THE AWKWARD SQUAD — In Memoriam To Robin Cook

Robin Cook – Founding Member of The Awkward Squad

In memoriam to Robin Cook I have started this Diary Project called “The Awkward Squad.”  Originally I went looking for all those resignation speeches and letters of those in public office who resigned in protest of the war on Iraq.  But as you will see, the project became too big for me.  So I need the help of Booman Tribune & European Tribune.  You will see who is missing, (Sibel Edmonds, “Gagged But Not Dead” and find what links don’t work….  Clearly I need all the help I can get… thanks in advance, Suskind. And a special thanks to Oui, who is a Member of The Awkward Squad.

They Resigned In Protest of Iraq War

“The more aggressively we use our power to intimidate our foes, the more foes we create and the more we validate terrorism as the only effective weapon of the powerless against the powerful.” – John Brady Kiesling

•  British Member of Parliament Robin Cook Resigns
•  Read Mr. Cook’s Brilliant Speech – A must read!
•  AU Senior Intelligence Officer Resigns: US Weak Case for War
•  More on the AU Officer
•  An Interview with the AU Officer
•  Senior American Diplomat Ann Wright Resigns in Protest
•  More on Ms. Wright
•  Diplomat John H Brown Resigns in Protest
•  Career Diplomat John Brady Kiesling Resigns in Protest – Read His Resignation Letter to Colin Powell – “Still, we have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such manipulation of American opinion, since the War in Vietnam
•  Elizabeth Wilmshurst resigns as minister in the Foreign Office in protest of the illegal war Iraq
•  Clare Short quits with attack on Blair
•  Short resignation letter in full Short calls for Blair to step aside
•  U.S. Diplomats Who Quit to Protest Iraq War Believe Toppling Saddam Hasn’t Made America Safer
•  U.S. Culture Advisers Resign Over Iraq Museum Looting – Advisers: U.S. Military Should Have Protected Antiquities – Martin Sullivan, who chaired the President’s Advisory Committee on Cultural Property for eight years, and panel member Gary Vikan said they resigned because the U.S. military had had advance warning of the danger to Iraq’s historical treasures
•  Bush Misled Public OTTO REICH – SPECIAL ENVOY TO LATIN AMERICA .
•  U.S. Terrorism Policy Spawns Steady Staff Exodus
•  Finland PM resigns over ‘Iraqgate’ – She used the information in the documents in election debates with Lipponen, accusing him of changing neutral Finland’s foreign policy by giving American leaders the impression that Finland was part of an anti-Iraq war coalition
•  Broken promise: Why I quit Iraq – America’s approach to governing Baghdad has failed to involve Iraqis, says ISAM al-KHAFAJI, who returned home to help rebuild his country – On July 9, with deep sorrow, I respectfully submitted my resignation as a member of the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council to U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.
•  ‘I did not want to be a collaborator’ – Isam al-Khafaji, a former member of the Iraqi reconstruction council, explains his decision to resign –
•  White House striking back? – Former ambassador charges mudslinging over statements – Wilson tells NBC News the White House deliberately leaked his wife’s identity as a covert CIA operative, damaging her future career and compromising past missions after he criticized the administration on “Meet the Press” and in the New York Times.
•  Head of CIA Weapons Analysis Program Leaving – A top CIA expert on weapons of mass destruction, who became embroiled in controversy over whether the White House stretched evidence about Iraq’s programs, said he planned to leave the agency in October. – Alan Foley, who heads the Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control Center, told colleagues in a note dated Aug. 29 that he had been “thinking about life after the agency for some time” and decided to leave after 26 years to enter the private sector. – He alluded to this summer’s finger-pointing between the Central Intelligence Agency and the White House over who was responsible for an unsubstantiated claim in President Bush’s State of the Union address in January that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa
•  U.S. Journalist Quits Pentagon Iraqi Media Project Calling it U.S. Propaganda – But we immediately started clashing with coalition provisional authorities, who wanted control — they just couldn’t resist controlling the message. Unfortunately, they turned what should have been an independent voice for Iraqis — this was our aim, to sort of make a PBS, a public broadcast radio and TV for the Iraqis. But instead, it just became a mouthpiece for the coalition, and the Iraqis didn’t find it credible.
•  O’Neill: Bush planned Iraq invasion before 9/11  CNN, Jan 14, 2004; The Bush administration began planning to use U.S. troops to invade Iraq within days after the former Texas governor entered the White House three years ago, former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill told CBS News’ 60 Minutes.  … “From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” O’Neill told CBS, according to excerpts released Saturday by the network. “For me, the notion of pre-emption, that the U.S. has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap.” …
•  South Korea’s Foreign Minister Resigns – South Korea’s foreign minister resigned Thursday, the presidential office said, amid a dispute over criticism of administration policy. – By some accounts, they criticized Roh’s plans to dispatch South Korean troops to the Iraq and his negotiations to relocate U.S. troops currently based in Seoul.
•  US weapons hunter won’t return to Iraq: report – David Kay, the chief United States weapons hunter in Iraq, has told the CIA he will not return to his post, a US government source said today. – “He has told the DCI (Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet) that he doesn’t want to go back, they have been trying to get him to stay,” the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
•  Danish defence minister resigns – Denmark’s defence minister has resigned amid criticism of government reports about alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. – It recently declassified intelligence reports compiled before the Iraq war which show officials thought Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. – The extracts appear to contradict claims leaked to a newspaper that there was no evidence to back up the theory.
•  Attrition Security Rant
•  Leslie Stahl interviews Richard ClarkeRICHARD CLARKE – DIRECTOR NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL/CYBERSPACE SECURITY
•  Inspector Calls US Iraq Intelligence a Failure DAVID KAY – WEAPONS INSPECTOR
•  , Mr. President: the Secret Resignation Letters KAREN KWIATKOWSKI – DoD NEAR EAST BUREAUGoodbye
•  Maverick colonel blames US army’s ‘sycophantic’ culture and heavy-handedness for failures in Iraq – June 9, 2004 COL. DOUGLAS MACGREGOR – US ARMY
•  Two U.S. Diplomats Resign over Iraq Stance BEN MILLER; FLYNT LEVERETT; HILLARY MANN
•  Bush Misled Public CHARLOTTE BEERS – WHITE HOUSE PR
•  Top two whistleblower protectors resign – 5/12 03 TIMOTHY HANNAPEL – DEPUTY SPECIAL COUNSEL
•  Top two whistleblower protectors resign – 5/12/03 ELAINE KAPLAN – SPECIAL COUNSEL
•  O’Neill Calls Bush a Disengaged President – 01/10/04 O’Neill and Lindsey submit resignations Friday – White House Financial Team Reshuffle – 12/02 PAUL O’NEILL – U.S. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
•  U.S. Journalist Quits Pentagon Iraqi Media Project Calling it U.S. Propaganda DON NORTH – IRAQI MEDIA PROJECT

DEMOTED

•  The Spoils of War
•  An Oversight Hearing on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in U.S. Government Contracting in Iraq (pdf) BUNNATINE GREENHOUSE – US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS (Demoted)

DIED IN OFFICE

•  New light on the life and death of John O’Neill JOHN O’NEILL FBI
•  Remember John
•  Who Killed John O’Neill?
•  Why Is O’Neill’s Family Suing Iraq?
•  Evidence mounts that Paul Wellstone was murderedPAUL WELLSTONE – (D)MN – U.S. Senator
•  The death of US Senator –Paul Wellstone: accident or murder?
•  Paul Wellstone Murder – 10/02
•  What Happened to Paul Wellstone?

  

•  Dr. David Kelly
  • Blair denies …
  • PM under fire …
  • The Hutton Report or a white wash?
  • Official Hutton Inquiry

  THEY TESTIFIED ON THE SENATE FLOOR

•  SENATOR ROBERT BYRDReckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences
  by US Senator Robert ByrdSenate Floor Speech – Wednesday, February 12, 2003; To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war.

THE JOURNALISTS

•  Journalists Killed in 2005: Confirmed 30
•  Journalists Killed in 2004 Confirmed 56
•  Journalists Killed in 2003 Confirmed: 39

Steven Vincent: Steven Vincent, freelance, August 3, 2005, BasraVincent, who had written for a number of U.S. publications and was working on a book, was abducted along with his translator, Noor al-Khal, on August 2. They were taken by armed men driving what initial press reports described variously as a pickup truck or possibly a police car.

Vincent’s bullet-riddled body was found with hands tied with plastic wire and a red piece of cloth wrapped around the neck, The New York Times reported. Al-Khal was seriously wounded and was hospitalized.In an op-ed article published in The Times on July 31, Vincent said police in Basra had fallen under the sway of Shiite religious groups, and he strongly criticized British authorities in charge of police training for tolerating such influence. Vincent’s work also appeared in The Christian Science Monitor and the National Review. A resident of New York City, he had been in Basra for several months working on a book about the Iraqi port city.Vincent was the first U.S. journalist to be murdered in Iraq.
Source: COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS

THE MOST AWKWARD WOMAN IN AMERICA

* BUSH REFUSES TO MEET WITH CINDY SHEEHAN

(And there’s more: THEY BROUGHT SUIT: DOE V. BUSH; Ramadi v. Rumsfeld: CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS…. THEY PUBLISHED… those people who took out full page ads in opposition to war on Iraq, i.e. Sean Penn, MoveOn, etc..etc.. THEY TESTIFIED…. Sen. Robert Byrd, Sen. Patrick Leahy, Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGovern, John Bonifaz, Ambassador Joe Wilson… THEY WROTE, THEY PETITIONED, THEY MADE THEIR MOVE… Congressman John Conyers, Rep. Barbara Lee, Markey, Waxman, …. etc. etc. Then there’s Booman Tribune/European Tribune members of the Awkward Squad… your nominations please)

Awkward squad tries to sharpen view

They call themselves the “awkward squad” and their questions to the generals running the war in Iraq are starting to divide the sceptical press from their more loyal American colleagues.

By Guardian Newspapers, 3/25/2003