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An independent review of the year

Logic Voice | 30.12.2004 19:24 | Analysis | World

I have produced a short review of 2004 which I thought you may like to take a look at, it is in 2 parts. For the original, with the active links to the news contained in the review please see part 1 (January - June)at  http://logicvoice.blogspot.com/2004/12/logical-voice-2004-review-part-1.html and Part 2 (July - December) at  http://logicvoice.blogspot.com/2004/12/logical-voice-2004-review-part-2-july.html

January

The year began with US troops raiding a Sunni Muslim mosque, searching, they said for weapons. At a time when the Bush regime, and Blair and Co were still attempting to paint forces as "liberators", rather than "occupiers" the families of some Iraqis captured by forces complained that there had been cases of mistaken identity.

Meanwhile, British troops were accused of kicking to death 8 Iraqis arrested in Basra according to a report in the Independent on Sunday; and in Britain, Blair was saying that he was ready to quit if the Hutton report (widely regarded as a whitewash) proved him to have lied over the Dr David Kelly death. However, Hutton was found by Mr Mandelson (now an EU Commissioner), a close friend of Blair's, so he was hardly going to lay any blame at the door of Blair & Co was he?

Also in January, Colin Powell admitted for the first time that there were no links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime, Blair admitted he hadn't got a clue whether or not Iraq had any Weapons of Mass Destruction and reports surfaced about Blunkett planning to extend holding prisoners without trial to UK citizens.

February

Reports surfaced at the beginning of February that Israel knew Iraq had no Weapons of Mass Destruction. Also, Blair & Co's assertions about the so called "45 minute threat" from Iraq fell apart this month, also the case for a suicide of Dr David Kelly fell apart.

Also in February 2004, despite growing concerns of increased tensions between India and Pakistan, there were several reports that the US, Russia and Israel were busy supplying India with arms, there was a US led coup in Haiti (US marines additionally entered the country on the 29th February), and there were numerous reports of a possible military draft in spring 2005 for citizens of the US.

March

On the 6th March, a convicted conman whose ex fiance was a close friend of Cherie Blair (the PM's wife) went public with the claim that while he was living with Carole Caplin in London in 2002, she was having an "intimate relationship" with the Prime Minister, on the same day a report surfaced that an Al Qaeda linked man in Afghanistan was working as a CIA operative. On the 11th March, scores died in Madrid as explosions rocked the city, The pro war Spanish leader, Aznar was later ousted from power in a move widely seen to be punishment ("as no Spanish leader had ever been punished before", as one commentator put it) for his stance close to Bush.

On the 20th March there were international demonstrations on the 1st anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq, millions took to the streets around the world, 100,000 were reported to have demonstrated in the streets of London alone.

Also in March there were numerous reports that torture is routinely used at Guanatanamo, there was also a report that the US Department of Justice had asked an FBI translator to re-translate and adjust the translations of "subject intercepts" that had been received by the CIA and FBI before the 11th September 2001.

April

In April there were several reports that some US soldiers were heading to Canada to seek asylum, rather than having to commit any war crimes in Iraq. Meanwhile, the US military lost control of 2 Iraqi cities, Najaf and Kut.

On the 13th April, reports surfaced that the military was taking part in mysterious hauling missions in southern Iraq. According to sources in one report, "a large part of the WMD, which was secretly brought to southern and western Iraq over the past month, are in containers falsely labeled as containers of the Maeresk shipping company and some consignments bearing the labels of organizations such as the Red Cross or the USAID in order to disguise them as relief shipments."

May

Reports were beginning to come to light that US torture and abuse of detainees was ordered by those higher up the chain of command. There were also claims of British abuse of detainees, but the photos these claims were based on were later proved to be fakes.

Also in May, it was widely believed that Blair was about to go, as reports showed that Blair did not have the confidence of his party; The editor of a US funded Iraqi newspaper quit, saying that the US expected too much control over the news, more than 5,000 blasts an hour were reported in Ukraine after ammunition explosions at a military depot showered parts of south-eastern Ukraine with shells and shrapnel for three days, and there were reports that hundreds of prisoners were held at Abu Ghraib for long periods even though there was no evidence that they posed a security threat to US forces.

June

Local and European elections were held this month, Blair's Labour party lost about 480 local council seats, while the Tories gained about 280, and the Lib Dems gained about 140 seats. In June, it was also reported that the US military had issued an order to prevent thousands of soldiers designated for duty in Iraq or Afghanistan from leaving the military even when their volunteer service commitment expires.

Also in June, Blair claimed his "special relationship" with Bush is a "sensible" thing to do, half a million people protested the torturer in chief on his visit to Rome, and a top Chinese general called the United States "a whore" for suggesting that Taiwan try to destroy the Three Gorges Dam, while maintaining that it could never be hit by Taipei's conventional arms.

July

This month, following numerous reports that children had been captured, and tortured in Iraq, the Norwegians were seriously considering cutting ties to the Bush regime. Following a world court ruling that Israel's West Bank barrier was illegal, Israel urged the US to oppose the ruling, and Jeremy Greenstock, Blair's special envoy to Iraq publicly embarrassed his boss by admitting that Iraq's alleged stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction just "were not there".

Also in July, the Butler inquiry was due to report, and all hopes of Blair's credibility being restored were shattered, and well before the mainstream media were reporting on the terrible conditions the Sudanese people have to face on an everyday basis, alternative media was providing a medium to tell the world what was happening in the civil war stricken country.

August

This month, more media outlets were reporting on the attrocities committed in Sudan; meanwhile, US senators were visiting China, the delegation apparently told Chinese officials that despite ongoing tension between Taiwan and China the US would not back down on supplying arms to Taiwan.

Also in August, massive protests were held in New York, as the Republican National Convention gathered to once again choose Bush as their presidential candidate, the EU Commissioner on human rights condemned Israeli incursions into Gaza, and said that any help provided by the EU for the Palestinian people did not absolve Israel of its obligations to the Palestinian people under international humanitarian law.

September

At the beginning of this month, reports emerged that a secretive Pentagon office, called the Office of Special Plans was linked to an Israeli espionage case the FBI were investigating. The Office of Special Plans had been largely discredited on its "intelligence" on Iraq's alleged WMD. Meanwhile, in Northern Ossetia, it was said that Chechen rebels were responsible for holding hundreds of children, staff and parents hostage at a school. Many hundreds were killed in the dreadful siege.

Also in September, Hans Blix, the former chief weapons inspector said that the consequences of the attack on Iraq were "terrible and tragic", and the US claimed it had killed more than 100 so called "insurgents" in a major offensive concentrated on Samarra. However, many angry residents of the city denounced the incursions into Samarra, saying the offensive had mainly led to the deaths of many innocent civilians.

October

Afghans went to the polls for the first time in 20 years on the 9th October 2004. Although the turnout was reported to be high, there were numerous reports of vote fraud, and multiple registrations.

The Lancet (a highly respected publication), this month published the results of a survey taken in Iraq, which showed that more than 100,000 civilians have probably died as a direct, or indirect consequence of the US led invasion of the country, the US, this month decided to adopt the Hama rules, in a widely condemned incursion into Fallujah. Reports have sinced surfaced about a number of war crimes being committed in the city, from reports of civilians being imprisoned in tiny cages and being denied food for 2 days, through snipers opening fire on anything that moved, aid agencies being denied access to the city, people being denied the treatment they needed, reports that forces were entering houses and shooting people because they couldn't speak english, hospitals bombed, and napalm, a banned weapon, used apparently.

November

The moment had almost arrived when the world was watching, and holding its breath to see if Bush would once again steal the keys to the White House, a poll published on the 1st November showed that if young voters turned out in large numbers, that could possibly tip the balance in favour of Kerry.
When the exit polls were released, it was widely expected that Kerry would win the race for the White House; however, strangely enough, it appeared as if Bush had won the 2004 Presidential election.

Vote fraud reports, seemingly were not only confined to the US this month, there were reports of vote fraud also in Romania, and Ukraine. The mainstream media however, in general failed to report on vote fraud issues in the Romanian and US elections.

At the end of November, Bush began his official visit to Canada, and the Canadian people wanted to give him the welcome he deserved.

December

This month saw probably one of the worst natural disasters the world has ever seen, The renowned dictator, and human rights abuser, Augusto Pinichet was declared fit to face charges of kidnap and murder; A British high court ruled that the European conventions on human rights must be upheld, and it emerged that Bush signed an Executive Order authorising torture.

Also in December, it came to light that Blair and Co had ordered that emails more than 3 months old be deleted from computers, and that hundreds of thousands of documents had been shredded before the new freedom of Information act comes into force. The government called this "housekeeping".

Logic Voice
- Homepage: http://logicvoice.blogspot.com

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