The First Charter of Human Rights, By The Persian Emperor
Kourosh The Great Over 2700 Years Ago

"Power Corrupts, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely"

Real Truth & Nothing But The Truth So Help You, Who?

- By Bahram Maskanian

British & US, Mercenaries & Soldiers Of Fortune in Pursuit of Democracy
When I was growing up in Tehran, Iran, my first introductory course to American art and culture was American-made movies. My younger brother and I frequently watched any new movie coming mostly from America and Europe. We were both in awe at how life was so just, fair and wonderful in the America portrayed by these movies and how everybody was so tall, handsome and beautiful. From James Bond 007 to Hair, I was made to believe that life must be so astonishing in the United States. My only goal growing up was to somehow make it to the United States to see and experience for myself the type of life revealed on the movie screen.

When I finally made it on August 1978, I was twenty-five years old. When I arrived at JFK Airport, I was very shocked and asked, - - Is this America? - -, - - Yes, - - somebody replied, - - You are now in New York City, in the United States of America. - - The reason I was shocked and confused was because of the scenery and the people at JFK airport after arriving. It was nothing like the movies I had seen.

First of all, the first thing that caught my eye was that people were average height and shape composed of so many different varieties of ethnic diversity. So what happened to all those 7 feet tall movie star-like people in the movies? Don’t get me wrong. I love the United States and its diversity. The United States, although sadly was formed at a huge cost, the loss of Native Americans, has become the ultimate experiment in the ability of human beings to learn to live together in peace and harmony, regardless of one’s tribal characteristics and attributes.

As a US citizen, I love the United States for what it is striving to become, a democratic free nation and society. I have joined in the struggle for freedom myself ever since I was a young man and am working toward that goal. I hope one day the rhetoric becomes reality and we manage to truly have a democratic system, not just in the US, but also all over the world.

But recently, in our struggle for democracy and freedom we have not been doing very well. We bombed and took over Afghanistan and put Hamid Karzai, an ex-employee of Chevron Oil Company as its selected president. We have an ex-employee of Chevron Oil Company who has a gigantic oil tanker named after her, Condoleezza Rice, who appears to be our selected George Bush's brain. Ironically, when it comes to brain she is not doing so well herself! We have Dick Cheney, the boss of Halliburton, as the third musketeer in this sham of a government.

Everybody knows that in order to establish a reliable social order, you need to be fair and just. Everybody also knows that social order established only with the force of armed guards will not last. We don’t even have enough armed personnel in Iraq to truly provide enough security for this so-called democratic initiative to take hold.

The second thing that most Americans do not know is that the democratic initiative for Iraq means privatization and globalization of all Iraqi assets by the American government handed over to American corporations in return for generous bribes, oops, I am sorry, political contribution to both political parties at every election cycle.

I will give you one example of cost overrun and corruption. Prior to the American and British invasion of Iraq, a modern, large cement factory was built in Basra for the cost of eighty thousand US Dollars ($80,000). This factory was damaged during the invasion and rebuilt by Halliburton, at the cost of sixteen million US Dollars ($16,000,000.00) paid by the US taxpayers!

So now, put yourself in the position of an Iraqi citizen witnessing all this and try to understand what - - democracy - - is bringing to you as an Iraqi. Under Saddam Hussein, as brutal killing dictator as he was, these people were receiving free education, healthcare, and lived, although in fear, with ample supplies of life basic necessities, such as food, medicine and education.

Please, try to understand that I am delighted that Saddam Hussein is gone. I am using Saddam Hussein only for purposes of comparison.

Now, the very same Iraqi citizens still live in fear of being blown up by either mullahs’ terrorists shipped from Iran or Iraqi resistance and yet they do not have the minimal social support system they once had.

They now have to pay for their food, medicine and education at unexpected bizarre prices. That is, of course, if they are able to find them, first, since everything is now privatized and controlled by American and European contractors.

Iraqis who suffered under Saddam Hussein have to sit in the sidelines and watch as foreign national workers, hired by American contractors, do their work. The same work, which can be easily done by an Iraqi worker and earn a decent living. The only jobs left for Iraqi men to do are becoming policemen, trained by Americans, who eventually will be blown up by the mullahs' fundamentalist terrorists. That is not much of a job, life or future.

I do believe and agree with some who state that Iraqi nationalist forces are in part responsible for this so-called resistance in Iraq. However, these nationalist forces could be satisfied if they were to witness a true democratic initiative and reconstruction of Iraq for the Iraqi people, not for foreign multinational corporations.

One of the many stars of the reconstruction efforts is Ahmad Chalabi. He is a wanted man and convicted criminal for bank fraud and has extorted from the US government millions of dollars for many years, by providing faulty.

Why is Ahmad Chalabi rewarded the contract for cell phone installation transmission towers and cell phone relay in Iraq? Why does he have 750-armed bodyguards? Who pays for all this? The American people, we do.

Now again, put yourself in the position of an Iraqi individual. Iraqis may be poor but they are not stupid. The rule of thumb is that people who live their lives under tyrannical dictatorship usually have a very good sense of the world around them and can decipher between the truth and the fabricated truth.

American government's democratic initiative and reconstruction of Iraq for the Iraqi people by goons like Ahmad Chalabi is a fabricated truth.

The disparaging difference between wealth and social position among Iraqis that did suffer under Saddam Hussein and new arrivals like Chalabi, who hardly had a moment of misery because of Saddam Hussein, is what drives Iraqi people to not cooperate with the occupying forces. Rather, they sit silently and watch the Iraqi nationalists forces and mullahs' terrorists from Iran blow up other Iraqi policemen and American soldiers.

What would you do?

American and European Contractors, - - This is a different form of contractor. This contractor does not build or fix your home but blows it up and kills everybody inside. One of the many reasons the current Iraqi war is costing so much is because apparently the US government seems to think it is more cost effective to pay, - - Private Contractors, or Soldiers of Fortune, or Mercenaries - - over ten (10) times more money, one thousand dollars a day ($1,000), per individual to do the missions for which US Armed Forces were intended and trained to do.

According to sources in the Pentagon more than eighteen (18) different corporations, - - Private Contractors, or Soldiers of Fortune, or Mercenaries, - - are currently operating in Iraq. These professional foreign and American individuals, working for private corporations as professional soldiers, are hired to kill, destroy, and perform the army's function and work.

Then what do we need an Army for? Am I the only one who sees something incredibly wrong with having organized armed killers for hire, to kill or stand guard, to make money? Is this not the exact same authoritative, prescribed direction for conduct, engagement and manner, under which organized crime operates?

By now, everyone knows that the burned bodies of the four American Mercenaries were dragged from their vehicle, mutilated and strung up.

The Questions are:
Who were the Mercenaries / Contractors? What were they doing there? Reports from NPR stated that they may have been connected to the Department of Defense. APTV, the broadcast arm of the Associated Press, showed footage of a DOD identification card found near and on the bodies.

Fallujah is considered so hot that Coalition or Allied Forces avoid operating there. About 4,000 Marines were based nearby, but did not attempt to help. No ambulances, no police came either.

AP reported that the four Mercenaries / Contractors worked for a private corporation called, - - Blackwater Security - - of North Carolina, which provides security training and guard services. - - The company said in a statement Wednesday that it was a government subcontractor providing security for food delivery in the Fallujah area. - -

The descriptions of what happened are horrible. Falluja’s streets were thick with men, boys and chaos. Boys with scarves over their faces hurled bricks into the burning vehicles. A group of men dragged one of the smoldering corpses into the street and ripped it apart. Someone then tied a chunk of flesh to a rock and tossed it over a telephone wire. - - Viva mujahadeen! - - shouted Said Khalaf, a taxi driver. - - Long live the resistance! - - Nearby, a boy no older than 10 put his foot on the head of a body and said: - - Where is Bush? Let him come here and see this! - -

When crowds of men and boys desecrate bodies, this is no longer an insurgency made up of - - dead enders - - and foreign terrorists.

This is a movement with popular support and it should be seen as truly frightening.

Date: 15 Apr 2004 - 16:23:31
Subject: Heads Up
From: Michael Moore

Heads Up

Friends,
I have never seen a head so far up a Presidential ass (pardon my Falluja) than the one I saw last night at the "news conference" given by George W. Bush. He's still talking about finding "weapons of mass destruction" -- this time on Saddam's "turkey farm." Turkey indeed. Clearly the White House believes there are enough idiots in the 17 swing states who will buy this. I think they are in for a rude awakening.

I've been holed up for weeks in the editing room finishing my film ("Fahrenheit 911"). That's why you haven't heard from me lately. But after last night's Lyndon Johnson impersonation from the East Room -- essentially promising to send even more troops into the Iraq sinkhole -- I had to write you all a note.

First, can we stop the Orwellian language and start using the proper names for things? Those are not “contractors” in Iraq. They are not there to fix a roof or to pour concrete in a driveway. They are MERCENARIES and SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE. They are there for the money, and the money is very good if you live long enough to spend it.

Halliburton is not a "company" doing business in Iraq. It is a WAR PROFITEER, bilking millions from the pockets of average Americans. In past wars they would have been arrested -- or worse.

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush? You closed down a friggin' weekly newspaper, you great giver of freedom and democracy! Then all hell broke loose. The paper only had 10,000 readers! Why are you smirking?

One year after we wiped the face of the Saddam statue with our American flag before yanking him down, it is now too dangerous for a single media person to go to that square in Baghdad and file a report on the wonderful one-year anniversary celebration. Of course, there is no celebration, and those brave blow-dried "embeds" can't even leave the safety of the fort in downtown Baghdad. They never actually SEE what is taking place across Iraq (most of the pictures we see on TV are shot by Arab media and some Europeans). When you watch a report "from Iraq" what you are getting is the press release handed out by the U.S. occupation force and repeated to you as "news."

I currently have two cameramen/reporters doing work for me in Iraq for my movie (unbeknownst to the Army). They are talking to soldiers and gathering the true sentiment about what is really going on. They Fed Ex the footage back to me each week. That's right, Fed Ex. Who said we haven't brought freedom to Iraq! The funniest story my guys tell me is how when they fly into Baghdad, they don't have to show a passport or go through immigration. Why not? Because they have not traveled from a foreign country -- they're coming from America TO America, a place that is ours, a new American territory called Iraq.

There is a lot of talk amongst Bush's opponents that we should turn this war over to the United Nations. Why should the other countries of this world, countries who tried to talk us out of this folly, now have to clean up our mess? I oppose the U.N. or anyone else risking the lives of their citizens to extract us from our debacle. I'm sorry, but the majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let that maybe -- just maybe -- God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end.

Until then, enjoy the "pacification" of Falluja, the "containment" of Sadr City, and the next Tet Offensive – oops, I mean, "terrorist attack by a small group of Baathist loyalists" (Hahaha! I love writing those words, Baathist loyalists, it makes me sound so Peter Jennings!) -- followed by a "news conference" where we will be told that we must "stay the course" because we are "winning the hearts and minds of the people."

I'll write again soon. Don't despair. Remember, the American people are not that stupid. Sure, we can be frightened into a war, but we always come around sooner or later -- and the one way this is NOT like Vietnam is that it hasn't taken the public four long years to figure out they were lied to.

Now if Bush would just quit speaking in public and giving me more free material for my movie, I can get back to work and get it done. I've got four weeks left 'til completion.

Yours,
Michael Moore

http://www.michaelmoore.com/