Oregon’s Solution To Healthcare Set Up Lottery!!!

    We in Barbados sometimes don’t know how good we have it here  until we see, heard or read something that makes us go huh!!!. The public health care services {I deliberately did not use the word industry for a very specific reason} we have in this country  though not up to scratch{with the long waits, shortage of doctors, need I say more?}, are still reasonably well and even though we had some persons objecting to the Q.E.H being run by a board of directors, fees increasing and some insightful Bajans noticing the trend of shifting more emphasize on private care, still  Bajan governments have never {let’s hope it continue so} run health care in Bim as a profit making venture.

That doesn’t mean others aren’t doing it though.

There is basic health care at the polyclinics and to a larger extent the Q.E.H – with some paid services – and private care – fork money out front - {if no health insurance} or if in dire straits send out an appeal and some kinds folks will help out financially.

So when I read up on  this piece from salem-news.com I remember the old adage – desperate times calls for desperate action. The health care industry in America,  yes, industry, is nothing more than a bloodsucking profit making venture design to squeeze every cent out of the ordinary man in order to line the coffers of the health related corporations.

Every legislation passed, aided by lobbyists, have done nothing but make health care in the US expensive, unaffordable and unattainable.

So desperate is the situation that the state of Oregon have resorted to a health care lottery. You got that right. Health care lottery. For those that cannot afford it.

With 45m Americans uninsured, approximately 600,000 of them Oregonians, a state computer will randomly select the names of 3000 people – on a reservation list that have attracted 91,675 uninsured names – who will be mailed applications. For be considered for eligibility, individuals must complete and return the applications within 30 days of the date stamp on them.

Thank God that is not happening here !!!. With mail taking sometimes 3weeks to get from one destination to another on this 166 sq miles of rock, lots of people would sure miss out!.

Of course something as huge as this calls for a public awareness program and the authorities pull out all the stops. With 5000 posters written in English & Spanish, 670,000 brochures in 10 languages, 330,000 households receiving direct mail and materials to 1800 community partners.

The selection process will continue over a period of months until the required quota is filled.

Fetus Found Aboard Jet

How heartless can a female get? Imagine a cleaning crew found a fetus in one of the bathrooms aboard a plane.

That’s right. Fetus- Bathroom – Plane. A Continental Jet at Bush InterContinental Airport, Sunday afternoon. The crew made the discovery 2 hrs later when they showed up.

Two hours after the plane landed and all passengers had disembark and the culprit [s] have gone on their merry way. Of course police and the FBI are investigating.

{Adapted frm Khou.com}

Cubans Can Now Use Cell Phones After Their Government Have Denied Them For So Long!!!

Cubans again have seen their government on Friday take another step to bring them into the 21st century. Previous allow only for persons in key government posts or working in foreign firms, the common man can now use a cell phone. This lastest step in removing restrictions on cell phones is aim at improving Cubans access to consumer goods.

See articles – Cuba Lifts Ban On Computers And DVD Players

                            Cuba Locks Down Top Cuban Blog

UPDATED – THE BRITISH ARE COMING THE BRITISH ARE COMING!!!!!

      The Amistad sail in early in Barbados, seven days ahead of its 4th April arrival because of favourable wind conditions. Members of the public can tour the historic schooner on April 6, 8-11, 13, 15 & 16 from 11am to 6pm and from noon on Sundays. The vessel is captained by Eliza Garfield.

See previous article below

Source – The Nation

Ex- Muslim On The Run For Converting To Christianity

This story is from an original broadcast in February from CBNNews.com.

 From the Gaza strip to neighbouring Egypt, his father is promising to kill him for becoming a believer. Now he’s on the run with his wife and little baby.

Mohammed Hijazi’s father always taught him to hate Christians. And yet Mohammed’s Christian neighbours in his home town in Egypt always treated him with love and kindness.

The more he learned about Islam, the more he began to feel distant from the “god of Islam.” That was the beginning of a quest to find out more about Jesus Christ. About 3 years ago, he found a loving father in the God of the Bible.

He wanted to publicly profess his conversion on his Egyptian national ID card that among other things, lists a person’s religion. He approached a lawyer to see if he could help him.

Somehow Hijazi’s story was leaked to the press and unleashed a fire storm of controversy that seems to have swept every major Arabic-speaking television station.

Adding fuel to the fire, Mohammed’s friends began appearing on different TV talk shows to damage his character, even going so far as to call him “disturbed.”

A few months ago, Mohammed’s highly publicized case went to court and the judge denied him the ability to change his religion from Islam to Christianity.

If Mohammed should attempt to go against the court, he could face three to 10 years in prison and a hefty fine.

Mohammed and his then pregnant wife Christina began running from the law. Just over a month ago, she gave birth to baby Miriam in hiding.

They’ve all sworn to kill her because she married a non-Muslim against the family’s wishes.

“I love my parents so much,” said Christina. “I want them to know that I am praying that the Lord will open their hearts and minds. That He would show them the way and that they would get the same blessings that I am getting.”

Mohammed’s family is just as angry. In a recent interview to the local papers, Mohammed’s father said, “I am going to try to talk to my son and convince him to return to Islam. If he refuses, I am going to kill him with my own hands.”

Shortly later, Mohammed released this response:

“I would like to send a message to my dad. I saw what you said in the newspapers. You say you want to kill me; to shed my blood in public. But I love you so much because you are my dad and because Jesus taught me to love….I accepted Jesus Christ willingly and nobody forced me….I forgive you. No matter what decision you make. No matter what you do. To my dad and mom, I say Jesus Christ died to save me.”

An Islamic council issued a Muslim edict called a “fatwa” back in 1978 that still stands today.

It condemns Mohammed and Christina to death for becoming believers.

Where does that leave their little daughter Miriam?

“I don’t think that God is asking you to make your granddaughter an orphan by killing her dad,” said Mohammed.

But under the same fatwa, Miriam will be killed anyway at the age of 10 if she does not choose Islam.

See article below and UDATED – Muslims Protest against Critic’s Film

Greert Wilders Film “Fitna” Posted On LeakLive.com

BBC News has reported on its website that Dutch MP Greet Wilders has posted his controversial film “Fitna” on the internet.

Determine to get the film out before the end of the month, Wilders’s film critical of Islam’s holy book, the Koran was posted on the video-sharing UK based website, leak-live. It was originally to be posted on Network Solutions but the site was shut down, in order to see if the film violated any terms of service.

The film, opening with verses from the Koran, shows graphic images from the London bomb attacks on July 2005 and Madrid in March 2004, including a child giving the answer what she thinks of Jews and Christians, a woman being stoned, muslims declaring the supremacy of Islam worldwide and demonstrators holding up placards saying “God bless Hitler.”

With all the noise level created about this film, there is nothing really provocative about it, just the usually insight of what Islam teaches about itself according their Koran.

Further reading – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7317506.stm 

 Film                       http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103

See article  UPDATED – Muslims Protest Against Critic’s Film

Barbadian Beaches Litter With Broken Coral

       Unusually large waves churned by a Caribbean storm system have littered the beaches of Barbados with chunks of broken coral in what could be a sign of damage to reefs across the region, a local scientist has said.

 Leo Brewster, director of Barbados’ Coastal Zone Management Unit, who was organising dives later this week to survey the damage, said that the amount of rubble on the island’s west coast suggests the coral took a heavy pounding.

“We think it’s going to be pretty extensive,” Brewster said. “I think we’re going to see it across the Caribbean.”

In Barbados, the white coral pieces washed up in chunks as heavy as 3.2kg, generally healthy but with their polyps rubbed away by the rough surf, Brewster said.

Waves as high as an estimated 9m, lashed coastlines from Guyana to Dominican Republic last week. This was a result of a large low-pressure system idle off the northeastern United States.

{Taken from International Press Reports}

Caribbean Tsunami A Possibility – Says Expert

A United Nations climate expert has pointed to the possibility of a tsunami hitting the Caribbean region.

Although not saying it would necessarily happen, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, Peter Koltermann told dozens of regional participants at a special meeting in Panama that the likelihood of such an event was “probable”.

“The situation in the Indian Ocean was similar to the Caribbean. Nobody believed it would happen, but it happened,” he said, noting that Panama’s interoceanic canal could be vulnerable to a sea surge from an underwater earthquake.

Mr Koltermann made the point as Caribbean governments agreed at the meeting – the third session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami and Other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions – to set up a joint tsunami warning centre by the year 2010. The new system will replace the temporary service being provided by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

The UN official said this would provide an early warning system to prevent the loss of lives and property which a tsunami would cause.

Barbados, Puerto Rico and Venezuela have been identified as possible hosts for the centre which is projected to have a US$250, 000 annual budget.

The most recent tsunamis in the Caribbean occurred in the San Blas Islands of Panama in 1882, Puerto Rico in 1918 and the Dominican Republic in 1946.

{Adapted from International Press Reports}

International Fugitive Held After Taking Holiday In Barbados

 An international fugitive being sought for rape has been apprehended after taking a holiday break in Barbados.

According to reports out of Miami, the 54-year-old Amaro Rodrigues was vacationing in the Caribbean island when he was identified by authorities there as a fugitive of France.

They notified the United States Department of State that Mr Rodrigues would be travelling to the United States. When he attempted to transit through the US en route to his home in Canada US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at Miami International Airport intercepted him.

Mr. Rodrigues was the subject of an Interpol Warrant, charging him with rape and attempted rate.

He was returned to France in keeping with a 1996 Bilateral Extradition Treaty between the United States and France, to face the charges.

{Taken from International Press Reports}

Central Bank Of Barbados Cuts Local Interest Rates Again – Fearing Slowdown In Economy

       A week from today, next Tuesday, April 1, 2008, the minimum interest rate payable on deposits will be reduced by quarter of a percent, from 4.75% to 4.5% the Central Bank of Barbados said late week”any weakening in the economics of major trading partners will impact negatively on economic activity in Barbados”. 

 The bank  said  its  action  was  an  attempt to reduce the cost of doing business, especially for companies which are foreign exchange earners. The bank noted that with many forecasters projecting a slowdown in world economic growth during 2008 mainly due to the rise in oil prices, .” The reduction in the minimum deposit rate follows a similar action taken by the bank on November 19, 2007, when it was reduced from 5.25% per annum to 4.75% per annum.

When a central bank raises its key interest rate, it does so expecting that commercial banks will have to follow suit, thus encouraging people to save more and borrow less. The goal is to protect the foreign reserves.

For example, the last time the Central Bank of Barbados raised interest rates, on December 15, 2006, from 4.75% to 5.25%, it noted that despite four interest rate hikes the previous year, bank credit to the private sector was still expanding due to the strong demand for residential mortgages along with other borrowing, and, as a result, the net international reserves (NIR) had fallen.

A strong demand for credit usually leads to a higher level of imports and weakens the external current account when the amount of foreign exchange being used up is in excess of the amount the country is earning in a particular year. Raising interest rates is therefore a measure to shore up the balance of payments by slowing credit and hence imports.

Last January, in its review of the economy for 2007, the central bank noted that the country’s current account deficit improved in 2007 for the third consecutive year, ending the year at 6.6% of GDP, down from 8.1% in 2006 and 12.5% in 2005 and 10.5% in 2004.

However, as it tries to find the right level for local interest rates, the bank has already warned that the NIR will be under pressure this year due to an expected fall-off in foreign exchange earnings due to the Olympic Games in China and Barbados’ increasing import bill, which has been estimated by the Thompson administration at about $3.1 billion this year.

[Taken from Broad Street Journal}

JPMorgan Offers Bear Stearn’s Best Brokers Incentives To Stay

JPMorgan Chase & Company is offering bonuses to the top brokers at Bear Stearns Cos. to get them to stay with the company after it is acquired, JPMorgan said Tuesday. The packages, which would go into effect when JPMorgan’s buyout is completed, are aimed at keeping Bear Stearns’ best-performing brokers from leaving for another investment bank. JPMorgan on Monday increased its offer for Bear Stearns from US$2 per share to US$10 per share.

“It’s been a challenging time for their brokers, and we want to make sure they know our desire to continue with the business,” said Jes Staley, chief executive of JPMorgan’s Asset Management Group.

 Bear Stearns employees have seen most of their stockholdings get wiped out after JPMorgan this month offered to buy the struggling investment bank for a small fraction of what it was valued at a few weeks ago.

The package offers are a gesture to tell the brokers to ‘hold tight’,” Staley said. “Our hope is to keep all the talented Bear brokers who are there.” Staley would not confirm how much the bonuses were worth.

Top performers only

But a person close to the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the private nature of the negotiations, said that cash-and-stock bonuses of as much as 100 per cent of annual output have been offered to top-performing Bear Stearns brokers.

The top performers are defined as those who earned at least US$500,000 in commissions and fees over the past year.

Brokers earning US$250,000 to US$500,000 in commissions and fees will receive half their annual production, the person confirmed. And advisers will get an additional bonus based on the average annual rise in their production in the next three years.

Brokers producing less than US$250,000 have not been offered a retention package.

On Monday, JPMorgan tried to appease disgruntled Bear Stearns employees by raising its buyout price fivefold. Bear Stearns employees – who collectively own about one-third of the embattled investment bank – have a great deal of their wealth tied up in Bear Stearns stock, which was worth nearly US$80 a share earlier this month.

JPMorgan does not appear concerned about the deal falling through at this point due to shareholder backlash. JPMorgan now has a 39.5 per cent stake in the company, and Bear Stearns board members – who have pledged to vote in favour of the deal – together have a nearly 10 per cent stake.

{Taken from the Jamaica Gleaner}

Boycotting Of Olympic Opening Ceremony Gaining Momentum

As China continued its crackdown on the recent unrest in its Chinese province of Tibet where at least 22 people have been killed so far, the Belgium government today have hinted at the possibility of boycotting the Beijing Games if the situation in Tibet worsened. The suggestion came a day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday spoke on the likelihood of boycotting the opening ceremony.

As the world continue to keep its eyes on China and Tibet, reports are that there is a move afoot to punish China for its handling of the violence in Tibet with the suggestion that VIPs boycott the opening ceremony of the games in August.

This is in stark contrast to the decision taken by the European Union and Olympic committees who held talks on Monday opposing such a move. “Under no circumstance, will we support the boycott. We are 100% unanimous.” Patrick Hickery the head of the European Olympic committees said in an interview. “A boycott is only a punishment of the athletes.” Australian Olympic committee President John Coakes endorsed the claim that boycotting  would achieve nothing except disadvantaging the athletes.

Economic relations between the 27- nation EU and China are moving closer all the time. Bilateral trade double between 2000 and 2005 and reached 370b in 2006. Europe is China’s largest export market and China is Europe’s prime source of imports.

See article – Lighting Of Olympic Flame Today

{Adapted from International Press Reports.}

World On The Brink Of Food Shortage !!! – 10 More Years Of Expensive Food: Says UN

As of December 2007, 37 countries faced food crises and 20 had imposed some sort of price controls. Foods costs worldwide spiked 23% from 2006 to 2007, according to the UN food organisation. Grain went up by 42%, oils 50% and dairy 80%.

Already the Paris based UN World Food Program is facing a $500m shortfall in financing this year to feed 89m needy people. The UN in a 20th March letter  has sent out an appeal to donors so as not to scale back food aid.

Petroleum prices are one of the driving forces increasing the cost of everything from fertilizers to transport to food processing. In rapidly developing countries like China and India, rising demand for meat and dairy is sending up the cost of grain used for cattle feed, as is the demand for raw materials to make bio-fuels. Raising prices  also mean that the world’s poorest people will have to spend a large proportion of their income on food, the the UN agency said, and they will buy less food, food that is less nutritious.

Although farmers will grow more grain for fuel and food as is happening with wheat, with more more crops to be planted in the US, Canada and Europe next year, according to UN projections, consumers still face at least 10 more years of expensive food.

Here in the Caribbean, Caricom governments have issued a list of food items in which the CET {Common External Tariff} have either been reduced or removed for 2 years on the recommendation of the Caricom’s Council For Trade and Development which held a meeting in January. CET is meant to protect local supplies from similar ones being imported.

At a recent concluded conference held in Bahamas, the Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Mr Jacques Diouf warned Caricom governments that the world is on the brink of a serious food shortage. Mr Diouf impress upon the Caricom Heads the gravity of the situation and “that they must do everything possible within their borders to produce what ever they can because the prognosis is that food on the world market would become more and more in short supply and automatically become more and more expensive.”

Reports reaching us is that Trinidad plans to convert up to 20,000 acres of state-owned lands into large farms and are looking to Cuba for expertise in mass-producing fruits and vegetables for local consumption to offset food prices.

Here in Barbados, petrol, flour, electricity, have attracted subsidies whilst lamb and beef have a temporary reprieve.

Cuba Locks Down Top Cuba Blog

        Cuba’s most popular blogger Yoani Sanchez said on Monday that Cuban authorities had blocked viewing of her blog and then allowed slow access to the website from Cuba.

Sanchez, whose critical “Generacion Y” blog received 1.2 million hits in February, said government censors had placed “filters” that delayed viewing of her Web page on a server in Germany ( http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/).

“This effectively blocks access to the blog. What Cuban with limited access to Internet is going to wait 15 minutes to see it?” Sanchez said.

On the weekend, attempts to view the site from Cuba met with a notice “The page cannot be displayed.” The state telecom monopoly ETECSA is Cuba’s only Internet service provider.

The 32-year-old Sanchez, a philology graduate, has drawn a considerable readership by writing about her daily life in Cuba and describing economic hardships and political constraints.

She has criticized Cuba’s new leader, Raul Castro, who formally took over from his ailing brother Fidel Castro last month, for his vague promises of change and minimal steps to improve the standard of living of Cubans.

“Who is the last in line for a toaster?” was the title of a recent blog that satirized the lifting of a ban on sales of computers, DVD players and other appliances Cubans long for, though toasters will not be freely sold until 2010.

In a country where the press is controlled by the state and there is no independent media, Sanchez and other Cubans have found in the Internet an unregulated vehicle of expression.

“This breath of fresh air has disheveled the hair of bureaucrats and censors,” she said in a telephone interview, vowing to continue her blog. “Anyone with a bit of computer skills knows how to get around them,” she said.

{Taken from Reuters}

See other article – Cuba Lifts Ban On Cmputers And DVD Players

Grenada Deputy Minister Named In Bribery Case

With all the talk these days about accountability, integrity legislation in Barbados and forensic audits across the board on government projects under the former BLP government, we came across a rather interesting piece involving one of our Caribbean neighbours. According to press reports, Grenada Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Energy, Gregory Bowen, has been implicated in a bribery case.

The documents filled in a New York court on February 25 2008 is listed as “Civil Action No. 06 Civ.11512 {EJW}”. The lawsuit was brought by complaint US Texan oil man, Jack Grynberg - who is also President of RSM Production Corporation -against Bowen and his Russian associates. These other defendants name were the Russian energy group TNK-BP in which BP {a British  oil company} has a 50% stake and Russian ”oiligarch” Mikhail Fridman. {Our understanding of the word ”oiligarch” is a obscenely wealthy tycoon sometimes refer to as the ”godfathers” of Russia}. Also named  in the suit was BP former Chief Executive Lord Browne. 

According to court documents, Grynberg and RSM signed an oil and gas exploration agreement with the government of Grenada in 1996. That same year in September Grenada’s Minister of Energy and Deputy Prime Minister Bowen told Grynberg that he expected brides in order to allow RSM to do business on the island. 

Grynberg refused but in 1998 passed on certain information about proposed drilling  sites to BP in the hope of forming a partnership with the British oil company.

BP turned down Grynberg’s offer. The lawsuit however alleges that information about Grenada may have been passed on to TNK.

{Further reading – http://www.belgrafix.com/gtoday./2008news/Mar/Mar22/The-Bowen-Russian-connection.html}

KFC Grilled Chicken Coming To Barbados?

Barbados health concious eaters will be very pleased to know that they can walk in KFC restaurants and have grilled chicken as an alternative to fried chicken.

That’s because if KFC grilled chicken becomes a hit in the US markets it may introduced the concept worldwide . The company is planning a series of TV ads in test markets promoting grilled chicken on its menu. The chain which serves approximately 12m customers daily at more than 14,000 outlets around the world is hoping to lure back health concious customers who dropped fried chicken from their diets or cut back on indulging.

Lighting Of Olympic Flame Today

Today’s opening ceremony of the lighting of the Olympic flame at Olympia, Greece for the xx1x Summer Olympic Games of Beijing will be followed by a torch relay expecting to last 130 days.

Covering a distance of 137,000km {85,000m} and passing through 5 continents, the torch will make its final stop in Beijing where it will pay host to 28 summer sports, with approximately 10,000 athletes expecting to participate in the games.

The Beijing Olympic Games will commence on 8th -24th Aug 2008.

“Honey I am On The Plane !” – Phone Calls In Mid-Air Coming Soon

The first authorised mobile phone call has been made during a commercial flight, meaning the sound of ringtones at high altitudes may become a feature of modern plane travel.

                                             

A passenger on an Emirates flight between Dubai and Casablanca made the historical call at 30,000 feet. The airline has said technology made by AeroMobile protects navigation equipment from interference.

Passengers normally have to switch their phones onto “flight safe mode” every time they step onto a plane.

{Taken from Sky News }

Fighting For The Right To Chew Coca

Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela have avoided war, but now two other Andean nations are gearing up for battle. This time the foe is the United Nations, and the cause is the right to chew coca, the raw material of cocaine.

It may not sound as important as the diplomatic row that shook the region earlier this month. But the dispute is momentous for millions of people in Bolivia and Peru — where the coca leaf is sacred to indigenous culture and a tonic of modern life — and for anti-drug officials in the U.S. and other countries who are desperate to stem the relentless flow of cocaine. Says Silvia Rivera, a sociology professor at San Andres University in Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, “This is the most aggressive attack [Bolivians] have faced” since the U.N. designated coca a drug in 1961.

The latest affront, they say, is a recommendation this month from the UN’s drug enforcement watchdog, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), that Bolivia and Peru criminalize the practice of chewing coca and drinking its tea. The move has provoked widespread anger and street protests in the two countries, especially among the majority indigenous populations. For them, coca has been a cultural cornerstone for 3,000 years, as much a part of daily life as coffee in the U.S. (La Paz is home to perhaps the world’s only coca museum).

From the countryside to swanky urban hotels, it is chewed or brewed to stave off hunger or exhaustion or to ease the often debilitating effects of high-altitude life in the Andes. It is also “used by healers and in ceremonial offerings to the gods,” says Ana Maria Chavez, a coca seller in La Paz, who refers to her product as “the sacred leaf.” Pope John Paul II even drank coca tea on a 1988 visit to Bolivia. It is, says Chavez, “part of who we are.”

The problem is, it’s also considered the building block of broken lives in the rest of the world, where cocaine consumption and addiction remain rampant in developed regions like North America and Europe. The U.S. has spent more than $5 billion this decade aiding Colombia’s largely failed efforts to eradicate coca cultivation.

{Further reading – www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1722893,00,html}

See our article – Drug Cartels Running Rampant

Ottawa Engineer Believes The US Had No Intention Of Heeding Group’s Advice To Rebuild Iraq

This article was written on the 5th anniversity of  the Iraq war which was Thursday 20th 2008. 

An Ottawa telecom engineer invited by George W. Bush to join a group developing a post-invasion strategy to rebuild Iraq says he now believes the U.S. president never had any intention of heeding its advice.

“It was optics,” Ahmed Al-Hayderi said yesterday. “Almost everything that we advised them to do was not done, and everything we advised them not to do was done. We were ignored.”

Mr. Al-Hayderi, who defected to Canada 28 years ago to escape the repressive reach of Saddam Hussein, thinks that even if Mr. Bush had heeded only a few of the group’s major recommendations, the situation would “absolutely” look much brighter in Iraq on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion. Ahmed Al-Hayderi has never visited his mother’s grave in Iraq or his old home in Baghdad.

For much of 2002 and 2003, Mr. Al-Hayderi was part of the Future of Iraq Project, a U.S. initiative that brought together 250 professionals and intellectuals from around the world to provide Mr. Bush with a blueprint to rebuild Iraq.

Iraq had been mismanaged and neglected for decades under Saddam.

Working with 17 U.S. agencies, including the CIA and Pentagon, the group prepared strategies for everything from how to utilize Saddam’s 600,000-strong army to protecting Iraq’s immense religious and historical treasures, drafting a new judicial code and restoring the country’s unique marshland ecosystem.

However, virtually nothing from the group’s 1,200-page study was used once Saddam fell, Mr. Al-Hayderi said. “It was a waste of the time and abilities of many intelligent people, and it was a wasted opportunity.”

As a result, many of the group’s dire warnings about a diverse range of complex and potentially explosive issues came to pass just as predicted, and have contributed to miring the U.S.-led nation-building experiment in near disaster.

Mr. Al-Hayderi, 54, believes some of the group’s ideas would have been simple enough to implement and paid big dividends at little cost.

For example, he said, a suggestion to convert Saddam’s army to civilian use, rather than disbanding it, could have eliminated widespread resentment created by cutting off the main source of income of more than half a million families. Plus, the army’s broad expertise could have been invaluable in restoring the country’s social and industrial framework.

Using the Iraqi army would also have freed U.S. troops to protect the border, which Mr. Al-Hayderi says “leaked like a sieve” during the first year after the invasion, making it easy for hundreds of al-Qaeda operatives to enter the country and foment violence that continues today.

“Relying so heavily on the U.S. military was an absolute slap in the face,“ Mr. Al-Hayderi said. “It was a non-starter, just as the appointment of a U.S. military governor, and not an Iraqi,was a huge mistake.”

To be fair, that first governor, retired general Jay Garner, wanted Future of Iraq Project director Tom Warrick to join his staff in Baghdad soon after the invasion. Mr. Warrick had begun packing his bags, but the Pentagon vetoed his appointment on instructions from defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.