Hello James Thank so much for your support and your courage to speak your mind on this post.

Hello Friends I am still getting nres wires about this war from sources around the world. Here is one of them from Consortium News. I highly Recommend Consortium for honest and thourogh reporting. I have never seen an organization that compares here as for as investigative reporting goes. You may want to sign up for their news alerts yourself. It is a free service and their sole means of support is through the contributions of their readers. That is why they are so unbiased. Sincerly Bill Vanderbilt ---------------------------------------------Iraq War Critics Emerge Too Late As the United States mourns the 2,000th American death in the Iraq War, more and more politicians and pundits who supported the invasion are having second thoughts. But should those doubts have been expressed earlier, when public opposition might have helped the nation avoid a disastrous war? Have these "repositionists" really learned any lessons? October 26, 2005 We Need Your Help! Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to keep this decade-old Web site alive. Donations can be made either online or by mail. For contributions of $100 or more, we'll send you an autographed copy of Robert Parry's Secrecy & Privilege or another book as a thank-you gift. On Syria, the NYT Still Doesn't Get It The New York Times isn't applying lessons learned from the bogus case for war with Iraq to the looming crisis with Syria. Rather than taking a skeptical look at allegations of Syrian complicity in the murder of Lebanon's ex-prime minister, the newspaper's editorial page is making assumptions about "meticulous" facts that may not be supported by the evidence. October 25, 2005 On Syria, the NYT Still Doesn't Get It By Robert Parry October 25, 2005 It’s finally dawning on the New York Times how thoroughly it was spun on the fictions about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, but the “newspaper of record” is showing the same credulity about the emerging Syrian crisis. “Some deeply troubling facts about the murder of Rafik Hariri, Lebanon’s former prime minister, have now been established by a tough and meticulous United Nations investigation,” the Times wrote in an Oct. 25 editorial demanding punishment for top Syrian and Lebanese officials supposedly implicated by the report. But the problem with the Times editorial is that the report by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis is anything but “meticulous,” reading more like a compilation of circumstantial evidence and conspiracy theories than a dispassionate pursuit of the evidence. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “The Dangerously Incomplete Hariri Report.”] Mehlis’s report, for instance, fails to follow up a key lead, the Japanese identification of the Mitsubishi Canter Van that apparently carried the explosives used in the Feb. 14 bombing that killed Hariri. The van was reported stolen in Sagamihara City, Japan, on Oct. 12, 2004, but Mehlis’s report indicates no effort to investigate how the vehicle got from the island of Japan to Beirut. The report also relies heavily on the testimony of a dubious witness. According to the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, the witness – Zuhir Ibn Mohamed Said Saddik – is a convicted swindler who also was caught in lies by the U.N. investigative team. Der Spiegel reported, too, that the intermediary for Saddik's testimony was Syrian dissident Rifaat al-Assad, who opposes the regime of his nephew President Bashar Assad, and that Saddik apparently was paid for supplying his testimony. Saddik called his brother from Paris in late summer and declared, “I've become a millionaire,” the brother said, according to Der Spiegel. Contradictory Accounts Saddik’s account also contradicts the testimony of another supposed witness, who is not identified by name in the Mehlis report. These two central witnesses offer conflicting accounts about the alleged role of the Lebanese youth, Ahmad Abu Adass, who claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in a videotape released to al-Jazeera television after the Hariri assassination. According to the videotape, Hariri was slain by Islamic militants in Lebanon because of his work as “the agent of the infidels” in Saudi Arabia. Abu Adass identified himself as the suicide bomber. The Mehlis report uses its two supposed witnesses to dismiss the videotape as part of a disinformation campaign to deflect suspicion from Syria. But the witnesses differ on Abu Adass’s role. The unidentified witness said Abu Adass “played no role in the crime except as a decoy … forced at gunpoint to record the videotape” before being killed. Saddik, however, claimed he saw Abu Adass at a camp in Zabadani, Syria, where, Saddik said, the Mitsubishi van was filled with explosives. Saddik said Abu Adass planned to carry out the assassination but changed his mind and was then killed by Syrians who put his body in the vehicle carrying the bomb. Given the fact that the Mehlis report is now being cited by the Bush administration as justification for ramping up international pressure for “regime change” in Damascus, it would seem reasonable that dangling threads of the investigation be tied down before the U.N. Security Council heads down a road like the one that took U.S. troops to Baghdad. The New York Times editorial does urge George W. Bush and his advisers to learn some lessons from the Iraq debacle and to stick to a diplomatic track on Syria. “As Iraq should have taught even the most hawkish members of the Bush administration, it is much easier to banter on about ‘regime change’ than to bring it about by military force and then control the aftermath,” the editorial said. But it is equally true that the Iraq War should have taught the New York Times to turn a skeptical eye toward investigative reports that supposedly have “established” facts, which are actually not fully supported by the evidence. It is basic to any professional investigation that available forensic leads – such as the chain of possession of the Mitsubishi van – be thoroughly run down before a probe starts relying on the testimony of flawed witnesses. While Syria and its reckless intelligence services deserve to remain prime suspects in the Hariri murder, there is a danger, too, in rushing to judgments simply because the target of the investigation is as unpopular as the Syrian dictatorship is. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'

Hello William, Everyone of those people was someones brother or father or son or daughter. The devastation they would feel, it is so sad I hate hearing of men killing men. Thank you for sharing. Lisa

God Bless them all!!! Help them to find Peace!! Thank you for the Forum William.

Hello Lisa It would truly be a wonderful day in history when everyone laid down their weapons and began to respect and care about each other. Unfortunately though, I doubt that will happen during our lifetime. Anyhow, the following is another news wire I just received from the John Kerry camp. I don't know why they send them to me so late. By the time I get the messages the events are nearly over. Anyhow, here it is. A letter from John Kerry. Dear Bill, Later today, I will deliver a major speech on the war in Iraq. It asks a hard and essential question: how do we bring our troops home within a reasonable and responsible timeframe, while achieving what needs to be achieved in Iraq? One thing is certain. It isn't by continuing to pursue the Bush administration's "stay for as long as it takes" rhetoric. And it isn't by blindly following their policy of cutting and running from the truth that underlies that rhetoric. That's why my speech today will call on the Bush administration to immediately draw up -- and present to Congress and the American people -- a detailed plan with target dates for the transfer of military and police responsibilities to Iraqis so the majority of our combat forces can be withdrawn. I hope you'll take a moment to read excerpts from this critically important call to action on Iraq. http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2005_10_26.html My speech today will assert that there is no reason Iraq cannot be relatively stable, no reason the majority of our combat troops can't soon be on their way home, and no reason we can't take on a new role in Iraq, as an ally not an occupier, training Iraqis to defend themselves by the end of 2006. Today of all days, it is important to note that instead of attacking Ambassador Wilson's report, instead of attacking his wife to justify attacking Iraq, the Bush administration should have simply paid attention to what his report revealed. As I write this, we are waiting to learn whether the administration's attacks will prove to be an indictable offense in a court of law. But for its CIA leaks, and for misleading a nation into war, the Bush administration will most certainly be indicted in the high court of history. Sadly, there have been a legion of Bush administration miscalculations that have left us having far too few options in Iraq. It is never easy to discuss what has gone wrong while our troops are in constant danger. I know this dilemma first-hand. After serving in war, I returned home to offer my own personal voice of dissent. I did so because I believed strongly that we owed it to those risking their lives to speak truth to power. We still do. In fact, while some say we can't ask tough questions because we are at war, I say no -- in a time of war we must ask the hardest questions of all. No matter what President Bush says, asking tough questions isn't pessimism, it's patriotism. If you agree, I urge you to join me in demanding a new course in Iraq. You can start by making sure as many people as possible see this speech. http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2005_10_26.html The American people -- most importantly, the families of the brave men and women serving in Iraq -- can no longer tolerate George W. Bush's failure to spell out a reasonable and detailed plan of action on Iraq. If the President refuses to act, we must call on Congress to take the decision out of his hands. I urge you to read the speech I plan to deliver at Georgetown University in a matter of hours -- and to forward it to as many people as possible. Most of all, I hope you will resolve to join the entire johnkerry.com community in the weeks ahead as we work to create an undeniable groundswell of public pressure for a detailed, date-specific plan of action on Iraq. Sincerely, John Kerry Paid for by Friends of John Kerry, Inc.