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76. Joe Conason, "The Bush Pardons," http://archive.salon.com/news/col/cona/2001/02/27/pardons/.
77. Bosch cited in Cockburn.
78. Blum.
79. A limited field investigation documented 824 civilian deaths caused
by the U.S.-led bombing campaign (www.globalexchange.org/countries/afghanistan/apogreport.pdf).
A more comprehensive investigation based on press reports estimated that
U.S. bombs killed between 3100 and 3600 Afghan civilians (Marc Herold,
"U.S. bombing and Afghan civilian deaths: The official neglect of
unworthy bodies," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research,
Sept. 2002, pp. 626-634; also see: http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mwherold).
Many more died because the bombing cut off relief supplies.
80. Seymour Hersh, "The Other War: Why Bush's Afghanistan problem won't
go away," New Yorker, April 12, 2004.
81. Bush cited in Barry Horstmann, "We cannot wait for a mushroom
cloud," Cincinnati Post, Oct. 8, 2002.
82. For a review of the manipulation of evidence, see Sheldon Rampton
and John Stauber, Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in
Bush's War on Iraq (JP Tarcher, July 2003). The broader purposes of the
U.S. invasion of Iraq were advanced in a policy paper, Rebuilding
America's Defenses, published by the Project for a New American Century
in September 2000. PNAC members Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul
Wolfowitz, and Richard Perle, became key members of the incoming Bush
Administration and the paper became a blueprint for the administration's
aggressive foreign policy. The authors declared: "The United States has
for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional
security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate
justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the
Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein." The paper
can be found at: www.newamericancentury.org.
83. An Associated Press research team surveyed the records of 60 Iraqi
hospitals (less than half the total number) and found unambiguous
evidence of at least 3,240 war-related civilian deaths (Niko Price,
"First Tally Puts Iraqi Civilian Deaths at 3240," Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, June 10, 2003). A careful survey of press reports
indicated that between 9,137 and 10,994 Iraqi civilians had been killed
as of mid-May 2004 (www.iraqbodycount.net).
84. Unnamed senior Bush Administration official cited in "Pentagon
Expects Long-Term Access to Key Iraq Bases," New York Times, April 20,
2003.
85. Pressure to convert Iraq into a base for U.S. troops presumably
increased after it became clear that the U.S. military would have to
leave Saudi Arabia (see David Rennie, "America to Withdraw Troops from
Saudi Arabia," Telegraph, April 30, 2003). For a discussion of the
strategic importance of oil reserves in Iraq and the rest of the Middle
East, see Michael Klare, Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global
Conflict (New York: Henry Holt, 2001).
86. Kareem Fahim, "Recalling Ahmed Chalabi," Village voice, April 9-15,
2003; John Cassidy, "Beneath the sand: Can a shattered country be
rebuilt with oil?" New Yorker, July 14, 2003. Chalabi cited in "In Iraqi
War Scenario, Oil is a Key Issue," Washington Post, Sept. 15, 2002.
Although Chalabi continues to favor privatization of the oil industry,
U.S. officials abandoned the idea of privatizatino in the oil sphere, at
least for now, so as not to fan anti-American sentiments (Chip Cummins,
"State-run oil company is being weighed for Iraq," Wall Street Journal,
Jan. 7, 2004).
87. Powell cited in The Economist, April 5, 2003, For an analysis of the
results of other instances of "regime change" initiated by the U.S., see
William Blum, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since
World War II (Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1995).
88. Sabrina Tavernise, "U.S. Tells Iraq Oil Ministers Not to Act Without
Its OK," New York Times, April 30, 2003; "To the victor go the spoils in
Iraq Reconstruction," Reuters, April 15, 2003; "The Oil Spoils," The
Nation, June 16, 2003.
89. Edward Wong, "Direct Election of Iraq Assembly Pushed by Cleric,"
New York Times, Jan. 12, 2004; Steven Weisman, "Bush Team Revising
Planning for Iraqi Self-Rule," New York times, Jan. 13, 2004. Bremer
cited in Booth and Chandrasekaran, "Occupation Forces Halting Elections
Throughout Iraq," Washington Post, June 28, 2003.
90. Seymour Hersh, "Torture at Abu Ghraib," New Yorker, May 10, 2004.
Prisoners held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and in Guantanamo,
Cuba were treated in similar fashion, indicating systemic practices of
torture and abuse approved at the highest levels (Seymour Hersh, "The
Gray Zone," New Yorker, May 24, 2004.)
91. Ashcroft continued: "[W]e will help make that freedom permanent by
assisting them to establish an equitable criminal justice system based
on the rule of law and standards of basic human rights." One of the team
selected by Ashcroft, Lane McCotter, had been forced to resign as
director of Utah prisons after a prisoner abuse scandal. He was assigned
to rehabilitate Hussein's infamous Abu Ghraib prison, which soon gained
renewed notoriety in American hands (Fox Butterfield, "Mistreatment of
Prisoners is Called Routine in U.S.," New York times, May 8, 2004).
92. Alex Gourevitch, "Exporting Censorship to Iraq," American Prospect,
Oct. 1, 2003; Amnesty International, Iraq: One Year on the Human Rights
Situation Remains dire (web.amnesty.org)
93. Bush cited in "U.S. Attributes Explosion at Iraqi Mosque to
Bomb-Making Activity," New York Times, July 3. 2003.
94. BBC News, "Picture Emerges of Falluja Siege," April 23, 2004 (www.bbc.co.uk).
95. Unnamed American soldier quoted in David Rhode, "Search for Guns in
Iraq and Surprise Under a Robe," New York times, June 3, 2003.
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