Thursday, June 28, 2007

THIS JUST IN! FAITH BASED FOOL!

EAGER TO GET OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE AND FAR FROM THE BULLY BOY, FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH HIT THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA.  HOWEVER, IT APPEARED SHE HIT THE LONE STAR BEER A LITTLE HARDER.
 
THAT WOULD EXPLAIN HER REMARKS IN DAKAR THAT "CURBING THE SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS ALSO INVOLVES ADDRESSING MALNUTRITION AND MALARIA".  THE FAITH-BASED AND BEER SOAKED FIRST LADY WAS ASKED TO CLARIFY BY THESE REPORTERS AND SHE RESPONDED THAT SHE WAS "PRETTY SURE YOU CAN GET IT FROM A SQUASH.  I HAD A FRIEND IN HIGH SCHOOL WHO GOT V.D. FROM A VEGETABLE."
 
THESE REPORTERS INFORMED HER THAT AIDS WAS NOT TRANSMITTED THROUGH FOOD OR THROUGH HUNGER PAINS.  WHEN THE FIRST LADY ASKED HOW IT WAS TRANSMITTED, WE ATTEMPTED TO INFORM HER; HOWEVER, SHE STOPPED US INSISTING THAT "I DID THAT ONCE WITH MY HUSBAND AND NEVER AGAIN!"
 
IN ZAMBIA, THE FIRST LADY DECLARED THAT "RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS BRING A PERSONAL HEALING TOUCH TO THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS" AND INSISTED THAT SHE KNEW "VERY WELL THE HEALING POWER OF FAITH" BEFORE ADDING, "THAT'S WHY I ALWAYS PRAY BEFORE A ROLL AT THE CRAPS TABLE."
 
MEANWHILE WHAT AFRICA COULD USE TO COMBAT AIDS IS MORE CONDOMS; HOWEVER, A MYSTERIOUS SHORTAGE IS BEING WHISPERED.  IN A NOT UNRELATED TOPIC, FIRST DAUGHTER AND BULLY IN TRAINING JENNA BUSH ACCOMPANIED HER MOTHER ON THE TRIP.
 
 
 
Starting with war resistance.  Estes Thompson (AP) gets tasked with filing the featue based on AP's 'study.'  AP's studying data on self-check outs from the US military -- data compiled by the branches and "each branch of the military keeps statistics in different ways".  Of course, as NPR demonstrated last month, that 'tracking' of figures is often fudged.  But working from the data, Thompson wants to tell you that "the US military does almost nothing to find those who flee" and buying that really requires ignoring the realities of Kyle Snyder's story.  Snyder self-checked out after serving in Iraq (something the military tells Thompson really doesn't happen -- these self-checkouts, according to the military are people who haven't served anywhere yet) and went to Canada only to return to the US in October of 2006 after his attorney and the military had reached an agreement.  Upon turning himself in, Snyder found out that the military which lied to him repeatedly was still lying.  He was not being discharged.  Snyder self-checked out again and began a speaking tour across the country (also worked on reconstruction in New Orleans) and what happened then? 
 
What happened then was that Snyder, who truly did not believe the US military was interested in what he was doing and was quite public about where he would be speaking, suddenly found the police showing up at every scheduled stop.  And the instructions to the police were reportedly coming from Fort Knox in Kentucky.  That's before Snyder returned to Canada.  Once he returned to Canada, as he was about to get married, Canadian police show up at his door to arrest him, carrying him out in his boxers, and doing so on orders from the US military.  We could also go into the two US military officers that accompanied a Canadian police officer to Winnie Ng's home, her Canadian home, in search of was resister Joshua Key and the fact that the two US military officers posed as Canadian police -- an offense several times over in both countries. It's an article meant to lull everyone to sleep and, for peace resisters, that will probably be the case.  For those who've paid any attention at all, prepare to laugh repeatedly.  In fact, let's note this: "In recent years, the military has lowered its standards to fill its ranks, letting in more recruits with criminal records or low aptitude scores.  But officials said that does not appear to be a factor in the rising desertion rate either.  In fact, Edgecombe said, recruits who got into trouble before they enlisted tend to shape up under the influence of the military's code of honor and discispline."
 
Peace resisters will probably nod along.  Those who have given a damn about the illegal war will immediately think of three words: Steven Dale Green.  Steven D. Green belonged to which branch?  The Army.  And Green made his decision to sign up when?  After he got busted (again -- this time for possession of alcohol).  Moral character waiver took care of that, just wiped it away.  Soon enough, Green was in Iraq.
 
And what happened then?  Small media ran from it in the summer of 2006. So let's go to CNN for the words of Captain Alex Pickands, summarizing as military prosecutor, exactly what Green and others did: "They gathered over cards and booze to come up with a plan to rape and murder that little girl. She was young and attractive. They knew where she was because they had seen her on a previous patrol. She was close. She was vulnerable." 
 
Yes, Abeer, the story small media ran from as if their life depended upon it.  (Exceptions have been noted before.)  Green, who will be tried in a civilian court and maintains his innocence, and others watched Abeer, leered at her.  Green ran his finger down the 14 year-old's face.  He freaked her out.  Abeer told her parents who made plans for her to stay elsewhere.  The day before that could happen, the plan Pickands noted would be implemented. March 12, 2006, Paul Cortez, James P. Baker, Jesse Spielman, Bryan Howard and Steven D. Green began the criminal actions.  (Howard was reportedly the lookout.  Barker and Cortez have confessed in court to their actions and those of the others involved.)  Green, Barker and Cortez entered the home of 14 year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi.  While Cortez and Barker began gang raping the 14 year-old girl, Green took Abeer's parents and her five-year-old sister into a bedroom and shot them dead.  While she was being gang-raped, Abeer could hear the gunshots.  Barker and Cortez made room for Green who then joined the gang-rape.  After the gang-rape, Green shot Abeer.  They then attempted to set her corpse on fire.
 
Now that doesn't fit with the sunny annecdotal 'evidence' that gets quoted by the AP; however, that is reality. Green, the high school drop out, let into the Army on a moral waiver shortly after being busted by the cops (again), has been described as the "ring leader" from the start.  (Again, Green maintains he is innocent.)
 
Edgecombe is Major Anne Edgecombe, a military flack whose job it is to spin.  She does that repeatedly with sunny anecdotes -- as opposed to facts and figures -- and the AP runs with them -- as opposed to reality. 11,020 is the US Army's official count on check outs since the start of the illegal war. Thompson's article is a test book case of weakening journalistic standard.  The article takes official data and official statements.  This isn't even the he-said-she-said (the 12 lines about Ricky Clousing -- the closest to an independent source in the entire article -- is not 'balance' in a 114 line article).  On March 19, 2007, Nancy Mullane broke the story of the US Army's undercounting on NPR.  The AP article gives no indication that Thompson is familiar with it.  In that report, Mullane explained how the 2006 figures for the Army were said to have dropped.  That was wrong.  The number given before NPR caught them was 2334.  Mullane reported: "Instead of 3100 deserters [for 2006], the real number may be closer to 5,000.  That's according to analysts within the Army's personnel division at the Pentagon and at the Fort Knox desertion information center.
Both reached that 5,000 figure by adding on soldiers who deserted and then were discharged from the Army throughout the year."  Search Thompson's article in vain for any mention of that.  There is none.  Thompson merely repeats the figure 3,301 for 2006, never notes the military's 'problem' with numbers and uses a military flack to offer anecdotal evidence and 'conclusions' throughout the article. 
 
Despite that nonsense, the movement of resistance within the US military grows and includes Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
 
In other resistance news, Iraq Veterans Against the War's Liam Madden "may not have to get ANY discharge" from the IRR, the AP (Heather Hollingsworth) reports citing Col. Pat McCarthy as the source of that quote.  He shouldn't need one.  He's already been discharged from active duty and the IRR doesn't usually do discharges.  The AP notes that Madden wants, in writing, the US military to admit "that my statements are neither disloyal nor inaccurate."  Along with  Cloy Richards and Adam Kokesh, Madden has been targeted by the US military brass for speaking out against the war and sharing what they observed first hand in Iraq.  Iraq Veterans Against the War are currently conducting a summer base tour that takes them to Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina tonight at 7:00 pm; the US Social Forum in Atlanta, GA on June 30th at 7:00 pm; Fort Benning in Columbus, GA on July 1st at 7:00 pm; a fundraiser in Philadelphia on June 3rd at 6:00 pm; a fundraiser in NYC on July 5th at 7:00 pm; the Naval Sub Marine Base in Groton, CT on July 6th at 7:00 pm; and concluding at Fort Drum in NY on July 8th at 4:00 pm.  Madden, writing at Iraq Veterans Against the War, notes of the kick off Saturday (Green Belt Park) in DC:  had an early visitor, a police officer who apparently does double duty as a 'journalist': "This confirmed to all of us that he was indeed, not a journalist and in fact, a cop with a bad attitude who wanted to leave before he was subject to any more inquiry.  Then, to top it off he drove by with a bright, fluorescent orange vest in his passenger seat.  You know, the kind cops wear when they need a bright fluorescent vest.  We carried on with the BBQ and 7 active duty military personnel joined us along with at least a dozen IVAW members and another 15 civilian supporters.  We declared the first cook-out a success as we recruited 4 new members, raised over $200 and did what we set out to do, have meaningful conversations and meet good people.  We later got a phone call from the news station asking why we sent their reporter away. Ooops."
 
 At his website, Adam Kokesh responds to comments that have been left, pro and con.
 
 
 

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