guest is Bill Richardson. Moderator is _____
Richardson is gov of New Mexico, he discusses New Mexico economy, 'illegal' immigrants. A caller says, "it's a national security issue to close the because Middle Easterners can come into the country."
Moderator sets up negative cloud around Iran: "Former UN ambassador John Bolton says US must stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. What do you think, as a former UN ambassador?"
Richardson says Obama admin is "doing the right thing; must sanction Iran; must not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons. Different and better than Bush policy in that US is trying to get other nations to join in sanctioning Iran."
8:35 am: Paul Wolfowitz is guest.
question 1, Greece:
at about 8:56 am a caller spoke very strongly about Wolfowitz's role in Iraq. What was fascinating about W's reaction/response: he was absolutely stoney through the caller's entire speech; I watched his face closely, he did not allow a single muscle to twitch, his eyes did not move, he was in another place entirely; I suspect he turned off his hearing. When the caller stopped speaking, Wolf became animated again, he began and continued a discussion totally unrelated to anything the caller said -- something about banks and IMF, etc. He talked at length, uninterrupted. When he stopped, the Moderator said somewhat sheepishly, "Do you wish to comment on anything the caller addressed?" I forget W's response; it was noncommittal. I think he may have said, "Everybody voted for it...."
Later, a caller from Montana stated with some passion that W was responsible for the deaths of his Montana friends who died in Iraq. Caller said W should not be on tv he should be in jail. W did defend a bit. He once again used the "we relied on intelligence; intelligence was flawed; everybody did it...."
Third caller re W role in Iraq said we all know of your role. She said, no relation between 9/11 and Iraq. She was quite agitated and not very effective. W rolled out the standard defense: "Kerry voted for war; Hillary thought Saddam was dangerous," etc.
next guest, Rusty Barber of US Institute of Peace, to talk about Iraq. at 9:28 a caller mentioned the looting of Iraq's treasures. Then he said that C Span should disinfect the seat Wolfowitz sat in. He said Wolfowitz should have been arrested. Caller said the person who planted a bomb in an SUV in New York will be hunted to the ends of the earth, but Wolfowitz was permitted to walk out the side door; he is a war criminal.
The moderator responded lamely: "We invite all voices."
I say, NOT SO. Not if it's a voice critical of Israel or of Jews.
The guest addressed the fact that Iraq's treasures were looted; did mention that some sites are still being looted; said very vaguely that 'legal...should do something about it...."
Moderator mentioned that Wolfowitz said Iraq has second-greatest amount of oil; guest said "enormous amount of work to do to get oil out." Will take agreements between Iraq and Kurds to develop oil in Kurdish area in North of Iraq.
BP is in a project with the Chinese to develop oil fields in southern Iraq.
Caller: Documentary, "No End in Sight." A friend was in Iraq; WE KNOW that Wolfie, Feith, Chalabi cooked the intelligence. Iraqis hate us....
Why do we not count the dead in Iraq?
Twitter: How many civilians were killed in Iraq since US invasion?
Guest: "I don't know. Numbers are not known. ... Trauma that's left over from that is seldom discussed. Our Iraqi staff is very concerned
Most Iraqis think US occupation was terrible for Iraq; US went in without a plan, Iraqis are paying the price for that failure of planning. Uniformly Iraqis feel invasion was a mistake and US needs to withdraw.
Caller: re contractors.
Guest: contractors cannot move as freely around Iraq. Blackwater left a very bad taste; I travelled once with Blackwater, they moved very fast and with a feeling of impunity.
Caller: What is role of Chalabi in current government? I recall he said he would help us in the initial invasion.
Guest: Chalabi was US ally at beginning. Man with 9 lives. He was a contestant in last election. He's head of election accountability commission. He's very controversial; US feels it was badly burned by Chalabi assertions of WMD in Iraq. He holds not insignificant amount of support among Shi ia, in Sadr City.
Mod: Americans expressed concern about wrangling over election.
Caller: US spends more money on defense than any other country. Does US Institute Peace do anything to reduce spending?
Guest: Institute for Peace to try to reduce tensions to resolve conflict.
Caller: On Wolfowitz: W said we would pay for war with Iraqi war revenues. Last night I watched book program on Taliban; we invaded Iraq, left Taliban alone. Totally outrageous to have Wolfie on; he's nothing but a war criminal.
Guest: I think it was fine to have Wolfie on, good to have diverse set of views. We've committed billions and billions of reconstruction money. No question it's hard to fight two wars at the same time. We are drawing down... In terms of paying, no question it was premature.... Iraq owes $20billion to Kuwait in war reparations. International community must get resolution of that. not likely Iraq oil will pay for US expenditure any time soon.
Caller: Will there be a commission to debate why we went into Iraq, like the Chilcoate Commission in England. It's not in my purview to have an opinion on that.
Caller, Hollywood, FL (my guess = zionist) Clinton bombed Iraq; Hillary responded to 'Ladies in Pink' that Iraq had WMD. So if Iraq is investigated, Clintons should be investigated also.
Mod: Is Saddam still a presence in Iraq?
Guest: Yes. There's a 'Saddam' channel from _____. He will always loom over Iraq as a source of great tragedy for Iraq.
Caller: Does US compensate Iraqis for losses, and how is it paid for. Decided on a case by case basis. Range in thousands of dollars. Comes out of military budget.
Caller: I have a friend at University of Kabul. Have you heard anything about people coming down with anthrax in Kabul.
Guest: No.
back to discussion of the vote, resolving the dispute over who takes power, nominate a president, speaker of Parlaiment. Traditionally roles divided along sectarian lines. That system has assured a degree of balance among factions but has now institutionalized the divisions.
Caller: 1998 AIPAC pushed us into war with Iraq. (Jim Morris friend)
Mod: Role of Iran in Iraq, terrorist explosions, is that still happening in Iraq?
Guest: Iraqis
iranian role regarded with a degree of trepidation and suspicion. lot of political parties shuffeling to tehran looking for their support and assistance. in therms of actual weapons my sense is they are still present but not so much. 2007 2008 perception.... present but not active.
Caller: Saddam has been demonized; did he do anything good for Iraq.
Guest: Iraqis say thru authoritarian measures and propaganda, he
except for horrendous war with Iran
saw so much instability when he was toppled. so he's perceived as having kept Iraq stable, keep power on, US opened pandora's box of sectarian conflict.
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