by John Hilary
British trade officials admit that the ‘development agenda’ has little relevance to their real work. Responding to a strong steer from lobby groups such as the Confederation of British Industry, the driving impulse is to achieve new market access for British business through the increased liberalisation of the manufacturing, industrial and services sectors of the developing world. The UK has by its own admission been at the forefront of the campaign to open up developing country markets in these sectors. The Labour Party’s manifesto statement that “We do not believe poor countries should be forced to liberalise” rings hollow in the face of this reality.

The UK is by no means alone in dancing to a corporate tune. All other G8 countries base their policies on the wishes of their corporate lobby groups, many of which also band together in international federations such as the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue and International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), not to mention regional groupings such as the European Services Forum and UNICE, the EU employers’ federation. In addition to their regular lobbying of G8 country representatives, the ICC has the special privilege of making a formal presentation to every G8 summit. Lest there be any doubt, it has identified the WTO trade negotiations as its top priority for the coming year.

The G8’s paramount concern is control of the global economy for the benefit of its corporate sponsors. This control is maintained on a day-to-day basis through the institutions listed above, but ultimately it rests on military domination and the demonisation of opposition forces. The so-called ‘war against terror’ was explicitly linked to the G8’s economic agenda following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, when delegates attending the WTO’s Doha Ministerial Conference were told that opposition to a new round of trade liberalisation would be interpreted as support for terrorism. The security cordon thrown round Gleneagles is no more than a symbol of the military power which sustains the capitalist adventure worldwide.
Full: counterpunch.org

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – A U.S. general on Thursday blamed Iraq’s recent spike in bloodshed on a terrorist leader condoning the killing of fellow Muslims, while a suicide car bomber rammed into a truck in Baghdad, killing at least eight police officers and wounding 25 others.

The U.S. military also reported that five Marines and a sailor were killed Wednesday near the volatile western city of Ramadi.

Separately, Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez was charged with murder Wednesday in the deaths last week of two Army officers at a base north of Baghdad, the military said Thursday.

The military initially attributed the June 7 killings of the officers – Capt. Phillip T. Esposito 30, of Suffern, N.Y., and 1st Lt. Louis E. Allen, 34, of Milford, Pa. – to an insurgent mortar attack near Tikrit but said further investigation showed the blast pattern was inconsistent with such an attack.

Jordanian-born terrorist leader Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi’s hope to provoke sectarian war suffered a setback Thursday when the Shiite-led parliament and leaders of the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, which is thought to provide the backbone of the insurgency, agreed on a process for drafting Iraq’s constitution.

Elsewhere, dozens of hooded insurgents surrounded a downtown mosque in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, to prevent a meeting of local politicians and tribal leaders on the country’s new charter and reconciliation efforts.

“We told them to leave Iraq’s issues for us, we are the only ones who can liberate Iraq by fighting infidels and not by holding conferences. And instead of spending money for this conference, they have to give it to us to buy weapons to help our fighting against the Americans,” a masked man told Iraqi reporters outside the empty mosque.

U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Don Alston took aim at al-Zarqawi, saying the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq is most responsible for the nearly 1,100 violent deaths since the Shiite-led government took office seven weeks ago.

“With Zarqawi’s push recently, we certainly see the fantastic rise in the number of civilians killed, given that he has proclaimed that taking out civilians is an acceptable thing,” said Alston, spokesman for the U.S.-led international military force in Iraq.

Last month, an audiotape said to be from al-Zarqawi denounced the country’s majority Shiites as collaborators with the Americans and said it was justified for Muslims to kill such people even if they are Muslims.

Alston’s focus on al-Zarqawi, whose small group is blamed for many of the bloodiest attacks and hostage takings in Iraq, apparently was aimed at reinforcing growing dissatisfaction among Iraqis over insurgents targeting civilians. He said that anger has brought an increase in calls to tip lines.

“We are getting reports that cells in his network are concerned about the consequences of this behavior and a consequence of what it has done to the Iraqi people,” Alston said. “The Iraqi people are increasingly exposing the insurgency. This is not a popular insurgency.”
Full: guardian.co.uk

Gee Zarqawi is doing the Americans so much good he ought to be working for them. O wait…he probably is.

There have been dinners with Brad and Jennifer and drinks with Tom Hanks and Cameron Diaz. So far, so routine for a rock star on a mission.
But the sharpest advice Bono received on how to win American hearts and minds around to his crusade on Africa came from an altogether less expected source: the legendary stock market investor Warren Buffett.

The Irish rock star, who has arguably done more than any other to ensure that the cause of Africa gets on to the agenda of the US administration, has stepped up his lobbying while on U2’s Vertigo tour in the US over the last two months to increase the pressure in the run-up to the G8 summit next month in Gleneagles.

Earlier this week he told the Guardian in Cologne how advice from Buffett, reportedly the second richest man in America, had shaped his strategy: “Warren Buffett told me, ‘Don’t appeal to the conscience of America, appeal to its greatness, and I think you’ll get the job done’.”
Others enlisted in Bono’s crusade have included the media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the former Republican senator Jesse Helms, and figures on the religious right such as Pat Robertson and Billy Graham. The rock star described in his only newspaper interview before next month’s G8 summit how he has shared a laugh with President Bush, whom he describes as “very funny”.

He has not been afraid to use his Christian faith to appeal to the American religious right, dining with Billy Graham and his son Franklin, and quoting Gospel verses to Jesse Helms, which reduced the 83-year-old Republican to tears.
Full: guardian.co.uk

WASHINGTON, June 15 – Celeste Zappala, whose son died in Iraq, visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday to demand “a very quick exit strategy.” Her timing was perfect.

With opinion polls showing a drop in support for the war, and a British memo asserting that the Bush administration had intended to go to war as early as the summer of 2002, the words “exit strategy” are being uttered by both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

The flurry began over the weekend, when Representative Walter B. Jones of North Carolina, a conservative Republican, called for the Bush administration to set specific goals for leaving Iraq. That came from the man who was once so upset about French opposition to the war that he insisted that House cafeterias change the name “French fries” to “freedom fries.”

But it does not end there.

Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, has introduced in the Senate a measure similar to the nonbinding resolution that Mr. Jones is offering. In the House, the International Relations Committee last week voted overwhelmingly, 32 to 9, to call on the White House to develop and submit a plan to Congress for establishing a stable government and military in Iraq that would “permit a decreased U.S. presence” there.

On Thursday, Representative John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat, will convene a forum on the so-called Downing Street Memo, a leaked document that appeared to suggest the White House had made a decision to go to war in the summer of 2002. Next week, Representative Rahm Emanuel, an Illinois Democrat, is planning to read on the House floor the names of approximately 1,700 Americans who have died in the war.
Full: nytimes.com

It is far too late to be talking ‘exit strategy.’

Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, took the Senate floor yesterday and likened American servicemen to Nazis:

“When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here [at Guantanamo Bay]–I almost hesitate to put them in the [Congressional] Record, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:

On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. . . . On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.

If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime–Pol Pot or others–that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.”

We are fighting an enemy that murdered 3,000 innocent people on American soil 3 1/2 years ago and would murder millions more if given the chance–and according to Dick Durbin, our soldiers are the Nazis.
Full: wall street journal

No, the soldiers are taking orders from the Nazis.

WASHINGTON, June 15 – Celeste Zappala, whose son died in Iraq, visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday to demand “a very quick exit strategy.” Her timing was perfect.

With opinion polls showing a drop in support for the war, and a British memo asserting that the Bush administration had intended to go to war as early as the summer of 2002, the words “exit strategy” are being uttered by both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

The flurry began over the weekend, when Representative Walter B. Jones of North Carolina, a conservative Republican, called for the Bush administration to set specific goals for leaving Iraq. That came from the man who was once so upset about French opposition to the war that he insisted that House cafeterias change the name “French fries” to “freedom fries.”

But it does not end there.

Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, has introduced in the Senate a measure similar to the nonbinding resolution that Mr. Jones is offering. In the House, the International Relations Committee last week voted overwhelmingly, 32 to 9, to call on the White House to develop and submit a plan to Congress for establishing a stable government and military in Iraq that would “permit a decreased U.S. presence” there.

On Thursday, Representative John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat, will convene a forum on the so-called Downing Street Memo, a leaked document that appeared to suggest the White House had made a decision to go to war in the summer of 2002. Next week, Representative Rahm Emanuel, an Illinois Democrat, is planning to read on the House floor the names of approximately 1,700 Americans who have died in the war.

Though most Republicans are steering clear of the exit strategy discussion, a handful are joining in. One, Representative Ron Paul of Texas, a longtime opponent of the war, has signed onto Mr. Jones’s resolution and will join him in meeting reporters on Thursday. Another, Representative Howard Coble of North Carolina, is considering it.
Full: nytimes.com

LONDON – The G7 finance ministers agreed Saturday to write off the debt of 18 of the poorest countries, but firm prescriptions of privatization hovered over the debt relief offer.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven of the world’s leading industrialized nations — United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany and Italy (the G8, minus Russia) — agreed to write off 100 percent of the debt of 18 of the poorest countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. That will amount to debt cancellation of about two billion dollars a year.

Campaigners focusing on debt relief welcomed the move. But the finance ministers’ agreement contains a provision on privatization that has the potential to deliver to them more money than they wrote off.

The ministers reaffirmed in a statement at the end of their two-day meeting Saturday that “in order to make progress on social and economic development, it is essential that developing countries put in place the policies for economic growth.” Among these, they must “boost private sector development, and attract investment,” and ensure “the elimination of impediments to private investment, both domestic and foreign.”
Full: commondreams.org

But of course. This is the devil’s bargain.
(more…)

The committee probing the U.N. oil-for-food program announced Tuesday it will again investigate Secretary-General Kofi Annan after an e-mail suggested he may have known more than he claimed about a multimillion-dollar U.N. contract awarded to the company that employed his son.

The e-mail describes a brief encounter in which officials from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspections S.A. discussed its bid for the contract during a summit in Paris in late 1998. Through his spokesman, Annan said he had no recollection of such a meeting.

If accurate, the e-mailed memo would contradict a major finding the Independent Inquiry Committee made in March – that there wasn’t enough evidence to show that Annan knew about efforts by Cotecna, which employed his son Kojo, to win the Iraq oil-for-food contract.

In a statement, the Independent Inquiry Committee said it was “urgently reviewing” the memo.

“Does this raise a question? Sure,” said Reid Morden, executive director of the probe.
Full: daileycomet.com

Well the Independent Inquiry Committee said it so it must be true. Are these the same guys who tried to sandbag Galloway? There is a very funny and damning picture that accompanies this article, showing Annan and Chirac in a conspiratorial tete-a-tete.

Washington, DC, Jun. 13 (UPI) — Insider notes from United Press International for June 8

A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Former chief economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush’s first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is “bogus” and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7. Reynolds, who also served as director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas and is now professor emeritus at Texas A&M University said, “If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an ‘inside job’ and a government attack on America would be compelling.” Reynolds commented from his Texas A&M office, “It is hard to exaggerate the importance of a scientific debate over the cause of the collapse of the twin towers and building 7. If the official wisdom on the collapses is wrong, as I believe it is, then policy based on such erroneous engineering analysis is not likely to be correct either. The government’s collapse theory is highly vulnerable on its own terms. Only professional demolition appears to account for the full range of facts associated with the collapse of the three buildings.”

Two years after President George W. Bush proclaimed “mission accomplished” in Iraq, some thoughtful officers are beginning to question who the insurgents actually are. In a recent interview the head of the US 42nd Infantry Division which covers key trouble spots, including Baquba and Samarra Major General Joseph Taluto said he could understand why some ordinary Iraqis would take up arms against U.S. forces because “they’re offended by our presence.” Taluto added, “If a good, honest person feels having all these Humvees driving on the road, having us moving people out of the way, having us patrol the streets, having car bombs going off, you can understand how they could (want to fight us). There is a sense of a good resistance, or an accepted resistance. They say ‘okay, if you shoot a coalition soldier, that’s okay, it’s not a bad thing but you shouldn’t kill other Iraqis.'” Taluto insisted however that the other foreign forces would not be driven out of Iraq by violence, observing, “If the goal is to have the coalition leave, attacking them isn’t the way,” he said. “The way to make it happen is to enter the political process cooperate and the coalition will be less aggressive and less visible and eventually it’ll go away.” Taluto’s comments are sure to raise hackles at the Pentagon, which insist that all insurgents are either Baathists or al-Qaida. Taluto observed that “99.9 per cent” of those captured fighting the U.S. were Iraqis.

Full: washingtontimes.com

All of this sudden candor from the extreme right-wing is FREAKING ME OUT.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin sparked uproar yesterday by saying Africans had a history of CANNIBALISM.

He lashed out at the continent’s past after being challenged about his human rights’ record.

In an astonishing outburst, Mr Putin said: “We all know that African countries used to have a tradition of eating their own adversaries.

“We don’t have such a tradition or process or culture and I believe the comparison between Africa and Russia is not quite just.”

Tony Blair, who had just finished talks with Mr Putin, was left squirming with embarrassment as the former KGB boss let rip.

Minutes before the outburst, Mr Blair had hailed reaching a deal with the Russian leader on aid and debt relief for Africa.

But Mr Putin’s remarks about cannibalism will be greeted with astonishment in Africa and the wider world, as he will succeed the PM as G8 president next year.

Commission for Racial Equality chief Trevor Phillips said last night: “What a preposterous thing to say. He is at best insensitive and at worst a downright racist.”

Mr Putin had invited Mr Blair to his country residence for talks about the Prime Minister’s drive to wipe out third world poverty before next month’s G8 summit at Gleneagles.

The pair struck a deal after Mr Blair agreed to Mr Putin’s demands that aid was linked to Africa’s move towards democracy.

Earlier Mr Blair made a grovelling public apology for being the only senior world leader to miss a gathering to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Moscow last month.

He sent Deputy PM John Prescott instead.

Without prompting, Mr Blair said sorry yesterday and paid tribute to the “courage, dedication and heroism” of the Russian people.
Full: thesun.co.uk

It takes a racist to know one. Look at the Brits acting all superior while they have ‘raised’ racist discourse into a subtle art form. It was the indelicacy of Putin’s ‘astonishing [read crazy Russian] outburst’ that offended them.