Saturday, July 21, 2007

THIS JUST IN! PRESIDENT CHENEY!

 
BREATHE EASY AMERICA AND PUT AWAY THE BREATHE EASY STRIPS.
 
 
BRIEFLY TODAY, VICE OF THE NATION WENT FROM A MECHANICAL HEART BEAT AWAY FROM THE PRESIDENCY TO SITTING HIGH AND PRETTY AS BULLY BOY HAD HIS ANUS TICKLED BY PROFESSIONALS.  SAID U.S. SENATOR TOM VITTER, "I GOT IN A LOT MORE TROUBLE AND I'M REALLY VANILLA.  BULLY BOY IS A FULL ON FREAK!"
 
BULLY BOY GIGGLED AS HE ASSURED REPORTERS THAT THE DOCTOR IN QUESTION WAS A "REAL PROFESSIONAL AND TOOK IT NICE AND SLOW".
 
VICE OF THE NATION WAS SEEN LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE GRUMBLING ABOUT HOW IF "YOU TAKE TIME OFF TO HAVE YOUR BROWNIE PLAYED WITH, YOU REALLY AREN'T UP TO THE JOB.  I SHOULD HAVE BOMBED BELGIUM WHILE I WAS IN CHARGE."
 
 

Starting with war resisters. Ian Munro (Australia's The Age) explores the "estimated 250" US service members who have self-checked out and moved to Canada and zooms in on Dean Walcott and Phillip McDowell.  Munro writes, "Mr Walcott's life was up-ended in 2004 at a military hospital in Germany when burns survivors from the Mosul mess tent bombing were shipped in."  Like Walcott, McDowell served in Iraq before deciding to self-check out.  Munro quotes McDowell stating, "I believed everything the Government told us about weapons of mass destruction, that there were links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.  I was aware of the international opposition to going in, but growing up I always trusted my government" and reports, "By the end of his tour he saw the war as wrong, illegal and counterproductive, and was disturbed by the treatment of some prisoners.  But he thought he was clear by the middle of last year when his enlistment expired.  Then the army called him back.  With his family's support, he and his partner Jamine took the Canada option in Ocotber."  Jeffry House tells Munro that he estimates the number of war resisters in Canada to be 250 and, "Some don't want to go through the war resisters because they are a political group.  Some people want to make the point about their concern but don't want to be part of a campaign."   House represents many including Kyle Snyder, Joshua Key and Jeremy Hinzman.  Lee Zaslofsky of the War Resisters Support Campaign tells his story, how he self-checked during Vietnam and moved to Canada -- where he's lived ever since and happily (to refute some of the nonsense offered earlier this week by a spokesperson for a group that does not represent self-checkouts) and he estimates there are hundreds who have self-checked out from today's illegal war and moved to Canada.


There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, 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-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at  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.

Yesterday, Elaine (Like Maria Said Paz) noted that alleged 'withdrawals' pushed by Democratic leadership in the US Congress some how tend to factor in leaving troops in northern Iraq and the effects the Kurdish separatist movement has on neighboring Turkey which has its own Kurdish separatist movement.  Today on Democracy Now!, Amy Gonzales and Juan Gonzales addressed the issue with the independent journalist Scott Peterson (Peterson reports for The Christian Science Monitor which actually is an independent publication and structured as one).  As noted before, Turkey has an upcoming election and the tensions flaring between the regions has only increased -- whether or not for electoral gain is for someone else to determine.  The region of northern Iraq has its own elections coming up which will determine its autonomy and with very little coverage from Western media, Kurdish flags have been planeted, families run off and those belonging to religious minorities have been either run off from the region or killed.  Turkey alleges and identifies the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party) as a terrorist organization and has argued that it is granted harbor in northern Iraq.  Mortars have been exchanged and, on at least one occassion, Turkish troops have recently entered northern Iraq.  From the broadcast:

JUAN GONZALEZ: Scott Peterson, this allegation by Turkey that the United States is indirectly assisting the PKK, is there any evidence of that, given the fact, obviously, that the -- isn't the PKK really a more, historically more of a leftwing insurgency, a secular insurgency that would be unlikely to be supported by the United States?          
SCOTT PETERSON: Well, the PKK really disappeared as an organization for the past five or six years. In 1999, its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was captured by the Turks, in fact. And in his first appearance in court, Ochalan said that the PKK had made a number of mistakes during the fifteen-year separatist war, that they should now try and work within the state and with state structures to find recognition of Kurdish rights and recognition of Kurdish culture. And he also said that they're no longer fighting for a separate Kurdish state. So those were all quite important changes that really kind of took the wind out of the PKK sails for many years.
What we've seen in the last year or two now is a surge of PKK activity in terms of attacks -- certainly in terms of attacks that the government attributes to the PKK, and those are both in Ankara, others also in Istanbul, some targeting civilians and many targeting also soldiers, especially in Kurdish areas in southeast Turkey.
Now, of course, the issue of who is supporting the PKK is a very thorny one, because, of course, the PKK remains on the list of terrorist groups, as officially designated by the US State Department. The United States has identified and chosen a special envoy specifically for countering the PKK. That's the title of Joe Ralston, General Joe Ralston. And so -- and, of course, the US denies that it is giving any support to the PKK, but from the Turkish point of view they say, Wait a minute, there are American forces who control all of Iraq, and therefore since the PKK has bases in northern Iraq, that means that by definition there are -- you know, that the US is somehow involved, if nothing else, in turning a blind eye. And you've also got apparently safe haven given to the PKK by Iraqi Kurds in northern Iraq. 
And the reason for these latest accusations or allegations is, just in the past ten days or so there was a press conference that was purported to be from four PKK members who had fled northern Iraq. They appeared in Ankara at a press conference wearing masks and saying, we have just fled, that PKK militants are leaving their bases, expecting a Turkish invasion, and that also they had witnessed, they say, American troops actually offloading weapons at PKK bases for the PKK. And I have spoken to senior Turkish police officers who feel that the entire story is concocted, and I'm sure that would be the American view, too, but, again, it really does raise a lot of popular questions in the minds of Turks.


Elections in Turkey take place Sunday and for more on that you can read Scott Horton's latest piece in today's Christian Science Monitor.  In addition, Katharine Kendrick (Turkish Daily News) reports that political parties in Turkey have forgotten to court one group: "recent Turkish citizens."  Some context re: the conflict between northern Iraq and Turkey.  The US administration is attempting to lay the groundwork for a potential attack on Iran with a lot of loosely sourced claims which -- at best -- if true would only demonstrate that some Iranians have involvement in Iraq.  The US administration uses that unproven link to argue that the Iranian government, therefore, must be assisting.  In Bite Back In Your Own Ass news, Today's Zaman reports that not only has Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdulla Gul declared that the US is arming the PKK in Turkey but also: "The US Department of Defense has launched an investigation into US-registered weapons sent to the Iraqi army ending up in the hands [of] the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq."

In addition, the paper reports, "Former members of the PKK escaping from mountain camps in northern Iraq recently gave testimony in which they told securities authorities and prosecutors they had seen US trucks delivering arms to PKK camps."  By the US administration's 'logic' with regards to Iran, Turkey should be drawing up their battle plans.  Reuters reports that Turkey was shelling northern Iraq.  Meanwhile the Turkish Daily News reports conflicts between Turkey and Austria after Austraia refused to arrest "Ali Riza Altun, a founding member and the chief financial operator of the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States" when he surfaced in Austria this month before moving on to northern Iraq.

Turning to England, the United Kingdom's Military of Defence announced: "It is with profound sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the deaths of one serviceman from 504 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force and two servicemen from 1 Squadron RAF Regiment on Thursday 19th July 2007.  They were killed in an indirect fire attack on the Contingency Operating Base in Basra, Iraq."  Robin Stringer (Bloomberg News) noted that British forces are "the second-largest contingent of the American-led coalition in Iraq."  ICCC lists the total number of British troops who have died in Iraq since the start of the illegal war at 162.  ITV News reports  that 126 of the deaths are classified as having "died in action" while the BBC reports the three deaths come after the announcement that "british troops in Iraq will be cut to 5,000 by the end of 2007."  Michael Evans and Fiona Hamilton (Times of London) observe that the three deaths come "ten days after three British soldiers were killed in the same area of southern Iraq" Earlier this week, Sean Rayment (Telegraph of London) reported, on a new study by the Royal Stastistical Society that "found the death rate of British troops has now surpassed that of Americans, following a sustained upsurge of violence in the southern city of Basra."
 
 
Turning to the United States, today on KPFK's Uprising, Sonali Kolhatkar spke with Erik Leaver of IPS (Institute for Policy Studies) on the topic of empire, Iraq and more topics addressed in the new report [PDF format warning] "Just Security." With regards to Iraq, the first step, stressed repeatedly, is getting all foreign troops out of Iraq.  Kolhatkar brought up the demonizing the administration is attempting to do with regards to US Senator Hillary Clinton. As The Chicago Tribune reports: "Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, accused Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) of aiding the enemy by calling for contingency plans for a troop pullout. 'Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq,' Edelman wrote in reply to Clinton's May inquiry. Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines called Edelman's letter 'outrageous'."  The demonization of Clinton for reqeusting information on contingency plans (which do already exist) is part of a full out assault by the administration, a push-back effort attempting to resell the illegal war long after the majority of Americans have turned against it and are calling for a withdrawal from Iraq.

That's why, yesterday, US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, did a song and dance (via video link) for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Wally ("THIS JUST IN! THAT'S A CROCK!") and Cedric ("It's a Crock") covered it in their joint-post. Crocker was selling the 'fear' because the administration knows to get what they want, honesty doesn't work; however, if they can scare the American public, they might stand a shot.  Starting with the Crock which existed to sell the fear (as did all parts of the marketing). Reneee Schoof (McClatchy Newspapers) reports US Senator Richard Lugar asked, "Are you planning for an eventual change of mission or redeployment of American forces in Iraq?"  But Crocker refused to admit a Plan B existed or was being created. Thom Shanker and David S. Cloud (New York Times) report that Crock said the benchmarks weren't being met and probably wouldn't. Cloud's whines were laughable since the US administration created the benchmark talk long before Congress even considered legislation on it.  But with more bad news coming, they needed to stall with something.   Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) would be reporting today, "A committee directed by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and President Bush to accelerate the transfer of security responsibility to Iraq's army and police has warned that Iraq is lagging in a number of categories. The quarterly report, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, says the Finance Ministry is blocking the Iraqi military from spending $660 million to build a logistical network; that militias are an obstacle to handing over to Iraqis responsibility for security in three mainly Shiite Muslim provinces; and that competition among rival security organizations has prevented the country from settling on a national security structure."
 
None dare call it progress.  Which is why the big talking point is "Forget September, We Need To Wait Until November."   As Kat noted last night, the new 'deadline' is supposed to November. Barbara Slavin's "General: September too soon to assess Iraq" (USA Today) noted that "the number two" (in Iraq), Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, was leading that pushback. Shanker and Sanger (New York Times) report, "Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, told Pentagon reporters that while he would provide the mid-September assessment of the new military strategy that Congress has required, it would take 'at least until November' to judge with confidence whether the strategy was working."

To really make the push, Bully Boy left DC and the national press corps hoping to yet again get soft press from local outlets. James Gerstenzang (Los Angeles Times) reports the stop yesterday was Nashville to the always hyper-enthused audience of a local Chamber of Commerce, "Such visits draw little national attention, but the out-of-town stops gain extensive local coverage sought by the White House to counter the steady beat of the Iraq war on news pages, websites, television and radio. And they provide a backdrop of a White House seeking, city by city, to portray the president as focused on the breadth of his job and not just the war."
 

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Thursday, July 19, 2007

THIS JUST IN! THAT'S A CROCK!

 
APPARENTLY UNAWARE THAT THE EMMY NOMINATIONS WERE ANNOUNCED EARLIER THIS MORNING, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ, RYAN CROCKER, GAVE ONE OF THE MOST HAM FISTED PERFORMANCES OF ALL TIME THIS AFTERNOON AS HE HEAPED ON THE MELODRAMATICS WHILE SPEAKING TO THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE. 
 
CROCK TOLD THE COMMITTEE THAT BENCHMARKS WERE NOT A RELIABLE MEASURE OF PROGRESS SEEMING TO FORGET WHO SET THEM (THE WHITE HOUSE).
 
CROCK PUSHED "THE FEAR" AND "THE FEAR" REPEATEDLY.  SO MUCH SO THAT SEVERAL ATTENDING EXPECTED HIM TO PULL OUT A FLASH LIGHT AND TELL THE TALE OF THE YOUNG COUPLE PARKING WHO FIND A HOOK ON THEIR CAR DOOR.
 
 
CROCK LEFT THE COMMITTEE MEETING IN A SNIT FIT AND WAS HEARD TO REMARK,
"HOW DARE THEY TREAT ME LIKE THE CAST OF DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES!"
 
 
 
Starting with war resistance.  Joshua Key began serving in Iraq in April 2003. Approximately six and half months later, he made the decision to self-checkout. In Michelle Mason's brilliant documentary Breaking Ranks, Key (and others) share some of what we they saw in the illegal war.  The section with Key in the film that may stand out most is when explains coming upon "heads and bodies.  And American troops in the middle of them saying 'we lost it.'  . . .  I seen two American soldiers kicking the head around like a soccer ball."  Key has also told his story in this year's The Deserter's Tale which has consistently earned strong reviews.  In the book, Key charts his life growing up in Oklahoma, his time in Iraq, his decision to self-checkout and the decision for his family (Joshua and Brandi Key and their four children) to relocate to Canada.  Among the many incidents he witnessed in Iraq was one on the way out of al-Habbaniyah where they passed many onlookers including an unarmed  man sitting in a chair.

As we approached, I saw the seated man raise his leg to bare the sole of his foot at us, a sign of disrespect.  We all knew that this was the Iraqi equivalent of the middle finger -- a clear "f**k you."  As I watched, Sergeant Gurillo -- perched atop an APC just ten feet ahead of mine -- put the man in the sights of his semiautomatic rifle.  Gurillo's rifle had a lever allowing it to be used as a machine gun or for firing single bursts, and Gurillo -- a short stocky guy who was known to us all for getting love letters from both his wife and his girlfriend -- must have switched the level to single-shot mode.  He tipped the barrel of the rifle down ever so slightly, squeezed the trigger, and shot the man squarely in the foot.

That incident is one of many recounted (p. 140 for that one) throughout the book.  It's actually one of the milder incidents in the book.  But someone offers the equivalent of the middle finger and they get shot.  All of the incidents Key observed and took part in, as well as the illegal nature of the war itself, resulted in Key's conclusion that he had no choice but to say no to illegal war,  From page 99:

My own moral judgment was disintegrating under the pressure of being a soldier, feeling vulnerable and having no clear enemy to kill in Iraq.  We were encouraged to beat up on the enemy, we picked our fights with civilians who were powerless to resist.  We knew that we would not have to account for our actions.  Because we were fearful, sleep-deprived, and jacked up on caffeine, adrenaline, and testoserone, and because our officers constantly reminded us that all Iraqis were our enemies, civilians included, it was tempting to steal, no big deal to punch, and easy to kill.  We were Americans in Iraq and we could do anything we wanted to do.

If he had stayed silent, if he'd refused to take a stand, who knows how many media outlets would hail Key as a hero?  Saying no to an illegal war is heroic.  As Dave Lindorff (CounterPunch) observes, "It is not that these soldiers are evil.  They are victims who have been assigned an evil job.  Some in the military -- people with extreme courage -- have resisted, have spoken out, have risked court martials, have refused orders, have deserted, but it is too much to ask most men and women in such a situation to be similarly courageous."  Which is why those who do take a stand need to be supported and applauded.

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, 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-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at  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.

The war is illegal.  War crimes are being committed.  Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today that US marine Trent Thomas was found guilty in the April 26, 2006 death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad: "Awad was dragged from his home, shot and then planted with a weapon to make it appear he was a militant planning an attack.  Five other service-members have pleaded guilty in the case."  Reuters noted that Thomas was "convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy to murder".  Elaine (Like Maria Said Paz) addressed this yesterday and noted that, throughout the case, the defense maintained that Awad was a "legitimate target"  which shows no remorse or accountability.  CNN reminds that Thomas had originally pleaded guilty in a plea agreement before changing his mind and withdrawing his plea and that he will be sentenced today.  In February, Dave Hasemyer and Rick Rogers (San Diego Union-Tribune) reported on Thomas' announcement ("stunned the judge"0 that in the midst of what would have been his sentencing hearing, Thomas declared he was withdrawing his guilty plea after having agreed to it three weeks prior.  When he entered the guilty plea in January, Thomas told the judge that his own actions had disgraced the military, admitted they planted a weapon on Awad after killing him, and more.  But, Hasemyer and Rogers reported, Thomas withdrew the plea at the start of February with the claim that the orders were lawful. Lawful?  In January, AP reported on the hearing where Thomas entered the original guilty plea and had Thomas testifying that Melson J. "Bacos started to spaz out, to freak out.  He started saying we were going to get caught" and that "Squad leader Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III then called in over the radio that they had spotted a man digging a hole, Thomas said.  Someone fired a shot, then he and others in the squad opened fire."  At this point Awad was already dragged from his home, already bound, already had a shovel and a gun planted near him -- lawful orders?  Lawful orders don't require any of that and they certainly don't require cover stories -- spazzing out or not.  Allison Hoffman (AP) reports that one of the defense arguments this week was that Thomas may have "a traumatic brain injury [which] impeded the Marine's ability to say no when his squad leader ordered him to snatch the man from his home in Anbar province".  To be clear, that man was not Awad -- when they could not find that man, they went after the grandfather Awad. Tony Perry (Los Angeles Times) explains that Thomas was convicted by a jury composed "of three officers and six enlisted personnel" who "deliberated six hours before reaching its verdict."


Goodman also noted, "Two US soldiers have been charged with murdering an Iraqi civlian in Kirkuk last month.  A lieutenant colonel has been relieved of command in connection with the case."  CBS and AP identify Michael Browder (Lt. Col.) as the commander who has been "relieved of his command . . . although he is not a suspect and has not been charged, the military said" and identified the two charged as Sgt. 1st Class Trey A. Corrales and Spc. Christopher P. Shore.  Browder is not a suspect but the US military press release is not blowing kisses and bearing hugs, noting Browder "was relieved by Maj. Gen Benjamin R. Mixon, commander, Multi-National Division -- North and Task for Lighning, based on the totality of the circumstances surrounding this incident and due to a lack of confidence in his ability to command effectively.  The alleged murder was committed by Soldiers under Browder's command."  The statement notes that the death in question took place ("on or about") June 23rd "in the vicinity of Kirkuk".  Megan Greenwell (Washington Post) reports, "The two men, who are based at Schofield Barracks in Oahu, Hawaii, were stationed near Kirkuk, an oil-rich city that has seen increasing violence and heightened tensions between ethnic groups.  Military officials said the murder probe was launched based on information provided by other U.S. soldiers."  Al Jazeera notes that charges against two US soldiers for murdering Iraqis were announced last month (and like Trent Thomas' crime, the two are accused of planting weapons to excuse the murders): "Sergeant Michael Hnsley and Specialist Jorge Sandoval were charged with the murder of three Iraqi nationals in three separate incidents . . . between April and June near the town of Iskandiriya".

Staying with war crimes, Tuesday, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted the deaths of Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh of Reuters last week had resulted in the "news agency . . . calling for a thorough and objective investigation into the U.S. military action last week that left two of its Iraqi staff members dead. . . . Reuters announced on Monday that it had recovered two cameras that were being used by Noor-Eldeen.  Photos on the cameras show no evidence of the firefight described by the U.S. military.  Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said: 'Our preliminary investigation raises real questions about whether there was fighting at the time the two men were killed."  Eye witnesses last week stated there was no exchange of gun fire going on when the Reuters team arrived.  A US air strike killed the two journalists.  Today, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) explored the attacks on journalists in Iraq -- the deaths and being held captive by the US military -- with  Scott Horton who spoke specifically of AP's Bilal Hussein who has been imprisoned by the US military since April 12, 2006.  "He was grabbed in Ramadi by a [US] patrol.  The initial announcement by the Baghdad command was that he was caught red-handed in some sort of action.  Of course, I interviewed some of the people involved in detaining him.  They told me that ws a complete lie, that they had been sent out on a mission to get him and that the instructions had come way, way up the chain of command.  In fact, the implication being that it hadn't been decided in Baghdad.  It had been decided in the Pentagon, in Washington." From the broadcast:

AMY GOODMAN: You referred to the US cameraman. This is the case that you seriously investigated. In fact, didn't you represent him, the CBS cameraman?
SCOTT HORTON: The CBS cameraman, that's right.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain his case, to give us some insight. He has since been released.
SCOTT HORTON: He was released one week before Bilal Hussein was arrested. In fact, we think there's some connection between these two events. But he had been taking pictures of an attack on an American convoy that occurred in Mosul in the north of Iraq, and he was shot as he did this. CBS was told in the first couple of hours after the event that he was going to be released, and then he continued to be held. And he kept being moved around.
And we learned that the center of decision-making had passed out of Iraq and was being taken in the Pentagon, in Washington. And in the Pentagon and Washington, unnamed senior press spokesmen, we believe an assistant secretary of defense, were telling reporters, off the record and not for attribution, that he had been found with photographs of four separate incidents of attacks on Americans at the time of the attack. And when we got to the end of the case and the trial, we discovered that was a conscious lie. Absolutely not the case. But it was reported, by the way, on CBS on continuous feed for thirty-six -- excuse me, on CNN on continuous feed for thirty-six hours, as well as on FOX News. Neither of them ever corrected the false statements that were put out.
JUAN GONZALEZ: What is the impact on the journalists who are in Iraq when you have situations like this of the military just grabbing people and holding them indefinitely without charges?
SCOTT HORTON: Well, we have -- I mean, we need to start with the fact that we have more than 110 journalists at this point who have been killed in Iraq. That's twice the number who were killed in World War II. The number of journalists who have been arrested is now into the thousands. Most of those arrests are simply for establishing identity, and they are resolved in a period of four to six hours, but many of them have gone on for weeks and indeed months, and it is -- you know, it creates continuous pressure on the journalists.
But the most disturbing thing here is a tendency on the part of the US military to view these journalists as, quote, "the enemy." And back three months ago, we actually got to see some classified operational security briefing materials that were prepared by the Department of Defense, in which they labeled journalists in a category together with al-Qaeda and drug dealers as potential enemy, to be treated and viewed as such. That leads to people being killed, by the way.
 
[. . .]
 
This summer, Tina Richards' Grassroots America and Iraq Veterans Against the War are launching the campaign Funding the War is Killing the Troops.  As Pham Binh (Dissident Voice) notes IVAW's membership is growing.  And the new  CBS News-New York Times poll demonstrates (yet again) that the public and the illegal war have parted.  Support is not coming back for it.  61% of respondents stating Congress should only fund the illegal war if it has a timetable for withdrawal and only 28% believe that Congress should continue funding regardless. 74% of respondents say the illegal war is going badly, 25% live in the land of delusion and say it's going "well."  Currently 8% of respondents are saying, "Block all funding."  By refuting the lies of US Senator Carl Levin and others, the Funding the War is Killing the Troops campaign can make that 8% number soar much higher.
 
 

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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

THIS JUST IN! GET HIS TIRED ASS OUT OF THE SENATE!

 
"I AM DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED.  I AM DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED," CHANTED SENATOR CRAZY TODAY, FLASHING THOSE CRAZY EYES, SPIT DRIPPING DOWN TO HIS CHIN.
 
"JOHN MCCAIN IS OFF HIS MEDS AGAIN," WHISPERED ONE SENATOR STAFFER.
 
 
HE DOES GRASP "THE IRAQ ISSUE" IS A WAR, RIGHT?
 
 
THE ILLEGAL WAR, OR IF SENATOR CRAZY PREFERS, "THE IRAQ ISSUE," PASSED THE 4 YEAR MARK IN MARCH.  BY SENATOR CRAZY'S ADMITTEDLY QUESTIONABLE MATH, THE SENATE HAS "TAKEN" "UP" THE ISSUE OF THE WAR EIGHT OR NINE TIMES.  THAT'S AVERAGES OUT TO ONLY TWICE A YEAR.  SENDING U.S. TROOPS INTO ANOTHER COUNTRY IS ONE OF THE MOST SERIOUS ISSUES THE GOVERNMENT CAN MAKE.  "TAKING UP THE ISSUE" ONLY TWICE A YEAR IS AN EMBARRASSMENT AND SENATOR CRAZY'S CLAIMS THAT "THE IRAQ ISSUE" SHOULD BE IGNORED DEMONSTRATES THAT HE IS AS LOUSY A SENATOR AS HE IS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE.
 
 
 
 
Starting with war resister Phil McDowell.  War Resisters Support Campaign notes: "Phil McDoweel is from Warwick, Rhode Island and a former SGT in the United States Army.  He joined the Army in 2001 after the September 11th attacks during his senior year at Marist College, in Poughkeepsie New York, where he majored in Information Technology.  As part of the First Cavalry division he served in Iraq from March 2004 to March 2005.  A month and a half after being discharged in June 2006 he received notification that he fell under the Army's Stop-Loss policy and was to return to his unit at Fort Hood, Texas for a second deployment to Iraq.  Shortly after returning to his unit he made the decision not to take part in the illegal war and moved to Canada in October of 2006.  His partner Jamine Aponte, joined him a month later in November.  They now live in Toronot where they have started their new life."

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, 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-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at  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.

Iraq Veterans Against the War are among those working not only to end the illegal war but to get across the very basic point: Funding the war is killing the troops.  Joel Bleifuss (In These Times) interviews IVAW's Vincent J. Emanuele who hails from Chesterson, Indiana, went to Iraq in March 2003 and credits Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 with giving him "a new perspective" and one he was open about while serving.  His opinion of the illegal war, "This war is tragic. It was not needed.  To die in this war is a wasted death.  Had I died, I would have indeed died for nothing -- or maybe not for nothing, but for oil and dollars and cents.  To be brutally honest, the war was a money-making machine.  And it hurts to think of it that way and that you have been used."


"The war's going to end.  It's now really," Tom Hayden declared, about "scheming on the part of Machevilians" as to whether they can continue the illegal war as it is or be forced to scale back (and pretend they're ending it).  "The other end is that all the military troops" come home and "the military bases are closed down" but no presidential candidate or member of Congress has the will to end the illegal war because "they've bought into the myth that if they end the war our superpower status will end".  "What you do, what will all do will determine the behaviors of the politicans going into the election"

Hayden spoke in Pasadena and KPFK's Uprising broadcast the speech today.  Members who listen (or already have) and want to share comments or want my comments can e-mail.  What we're noting from the speech is factually correct or Hayden's opinions.  (Comments about Democracy Now! starting up as a result of the Iraq war, for instance, are wrong.  Democracy Now! began in 1996 and it started to follow the 1996 elections.)  Hayden's newest book is Ending The War In Iraq.

Hayden's opinion is that the most likely outcome on Iraq is a partial withdrawal to mitigate popular outrage due to impending elections and continue the illegal war.
He spoke of traveling around the country and being "surprised myself" to find that "the anti-war movement" was so large and notes one possible "reason the peace movement today is invisible" in some ways is due to the fact that "generally, it's led by women." (A comment on the marginalizing of women by the mainstream press.)    Hayden also explored the topics of the pillars that support war and how "putting people power to the pillars" can end a war.

The pillars propping up war include public opinion (which is now gone and has been gone domestically since 2005), bipartisanship (to make it acceptable, to argue "national security" and -- though not noted -- to silence dissent that could kill the war before it starts), troops and the capabilities to add more troops, the budget (where monies could have instead be spent), American 'prestige' around the world, public perception (including your own).

Hayden spoke at length on the pillar of troops noting that if you read reporting closely, as well as the James Baker Circle Jerk, you will find the cautionary notes that "the armed forces will not be able to continue past next spring".  He noted the increased difficulty of recruiting and stated this "accounts for many of the military, including leadership, but not all, trying to divert" the Bully Boy away from his illegal war of choice.

On the topic of "your own perception and your country's perception," Hayden noted that the illegal war "is a dirty war" with secret prisons, "Americans secretly training Iraqis in the black arts of counterinsurgency," etc.  On the issue of Abu Ghraib, Tom Hayden noted the press did not break that story, "Joseph Darby, a prison guard, saw them [photos] on a laptop and, for some moral reason, turned them over to his superiors . . . and then and only then did the military start to investigate and the media begin to pick it up. . ..  And we still haven't seen all the photographs."  Even in a supposed free society and democracy, Hayden noted, we haven't seen all the photographs.

Nor have we heard all the details.  In speeches, Sy Hersh enjoys mentioning the sodomizing of at least one child in Abu Ghraib but has yet to write about it.  (On Iraqn, Hersh obsession of the last three years, Hayden noted that presidents confronted with a losing and unpopular war often attempt to widen it but his personal opinion was that the power structure in this country would not tolerate expanding the illegal war to also include Iran.)  Last week, [Language warning -- F-word throughout the clip for those who may listen at work] Information Clearing House posted a video of an unidentified American male discussing his time working at Abu Ghraib which includes being taught various techniques by the CIA, expressing the belief that everyone imprisoned there was guilty because the Iraqis were guilty of not taking Saddam Hussein out of power themselves, and of an Iraqi women that several Americans had sex with (probably rape, but he doesn't use that term) who ended up killing herself (in prison) which was just as well, according to the male, because she probably would have been stoned when she left the prison anyway.  We'll return to the topic of Iraqi women but first, the obsession: Democrats in the Senate.

Democrats in the Senate invited Republicans to a sleep-over last night.  Kay Bailey Hutchison got her bra frozen, Lindsey Graham put Orrin Hatch's fingers in water causing Hatchet-face to wet himself while sleeping, and short sheeted Tom Coburn's cot causing Coburn to hiss, "So what!  You think I care?  I'm for smaller government!"  It was a public relations stunt on the part of the Democrats, an attempt to rebuild their plummeting ratings.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid started off spewing fire and brimstone but, as Shailagh Murray, Paul Kane and Debbi Wilgoren (Washington Post) observed, that changed quickly: "Although Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) initially warned that votes on legislation to withdraw combat troops could occur at any time during the night, he agreed shortly after midnight to delay even procedural votes until 5 a.m. and to put off until 11 a.m. a vote on legislation to bring home most troops by May."  Most?  Hold on for that.  The usual Party Hacks and Dream The Acceptable Dream types were out in full force.  WalkOn.org announced, "Republicans in the Senate are planning to block a vote early next week on ending the war.  Let's be perfectly clear on this: Republicans are blocking this vote because they know they'd lose.  It's time to leap into action.  As Repbulican filibuster on Tuesday, we're holding citizens' counter-filibusters on Tuesday night.  We'll gather outside Senators' offices and in public places to read first-hand accounts from Iraq vets and military families about the cost of the war.  We'll send a clear message to Senators and the media that this isn't about partisan games -- it's about people's lives."  Let's be perfectly clear about the pathetic shell game that went on: No proposed legislation was about bringing troops home, no proposed legislation was about ending the illegal war. 

Let's be perfectly clear, WalkOn.org exists to always steer to the path of least resistance.  It is not an organization made up of fighters or dreamers.  What Tom Hayden was speaking of (and he lavished praise on the pathetic WalkOn) was that the leadership is at a place where they have to do something but ending the illegal war is not the course they will go for unless pushed hard.  Fortunately for them, they have supposed independent actors perfectly willing to serve as body guards and publicity flacks giving them cover to continue the illegal war and willing to sell that as an effort to end it.

The pathetic Senator Carl Levin made noises, as reported today by Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!), about the people wanting "to end the war in Iraq.  It is time to change the course.  And the reason that we are in control of the Congress is because the American people want us to change course in Iraq."  He gives lip service very easy, he just can't follow through (as anyone who's lobbied him over the Guantanamo Bay prison over the last few years can attest). As Amy Goodman noted, this is a debate that (if successful) would mean "most combat troops" (US troops) would leave Iraq "in 120 days".  "Combat troops" is a classification.  Bully Boy could ensure that none of the approximately 160,000 troops leave simply be reclassifying them.  If that point seems familiar it's because we've been making it here for some time -- since the US Congress first played the shell game that was the Pelosi-Reid measure.  Party Hacks came out to support that non-action as well.  The people didn't buy into the fluff and the Democrats' ratings plummeted.  It was thought that by doing the same thing with a p.r. stunt like an 'all nighter' would make the do-nothing party leadership look less pathetic.  And certainly the usual pathetic centrists were out in force to prop up the lie that the Democratically controlled Senate was attempting to end the illegal war when, in fact, it was doing nothing of the sort. 

When independent media joins hands with the Democratically controlled Congress in lying to the people, it shouldn't get a dime of support.  Thus far The Progressive has ignored the p.r. stunt which may be because it was a stunt or because the points to make have already been made.  (Or a combination.)  By contrast, the feel-good spirit of The Nation (which leads to censoring evidence of atrocities) means it's all pom-poms all the time.  Robert Parry (Consortium News), a true independent, notes the truth and the reality, "If the Democrats really want to prevail over George W. Bush on the Iraq War and on his authoritarian vision of presidential powers, they would put back on the table two options that their leaders have removed: a cut-off of war funding and impeachment.  Rather than all-night debates about resolutions that will go nowhere, the Democrats would make the cast to the American people that Bush has trampled on the Constitution; he has ensared the nation in a catastrophic war by lying; and he has his eyes set on more dangerous chicanery in the months ahead."  Edward Epstein (San Francisco Chronicle) notes that the categories that would remain in Iraq had the Levin-Reed measure passed the Senate (it didn't) and then the House would have been "those conducting special operations against al Qaeda, training Iraqi forces or guarding U.S. facilities."  Retired army Col. Daniel Smith (Foreign Policy in Focus) addressing the Skelton measure (similar to the Levin-Reed measure) in the House last week and the deployment issue in the Senate notes that "proposed legislation contains all sorts of caveats, exceptions, and restrictions, all of which the president can waive if he determines them detrimental to national security." Nicholas Johnston and William Roberts (Bloomberg News) report the Levin-Reed measure did not pass. 52 for and 47 against was the count. Gail Russell Chaddock (Christian Science Monitor) explains, "Washington's political theater is part of a deliberate political strategy aimed at living rooms across America."  Ron Elving (NPR) notes that the theater was meant to get "the country to notice that the White House has enablers in the Senate."  Yes, and some are on the Democratic side.  Interviewed by the Socialist Worker, Anthony Arnove noted that the Republicans in Congress are backing away from the illegal war in terms of unconditional support but not calling for an end to it and "elements of this approach are actually similar to what many Democratic critics have in mind: troop reduction, not withdrawal; a greater reliance on air power and 'over the horizon' forces rather than boots on the ground; a retreat to bases and the Green Zone in Baghdad; and a shifting of the blame from the United States and its allies to the Iraqis.  In effect, it's a 'blame and hold' strategy.  Blame the Iraqis for all the problems we created.  Hold onto whatever the U.S. military can salvage in terms of military bases in Iraq -- to have some influence over the future of Iraq's massive oil reserves and some ability to continue military operations in Iraq, and to project power against other countries in the region, particularly Iran."

Let's be clear, WalkOn pushing the nonsense of Dream In Monochrome and With Fine (Limited) Tuning is nonsense.  The illegal war needs to end it will not do so with measures sold to the people as "End the war" that, in reality, continue the illegal war.  Possibly it is an accomplishment that US Senators actually had to make statements about how badly the illegal war was going (I didn't see any press accounts that quoted senators speaking of how badly things were for Iraqis during the illegal war -- possibly that didn't make the Talking Points List?), but applauding nonsense is encouraging nonsense.  "Funding the war is killing the troops" is a rallying cry of Tina Richards and Iraq Veterans Against the War.

On Januray 4, 2007, the Democrats took control of both house of Congress. The US military announced one death in the illegal war that day, "A Multi-National Division - Baghdad patrol was attacked by small arms fire, killing one Soldier in the western part of the Iraqi capital today."  He was later identified as Staff Sgt. Charles D. Allen of Wasilla, Alaska, a 28-year-old.  The announcement of his death brought the total number of US service members killed to 3006 on January 4th -- the same Dems took control, swept in by citizens wanting an end to the illegal war.  Six months later, 616 announced deaths later and the war drags on.  Only difference appears to be that these days, the Dems are helping Bully Boy by grabbing an end to help him drag it.  Funding the war is killing the troops.  Funding the war is killing Iraqis.

 
 

Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha!
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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

THIS JUST IN! OBAMA'S ENRON STYLE ACCOUNTING!

WHAT IF YOU WERE RUNNING AS THE CANDIDATE OF THE PEOPLE?  YOU'D PROBABLY WANT TO IGNORE THE FACT THAT YOU GET MOST OF YOUR MONEY FROM CORPORATIONS.
 
BUT WITH SO FEW SMALL DONORS HOW COULD YOU PRETEND YOU WERE THE NEXT HOWARD DEAN?
 
THE BARACK OBAMA CAMPAIGN HAS FOUND THE WAY.  AND MOST, LIKE THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, FELL FOR OBAMA'S ENRON STYLE ACCOUNTING ANNOUNCING THAT SMALL DONORS GAVE $100,000 AND THAT THEY AMOUNTED TO 260,000 DONORS.
 
WHAT IS A DONOR?  SOMEONE WHO DONATES MONEY TO A CAMPAIGN.
 
NOT TO BARACK OBAMA CAMPAIGN.
 
 
 
WHEN REACHED FOR COMMENT, ONE LONE VOLUNTEER STATED HE WAS NOT AUTHORIZED TO SPEAK BUT HE WOULD TAKE A STAB AT IT IF HE COULD GO UNNAMED.  "WHY," HE ASKED, "DO YOU THINK OBAMA SICKED THE SECRET SERVICE ON THAT POOR 24-YEAR-OLD ZAKARYAN WHO WAS JUST SELLING PLAYING CARDS WITH OBAMA'S PICTURE ON THEM?  BECAUSE HE WAS CUTTING INTO THE 'DONATIONS'."  [SEE "THE WOULD BE BULLY BOY" AND "Boreass Obama Bullies Up" FROM LAST WEEK.]
 
 
 
 
Starting with war resisters.  Ehren Watada is the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq.  For months he attempted to work out an alternative privately (as the military said they wanted) offering to serve in Afghanistan or to resign his commission because he (rightly) sees the Iraq war as an illegal one and serving in it would lead him and those serving under him open to charges of war crimes.  The military strung him along for months and, in June 2006, he went public with his refusal to deploy to Iraq.  In February, Judge Toilet (John Head) created a kangaroo court-martial wherein Watada would not be allowed to explain why he refused to deploy but somehow it would add up to 'justice.'  Despite the unlevel playing field, the prosecution's witnesses ended up making the point for Watada.  On the day when the defense was supposed to present their side (Watada on the stand), Judge Toilet began playing dumb about a stipulation he had seen before it was agreed to, one he had seen after it was agreed to and one he himself had explained to the jury.  He began asking the prosecution if they wanted a mistrial.  They didn't pick up immediately that he was handing them a "do over" and initially declined.  After increased prodding, they agreed.  Judge Toilet ruled a mistrial over defense objection raising issues of double-jeopardy and whether Toilet was fit to serve on a future court-martial.  Toilet scheduled the next court-martial for March but, proving his incompentence, he forgot he wasn't allowed to do that.  The court-martial was to begin this month and it did not.
 
The Honolul Star Bulletin reports Judge Toilet (aka John Head) set a date for Ehren Watada's court-martial, October 9th. Matt Misterik (Tacoma's News Tribune) observes: "The October date, if it stands, would put Watada back in court at about the same time his Stryker brigade -- the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division -- is scheduled to return from Iraq after a 15-month deployment. The move does not come as a big surprise. Earlier this month, Watada's new attorneys tried to get military judge Lt. Col. John Head to disqualify himself from the case and also tried to invoke Watada's right not to be prosecuted twice for the same crime, known as double jeopardy."

"If it stands" refers to the fact that the Court of Appeals has not ruled.  They decided to allow Judge Toilet to rule before they weighed in on the Constitutional issue of double-jeopardy and whether or not Judge Toilet should remove himself from the case.  This is what Kenneth Kagan, one of Watada's two civilian attorneys, discussed last Tuesday with Margaret Prescod on KPFK's Sojourner Truth. The only surprise with the date is that he handed it down this week, Judge Toilet was supposed to hand it down last week.  Kagen explained that there were several levels of appeals (above Judge Toilet) and that he wouldn't be surprised if a court-martial took place (IF) that it didn't do so until next year.  The October 9th start date is no more set in stone than the March one Judge Toilet attempted earlier or the July one he then attempted.  Watada continues to report to Fort Hood and do his assigned tasks there. 
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, 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-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at  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.
 
There is also growing awareness that US troops will be withdrawn from Iraq.  As a result strategy sessions that might not have been reported even a year ago now are.  Karen DeYoung and Thomas E. Ricks (Washington Post) report on one recent effort by the military to run possiblities on what will happen when the US withdraws (or withdraws at least 'combat forces') and find that the US military has recently concluded that Shi'ites would take Anbar, civil war would break out in the south and, in the north, the Kurds would maintain their presence creating an ethnic partitioning of Iraq (as favored by US Senator and 2008 presidential candidate Joe Biden).  DeYoung and Ricks quote Gary Anderson (Marine Col. retired and in charge of this series of war games) declaring, "I honestly don't think it will be apocalyptic, . . .  it will be ugly."  De Young and Ricks also note the results of the war games are less dire than the predictions Bully Boy repeatedly makes to the public. Of the results of the war games and other possiblities, the reporters note that these are possiblities and not hard evidence of what will or will not happen.
 
What happend today, in Kirkuk, Al Jazeera reports, were "mass funerals" being held following yesterday's bombings that claimed the lives of at least 85 people.  Mass graves are the reality in Baquba.  Ahmed Ali (IPS) reports that with corpses turning up daily in the area, with the morgue handling "an average of four or five bodies everyday" while others merely abandoned "in rivers and farms," with the same electricity outtages plauging the area as the rest of the country and the US military having "ordered them to bury all bodies within three days"  bodies are now being  buried in mass graves. Baquba is in the Diyala Province which was also the location of an overnight slaughter so more mass gaves will be needed.  AP reports the local police state Sunni assailants (some wearing official military garb)  raided a village and killed at least 29 Shi'ites (at least four of whom were women).  Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) observes those dead and wounded from the attacks included women and children and that the assailants were "wearing the Iraqi army uniform".  CBS and AP report that at least 10 corpses were mutiliated.

On yesterday's attack in Kirkuk, Stephanie Gaskell (San Francisco Chronicle) provides context, "By the end of the year, Kirkuk's population of almost 1 million is to vote on a referendum to decide whether to remain part of Iraq or join the autonomous Kurdish region.  Most Kurds wish to be part of the Kurdish Regional Government, while most Arab residents (both Shiites and Sunnis) prefer to remain part of Iraq under a decentralized government."
Megan Greenwell (Washington Post) also observes the situation in Kirkuk noting, "The attacks this month are part of a pattern of increasing violence at a time of heightened tensions among ethnic Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen residents in the city and its environs. Former president Saddam Hussein sought to establish an Arab majority in Kirkuk, a center of Iraq's oil industry, but since his removal from power Kurds have worked to recapture control. Their efforts have angered Arab and Turkmen residents, who say they are being systematically driven out.  The attacks also furthered fears that insurgents pushed out of Baghdad by the increased U.S. military presence in the capital are focusing their efforts on the country's north, which has far fewer troops."  Which is how Bully Boy's non 'plan' (do the same thing year after year but add more US troops) does nothing but holds Iraqis and foreign forces hostage in an illegal war that was lost some time ago.
 
 
Turning to the subject of hostages.  On February 6th of this year, Hannelore Krause and her son Sinan Krause were kidnapped (in Iraq) and in April a video was relased of the two calling for a withdrawal of all German troops from Afghanistan.  Earlier this month Hannelore Krause was released, however, kidnappers still have her son.  Reuters reports that she has "begged the Gernman government to support her efforts to free him".  Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch is calling for the release of five hostages -- Iranian diplomats seized January 11th by US forces and who remain in US custody to this day.  Human Rights Watch's Sarah Leah Whitson states, "The US says it is detaining the five Iranians because they are criminals, not diplomats.  If they broke Iraqi law, they should be handed over to Iraqi courts for prosecution.  The US should not hold them indefinitely without trial."  On January 11th, the US military charged into the consular office Iran had Arbil and took diplomatic staff into custody.  Though the move and the captivity has been protested by Iranians and the Kurdistan government, the US has continued to hold the diplomatic staff.  Last month, news broke and the only term for the children is "hostages."  Lara Logan (CBS News) reported on the Baghdad orphanage where 24 boys were "straved and neglected . . . some near death . . . left naked".  The children were special needs children and some tried to spin the children being tied up, naked and starved as a means of 'protecting' them.  Diana Mukkaled (Asharq Alawsat Newspaper) observed, "The children were undernourished and half-starved as they lay on the floor covered in dirt and grime, while two supervisors stood by them smiling.  Also visible in the pictures were piles of food and clothing, which the children were deprived of, stored in the neighboring room.  Yesterday, IRIN noted that approximately half the 4 million (internally and externally) displaced Iraqis are children.  Just as the illegal war has created orphans, it also plays into the Baghdad orphanage scandal.  IRIN spoke to a parent of one of the children in the orphanage as well as to parents of orphanges and the story boils down to the fact that the children have special needs, the families are displaced (some missing parents) and it was thought orphanages could provide stable care that the families cannot at this time due to the daily chaos and violence.
 
 

Don't pick lemons.
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Monday, July 16, 2007

THIS JUST IN! HOW BULLY BOY GOT HIS FAT ASS!

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIX MIX -- DC.


CRISTETA COMERFORD HAS REVEALED HOW BULLY BOY GOT HIS FAT ON.

COMERFORD, THE WHITE HOUSE CHEF, EXPLAINED BULLY BOY HAS A FOOD FETISH AND IS "HONESTLY, A LITTLE PRISSY." FOR LUNCH SHE IS EXPECTED TO PREPARE HIM A PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH WITH HONEY. BUT THE BREAD?
BULLY BOY INSISTS ON CINNAMON BREAD.

NO, THAT'S NOT ON THE NASCAR MENU. COMERFORD EXPLAINED THE HONEY HAS TO BE ORGANIC AND THE POTATO CHIPS HAVE TO BE HOME MADE.

WHEN ASKED BY THESE REPORTERS HOW MUCH ENERGY AND WASTE GOES INTO PREPARING WHAT IS NOTHING BUT A LUNCH OF PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICHES AND CHIPS, COMERFORD BEGGED OFF BUT DID NOTE THAT FOR DINNER HE LIKES A A MARGHERITA PIZZA WITH BURGER MEAT AND CHEESE SMEARED ON TOP. "HE CALLS IT A CHEESEBURGER PIZZA," SHE EXPLAINED.

HOWEVER, SHE HAD NO ANSWER AS TO WHY IF THE FADING COWBOY WANTED A BURGER HE DIDN'T JUST HAVE IT.

"HE'S A FANCY PANTS?" SHE ASKED SHRUGGING.

ONE THING NOT ON THE MENU IS ANYTHING LIGHT AND THAT EXPLAINS WHY BULLY BOY'S BOOTIE IS NOW THE SIZE OF THE REARS OF JENNIFER LOPEZ, JENNIFER HOLLIDAY AND JENNIFER HUDSON COMBINED. BULLY GOT BACK! AND BELLY!

FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Starting with war resistance. James Burmeister is a war resister who went to Canada after serving in Iraq. He, his wife, Angelique, and their son, Cornell, now live in Ottawa. Mark Larabee (The Oregonian) reports on Burmeister and notes the "traps" were an issue -- setting out the fake carmera or other equipment so that someone would go for it and then shooting them for touching US property -- with James Burmeister declaring, "As soon as anyone would mess with it, you were supposed to lay waste to them. I completely disagreed with that tactic. I can't see how that's helping anyone whatsoever"; and on Iraq, "I though people needed to be free there. But when I went there it was all about captures and kills and it felt like we messed things up over there." For some reason, J.E. McNeil is quoted in the story and really doesn't know the first thing about the topic. I'll call out McNeil the same way I would a right winger. McNeil's area of expertise and area of interest is C.O.s and that's the topic McNeil should stick to. I find McNeil's remarks (and ingorance) damaging. It takes only a few seconds to say, "C.O.s is my focus. Have you considered calling the War Resisters Support Campaign?" A voice who does know something on the subject, Helen Burmeister, mother of James, whom Larabee reports is proud of her son and declares, "I don't support the war. I don't know anybody who supports what's going on in Iraq. . . . It took guts for him to do what he did."

Michelle Robidoux also knows about war resisters in Canada, she's with War Resisters Support Campaign and Ian Urbina (New York Times) spoke with her to get a sense of who was going to Canada and who was expressing interest in doing so. Robidoux "said in recent months the group has received calls that included two Army sergeants and a Navy chief petty officer." James Burmeister and his family have moved to Ottawa -- as did Ross Spears -- due to the fact that so many are already in Toronto. Laramee reports that the US military has "twice called her [Helen Burmeister] at work to tell her that her son was making a mistake and should turn himself in."

Last week, we noted the search of Lance Hering's parents' home. Hering may or may not be a war resister. What was known is that the US military called the police and maintained Herring (who has not been seen publicly since disappearing last year) was in his parents home. Christine Reid (Boulder Daily Camera) has reported more, "A Marine investigator said deserter Lance Hering posted on his MySpace page that he was staying at his parent's house in Boulder, sparking a search of the home earlier this week. . . . according to a police report released Thursday, a Marine investigator called Boulder authorities Tuesday to say he had come across what he thought was Hering's MySpace page, in which Hering indicated he had been staying with his parents. The investigator asked Boulder police to check out the Endicott Drive home after speaking with Elynne Hering and not being 'satisified by her response to his questions,' the report said."

Clearly Elynne Hering is under no obligation to answer questions from the US military, never having enlisted to begin with. But note clearly what happened. An investigator has spent time attempting to track Hering down. And then? Convinced he knows Hering is at his parents' home, he cross examines the mother on the phone and, not pleased with her responses, calls the police and requests the search. But we're all supposed to play dumb and pretend that the military doesn't actively seek out self-checkouts. Remember the popular lie? It's that the military has better things to do. Just like week, three idiots with the Yakima Herald-Republic not only put foward that lie again, they also said it was a good thing because the military has better things to do. To do that, you have to be stupid or willing to lie at this late date. Kyle Snyder returned from Canada in October in order to turn himself in only to be screwed over again and to self-checkout again. He then volunteered to help with reconstruction efforts in areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina before embarking on a West Coast speaking tour. With dates and appearances announced, a funny thing started happening -- the police started showing up at each stop after having been called by the US military about each stop. Snyder began "appearing" via phone and returned to Canada. The US doesn't actively seek out those who check out? In February, Snyder was preparing to get married when he was hauled out of his home, dragged away in handcuffs and in his boxers. He was released because it's not a crime in Canada to self-checkout of the US military. But who gave the orders? The US military. Or how about Winnie Ng who came forward approximately one month later to say that three men had just visited her home. The three men said they were Canadian police. They were looking for war resister Joshua Key. Winnie Ng shared that at least two of them were US and, she suspected, US military. Some made a point to step away from Ng or call her observations into question.

And certainly the Canadian's police denial that anyone had visited Ng's home helped cast doubts on her story. But Winne Ng told the truth. The Canadian police would finally have to admit that, yes, a police officer did go to Ng's home with two members of the US military (at the request of the US military). Winnie Ng was, as she stated from the start, visited by 3 men, one of whom was Canadian police, two of whom were US military. With the Canadian police having let the cat out of the bag, the US military quickly put forward the lie that the visit resulted from reading Key's book, The Deserter's Tale, and wanting to speak to him about some of the abuses he records in the book. That was a lie. The fact that they showed up at Ng's home demonstrates they didn't read the book. (Key's very clear in the book about where he lives now.) These incidents are big news in Canada. As they would be in the US if these actions were undertaken by another country. However, in the US only
Gregory Levey's "Northern exposure: American soldiers are fleeing the Iraq war for Canada -- and U.S. officials may be on their trail. North of the border is no longer the safe haven it was during the Vietnam era" (Salon) has addressed these actions. The Nation? Stop, you're making me laugh! The fact that some professional journalists may not know what has reported is no excuse for repeating the lie that the US military does not pursue self-checkouts, that they instead just enter names in a criminal data base and wash their hands of the matter. That is a lie. [For more reality, see The Third Estate Sunday Review's
"Editorial: They don't exist and no one's looking for them."]


Just as the search for them does happen, war resisters do exist. They are part of a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, 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-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at 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.

Turning to Iraq, the puppet of the occupation made headlines and waves Saturday suggesting that it made no whatever to Nouri al-Maliki whether US troops remained in his country or not. Consider it The Fiddle-De-Dee Moment heard round the world. Bushra Juhi (AP) quoted the puppet saying: "We say in full confidence that we are able, God willing, to take the responsibility completely in running the security file if the international forces withdraw at any time they want." Much attention and a pushback have greeted al-Maliki's statements (made publicly at a press conference). Less attention has been given to those of his "close adviser" Hassan al-Suneid whom, Juhi reports, "sharply criticized the U.S. military saying it was committing human rights violations and embarrassing the Iraqi government through such tactics as building a wall around Baghdad's Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah and launching repeated raids on suspected Shiite militiamen in the capital's slum of Sadr City." Thomas Frank (USA Today) observes the pushback on al-Maliki's statements which includes, in the US, White House officials attempting to play the old game of, "I know what he said but what he really meant . . ." Of more interest may be Frank's report that Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta is also publicy attempting "to soften comments by al-Maliki". Atta's alleged boss? Nouri al-Maliki. For those who have forgotten, the walls Hassan al-Suneid was dencouning to the AP? al-Maliki announced that construction of the walls would cease and his announcement was not only ignored by the US military, it was mocked and ignored by the Iraqi army -- the same army he allegedly commands.

While al-Maliki has no power of the army, despite the Iraqi Constitution, AP reports that Peter Pace says the Joint Chiefs of Staff is considering "an even bigger troop buildup in Iraq" and quotes Pace declaring, "We're (doing) the kind of thinking that we need to do and be prepared for whatever it's going to look like wo months from now. That way, if we need to plus up or dome down" they are ready. It's amazing what they are ready for while at the same time claiming that withdrawal talk must wait until September. When September rolls around, they will no doubt offer additional 'reasons' why talk of withdrawal must be delayed.
As Simon Assaf (Great Britain's Socialist Worker) reported last week, David Petraues -- the general whose report in September everyone awaits -- has been stating publicly that the illegal war "will last over ten years".

That news won't go over well in the United States. On Sunday Ian Urbina (New York Times) took a look at US military families and the results probably didn't cheer the White House. April Ponce De Leon will soon deploy to Iraq where her husband is already stationed and she told Urbina, "He started telling me that he doesn't want me to go and do the things he has been doing. . . . He said that 'we have all decided that it's time for us to go home.' I said, 'You mean go home and rest?' And he said, 'I mean go home and not go back.' This is from someone who has been training for the past nine years to go to combat and who has spent his whole life wanting to be a marine. That's when I realized I couldn't support the war anymore, even though I will follow my orders."

With approximately 70% of Americans favoring withdrawal and turned against the illegal war, where is Congress? Massimo Calabresi (Time magazine) weighed in last week on the topic noting, "Americans would be forgiven for thinking there's a major debate underway in Washington over whether or not the U.S. should leave Iraq. . . . The impression being created by the debate in Washington is more about politics than anything else. For starters, Democrats are playing to their base: Though most Senate Democrats support a redeployment along the lines that Bush is describing" -- the military police and terrorist fighters options for US troops in Iraq -- "they are keen to give voters the impression that they are all for getting the U.S. out of Iraq. And they are, but not yet. . . . As for Republicans, they too are playing to core supporters." The Republicans? Randall Mikkelsen (Reuters) reported yesterday that Senator Richard Lugar (who's gotten a lot of press attention and praise for supposedly turning against the illegal war) is on board with Senator John Warner with a "plan for a troop drawdown or redeployment that could begin after Dec. 31. It does not mandate action but says the plan should be ready by Oct. 16" and that the US national security adviser (Stephen Hadley) made a point of pointing out "that Warner and Lugar did not call for a withdrawal deadline or schdule -- unlike some Democratic plans -- and they envisioned a U.S. involvement in Iraq for a 'considerable period of time . . . All they're simply saying is we need to think about now how we can transition to a new phase in Iraq when U.S. forces may have a different role."

Translation, the breakway Republic(an)s of Bully Boy War Hawk Land aren't calling for an end to the illegal war, they're just worried about the 2008 elections. In a blistery (and accurate) essay in the July 2007 issue of The Progressive ("Democratic Betrayal," pp. 8-10), Matthew Rothschild writes of "The May surrender by the Democrats" referring to the sell out or, better worded, the purchase of co-ownership of the illegal war by passing the supplemental and thereby guaranteeing the continuation of the illegal war:

The depressingly lopsided vote, 2801-142 in the House, and 80-14 in the Senate, showed the Democrats at their most cynical and spineless.
Spineless because they wouldn't face down the inevitable attack ads to come -- the spurious claim that Democrats who want to bring the troops home alive are somehow not supporting the troops.
Cynical because, when Bush came to shover, they let him get what he wanted. Democratic calculators like House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Representative Rahm Emanuel probably figure that if the war keeps going on, it will drag Republicans down to defeat in 2008. Hence, the war is good for Democrats -- even if it's killing 100 U.S. soldiers a month and wounding 700 or 800 more.
You cannot get lower than that.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was all too willing to give in to Bush.
"I'm a legislator, and I believe legislating is the art of compromise," he said a few weeks before the vote.
There may be issues to compromise on. A reckless war is not one of them. And there is no art in dissembling.


Rothschild's You Have No Rights: Stories of America In An Age of Repression (The New Press, $16.99) came out this month and Cindy Sheehan's pullquote states the book "is urgently needed to stem the tide of rising oppression in our once free country." Rothschild will be taking part in a West Coast book tour which begins today at 7:30 pm, Elliot Bay Books, 101 South Main Street, Seattle, Washington, 98104. Other dates include, July 17th, 7:30 pm Modern Times Bookstore, 888 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110; July 18th, Wednesday, 7:00 pm, Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley; CA 94709, July 19th 7:30 pm, Annie Bloomis Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway, Portland, OR 87219; August 14th 7:00 pm, San Luis Obispo Public Library, 995 Palm St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401; August 15th 7:00 pm, Borders Books, 900 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 and August 16th 7:00 pm, Book Soup, 8818 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90069.


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