[PDF file]: Useful idiot The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq Emma Sky Atlantic Books: 2015, £18.99, h/b D efeated armies often console themselves by constructing a ‘stab in the back’ myth. The war was going well, victory was in sight, but the politicians back home let the troops down. Most famously, the German […]
[PDF file]: Asil Nadir: another victim of the arms-to- Iraq conspiracy? Andrew Rosthorn A sil Nadir was sentenced to 10 years in prison on 23 August 2012, for stealing £29 million from his company and from its North Cyprus subsidiary Uni-Pac. Soon after Justice Minister Chris Grayling rejected Nadir’s request for a transfer from a British […]
[…] Blair backed him, but the issue was particularly contentious if only because two persons, including a civil servant, were simultaneously being tried for leaks associated with the Iraq war. Leaking is a political act and the operational leaking appeared to be directed by one part of government at the expense of operational efficiency by […]
[…] the Near East for decades and are organized by the BIS in practically all states. For example, the BIS residents prepared and distributed two anti-government brochures in Iraq in 1966. The BIS residency in Baghdad received much help from the BIS in Beirut where the skilled master of such operations, Peter Lunn, with the […]
[…] of the Arabian American Oil Company. At the time (pre-Suez) Britain successfully forced a Saudi withdrawal. The British wanted the oil reserves to be exploited by the Iraq Petroleum Company, a UK-dominated concern. 2 When events started up again in 1958 it was not only after Suez but also after the April 1957 Defence […]
[…] syndrome’ – run stories of doubtful merit if other news outlets are doing the same. Of this last he gives the example of Alton, editor of the Iraq war-supporting Observer being in the habit of ‘speaking on Saturday afternoon to Michael Williams, the deputy editor of his supposed competitor, The Independent on Sunday, to […]
[…] self-styled leaders for ways of dealing with racism and fascism. Almost inevitably, these were not working class or socialist but organised around the mosque. The war in Iraq has served as a further catalyst to this process. As with the Northern Ireland example, the ‘war on terror’ has not created the coercive state but […]
[…] a US president tries to advocate a contrary view. Thus, for instance, attempts to resolve the occupation of the Golan Heights are invariably ignored, delayed or wrecked. Iraq Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the book deals with the 2003 invasion of Iraq which, the authors argue, was triggered by intense Israeli lobbying of […]
A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the abuse of America’s intelligence agencies James Bamford, New York: Doubleday, 2004, h/back, $26.95 Ghost Wars: The Secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001 Steve Coll New York: Penguin, 2004, h/back, $29.95 These books cover some […]
[…] bomb containing VX nerve agent, the most potent chemical weapon in the US CW armoury. The bomb was dropped on elements of the Republican Guard in Southern Iraq, I was informed. Heavy casualties resulted. The operation, directed by the Central Intelligence Agency, was a counter-strike, following an Iraqi Scud that fell on Israel. The […]
