"The U.S. Controls 'Soveriegn' Iraq,"
The Wisdom Fund, June 8, 2004
"Iraq Election: Fraud, Favor and 'Democracy',"
The Wisdom Fund, December 9, 2005
Patrick Cockburn, "Iraq
is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold," Independent, May 2, 2006
Aaron Glantz, "Don't
Believe the Handover Hype," antiwar.com, May 23, 2006
[But Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador, played a crucial role in getting
rid of the last duly elected prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari. His
officials do not conceal that the envoy has been what The New York Times
described as "a tireless midwife in the birthing of the new government".
That is hardly the sign of a sovereign and independent Iraqi
administration.--Patrick Cockburn, "
Which is the real Iraq?," Independent, May 23, 2006]
[It is a puppet government nothing more or less. I don't think it is going
to accomplish anything different than the previous one. All they are
receiving They are on the receiving end of orders from the unexpected visits
by Condoleezza Rice, Jack Straw previously, and to orders from Bush and
Blair.
. . . voicing any issue against the occupation in Iraq is targeted. We have
the academics being targeted, we have hundreds of our scientists being
killed, academics, lectures, professors, whoever. Journalists we have the
biggest campaign of killing journalists
. . . continuing what we heard from Madeline Albright, before that when Iraq
was under sanctions, when 500,000 children were killed or died because, as a
consequence of the harsh sanctions on Iraqi people. 500,000 children were
killed and she said that the price was worth it.
. . . we have to make it clear that the withdrawal that Tony Blair's talking
about, or Bush, is different about the withdrawal we're talking about. I am
talking about the complete withdrawal of troops. That doesn't mean they go
around and build bases, American bases in Iraq which they are doing at the
moment. There are more than 14 bases building. And there is the biggest
embassy in the world. And no signing of long-term binding agreements, not on
behalf of Iraqi people but on behalf of these interim governments or the
puppet governments at the moment. This is second. Third - there should be a
compensation for all the crimes being committed against Iraqi people,
whether in life or the destruction of the country.--"Haifa Zangana Interview," Dateline (Australia), May 24, 2006]
[Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi . . . emerged as one of the most aggressive
proponents of the Bush administration's economic agenda for Iraq, including
the implementation of controversial corporate globalization rules and
greater U.S. corporate access to Iraq's oil.
U.S. oil companies, including Chevron and ExxonMobil, have been working with
the Iraqi government and marketing Iraqi oil since the occupation began. Now
that the full-term Iraqi government has formed, they will be in a perfect
position to sign lucrative contracts if the Petroleum Law is enacted. But,
they will need security to get to work. What better security force is there
than 100,000 American soldiers?--Antonia Juhasz, "Bush's Ace in the Hole in Iraq?," Huffington Post, May
23, 2006]
Lt. Gen. William E. Odom, "Why America Must Get
Out of Iraq Now," Foreign Policy, May/June 2006
[ . . . the Interior Ministry and the job of national security adviser were
given to Shiites, and the Defense Ministry went to a Sunni.--Omar Fekeiki,
"Iraqi Parliament Selects Top Security Ministers,"
Washington Post, June 8, 2006]
Rupert Cornwell, "Iraqi
PM given five minutes' notice of Bush's flying visit,"
Associated Press, June 14, 2006
Dahr Jamail, "'Operation Forward
Together': Deeper Into the Quagmire," truthout.org, June 19, 2006
[Imagine the president of the United States flying to Russia, China,
England, France or just about any other nation on the planet, landing at an
airport on supposedly sovereign territory, being driven under heavy U.S.
military protection to the U.S. Embassy, and then with some five minutes
notification, summoning the highest elected official of that nation to the
U.S. Embassy for a meeting. It would never happen, unless of course the
nation in question is Iraq, where Iraqi sovereignty continues to be hyped as
a reality when in fact it is as fictitious as any fairy tale ever penned by
the Brothers Grimm. For all of the talk of a free Iraq, the fact is Iraq
remains very much an occupied nation where the United States (and its ever
decreasing "coalition of the willing") gets to call all the shots.--Scott
Ritter, "Three Iraq Myths
That Won't Quit," AlterNet, June 26, 2006]
[A man who was inserted into his position after Jack Straw and Condoleezza
Rice visited Baghdad in order to brush Jaafari, the prime minister chosen by
the supposedly-elected Iraqi parliament, aside. Do we need any clearer
evidence of who pulls the strings of Maliki? . . .
Juhasz added that if there isn't massive change in Iraq soon, all of the US
imposed economic contracts (25-40 year contracts), will effectively
eviscerate what is left of the demolished Iraqi economy. In two months, laws
will be passed by the puppet government, and six months after this the
contracts of the Western companies, (read "Big Oil") will be implemented. .
. .
She added that the permanent military bases in Iraq are to be used for
providing security for the oil companies.--Dahr Jamail, "An Iraqi Withdrawal
From Iraq," truthout.org, June 28, 2006]
[Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, has asked for a long-term US military
presence in Iraq, saying his country needs two permanent US air bases to
deter what he calls foreign interference.--"Talabani backs long-term US presence," AFP, September
25, 2006]
Guy Dinmore, "US
twists civilian arms to fill Fortress Baghdad," Financial Times, January
7, 2007
[But under the rules that govern private security contractors here, the
Iraqis do not have the legal authority to do so.--Sabrina Tavernise, "Blackwater
Banned by Iraq Over Shootings," New York Times, September 18, 2007]