scott writes PRESS RELEASE
Coalition Provisional Authority
http://www.iraqcoalition.org

April 1, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe Frazier 914-360-5114.
frazierj@orha.centcom.mil 

Optimists Club Organizes Baghdad Chapter

Optimists International can now claim Baghdad, Iraq as the home of its most recently organized chapter. Founded in 1919 with chapters in 28 countries, Optimists is a service organization best known for “bringing out the best in kids.” The new chapter held its organizational meeting at the former palace of Saddam Hussein, now the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) Headquarters in Baghdad. A group of 28 civilian CPA staff and Iraqi nationals attended.

"The Bridge"

Stan Goff

WARNING: This commentary may cause anxiety.

The United States government has initiated a chain reaction that it
can no longer control. The stalled vengeance assault on Fallujah is
merely a symptom. So is the uprising triggered by the US closure of
a Shia newspaper in Sadr City, Baghdad, followed by gunning down the
demonstrators who protested (Ah, yes, we don’t even hear about that
when they talk about the latest demon, Muqtada al-Sadr… Memory is so
short.).

VTV writes:

Dutch Free Television Pirate Station Booming

Dutch
authorities are confused. After trying many times they still can't get their hands on the Pirate Television station VTV Vrije Tele Visie. It seems the frustration is caused due the fact that this tv station is broadcast from a mobile studio. With
programs informing people about pirate radio and television and other regional items they attract a
huge public following and, according to one of the station operators, they are there to stay.

More info on this can be found at http://www.geocities.com/vrijetelevisie

"What's Next in Iraq?"

Tariq Ali

Tariq Ali is a veteran political activist since the 1960s, and a filmmaker,
novelist and author. His most recent books include The Clash of
Fundamentalisms and Bush in Babylon: The Recolonization of Iraq. Tariq
spoke
to Socialist Worker's Eric Ruder about the aims of the U.S. occupation and
the growing Iraqi resistance.

Q: What are the motives for the U.S. occupation? The Bush administration,
of
course, claims that it has removed an evil dictator and is promoting
democracy and freedom.

Tariq Ali: I don't think that very many people outside the U.S. believe
this. Even in countries that have troops there, the population is against
the war and occupation.

BAGHDAD (Agence France Press) — US Apache helicopters sprayed fire on the private army
of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr during fierce
battles in the western Baghdad district of Al-Showla, witnesses and an
AFP correspondent said

"Two Apaches opened fire on armed members of the Mehdi Army," said
Showla resident Abbas Amid.

Occupation Gunfire Kills 20 Iraqi Shiite Protesters:

Angry Shiites Demand the End of the U.S.-Led Occupation

IslamOnLine.net

AN-NAJAF, Iraq, April 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) — At least 20 Iraqi Shiites were killed and a hundred others wounded Sunday, April 4, when occupation troops opened fire randomly at thousands of supporters of Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr in this southern holy city in the most dangerous confrontation between the occupation and Iraq's majority community.

"Peasant Power in Bolivia"

Héctor Tobar, Los Angeles Times March 31, 2004

A fragile government in La Paz is further weakened as more and more
indigenous people rise up and take control of their villages.

SORATA, Bolivia — The police won't return to this village in the Andes
unless the peasants promise not to throw rocks at them.

The peasants rose up and chased the police out months ago, along with
the local representative of the provincial government, the judges and
even the army. The authorities fled Sept. 20 in the face of a crowd of
Aymara Indians armed with little more than sticks and stones, enraged by
an insult uttered by an army general hours earlier, and moved by
centuries of pent-up frustration.

"Georgia On Their Mind"

John Laughland, The Guardian

In 1918, when Lord Balfour was foreign secretary, he said: "The only thing which interests me in the Caucasus is the railway line which delivers oil from Baku to Batumi. The natives can cut each other to pieces for all I care." Little has changed in world geopolitics since the end of the first world war, when the Black Sea port of Batumi in Georgia was briefly under British rule. Although an oil pipeline from Baku to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in Turkey is planned, it will take years to complete. When it is built, it will deliver oil exclusively to the American market, but for the time being Caspian oil still trundles across the Caucasus to Batumi in trains.

"Iraq's False Promises"

Slavoj Zizek, Foreign Policy, January/February 2004

If you want to understand why the Bush administration invaded Iraq, read Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, not the National Security Strategy of the United States. Only the twisted logic of dreams can explain why the United States thinks that the aggressive pursuit of contradictory goals-promoting democracy, affirming U.S. hegemony, and ensuring stable energy supplies-will produce success.

PARIS (AFP) — Haiti’s ousted president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has lodged a lawsuit in Paris claiming coercion involving US and French officials forced him from power, his lawyer and legal authorities said Wednesday.

The suit, for "threats, death threats, abduction and illegal detention" was lodged Tuesday, Aristide’s lawyer, Gilbert Collard said.

It designates the defendant as "X" — a French legal term for persons unknown — but specifically makes mention of the French and US ambassadors in Haiti, Thierry Burkard and James Foley, as well as a French writer, Regis Debray, and the sister of French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, Veronique Albanel, in the deposition.