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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (41686)	4/13/2005 1:32:41 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Taking Names And Kicking Ass In Mosul Damn! I loved reading this story about our troops in Iraq. It seems they are applying a good old fashioned “whoop-ass” to insurgents in Mosul. What better way to fight the ignorant raghead ######## than to let loose a few former Brooklyn gang members on their pointy little towel-wrapped heads .... MOSUL, Iraq—From inside a vacant building, Sgt. 1st Class Domingo Ruiz watched through a rifle scope as three cars stopped on the other side of the road. A man carrying a machine gun got out and began to transfer weapons into the trunk of one of the cars. “Take him down,” Ruiz told a sniper. The sniper fired his powerful M-14 rifle and the man’s head exploded, several American soldiers recalled. As he fell, more soldiers opened fire, killing at least one other insurgent. After the ambush, the Americans scooped up a piece of skull and took it back to their base as evidence of the successful mission. The March 12 attack—swift and brutally violent—bore the hallmarks of operations that have made Ruiz, 39, a former Brooklyn gang member, renowned among U.S. troops in Mosul and, in many ways, a symbol of the optimism that has pervaded the military since Iraq’s Jan. 30 elections. Insurgent attacks in this northern Iraqi city, which numbered more than 100 a week in mid-November, have declined by almost half, according to the military. Indirect attacks—generally involving mortars or rockets—on U.S. bases fell from more than 200 a month in December to fewer than 10 in March. Although figures vary from region to region, attacks also have declined precipitously in other parts of Iraq, creating a growing belief among U.S. commanders that the insurgency is losing potency. Aawwwwwww (wiping an itty-bitty tear from my eye). I’m so proud of our troops. I’m glad somebody in a brass hat decided to turn loose the home-boys on the ragheads. Now the insurgents are starting to get the point .... mess wid us and we’ll pop a cap in your ass, Ahmed! Word up! Note: The liberal, pussified Washington Post referred to out troops no less than four times in the article as “ruthless”. Yeah? You got a problem wid dat? “Cry Havoc! Let slip the hounds of war!" -- Shakespeare, “Henry V"

To: American Spirit who wrote (41686)	4/13/2005 3:14:43 PM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Rightwingers only read the propaganda bs put out specifically to keep them aggressively ignorant of reality. They only listen to the Lush Limpbutts, Heil Hannitys, SludgeDrudges and assorted fake Christian evangelical warmongering charlatans. This way, they can get all riled up and over emotional about how other people are making their lives miserable. Meanwhile, the true merchants of misery, the rightwing fascists, giggle all the way to the bank. Why are rightwingers so unerringly stupid?

To: American Spirit who wrote (41686)	4/20/2005 11:15:45 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

AP: Oil-For-Food Investigators Resign By DESMOND O. BUTLER and NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writers UNITED NATIONS _ - Two senior investigators with the committee probing corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program have resigned in protest, saying they believe a report that cleared Kofi Annan of meddling in the $64 billion operation was too soft on the secretary-general, a panel member confirmed Wednesday. The investigators felt the Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, played down findings critical of Annan when it released an interim report in late March related to his son, said Mark Pieth, one of three leaders of the committee. "You follow a trail and you want to see people pick it up," Pieth told The Associated Press, referring to the two top investigators who left. The committee "told the story" that the investigators presented, "but we made different conclusions than they would have." The investigators were identified as Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan. Parton, as the senior investigative counsel for oil-for-food, had a wide purview. He was responsible for investigations into the procurement of companies under the oil-for-food program and he was the lead investigator on issues pertaining to allegations of impropriety relating to the secretary-general and his son Kojo Annan. Duncan worked on Parton's team. Parton, a lawyer and former FBI agent who has worked on a hostage-rescue team abroad, confirmed to AP on Wednesday that he resigned a week ago, but he declined further comment. Duncan did not respond to telephone and e-mail messages left at the Rockefeller Family Fund, where she is a member of the board. She is a granddaughter of billionaire David Rockefeller. The committee's interim report last month faulted Annan's management of the oil-for-food program, which was set up to help ordinary Iraqis cope with crippling U.N. sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein's regime after his 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The report also said Annan didn't properly investigate possible conflicts of interest surrounding a U.N. contract awarded to the Swiss employer of Kojo Annan. The investigators criticized Kofi Annan for refusing to push his top advisers further after they conducted a hasty, 24-hour investigation relating to his son and found nothing wrong. But the interim report cleared the secretary-general of trying to influence the awarding of the $10 million-a-year Swiss contract and said he didn't violate U.N. rules. Annan said the report exonerated him — something Pieth denied at the time — and the secretary-general said he had no plans to resign. The investigation into Kojo Annan continues. Volcker has promised to deliver a final oil-for-food investigation report in mid-summer. The oil-for-food scandal has been among a series of problems that have plagued the United Nations in recent months. U.N. peacekeepers have also been accused of sexual misconduct in Congo and other missions, while the former U.N. refugee chief was accused of sexual harassment. Annan's spokesman Fred Eckhard said the resignations were an internal committee matter and refused to comment. U.N. officials have repeatedly said the report speaks for itself. A spokeswoman at Volcker's committee, who would speak only on condition of anonymity, said the resignations came after the investigators had completed the work they signed on to do. Pieth acknowledged disagreements within the committee about how to interpret the evidence on Annan, but he denied investigators were censored. He also praised the work of Duncan and Parton. "I have high esteem for both Robert and Miranda," Pieth said. "It's not a bad parting. I think they are very capable people." Pieth added, however, that he believed the two investigators got "personally very involved" in the probe and so grew upset. "Again, this is the nature of things," he said. The inquiry committee has more than 70 investigators probing all aspects of oil-for-food, and Duncan and Parton were two of its most senior investigators. The investigators report their findings to the three committee members — Volcker, Pieth and former Yugoslav war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone — who then make conclusions. Pieth said the committee had deliberately created an atmosphere where investigators felt comfortable dissenting with others. "I am also quite happy that there are people who dare to speak their mind because that is one of the problems with the U.N. — that you have these guys nodding their heads," Pieth said. "We reproached the secretary-general that he was satisfied with his top guys, who told him after 24 hours that everything was fine," he added, referring to the internal probe of Kofi Annan. "It's not a good thing to have these guys who only say what you want to hear." The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, let the Iraqi government sell limited — and eventually unlimited — amounts of oil primarily to buy humanitarian goods. But Saddam's government had authority to decide who would have the right to purchase oil and it is believed to have extracted kickbacks ranging from an estimated $9 billion to $21 billion. yahoo.com*http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050421/ap_on_re_us/oil_for_food_investigation