TEL AVIV, Israel Apr 17, 2006 (AP)Ñ After Hamas defended a deadly suicide bombing Monday, Israel’s U.N. ambassador warned that recent statements by the Palestinian government, Iran and Syria “are clear declarations of war, and I urge each and every one of you to listen carefully and take them at face value.”

Ambassador Dan Gillerman cautioned that a new “axis of terror” Iran, Syria and the Hamas-run Palestinian government was sowing the seeds of the first world war of the 21st century.

“A dark cloud is looming above our region, and it is metastasizing as a result of the statements and actions by leaders of Iran, Syria, and the newly elected government of the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
abcnews.go.com

Los Angeles — The Iranian government has intensified efforts to illegally obtain weapons technology from the United States, contracting with dealers across the country for spare parts to maintain its aging American-made air force planes, its missile forces and its alleged nuclear weapons program, according to federal law enforcement authorities.

Over the past two years, arms dealers have exported or attempted to export to Iran experimental aircraft; machines used for measuring the strength of steel, which is critical in the development of nuclear weapons; assembly kits for F-14 Tomcat fighter jets; and a range of components used in missile systems and fighter-jet engines.
sfgate.com

Apr. 18, 2006 (China Knowledge) Ð American private equity firm Carlyle Group has just received permission to acquire 85% of Xugong Construction Machinery Group Inc., China’s largest construction machinery company by revenue.

Carlyle Group will pay US$375 million for the purchase, following the authorization from ChinaÕs Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), to make it the biggest-ever acquisition by a foreign investor of a controlling stake in a leading State-owned enterprise (SOE).

The deal was announced some six months ago but the MOFCOM and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) have been stalling the decision-making since January.

The sale of the company was kicked off by Xugong’s controlling shareholder, the Xuzhou municipal government, in early 2003.
chinaknowledge.com

BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. officials were warned for more than two years that Shiite Muslim militias were infiltrating Iraq’s security forces and taking control of neighborhoods, but they failed to take action to counteract it, Iraqi and American officials said.

Now American officials call the militias the primary security concern in Iraq, blaming them for more civilian deaths than the Sunni Muslim-based insurgency and demanding that the Iraqi government move quickly to stem their influence.

U.S. officials concede that they didn’t act, in part because they were focused on fighting the Sunni-dominated insurgency and on recruiting and training Iraqi security forces.

“Last year, as we worked through the problem set, that (militias) wasn’t a problem set we focused on,” Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the top American military spokesman, said at a recent news briefing.

U.S. inaction gave the militias, with support from Iran, time to become a major force inside and outside the Iraqi government, and American officials acknowledge that dislodging them now would be difficult.

Among U.S. officials’ missteps:

-White House and Pentagon officials ignored a stream of warnings from American intelligence agencies about the mounting danger posed by two Shiite militias, the Badr Organization and the Mahdi Army. The Badr Organization is the armed wing of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the most powerful Shiite political faction in the country; the Mahdi Army is loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

-A group of high-ranking Iraqis appointed in 2004 to persuade militia leaders to disband their groups received no funding and was allowed to wither away.

-U.S. diplomats in Baghdad were slow to recognize that the majority Shiite population’s ascent to political power would expand rather than diminish militia activity. Many believed that the groups’ members would retire or would be integrated into the security forces without significant problems.

-Acting against the Shiite militias would have undercut the administration’s arguments that foreign terrorists and holdovers from Saddam Hussein’s regime were the problem in Iraq. It also would have raised doubts about the administration’s reliance on training largely Shiite security forces to replace U.S. troops in Iraq.
realcities.com

Piece by piece, Halliburton over here, a corrupt company over there, we have heard various individual cases of overcharging and fraud by American firms in the reconstruction of Iraq. Last weekend, a Globe story connected some of the dots of corruption. Of $20.7 billion in Iraqi bank accounts and oil revenues seized by the Coalition Provisional Authority in the US-led invasion of Iraq, $14 billion was given out for reconstruction but tens of millions of dollars were unaccounted for. A year ago, an audit by the inspector general found no evidence of work done or goods delivered on 154 of 198 contracts. Sixty cases of potential swindles are under investigation.

Halliburton and its hundreds of millions of dollars of overcharges or baseless costs are well known. But millions more were taken by companies that promised to build or restore libraries or police facilities, or deliver trucks and construction equipment. Money was given to the puppet government with no follow-up. US government investigators can account for only a third of the $1.5 billion given by the CPA to the interim government and it appears that a substantial portion of the $8 billion given to Iraqi ministries went to ”ghost employees.”

Because of the way the United States set things up after the invasion, contractors are immune from prosecution by Iraqis. And even when firms are prosecuted, the millions of dollars in fines go to the US Treasury, not the Iraqi people. It amounts to two invasions. First the bombs. Then the banks.
boston.com

The United States will soon come up with a draft on creation of three military bases in Turkey, which will acquire the same legal status as the US-Turkish base Ingirlik dating the Cold War era, Turkish daily Gumhuriet said.

Two locations have been already set apart in the seaports of Iskenderun at the Mediterranean and Urla at the Aegean Sea. The third base will probably be situated in the seaport of Mordogan, near Izmir.

As it is the case with Ingirlik, the bases must include Turkish representatives. All issues linked to military facilities will be resolved with the local authorities.
makfax.com

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the world’s most popular assault rifle, says that U.S. soldiers in Iraq are using his invention in preference to their own weapons, proving that his gun is still the best.
news.yahoo.com

The Department of Defense and Vice President Dick Cheney have retained the services of Iran-Contra arms dealer and discredited intelligence asset Manucher Ghorbanifar as their Òman on the ground,Ó in order to report on any interaction and attempts at negotiations between Iranian officials and US ambassador to Iraq, Zelmay Khalilzad, current and former intelligence officials say.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, three intelligence sources identified the Iran-Contra middleman as having been put back on the payroll, acting as a human intelligence asset and monitoring any movement in discussions about IranÕs alleged burgeoning nuclear weapons program.
rawstory.com

AmericaÕs Terror-war in Iraq
…WhatÕs really taking place is that American armed and trained death squads are attacking Sunnis and Shiite alike to facilitate a break-up of Iraq which Pentagon planners and right wing ideologues have sought from the very beginning. The media, of course, is assisting in the disinformation campaign by dumping the Zarqawi fantasy and spinning an entirely new storyline centered on the destruction of the golden-domed mosque. Readers should be sensitive to the reiteration of this theme in nearly every article appearing in the New York Times and the Washington Post; the headwaters of the American propaganda system.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Halliburton Co. shares dipped Friday after the firm reported almost $500 million in first-quarter earnings and more than $5 billion in revenue, as record results at its energy-services operations overcame slowing U.S. military work in Iraq.

…The majority of Halliburton’s sales were attributed to its energy-services group, which brought 35% higher revenue of $2.9 billion as oil companies around the world scramble for supplies in the face of record-high crude prices. Operating income totaled $727 million — a 42% gain.

“Our stellar results in North America are continuing to allow us to invest for the long term in the Middle East as demand for stimulation in drilling services remains robust,” said Halliburton Chairman Dave Lesar during a conference call. “We are not only adding equipment but building infrastructure as well to capitalize on this expected growth.”
marketwatch.com

RESENDE, Brazil (AP) – As Iran faces international pressure over developing the raw material for nuclear weapons, Brazil is quietly preparing to open its own uranium-enrichment center, capable of producing exactly the same fuel.

Brazil – like Iran – has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and Brazil’s constitution bans the military use of nuclear energy.

Also like Iran, Brazil has cloaked key aspects of its nuclear technology in secrecy while insisting the program is for peaceful purposes, claims nuclear weapons experts have debunked.

While Brazil is more cooperative than Iran on international inspections, some worry its new enrichment capability – which eventually will create more fuel than is needed for its two nuclear plants – suggests that South America’s biggest nation may be rethinking its commitment to nonproliferation.

”Brazil is following a path very similar to Iran, but Iran is getting all the attention,” said Marshall Eakin, a Brazil expert at Vanderbilt University. ”In effect, Brazil is benefiting from Iran’s problems.”
newspress.com