A Nation Willingly Deceived

[bemildred]

That incriminating "smoking gun" memo proving the Bush and Blair Administrations pre-determined an invasion and occupation of Iraq long before the invasion occurred has apparently come and gone, barely noted in the American press, AWOL from editorial pages. Eighty-eight brave members of Congress signed and sent a letter authored by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) asking President Bush to answer questions about thesecret U.S.-UK agreement to attack Iraq first reported in The Sunday Times of London on May 1, 2005.

Will the Democrats' letter receive a response? Will our Sleeping Beauty White House Press Corpse press for answers to the letter's questions from President Bush and his parade of smoke-blowing B.S. jugglers? (And is there a more wasteful administration game of spin-the-bottle than the Scott McClellan press briefing? Media advertisers should be ashamed that reporters are paid handsome salaries for dalliance time in this wink-and-nod charade.)

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Iraq's Mechanized Police Brigade recently completed training and will begin operations in mid-January, using fifty BTR-94 wheeled, armored vehicles.

Enormous amounts of equipment have been delivered to Iraqi Security Forces since 1 July:

* More than 69 million rounds of ammunition, with another 148 million recently received and put into twelve ammo storage areas around the country * 70,000 pistols

* 49,000 AK-47s

* 84,000 sets of body armor

* 5,700 vehicles

* 54,000 helmets

* 1,700 PKM heavy machine guns

* 20,000 radios

CounterPunch