“The Bush Administration has paid a double penalty for excluding the UN from any real power in Iraq. The first penalty from freezing out the UN is the loss of expertise. No other body has as much experience as the UN in the management of nations after a conflict. …No UN official would have taken […]
Category: quotes
5/16/2003
“The policies on de-Ba’athification, promulgated in [Director of Reconstruction in Iraq L. Paul] Bremer’s first act as Administrator, his CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] Order 1, issued on 16 May, 2003 and entitled ‘De-Ba’athification of Iraqi Society,’ angered large numbers of people. The Order called for the implementation of the previous CPA decision to disestablish the […]
5/16/2003
“In mid-May [16, 2003], the new American administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, announced an indefinite postponement of the earlier plan to form a national assembly and interim government by the end of the month. The United States was supported in this decision by its partners, the British. ‘It’s quite clear that you cannot transfer […]
5/15/2003
On May 15, 2003, “the day before [Director of Reconstruction in Iraq L. Paul] Bremer signed the de-Baathification Order, [Undersecretary of Defense Douglas] Feith gave testimony in front of the House International Relations Committee on the conditions inside Iraq. He explicitly rejected the possibility of keeping senior Ba’athists in office as a price for maintaining […]
5/15/2003
“During a May 2003 custodial interview with [former Iraqi Intelligence Service Deputy Director] Faruq Hijazi, he said in a 1994 meeting with bin Laden in the Sudan, bin Laden requested that Iraq assist al Qaeda with the procurement of an unspecified number of Chinese-manufactured antiship limpet mines. Bin Laden thought that Iraq should be able […]
5/15/2003
Following the overthrow of Baghdad in April 2003, “the U.S. military did not secure the massive weapons caches that the Iraqi military had stashed around the country, estimated to amount to one million tons. …[Lieutenant General Ricardo] Sanchez recalls that by May 2003 ‘the Iraqis began holding open-air bazaars that sold everything from small handguns […]
5/15/2003
Historian Timothy Naftali wrote: “Unbeknownst to any of the principal actors in this drama, May 2003 was the height of the Bush counterterrorism offensive. Iraq was under U.S. occupation, and three-quarters of the pre-9/11 leadership of al Qaeda had been captured or killed.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – […]
5/15/2003
“Since May 2003, a new branch of al Qaeda–al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula–has been active within Saudi Arabia, seeking to undermine the regime through a concerted campaign of attacks on domestic as well as foreign targets.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Abdel Bari Atwan, The Secret History […]
5/15/2003
As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary”: “817. … -Following the resignation of Ms Clare Short, the [UK] International Development Secretary, and the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 1483 in May 2003, DFID assumed leadership of the UK’s reconstruction effort in Iraq. DFID would subsequently define, within the framework established […]
5/15/2003
“In May 2003, President Bush signed an executive order that provides oil industry companies–and only oil companies–unprecedented immunity against contractual disputes or lawsuits resulting from discrimination, labor law abuses, environmental disasters, and human rights violations. [As reported in the August 8, 2003, edition of The San Francisco Chronicle] ‘In terms of legal liability,’ says Tom […]