Big bird rips off trousers
A German policeman had his trousers ripped off after he tried to arrest a giant emu.
The emu had been pestering passers by at a park in Kaarst, western Germany.
A day later a three foot red and green parrot ripped the arm off a policeman's jacket when he tried to grab it after it was spotted screeching at hikers in a forest at Wallduern in southwestern Germany.
Both birds are being held by police while they search for the owners.
Black widow strikes again
A 7st 7lb woman ate 46 mince pies in ten minutes to win an eating competition in Somerset.
Sonya 'The Black Widow' Thomas beat 16 men and women to win the event in Wookey Hole Caves.
The 36-year-old, from Virginia, USA, earned her nickname by her ability to leave for dead men up to five times her own size in eating contests.
Her other titles include eating 161 chicken wings in 12 minutes and devouring 65 hard-boiled eggs in six minutes, 40 seconds.
Borat makes life tough for Kazakh TV crew
A genuine TV reporter crew from Kazakhstan found covering the recent US elections something of a struggle.
A TV crew from Kazakhstan's Channel 31 was in Columbus to make a documentary on the US political system.
But the crew got a wary reception from press secretaries who feared public humiliation by Sacha Baron Cohen.
It didn't help that the Kazakh cameraman's first name was 'Bolat', reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Cohen's 'Borat' movie - featuring a fake Kazakh TV reporter humiliating Americans - was then No 1 at the box office.
Press secretaries for both Republican and Democratic parties were suspicious enough to verify their credentials with the US State Department.
"They were really adamant that they were not Borat," said Ohio Democratic Party press secretary Randy Borntrager.
State Department officials who supervised the TV crew's two-week trip say they got apprehensive phone calls wherever they went. Even the FBI called to make sure the crew was legitimate.
"The timing of this was not good for the TV crew, because a lot of people thought they weren't for real," said George Santulli, the State Department official who oversaw their trip.
Xmas poo song played to shoppers
A DIY store has been playing foul-mouthed Christmas songs to their customers.
Staff at B&Q in Stockport, Greater Manchester, mistakenly put on a South Park CD entitled Mr Hankey The Christmas Poo, reports The Sun.
Dad Grant Sullivan, who was shopping with his four-year-old daughter Deonne, said: "The song was playing in the Christmas grotto - I couldn't believe my ears.
"We were buying a tree and Deonne was looking for the star for the top of it. I was speechless."
One of the songs contains the lyrics: "Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo, small and brown he comes from you."
Grant rang the DIY giant's head office to complain when he got home.
He added: "Christmas should be a wonderful time for kids - they shouldn't have to listen to filth."
A B&Q spokesman apologised and said: "We didn't wish to cause offence."
Boy, 12, becomes barman
A 12-year-old has become the youngest barman in the country.
Chris Hardacre's father Chris is licensee of the Star in Doncaster.
Chris has just passed his National Licensees' licensing certificate after studying for only a few weeks and is now qualified to serve behind the bar - with adult supervision.
According to the BBC, Chris said: "I just like being around the pub. It's a good atmosphere and the people are nice.
"I thought it would be a good idea to study all about it."
His father said: "He studied the law and spent three weeks revising before the exam - and passed."
Scot sells house to watch England
A Scotsman sold his house so he could go to Australia to watch England play in the Ashes.
Edinburgh-born Allan Fairlie-Clarke, 31, says he doesn't regret his decision despite England's poor start, reports the Mirror.
After losing his job as an air-conditioning engineer, he decided selling his £180,000 maisonette in Chelmsford, Essex was the only way to get to Australia.
Reckoning on spending at least £10,000, he vowed: "I will get to every day of the Tests."
Divorced Allan, who plays for a village side, added: "I didn't have a ticket for the first day at Brisbane but a guy got me one for £60.
"I was born in Edinburgh, but when it comes to cricket there isn't much alternative to supporting England, is there?"
Woman's MySpace revenge
A woman got revenge on her cheating boyfriend by hijacking his MySpace page.
Sam Deakin found out Matt East, 25, was having an affair with one woman and trying to date another 20.
So she changed the welcome note on his page to say: "I'm a pathological liar. I cheat regularly."
She then mimicked the Mastercard TV commercial, reports the Sun.
She wrote: "Dinner in a posh restaurant...$100. Night in a top hotel...$200. Finding out your boyfriend is a lying scumbag and changing his MySpace page so everyone can see...PRICELESS."
She changed his password so he couldn't hack in and alter what she had done.
The site received more than 250,000 hits in five days with women slagging off Matt as a "total loser".
Mum-of-two Sam, a website designer from Bournemouth, Dorset, said: "I wanted to show him up for who he is."
Sam revealed he asked one girl: "You, me, handcuffs, whipped-cream. How about it?"
The site has been closed by MySpace.
Matt, of Bournemouth, said: "I admit I cheated. I'm just a man."
'Pregnant' man in trouble
A South African man is in trouble after he faked a sick note which said he needed time off work because he was pregnant.
Magistrates in Vereeniging, near Johannesburg, fined Charles Sibindana, 27, £70 for the forgery, reports the Sapa agency.
Sibindana stole a medical certificate from a health centre used by his pregnant girlfriend, but was apparently unaware only women consulted gynaecologists.
Magistrate Bruno Van Eeden jokingly warned Sibindana "not to walk around faking sick letters from gynaecologists".
Speeding couple given toy
A German couple caught speeding on their way to give birth were given a toy for their new baby instead of a ticket.
Barbara and Johann Meyer, from Wachtberg, initially received a ticket after a speed camera photographed them breaking the speed limit.
But when they told authorities that they were on their way to hospital where Barbara gave birth to their first baby, police cancelled the fine.
Instead, they sent them a toy police officer in uniform - holding a speed camera.
Police also recommended the Meyers put the original speeding camera image into their son's first photo album.
Woman received dad's body in post
A Romanian woman was sent the body of her dead father in the post after a cemetery was sold to developers.
Aurelia Cenusa, from Severin, says clergy in her father's hometown of Darvari, 300 miles away, told her the graveyard his body had been buried in was to be sold and his body exhumed.
She said she thought the priest was joking when he told her to come and collect her father Rafaila Cojocaru's remains - or receive them in the post.
Cenusa said: "I had entered a lottery a few weeks ago and when I got the large parcel I thought I had won something.
"Instead I opened it up to find a banana crate containing the bones of my dead father. You could still even see bits of his funeral suit even though he died 16 years ago.
"I told the priest to sell my father's grave and I expected the Church would bury him somewhere else. I had no idea he was being serious when he told me I would be getting the skeleton through the post if I didn't come. It's outrageous."
She added that she intended to sue church officials. Local police have launched an investigation.
Anti-Santa campaign
Santa Claus is being banned from Christmas markets in Germany and Austria.
Anti-Santa campaigners claim Father Christmas was invented by Coca-Cola and detracts from the true spirit of the festive season.
Austria's biggest Christmas market is in front of the Vienna city hall where thousands of visitors march past stalls offering everything related to Xmas - except Santa.
The only Santa to be seen is the one in the middle of the occasional 'Ban Santa' stickers.
A Vienna city hall spokesman confirmed: "There are rules governing what stallholders can do and one of them is to agree not to use the image of santa as a condition of being able to trade there.
"Santa is an English language creation, people who want to see him should go to America where I am sure Coca Cola will be happy to oblige."
The move in Vienna has been followed by Christmas markets across Austria and Germany where St Nicholas is the traditional bearer of Christmas gifts.
Bettina Schade, from the Frankfurter Nicholas Initiative in Germany, said: "We object to the material things, the hectic rush to buy gifts, and the ubiquity of the bearded man in the red suit that are taking away from the core meaning of Christmas.
"The Christian origins of Christmas, like the birth of Jesus, have receded into the background. It's becoming more and more a festival that is reduced to simply worldly gifts and commerce."
Kate Winslet inspired new Jag
Kate Winslet's body has been revealed as the inspiration for Jaguar's new sportscar.
Winslet, 31, revealed she was in the mind of Jaguar's chief designer Ian Callum when he created the new Jaguar XK.
She told American chat show host Jay Leno that Callum had "decided that I, for whatever reason, was his ideal woman. So I guess he was inspired by the shape of my body, which is kind of flattering".
But the actress joked that she would have liked to have been involved in the design.
"The headlights are too small. They will have to go. And it needs a bar under the dashboard with pink and blue neon lights, umbrellas and pineapples," she said.
"And wings, like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And inflatables, so it can go in water. I absolutely think I should get a free car."
Callum, Jaguar's chief designer who worked on the Aston Martin DB7, confirmed that Winslet was his inspiration.
"Kate Winslet is my ideal woman. She is naturally a very shapely woman, very British with an underlying integrity and ability. Like a car, she has got substance, she is not just a pretty face," he said.
"So I designed the new XK body with her in mind. The interesting thing is that so many woman find sensual cars more appealing as well."
Monday May 27th Beats Any Friday 13th !!!
Britain's most jinxed day - Monday the 27th
Forget Friday the 13th - insurers say Monday the 27th is really the unluckiest day.
More people suffer mishaps when the 27th is a Monday than on any other day, insurers AA warn.
Their report, based on one million claims, dispels the myth that Friday the 13th is the date to fear most.
The firm's Kevin Sinclair said: "Friday the 13th is associated with bad luck.
"But records show you're more likely to have an accident or break something on Monday the 27th."
Monday the 27th disasters include a cat that started a house blaze by toppling a candle, and a man who put his foot through a ceiling while fetching Christmas decorations from his loft.
There have been two other months this year when the date has fallen on a Monday - in February and March. But the good news is the next is not until August 2007.
Worker gets saucy with waxworks
A night worker at Madame Tussauds faces losing his job after posing for photos groping star waxworks.
In one of the pictures Bryan Boniface is shown pulling down Kylie Minogue's hotpants and kissing her bum.
In others, he is seen beating up Sven Goran Eriksson, throttling London mayor Ken Livingstone and grabbing disabled Professor Stephen Hawking.
Bryan's ex Sofia Oliveira leaked the shots when their 11-year romance ended, reports The Sun.
Bryan, of London, said: "I'm in hot water."
A spokesperson for the museum said: "We do not encourage this."
Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein
Taken from an email forward. But full of interesting quotes. Hope you find something you can relate to ;)
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
"The only real valuable thing is intuition."
"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
"God is subtle but he is not malicious."
"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
"Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."
"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
"In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."
"The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."
"Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
"No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
"Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."
"Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
"One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
"...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."
"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)
Copyright: Kevin Harris 1995 (may be freely distributed with this acknowledgement)
Ouuuh Deeeaaaaarrrrrr !!!!!!
Human Blood Pressure Range Diagram
The 1st Number: Systolic pressure is the pressure generated when the heart contracts .
The 2nd Number: Diastolic pressure is the blood pressure when the heart is relaxed.
What is Normal Blood Pressure ? Buy and use a blood pressure monitor.
Compare your BP reading with the numbers on the chart above. Draw a line from your systolic pressure to your diastolic pressure.
Is the slope of the line about the same as shown on the chart? Where do YOU fit in? What are your risk factors?
Are your blood pressure readings within the normal blood pressure range?Should you take anti-hypertension medication to lower your blood pressure?
Normal human daily Blood Pressure Range can vary widely, so any single blood pressure monitor reading is not reliable. BP monitor readings must be taken at different times of day, to determine AVERAGE blood pressure over time.
What is important is your AVERAGE BP, or MAP (Mean Arterial Pressure) over time. Or, where are those numbers sitting MOST of the time?
Normal MAP is about 93 mm of mercury.
Lowering High Blood Pressure TacticsDownload a 1-page printable .PDF file of the
Blood Pressure Chart above.
Blood Pressure Range Chart Notes
NORMAL BLOOD PRESSUREREADINGS RANGE
HIGH Blood Pressure Symptoms -Stressed, Sedentary, Bloated, Weak, Failing Systolic - Diastolic
210 - 120 - Stage 4 High Blood Pressure
180 - 110 - Stage 3 High Blood Pressure
160 - 100 - Stage 2 High Blood Pressure
140 - 90 - Stage 1 High Blood Pressure
140 - 90 - BORDERLINE HIGH
130 - 85 - High Normal
120 - 80 - NORMAL Blood Pressure
110 - 75 - Low Normal
90 - 60 - BORDERLINE LOW
60 - 40 - TOO LOW Blood Pressure
50 - 33 - DANGER Blood Pressure
LOW Blood Pressure Symptoms -Weak, Tired, Dizzy, Fainting, Coma
How Long?
A guy sticks his head into a barber shop and asks, "How long before I can get a haircut?"
The barber looks around the shop and says, "About 2 hours."
The guy leaves.
A few days later the same guy sticks his head in the door and asks:
"How long before I can get a haircut?"
The barber looks around at the shop full of customers and says, "About 3 hours."
The guy leaves.
A week later the same guy sticks his head in the shop and asks, "How long before I can get a haircut?"
The barber looks around the shop and says, "About an hour and a half."
The guy leaves.
The barber who is intrigued by this time, looks over at a friend in the
shop and says, "Hey, Bill. Follow that guy and see where he goes."
A little while later, Bill comes back into the shop, laughing
hysterically.
The barber asks, "Bill, where did he go when he left here?"
Bill looks up, tears in his eyes and says, "Your house."
Now THAT Explains Everything !!!
University scientists have released the results of a recent analysis that reveals the presence of female hormones in beer. Men should take a concerned look at their beer consumption. It turns out that the "hops" in beer contain certain phyto-estrogens, and scientists believe that be drinking enough beer, men may turn into women. In the study, 100 male volunteers were asked to drink 8 pints of beer in one hour. The results were observed and recorded. At the end of one hour, every single subject had developed female characteristics and the test was terminated. The data is provided below:
After one hour, 100% of the test subjects:
1. gained weight.
2. talked excessively without making sense.
3. became overly emotional.
4. couldn't drive.
5. failed to think rationally.
6. argued over nothing.
7. had to sit down while urinating.
8. refused to apologize when obviously wrong.
After these eight symptoms, no further testing was necessary
Bush's job
The funniest daily show segment... Stewart starts by critizicing how republicans are celebrating our "victory" in Iraq, and follows by the most hilarious segment on how Bush is always saying "my job is to..." .
Video powered by Metacafe"THE HARDEST PART OF MY JOB IS TO CONNECT IRAQ TO THE WAR ON TERROR"
Priceless!
Next Time, You'll Know Exactly What To Say !!!
Here's all the help you're going to need .... In those awkward moments when faced with an .. awkward question !
1. At the movies: When you meet acquaintances/friends...
Stupid Question:- Hey, what are you doing here?
Answer:- Don't u know, I sell tickets in black over here..
2. In the bus: A heavy lady wearing pointed high heeled shoes steps on your feet...
Stupid Question:- Sorry, did that hurt?
Answer:- No, not at all, I'm on local anesthesia.....why don't you try again.
3. At a funeral: One of the teary eyed people ask...
Stupid Question:- Why, why him, of all people.
Answer:- Why? Would it rather have been you?
4. At a restaurant: When you ask the waiter
Stupid Question:- Is the "Paneer Butter Masala" dish good??
Answer:- No, its terrible and made of adulterated cement. We occasionally also spit in it.
5. At a family get-together: When some distant aunt meets you after years...
Stupid Question:- Munna,Chickoo, you've become so big.
Answer:- Well you haven't particularly shrunk yourself.
6. When a friend announces her wedding, and you ask...
Stupid Question:- Is the guy you're marrying good?
Answer:- No, he's a miserable wife beating, insensitive lout...it's just the money
7. When you get woken up at midnight by a phone call...
Stupid Question:- Sorry. were you sleeping?
Answer:- No. I was doing research on whether the Zulu tribes in Africa marry or not. And you thought I was sleeping.... you dumb witted moron.
8. When you see a friend/colleague with evidently shorter hair...
Stupid Question:- Hey have you had a haircut?
Answer:- No, its autumn and I'm shedding......
9. At the dentist when he's sticking pointed objects in your mouth...
Stupid Question: - Tell me if it hurts?
Answer:- No it wont. It will just bleed.
10. You are smoking a cigarette and a cute woman asks...
Stupid Question:- Oh, so you smoke.
Answer:- Gosh, it's a miracle ............it was a piece of chalk and now it's in flames!!!
Big bum contest banned
Officials in Brazil's biggest city took legal action to ban a contest to find the schoolboy or girl with the biggest bum.
A court in Sao Paul declared the Biggest Ass in School competition, promoted by Mix Radio in schools across the city, illegal.
The radio station had invited pupils to take pictures of their classmates' - and even teachers' - backsides, reports Terras Noticias Populares.
The pictures were to be sent in to the station with a cash prize going to the sender of the picture of the biggest bum.
But a judge banned the competition - and threatened to take Mix Radio off the air if it did not stop broadcasting ads for it.
A spokesperson for the Sao Paulo justice department said: "This contest is offensive and violent, we cant tolerate it."
Burglar picks wrong victim
A Serbian prisoner who burgled a house during his weekend release picked the wrong victim - the prison governor.
He was caught out when he returned to prison - and the governor spotted his own watch on the convict's wrist.
Alija Cerimi stole jewellery, a watch and a mobile phone from the unnamed governor's house in the northern Serbian town of Sremska Mitrovica.
According to witnesses, the governor spotted Cerimi walking back into the prison waving a shiny silver watch and shouted: "That's mine, you thieving bastard."
Cerimi reportedly laughed and then held up the governor's mobile phone which he had also stolen, before being restrained by guards.
Britain's unluckiest man? - Strikes AGAIN !!!
'Britain's unluckiest man' - who has suffered 16 major accidents - is laid up again after falling down a manhole.
John Lyne's misfortunes have included two lightning strikes, a rock-fall in a mine, nearly drowning and three car crashes.
Mr Lyne, 54, of Stainforth, near Doncaster, will be out of action for 32 weeks after his latest mishap, reports the Doncaster Free Press.
The accident damaged his back and injured his left leg and both knees - on top of a lifetime of broken bones.
Mr Lyne says he's not bitter - just glad to be alive.
"Everyone thinks it is just hilarious," he said. "My mates, family and wife Susan just laugh about it.
"I don't think there is any reason or explanation for it though, it has just happened really. I have to particularly be careful on the Friday 13ths, when a few accidents have fallen."
Mr Lyne's mishaps cover a lifetime. As a child, he fell off a horse and cart - only to be run over by a delivery van.
When he was a teenager, he broke his arm falling from a tree. On his way back from hospital, his bus crashed, breaking the same arm in another place. The date was Friday the 13th.
Great Moments in Presidential Speeches
Throughout Time, It has been proven that The WhiteHouse Really Does Come up with THE BEST EVER Presidential Speeches!!!
Dont believe it?
See For Yourself
Video powered by Metacafe
Chat-up lines: good, bad and very ugly
"I thought it was sweet when a man said to me, 'If you were a tear in my eye, I wouldn't cry for fear of losing you.'" Ashly Rae (no 32)
"Can I buy you a drink, or would you just like the money?" Helen Flood (no 35)
"I'm Justin. Justincredible."Christina Lawrie (no 16)
"Are you going to finish that drink?"Gary Lightbody (no 1)
"Do you know the weight of a polar bear? No? Well, it broke the ice." Ian Murray (no 37)
"I'd like to come to Scotland with you. Are there airports there?" Maeve Gillies (no 8)
"A filmmaker guest of the Festival said to me, 'You look tired. You should come and lie down in my hotel room.'" Hannah McGill (no 7)
"Great legs, sexy shoes, feet like Frodo Baggins." Rebecca Hamilton (no 20)
"I'm new in town. Could you give me directions to your house?"Laura Westmacott (no 23)
"On our first date, my last boyfriend crashed into his mate's car because he was watching me in his rear mirror." Heather Darroch (no 18)
"A female friend of mine was at a club when a bloke came up to her, licked his fingertip, ran it down the front of her dress and said, 'Let's get you out of those wet clothes.' I would have sent him a dry-cleaning bill." Faith Liddell (no 21)
"A youth on a bus said to me, 'You look good for your age.' But I'm only 29, for God's sake!" Kelly Valentine Hendry (no 13)
"In Barbados, our tour guide took a great liking to me, saying, 'I'm just a guy with a boat, but give me a chance.' Very sweet, but his dental hygiene left a lot to be desired." Sally Gray (no 19)
"You look just like Kelly McGillis, but in Witness, not Top Gun." Samantha Lockhart (no 38)
"Somebody once said to me, 'I'm really, really drunk, but can I take you home in a taxi?' I said no." Sian McGrath (no 17)
"Baby, you're so hot that you should be held responsible for global warming." Catherine MacDonald-Keir (no 37)
"I was once asked, 'Has anyone ever said that you look like José Mourinho?' I would have been flattered, but the woman who asked was a good 15 years older than me, and a little the worse for wear." Rob Morrice (no 28)
"Someone once said I looked awfully familiar and asked me if I'd ever done any porn!" Heidi Tweedie (no 47)
"I once heard a friend say to a girl, 'Where are the bruises you got when you fell from heaven?' She threw up." Lorne Cousin, pictured (no 20)
"You make my liver quiver." Debi Edward (no 11)
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1516&id=1705702006
Londoners tested as Litvinenko poison fears grow
BRIAN BRADY
WESTMINSTER EDITOR
A "HUGE amount" of radioactive poison was used to kill Alexander Litvinenko, a source close to the investigation into his death revealed last night, increasing fears other people could have been contaminated by Polonium-210.
As health chiefs offered medical checks to concerned Londoners, it was also revealed that an aerosol-style spray was most likely used to administer the dose, potentially spreading the poison.
Yesterday, the Health Protection Agency urged members of the public who may have come into contact with the dissident to come forward for tests. Britain's top doctor has also issued guidance to GPs on spotting possible radioactive contamination in their patients.
The dramatic alerts came amid growing concerns that Litvinenko had been attacked with a spray which deposited a fine mist of the poison over his food while he ate at a sushi bar in London earlier this month.
The revelation could explain why traces of the toxin have been found at the restaurant and at least two other places visited by Litvinenko, more than three weeks after he was targeted.
But it also raised fears that the poison may have had a greater impact than first believed.
Senior ministers and government officials held another meeting of their Cobra emergency committee to decide how to handle the growing crisis, as the air of concern surrounding the case escalated.
A senior government source last night confirmed that the amount of Polonium-210 used in the attack was "unprecedented", although experts still did not know exactly how much had been involved.
"They are piecing it together," he said. "There seems to have been a huge amount to kill just one man. They know it was Polonium but they have no idea how much we are talking about."
Polonium-210, which emits alpha radiation, is 250 billion times more poisonous than cyanide once it enters the human body.
"It's not something that's used every day in research laboratories so it has to be manufactured in a nuclear facility," said Gaia Vince, of the New Scientist magazine. "It's actually quite tricky to make. The material has to be bombarded with neutrons."
HPA chiefs last night insisted that Polonium-210 was harmless as long as it remained outside the body, but confirmed that they wanted to trace anyone who had been in "close contact" with Litvinenko since the poisoning attack.
Radioactive traces were found at the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel and the Itsu sushi bar he visited on November 1, and the HPA has urged anyone else who was there on that date to contact the NHS Direct helpline.
An HPA spokeswoman said: "We expect that we are going to do [urine] tests and we expect that they are going to be negative and we have no reason to think customers are at risk."
Meanwhile, chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson has issued advice to GPs and hospitals on the risks and clinical implications of exposure to Polonium-210.
Tests are also being carried out at the two London hospitals where Litvinenko had been treated, University College and the Barnet General. Professor Pat Troop from the HPA said the hospital staff who had come into contact with him would be monitored.
She said Litvinenko would have had to either eaten, inhaled or been given the dose of Polonium-210 through a wound.
A post-mortem examination on Litvinenko has not yet been held. The delay is believed to be over concerns about the health implications for those present at the examination.
Litvinenko died on Thursday night after a three-week illness that saw his hair fall out, his body waste away and his organs slowly fail.
"To most chemists, this is astonishing,'' said Dr Andrea Sella, a lecturer in inorganic chemistry at London's University College. "This is not available commercially.
"It is present in food, but only in the kind of trace quantities that can be detected by ultra-sensitive analytical techniques.
"It is one of the rarest elements on the earth's crust and also one of the most exotic."
He added: "This is not the kind of weapon that any kind of amateur could construct. It would require real resources to do it."
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1751832006
Humor Quotations
* "Education is worth a whole lot. Just think - with enough
education and brains the average man would make a good lawyer - and so
would the average lawyer."
-- Grace Allen (Gracie)
* "It's foolish to bet on a horse without talking to him first. I
know it seems silly to ask a horse who's going to win a race - but it's
no sillier than asking anyone else."
-- Grace Allen (Gracie)
* "Build a better mousetrap than your neighbour and Kraft Cheese
will beat a path to your door."
-- Grace Allen (Gracie)
* "First you forget names, then you forget faces. Next you forget
to pull your zipper up and finally, you forget to pull it down."
-- George Burns
* "Actually, it only takes one drink to get me loaded. Trouble is,
I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or fourteenth."
-- George Burns
* "For forty years my act consisted of one joke. And then she
died."
-- George Burns
* "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring close-knit family in
another city."
-- George Burns
* "Nice to be here? At my age it's nice to be anywhere."
-- George Burns
* "Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without
arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place."
-- Johnny Carson
* "Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and
anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president."
-- Johnny Carson
* "Happiness is your dentist telling you it won't hurt and then
having him catch his hand in the drill."
-- Johnny Carson
* "I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food."
-- Johnny Carson
* "The only thing money gives you is the freedom of not worrying
about money."
-- Johnny Carson
* "Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you
yell the name will carry."
Bill Cosby
* ""Don't worry about senility," my grandfather used to say. "When
it hits you, you won't know it.""
Bill Cosby
* "Fatherhood is telling your daughter that Michael Jackson loves
all his fans, but has special feelings for the ones who eat broccoli."
Bill Cosby
* "Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act
that two people in love can commit."
Bill Cosby
* "I wasn't always black... There was this freckle, and it got
bigger and bigger."
Bill Cosby
* "Immortality is a long shot, I admit. But somebody has to be
first."
Bill Cosby
* "I love being married. It's so great to find that one special
person you want to annoy for the rest of your life."
-- Rita Rudner
* "I love to shop after a bad relationship. I don't know. I buy a
new outfit and it makes me feel better. It just does. Sometimes I see a
really great outfit, I'll break up with someone on purpose."
-- Rita Rudner
* "I think men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for
marriage. They've experienced pain and bought jewelry."
-- Rita Rudner
* "I want to have children while my parents are still young enough
to take care of them."
-- Rita Rudner
* "I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird
religious cult."
-- Rita Rudner
* "Men hate to lose. I once beat my husband at tennis. I asked him,
"Are we going to have sex again?" He said, "Yes, but not with each
other.""
-- Rita Rudner
* "I always did well on the essay questions. Just put everything
you know on there, maybe you'll hit it."
-- Jerry Seinfeld
* "No face, mouth open ... that is how the drug companies see the
public."
-- Jerry Seinfeld
* "On the side of box of my superman costume it actually said - 'Do
not attempt to fly!'"
-- Jerry Seinfeld
* "People who read the tabloids deserve to be lied to."
-- Jerry Seinfeld
* "The Four Levels of Comedy: Make your friends laugh, Make
strangers laugh, Get paid to make strangers laugh, and Make people talk
like you because it's so much fun."
-- Jerry Seinfeld
* "Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time."
-- Steven Wright
* "I bought some batteries, but they weren't included. So I had to
buy them again."
-- Steven Wright
* "I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a
full house and four people died."
-- Steven Wright
* "If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?"
-- Steven Wright
* "Someone sent me a postcard picture of the earth. On the back it
said, "Wish you were here.""
-- Steven Wright
Why the dollar is falling so fast
Analysis
By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News
The US dollar is plunging in world currency markets - and bringing down share prices in its wake.
But why is the dollar under pressure - and what would be the consequences for the US economy if it continues to fall?
Behind the problems of the dollar lies the huge and growing US trade deficit, and the large Federal budget deficit.
A fall in the greenback could hit Asian countries whose governments hold huge foreign currency reserves in dollars
For many years financial markets have worried about the growing size of the US trade deficit - the difference between the amount the US imports from the rest of the world, and the amount it can sell to the rest of the world.
That deficit is now heading above $800bn for 2006, or 7% of the US economy, and shows no signs of diminishing.
At the same time, tax cuts and the war in Iraq have led to a US budget deficit of several hundred billion dollars despite the booming economy.
Asian giants
Much of the trade gap relates to US commerce with East Asian countries such as China, Japan, and Korea, who sell much more to America than they buy.
Together, the East Asian countries have accumulated foreign currency surpluses of nearly $1 trillion, much of it held in US Treasury bonds denominated in dollars.
Thus they are funding both the budget gap and the trade gap.
These huge global imbalances are threatening to derail the world economy, the IMF and other international organisations have warned.
The classic economic view of how to correct such changes is to adjust the exchange rate in order to make US goods cheaper and Asian goods more expensive.
But many Asian currencies - especially the Chinese yuan - do not float freely on international currency markets, and the US has long been pressuring China to revalue its currency.
Now the markets are beginning to take matters into their own hands, by forcing the US dollar down.
In the long run, the fall in the dollar could lead to a cut in the trade deficit and a boost to US exports.
But this process often takes a long time, and in the meantime, it is fraught with dangers.
The fall in the dollar is worrying the IMF, the international organisation charged with surveillance of the world economy.
"A disorderly unwinding of global imbalances would be very damaging," IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato warned at its spring meeting in April.
Run on the dollar
In the first place, a rapid fall in the dollar, if it accelerates, could cause short-term problems for the US economy.
The higher price of imported goods could lead to a hike in domestic inflation, and it could take several years before consumers switch back to buying more US goods.
High inflation, combined with the stronger-than-expected growth of the US economy, could force the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, to keep raising interest rates.
They have already been raised 15 times, and now stand at 5%, partly on fears of a growing housing boom.
But the fears of inflation are also likely to affect the interest rates on long-term bonds, which determine mortgage rates.
The rising mortgage rates, while they may eventually dampen the housing boom, will also give a further boost to inflationary pressures.
International exporters hit
Meanwhile, foreign companies who have derived an increasing proportion of their sales and profits from the US market could also be hit by falling demand for their exports.
The sharp falls in non-US stock markets, especially in Asia, are a response to this fear, with electronics and car companies like Toyota and Sony especially vulnerable.
And that in turn could affect the growth rate of countries like China, who derive much of the growth in their economies from exports.
But the Asian exporters also have another reason to feel vulnerable.
As the value of the dollar falls, their reserves of the currency also reduce in value, as do the yields on the US Treasury bonds held by many of their central banks.
In buying such bonds these governments are, in effect, underwriting the large US Federal budget deficit as well.
This deficit is set to increase as the baby boomer generation faces retirement.
The Asian governments and investors may be tempted to sell many of their dollar holdings in order to protect themselves - but this would have the effect of weakening the dollar further.
And it would force the Fed to raise interest rates even more to protect the dollar.
Countries like China are reluctant to massively revalue their currency - because it would make investing in China much more expensive and could deter valuable foreign investment.
Managed float
This problem with the dollar has happened before, in the 1980s, when it was Japan rather than China that was seen as the main threat.
At that time, the main industrialised countries worked together for a managed currency float in an agreement called the Plaza Accord.
The coordinated approach led to a managed decline in the value of the dollar, which then stabilised at a more sustainable level, supported by central banks.
However, the current US administration does not favour such an approach, believing that the markets should be left to their own devices.
And given the vast size of foreign currency markets today, it is doubtful that central banks could make such an effective intervention again.
The downside for the US in the 1980s was that it was forced to enter into an international agreement with other governments that reduced its freedom to set its own domestic policy.
But in the absence of such an agreement, it looks like the markets themselves are finally deciding that the US 'twin deficits' are no longer sustainable.
And when the world's largest economy begins to look shaky, it is not surprising that confidence among financial markets is weakened around the world.
Full Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4772049.stm
Kids These Days !
School Gurl - video powered by MetacafeWhy'd She Do it ? Just so she would get enough votes to become the class President !!!
Here's a link to her picture taken just after her strip show on stage in front of all the students AND faculty member .... http://home.no.net/iceboy1/nakenruss.jpg
Did she become the Class President? Well I'm sure she got all the boys vote...
Would You vote for her? If she was in your class?
Better yet, would you dare to do what she did in order to win all the votes which we all know she did ???
End of The Line !
Its Not Time to Make a Change ...
Just Role Over & Hope to Die!
Panda porn pays off
Scientists say a bid to encourage giant pandas to breed by showing them 'panda porn' has paid off.
They claim to have sparked a baby boom among the endangered animals by showing them DVDs of pandas mating.
"It works," Zhang Zhihe, a leading Chinese expert, told the Xinhua news agency.
Pandas are notoriously poor breeders and the 'panda porn' movies were just one of many techniques used to encourage them to breed.
In the first 10 months of this year 31 cubs were born in captivity in China and 28 survived, said Zhang.
That's an increase from 12 births in 2005 and just nine in 2000. Of this year's births, 14 came through natural breeding, while artificial insemination or a combination of the two produced the rest.
Now comes the next test - getting the trick to work outside China.
The day of reckoning will come in January, when Prasertsak Buntragulpoontawee hopes male Chuang Chuang and partner Lin Hui will mate in Thailand.
"It is the same idea as chimpanzees seeing people smoke and then copying it," says the Thai researcher.
Now Lets hear it from ....
A debate between Governer Bush and President Bush. From the The Daily Show.
Gov Bush Vs. Pres Bush - video powered by Metacafe
Turkeys Try for Fast Train Out of Jersey
Nov 23, 4:24 PM (ET)
RAMSEY, N.J. (AP) - Some wild turkeys, it appears, were trying to get out of New Jersey before Thanksgiving Day. A spokesman for the NJ Transit said train officials reported a dozen or so wild turkeys waiting on a station platform in Ramsey, about 20 miles northwest of New York City, on Wednesday afternoon. The line travels to Suffern, N.Y.
"For a moment, it looked like the turkeys were waiting for the next outbound train," said Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit. "Clearly, they're trying to catch a train and escape their fate."
Transit workers followed the bird's movements on surveillance cameras. "I have no idea how they got there," Stessel said.
A Ramsey police dispatcher said the department had received three calls about the traveling turkeys who also were blamed for causing morning rush hour traffic problems on a roadway.
"From time to time, I've heard calls that there are turkeys on the loose," said Erik Endress, president of the Ramsey Rescue Squad, a volunteer group. "Maybe they're trying to make a break."
In a security camera photo released by New Jersey Transit, a flock of wild turkeys stands on the platform at the Ramsey train station in Ramsey, N.J., Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006. NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel says the turkeys flew away after this video image was taken and it is unknown where they came from. (AP Photo/NJ Transit)
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061123/D8LJ13FO1.html
A VERY VALUABLE HISTORY LESSON
Arming of Iraq and the Iran-Iraq War
Written by Administrator
The Iran-Iraq War, also called the First Persian Gulf War or the Imposed War in Iran , was a war between the Republic of Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran that lasted from September 22, 1980 until August 20, 1988.
The origins of the war go as far back as 1958, when Abdul Karim Quassim took over Iraq in a coup d'etat. But it was fundamentally a war over dominance of the Persian Gulf region. However, it is well known that Iraq initiated the pre-meditated full scale invasion of Iran on September 22, 1980. Iraq launched an invasion of Iran on September 22, 1980.
An accusation against Iran of backing an assassination attempt aimed at Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz was used as a pretext for the attack. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait supplied substantial financial support. After a June 1982 successful Iranian counter-offensive most of the fighting for the rest of the war occurred on Iraqi territory, although some have interpreted the Iraqi withdrawal as a tactical ploy by the Iraqi military. Iraq offered a cessation of hostilities in 1982 but Iran 's insistence from July 1982 onward to destroy the Iraqi government prolonged the conflict for another six years of static warfare. In the final years of the war Iraq received more and more foreign aid, and began to build a more modern, well-trained army, air force, and navy. Iran felt militarily isolated and offered to open peace negotiations. Iraq accepted, since the Iraqi economy and population had suffered from the war for 8 years, and they wanted to solidify their position.
Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War
The United States directly and through intermediaries provided extensive support to Iraq during its war with Iran . After the revolution, Washington came to the conclusion that Saddam was the lesser of the two evils, and hence secret efforts to support him became the order of the day, both during his long war with Iran and afterward. This led to what later became known as the Iraq-gate scandals. Saddam received dual-use technology -- ultra sophisticated computers, armored ambulances, helicopters, chemicals, and the like, with potential civilian uses as well as military applications. In February, 1982. Despite objections from congress, President Reagan removed Iraq from its list of known terrorist countries. In November, 1983 a National Security Directive stated that the U.S would do “whatever was necessary and legal” to prevent Iraq from losing its war with Iran . On December 20, 1983 Donald Rumsfeld, then a civilian envoy for President Reagan and now Secretary of Defense, met with Saddam Hussein to assure him of US friendship and materials support. In July, 1984 the CIA gave Iraq intelligence necessary to calibrate its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops. In March, 1986 the United States with Great Britain blocked all Security Council resolutions condemning Iraq's use of chemical weapons, and on March 21 the U.S. became the only country refusing to sign a Security Council statement condemning Iraq's use of these weapons. In May, 1986 the U.S. Department of Commerce licensed 70 biological exports to Iraq between May of 1985 and 1989, including at least 21 batches of lethal strains of anthrax. In the same month the U.S. Department of Commerce approved shipments of weapons grade botulin poison to Iraq. In September, 1988, the U.S. Department of Commerce approved shipments of weapons grade anthrax and botulinum to Iraq. During the Iraq War the Defense Intelligence Agency provided detailed information for Iraq on Iranian deployments, tactical planning for battles, plans for air strikes and bomb damage assessments. A vast network of companies, based in the US and abroad, eagerly fed the Iraqi war machine right up until August 1990, when Saddam invaded Kuwait .
Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War citing Russ Baker, IraqGate: The Big One That (Almost) Got Away Who Chased it -- and Who Didn't, Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1993, http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/93/2/iraqgate.asp. See also: John King, Arming Iraq : A Chronology of U.S. Involvement, March 2003, http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/arming_iraq.php
The Iraq-gate scandal revealed that an Atlanta branch of Italy 's largest bank, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, relying partially on US taxpayer-guaranteed loans, funneled $5 billion to Iraq from 1985 to 1989. In August 1989, when FBI agents finally raided the Atlanta branch of BNL, the branch manager, Christopher Drogoul, was charged with making unauthorized, clandestine, and illegal loans to Iraq -- some of which, according to his indictment, were used to purchase arms and weapons technology.
Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War citing Russ Baker, IraqGate: The Big One That (Almost) Got Away Who Chased it -- and Who Didn't, Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1993, http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/93/2/iraqgate.asp.
Senator Donald Riegle Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs reported, “ UN inspectors had identified many United States manufactured items that had been exported from the United States to Iraq under licenses issued by the Department of Commerce, and [established] that these items were used to further Iraq's chemical and nuclear weapons development and its missile delivery system development programs .” He added, “ the executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licenses for sale of dual -use technology to Iraq . I think that is a devastating record. ”
Source: The Riegle Report, U.S. Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual Use Exports to Iraq and their Possible Impact on the Health Consequences of the Gulf War, A Report of Chairman Donald W. Riegle, Jr. and Ranking Member Alfonse M. D'Amato of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with Respect to Export Administration, United States Senate, 103d Congress, 2d Session, May 25, 1994.
Even before the first Gulf war started in 1990, The Intelligencer Journal of Pennsylvania, in a string of articles reported: “ If U.S. and Iraqi troops engage in combat in the Persian Gulf, weapons technology developed in Lancaster and indirectly sold to Iraq will probably be used against U.S. forces . . . . And aiding in this . . . technology transfer was the Iraqi-owned, British-based precision tooling firm Matrix Churchill, whose US operations in Ohio were recently linked to a sophisticated Iraqi weapons procurement network.”
Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War citing Russ Baker, IraqGate: The Big One That (Almost) Got Away Who Chased it -- and Who Didn't , Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1993, http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/93/2/iraqgate.asp .
In December 2002, Iraq 's 1200 page Weapons Declaration revealed a list of Western corporations and countries -- as well as individuals -- that exported chemical and biological materials to Iraq in the past two decades. Many American names were on the list. Alcolac International, for example, a Maryland company, transported thiodiglycol, a mustard gas precursor, to Iraq . A Tennessee manufacturer contributed large amounts of a chemical used to make sarin, a nerve gas implicated in Gulf War diseases. U.S. companies and U.S. government agencies that provided weapons development assistance include:
U.S. Corporations
AT&T
AL HADDAD ENTERPRISES, INC.
ALCOLAC INTERNATIONAL
AMERICAN TYPE CULTURE COLLECTION
ASSOCIATED INSTRUMENTS DISTRIBUTORS, INC.
AXEL ELECTRONICS
BANCA NAZIONALE DEL LAVORO
BECHTEL GROUP
BREEZEVALE, INC.
CANBERRA INDUSTRIES
CARL SCHENCK AG
CARL ZEISS
CATERPILLAR, INC.
COMTEC INTERNATIONAL, INC.
CONSARC
COPELAND INTERNATIONAL, INC.
DATA GENERAL CORP
DEKTOR COUNTERINTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY, INC.
DOW CHEMICAL
DRESSER CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPMENT
DUPONT
E G & G PRINCETON APPLIED RESEARCH
EASTMAN KODAK CO.
ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATES, INC.
ENTRADE INTERNATIONAL, LTD.
EVAPCO
FINNIGAN MAT US
FOXBORO COMPANY
GERBER SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY
GORMAN-RUPP
HARDINGE BROTHERS
HEWLETT-PACKARD
HIPOTRONICS
HONEYWELL
HUGHES HELICOPTER
IBM
INTERNATIONAL IMAGING SYSTEMS
INTERNATIONAL SIGNAL AND CONTROL
IONICS
KENNAMETAL, INC.
LEYBOLD VACUUM SYSTEMS
LINCOLN ELECTRIC CO.
LITTON INDUSTRIES
LUMMUS CREST, INC.
MBB HELICOPTER CORP.
MACK TRUCKS, INC.
MAHO AG
MATRIX CHURCHILL CORP.
McNEIL AKRON, INC.
MEMPHIS INTERNATIONAL, INC.
MILLER ELECTRIC
MOUSE MASTER
NCR CORPORATION
NRM CORP.
NORWALK CO.
NU KRAFT MERCANTILE CORP.
PERKIN-ELMER CORP.
PHILLIPS EXPORT
POSI SEAL, INC.
PRESRAY CORP.
PURE AIRE
REDLAKE IMAGING CORP.
REXON TECHNOLOGY CORP.
ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL CORP.
ROTEC INDUSTRIES, INC.
SACKMAN ASSOCIATES
SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA
SCIENTIFIC DESIGN CO., INC.
SEMETEX
SERVAAS, INC.
SIEMENS CORP.
SIP CORP.
SPECTRAL DATA CORP.
SPECTRA PHYSICS
SPERRY CORP.
SULLAIRE CORP.
SWISSCO MANAGEMENT GROUP, INC.
TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS CORP.
TEKTRONIX
TELEDYNE WAH CHANG
THERMO JARRELL ASH CORP.
TI COATING
TRADING AND INVESTMENT CORP.
UNION CARBIDE
UNISYS CORP.
VEECO INSTRUMENTS, INC.
WILD MAGNAVOX SATELLITE SURVEY
WILTRON
XYZ OPTIONS, INC.
YORK INTERNATIONAL CORP.
ZETA LABORATORIES
U.S. Government Agencies:
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
U.S. NUCLEAR WEAPONS LABORATORIES
Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War citing Jim Crogan, Made in the USA, Part III: Dishonor Role, America’s corporate merchants of death in Iraq, LA Weekly, April 25-May 1, 2003, http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/23/news-crogan.php . The article cites numerous original sources and provides details on the role of each corporation and government entity in arming Iraq .
On May 25, 1994, The U.S. Senate Banking Committee released a report in which it was stated that pathogenic (meaning disease producing), toxigenic (meaning poisonous ) and other biological research materials were exported to Iraq, pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It added: These exported biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction. The report then detailed 70 shipments (including anthrax bacillus) from the United States to Iraqi government agencies over three years.
Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War citing U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Second Staff Report on U.S. Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and The Possible Impact on the Health Consequences of the War, May 25, 1994. http://www.gulfwarvets.com/arison/banking.htm
Casualties in Iraq
The Pentagon does not provide a comprehensive accounting of the human toll of the war from the American side, not to mention the larger toll on the Iraqi people. The Administration only reports the strictly combat-related fatalities and injuries. Neither injuries nor disease-connected sicknesses nor severe mental illnesses are reported.
Not reporting the trauma nor illnesses—physical or mental— combat and non-combat presents an incomplete picture of the human toll resulting from the Iraq war and occupation. “Most Americans haven't seen the growing legion of wounded troops returning from Iraq who are cared for at military facilities sealed off from the public. The media, in turn, have focused on the hit-and-run guerrilla attacks that claim one or two GIs in Iraq almost daily. Little attention has been paid to the long, difficult and very personal struggles that ensue in wards at BAMC and Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.” Christenson, Sig. "Soldiers, Marines work to recover from war injuries at BAMC." San Antonio Express-News, 18 Aug 2003. To get a sense of some the physical injuries inflicted on US soldiers visit the photographic display at: http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/wounded/gallery.htm
Officially there have been 10,770 American military casualties in Iraq since the war began on March 19, 2003. Mark Benjamin, UPI Investigations Editor, who has been closely following the hidden casualties of the Iraq War says: “what that number does not include is the number of soldiers who are wounded or ill, or injured in operations that are not directly due to the bullets and bombs of the insurgents. So, for example, as of mid-September, if you take actually Afghanistan and Iraq together, there were 17,000 soldiers who were injured or ill enough to be put on airplanes and flown out of theater, and none of those casualties, and I call them casualties because they fit the Pentagon's definition of casualties, none of those casualties appear on any public casualty lists.”
Source: “The Forgotten Casualties of the War: Over 17,000 US Troops Wounded, November 10, 2004, Democracy Now Interview with Mark Benjamin http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/10/1537224; See also: The Department of Defense, Director of Information, reports Military Casualty Information at: http://web1.whs.osd.mil/mmid/casualty/castop.htm See also: Casualties in Iraq, The Human Cost of Occupation, http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/ citing The Department of Defense, CENTCOM Casualty Reports, http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/casualties.asp.
Knight-Ridder reports that in the Persian Gulf War, about three troops were wounded in action for every fatality. In Iraq, about seven are being wounded for every one killed.
Source: Bavley, Alan. "New technology and medical practices save lives in Iraq." Knight Ridder Newspapers, 17 Dec 2003, http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/7511929.htm
Leishmaniasis, also known as “Sandfly Disease” or “Baghdad Boil” is faced by the U.S. military in Iraq. The disease is caused by parasites transmitted via sand fly saliva (when female sandflies bite humans), and comes in three forms: cutaneous, affecting the skin; mucosal, affecting the mouth, nose and throat; and visceral, affecting internal organs, which can be fatal if untreated. Symptoms may include fever, frontal headache, lethargy, malaise, retroorbital pain, conjuctivitis, photophobia, neck rigidity, low back pain, myalgia, meningitis, encephalitis, confusion. No complete list of U.S. military affected by Sandfly Disease is available, press reports indicate over 2,000 have been affected. Specialists also warn that blood donations from the affect could infect public blood banks.
Source: Deployment Health Clinical Center, Common Endemic Diseases: Sandfly Fever, http://www.pdhealth.mil/deployments/gulfwar/sandfly.asp; Centers for Disease Control, Leishmaniasis, http://www.pdhealth.mil/deployments/gulfwar/sandfly.asp. See also: Lisa Burgess, Troops Being Treated For Leishmaniasis, Stars and Stripes, March 20, 2004, http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_sick_032004,00.html
Military officials and mental health providers predict that up to 30 percent of returning soldiers will require psychiatric services.
Source: Guthrie, Julian. "Iraq war vets fight an enemy at home Experts say up to 30% may need psychiatric care." San Francisco Chronicle 17, January 2005. 30, January 2005 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/17/MNG24ARHTU1.DTL
Fifty-two percent of Soldiers reported low or very low personal morale and seventy-two percent reported low or very low unit morale.
Source: U.S. Army Medical Department, Military Health Advisory Team. "Military Health Advisory Team Report". 2003, December 16. http://www.armymedicine.army.mil/news/mhat/annex_a.pdf
Seventeen percent of Soldiers screened positive for traumatic stress, depression or anxiety and reported impairment in social or occupational functioning.
Source: U.S. Army Medical Department, Military Health Advisory Team. "Military Health Advisory Team Report". 2003, December 16. www.armymedicine.army.mil
The Pentagon estimates that as many as 100,000 new combat veterans nationwide will suffer from mental issues ranging from depression and anxiety to the more debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder.
Source: Guthrie, Julian. "Iraq war vets fight an enemy at home Experts say up to 30% may need psychiatric care." San Francisco Chronicle 17, January 2005. 30, January 2005 Read the report
An estimated 900 service members have been evacuated from Iraq since the start of war due to psychological problems, according to the Defense Department.
Source: Guthrie, Julian. "Iraq war vets fight an enemy at home Experts say up to 30% may need psychiatric care." San Francisco Chronicle 17, January 2005. 30, January 2005 Read the report; Army Medical Evacuations are reported by the U.S. Army Medical Department at: Read the report
Some of the illness from the first Gulf War and the current Iraq war and occupation will not be seen for years. Concerns have been raised about depleted uranium, used in missiles as well as armor of soldiers. As reported by researchers in the Netherlands, “both the Pentagon and the British Ministry of Defense officially deny that there is any significant danger from exposure to DU ammunition. And whilst it is conceivable that the US led attacks on Iraq's nuclear power stations could be a contributory factor, most reseachers point to DU as the most likely source of both deformities and cancers. The rising number of cases in Iraq, particularly in the South where the greatest concentration of DU was fired, is simply staggering. Iraqi physicians have never encountered anything like it, and have made the perfectly reasonable point that similar increases in cancer and deformities were experienced in Japan after the two US atomic bomb attacks. Cancer has increased between 7 and 10 fold; deformities between 4 and 6 fold.”
Source: Extreme Birth Deformities, The article contains distrubing photos of birth defects allegedly caused by exposure to depleted uranium.
Research conducted for Science Applications International Corporation for the U.S. Army reported on the potential hazards of Depleted Uranium: "Aerosol DU (Depleted Uranium) exposures to soldiers on the battlefield could be significant with potential radiological and toxicological effects. [...] Under combat conditions, the most exposed individuals are probably ground troops that re-enter a battlefield following the exchange of armour-piercing munitions. [...] We are simply highlighting the potential for levels of DU exposure to military personnel during combat that would be unacceptable during peacetime operations. [...DU is..]... a low level alpha radiation emitter which is linked to cancer when exposures are internal, [and] chemical toxicity causing kidney damage. [...] Short term effects of high doses can result in death, while long term effects of low doses have been linked to cancer. [...] Our conclusion regarding the health and environmental acceptability of DU penetrators assume both controlled use and the presence of excellent health physics management practices. Combat conditions will lead to the uncontrolled release of DU. [...] The conditions of the battlefield, and the long term health risks to natives and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of the continued use of DU kinetic penetrators for military applications."
Source: Excerpts from the July 1990 Science and Applications International Corporation report: ' Kinetic Energy Penetrator Environment and Health Considerations', as included in Appenix D - US Army Armaments, Munitions and Chemical Command report: 'Kinetic Energy Penetrator Long Term Strategy Study, July 1990' cited at: Extreme Birth Deformities
According to a memorandum from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the United States was aware of the long-term dangers of Depleted Uranium contamination, and played it down:: “There has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of DU on the environment. Therefore, if no-one makes a case for the effectiveness of DU on the battlefield, DU rounds may become politically unacceptable and thus be deleted from the arsenal. I believe we should keep this sensitive issue in mind when action reports are written.”
Source: Lt. Col. M.V. Ziehmn, Los Alamos National Laboratory memorandum, March 1st 1991, cited at: Extreme Birth Deformities
13. Since 9/11, the Pentagon's Transportation Command has medevaced 24,772 patients from battlefields, mostly from Iraq. But two years after the invasion of Iraq, images of wounded troops arriving in the United States are almost as hard to find as pictures of caskets from Dover. That's because all the transport is done literally in the dark, and in most cases, photos are banned.
Source: Mark Benjamin, The Invisible Wounded, Salon.com News, May 8, 2005 , http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/03/08/night_flights/
Some critics, including the American Legion, have blamed the Pentagon for tinkering with even the most basic data on the war. Pentagon "casualty reports," for example, only reflect troops hurt by the bullets and bombs of the enemy -- excluding over 20,432 troops evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan for injuries or illnesses the Pentagon deems not caused directly by combat, like Humvee accidents or mental trauma.
Source: Mark Benjamin, The Invisible Wounded, Salon.com News, May 8, 2005 , http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/03/08/night_flights/
Corporate Contract Abuse
Iraq reconstruction contracts that have been awarded to contractors with problematic contracting track records – companies that repeatedly violate laws and regulations – examples include:
Lockheed (84 incidences of misconduct);
Northrop Grumman (36 incidences of misconduct);
Fluor (15 incidences of misconduct);
Computer Sciences Corporation/DynCorp (9 incidences of misconduct),
Bechtel (6 incidences of misconduct);
SAIC (5 incidences of misconduct)
Source: Federal Contracting and Iraq Reconstruction Report, Project on Government Oversight, March 11, 2004 , http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/co-040301-iraq.html. To search for specific companies and their violations of laws and regulations see: http://www.pogo.org/db/index.cfm.
Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity" (IDIQ) allows the government to award an unspecified amount of future work to approved contractors. Once companies get on this list of approved contractors, they do not have to compete for work, nor is that future work ever publicly announced. As a result, small businesses that would be able to perform many of the tasks authorized under an IDIQ are never given the opportunity to compete for that work. It is estimated that this system costs small businesses, which don't get a chance to compete, $13 billion annually. Furthermore, information about the specific work and the cost of that work is never made publicly available - not even to Members of Congress upon request. As a result of this lack of transparency or accountability, contractors don't have an incentive to keep costs as low as they would in a truly competitive and open marketplace. For example, the January 6, 2004 contract awarded to Bechtel, which teamed up with Parsons of California, is for an amount up to $1.8 billion to repair the infrastructure of Iraq over the next 24 months. In other words, Bechtel and Parsons have an effective monopoly over any future tasks or services up to $1.8 billion.
Source: Federal Contracting and Iraq Reconstruction Report, Project on Government Oversight, March 11, 2004 , http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/co-040301-iraq.html. To search for specific companies and their violations of laws and regulations see: http://www.pogo.org/db/index.cfm.
The General Accounting Office stated that those types of contracts “were not attaining the level of competition Congress had initially envisioned.” For example, Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, and Bechtel have received task and deliver orders worth billions. Those task and delivery orders fall below the procurement radar screen and are not open for bidding or available to Congress or the public. [Note: These no-bid contracts avoid violation of federal procurement law by claiming that there are no other contractors capable of fulfilling the requirements of the contract.]
Source: Federal Contracting and Iraq Reconstruction Report, Project on Government Oversight, March 11, 2004 , http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/co-040301-iraq.html. To search for specific companies and their violations of laws and regulations see: http://www.pogo.org/db/index.cfm.
No competition or minimal competition contracts are common in Iraq . For example, the oil contract awarded to Halliburton's subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root had been described by the head of Iraq reconstruction contracting as "competed ... in a classified competition." Additionally, the Iraq infrastructure reconstruction contract that was awarded to Bechtel in April 2003, was not open for full and open competition, but was sent secretly to seven American companies of which only 2 bidders were deemed "competitive." Although those contracts were rebid in open competitions, both companies had an inside advantage, with KBR receiving $1.2 billion to restore Iraq's oil infrastructure to pre-war levels and Bechtel receiving $1.8 billion to repair Iraq's infrastructure.
Source: Federal Contracting and Iraq Reconstruction Report, Project on Government Oversight, March 11, 2004 , http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/co-040301-iraq.html. To search for specific companies and their violations of laws and regulations see: http://www.pogo.org/db/index.cfm.
There is a lack of oversight of Iraq reconstruction contracts. Oversight staff have been cut by up to 35% and their budgets by up to 41% in some offices. An additional $18.6 billion has been earmarked for the reconstruction of Iraq , but who in the federal government will have the staff or resources to monitor that money? Despite the recent contracting horror stories about overpriced fuel, kickbacks, and the exploitation of cost-plus contracts by contractors, Congress has been slow to act on war profiteering legislation and even had them removed from the $18.6 billion Iraq supplemental that was approved by Congress in October 2003.
Source: Federal Contracting and Iraq Reconstruction Report, Project on Government Oversight, March 11, 2004 , http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/co-040301-iraq.html. To search for specific companies and their violations of laws and regulations see: http://www.pogo.org/db/index.cfm.
The Pentagon's handoff to Halliburton may have allowed individual employees to demand kickbacks from potential subcontractors. Congressman Waxman's office dropped a new "H-bomb" in November, when it announced that it had received 400 pages of internal State Department documents which suggest that Halliburton officials were "on the take" and "solicit[ing] bribes openly" from potential subcontractors.
Source: War Profiteers: Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004.htm citing November 10, 2004 letter to Rep. Tom Davis from Rep. Henry Waxman.
Privatization of Iraq industry has been a goal of the United States. Coalition Provisional Authority Order 39 by Paul Bremer set out a plan to essentially privatize Iraq's 200 state-owned industries. The order allows for “national treatment” of foreign investors (i.e. no preferences for local bidders and investors), who can also own 100 percent of any privatized business with unrestricted, tax-free remittance (i.e. repatriation) of all profits.
Source: Coalition Provisional Authority Order 39, http://www.cpa_iraq.org/regulations/20031220?CPAORD_39_Foreign_Investment_.pdf cited inWar Profiteers: Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004.htm
According to an independent audit conducted by KPMG for the multilateral International Advisory and Monitoring Board (established under UN Security Council Resolution 1483 to oversee the occupational authority), the CPA paid $12 billion to the contractors out of the Development Fund of Iraq (DFI). Nearly $1.5 billion was paid to one contractor – Halliburton, i.e., instead of using the money earmarked by Congress for the reconstruction, it appears that the CPA used Iraq's oil revenues to pay off U.S. contractors - money that Colin Powell said before the war was the "Iraqi people's" money, and therefore would not be touched by "coalition" leaders.
War Profiteers: Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004.htm citing Development Fund for Iraq , Report of Factual Findings in Connection with Disbursement, KPMG Bahrain , September 2004, http://www.democrats.refor,house.gov/Documents/20041014170448-72426.pdf
Post-War Contractors Ranked by Total Contract Value in Iraq and Afghanistan
From 2002 through July 1, 2004
Contractor
Contract Total
Kellogg, Brown & Root (Halliburton)
$11,431,000,000
Parsons Corp.
$5,286,136,252
Fluor Corp.
$3,754,964,295
Washington Group International
$3,133,078,193
Shaw Group/Shaw E & I
$3,050,749,910
Bechtel Group Inc.
$2,829,833,859
Perini Corporation
$2,525,000,000
Contrack International Inc.
$2,325,000,000
Tetra Tech Inc.
$1,541,947,671
USA Environmental Inc.
$1,541,947,671
CH2M Hill
$1,500,000,000
American International Contractors, Inc.
$1,500,000,000
Odebrect-Austin
$1,500,000,000
Zapata Engineering
$1,478,838,958
Environmental Chemical Corporation
$1,475,000,000
Explosive Ordnance Technologies Inc.
$1,475,000,000
Stanley Baker Hill L.L.C.
$1,200,000,000
International American Products Inc.
$628,421,252
Research Triangle Institute
$466,070,508
Titan Corporation
$402,000,000
Louis Berger Group
$327,671,364
BearingPoint Inc.
$304,262,668
Creative Associates International Inc.
$273,539,368
Readiness Management Support LC (Johnson Controls Inc.)
$214,757,447
Chemonics International Inc.
$167,759,000
Harris Corporation
$165,000,000
Science Applications International Corp.
$159,304,219
DynCorp (Computer Sciences Corp.)
$93,689,421
Raytheon Aerospace LLC
$91,096,464
Lucent Technologies World Services, Inc.
$75,000,000
EOD Technology Inc.
$71,900,000
NANA Pacific
$70,000,000
CACI International Inc.
$66,221,143
Earth Tech, Inc.
$65,449,155
Development Alternatives Inc.
$49,117,857
Vinnell Corporation (Northrop Grumman)
$48,074,442
Abt Associates Inc.
$43,818,278
Parsons Energy and Chemicals Group
$43,361,340
International Resources Group
$39,230,000
Management Systems International
$29,816,328
SkyLink Air and Logistic Support (USA) Inc.
$27,200,000
Ronco Consulting Corporation
$26,131,923
AECOM
$21,610,501
Blackwater Security Consulting L.L.C.
$21,331,693
World Fuel Services Corp.
$19,762,792
Laguna Construction Company, Inc.
$19,536,683
Weston Solutions, Inc.
$16,279,724
Motorola Inc.
$15,591,732
Stevedoring Services of America
$14,318,895
Miscellaneous Foreign Contract
$13,489,810
Raytheon Technical Services
$12,412,573
Kropp Holdings
$11,880,000
Military Professional Resources Inc.
$11,433,491
General Electric Company
$8,525,498
Foster Wheeler Co.
$8,416,985
Inglett and Stubbs LLC
$8,175,245
Stanley Consultants
$7,709,767
Liberty Shipping Group Ltd.
$7,300,000
TECO Ocean Shipping Co.
$7,200,000
University of Nebraska at Omaha
$7,072,468
PAE Government Services Inc.
$7,007,158
Anteon International Corporation
$6,800,000
Michael Baker Jr., Inc.
$5,999,566
Detection Monitoring Technologies
$5,584,482
American President Lines Ltd.
$5,000,000
Ocean Bulkships Inc.
$5,000,000
S&K Technologies Inc.
$4,950,385
Signature Science
$4,704,464
United Defense Industries, L.P.
$4,500,000
Simmonds Precision Products
$4,412,488
AllWorld Language Consultants
$4,051,349
Sealift Inc.
$4,000,000
MZM Inc.
$3,640,896
SETA Corporation
$3,165,765
Chugach McKinley, Inc.
$3,068,407
Diplomat Freight Services Inc.
$2,604,276
Federal Data Corporation
$1,991,770
Stratex Freedom Services
$1,978,175
Social Impact Inc.
$1,875,000
Global Container Lines Ltd.
$1,850,000
Midwest Research Institute
$1,765,000
Camp Dresser & McKee Inc.
$1,700,000
Cellhire USA
$1,465,983
J & B Truck Repair Service
$1,353,477
Artel
$1,254,902
Structural Engineers
$1,113,000
Dataline Inc.
$1,028,851
Red River Computer Company
$972,592
Global Services
$910,468
AOS, Inc.
$866,988
McNeil Technologies, Inc.
$716,651
DHS Logistics Company
$601,497
Global Professional Solutions
$590,232
Dell Marketing L.P.
$513,678
Unisys Corporation
$435,000
Tryco Inc.
$400,000
Sodexho Inc.
$324,120
Segovia Inc.
$320,636
Force 3
$274,651
Baldino, George F.
$263,000
Advanced Systems Development, Inc.
$259,959
Triumph Technologies
$228,924
Nuttall, James S.
$187,000
Alexander, Deborah Lynn
$168,625
International Global Systems, Inc.
$157,383
Night Vision Equipment Company
$153,118
Reabold, Miguel (Michael)
$136,603
Native American Industrial Distributors Inc.
$123,572
Ward Transformer Sales & Services
$115,000
EGL Eagle Global Logistics
$111,000
Young, Brian
$106,150
Paro, Amy K.
$94,457
Tekontrol, Inc.
$85,146
Sampler, Donald L.
$81,000
Giesecke & Devrient America
$72,700
GTSI Corp
$70,220
Expedited World Cargo Inc.
$55,004
Lab Safety Supply
$53,379
LandSea Systems, Inc.
$47,750
Comfort Inn
$47,324
Cartridge Discounters
$40,492
Bald Industries
$35,734
CDW Government, Inc.
$35,174
S&C Electric Company
$34,800
John S. Connor Inc.
$34,153
Outfitter Satellite, Inc.
$33,203
Logenix International L.L.C.
$29,000
Landstar Express America Inc.
$24,396
Redcom Laboratories
$24,375
Export Depot
$21,182
Intelligent Enterprise Solutions
$19,835
GPS Store, Inc., The
$19,761
Transfair North America International
$19,351
Atlas Case, Inc.
$17,243
Mediterranean Shipping Company
$13,000
Capital Shredder Corporation
$11,803
Bea Mauer, Inc.
$9,920
SPARCO
$9,215
Electric Generator Store, The
$6,974
Cybex International
$4,838
Total Business
$4,696
Hardware Associates
$4,304
Staples National Advantage
$4,194
EHI Company
$3,956
JSI Inc.
$3,376
Complement, Inc., The
$3,358
MEI Research Corporation
$3,276
WECSYS
$3,040
Smith Office Machines Corporation
$2,961
Kollsman Inc
$100
Kroll Inc.
Unknown Value
Source: Windfalls of War, The Center for Public Integrity, February 8, 2005http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=total
In June 2004, the Pentagon's Program Management Office in Iraq awarded a $293 million contract to coordinate security operations among thousands of private contractors to Aegis, a UK firm whose founder was once investigated for illegal arms smuggling. An inquiry by the British parliament into Sandline, Aegis head Tim Spicer's former firm, determined that the company had shipped guns to Sierra Leone in 1998 in violation of a UN arms embargo. Sandline's position was that it had approval from the British government, although British ministers were cleared by the inquiry. Spicer resigned from Sandline in 2000 and incorporated Aegis in 2002.
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm
BearingPoint spent five months helping USAID write the job specifications for a $240 million contract in 2003 to help develop Iraq 's “competitive private sector,” and even sent some employees to Iraq to begin work before the contract was awarded, while its competitors had only a week to read the specifications and submit their own bids after final revisions were made. BearingPoint, who spent five months helping to write the specs for the contract, was awarded the contract while its competitors had one week to read the specs. BearingPoint’s ties to the Bush administration (according to the Center for Responsive Politics, BearingPoint employees gave $117,000 to the 2000 and 2004 Bush election campaigns, more than any other Iraq contractor).
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm
BKSH & Associates’ Chairman Charlie Black, is an old Bush family friend and prominent Republican lobbyist whose firm is affiliated with Burson Marsteller, the global public relations giant. Black was a key player in the Bush/Cheney 2000 campaign and together with his wife raised $100,000 for this year's reelection campaign. BKSH clients with contracts in Iraq include:
Fluor International (whose ex-chair Phillip Carroll was tapped to head Iraq's oil ministry after the war, and whose board includes the wife of James Woolsey, the ex-CIA chief who was sent by Paul Wolfowitz before the war to convince European leaders of Saddam Hussein's ties to al Qaeda). Fluor has won joint contracts worth up to $1.6 billion.
Cummins Engine, which has managed to sell its power generators thanks to the country's broken infrastructure.
The Iraqi National Congress, whose leader Ahmed Chalabi was called the “George Washington of Iraq” by certain Pentagon neoconservatives before his fall from grace. BKSH's K. Riva Levinson was hired to handle the INC's U.S. public relations strategy in 1999. Hired by U.S. taxpayers, that is: Until July 2003, the company was paid $25,000 per month by the U.S. State Department to support the INC.
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm
CACI and Titan coporate prison contractors who have avoided any charges for their involvement with the horrific treatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba reported in an internal Army report that two CACI employees “were either directly or indirectly responsible” for abuses at the prison, including the use of dogs to threaten detainees and forced sexual abuse and other threats of violence. Another internal Army report suggested that Steven Stefanowicz, one of 27 CACI interrogators working for the Army in Iraq, “clearly knew [that] his instructions” to soldiers interrogating Iraqi prisoners “equated to physical abuse.” CACI and Titan deny any wrongdoing. In August 2004 the Army gave CACI another $15 million no-bid contract to continue providing interrogation services for intelligence gathering in Iraq; In September, the Army awarded Titan a contract worth up to $400 million for additional translators.
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm
Halliburton has been involved in a growing list of contracts that total more than $11 billion, leading to multiple criminal investigations into overcharging and kickbacks. In nine different reports, government auditors have found “widespread, systemic problems with almost every aspect of Halliburton's work in Iraq, from cost estimation and billing systems to cost control and subcontract management.” Six former employees of Vice President Cheney’s old company have come forward, corroborating the auditors' concerns. Just prior to the 2004 election a top contracting official responsible for ensuring that the Army Corps of Engineers follows competitive contracting rules accused top Pentagon officials of improperly favoring Halliburton in an early-contract before the occupation. Bunnatine Greenhouse, an Army procurement officer, says that when the Pentagon awarded the company a 5-year oil-related contract worth up to $7 billion, it pressured her to withdraw her objections, actions that she said were unprecedented in her experience. Pentagon officials referred the matter to the Pentagon's inspector general, a move that critics say effectively buried the issue.
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm For everything you want to know about Halliburton and more visit Halliburton Watch, http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/. For more on whistleblower Bunnatine Greenhouse visit: http://www.whistleblowers.org/html/greenhouse.htm.
Lockheed Martin remains the king among war profiteers, raking in $21.9 billion in Pentagon contracts in 2003 alone. The company has profited from just about every phase of the war except for the reconstruction. The company's stock has tripled since 2000 to just over $60. When it comes to defense policy, Lockheed's network of influence is virtually unmatched. E.C. Aldridge Jr., the former undersecretary of defense for acquisitions and procurement, gave final approval to begin building the F-35 in 2001, a decision potentially worth $200 billion to the company. Although he soon left the Pentagon to join Lockheed's board, Aldridge continues to straddle the public-private divide: Rumsfeld appointed him to a blue-ribbon panel to study advanced weapons systems. Former Lockheed lobbyists and employees include the current secretary of the Navy, Gordon England, Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta (a former Lockheed vice president) and Stephen J. Hadley, Bush's successor to Condoleeza Rice as his next national security advisor. Lockheed is not only represented on various Pentagon advisory boards, but is also tied to various influential think tanks. For example, Lockheed VP Bruce Jackson (who helped draft the Republican foreign policy platform in 2000) is a key player at the neo-conservative planning bastion known as the Project for a New American Century.
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm
Loral Space & Communications Chairman Bernard L. Schwartz is very tight with the neoconservative hawks in the Bush administration's foreign policy ranks, and is the principal funder of Blueprint, the newsletter of the Democratic Leadership Council. In the buildup to the war the Pentagon bought up access to numerous commercial satellites to bolster its own orbiting space fleet. U.S. armed forces needed the extra spaced-based capacity to be able to transmit huge amounts of data to planes (including unmanned Predator drones flown remotely by pilots who may be halfway around the world), and guide missiles and troops on the ground. More help is on the way. The Pentagon announced in November that it would create a new global Intranet for the military that would take two decades and hundreds of billions of dollars to build. Satellites, of course, will play a key part in that integrated global weapons system.
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm
Campaign Contributions of Post-war Contractors
From 1990 through fiscal year 2002
Contractor
Total Contributions
General Electric Company
$8,843,884
Vinnell Corporation (Northrop Grumman)
$8,517,247
BearingPoint Inc.
$4,949,139
Science Applications International Corp.
$4,704,909
Fluor Corp.
$3,624,173
Bechtel Group Inc.
$3,310,102
Kellogg, Brown & Root (Halliburton)
$2,379,792
American President Lines Ltd.
$2,185,303
Dell Marketing L.P.
$1,774,971
Parsons Corp.
$1,403,508
DynCorp (Computer Sciences Corp.)
$1,218,944
TECO Ocean Shipping Co.
$1,217,587
Washington Group International
$1,185,232
United Defense Industries, L.P.
$1,076,006
Unisys Corporation
$626,239
Readiness Management Support LC (Johnson Controls Inc.)
$464,995
Tetra Tech Inc.
$223,770
Louis Berger Group
$212,456
Liberty Shipping Group Ltd.
$136,560
Management Systems International
$121,656
Perini Corporation
$119,000
Ocean Bulkships Inc.
$95,200
Kroll Inc.
$90,025
Raytheon Aerospace LLC
$89,645
MZM Inc.
$78,751
Sealift Inc.
$77,374
Sodexho Inc.
$25,632
Chemonics International Inc.
$24,350
Landstar Express America Inc.
$21,605
Stevedoring Services of America
$18,675
Abt Associates Inc.
$14,600
Anteon International Corporation
$10,575
Creative Associates International Inc.
$10,300
Camp Dresser & McKee Inc.
$9,900
Mediterranean Shipping Company
$9,375
EGL Eagle Global Logistics
$7,660
World Fuel Services Corp.
$7,100
DHS Logistics Company
$5,500
Development Alternatives Inc.
$4,647
International Resources Group
$3,830
PAE Government Services Inc.
$3,000
International American Products Inc.
$2,500
Contrack International Inc.
$2,000
Research Triangle Institute
$1,950
Ronco Consulting Corporation
$1,750
John S. Connor Inc.
$1,750
USA Environmental Inc.
$1,450
Force 3
$1,050
EOD Technology Inc.
$670
University of Nebraska at Omaha
$650
Zapata Engineering
$500
Red River Computer Company
$300
Logenix International L.L.C.
$250
Source: Center for Public Integrity, http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=contrib These data are derived from political contributions to the Federal Election Commission from 1990 through mid-year 2003.
On November 23, 2004 Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in a Memorandum to the US Army that “weakness in the (Halliburton) cost reporting process” was such a problem that his team of financial watchdogs couldn't complete a standard audit of the bills Halliburton charged to the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority and nearly $90 million in payments should be delayed. In August 2004, the Defense Contract Audit Agency, which examines bills before they're paid, and the U.S. Army Audit Agency both recommended that money be withheld from future payments to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. The Army has not acted on those recommendations and is still paying the Halliburton bills in full. Vice President Dick Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive from 1995-2000. The Bush administration gave the oil-services company an open-ended contract in 2001 to perform tasks worldwide for the Army. Called LOGCAP III, the contract is now worth $8.9 billion. Bowen looked at one $588.8 million task - helping set up the temporary government in Iraq - and found poor recordkeeping. His recommendation for withholding money applies only to the $588.8 million.
Source: Memorandum for Commander, U.S. Army Material Command Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Policy and Procurement Director, Defense Contract Audit Agency, Subject: Task Order 0044 of the Logistics Civcilian Augmentation Program III Contract (Report No. 05-003), From Stewart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, November 23, 2004. http://www.contractwatch.org/datavault/performancedocs/SIGIR%20Report-Task%20Order%200044.pdf
On March 1, 2005 Titan, a recipient of government contracts in Iraq, pled guilty in the biggest foreign-bribery settlement under U.S. law. It agreed to pay $28.5 million to settle allegations that it covered up payments in six countries. Titan pleaded guilty to three criminal charges stemming from a now-abandoned effort by the defense contractor to expand into telecommunications. The San Diego company agreed to pay $13 million in a plea with the Justice Department. It also agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle related SEC allegations without admitting guilt. While Titan's corporate responsibility is now settled -- and the Pentagon isn't barring it from future contracts -- the company agreed to cooperate with continuing criminal investigations of individuals. According to the Wall Street Journal "Court documents depict Titan as a company which for years ignored internal warnings of fraud and failed to 'devise or maintain an effective system of internal controls' at one unit where commissions paid to overseas agents amounted to nearly half of its revenue in some years. Despite using more than 120 representatives in more than 60 countries, Titan 'failed to have meaningful oversight over its foreign agents.'"
Source: Jonathan Karp and Andy Pasztor, Titan Agrees to Record Payment to Settle Foreign-Bribery Case, The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2005.
Cost of the War and Occupation
Congress has allocated $150 billion on the Iraq war and occupation. On February 14, President Bush requested an additional $82 billion for the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Source: National Priorities Project, http://www.costofwar.com. The Project keeps a running cost of the war. The cost of the war is based on what Congress has allocated for the Iraq War. Figures include military operations, reconstruction and other spending related to the Iraq invasion and occupation. Spending only includes "incremental" costs, additional funds that are expended due to the war. For example, soldiers' regular pay is not included, but combat pay is included. However, wear and tear on vehicles and other military equipment is not necessarily included. Even though we are running a deficit Cost of War does not include interest. For those interested in figuring the cost of the war in Iraq, including interest, they can take the current cost as displayed on their calculator and add 40% (so that if the Cost of War calculator lists the cost as $100 billion, the true cost, after 10 years of repaying the debt, would be about $140 billion). Jonathan Weisman, “President Requests More War Funding: Money for Iraqi Forces Rises Sharply, Washington Post, February 15, 2005 ;
The US Special Inspector-General for Iraq Reconstruction in a January 30, 2005 audit of the Coalition Provisional Authority has found that it did not properly safeguard $8.8 billion of Iraq 's money, leaving the funds open to corruption, a US audit released on Sunday has said. The report was very critical of the CPA stating: "The CPA provided less-than-adequate controls for approximately $8.8 billion in DFI (Development Fund for Iraq ) funds provided to Iraqi ministries through the national budget process." The report described: “severe inefficiencies and poor management.” The report cited the possibility of corruption noting the potential for “ghost” employees saying: “officials authorized payment for about 74,000 guards but only a fraction of these could later be validated.” The report says that in one case some 8,206 guards were listed on a payroll, but only 602 real individuals could be verified. At another ministry, payrolls listed 1,471 security guards when only 642 were actually working. Further the audit said there was no assurance that the funds were used for purposes mandated by United Nations resolutions.”
Source: Emad Mekay, Where the Missing $9 Billion Went, Los Angeles Times, February 2, 2005http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GB02Ak03.html citing the U.S. Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction January 30, 2005 audit of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Allegations of corruptions related to U.S. contractors is discussed in Iraq War Facts section: Corporate Contract Abuse.
This is not the first time the Coalition Provisional Authority has been accused of sloppy accounting. In a December 2004 report, the International Advisory and Monitoring Board for Iraq (IAMB) and the Coalition Provisional Authority Inspector General (CPA-IG) reveal hundreds of irregularities in the U.S.-led occupation authority's management of Iraqi revenues, and identify serious weaknesses in Iraq's financial management systems. IAMB auditors discovered a wide range of irregularities, including the lack of competitive bidding for large contracts, missing contract information, payments for contracts that had not been supervised, and, in some cases, outright theft. The absence of metering equipment, the audit also states, made it impossible to estimate the amounts of petroleum and petroleum products illegally exported in the first half of 2004. In its report to Congress, the CPA-IG noted numerous deviations from legal obligations and federal contracting norms in the CPA's management of Iraqi revenues during the occupation. A new problem identified by the audit is the lack of transparency of Iraqi funds since the transfer of power to the Iraq Interim Government (IIG).
Source: Reports and Briefings: Audits Find More Irregularities and Mismanagement of Iraq's Revenues, Decemebr 2004, see Iraq Revenue Watch, http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/reports/120604.shtml citing: Development Fund for Iraq: Report of Factual Findings in connection with Export Sales for the period from 1 January 2004 to 28 June 2004. KPMG Bahrain, September 2004, http://www.iamb.info/auditrep/OilProc101204.pdf.; Message from the Inspector General, Coalition Provisional Authority, October 30, 2004, http://www.cpa-ig.com/pdf/cpaig_october_30_report.pdf; Office of Inspector General Coalition Provisional Authority, Third Quarterly Report to Congress, October 30, 2004, p. 4, http://www.cpa-ig.com/oct.html.
A preliminary audit of the Coalition Provisional Authority's (CPA) management of Iraqi oil revenues and the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization's (SOMO) export sales and barter transactions reveals serious accounting weaknesses and opportunities for corruption. The audit is being carried out by KPMG for the International Advisory and Monitoring Board and is due to be made public in mid-July. KPMG reported serious problems of access and lack of cooperation that could prevent the completion of their work by the June 30th deadline. It reports resistance from CPA staff who have indicated that their workload is already excessive and that cooperation with the auditors is a low priority. KPMG noted a number of weaknesses in the CPA's accounting practices for the DFI, which result in inaccuracies and are prone to error. The report notes that the DFI's accounting lacks a double entry system and consists solely of spreadsheets and tables maintained by a single accountant, making the records prone to error. KPMG also notes the poor reporting around dispersals made by the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP) and the Rapid Regional Response Program (RRRP). These are highly discretionary programs that allow reconstruction officials based in the regions to use their judgment in giving out Iraqi oil dollars to maintain peace and pay for urgently needed repairs. Transfers to CERP and RRRP are not itemized, which according to the auditors: “greatly diminishes the transparency of the expenditures made and leaves the DFI open to fraudulent acts.” The sloppy record-keeping maintained by the CPA and SOMO, and the absence of oversight within the Iraqi ministries has created opportunities for corruption to flourish under the CPA.
Source: Auditors Find Poor Practices in Management of Iraqi Oil Revenues,
June 2004, Iraq Revenue Watch, http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/reports/062404.shtml. Allegations of corruption related to U.S. contractors is discussed in Iraq War Facts section: Corporate Contract Abuse.
The Coalition Provisional Authority commited billions of dollars to ill-conceived projects just before it dissolved and transferred authority to the interim government in June 2004, according to a new briefing by the Open Society Institute's Iraq Revenue Watch Project. The briefing, Iraqi Fire Sale: CPA Giving Away Oil Revenue Billions Before Transition, says that the U.S.-controlled Program Review Board in charge of managing Iraq's finances recently approved the expenditure of nearly $2 billion dollars in Iraqi funds for reconstruction projects. The briefing questions why the CPA rushed to commit Iraqi oil funds instead of waiting for the interim government to make these decisions when it assumed power at the end of June. A UN Security Council resolution passed on June 8 required the new government to satisfy all outstanding obligations against the Development Fund for Iraq made before June 30, leaving the new interim Iraqi government with no choice but to honor the Program Review Board's questionable expenditures. Iraqi Fire Sale warns that without mechanisms in place to ensure accountability, the $2 billion in Iraqi funds will be vulnerable to mismanagement and corruption.
Source: Iraqi Fire Sale: CPA Rushes to Give Away Billions in Iraqi Oil Revenues, June 2004, http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/reports/061504.shtml . Allegations of corruptions related to U.S. contractors is discussed in Iraq War Facts section: Corporate Contract Abuse.
When the US-controlled coalition in Baghdad handed over power to the Iraqi Interim Government it did so without having properly accounting for some $20 billion of Iraq's own money from sales of oil, says a report published by Christian Aid, a British Charity, in June 2004. A report from Christian Aid in October 2003 found that the billions of dollars of oil money that had already been transferred to the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority effectively disappeared into a financial black hole. For all the talk of freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people - before, during and after the war which toppled Saddam Hussein - there is no way of knowing how the vast majority of this money has been spent.
Source: Fuelling suspicion: the coalition and Iraq 's oil billions, June 28, 2004, http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/indepth/406iraqoilupdate/index.htm; Iraq : the missing billions - Transition and transparency in post-war Iraq , October 23, 2003, http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/indepth/310iraqoil/index.htm. Allegations of corruptions related to U.S. contractors is discussed in Iraq War Facts section: Corporate Contract Abuse.
Frank Willis, an official of the former Coalition Provisional Authority, testified on February 14, 2005 before a panel of Democratic Senators, that in Iraq he saw colleagues pull $2 million in fresh bills from a vault and stuff them in a contractor's gunnysack. L. Paul Bremer, who ran the CPA, defended the disbursement of cash, saying there was no functioning Iraqi government and financial services were primitive or nonexistent.
Source: Iraq Reconstruction Cash Given in Sacks, The Associated Press , February 14, 2005.
According to the National Priorities Project, the $150 billion spent on Iraq reconstruction could have paid for:
Sending 20,385,749 children to attend a year of Head Start.
Health care for 92,526,600 children for one year .
Hiring 2,667,325 additional public school teachers for one year.
Providing 7,461,354 students four-year scholarships at public universities.
Building 1,385,841 additional housing units .
Fully funding global anti-hunger efforts for 6 years.
Fully funding world-wide AIDS programs for 15 years.
Ensuring that every child in the world was given basic immunizations for 51 years.
Source: National Priorities Project, http://www.costofwar.com. The Project keeps a running cost of the war in comparison to the above categories. In addition, you can find out how much your state has spent on the war and how much it could have spent in each of these categories. The information for each category is based on:
The cost of the war is based on what Congress has allocated for the Iraq War. Figures include military operations, reconstruction and other spending related to the Iraq invasion and occupation. Spending only includes "incremental" costs, additional funds that are expended due to the war. For example, soldiers' regular pay is not included, but combat pay is included. However, wear and tear on vehicles and other military equipment is not necessarily included. Even though we are running a deficit, Cost of War does not include interest. For those interested in figuring the cost of the war in Iraq, including interest, they can take the current cost as displayed on our calculator and add 40% (so that if the Cost of War calculator lists the cost as $100 billion, the true cost, after 10 years of repaying the debt, would be about $140 billion).
Head Start: Cost of War calculated cost per child numbers for each state based on state numbers from the Administrtation of Children and Families' Head Start Bureau for 2003. These numbers have been adjusted for inflation to provide a 2004 estimate.
Children's Health Care : The state numbers are based on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Data Compendium. They represent the average Medicaid outlays per child in each state for 1999 and 2000, and then are forecasted for 2004.
Affordable Housing : The number for each state is based on Census 1990 and 2000 housing values. We have taken the average of the median and lower quartile values, and forecasted for 2004. This may be a fairly rough estimate of what is would cost to build affordable housing, but does constitute a good estimate of an inexpensive housing unit in each state.
Elementary School Teachers : Each state's number is based on the average amount of annual pay an elementary school teacher receives, plus 25% for other expenses associated with employment such as benefits. These numbers were forecasted for 2004 from data for 1999 through 2003 from the Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.
Four-Year College Scholarships : The number for each state is based on the cost of tuition and fees at that state's flagship university for the 2003-2004 academic year.
World Hunger : The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in it's the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003 estimates that over 800 million people worldwide are hungry and undernourished. The FAO has also stated that an annual increase of $24 billion in anti-hunger efforts would reduce world hunger by half (to 400 million people) by 2015.
AIDS Epidemic : In reporting to the UN General Assembly in September, 2003, on the proceedings of the high-level interactive panel on HIV?AIDS, Secretary-General Kofi Annan also spoke of the “$10 billion required annually by 2005 to stem the tide of AIDS.”
Immunization : The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has estimated the additional monies needed to immunize every child in the developing world at $2.808 billion annually. The report (Table 8) calculates that 3 million children die annually from vaccine preventable diseases. To account for inflation and provide a margin for error, the Cost of War calculator uses a figure of $3 billion to calculate the number of years that the war in Iraq could pay for the immunization of all children in the developing world.
Local Costs of The Iraq War, October 2004
Your state's share of the $150 billion cost of the war
Estimated by the National Priorities Project
State
Total so far
Alabama
1,488,086,596
Alaska
272,723,891
Arizona
2,195,294,346
Arkansas
1,291,122,733
California
19,505,176,761
Colorado
2,340,251,428
Connecticut
3,572,007,696
Delaware
853,163,903
District of Columbia
694,460,772
Florida
7,830,134,965
Georgia
4,637,028,738
Hawaii
472,127,711
Idaho
405,024,536
Illinois
8,210,585,706
Indiana
2,505,158,859
Iowa
1,083,164,672
Kansas
1,226,889,585
Kentucky
1,286,876,256
Louisiana
1,314,644,732
Maine
440,163,782
Maryland
2,990,726,051
Massachusetts
4,542,788,831
Michigan
4,610,836,693
Minnesota
3,357,824,618
Mississippi
703,540,735
Missouri
2,735,858,454
Montana
240,287,467
Nebraska
878,173,701
Nevada
1,195,232,748
New Hampshire
680,390,540
New Jersey
6,735,108,519
New Mexico
512,766,313
New York
12,966,783,325
North Carolina
3,604,923,358
North Dakota
194,508,275
Ohio
5,727,236,488
Oklahoma
1,535,114,780
Oregon
1,328,679,691
Pennsylvania
6,259,651,283
Rhode Island
608,048,168
South Carolina
1,257,573,576
South Dakota
243,698,861
Tennessee
2,371,062,816
Texas
11,506,998,749
Utah
714,264,912
Vermont
233,107,360
Virginia
4,304,558,046
Washington
4,071,286,386
West Virginia
431,451,763
Wisconsin
2,559,684,275
Wyoming
263,691,383
Source: National Priorities Project, http://www.nationalpriorities.org/Issues/Military/Iraq/CostOfWar.html
The National Priorities Project is using $150 billion as the national cost of the war. State breakdowns are based on the contribution of each state's residents to the total tax collection, according to the IRS. The National Priorities Project also provides the cost of the war for many cities, counties and towns throughout the United States based on the city or county's population and income levels relative to the state. The Project will provide you with a breakdown for your city if you contact them directly.
On Monday, February 7, 2005, the Bush Administration sent to Congress its budget request for fiscal year 2006. Under the proposed budget, discretionary spending would increase overall by 2%. Within that increase, Pentagon spending would increase by 5% ($19 billion), homeland security by 3% ($1 billion), and all other federally-funded services would be cut by 1%, before taking inflation into account. The Department of Defense increase does not include funding for the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan .
Cuts include natural resources and the environment; education, training, employment, and social services; community and regional development; and transportation. Discretionary federal grants to state and local government would be cut by almost 7% (almost 9% after taking inflation into account). Federal grants that would be cut include vocational and adult education, a number of programs associated with community development, environmental protection agency grants, low-income home energy assistance, disease control, substance abuse, OSHA, and public safety.
Source: National Priorities Project, Impact of President's Budget on the States
To date, more children have died in Iraq than the combined toll of two atomic bombs on Japan and the ethnic cleansing of former Yugoslavia. The UN's Department of Humanitarian Affairs reports that Iraq's public health services are nearing a total breakdown from a lack of basic medicines, life-saving drugs, and essential medical supplies. The lack of clean water-50 percent of all rural people have no access to potable water-and the collapse of waste water treatment facilities in most urban areas are contributing to the rapidly deteriorating state of public health. Air borne and water borne diseases are on the rise, while deaths related to diarrheal diseases have tripled in an increasingly unhealthy environment. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports a six fold increase in the mortality rate for children under five, an explosive rise in the incidence of endemic infections, such as cholera and typhoid, and a markedly elevated incidence of measles, poliomyelitis, and tetanus. Malaria has reached epidemic levels. The WHO further states that the majority of Iraqis have subsisted on a semi-starvation diet for the past several years.
Source: Rick McDowell, Economic Sanction on Iraq, November 1997, http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Human_Rights/Iraq_Sanctions.html
SOURCE: http://democracyrising.us/content/view/30/74/
