Mar 11, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Hundreds of Zimbabwe's notorious youth militia, nicknamed the "green bombers", are fleeing to South Africa because they say they too are being beaten and starved, and are tired of "killing for nothing"....One youth said he fled Zimbabwe after being forced to take part in the murder of his uncle, a supporter of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)....Yet another said he fled to South Africa after being instructed to murder his father, an MDC supporter....They come from the hundreds of youth militia training camps which have sprung up in Zimbabwe, many at secondary schools where pupils are forced to take part in activities or risk death. [Sunday Independent (South Africa), 3/8/03]
Mar 11, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Senate Republicans say they have moved to within a single vote of guaranteeing President Bush one of his top domestic priorities--opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. [Associated Press, 3/11/03]
Mar 10, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Here is an exchange between ABC's Diane Sawyer and Dan Harris on Saddam Hussein (as transcribed by the Media Research Center) on March 7:Sawyer: "Well Dan, it's very hard to look at those and think of his meetings as a laugh riot exactly over in Baghdad, but I read this morning that he's also said the love that the Iraqis have for him is so much greater than anything Americans feel for their President because he's been loved for 35 years, he says, the whole 35 years."
Harris: "He is one to point out quite frequently that he is part of a historical trend in this country of restoring Iraq to its greatness, its historical greatness. He points out frequently that he was elected with a hundred percent margin recently."
Like Fidel Castro? Observe how Sawyer and Harris chose to quote those particular statements of the dictator Hussein, yet choose not to present other relevant facts (the Iraqi elections were a farce--there was one candidate, who murders his relatives who oposse him, etc.) in the same context.
On Good Morning America Sawyer spoke with Alice Hoglan, a mother of one of the passengers on Flight 93, the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania:
Sawyer: "And as you hear about the prospect of war with Iraq, do you worry that it will distract from a concerted, concentrated approach to the war on terror with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda?"
Hoglan: "I think that President Bush's focus on Iraq is consistent with his focus on the war on terror....His actions are consistent. Iraq harbors criminals, harbors terrorists and represents a threat in its own right. I support President Bush and the others, Senator McCain and the others who have spoken out in favor of removing this despot from power."
Busted.
Mar 9, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Shortly after three o'clock on a hot afternoon 37-year-old Nazif Mamik Tofik, an Iraqi Kurd, approached the border post carrying two five-gallon canisters of fuel. She hoped to cross to the Kurdish-controlled side and sell them for a pound or two, which would help feed her eight hungry children.
As she stepped up to the Iraqi checkpoint, a military policeman suddenly pulled a knife, slashed open the flimsy plastic containers and splashed petrol all over her. Then the head of the Iraqi border guard casually walked up to her, pulled a lighter from his pocket and set her ablaze. Soaked in fuel, she began to burn like a torch. That was on Monday afternoon. Yesterday Nazif lay in Sulaimania emergency hospital, on the Iraqi side, whimpering with pain. She had third degree burns and doctors said she was lucky to be alive....
In a faltering voice, she said: "They said absolutely nothing, just looked at me with hatred. Then they set me alight. My whole body was in flames. I can't describe the pain."
Comments the doctor treating her,
"It will be a month before her skin begins to heal. Only then can we begin the slow, painful process of grafting." [Daily Telegraph, 3/7/03]
So the next time you see an antiwar-monger crying about the "innocents" who might be killed by Saddam when the U.S. overthrows Iraq, think of Nazif Mamik Tofik. [Thanks to Paul Blair for the news sighting.]
Mar 8, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Inside the Baghdad stock exchange's two-story concrete building, investors are upbeat. The benchmark BSI index, which closed at 2,212 on Monday, has gained 31 percent this year, according to data provided by the exchange's research department. The big movers: Baghdad hotels such as the Palestine, the Ishtar and the Sadir. Investors are betting that a quick war, followed by the ouster of President Saddam Hussein, will lead to a surge of visitors and tourists. [Bloomberg News, 3/7/03]
I wonder how the press will spin this? Probably similar to the recent U.S. market upsurge after Bush's recent press address, where the BBC claims "New York shares are up on rumours that soldiers may be close to Osama bin Laden, but war jitters continue to hammer markets elsewhere." The truth, as Richard Salsman has reiterated for the past few years is that the so-called "war-jitters" are bullish. [Thanks to Paul Blair for the news sighting.]
Mar 8, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
In a highly publicized editorial categorized as a "news" profile, BBC NEWS reports on Saddam supporter, actor Martin Sheen:Martin Sheen's President Bartlet is far removed from George W Bush. Bartlet is liberal, idealistic, intellectual and charismatic.
Translation: George W. Bush is a Republican, unprincipled, idiot, who no one really likes probably because he beats up on his mother.
