The Socialist 15 March 2007

£billions for rich... Pennies for us!

Minimum wage insult

UNISON Health group votes for summer demo

Hewitt's 'day of exchange'

Fighting the cuts in Camden

Lambeth council attacks services for vulnerable people

Barking BNP don't oppose council cuts

Lewisham council's outrageous attack

Kurdish asylum seekers living in fear

Northern Ireland Assembly elections: Another sectarian headcount...

We Won't Pay Campaign conference success

Solidarity builds party profile ahead of elections

February revolution 1917 - what lessons for today?

US continues threats over Iran's nuclear ambitions

Iraq war: Convicted Bush official is 'fall guy' over WMD scandal

Celebrating International Women's Day

Tenants vote no to council housing sell-off

Market-driven 'social housing' threatens tenants

Will government plans stop climate change?

Build the campaign to defeat fees

International Socialist Resistance (ISR) and Socialist Students conference

Trade Unions and the Labour Party: CWU branch asks some awkward questions

Campaign for a New Workers' Party conference

Reinstate Dave Condliffe now

UNISON leaders lead members into dead end

SOUTHAMPTON council strike

PCS prepares for more struggles

Right wins lecturers' union leadership - on a 14% turnout

Previous issues, etc

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Iraq war: Convicted Bush official is 'fall guy' over WMD scandal

IN THE most politically charged trial in the US since Irangate in the 1980s and Watergate in the 1970s, a senior official of the Bush administration - Lewis "scooter" Libby - was convicted of obstructing justice, perjury and giving false statements to the FBI.

The story begins on the eve of the last Iraq war. In September 2002 Blair's 'dodgy dossier' on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) contained the spurious claim that Saddam's regime had sought to buy uranium from Niger. This claim was repeatedly used by George Bush to justify invading Iraq.

The CIA spy agency doubted this claim and despatched a former US ambassador, Joseph Wilson, to investigate. After no WMDs were found in Iraq, Wilson denounced the Bush administration of deliberately manipulating the Niger story for its war aims.

After Wilson went public, Wilson's wife - Valerie Plame - was identified as an undercover CIA agent by a journalist after the information was deliberately leaked (a criminal act) by someone in the Bush administration. Following an investigation, Lewis Libby was put on trial, not for leaking the information but for frustrating the investigation.

To many people, including the jurors of the case, Libby acted as the "fall guy" for even bigger officials such as Vice President Dick Cheney.

Safer world

back in March 2003, George Bush and his 'lieutenant', Tony Blair, partly justified the imperialist adventure in Iraq by falsely claiming a link between Saddam's regime and al-Qa'ida Islamist terrorism.

Subsequently, Bush and Blair repeatedly have said that the Iraq war has not been responsible for terrorist attacks worldwide.

However, a US study contradicts the Bush/Blair claims. It shows that between 11 September 2001 and March 2003 and for the period after the US-led invasion, the number of deaths from terrorism rose from 729 to 5,420.

The study by the Centre on Law and Security also points out that the US administration's own findings - Trends in Global Terrorism, partially declassified in October 2006 - stated: "The Iraq war has become the 'cause cŽlbre' for jihadists... and is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives."

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£billions for rich... Pennies for us!