Iraq's Real Weapon Of Mass Destruction

[Ayinde]

http://www.newsday.co.tt
Trinidad and Tobago

Saddam Hussein's surrender to coalition forces on Sunday should catapult into focus the need not only for the establishment of a properly structured system of War Crimes Tribunals, but for all countries which today are not signatories to the International Criminal Court [ICC] to become members and accept the authority of this body. The principle of the jurisdiction of War Crimes Tribunals should not be seen as applying merely to vanquished and/or weak nations, but rather to all. In like manner the legal authority of the International Criminal Court should have relevance for the entire international community. Admittedly, this is untrodden ground, but as George Washington, first President of the United States of America, would write shortly after his inauguration on April 30, 1789: "I walk on untrodden ground... There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn into precedent." Washington would also advance in a letter to the man he had appointed his country's first Attorney General, Edmund Randolph: "The administration of justice is the firmest pillar of Government."

This is something on which the United States should ponder, with specific reference to its acceptance of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. I offer this although I accept that purists will indulge in a bit of nit-picking. Hussein, undoubtedly, committed or must be held responsible for the committing of some of the worst atrocities of the past 200 years. Saddam Hussein, former iron-fisted ruler of Iraq, had led his country in the 1980s in a war against Iran in which the US had found to be convenient, and in which hundreds of thousands of Iranians were killed, many of them through being gassed. Iraq's atrocities in that war must take their place alongside those of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany during World War 11; a Fascist Benito Mussolini-led Italy invasion and brutal occupation of Ethiopia; the German military campaign in Tanganyika [1880-1907] in which 120,000 Tanganyikans were killed and/or starved to death; the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Algerians by the French from 1830 to shortly before Algeria gained her Independence, and the explosively repulsive "wiping out" of some 100,000 Filipinos, who had dared to struggle for the freedom of their country - the Phillipines - from the United States.

The almost systematic killing off of the Filipinos, whose "crime" was their very human desire to be free men and women, would prompt the American author, Mark Twain, to say that the "stars" on the American flag should be replaced with the skull and crossbones! For the record, Frances Ghiles wrote an article on the Algerian War of Independence which was published in the Times Literary Supplement of February 6, 1998 [Page 36] under the heading, "Another Savage War." But the above references to cruelty against the people of the several countries mentioned do not absolve Saddam and he must be punished. What they have done, however, is present a case for the expansion of the number of countries accepting the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and for the setting up of a system of War Crimes Tribunals. We must be careful not to view what Saddam, easily one of the cruellest tyrants of this and many other generations, did, in a vacuum. At the same time if we are not to simply pay lip service to respect for international law and the moral authority of the UN we must frown on the intervention in Iraq by the several nations led by the US, which launched an invasion of Iraq on the advanced spurious argument that they were searching for weapons of mass destruction. The United Nations should not have allowed itself to have been sidetracked over the years in a ridiculous effort to seek to verify whether Iraq was complying with its (UN's) resolutions. By pursuing this course rather than take firm action against the Saddam Hussein regime over reports of abuses of human rights, it tacitly allowed a barbaric government to pillage and to kill.

Meanwhile, the United States economy which had been in troubling decline since early 2000, but more rapidly from the last quarter of that year, is now improving and set to improve yet faster as a result of that country's real raison d'etre for its invasion and occupation of Iraq - the exploitation of Iraq's substantial reserves of crude oil and the gaining of multi-million dollar contracts for the reconstruction of that country. And although these are basically speaking to take place, the confidence in their being around the corner has already given a fillip to the US economy. There is a third factor in the invasion equation, that is the brake the George Bush Administration has put on Iraq having its crude supplied to the European Union (EU) paid for in Euros. Any spread of the EU's Euro manoeuvre would have led, as night follows day, to the displacing of the US dollar as the world's most favoured unit of exchange. This would have become an added factor in the weakening of the US economy. The payment in Euro strategy which was adopted in 1999 and saw even Trinidad and Tobago and Commonwealth Caribbean sugar to the EU, under the Convention of Lome, being paid for in Euros, again from 1999, no longer represents a threat to the US dollar. [Perhaps I should explain that the exchange rate with respect to the United States dollar can be applied vis a vis our sugar]. Had the United States and its coalition not cynically intervened militarily in Iraq, the Euro strategy so overwhelmingly embraced by Saddam Hussein and his advisers would have ultimately been Iraq's weapon of mass destruction, with its principal target being the US economy!

http://www.trinicenter.com/oops/17122003.html

[iyah360]

http://www.reuters.com/financeArticle.jhtml?storyID=4012075&newsType=usGoldRpt&menuType=markets

SINGAPORE, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Gold hit its highest price in almost eight years on Thursday, attracting bids of $413 an ounce, as the dollar struggled near a record low against the euro.

Precious metals analysts said the spot price was poised to crack the 1996 peak of $417 an ounce, perhaps before the end of the year, because of the gloomy outlook for the dollar.

"Gold appears well supported by the falling dollar, which should keep the price at least near its current price until Christmas," said Australia & New Zealand Bank gold analyst Peter Windred.

"Our view is that the dollar has further to fall, which will support gold."

The sagging dollar has been one of the main drivers behind an 18 percent rise in spot gold prices this year as investors sought alternative investments such as gold and U.S. Treasury bonds.

After rising as high as $413 an ounce, its highest since February 1996, spot gold retreated to $410.00/410.75 in Asia by 0404 GMT, down from New York's last quoted level of $411.75/412.00 on profit-taking. Dealers pegged key support at $405 an ounce and resistance at $415.00.

Low U.S. interest rates and ballooning budget and current account deficits have put pressure on the dollar for some time, but it has found support against the yen due to wariness over Japanese intervention to protect an export-driven economic recovery.

The dollar was at 107.45 yen , while the euro was at $1.2405.

The benchmark October 2004 gold contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange gained two yen per gram at 1,416 yen per gram.

In other precious metal, spot platinum was quoted at $852.00/857.00 an ounce compared with $841.50/846.00 last quoted in New York.

Spot silver was quoted at $5.69/5.71 an ounce and palladium was at $199.00/204.00. (Additional reporting by James Regan in Sydney)

[iyah360]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,960213,00.html

The darling of the Democrats bets against the dollar. Oh yes, the two-headed beast has got you covered!

Soros bets against the dollar

David Teather in New York
Wednesday May 21, 2003
The Guardian

George Soros, the billionaire investor dubbed "the man who broke the pound", yesterday added to the mounting pressure on the dollar when he admitted publicly he was betting against the currency.

In an interview with US cable channel CNBC, Mr Soros disclosed that he had recently begun to sell. "I now have a short position against the dollar," he said. "I have listened to what the secretary of the treasury is telling me. Who am I to stand in the way?

"We continue to sell the US dollar against the euro, the Canadian dollar, the Australian dollar, the New Zealand dollar and gold."

Mr Soros played a significant role in forcing the pound from the European exchange rate mechanism in 1992 when he bet against sterling. His firm was said to have made $1bn after the pound was ejected.

US treasury secretary John Snow signalled a policy shift at the weekend, suggesting he was at ease with the recent slide in the dollar. He said the currency's 20% decline against the euro over the past year was "really fairly modest".

That was interpreted as a reversal of the White House's strong dollar policy and an indication that the treasury will not be shoring up the currency by buying in the open market. The euro was yesterday trading a fraction below Monday's four-year high of $1.1738, just below its January 1999 launch price. The dollar fell further against the yen after the Bank of Japan said it would ease monetary policy again. The BoJ has spent billions to halt the yen's rise against the dollar.

Mr Soros was fiercely critical of the White House policy shift. "It's a beggar thy neighbour policy," he said. "I think [Mr Snow] was somewhat irresponsible by talking down the dollar."

He said the policy shift was an attempt to stimulate the US economy at the expense of other countries. "This administration is happy to hurt France and Germany but that won't help the US very much. It will make US exports more competitive, but to whom are we going to export?"

He joined another billionaire, Warren Buffett, in a stinging attack on the White House tax cut plan centred on the ending of tax on dividends. The senate is expected to approve the tax cuts by next week.

"The administration is basically using the recession to redistribute income to the wealthy," Mr Soros said. Mr Buffett dubbed the cuts "voodoo economics" in yesterday's Washington Post.

Forecasters are increasingly concerned about the Bush administration's stewardship of the economy. A quarterly survey of economists yesterday from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found them cutting full year forecasts for GDP growth from 2.5% to 2.2%.