We began taking out assets at least six months before war was declared

[BigBearJohn]

"Approximately 100 US and British planes flew from Kuwait into Iraqi airspace," Scahill writes. "At least seven types of aircraft were part of this massive operation, including US F-15 Strike Eagles and Royal Air Force Tornado ground-attack planes. They dropped precision-guided munitions on Saddam Hussein's major western air-defense facility, clearing the path for Special Forces helicopters that lay in wait in Jordan. Earlier attacks had been carried out against Iraqi command and control centers, radar detection systems, Revolutionary Guard units, communication centers and mobile air-defense systems. The Pentagon's goal was clear: Destroy Iraq's ability to resist."

Why aren't we talking about this? As Scahill points out, this was a month before the Congressional vote, and two before the UN resolution. Supposedly part of enforcing "no fly zones," the bombings were actually systematic assaults on Iraq's capacity to defend itself. The US had never declared war. Bush had no authorization, not even a fig leaf. He was simply attacking another nation because he'd decided to do so. This preemptive war preempted our own Congress, as well as international law.

I don't think most Americans know these prewar attacks ever happened, aside from those who've read Scahill's recent piece, or heard him on Democracy Now. I recall no mainline media coverage at the time, and little in the alternative press. The bombings that destroyed Iraq's air defenses were under the radar for both the American media and public.

If coverage of the Downing St memo continues to increase, I suspect the administration will try to dismiss it as mere diplomatic talk, just inside baseball. But they weren't just manipulating intelligence so they could attack no matter how Saddam Hussein responded. They weren't only bribing would-be allies into participation. They were fighting a war they'd planned long before. They just didn't bother to tell the American public.

SOURCE: http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/06/con05204.html

[realFedUp]

1. Find out when the state dept. made business agreements

to rebuild Iraq. Contracts were signed in Oct. 2002.

[libertypirate]

Contracts for Gitmo were before that

No. 386-02
5 p.m. ET July 26, 2002
http://www.defense.gov/contracts/2002/c07262002_ct386-02.html

Brown & Root Services, a division of Kellogg Brown & Root, Arlington, Va., was awarded today a $16,000,000 task order under a previously awarded cost reimbursement, indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity construction contract for construction of a 408-unit detention camp at the Radio Range area of U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Units will be of modular steel construction. Each unit measures 6 feet 8 inches by 8 feet and includes a bed, a toilet, and a hand basin with running water. Work will be performed in Guantanamo Bay and is to be completed by April 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The basic contract was competitively procured with 44 proposals solicited, three offers were received, and award was made on June 29, 2000. The total contract amount is not to exceed $300,000,000, which includes the base period and four option years. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005).


and....
No. 386-02
5 p.m. ET July 26, 2002
http://www.dod.mil/contracts/2002/c07262002_ct386-02.html

Brown & Root Services, A Division of Kellogg Brown & Root, Arlington, Va., is being awarded $9,700,000 for Task Order 0019 under a cost-reimbursement, indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity construction contract for construction of a 204 unit Detention Camp, Phase III, located on the windward side of the Naval Station, at the Radio Range area of U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Units will be of modular steel construction. Each unit measures approximately 6 feet 8 inches by 8 feet and includes a bed, a toilet, and a hand basin with running water. Work will be performed in Guantanamo Bay and is to be completed by October 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The basic contract was competitively procured with 44 proposals solicited, three offers received and award made on June 29, 2000. The total contract amount is not to exceed $300,000,000, which includes the base period and four option years. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005).

There are more documents of other contracts awarded for other services. This was on Randi Rhodes yesterday.

[realFedUp]

4. The MSM should definitely investigate those contracts.

and thanks to Randi for bringing those up.

[LightningFlash]

5. Yeah- Actually Corporate Whore Network would love to do it...

Considering investigating the contracts lets them do some real Clinton Bashing, everyone's favorite corporate sport!!!! :crazy: :rofl: :rofl:

[libertypirate]

8. The MSM is a joke investigations will have to come from the people

[LightningFlash]

2. Bombing Iraq before it was legal....

Thats a big naughty no no.....Illegal obstruction of justice by a far-out neoliberal. :crazy:

[whistle]

3. Didn't Mussolini do that with Libya and Ethiopia....

...prior to the start of WWII?

<snip>
HOW MUSSOLINI WON THE WAR
By Giovanni Spinella

The following AH can only be put in the category as it’s predicated on one central divergence: Benito Mussolini having a moment of clarity and suddenly seeing himself and Italy in 1935 for what it really was, as opposed to what he wanted to see. From this divergence, I traced an AH that I feel could have happened. I’ve embellished it somewhat, and I’ve added a few details that would have been remote at best, but not entirely implausible. Discovery of oil in Libya was as much a matter of luck as anything else. Mussolini was counting on Italians in South America to populate the enlarged Italian colonial empire. Once this didn’t occur and another source of manpower presented itself, it wouldn’t have been an impossible for events to go the way I’ve depicted them. Likewise the Regime in Italy did have a few (very few) valid men and there were capable administrators and functionaries that emerged despite the Fascists’ best efforts. Fascism itself was by no means a monolithic reality, but contained within itself a myriad of positions that went from reactionary nationalism to out and out communism: structuring these internal diversions into a more formal framework wouldn’t have been unheard of, and reflects the divisions and internal structure the Italian Christian Democrats gave themselves a few years later.

Finally, as for the war itself, with Italy initially neutral, Germany would have been in a better position to take on the Soviet Union, without having to open a half-dozen additional fronts for the Wehrmacht. Likewise, once Italy entered on the side of the Allies, having a semi-decent (as opposed to OTL laughable) military power on their side, and in a decisive strategic position, would have allowed the Allies to end the war that much sooner and probably helped most of Eastern Europe to avoid the long night of Soviet domination.

In the end this is Alternate History, more plausible then some, more unlikely then most, and predicated on one event, on one person who would have had to have been someone other then the small-minded and small-spirited despot he really was.

<more>
<link> http://www.changingthetimes.co.uk/samples/ww2/how_mussolini_won_the_war.htm

It's all a fantasy and that is what George Bush's legacy in Iraq will be....a fantasy.:rofl:

[cthrumatrix]

6. there is enough here to request a "full blown investigation"... we were

lied to.

[murielkane]

7. Some people knew about it by December 2002

http://www.ccmep.org/2002_articles/Iraq/120402_britain_and_us_step_up_bombing_i.htm

Britain and US step up bombing in Iraq

Ministry of Defence reveals 300% rise in ordnance dropped over southern no-fly zone

Richard Norton-Taylor
Wednesday December 4, 2002
The Guardian

The total amount of bombs dropped by British and American aircraft on targets in southern Iraq has increased dramatically over the past few months, in a clear indication that the no-fly zone is being used to destroy the country's air defence systems in anticipation of an all-out attack. Ordnance dropped on southern Iraq in response to threats has increased by 300% since March this year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Defence today in response to questions from the Liberal Democrat spokesman on foreign affairs, Menzies Campbell.

<snip>

Whitehall officials have admitted privately that the "no-fly" patrols, conducted by RAF and US aircraft from bases in Kuwait, are designed to weaken Iraq's air defence systems and have nothing to do with their stated original purpose of defending the marsh Arabs and the Sh'ia population of southern Iraq.

"The figures require further explanation. It appears that there has been a marked increase in the destructive power of the bombs dropped while the number of recorded threats has remained about the same", Mr Campbell said yesterday.

He added: "The inference is that these operations have little to do with humanitarian purposes but are being carried out to soften up Iraq air defence systems. There must be a risk that escalation of this kind could provoke wider military action at a time when the inspectors still appear to be able to carry out their work."

[Tsiyu]

9. kick

:kick:

[Karenina]

10. Again.

:kick: