In a free fraud zone you can steal anything you like. Channel4’s Dispatches investigates Iraq’s missing billions.

I’m off on my hols right now so I’ve scheduled for each day a video I’ve found interesting. Hope you do too.

War is the biggest business of all

Do the invariably rich and powerful men who make the decision to go to war really spend human lives and mountains of money because they are concerned for the fate of their fellow man? It’s a nice excuse but the facts don’t support such an idea.

Considering “public servants” spend our lives and our money rather than their own, what’s the real cost to them when they decide to settle their disputes using violence? Is there any significant cost at all, considering they only have to bear political consequences in the short term and never seem to have to answer for their actions in a court of law?

After their turn in office, warmongers can take a trip through the revolving door and into lucrative private sector roles, often with corporations that have directly benefited from their time in public office. It stinks to high heaven, everyone is immersed in the stench, but it’s all viewed as business as usual.

The truth is, there are big profits to me made from war. And in a war economy or during times of actual conflict, government can draw on additional excuses to behave in a non-representative manner. It’s a win-win cycle that feeds on itself. Corruption in office that feeds the war machine and then rewards the public officials when they retire to the private sector.

War is sold as a last resort and yet the United States has been involved in a stream of overt and covert wars since the end of World War II. Is it credible that the “last resort” has presented itself with such frequency in so short a time span?

For the men of war business is booming. While the cash continues to roll in war will always be a favoured revenue generator. Many of us will continue to support these wars, or remain silent as the bombs fall of the victims. Many of us will console ourselves with the very convenient but barely credible lies presented by our politicians on behalf of their business friends as they plan the next slaughter. You have to keep your eyes squeezed shut to ignore what’s going on here. Take the time to take a peek and your eyes will open wide in horror.

More people are peeking and waking up to the reality. “Why We Fight”, is a documentary that brings together many of the financial and profiteering scandals that have leaked into the mainstream following the illegal invasion of Iraq. It’s a bitter account of fraud and exploitation on a grand scale, abuse of the public trust and blows away the preposterous idea the men in power “Support Our Troops”. They do anything and everything but.

Ebola Virus - PLoS Pathogens

Officially it is a biological defence research facility. In reality, and in collaboration with other covert programs based in America, Canada and overseas including the UK’s Porton Down, it is funded by billions of dollars each year to coordinate the production of weaponised strains of some of the deadliest viruses and toxic agents known to man.

Following US president Nixon’s initiative to halt the potentially suicidal biological weapons arms race, the major nations agreed to destroy their biological stockpiles and focus instead on producing vaccines and finding preventative measures for diseases and infections that had the potential to produce mass casualties should an outbreak occur.

When Dr Vladimir Pasechnik, a soviet scientist involved in the Russian bio-weapons program, defected to the west in 1989 he revealed that the soviets had continued with a secret program and were attempting to arm cruise missiles with biological warheads.

Whether the western nations had genuinely disbanded their own programs is a matter of debate, no inspection regime was ever implemented. Either way, Pasechnik’s news was the spur for a fresh arms race that has been active ever since.

To add to the threat posed by trigger happy politicians and generals wielding plague bombs, the industry is no longer confined to government run establishments. Private contractors are routinely hired, thus blurring the lines of command and control and increasing the likelihood of losing track of the deadly materials being produced. The anthrax attacks of September 2001 are a chilling example.

In the coming weeks the UK Iraq Inquiry may visit the murky topic of biological warfare when the name of Dr David Kelly, probably the foremost expert in the field prior to his suspicious death, is mentioned in connection with the “sexed-up” lies employed by Tony Blair to lead Britain into an illegal war with Iraq – ironically to rid the world of Saddam’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

Kelly debriefed Pasechnik when the latter defected and he later became his friend. Pasechnik was also to die under suspicious circumstances as have an unreasonably high number of other eminent biologists who worked for the military.

The Canadian documentary “Anthrax War” is an engrossing investigation into the tangle of connections that draw the places and actors from this unwelcome branch of science together. Fort Detrick, of course, has a starring role. It is America’s germ farm and the work being done there, in addition to the work of many similar installations around the world, poses the gravest of threats to every man, woman and child on this planet.