 7 p.m.
Reid Robinson, an organizer of the second event, said Jones will discuss the connections of "blood and oil" between the two major party presidential candidates — Bush and Democrat John Kerry.
Robinson vowed the evening rally would prove "a little more radical" than the first.
"We're trying to raise the festival atmosphere," he said, "and make it a rock 'n' roll show for everyone."
Waco Tribune

End of hot meals for U.S. troops in Iraq?

Halliburton has a multibillion-dollar contract to feed and house U.S. troops in Iraq.  But there are problems. A food subcontractor that runs 10 percent of the dining facilities in Iraq claims it hasn’t been paid by Halliburton for months and is threatening to stop serving hot meals.
Monday, Halliburton did not dispute the charges. It says it's auditing all its dining facilities and doing all it can to speed the process.
MSNBC

As U.S. Detains Iraqis, Families Plead for News

Sabrea Kudi cannot find her son. He was taken by American soldiers nearly nine months ago, and there has been no trace of him since. "I'm afraid he's dead," Ms. Kudi said.
Iraq has a new generation of missing men. But instead of ending up in mass graves or at the bottom of the Tigris River, as they often did during the rule of Saddam Hussein, they are detained somewhere in American jails.According to a detainee database maintained by the military, the oldest prisoner is 75, the youngest 11. But the officials acknowledge that most of the people captured are probably not dangerous. Of a recent batch of cases reviewed by military judges, they recommended that 963 of 1,166 detainees be released.
NY Times

Iraq may be slipping into civil war

Rivalry and resentment among Iraq's ethnic and religious groups have become much more pronounced since Saddam's ouster in April. And those tensions are rising as various groups jockey for position with the approaching June 30 deadline for Iraqis to retake power.
The fault lines are emerging for a possible civil war.
Seattle Post