Book market fire piles on the misery for broken Baghdad

[DoYouEverWonder]

Book market fire piles on the misery for broken Baghdad

01 November 2003

<snip>

An explosion had torn apart and set on fire the tall houses supported by white pillars on either side of al-Mutanabi Street's book market, where Iraqi intellectuals have shopped for decades.

<snip>

Dr Ghazi, distraught at the sight of the damage, said: "This area is at the heart of Iraqi history and the Iraqi people's struggles. First we lost the museums. Now they are letting Arabs into the country to do things like this." Most people in Baghdad believe that the suicide bombings were the work of al-Qa'ida or the Arab Fedayeen, possibly allied to former Baathists. But they also distinguish between the suicide bombers, whom they contend could not possibly be Iraqi, and the insurgents who attack US troops. It was difficult to find an Iraqi who did not approve of the attack on al-Rashid Hotel because the US is blamed for failing to prevent al-Qa'ida getting into the country.

<snip>

But overall the mood in Iraq is darkening as people fear that they may face years of turmoil, as seen in Lebanon after the beginning of the civil war in 1975. Paul Bremer, the head of the US-run civil administration, which is called the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), says that nobody notices the good things the CPA has done.

This is hardly surprising since America has failed to get a credible local television channel going, possibly because the contract was given to a US contractor with no experience. President Bush even boasted that satellite antennae were sprouting over Baghdad, while failing to notice that the Arab TV channels that viewers regularly watch are deeply hostile to the occupation.


The Iraqis discription of reality sure doesn't match with anything that W & Co have been trying to present has their version of reality in Iraq. A couple of things that really jumped out at me in this story. One, the Iraqis believe that it is the US who has let al Qaeda into their country and that the suicide bombers couldn't possibly be Iraqis.

Second, who the heck is the yahoo who got the contract to get a local TV channel going and didn't even have experience and then failed to get the job done? Time to go googling to find out which FOB (friend of Bu$h) got away with this one.

[Book Lover]

1. One of the first things I was taught

as a beginning bookbinder is that every book is worth saving, every book is worth reading, and to never worry about damaging a book through use, because it could always be repaired. These books can't be repaired. Despite the fact that they were not targeted directly (like, say, a book bonfire), the way I was taught, these books were killed.

This is one unhappy story.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I most note that Iraqis themselves

think there are at least two groups operating in the country,
locals and foreign arabs.

I also most note that this is a tragedy of immense proportions, the kind that will affect teh culture of the country for years to come...and yes burning books is a crime.

[grasswire]

3. here it is

The company that got the contract to run the Iraqi television is SAIC -- the same company that was recently hired to whitewash the Diebold BBV election software scandal.

"The fledgling IMN has taken over Hussein's 18 television stations, his government radio stations and al-Sabah, the 60,000-circulation national newspaper now published on what was the same site of the newspaper founded by Hussein's son Uday. Since this spring, management has been contracted out to Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), a San Diego-based defense contractor with a $40 million-plus budget and no experience in media development. SAIC, in turn, has been overseen in Washington by the Defense Department's office that specializes in psychological warfare operations, or psyops."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A31353-2003Oct28?language=printer

[grasswire]

4. here's more on SAIC in Iraq

And note that David Kay is a former senior VP of SAIC and a major shareholder still.

http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/7-03-03/discussion.cgi.88.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. SAIC, isn't that interesting?

Another one of those no bid contracts I suppose where the company gets to pocket millions of dollars whether they do the job or not.

Thanks for the lead.

[aquart]

5. A contract to set up a tv station?

Did we pay the contractor who failed? How much? How much did he contribute to George?

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. This sure is a tangled web

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/082003Landes/082003landes.html


SAIC is a behemoth military defense contractor with a shadowy, if not tarnished, reputation, while former SAIC executives also have ties to VoteHere. Why is that important? VoteHere is a growing company, which aspires to provide cryptography and computer software security for the electronic election industry.

Former president, chief operating officer, and vice chairman of SAIC is Admiral Bill Owens, who is now Chairman of the Board for VoteHere. Owens also served as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was a senior military assistant to Secretaries of Defense Frank Carlucci and Dick Cheney. Carlucci's company is Carlyle Group, while Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer is Halliburton.

Another former SAIC board member, also on the board of VoteHere, is ex-CIA Director Robert Gates, a veteran of the Iran-Contra scandal.

VoteHere is already benefiting from the Diebold debacle, as it will be partnering with Sequoia Voting Systems, "to provide a new level of electronic ballot verification to customers of the AVC Edge touch screen voting system," according to the VoteHere website.



So the company that gets one of the big no bid contracts in Iraq and fails to deliver is also the same company all tied up with the BFE and their take over of our voting systems in the US. Mmm, somehow I doubt if anyone in the US media will ever notice the connection.

[diamond14]

8. SAIC also has major contracts manipulating everything at the EPA

they're everywhere...because shrub loves their 'expertise' to majorly muck up OUR government....

let's take OUR government back...BOOT BUSH in 2004
http://www.democrats.org

[diamond14]

9. Book Burning (pics) .... the full Iraq pogrom.....

on the Opernplatz in Berlin, Germany, May 10, 1933


Berlin, Germany, May 10, 1933



Hamburg, Germany, May 15, 1933.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Someone in LBN was discussing SAIC recently

in connection to Venezuela.

I grabbed this from google:

A recent investigation into INTESA, and especially into its majority owner SAIC (60%), revealed some information that ought to be quite disturbing to the government of Hugo Chávez.<22> That is, INTESA, which controlled all of PDVSA’s information, is in turn controlled by SAIC, a Fortune 500 company (revenues in 2002: $6.1 billion) that is deeply involved in the U.S. defense industry, particularly as it relates to nuclear technology, defense intelligence, and computing technology. Its managers included two former U.S. Secretaries of Defense (William Perry and Melvin Laird) and two former CIA directors (John Deutch and Robert Gates). Its current Board of Directors includes the former commander of the U.S. Special Forces (Wayne Downing), a former coordinator of the National Security Council (Jasper Welch), and the former director of the National Security Agency (Bobby Ray Inman). Whether or not SAIC was actively involved in the PDVSA strike and whether it passes crucial company information on to other oil companies is unknown. However, the very fact that these connections exist ought to be a cause of great concern to PDVSA and the Venezuelan government. (snip/...)

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1000