h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This just came in on the News Wires...

Ken Livingstone today launched an astonishing attack on US President George W Bush.

He called him "corrupt" and said he would get as much pleasure from Mr Bush being forced from office as from the downfall of Saddam Hussein.
The outburst was immediately criticised by London politicians who fear a negative effect on the Mayor's efforts to attract American tourists here.

Mr Livingstone was answering questions on the Iraq war and other subjects during a two-hour meeting with 200 schoolchildren this morning at City Hall.

After making a pointed reference to Mr Bush, he was asked by Channel 4 broadcaster Krishnan Guru-Murthy, who was chairing the meeting, to explain his making a personal attack on the US President when he disliked answering personal questions himself.

The Mayor said: "I think George Bush is the most corrupt American president since Harding in the Twenties. He is not the legitimate president."

He later added: "This really is a completely unsupportable government and I look forward to it being overthrown as much as I looked forward to Saddam Hussein being overthrown."

(ends)

Ken really said that? More power to his elbow It's about time somebody did, and why aren't more doing so? Good on yer mate.

Somebody other than Michael Moore, that is.

well, quite.

viva Ken in-bloody-deed! I just might move to London! Good on him!

X

That certainly took guts, but good on him
Oberon2001

Incidentally, Halliburton (in whom Dick Cheney is still a major shareholder, I believe) got awarded a huge bunch of contracts in Iraq this week.

I find this more than a little bit disgusting.

WASHINGTON, May 7 (Reuters) - Oil giant Halliburton, once run by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, will now be involved in operation and distribution of oil products in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, indicating a more direct role in Iraq's energy business than originally believed.

New orders given to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root a few days ago included the operation of oil facilities and the distribution of products, said a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Scott Saunders.

"We did not think that operation and distribution (of oil products) would be needed and that that would be handled by a follow-on contract," said Saunders.

"But the needs of the Iraqi people dictated otherwise and we had to exercise that option as they are about to run out of gas and propane," he told Reuters.

Details of the role of the Halliburton subsidiary came to light via letters made public between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman from California.

In a letter sent on Tuesday to the Army Corps of Engineers, Waxman said originally the contract had been described as one to extinguish oil well fires and do related repairs, but Halliburton now appeared to have a more lucrative and direct role in rebuilding Iraq's oil industry.

"It now appears however, that the contract with Halliburton -- a company with close ties to the (Bush) administration -- can now include 'operation' of Iraqi oil fields and 'distribution' of Iraqi oil," wrote Waxman to Lt. Gen Robert Flowers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Waxman was replying to a letter from Flowers sent last week which said the scope of work included extinguishing oil well fires and cleaning up related damage as well as the "operation of facilities and distribution of products."

When the Halliburton contract was first announced, some Democrats raised questions over whether the company's close ties to the administration had helped it secure the work, a suggestion the White House rejects.

Cheney was formerly chief executive for five years of Houston-based Halliburton, the world's second-largest oilfield service company.

The United States -- which fought a war in Iraq to rid the country of its alleged weapons of mass destruction, none of which have so far been found -- has always said that Iraq's oil industry belongs to that country's people and not to America.

Asked about Halliburton's role in Iraq, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "It's not a White House issue ... the White House does not get involved in who gets contracts."

Saunders said the contract for Halliburton's subsidiary was worth about $75 million so far and current estimates put the total amount at about $600 million, far less than the worst-case figure of $7 billion before the war with Iraq.

"That $7 billion is pretty much out the window," he said.

Halliburton declined to comment on possible extended operations, but repeated its previous statement that its Kellogg Brown and Root arm "will provide services for the continuity of operations of the Iraqi oil infrastructure."

REUTERS

I may be getting my corporations mixed up here, but isn't Halliburton the company which Dick Cheney left, only to be given a... what did they call it? Pension? Severance settlement? Anyways, he gets $1m a year from them. For not working for them any more.

Nice work if you can get it

Ken's comments didn't get much coverage on the BBC news website, and I've yet to see or hear any of it here, although I didn't catch much news yesterday. Was it well covered on tv and radio news in the UK?

It's been reported, but unfortunately in a negative light - as in 'what's he done, and isn't it going to stop American tourists coming to London'.

On the other hand, everyone I know has been saying "well done, get stuck in there Ken".

Usual right-wing media bias. No-one seems to be covering these angles:
1) Bush is by no means popular in the USA. I'm no expert judge, but I guess what Ken said would be very popular among significant sections of US society
2) if (when?) Bush loses the next election, none of it will matter anyway
3) Ken's got a point.

"3)Ken's got a point."

Yeah so does president gump, but the way he combs his hair you can hardly see it

Apparently some political slant net thing put me bang in line with Ken about my political stance

That's good, so was I, more or less...

he he