Well it was a really productive week on the road. I kidded myself that I'd be doing a review this weekend but now I doubt it because I'm so tired. I've got to take photos next week so I won't be out on the road. Jim's going with Ava and C.I. next week, I believe.
One thing I learned this week on the road is how some people do huge damage. I haven't written about the wildfires and don't plan to now. I caught 60 Minutes Sunday and most of the Democracy Now! coverage this week. We all missed it Thursday because there wasn't a radio station playing it in the area we were in which was a bit of surprise, honestly. It has seemed like it's available everywhere. I think there was a plan to listen online at one point but when we got done speaking, it was night time and we were participating in the roundtable for the gina & krista round-robin. After that, I fell out. I know C.I. still had to do the column for the round-robin and the entry at The Common Ills. I'm sure Ava was still working on things as well but I just fell out.
But the point is that with the coverage I did hear as well updates I got when I was calling from the road, I feel I know a bit about the subject. But I don't feel like I'm in a position to weigh in.
Some dee jays have no qualms. I heard this one man (he wasn't a right winger) devote about 30 minutes to the topic (maybe more, but we had made it to the campus in a half hour and were out of the car) in which he 'explained' that what happened was "about 40 people set fires all over California." These people, he 'explained,' would be caught and they would be given a bill for all the expenses. Intermixed in this commentary was how he wished women still didn't wear bras. He explained he 'supported' feminism for that reason. He seemed to feel that he fell to the left on the political spectrum but I felt he fell to the uninformed. When he started working in how the film Backdraft applied to the wildfire . . .
Maybe some people should just stick to their smutty & sexist jokes? I wondered how big his audience was? And whether they found him 'informative'?
He's what I consider a hysteria dee jay. They never know anything but don't let that prevent them from speaking. When one caller did bring up the issue of global warming, he appeared to invent a report on the gang of 40 allegedly starting the wildfires, insisting that the police had identified them and that the sketches of all 40 were "all over the TV."
In an area where we couldn't get Democracy Now!, he was the only non-right wing listening choice. The music choices were far worse (bubble gum dummies attempting to prove they were adult males by degrading women). We were all rushing and none of us had grabbed a CD so we were left with just the radio and I learned how much radio can suck. (A student passed on a music CD -- her band -- to us on campus so we had music to listen to as we left. I think that CD was amazing but would have listened gladly even if it had been bad.)
I was going over the list in the car -- C.I. keeps a listing of all the radio stations that carry Democracy Now! in the front pocket of the backpack, both to be able to catch the show on the road and also to recommend it on campuses -- and I couldn't believe there was no station that had it. I did work that in to my comments when we were speaking, by the way. And tore into the dee jay I'm being kind not to name. My main point was that nearly everyone has a radio and if you're working to end the illegal war, it will save you remedial education steps if your community offers a program that can get some truth out there. Two of the students did know about the program. I always forget it's on TV as well. (In that area, only if you had satellite TV.) I'm just so used to hearing it on the radio for a decade or so now. Sometimes Amy Goodman will mention something like photos and point out that radio listeners can go online and see them but otherwise, I never think about it as a TV program because given the choice of TV or radio, radio is always my preference.
Since only two of the students even knew of the program (and they both did watch), that led to a lively discussion about the kind of Iraq coverage we are getting. Needless to say, if you're dependent upon the mainstream rounded out with hysteria dee jays, you're not getting real much.
I'm tired and lazy. I've mentioned:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Ava and Jim,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Trina's Trina's Kitchen;
and C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review
B-b-but, you didn't mention Trina and Rebecca!
I am now. Rebecca's typing up a storm and Trina's decided to try to blog early, early in the morning. (It's early. We're at Trina's. In her Kitchen, in fact. The time on my post is PST but it's EST at Trina's.) Me, I'm noting a highlight and then getting some sleep.
This is from Dave Lindorff's "Reducing US Casualties By Killing More Civilians" (CounterPunch):
Several years ago, I warned that as the Bush/Cheney administration sought to reduce politically problematic casualty rates in Iraq and Afghanistan, it would resort to increased use of air attacks to combat the growing insurgency in Iraq and the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.
I also predicted that the result of this switch in tactics would lead to higher civilian casualties in those two countries.
We're now seeing those results.
In the latest reports from Iraq, we had 15 women and children slain, mostly in their homes by rockets and bullets fired from helicopter and fixed-wing gunships which were allegedly in pursuit of some supposed "al Qaeda" fighters, and as many as 17 civilians killed in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood when US forces called in air strikes after seeing a group of men they deemed to be hostile. Again those airstrikes ended up killing more civilians than alleged enemy fighters.
The casual use of the term "air strikes" belies the horror of what is happening. It's one thing to call in airstrikes during a battle out in the desert or the mountains, where the enemy is isolated and readily identified. It's another to call in the bombers and gunships in the heart of a densly-populated city. Such tactics are guaranteed to kill innocent people in large numbers.
Always love the Dave Lindorff. But the script for this month already appears written and the fact that it's hype doesn't seem likely to make much of a difference.
Hopefully a lot of others will combat the hype the way Lindorff is doing but I'm not sure that will happen because on campuses I see so much desire to address Iraq and yet in the media I see so little it's almost like Congressional Democrats are in charge of the media coverage.
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Friday, October 26, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, Turkey says it will wait for a bit more, the US military announces another death, IVAW gears up for more action, the Center for Constitutional Rights files suit against Donald Rumsfeld and more.
Starting with war resisters. Agustin Aguayo will be taking part in an Impeach Bush and Cheney Meetup with Ann Wright and David Swanson on November 2nd (6:30 pm) at the Veteran's Memorial Building in Santa Barbara (112 West Cabrillo Boulevard). That's next Friday, November 2nd. In other war resister news, Ontario's OPIRG Brock notes that war resister Michael Espinal and his partner Jennifer Harrison spoke at Brock University on Tuesday: "Michael put a very real human face on the horrors that are being committed everyday in Iraq. He spent 14 months as an explosives expert doing house raids, disarming landmines, and other explosives. Michael was reprimanded for breaking military procedure for only placing enough explosives on the doors to open them, rather than blowing the entire door and frame in the houses. If you use the amount of explosives the military states you should in its procedurces, "anyone within 5 feet of the door would be killed instantly." According to Michael most of the intelligence they relied on was from other Iraqi's who told US forces of locations where 'bad' people were. Those informants were paid about $5.00 'In all the raids I found only two grenades, and a few guns . . . if you were a male over 5 feet you were bound and taken away.' Michael said. Bibles were regularly shoved in the pockets of Iraqi's as soldiers would taunt them and tell them their religion was wrong. We constantly hear on the news of deaths and injuries of Coalition Forces in Iraq due to roadside bombs. From Michael's experience 'Most of the IED's (Improvised Explosive Device), I found were unexploded US ordinance,' or US placed landmines. When convoys would drive near the ordinance sometimes the vibration of vehicles passing would be enough to detonate it. Regardless of the source of the explosive, it is always blamed on 'terrorists'."
Meanwhile, Iraq Veterans Against the War is taking part in an event on Saturday, October 27th:
If you are a soldier or veteran who has served on active duty or in the Reserves or National Guard since 9/11, and your are frustrated and angry with the way our military has been used and abused to wage an occupation against the people of Iraq, then know that you are not alone. On October 27th, veterans, soldiers, and citizens will gather in 11 cities around this country in a national expression of the breadth and depth of antiwar sentiment in this nation. One of the biggest gatherings of IVAW members will be in Boston, where IVAW members from across the Northeast will come together for a fundraiser on Friday night, the march on Saturday, and a regional meeting immediately following the march. If you area aveteran or active duty person interested in meeting IVAW members in Boston, please e-mail newengland [at] ivaw.org or boston [at] ivaw.org. The seattle chapter has also been integral in the planning of their regional march, please contact seattle [at] ivaw.org to connect with fellow veterans in the Northwest. For additional information on regions and chapters participating in the October 27 marches and demos, including those in NYC, LA, and Orlando, please contact the regional coordinator or chapter in your area, http://www.ivaw.org/chaptersandregions. Check http://www.oct27.org/ for directions to the events and addtional information.
Also, Wally has discussed how he made his own support IVAW t-shirt to wear on campus. IVAW now has t-shirts that read "I SUPPORT IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty 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 [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
The National Lawyers Guild's convention begins shortly: The Military Law Task Force and the Center on Conscience & War are sponsoring a Continuing Legal Education seminar -- Representing Conscientious Objectors in Habeas Corpus Proceedings -- as part of the National Lawyers Guild National Convention in Washington, D.C. The half-day seminar will be held on Thursday, November 1st, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the convention site, the Holiday Inn on the Hill in D.C. This is a must-attend seminar, with excelent speakers and a wealth of information. The seminar will be moderated by the Military Law Task Force's co-chair Kathleen Gilberd and scheduled speakers are NYC Bar Association's Committee on Military Affairs and Justice's Deborah Karpatkin, the Center on Conscience & War's J.E. McNeil, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee's Peter Goldberger, Louis Font who has represented Camilo Mejia, Dr. Mary Hanna and others, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objector's James Feldman. The fee is $60 for attorneys; $25 for non-profit attorneys, students and legal workers; and you can also enquire about scholarships or reduced fees. The convention itself will run from October 31st through November 4th and it's full circle on the 70th anniversary of NLG since they "began in Washington, D.C." where "the founding convention took place in the District at the height of the New Deal in 1937, Activist, progressive lawyers, tired of butting heads with the reactionary white male lawyers then comprising the American Bar Association, formed the nucleus of the Guild."
From the National Lawyers Guild to the Center for Constitutional Rights. On October 11th, CCR filed suit against Blackwater over the September 16th slaughter of civilians in Baghdad by Blackwater USA on behalf of the families of Himoud Saed Atban, Usama Fadhil Abbas and Oday Ismail Ibraheem (all three killed in the slaughter) and Talib Mutlaq Deewan who was wounded in the attack. Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) broke the news that day and interviewed CCR's Susan Burke who explained, "We were approached by the families of three gentlemen who were shot and killed, as well as a gentleman who was very seriously injured. They came to us because they know of our work representing the torture victims at Abu Ghraib, and they asked us whether it would be possible to try to get some form of justice, some form of accountability, against this rogue corporation." CCR continues to pursue the issue of torture. Today Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) interviewed CCR president Michael Ratner and Jeanne Sulzer of the International Federation of Human Rights about the lawsuit filed by CCR and IFHR
JUAN GONZALEZ: Jeanne, I'd like to ask you, what happened this morning in France?
JEANNE SULZER: Well, the complaint was filed yesterday before the Paris prosecutor around 5:00 p.m. Paris time. This morning, Rumsfeld was present at the conference where he was scheduled. So what we are awaiting now is signs from the prosecutor to know whether an investigation has been opened or not. So what we needed here in France was to make sure that Rumsfeld was actually present on the French territory, which is the case. He's still here in Paris.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And now, was he actually served with any papers there, or what happened when he actually spoke?
JEANNE SULZER: Well, actually, the information we have is that the complaint has not been served on him. He has not been yet asked to account for the accusations in the complaint. So, as of now, again, we are waiting to see whether the prosecutor is still reviewing the complaint, and hopefully he will not wait too long, because our fears are that Rumsfeld will escape as soon as he can. So now the big issue is the pressure on the prosecutor and, of course, the higher-ups of the French authorities to take a decision on the complaint. But France has a very clear obligation to investigate and prosecute into this case under the torture convention, as Rumsfeld is present on the French territory.
Gonzalez noted that this is case number five against Rumsfeld.
MICHAEL RATNER: The big difference with this case and the other cases is Rumsfeld is actually in France. And when an alleged torturer goes into a country, but particularly France, the obligation on the prosecutor to begin an investigation is much stronger than in other cases of so-called universal jurisdiction. We brought two cases in Germany; one of those is still on appeal. There's a case in Argentina, and there's a case in Sweden.
I think the point of all of this is to really give Rumsfeld no place to hide. And the French case, really, because he is there, is extraordinary. I mean, that he was, in my -- in a sense, Juan, dumb enough to go to France, knowing that they have this kind of jurisdiction, is shocking. And, you know, I think one of the things that people can do right now is to put pressure on the French prosecutor to make sure he opens an investigation. We're going to have that fax number, etc., on our website, which the Center has a new website now: ccrjustice.org, ccrjustice.org, which in a couple of hours you can go to to fax materials. So this is a very, very exciting effort, and I think we're going to really pin Rumsfeld in in this.
I have a question, Jeanne: if they somehow don't open the prosecution and he leaves, do they still have an obligation to open the prosecution, even after he's gone?
JEANNE SULZER: In theory, there is, because what you need is, when the complaint is being filed, that the person, the alleged person, is present on the territory, and he was when the complaint was filed. So, yes, but they could, of course, say that now that he is not present on the territory anymore, there is no jurisdiction. But, yes, they should -- actually, the investigation should be opened now. If he escapes today, there is still basis for the French jurisdiction.
CCR notes that they and IFHR have joined with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and the French League for Human Rights in the filing "charging former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with ordering and authorizing torture. . . . The criminal complaint states that because of the failure of authorities in the United States and Iraq to launch any independent investigation into the responsibility of Rumsfeld and other high-level U.S. officials for torture despite a documented paper trail and government memos implicating them in direct as well as command responsibility for torture -- and because the U.S. has refused to join the International Criminal Court -- it is the legal obligation of states such as France to take up the case. In this case, charges are brought under the 1984 Convention against Torture, ratified by both the United States and France, which has been used in France in previous torture cases. . . . Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, former commander of Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, submitted written testimony to the Paris Prosecutor for the plaintiffs' case on Rumsfeld's responsibility for the abuse of detainees."
Dorren Carvajal (International Herald Tribune) notes Karpinski "contended that the abuses started after the appearance of Major General Geoffrey Miller, who was sent as an emissary by Rumsfeld to assist military intelligence interrogators. Miller crticized the interrogators for 'being too nice to the prisoners,' she said, and promised more resources. In her statement, Karpinski said he summed up the new approach in two sentences: 'Look, you have to treat them like dogs. If they ever felt like anything more than dogs, you have effectively lost control of the interrogation.' Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement that the aim of the latest legal complaint was to demonstrate 'that we will not rest until those U.S. officials involved in the torture program are brought to justice'."
Karpinski (PDF format warning) notes, "MG Miller was working almost exclusively with the military intelligence people and the military intelligence interrogators during the course of his visit. He was not interested in assisting with detention operations; rather he was focusing on interrogation operations and teaching interrogators harsher techniques as a means to obtain more actionable intelligence. MG Miller was spending almost all of his time with the Military Intelligence Officers (J2) BG Barbara Fast and the Commander of the Military Intelligence Brigade, Colonel Pappas. During his in-brief, his introduction when he first arrived there with his team, he responded to a military interrogator's question. . . . Then MG Miller said, 'My first observation is you are not in charge of the interrogations.' He said they were being too nice to the prsioners. MG Miller said they the interrogators were not being aggressive enough. He used an example from Guantanamo Bay." In addition, Karpinski notes the Rumsfeld Memo -- "a memo posted on a column just outside of their small administrative office. The memorandum was signed by the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and it discussed Authorized Interrogation techniques including use of loud music and prolonged standing postions, amongst several other techniques. It was one page. It mentioned stress positions, noise and light discipline, the use of music, disrupting sleep patterns, those types of techniques. There was also a handwritten note out to the side in the same ink and in the same script as the signature of the Secretary of Defense. The notation written in the margin said 'Make sure this happens!' And people understood it to be from Rumsfeld. This memorandum was a copy; a photocopy of the original, I would imagine. I thought it was unusual for an interrogation memorandum to be posted inside of a dtention cell block, because interrogations were not conducted in the cell block, at least to my understanding and knowledge."
Rumsfeld served as Secretary of the Defense under both Gerald Ford and the Bully Boy. On May 7, 2004 Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee then examining the Abu Ghraib torture and declared, "Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, in recent days there has been a good deal of discussion about who bears responsibility for the terrible activities that took place at Abu Ghraib. These events occurred on my watch. As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them and I take full responsibility." Rumsfeld was replaced with Robert Gates on December 18, 2006. There was not and has not been any accountability. [FYI, Ratner is also a co-host -- along with Heidi Boghosian, Dalia Hashad and Michael Smith -- of WBAI's Law and Disorder -- which also airs online and on other radio stations across the US.]
From Rumsfeld to more current violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Kirkuk bombing that left two police officers injured. Reuters notes an Adhaim roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 6 truck drivers and injured five more, a Muqdadiya bombing that claimed 1 life and injured four, a Buhriz roadside bombing claimed 1 life and left three others, a roadside bombing outside Kirkuk that left two police officers injured and a Dagghara roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 2 police officer and injured three more.
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports nurse Fahima Hussein Mohammed was shot at her home in Hawija "and she died while moving her to the hospital."
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses were discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 2 corpses discovered in Latifya.
Today, the US military announced: "A Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier was killed and four others wounded when their unit was attacked with an explosively-formed penetrating device in a southern section of the Iraqi capital Oct. 25."
Turning to the continued tensions between northern Iraq and Turkey which have proved to be very beneficial to some. This morning, the New York Times noted that oil topped $90 a barrel (90.46 ) and may hit $100 a barrel before the end of the year. Reuters tells you it's already gone above ninety and change: "Oil rallied to a fresh record high above $92 a barrel on Friday as the dollar tumbled to a record low, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran and gunmen shut more oil production in Nigeria." From David R. Baker (San Francisco Chronicle) explains, "Crude prices are within easy striking distance of inflation-adjusted records set in 1981 after the start of the Iran-Iraq war. Direct comparisons are impossible, because the market for buying and selling oil has changed radically in the past 26 years. Estimates of the all-time high, however, range from roughly $92 per barrel to $104. . . . Speculators who use oil solely as an investment have been latching onto any news that could drive the price higher - such as Turkey's threats to attack Kurdish rebels inside oil-rich Iraq - and ignoring everything else."
Meanwhile, CBS and AP report that Turkey has decided to put on hold the decision of what to do about or not do "until the prime minister visits Washington in November before deciding on a cross-border offensive into northern Iraq, the country's top military commander said Friday." The decision (or announced 'decision') comes on the same day that Turkey sends even more troops to the border. Thomas Grove (Reuters) notes, "Turkish helicopters ferried more troops to the border with Iraq on Friday . . . Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along the mountainous border before a possible cross-border operation to crush about 3,000 guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who launch deadly attacks into Turkey from northern Iraq." Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London) continues reporting on the PKK and noted early this morning that "PKK leaders do not feel themselves in much danger. The mountains and gorges have been a redoubt for guerrillas for thousands of years." On the situation the US has allowed to rage while repeatedly claiming to address, Vera Beaudin Saeedpour (Institute for Public Accuracy) declares:
"Ironic. The PKK is on the State Department's terrorist list; the U.S. claims it doesn't 'talk with terrorists.' But the U.S. -- and Israel -- aids and abets the PKK through local Iraqi Kurds. And why? The PKK arm, Pejak, attacks Iran. For services rendered, while the PKK attacks Turkey the administration winks and has kept the Turkish military from retaliating. ... For giving safe haven to the PKK/Pejak, for doing Washington's bidding in Baghdad, [Massoud] Barzani and [Jalal] Talabani have been more than amply rewarded. In 2003 the U.S. military facilitated their takeover of 'security' in Kirkuk and even in Mosul. Now, under the pretext of fighting al Qaeda, units of the U.S. military have been joining Kurdish fighting units (veiled as members of the 'Iraqi' military) in ethnically cleansing 'contested areas' of non-Kurds in advance of a referendum that will determine under whose jurisdiction these parts of Diyala and Nineveh provinces will fall. Perhaps it all depends on who's doing the cleansing. In 1992 Armenians in Nagorno Karabagh aided by the Republic of Armenia ethnically cleansed Red Kurdistan, the largest and oldest Kurdish community in the Caucasus -- 160,000 Kurds simply disappeared. With few exceptions, Kurds elsewhere said nothing. Kurdish Life did a detailed report on the issue and distributed it to members of Congress, not least Rep. Tom Lantos, Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. Joe Biden, all still in office. President Bill Clinton did nothing. Instead, Armenians were rewarded with direct U.S. foreign aid."In addition to the White House meetup next week, US Secretary of State and Anger Condi Rice, CNN notes, is planning to visit Ankara next Thursday to meet with the Turkish president and prime minister. Yesterday, Condi Rice met with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (one of the many committees she stonewalls). When confronted with charges and documents alleging that puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki may be something than a prince, Condi hit the roof. John M. Broder (New York Times) reports she responded, "To assault the prime minister of Iraq or anyone else in Iraq with here-to-date unsubstantiated allegations or lack of corroboration in a setting that it would simply fuel those allegations, I think, would be deeply damaging, and frankly, I think it would be wrong." To address serious charges, to do her job, would be "deeply damaging?" Remember this is the person in charge of national security on 9-11, no-one-could-have-guessed Condi. Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) reports, "Democrats focused on an April 1 memo from Maliki's office forbidding investigation of anyone in the government or cabinet without the prime minister's approval. The memo was turned over to the committee by Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, the former head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, who is seeking U.S. political asylum. Radhi testified to the committee early this month that his investigators had uncovered 'rampant' corruption in Iraqi ministries and that nearly four dozen anti-corruption employees or members of their families had been murdered." Condi's concern for al-Maliki and his potentially hurt feelings is all the more touching as Alexandra Zavis (Los Angeles Times) reports, "Iraqi insurgents and sectarian militias are funding their deadly activities by muscling in on Mafia-style rackets involving everything from real estate and oil to cement and soft drinks, U.S. commanders say." Zavis quotes Lt. Col. Eric Welsh declaring, "If you think that the majority of money is coming from outside the country to fund the insurgency, you'd be wrong." Don't say that around Condi, she might burst into tears despite the fact that "[a]n internal U.S. Embassy assessment leaked to the media in August said endemic corruption was crippling the government and providing a major source of funding to insurgent groups and sectarian militias."
Turning to peace news, Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) noted today, "An American peace activist denied entry into Canada earlier this month has again been detained by Canadian authorities on her first attempt to return. Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel and former diplomat, was scheduled to speak an anti-war news conference Thursday with Canadian lawmakers in the capitol of Ottawa. Wright and the CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin were denied entry earlier this month after their names appeared on an FBI criminal database that the Canadian government is using at its borders. Wright and Benjamin have nine convictions between them -- all involving civil disobedience while protesting the war in Iraq."
iraq
michael espinal
democracy nowamy goodman
juan gonzalez
the center for constitutional rights
law and disorder
michael ratner
michael smith
dalia hashad
heidi boghosian
patrick cockburn
mcclatchy newspapers
the los angeles timesalexandra zaviskaren deyoungthe washington postthe new york timesjohn m. broder
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Friday, October 26, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Pelosi Dems and their enablers
I cheered inside my head when I heard, Rep. Stark unbelievably utter his words condemning the murderous acts of BushCo on the House floor and I was impressed with his candor, compassion and what I consider an appropriate amount of rage and honesty. How many of us were not thinking the same thing about the S-CHIP votes? I knew, however, that it would not be long until Pete Stark had to apologize and it happened today.
I believe that Speaker Pelosi's comments about Rep. Stark were utterly inappropriate and out of line. I believe that when she said that impeachment was "off the table," her remarks were not only inappropriate but also antithetical to our Constitution and directly in opposition to why the people of this country put Democrats back in power.
We may remind the Speaker of some of the things George has said: He told us that Saddam was able to reach the Eastern part of the US with drones that contained either chemical or biological weapons; that the smoking gun might come in the form of a "mushroom cloud" and that Saddam was also seeking significant amounts of "yellow cake uranium." George and his co-criminals also told us over and over again the 9-11 was the justification for an attack on Iraq because Saddam had something to do with 9-11.
It is imperative that Ms. Pelosi be a true leader and lead the charge to impeach the liars, or at least get the hell out of the way so they can be impeached. I buried my son for no logical, moral or truthful reason for God's sake, and she has neither the integrity or fortitude to finally say that BushCo has to be stopped before George is the instigator for Armageddon.,
Ms. Pelosi is not the only one who condemned Rep. Stark; she joined hands (again) with Republicans to do so. However, for the Republicans to say that Congressman Stark's comment demeaned "the troops" is so patently ridiculous, it is stunningly pathetic. Our troops and their much higher paid cousins, the mercenary killers, are killing innocent Iraqis. IT IS A WAR! What do these morally bankrupt Chickenhawks think occurs in war? It would be better for everyone if "the troops" went over to play pinochle with the Iraqis, but occupied peoples have an inherent hatred of their occupiers and want them to leave their country: dead or alive. Congress wants to hide behind "the troops" by giving BushCo billions of more dollars to wage the occupation so their lobbyist buddies and campaign contributors can become richer off of the flesh and blood of those same troops that they claim to support.
That's Cindy Sheehan from "Pete, Nancy, George and WW III" (CounterPunch) on the caving of Pete Stark. Rebecca suggests you click here for David Swanson's take. Stark did cave. To no surprise. But I actually consider it "Durbin-ing" -- Stark pulled a Durbin. Durbin spoke the truth about Guantanamo and got piled on. Instead of Dems standing up for him and by him, they betrayed him and he backed down. Same thing with Stark. Although I would name another villian in the drama: Katrina vanden Heuvel. Check out Rebecca's "the meek shall destroy the left" from earlier this week. "With all due respect" to Pelosi, vanden Heuvel offered something so weak it was shocking for even her. It read like an audition piece for Mascochists R Us: Roadshow. Imagine if we had our supposed, alleged leading voices calling Pelosi out? Pelosi might still pull this crap but she'd know there would be hell to pay.
Does the left not get that's what they fear? They fear Fox "News" drumming up a controversy about them. And they know they can count on their friends like vanden Heuvel to shut up and play stupid. If the left was calling their nonsense out, they might still cave but they'd have to think about it first. They'd know there would be hell to pay.
Instead, they have the likes of Katrina vanden Heuvel writing with "all due respect." What a wimp.
I did search for Joni Mitchell reviews, just FYI, and found nothing new. Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
October 25, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the price of oil per barrel skyrockets again, conflict continues between Turkey and northern Iraq, CODEPINK represents the people, and more.
Starting with war resistance. Ted Rall (Rall.com) offers his reflections on resistance during Vietnam and resistance today: "Soldiers who want antiwar Americans to march to demand that they be brought home should take a cue from Vietnam veterans. They marched with peace protesters and threw their medals at the Capitol. Soldiers serving on the front refused orders. Some fragged their officers. Vietnam Veterans Against the War claimed more than 50,000 members by 1971. That year saw numerous dramatic acts of dissent by U.S. troops, including 50 veterans who marched to the Pentagon and demanded that they be arrested as war criminals. Fifteen vets took over and barricaded the Statue of Liberty for two days. These acts swayed opinions and helped convince lawmakers it was time to withdraw. Some soldiers in Iraq have offered resistance. After being denied conscientious objector status, Petty Officer Third Class Pablo Paredes went AWOL in 2004. He was sentenced to two months in the brig and three months hard labor. Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada refused to be sent to Iraq in 2006, telling the media that the war's illegality would make him a party to war crimes. Army Specialist Darrell Anderson, faced with a second tour of duty after being wounded by a roadside bomb deserted and fled to Canada. 'I went to Iraq willingly,' said Anderson. 'I wanted to die for my country. I thought I was going to go there and protect my family back home. All I was doing was killing other families there.' The Army decided not to prosecute him. Several other deserters have applied for political asylum in Canada, but they're only a fraction of the thousands who went there during the 1960s and 1970s."
In the October 18th snapshot, we noted someone considered AWOL (and noted he "may or may not be a war resister"): "Robert Przybyski" -- the last name is missing an "l" (my fault) Przybylski. John Vandiver (Stars and Stripes) provides an update, "Capt. Robert Przbylski, the Baumholder-based officer who has been absent without leave since Oct. 10, remains missing but does not appear to be in any danger, authorities reported Wednesday. . . . Army officials remain tight-lipped about the circumstances involving the captain's disappearance."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty 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 [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
The National Lawyers Guild's convention begins shortly: The Military Law Task Force and the Center on Conscience & War are sponsoring a Continuing Legal Education seminar -- Representing Conscientious Objectors in Habeas Corpus Proceedings -- as part of the National Lawyers Guild National Convention in Washington, D.C. The half-day seminar will be held on Thursday, November 1st, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the convention site, the Holiday Inn on the Hill in D.C. This is a must-attend seminar, with excelent speakers and a wealth of information. The seminar will be moderated by the Military Law Task Force's co-chair Kathleen Gilberd and scheduled speakers are NYC Bar Association's Committee on Military Affairs and Justice's Deborah Karpatkin, the Center on Conscience & War's J.E. McNeil, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee's Peter Goldberger, Louis Font who has represented Camilo Mejia, Dr. Mary Hanna and others, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objector's James Feldman. The fee is $60 for attorneys; $25 for non-profit attorneys, students and legal workers; and you can also enquire about scholarships or reduced fees. The convention itself will run from October 31st through November 4th and it's full circle on the 70th anniversary of NLG since they "began in Washington, D.C." where "the founding convention took place in the District at the height of the New Deal in 1937, Activist, progressive lawyers, tired of butting heads with the reactionary white male lawyers then comprising the American Bar Association, formed the nucleus of the Guild."
Turning to the US where there is an opposition party in Congress: CODEPINK. The only voice of sanity in the halls of Congress attended the House Foreign Relations Committe hearing yesterday as Secretary of State and Anger Condi Rice prepared to deliver her usual non-performance as Congress delivered their own. The Let's All Pretend It's Still A Democracy road show was interrupted by CODEPINK's Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz who, with red pain on her hands, spoke the truth no one elected can or will, "You've got the blood of millions of Iraqis on your hands." (See As Cedric and Wally's joint-post yesterday.) "Stylish" Condi pretended not to notice. White House flack Dana Perino pronounced it "despicable. And unfortunately, it seems that increasingly Congress is being run by CODEPINK." Oh, if only. Instead War Hawk Tom Lantos had all of CODEPINK kicked out of the hearing and Congress returned to its usual ineffective posture. CODEPINK's Desiree Fairooz, Lis Hourican, Lori Purdue, Medea Benjamin and Zool Zulkowitz were arrested but "The Deputy Chief of Staff of the House Foreign Relations Committee contacted the Capitol Police later in the day to again relay that their is a policy of that committee to not arrest Citizen protesters but to instead escort them out of the room." The arrest of Benjamim effected a planned action today.
Staying with CODEPINK, Tuesday Karen Miller (Free Speech Radio News) reported, "The original purpose of the database was to share information about dangerous criminals, sex offenders, fugitives and members of terrorist organizations among different levels of law enforcement. It has since become apparent that peace activists have been added to the watch list. Medea Benjamin of the anti-war group, Code Pink, was recently refused entry into Canada when she was on her way to attend a peace rally. That's why Code Pink members decided to protest today in front of the Canadian embassy in Washington DC. Benjamin has been arrested a number of times for anti-war actions, but she says Canada's decision to bar entrance to some activists is troubling: 'One, the FBI should never be putting non-violent misdemeanor offenses on a criminal database. Second, Canada should not be using a US database to say who can come into a country.' At today's protest, Code Pink delivered over 20,000 petitions from US and Canadian citizens collected over the last 2 weeks urging Canada to change its policy." From the October 4th snapshot:
Yesterday, Wright and CODEPINK's Medea Benjamin attempted to enter Canada "crossing near Buffalo to attend a conference sponsored by a Canadian peace coalition in Toronto." As CODEPINK notes, "At the Buaffalo-Niagara Falls Bridge they were detained, questioned and denied entry. . . . The women were questioned at Canadian customs about their participation in anti-war efforts and informed that they had an FBI file indicating they had been arrested in acts of non-violent civil disobedience." Benjamin explains, "In my case, the border guard pulled up a file showing that I had been arrested at the US Mission to the UN where, on International Women's Day, a group of us had tried to deliver a peace petition signed by 152,000 women around the world. For this, the Canadians labeled me a criminal and refused to allow me in the country." Wright declares, "The FBI's placing of peace activists on an international criminal database is blatant political intimidation of US citizens opposed to Bush administration policies. The Canadian government should certainly not accept this FBI database as the criteria for entering the country."
AP reported yesterday that Ann Wright and Medea Benjamin "plan to fly to Ottowa on Thursday at the invitation of several members of Parliament." Due to the arrest, Medea Benjamin was not able to fly to Ottawa. Ann Wright did. The Canadian Press reports that Wright "is being detained at Ottawa airport" and that "while other passengers passed through Customs, Wright was held back." AP quotes CODEPINK's Dana Balicki stating, "She's being turned away from the border and she's being banned from Canada for the next year."
Turning to some of the reported violence in Iraq . . .
Bombings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports three Baghdad roadside bombings in the afternoon as US troops attempted to defuse them (no reported casualties or fatalities). Reuters notes a Khalis mortar attack that claimed the lives of 2 women and 2 children while a Mahaweel roadside bombing claimed 1 life.
Shootings?
Reuters notes Iraqi police shot dead a child in Kufa. An alleged terrorist, to be sure. Kim Gamel (AP) reports a Sunni school teacher Ahmed al-Janabi was kidnapped today and later discovered "with three gunshots to his eyes."
Corpses?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 5 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 8 corpses in Baquba and 1 was discovered in Mahaweel.
In a press conference yesterday Joint Chiefs of Staff Major and Director of Operational Planning General Richard Sherlock repeatedly stressed the hope of a diplomatic solution to the issue of the continued strain between Turkey and northern Iraq due to the "issue for several decades in that area in that area" and also stated that "there are a number of US forces staioned in the northwest portion of Iraq. As far as where specifically they're stationed or in what strengths, I don't want to go into -- at this point in time, again, this is a bilateral issue that we are working with both nations to try to produce what's an acceptable solution to both." Evren Mesci (Reuters) notes Turkis president Abdullah Gul has stated an attack by the PKK was "repelled . . . near the Iraqi border" today. CBS and AP note Gul declared patience was running thin and that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, declared "that U.S. objections would not stop Turkey from crossing into Iraq to eliminate Kurdish rebels."
Meanwhile the Turkish Daily News reports, "Turkish televsion channels and journalist organizations harshly criticized a broadcasting ban implemented late Tuesday by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) on stories about the recent attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). While the anchorman of popular national channel Kanal D, Mehmet Ali Birand, criticized the blackout during Tuesday evening news, SKYTurk reported only on interesting stories from daily life, with a banner on the bottom of the screen that read "Mandatory reports off the agenda." Vincent Boland (Financial Times of London) notes that Erdogan is set to meet with the Bully Boy in DC November 5th. AFP notes an Iraq delegation has arrived in Turkey "led by Defence Minister Abdel Qader Mohammed Jassim" and including "Iraq's intelligence chief and senior officials from the Iraqi interior and foreign ministries". BBC notes, "The Turkish army said on Thursday that it had killed more than 30 Kurdish rebels while fending off an attack on the Iraqi border two days earlier." Nico Hines (Times of London) quotes the Turkish prime minister declaring, "(The United States) may not want us to carry out a cross-border operation. But it is we who will decide whether to do one or not." Suna Erdem (Times of London) states the meet up between the Iraqi delegation with Turkish officials is being called the "final chance". Desperate to grab a few more minutes of almost-fame, John Howard attempts to insert himself into the conflict. The Herald Sun of Australia reports the bully boy down under has declared that "the tensions on the Turkey-Iraq border will not help the west's battle for democracy in Iraq." That 'battle' was lost long ago but Howard's days in office may be numbered and he needed to play lapdog one more time in public.
Puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki declared earlier this week that the PKK centers in northern Iraq would be closed. Bobby Caina Calvan and Yaseen Taha (McClatchy Newspapers) report that Jamal Abdullah, flack for the Kurdish government in northern Iraq, declared, "We believe that the statements of Mr. Maliki about closing the centers of the PKK don't apply to us because we do not have any centers. If Mr. Maliki knows about any centers of the PKK in areas under the control of the central government, let him close these centers and we will encourage and support him. But in areas under our control, there is not a single center." Asso Ahmed and Yesim Borg (Los Angeles Times) report, "Prime Minister Nouri Maliki promised on a visit to Turkey in November that he would shut down the PKK offices. However, they were never formally closed, and Maliki renewed the pledge this week, as Turkey threatened to send its military across the border to attack PKK sites in northern Iraq". Christine Spolar (Chicago Tribune) reports: "The PKK, known formally as the Kurdistan Workers' Party, is considered a terrorist group by the U.S., but the rebels have not been constricted since U.S. forces entered Iraq in March, 2003." Meanwhile, as did Deborah Haynes (Times of London) earlier this week, Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London) goes looking for the PKK camps, "For a guerrilla movement awaiting assault, the PKK's leaders are surprisingly easy to find. We drove east from Arbil for two-and-a-half hours and hired a four-wheel drive car in the village of Sangassar. Iraqi police wearing camouflage uniform were at work building a new outpost out of cement blocks beside the road leading into the mountains but only took our names. In fact the four-wheel drive was hardly necessary because there is a military road constructed by Saddam Hussein's army in the 1980s which zig-zags along the side of a steep valley until it reaches the first PKK checkpoint. The PKK soldiers with Kalashnikovs and two grenades pinned to the front of their uniform were relaxed and efficient. In case anybody should have any doubt about who was in control there was an enormous picture of the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan picked out in yellow, black, white and red painted stones on a hill half a mile away and visible over a wide area."
Economic factors are also at play. Joshua Partlow and Ellen Knickmeyer (Washington Post) note that "Turkey is a leading trade partner with northern Iraq . . . Turkish construction firms are reponsible for 90 percent of rebuilding projects in Iraq's Kurdish north, officials there estimate, and Turkish companies are taking part in many private projects as well in a post-invasion building boom in the north." Mark Bentley (Bloomberg News) explains that the Turkish National Security Council is calling for "'immediate' ecnomic sanctions against northern Iraq, including closing border crossings and halting exports of electricity." Earlier today, BBC noted that oil prices were again rising and headed towards $90 a barrel. Steve Hargreaves (CNNMoney) reports that they hit ninety dollars and kept going "breaking the previous record" to hit $90.60 a barrel.
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I believe that Speaker Pelosi's comments about Rep. Stark were utterly inappropriate and out of line. I believe that when she said that impeachment was "off the table," her remarks were not only inappropriate but also antithetical to our Constitution and directly in opposition to why the people of this country put Democrats back in power.
We may remind the Speaker of some of the things George has said: He told us that Saddam was able to reach the Eastern part of the US with drones that contained either chemical or biological weapons; that the smoking gun might come in the form of a "mushroom cloud" and that Saddam was also seeking significant amounts of "yellow cake uranium." George and his co-criminals also told us over and over again the 9-11 was the justification for an attack on Iraq because Saddam had something to do with 9-11.
It is imperative that Ms. Pelosi be a true leader and lead the charge to impeach the liars, or at least get the hell out of the way so they can be impeached. I buried my son for no logical, moral or truthful reason for God's sake, and she has neither the integrity or fortitude to finally say that BushCo has to be stopped before George is the instigator for Armageddon.,
Ms. Pelosi is not the only one who condemned Rep. Stark; she joined hands (again) with Republicans to do so. However, for the Republicans to say that Congressman Stark's comment demeaned "the troops" is so patently ridiculous, it is stunningly pathetic. Our troops and their much higher paid cousins, the mercenary killers, are killing innocent Iraqis. IT IS A WAR! What do these morally bankrupt Chickenhawks think occurs in war? It would be better for everyone if "the troops" went over to play pinochle with the Iraqis, but occupied peoples have an inherent hatred of their occupiers and want them to leave their country: dead or alive. Congress wants to hide behind "the troops" by giving BushCo billions of more dollars to wage the occupation so their lobbyist buddies and campaign contributors can become richer off of the flesh and blood of those same troops that they claim to support.
That's Cindy Sheehan from "Pete, Nancy, George and WW III" (CounterPunch) on the caving of Pete Stark. Rebecca suggests you click here for David Swanson's take. Stark did cave. To no surprise. But I actually consider it "Durbin-ing" -- Stark pulled a Durbin. Durbin spoke the truth about Guantanamo and got piled on. Instead of Dems standing up for him and by him, they betrayed him and he backed down. Same thing with Stark. Although I would name another villian in the drama: Katrina vanden Heuvel. Check out Rebecca's "the meek shall destroy the left" from earlier this week. "With all due respect" to Pelosi, vanden Heuvel offered something so weak it was shocking for even her. It read like an audition piece for Mascochists R Us: Roadshow. Imagine if we had our supposed, alleged leading voices calling Pelosi out? Pelosi might still pull this crap but she'd know there would be hell to pay.
Does the left not get that's what they fear? They fear Fox "News" drumming up a controversy about them. And they know they can count on their friends like vanden Heuvel to shut up and play stupid. If the left was calling their nonsense out, they might still cave but they'd have to think about it first. They'd know there would be hell to pay.
Instead, they have the likes of Katrina vanden Heuvel writing with "all due respect." What a wimp.
I did search for Joni Mitchell reviews, just FYI, and found nothing new. Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
October 25, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the price of oil per barrel skyrockets again, conflict continues between Turkey and northern Iraq, CODEPINK represents the people, and more.
Starting with war resistance. Ted Rall (Rall.com) offers his reflections on resistance during Vietnam and resistance today: "Soldiers who want antiwar Americans to march to demand that they be brought home should take a cue from Vietnam veterans. They marched with peace protesters and threw their medals at the Capitol. Soldiers serving on the front refused orders. Some fragged their officers. Vietnam Veterans Against the War claimed more than 50,000 members by 1971. That year saw numerous dramatic acts of dissent by U.S. troops, including 50 veterans who marched to the Pentagon and demanded that they be arrested as war criminals. Fifteen vets took over and barricaded the Statue of Liberty for two days. These acts swayed opinions and helped convince lawmakers it was time to withdraw. Some soldiers in Iraq have offered resistance. After being denied conscientious objector status, Petty Officer Third Class Pablo Paredes went AWOL in 2004. He was sentenced to two months in the brig and three months hard labor. Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada refused to be sent to Iraq in 2006, telling the media that the war's illegality would make him a party to war crimes. Army Specialist Darrell Anderson, faced with a second tour of duty after being wounded by a roadside bomb deserted and fled to Canada. 'I went to Iraq willingly,' said Anderson. 'I wanted to die for my country. I thought I was going to go there and protect my family back home. All I was doing was killing other families there.' The Army decided not to prosecute him. Several other deserters have applied for political asylum in Canada, but they're only a fraction of the thousands who went there during the 1960s and 1970s."
In the October 18th snapshot, we noted someone considered AWOL (and noted he "may or may not be a war resister"): "Robert Przybyski" -- the last name is missing an "l" (my fault) Przybylski. John Vandiver (Stars and Stripes) provides an update, "Capt. Robert Przbylski, the Baumholder-based officer who has been absent without leave since Oct. 10, remains missing but does not appear to be in any danger, authorities reported Wednesday. . . . Army officials remain tight-lipped about the circumstances involving the captain's disappearance."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty 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 [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
The National Lawyers Guild's convention begins shortly: The Military Law Task Force and the Center on Conscience & War are sponsoring a Continuing Legal Education seminar -- Representing Conscientious Objectors in Habeas Corpus Proceedings -- as part of the National Lawyers Guild National Convention in Washington, D.C. The half-day seminar will be held on Thursday, November 1st, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the convention site, the Holiday Inn on the Hill in D.C. This is a must-attend seminar, with excelent speakers and a wealth of information. The seminar will be moderated by the Military Law Task Force's co-chair Kathleen Gilberd and scheduled speakers are NYC Bar Association's Committee on Military Affairs and Justice's Deborah Karpatkin, the Center on Conscience & War's J.E. McNeil, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee's Peter Goldberger, Louis Font who has represented Camilo Mejia, Dr. Mary Hanna and others, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objector's James Feldman. The fee is $60 for attorneys; $25 for non-profit attorneys, students and legal workers; and you can also enquire about scholarships or reduced fees. The convention itself will run from October 31st through November 4th and it's full circle on the 70th anniversary of NLG since they "began in Washington, D.C." where "the founding convention took place in the District at the height of the New Deal in 1937, Activist, progressive lawyers, tired of butting heads with the reactionary white male lawyers then comprising the American Bar Association, formed the nucleus of the Guild."
Turning to the US where there is an opposition party in Congress: CODEPINK. The only voice of sanity in the halls of Congress attended the House Foreign Relations Committe hearing yesterday as Secretary of State and Anger Condi Rice prepared to deliver her usual non-performance as Congress delivered their own. The Let's All Pretend It's Still A Democracy road show was interrupted by CODEPINK's Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz who, with red pain on her hands, spoke the truth no one elected can or will, "You've got the blood of millions of Iraqis on your hands." (See As Cedric and Wally's joint-post yesterday.) "Stylish" Condi pretended not to notice. White House flack Dana Perino pronounced it "despicable. And unfortunately, it seems that increasingly Congress is being run by CODEPINK." Oh, if only. Instead War Hawk Tom Lantos had all of CODEPINK kicked out of the hearing and Congress returned to its usual ineffective posture. CODEPINK's Desiree Fairooz, Lis Hourican, Lori Purdue, Medea Benjamin and Zool Zulkowitz were arrested but "The Deputy Chief of Staff of the House Foreign Relations Committee contacted the Capitol Police later in the day to again relay that their is a policy of that committee to not arrest Citizen protesters but to instead escort them out of the room." The arrest of Benjamim effected a planned action today.
Staying with CODEPINK, Tuesday Karen Miller (Free Speech Radio News) reported, "The original purpose of the database was to share information about dangerous criminals, sex offenders, fugitives and members of terrorist organizations among different levels of law enforcement. It has since become apparent that peace activists have been added to the watch list. Medea Benjamin of the anti-war group, Code Pink, was recently refused entry into Canada when she was on her way to attend a peace rally. That's why Code Pink members decided to protest today in front of the Canadian embassy in Washington DC. Benjamin has been arrested a number of times for anti-war actions, but she says Canada's decision to bar entrance to some activists is troubling: 'One, the FBI should never be putting non-violent misdemeanor offenses on a criminal database. Second, Canada should not be using a US database to say who can come into a country.' At today's protest, Code Pink delivered over 20,000 petitions from US and Canadian citizens collected over the last 2 weeks urging Canada to change its policy." From the October 4th snapshot:
Yesterday, Wright and CODEPINK's Medea Benjamin attempted to enter Canada "crossing near Buffalo to attend a conference sponsored by a Canadian peace coalition in Toronto." As CODEPINK notes, "At the Buaffalo-Niagara Falls Bridge they were detained, questioned and denied entry. . . . The women were questioned at Canadian customs about their participation in anti-war efforts and informed that they had an FBI file indicating they had been arrested in acts of non-violent civil disobedience." Benjamin explains, "In my case, the border guard pulled up a file showing that I had been arrested at the US Mission to the UN where, on International Women's Day, a group of us had tried to deliver a peace petition signed by 152,000 women around the world. For this, the Canadians labeled me a criminal and refused to allow me in the country." Wright declares, "The FBI's placing of peace activists on an international criminal database is blatant political intimidation of US citizens opposed to Bush administration policies. The Canadian government should certainly not accept this FBI database as the criteria for entering the country."
AP reported yesterday that Ann Wright and Medea Benjamin "plan to fly to Ottowa on Thursday at the invitation of several members of Parliament." Due to the arrest, Medea Benjamin was not able to fly to Ottawa. Ann Wright did. The Canadian Press reports that Wright "is being detained at Ottawa airport" and that "while other passengers passed through Customs, Wright was held back." AP quotes CODEPINK's Dana Balicki stating, "She's being turned away from the border and she's being banned from Canada for the next year."
Turning to some of the reported violence in Iraq . . .
Bombings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports three Baghdad roadside bombings in the afternoon as US troops attempted to defuse them (no reported casualties or fatalities). Reuters notes a Khalis mortar attack that claimed the lives of 2 women and 2 children while a Mahaweel roadside bombing claimed 1 life.
Shootings?
Reuters notes Iraqi police shot dead a child in Kufa. An alleged terrorist, to be sure. Kim Gamel (AP) reports a Sunni school teacher Ahmed al-Janabi was kidnapped today and later discovered "with three gunshots to his eyes."
Corpses?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 5 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 8 corpses in Baquba and 1 was discovered in Mahaweel.
In a press conference yesterday Joint Chiefs of Staff Major and Director of Operational Planning General Richard Sherlock repeatedly stressed the hope of a diplomatic solution to the issue of the continued strain between Turkey and northern Iraq due to the "issue for several decades in that area in that area" and also stated that "there are a number of US forces staioned in the northwest portion of Iraq. As far as where specifically they're stationed or in what strengths, I don't want to go into -- at this point in time, again, this is a bilateral issue that we are working with both nations to try to produce what's an acceptable solution to both." Evren Mesci (Reuters) notes Turkis president Abdullah Gul has stated an attack by the PKK was "repelled . . . near the Iraqi border" today. CBS and AP note Gul declared patience was running thin and that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, declared "that U.S. objections would not stop Turkey from crossing into Iraq to eliminate Kurdish rebels."
Meanwhile the Turkish Daily News reports, "Turkish televsion channels and journalist organizations harshly criticized a broadcasting ban implemented late Tuesday by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) on stories about the recent attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). While the anchorman of popular national channel Kanal D, Mehmet Ali Birand, criticized the blackout during Tuesday evening news, SKYTurk reported only on interesting stories from daily life, with a banner on the bottom of the screen that read "Mandatory reports off the agenda." Vincent Boland (Financial Times of London) notes that Erdogan is set to meet with the Bully Boy in DC November 5th. AFP notes an Iraq delegation has arrived in Turkey "led by Defence Minister Abdel Qader Mohammed Jassim" and including "Iraq's intelligence chief and senior officials from the Iraqi interior and foreign ministries". BBC notes, "The Turkish army said on Thursday that it had killed more than 30 Kurdish rebels while fending off an attack on the Iraqi border two days earlier." Nico Hines (Times of London) quotes the Turkish prime minister declaring, "(The United States) may not want us to carry out a cross-border operation. But it is we who will decide whether to do one or not." Suna Erdem (Times of London) states the meet up between the Iraqi delegation with Turkish officials is being called the "final chance". Desperate to grab a few more minutes of almost-fame, John Howard attempts to insert himself into the conflict. The Herald Sun of Australia reports the bully boy down under has declared that "the tensions on the Turkey-Iraq border will not help the west's battle for democracy in Iraq." That 'battle' was lost long ago but Howard's days in office may be numbered and he needed to play lapdog one more time in public.
Puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki declared earlier this week that the PKK centers in northern Iraq would be closed. Bobby Caina Calvan and Yaseen Taha (McClatchy Newspapers) report that Jamal Abdullah, flack for the Kurdish government in northern Iraq, declared, "We believe that the statements of Mr. Maliki about closing the centers of the PKK don't apply to us because we do not have any centers. If Mr. Maliki knows about any centers of the PKK in areas under the control of the central government, let him close these centers and we will encourage and support him. But in areas under our control, there is not a single center." Asso Ahmed and Yesim Borg (Los Angeles Times) report, "Prime Minister Nouri Maliki promised on a visit to Turkey in November that he would shut down the PKK offices. However, they were never formally closed, and Maliki renewed the pledge this week, as Turkey threatened to send its military across the border to attack PKK sites in northern Iraq". Christine Spolar (Chicago Tribune) reports: "The PKK, known formally as the Kurdistan Workers' Party, is considered a terrorist group by the U.S., but the rebels have not been constricted since U.S. forces entered Iraq in March, 2003." Meanwhile, as did Deborah Haynes (Times of London) earlier this week, Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London) goes looking for the PKK camps, "For a guerrilla movement awaiting assault, the PKK's leaders are surprisingly easy to find. We drove east from Arbil for two-and-a-half hours and hired a four-wheel drive car in the village of Sangassar. Iraqi police wearing camouflage uniform were at work building a new outpost out of cement blocks beside the road leading into the mountains but only took our names. In fact the four-wheel drive was hardly necessary because there is a military road constructed by Saddam Hussein's army in the 1980s which zig-zags along the side of a steep valley until it reaches the first PKK checkpoint. The PKK soldiers with Kalashnikovs and two grenades pinned to the front of their uniform were relaxed and efficient. In case anybody should have any doubt about who was in control there was an enormous picture of the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan picked out in yellow, black, white and red painted stones on a hill half a mile away and visible over a wide area."
Economic factors are also at play. Joshua Partlow and Ellen Knickmeyer (Washington Post) note that "Turkey is a leading trade partner with northern Iraq . . . Turkish construction firms are reponsible for 90 percent of rebuilding projects in Iraq's Kurdish north, officials there estimate, and Turkish companies are taking part in many private projects as well in a post-invasion building boom in the north." Mark Bentley (Bloomberg News) explains that the Turkish National Security Council is calling for "'immediate' ecnomic sanctions against northern Iraq, including closing border crossings and halting exports of electricity." Earlier today, BBC noted that oil prices were again rising and headed towards $90 a barrel. Steve Hargreaves (CNNMoney) reports that they hit ninety dollars and kept going "breaking the previous record" to hit $90.60 a barrel.
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Lance Selfa, Patrick Cockburn, Joni Mitchell
Damn you, Lance Selfa, you've written a great piece ("Old excuses from the new majority," Socialist Worker) but try as I may, I can't figure out how to grab an excerpt. It's one of those pieces that you really do have to read top to bottom. I found a way to go with a section and then realized it was two-thirds of the article (beyond fair use usage). So read the article, he's hit just about every nail on the head you can think of and several that you probably haven't.
Patrick Cockburn visits the PKK in "Kurdish fighters defy the world from mountain fortress as bombing begins" (Independent of London):
Despite threats of action by the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, the PKK leaders give no sense of feeling that their enemies were closing in.
For a guerrilla movement awaiting assault, the PKK's leaders are surprisingly easy to find. We drove east from Arbil for two-and-a-half hours and hired a four-wheel drive car in the village of Sangassar. Iraqi police wearing camouflage uniform were at work building a new outpost out of cement blocks beside the road leading into the mountains but only took our names.
In fact the four-wheel drive was hardly necessary because there is a military road constructed by Saddam Hussein's army in the 1980s which zig-zags along the side of a steep valley until it reaches the first PKK checkpoint. The PKK soldiers with Kalashnikovs and two grenades pinned to the front of their uniform were relaxed and efficient. In case anybody should have any doubt about who was in control there was an enormous picture of the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan picked out in yellow, black, white and red painted stones on a hill half a mile away and visible over a wide area.
There were no sign that threats from Mr Maliki in Baghdad or from the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, were having an effect. The PKK soldiers at a small guest house had not been expecting us but promptly got in touch with their local headquarters.
For all its nonchalance the PKK is facing a formidable array of enemies. The Iraqi government in Baghdad has no direct influence over the Kurdistan Regional Government, led by President Massoud Barzani whose administration is made up of his own Kurdistan Democratic Party and President Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. This is the only force capable of trying to eject the 3,000 PKK fighters.
Carly Ostroff reviews Joni Mitchell's Shine here. I was reading an e-mail from a visitor today (e-mailed the public account at The Common Ills) and he asked where were the reviews of Joni Mitchell's new CD (he was responding to mine, I have reviewed it). That's a good question. This is a major statement from a true artist. I have no idea why there aren't more reviews but if I see one, I'll try to note it (unless it's just slamming Joni).
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Wednesday, October 24, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces deaths, tensions continue between Turkey and northern Iraq (and Turkey initiates violence), Iraqi refugees continue suffering, McClatchy Newspapers is honored, and more.
Starting with war resisters. Judge Benjamin Settle has extended Ehren Watada's stay. Watada is the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. His reasons for that are because the war is illegal. He attempted to work through this matter with the military but when it became obvious they were stringing him along he made the decision to go public -- and went public in June 2006. In February 2006, Judge Toilet (aka John Head) presided over a rigged hearing that was supposed to pass for a court-martial despite the fact that Watada was not allowed to explain why he'd chosen to do what he did -- refuse to deploy. Judge Toilet tried real hard to rig the perfect frame up and when it didn't go the way he wanted, Judge Toilet flushed the court-martial, declaring a mistrial over defense objection and despite the fact that double-jeopardy had attached. Judge Toilet immediately scheduled a court-martial for March and then someone tutored Toilet a little on the law. The court-martial was supposed to begin the first week of this month; however, federal judge Settle issued a stay through October 26th. On Friday, Settle extended the stay through November 9th. Mike Barber (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) noted on Friday, "Seattle decided he had jurisdiction to hear arguments that Watada would be subject to double jeopardy, since his first trial in February ended in a mistrial, over his objections, after testimony had been heard by a panel of officers." The panel was the jury -- Watada wisely decided to go with a jury for the court-martial and not allow a judge (in this case Judge Toilet) to make the ruling.
Meanwhile on the subject of war resisters in Canada, Free Speech Radio News noted yesterday, "Canada has, in the past, been a destination for conscientious objectors to US wars. But some anti-war activists have found out from experience that Canada is using the FBI's National Crime Information Center database to stop war resisters at the border." Brad McCall was the first to go public with the new system and how he was handcuffed while attempting to enter Canada September 19th of this year. He was followed by others making reporting similar incidents at the border. A number of actions are ongoing regarding US war resisters in Canada. Citizens of Canada can sign the War Resisters Support Campaign petition as well as refer to this action page of the War Resisters Support Campaign. In the United States, Courage to Resist has a letter you can sign to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Minister of Citizenship & Immigration Diane Finley and Stephane Dion of the Liberal Party. If you click here you can sign electronically. If you need a physical copy, you can go to "Supporting War Resisters" and print up a scan of the letter.
Tonight the War Resisters Support Campaign has an event, Michelle Mason's breakthrough documentary . Breaking Ranks will be screened at the University of Toronto's Claude Bissell Building from six to eight p.m. followed by a question and answer session with war resisters.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty 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 [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
The National Lawyers Guild's convention begins shortly: The Military Law Task Force and the Center on Conscience & War are sponsoring a Continuing Legal Education seminar -- Representing Conscientious Objectors in Habeas Corpus Proceedings -- as part of the National Lawyers Guild National Convention in Washington, D.C. The half-day seminar will be held on Thursday, November 1st, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the convention site, the Holiday Inn on the Hill in D.C. This is a must-attend seminar, with excelent speakers and a wealth of information. The seminar will be moderated by the Military Law Task Force's co-chair Kathleen Gilberd and scheduled speakers are NYC Bar Association's Committee on Military Affairs and Justice's Deborah Karpatkin, the Center on Conscience & War's J.E. McNeil, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee's Peter Goldberger, Louis Font who has represented Camilo Mejia, Dr. Mary Hanna and others, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objector's James Feldman. The fee is $60 for attorneys; $25 for non-profit attorneys, students and legal workers; and you can also enquire about scholarships or reduced fees. The convention itself will run from October 31st through November 4th and it's full circle on the 70th anniversary of NLG since they "began in Washington, D.C." where "the founding convention took place in the District at the height of the New Deal in 1937, Activist, progressive lawyers, tired of butting heads with the reactionary white male lawyers then comprising the American Bar Association, formed the nucleus of the Guild."
Turning to Iraq and starting with the refugee crisis which Prensa Latina reports the United Nations says is increasing "due to the border conflict with Turkey" with refugees already constituting 4.7 million Iraqis -- 2.3 million displaced internally, 2.4 million displaced externally. Among the externally displaced is Riverbend and her family who have settled in Syria. Riverbend (Baghdad Burning) reports, "By the time we had reentered the Syrian border and were headed back to the cab ready to take us into Kameshli, I had resigned myself to the fact that we were refugees. I read about refugees on the Internet daily. . . in the newspapers . . . hear about them on TV. I heard about the estimated 1.5 million plus Iraqi refugees in Syria and shake my head, never really considering myself or my family as one of them. After all, refugees are people who sleep in tents and have no potable water or plumbing, right? Refugees carry their belongins in bags instead of suitcases and they don't have cell phones or Internet acess, right? Grasping my passport in my hand like my life depended on it, with two extra months in Syria stamped inside, it hit me how wrong I was. We were all refugees. I was suddenly a number. No matter how wealthy or educated or comfortable, a refugee is a refugee. A refugee is someone who isn't really welcome in any country -- including their own . . . especially their own. . . . The first evening we arrived, exhausted, dragging suitcases behind us, morale a little bit bruised, the Kurdish family sent over their representative -- a 9 year old boy missing two front teeth, holding a lopsided cake, 'We're Abu Mohammed's house -- across from you -- mama says if you need anything, just ask -- this is our number. Abu Dalia's family lives upstairs, this is their number. We're all Iraqi too . . . Welcome to the building.' I cried that night because for the first time in a long time, so far away from home, I felt the unity that had been stolen from us in 2003." Yesterday, the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees spokesperson Ron Redmond spoke to the press declaring that Syria continues to receive refugees but "in much smaller numbers than before" due to the new visa regulations Syria has imposed (obtain visa in Baghdad -- the Syrian embassy is located in a very violent neighborhood -- etc.) and that the UN estimates northern Iraq to now be "home to over 800,000 internally displaced Iraqis." Peter Apps (Reuters) notes that more violence in northern Iraq "could further increase the number of people fleeing their homes and cut off one of the remaining ways out for refugees desperate to leave Iraq, aid workers say." The tensions between the regions go far back. In yesterday's press briefing, US State Department flack Sean McCormack declared of the tensions, "It's not something that was invented over the past four years. But we now have an opportunity with an Iraqi Government that has an interest in playing a positive role in the region, an opportunity to arrive at a solution." Now the US State Department thinks there is "an opportunity" to address the situation? and what were they thinking in 2004? The War Comes Home's Aaron Glantz reported on the situation for Pacifica in April of 2004 noting a meet up in DC between the Turkish government and the US government when then US Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Meyers stated, "This is an issue the coalition forces inside Iraq take very seriously. Let me assure you that there is very close collaboration with Turkey and that they [the PKK] will be dealt with appropriately."
James Denselow (Guardian of London) notes that Syria closing its borders to Iraqis (some groups are exceptions to the closing -- academics, merchants, etc.) and explains, "The Syrian decision, that of a poor country unable to accomodate a population increase of 10%, will intensify the humanitarian catastrophe, news of which is smothered by high-profile acts of violence as well as the ebb and flow of international politcs over the presence of foreign troops in the country. The stress of Iraqi refugees on the infrastructure and social fabric of Damascus has cost the Syrian state over [500 million British pounds] in the past four years. Some commentators suggest that the lack of US assistance in caring for these Iraqis displaced as a result of their actions is part of a wider policy to weaken a traditional enemy -- Syria. Most media coverage of the Iraqi-Syrian relationship is focused on the flow of foreign fighters from Syria rather than refugees to Syria."
And when the money runs out? AP reported over the weekend that many return to "death row" meaning Iraqi -- in the case of Iman Faleh's family, east Baghdad -- with "a Syrian immigration official" offering the estimate "that up to 1,500 Iraqis are returning to Iraq each day." As Trudy Rubin (Philadelphia Inquirer via Post-Bulletin) noted last month, "Syria and Jordan can't handle the more than 2 million Iraqis now crammed into their small countries. These refugees have no jobs, their children can't go to school, and many are running out of savings, leading some to turn to begging and prostitution." (Note that Jordan is attempting to provide free school for all Iraqi refugees while NPR's Morning Edition reported last week that the cost of education in Syria -- which many parents cannot afford -- means "a generation of Iraqi kids may go uneducated.") In May of this year, Katherine Zdepf (New York Times) noted the reality of the number of Iraqi females forced into prostitution when they become refugees in other countries such as the main subject of Zdepf's report, Umm Hiba, sixteen-years-old, working "at a nightclub along a highway known for prositution." AP reports today on female refugees in Syria, "This club in northwest Damascus is at the heart of one of the most troubling aspects of the Iraqi refugee crisis -- Irawi women and girls who are turning to prostitution to survive in countries that have taken them in, but prevent them or their families from working at most other jobs. No reliable figures exist on the number of Iraqi prostitutes in Syria, Jordan or elsewhere in the Middle East. The problem is only beginning to get attention in a region where sex outside of marriage is rarely even discussed. But the increase in the number of Iraqi women seen in recent months in clubs and on the streets of Damascus, Amman and other cities suggest the problem is growing as thousands of Iraqis flee their homeland." Meanwhile Lee Sustar (US Socialist Worker) observes, "As grim as the plight of Iraqi refugees has become, the displaced who remain in Iraq often fare worse. Numbering more than 2 million, according to the International Organization for Migration, these 'internally displaced persons,' or IDPs, have either crammed in with relatives or friends, or live in camps and shantytowns on the edge of Baghdad and other cities. . . . The only major non-governmental organization providing aid to IDPs is the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS), which released a report in September detailing the scale of the problem." Sustar quotes Raed Jarrar noting, "There is a displacement crisis in Sudan, but many specialist say the number is exaggerated. But the official number is less than half the numbers of Iraqis who have been displaced. Unfortunately, we don't see big coalitions in the United States and Israel calling themselves Save Iraq like Save Darfur."
On the ongoing tensions between northern Iraq and Turkey, the (US) Socialist Worker offers historical perspective, "For decades, world powers have denied an independent state to the Kurdish people, whose population spans northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, eastern Syria and western Iran. The U.S. is merely the most powerful country to cynically manipulate Kurdish national aspirations. It supports Kurdish 'autonomy' in northern Iraq while opposing the PKK in Turkey. The US has placed the PKK on its list of terrorist organizations, but hasn't taken concrete steps to curb its activities. Since 1991 -- when the U.S. turned on its former ally Saddam Hussein and began nearly two decades of military and economic warfare on Iraq -- leaders of the Kurdish national movement have collaborated with U.S. imperialism in Iraq. This has meant a tense balancing act with Turkey, which has regularly threatened -- and several times carried out -- military action against PKK bases in northern Iraq. Now Turkey is threatening an escalation of the conflict." Staying with historical for a moment, the BBC sidebar, Pam O'Toole's BBC report, Reuters' "Factbox: Who Are the PKK?" and NPR's All Things Considered on Monday (link goes to Aliza Marcus) all explain that the PKK dates back to the 70s -- not the 80s as too many 'experts' repeatedly and mistaknely toss around. As Mark MacKinnon (Canada's Globe & Mail) reported this morning, "Debate in this country yesterday was not about whether to invade northern Iraq, but over how big and how deep such an incursion should be. Funerals held yesterday for the dozen dead soldiers turned into emotional political rallies, as tens of thousands of mourners waved the national flag and chanted for action against not only the PKK, but the Kurdistan Regional Government that administers the north of Iraq, and its President, Massoud Barzani. Many Turks believe that Mr. Barzani, who has thick ties to the PKK dating back to his days as a guerrilla leader fighting for Kurdish independence from Saddam Hussein's Iraq, has been providing support and bases to the group. 'People are calling for something to be done about Barzani also,' said Ihsan Bal, a terrorism expert at the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization. 'Every day he's on the television saying he cannot do anything against the PKK, and that the PKK is not a terrorist organization. Now people want to see him punished also'." And Oxford Analytica via Forbes explained, "Barzani's peshmerga militia cooperated with Turkish forces seeking to destroy the PKK in the Kurdish 'safe haven' after Saddam Hussein's 1991 defeat in Kuwait. At that time it was Jalal Talabani, now president of Iraq, who gave shelter to the PKK in the area away from the Turkish frontier controlled by his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The real reason Barzani will not act against the PKK today is that Turkey opposes his ambition to incorporate Kirkuk and its oilfields into the KRG area. Barzani's support thus comes at a price Turkey is not willing to pay. Turkish attempts to circumvent Barzani have been hampered by the refusal of the last Turkish president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, to invite Talabani to Ankara in his current capacity--or to deal directly with the KRG." Which is why Talabani's long silence on the issue furthered suspicions. His support for the PKK is not new though many outlets -- big and small -- sure have a problem telling their news consumers those basic facts. Mark Bentley and Ali Berat Meric (Bloomberg News) reported this morning that Turkey has already begun their attack with Turkey air craft sent on bombing missions "in northern Iraq" as well as having "sent troops into Iraq to hunt down the PKK". CNN noted the violence/assault as well and they also noted puppet of the occupation, Nouri al-Maliki, pledging to "shut down PKK offices in the north of the country". Though BBC and CBS & AP noted this yesterday (see yesterday's snapshot), amazingly most outlets haven't said a word. It did come up in yesterday's US State Dept briefing.
Question: Let's go back to Iraq and the Kurds for a second. Maliki's office just said they're going to shut down all the PKK offices in Iraq. Is this something that you guys were looking for -- asked or suggested, or otherwise welcome?
Sean McCormack: Yesh, well, I don't want to get into what specific suggestions or ideas we might have had or what might have been generated by the Iraqi side of the Turkey side. It's a start. But as I have said, what needs to happen is that the Iraqis, acting on their own accord and in cooperation with the Turks as well as us, need to act to prevent further terrorist attacks. That's an immediate issue. What needs to happen over the medium to long term is that the PKK is dismantled and eliminated as a terrorist organization operating from Iraqi soil. Also, I thought I saw some comments from the Iraqi side making this -- indicating that they understood that that's the task before them. So there's this -- I understand there's this commitment to shut down offices. Okay. But what you need to see are actual outputs from inputes that the Iraqi Government might make. The outputs are that you need to stop terrorist attacks, there need to be prevention of terrorist attacks, and you need to get to the root cause here, and that is stop the -- stop this terrorist organization from operating on Iraqi soil.
Question: Is this something that you guys will be able to follow up on, to actually go and see if the PKK is still operating in a shop front in wherever?
Which McCormack sidestepped. And it came up in the White House briefing today.
Question: Dana, Prime Minister Maliki said he's going to close the PKK offices in Iraq. Prime Minister Maliki made the same promise in September of last year. Why should Turkey trust Prime Minister Maliki on this?
Dana Perino: I did look into that, Olvier, and we can understand why the Turks would be skeptical, because that pledge was made. It does need to be fulfilled. We'll be talking to the Iraqis about that as well.
In some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a south Baghdad bombing claimed 4 lives (twenty-five wounded), a west Baghdad bombing left three people injured, a Baghdad mortar attack injured two people and a Khalis mortar attack claimed 3 lives (with twenty-five wounded).
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "Gunmen broke in a house killing a father with his two sons in Zaghanya village north of Baquba city around 6 pm."
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 6 corpses discovered in Baghdad.
Today the US military announced: "One MNC-I Soldier was killed and five Soldiers were wounded today during combat operations near the city of Bayji." And they announced: "One Coalition Forces Soldier died of wounds as a result of injuries from a mine explosion while conducting operations in Salah ad Din Oct. 24."
Turning to news of Blackwater USA. AP reports that Richard Griffin has resigned from the US State Dept where his position is Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security ("is" -- resigns on November 1st). The National Journal notes, "Griffin, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, effectively employs the private guards hired to protect U.S. diplomatic employees in Iraq."
Yesterday, McClatchy Newspapers reports, "Six Iraqi women who've worked in the Knight Ridder and McClatchy Baghdad bureau received the International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award Tuesday." And noting ABC News' Bob Woodruff's introduction of Shatha al Awsy, Zaineb Obeid, Huda Ahmed, Ban Adil Sarhan, Alaa Majeed and Sahar Issa, "These six Iraqi women have reported the war in Baghdad from inside their hearts. They have watched as the war touched the lives of their neighbors and friends, and then they bore witness as it reached into the lives of each and every one of them. All the while, they have been the backbone of the McClatchy bureau, sleeping with bulletproof vests and helmets by their beds at night, taking different routes to work each day, trying to keep their employment by a Western news organization secret." The New York Times reproduces excerpts of Sahar Issa's speech -- speaking for all six women -- in an editorial today, "To be a journalist in violence-ridden Iraq today, ladies and gentlemen, is not a matter lightly undertaken. Every path is strewn with danger, every checkpoint, every question a direct threat. Every interview we conduct may be our last. So much is happening in Iraq. So much that is questionable. So much that we, as journalists, try to fathom and portray to the people who care to know." Iraqi correspondents contribute to McClatchy Newspapers articles via bylines, via end credits, via background, etc. Inside Iraq is the newspaper chain's blog that is run by their Iraqi correspondents.
Turning to the environment. In the White House press briefing yesterday, Elaine Quijano asked White House flack Dana Perino, "Back on the wildfires for a moment. Senator Barbara Boxer, this morning in a hearing, suggested that they're limited in the amount of National Guard equipment available to them in California because of the commitments in Iraq. Specifically she said, 'Right now we are down 50 percent in terms of our National Guard equipment because they're all in Iraq. The equipment -- half of the equipment, so we really will need help.' Do you have a response to that?" No, Perino didn't. But along with equipment, questions also exist regarding numbers. At a Defense Department briefing yesterday, Paul McHale dismissed questions about "the Marines out at Twentynine Palms actually going to the firefighting lines" stating, "I can tell you unequivocally that the ongoing warfighting activities in CENTCOM had no negative effect at all with regard to our ability to provide sufficient forces to assist civilian authorities in fighting the wildfires. You made reference to the Marines at Twentynine Palms. We have 550 Marines -- basically, a Marine battalion -- prepares to fight fires if and when . . . " Actually, a Marine battalion can go up to 1,000. 500 is the bare minimum for a battalion. Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Peter Aylward had to be repeatedly pinned on the issue of training before finally responding "Yes, ma'am. Okay." Sunday on 60 Minutes, Scott Pelly did a report on the increasing fires in the western United States. Speaking with fire fighters, Pelley stated, "You know, there are a lot of people who don't believe in climate change" to which fire fighter Tom Boatner (chief of fire operations for the federal government) replied, "You won't find them on the fire line in the American West anymore. Cause we've had climate change beat into us over the last ten or fifteen years. We know what we're seeing, and we're dealing with a period of climate, in terms of termperature and humidity and drought that's different than anything people have seen in our lifetimes." This week on PBS' NOW with David Brancaccio (Fridays most markets, check local listings), they will take a look at global warming and ask "Can Evangelicals and scientists find common ground?" NOW journeys to Alaska to find out and record the environmental changes. On their website they have posted an essay by Dr. Eric Chivian, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientist, and Rev. Richard Cizik. And completely unrelated (but that force this paragraph in really didn't work, did it) Lisa Pease wonders "Why Is the CIA Suppressing JKF Files?" at Consortium News.
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mcclatchy newspapersthe socialist worker
pbsnow with david branccacio
Patrick Cockburn visits the PKK in "Kurdish fighters defy the world from mountain fortress as bombing begins" (Independent of London):
Despite threats of action by the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, the PKK leaders give no sense of feeling that their enemies were closing in.
For a guerrilla movement awaiting assault, the PKK's leaders are surprisingly easy to find. We drove east from Arbil for two-and-a-half hours and hired a four-wheel drive car in the village of Sangassar. Iraqi police wearing camouflage uniform were at work building a new outpost out of cement blocks beside the road leading into the mountains but only took our names.
In fact the four-wheel drive was hardly necessary because there is a military road constructed by Saddam Hussein's army in the 1980s which zig-zags along the side of a steep valley until it reaches the first PKK checkpoint. The PKK soldiers with Kalashnikovs and two grenades pinned to the front of their uniform were relaxed and efficient. In case anybody should have any doubt about who was in control there was an enormous picture of the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan picked out in yellow, black, white and red painted stones on a hill half a mile away and visible over a wide area.
There were no sign that threats from Mr Maliki in Baghdad or from the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, were having an effect. The PKK soldiers at a small guest house had not been expecting us but promptly got in touch with their local headquarters.
For all its nonchalance the PKK is facing a formidable array of enemies. The Iraqi government in Baghdad has no direct influence over the Kurdistan Regional Government, led by President Massoud Barzani whose administration is made up of his own Kurdistan Democratic Party and President Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. This is the only force capable of trying to eject the 3,000 PKK fighters.
Carly Ostroff reviews Joni Mitchell's Shine here. I was reading an e-mail from a visitor today (e-mailed the public account at The Common Ills) and he asked where were the reviews of Joni Mitchell's new CD (he was responding to mine, I have reviewed it). That's a good question. This is a major statement from a true artist. I have no idea why there aren't more reviews but if I see one, I'll try to note it (unless it's just slamming Joni).
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Wednesday, October 24, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces deaths, tensions continue between Turkey and northern Iraq (and Turkey initiates violence), Iraqi refugees continue suffering, McClatchy Newspapers is honored, and more.
Starting with war resisters. Judge Benjamin Settle has extended Ehren Watada's stay. Watada is the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. His reasons for that are because the war is illegal. He attempted to work through this matter with the military but when it became obvious they were stringing him along he made the decision to go public -- and went public in June 2006. In February 2006, Judge Toilet (aka John Head) presided over a rigged hearing that was supposed to pass for a court-martial despite the fact that Watada was not allowed to explain why he'd chosen to do what he did -- refuse to deploy. Judge Toilet tried real hard to rig the perfect frame up and when it didn't go the way he wanted, Judge Toilet flushed the court-martial, declaring a mistrial over defense objection and despite the fact that double-jeopardy had attached. Judge Toilet immediately scheduled a court-martial for March and then someone tutored Toilet a little on the law. The court-martial was supposed to begin the first week of this month; however, federal judge Settle issued a stay through October 26th. On Friday, Settle extended the stay through November 9th. Mike Barber (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) noted on Friday, "Seattle decided he had jurisdiction to hear arguments that Watada would be subject to double jeopardy, since his first trial in February ended in a mistrial, over his objections, after testimony had been heard by a panel of officers." The panel was the jury -- Watada wisely decided to go with a jury for the court-martial and not allow a judge (in this case Judge Toilet) to make the ruling.
Meanwhile on the subject of war resisters in Canada, Free Speech Radio News noted yesterday, "Canada has, in the past, been a destination for conscientious objectors to US wars. But some anti-war activists have found out from experience that Canada is using the FBI's National Crime Information Center database to stop war resisters at the border." Brad McCall was the first to go public with the new system and how he was handcuffed while attempting to enter Canada September 19th of this year. He was followed by others making reporting similar incidents at the border. A number of actions are ongoing regarding US war resisters in Canada. Citizens of Canada can sign the War Resisters Support Campaign petition as well as refer to this action page of the War Resisters Support Campaign. In the United States, Courage to Resist has a letter you can sign to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Minister of Citizenship & Immigration Diane Finley and Stephane Dion of the Liberal Party. If you click here you can sign electronically. If you need a physical copy, you can go to "Supporting War Resisters" and print up a scan of the letter.
Tonight the War Resisters Support Campaign has an event, Michelle Mason's breakthrough documentary . Breaking Ranks will be screened at the University of Toronto's Claude Bissell Building from six to eight p.m. followed by a question and answer session with war resisters.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty 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 [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
The National Lawyers Guild's convention begins shortly: The Military Law Task Force and the Center on Conscience & War are sponsoring a Continuing Legal Education seminar -- Representing Conscientious Objectors in Habeas Corpus Proceedings -- as part of the National Lawyers Guild National Convention in Washington, D.C. The half-day seminar will be held on Thursday, November 1st, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the convention site, the Holiday Inn on the Hill in D.C. This is a must-attend seminar, with excelent speakers and a wealth of information. The seminar will be moderated by the Military Law Task Force's co-chair Kathleen Gilberd and scheduled speakers are NYC Bar Association's Committee on Military Affairs and Justice's Deborah Karpatkin, the Center on Conscience & War's J.E. McNeil, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee's Peter Goldberger, Louis Font who has represented Camilo Mejia, Dr. Mary Hanna and others, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objector's James Feldman. The fee is $60 for attorneys; $25 for non-profit attorneys, students and legal workers; and you can also enquire about scholarships or reduced fees. The convention itself will run from October 31st through November 4th and it's full circle on the 70th anniversary of NLG since they "began in Washington, D.C." where "the founding convention took place in the District at the height of the New Deal in 1937, Activist, progressive lawyers, tired of butting heads with the reactionary white male lawyers then comprising the American Bar Association, formed the nucleus of the Guild."
Turning to Iraq and starting with the refugee crisis which Prensa Latina reports the United Nations says is increasing "due to the border conflict with Turkey" with refugees already constituting 4.7 million Iraqis -- 2.3 million displaced internally, 2.4 million displaced externally. Among the externally displaced is Riverbend and her family who have settled in Syria. Riverbend (Baghdad Burning) reports, "By the time we had reentered the Syrian border and were headed back to the cab ready to take us into Kameshli, I had resigned myself to the fact that we were refugees. I read about refugees on the Internet daily. . . in the newspapers . . . hear about them on TV. I heard about the estimated 1.5 million plus Iraqi refugees in Syria and shake my head, never really considering myself or my family as one of them. After all, refugees are people who sleep in tents and have no potable water or plumbing, right? Refugees carry their belongins in bags instead of suitcases and they don't have cell phones or Internet acess, right? Grasping my passport in my hand like my life depended on it, with two extra months in Syria stamped inside, it hit me how wrong I was. We were all refugees. I was suddenly a number. No matter how wealthy or educated or comfortable, a refugee is a refugee. A refugee is someone who isn't really welcome in any country -- including their own . . . especially their own. . . . The first evening we arrived, exhausted, dragging suitcases behind us, morale a little bit bruised, the Kurdish family sent over their representative -- a 9 year old boy missing two front teeth, holding a lopsided cake, 'We're Abu Mohammed's house -- across from you -- mama says if you need anything, just ask -- this is our number. Abu Dalia's family lives upstairs, this is their number. We're all Iraqi too . . . Welcome to the building.' I cried that night because for the first time in a long time, so far away from home, I felt the unity that had been stolen from us in 2003." Yesterday, the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees spokesperson Ron Redmond spoke to the press declaring that Syria continues to receive refugees but "in much smaller numbers than before" due to the new visa regulations Syria has imposed (obtain visa in Baghdad -- the Syrian embassy is located in a very violent neighborhood -- etc.) and that the UN estimates northern Iraq to now be "home to over 800,000 internally displaced Iraqis." Peter Apps (Reuters) notes that more violence in northern Iraq "could further increase the number of people fleeing their homes and cut off one of the remaining ways out for refugees desperate to leave Iraq, aid workers say." The tensions between the regions go far back. In yesterday's press briefing, US State Department flack Sean McCormack declared of the tensions, "It's not something that was invented over the past four years. But we now have an opportunity with an Iraqi Government that has an interest in playing a positive role in the region, an opportunity to arrive at a solution." Now the US State Department thinks there is "an opportunity" to address the situation? and what were they thinking in 2004? The War Comes Home's Aaron Glantz reported on the situation for Pacifica in April of 2004 noting a meet up in DC between the Turkish government and the US government when then US Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Meyers stated, "This is an issue the coalition forces inside Iraq take very seriously. Let me assure you that there is very close collaboration with Turkey and that they [the PKK] will be dealt with appropriately."
James Denselow (Guardian of London) notes that Syria closing its borders to Iraqis (some groups are exceptions to the closing -- academics, merchants, etc.) and explains, "The Syrian decision, that of a poor country unable to accomodate a population increase of 10%, will intensify the humanitarian catastrophe, news of which is smothered by high-profile acts of violence as well as the ebb and flow of international politcs over the presence of foreign troops in the country. The stress of Iraqi refugees on the infrastructure and social fabric of Damascus has cost the Syrian state over [500 million British pounds] in the past four years. Some commentators suggest that the lack of US assistance in caring for these Iraqis displaced as a result of their actions is part of a wider policy to weaken a traditional enemy -- Syria. Most media coverage of the Iraqi-Syrian relationship is focused on the flow of foreign fighters from Syria rather than refugees to Syria."
And when the money runs out? AP reported over the weekend that many return to "death row" meaning Iraqi -- in the case of Iman Faleh's family, east Baghdad -- with "a Syrian immigration official" offering the estimate "that up to 1,500 Iraqis are returning to Iraq each day." As Trudy Rubin (Philadelphia Inquirer via Post-Bulletin) noted last month, "Syria and Jordan can't handle the more than 2 million Iraqis now crammed into their small countries. These refugees have no jobs, their children can't go to school, and many are running out of savings, leading some to turn to begging and prostitution." (Note that Jordan is attempting to provide free school for all Iraqi refugees while NPR's Morning Edition reported last week that the cost of education in Syria -- which many parents cannot afford -- means "a generation of Iraqi kids may go uneducated.") In May of this year, Katherine Zdepf (New York Times) noted the reality of the number of Iraqi females forced into prostitution when they become refugees in other countries such as the main subject of Zdepf's report, Umm Hiba, sixteen-years-old, working "at a nightclub along a highway known for prositution." AP reports today on female refugees in Syria, "This club in northwest Damascus is at the heart of one of the most troubling aspects of the Iraqi refugee crisis -- Irawi women and girls who are turning to prostitution to survive in countries that have taken them in, but prevent them or their families from working at most other jobs. No reliable figures exist on the number of Iraqi prostitutes in Syria, Jordan or elsewhere in the Middle East. The problem is only beginning to get attention in a region where sex outside of marriage is rarely even discussed. But the increase in the number of Iraqi women seen in recent months in clubs and on the streets of Damascus, Amman and other cities suggest the problem is growing as thousands of Iraqis flee their homeland." Meanwhile Lee Sustar (US Socialist Worker) observes, "As grim as the plight of Iraqi refugees has become, the displaced who remain in Iraq often fare worse. Numbering more than 2 million, according to the International Organization for Migration, these 'internally displaced persons,' or IDPs, have either crammed in with relatives or friends, or live in camps and shantytowns on the edge of Baghdad and other cities. . . . The only major non-governmental organization providing aid to IDPs is the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS), which released a report in September detailing the scale of the problem." Sustar quotes Raed Jarrar noting, "There is a displacement crisis in Sudan, but many specialist say the number is exaggerated. But the official number is less than half the numbers of Iraqis who have been displaced. Unfortunately, we don't see big coalitions in the United States and Israel calling themselves Save Iraq like Save Darfur."
On the ongoing tensions between northern Iraq and Turkey, the (US) Socialist Worker offers historical perspective, "For decades, world powers have denied an independent state to the Kurdish people, whose population spans northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, eastern Syria and western Iran. The U.S. is merely the most powerful country to cynically manipulate Kurdish national aspirations. It supports Kurdish 'autonomy' in northern Iraq while opposing the PKK in Turkey. The US has placed the PKK on its list of terrorist organizations, but hasn't taken concrete steps to curb its activities. Since 1991 -- when the U.S. turned on its former ally Saddam Hussein and began nearly two decades of military and economic warfare on Iraq -- leaders of the Kurdish national movement have collaborated with U.S. imperialism in Iraq. This has meant a tense balancing act with Turkey, which has regularly threatened -- and several times carried out -- military action against PKK bases in northern Iraq. Now Turkey is threatening an escalation of the conflict." Staying with historical for a moment, the BBC sidebar, Pam O'Toole's BBC report, Reuters' "Factbox: Who Are the PKK?" and NPR's All Things Considered on Monday (link goes to Aliza Marcus) all explain that the PKK dates back to the 70s -- not the 80s as too many 'experts' repeatedly and mistaknely toss around. As Mark MacKinnon (Canada's Globe & Mail) reported this morning, "Debate in this country yesterday was not about whether to invade northern Iraq, but over how big and how deep such an incursion should be. Funerals held yesterday for the dozen dead soldiers turned into emotional political rallies, as tens of thousands of mourners waved the national flag and chanted for action against not only the PKK, but the Kurdistan Regional Government that administers the north of Iraq, and its President, Massoud Barzani. Many Turks believe that Mr. Barzani, who has thick ties to the PKK dating back to his days as a guerrilla leader fighting for Kurdish independence from Saddam Hussein's Iraq, has been providing support and bases to the group. 'People are calling for something to be done about Barzani also,' said Ihsan Bal, a terrorism expert at the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization. 'Every day he's on the television saying he cannot do anything against the PKK, and that the PKK is not a terrorist organization. Now people want to see him punished also'." And Oxford Analytica via Forbes explained, "Barzani's peshmerga militia cooperated with Turkish forces seeking to destroy the PKK in the Kurdish 'safe haven' after Saddam Hussein's 1991 defeat in Kuwait. At that time it was Jalal Talabani, now president of Iraq, who gave shelter to the PKK in the area away from the Turkish frontier controlled by his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The real reason Barzani will not act against the PKK today is that Turkey opposes his ambition to incorporate Kirkuk and its oilfields into the KRG area. Barzani's support thus comes at a price Turkey is not willing to pay. Turkish attempts to circumvent Barzani have been hampered by the refusal of the last Turkish president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, to invite Talabani to Ankara in his current capacity--or to deal directly with the KRG." Which is why Talabani's long silence on the issue furthered suspicions. His support for the PKK is not new though many outlets -- big and small -- sure have a problem telling their news consumers those basic facts. Mark Bentley and Ali Berat Meric (Bloomberg News) reported this morning that Turkey has already begun their attack with Turkey air craft sent on bombing missions "in northern Iraq" as well as having "sent troops into Iraq to hunt down the PKK". CNN noted the violence/assault as well and they also noted puppet of the occupation, Nouri al-Maliki, pledging to "shut down PKK offices in the north of the country". Though BBC and CBS & AP noted this yesterday (see yesterday's snapshot), amazingly most outlets haven't said a word. It did come up in yesterday's US State Dept briefing.
Question: Let's go back to Iraq and the Kurds for a second. Maliki's office just said they're going to shut down all the PKK offices in Iraq. Is this something that you guys were looking for -- asked or suggested, or otherwise welcome?
Sean McCormack: Yesh, well, I don't want to get into what specific suggestions or ideas we might have had or what might have been generated by the Iraqi side of the Turkey side. It's a start. But as I have said, what needs to happen is that the Iraqis, acting on their own accord and in cooperation with the Turks as well as us, need to act to prevent further terrorist attacks. That's an immediate issue. What needs to happen over the medium to long term is that the PKK is dismantled and eliminated as a terrorist organization operating from Iraqi soil. Also, I thought I saw some comments from the Iraqi side making this -- indicating that they understood that that's the task before them. So there's this -- I understand there's this commitment to shut down offices. Okay. But what you need to see are actual outputs from inputes that the Iraqi Government might make. The outputs are that you need to stop terrorist attacks, there need to be prevention of terrorist attacks, and you need to get to the root cause here, and that is stop the -- stop this terrorist organization from operating on Iraqi soil.
Question: Is this something that you guys will be able to follow up on, to actually go and see if the PKK is still operating in a shop front in wherever?
Which McCormack sidestepped. And it came up in the White House briefing today.
Question: Dana, Prime Minister Maliki said he's going to close the PKK offices in Iraq. Prime Minister Maliki made the same promise in September of last year. Why should Turkey trust Prime Minister Maliki on this?
Dana Perino: I did look into that, Olvier, and we can understand why the Turks would be skeptical, because that pledge was made. It does need to be fulfilled. We'll be talking to the Iraqis about that as well.
In some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a south Baghdad bombing claimed 4 lives (twenty-five wounded), a west Baghdad bombing left three people injured, a Baghdad mortar attack injured two people and a Khalis mortar attack claimed 3 lives (with twenty-five wounded).
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "Gunmen broke in a house killing a father with his two sons in Zaghanya village north of Baquba city around 6 pm."
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 6 corpses discovered in Baghdad.
Today the US military announced: "One MNC-I Soldier was killed and five Soldiers were wounded today during combat operations near the city of Bayji." And they announced: "One Coalition Forces Soldier died of wounds as a result of injuries from a mine explosion while conducting operations in Salah ad Din Oct. 24."
Turning to news of Blackwater USA. AP reports that Richard Griffin has resigned from the US State Dept where his position is Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security ("is" -- resigns on November 1st). The National Journal notes, "Griffin, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, effectively employs the private guards hired to protect U.S. diplomatic employees in Iraq."
Yesterday, McClatchy Newspapers reports, "Six Iraqi women who've worked in the Knight Ridder and McClatchy Baghdad bureau received the International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award Tuesday." And noting ABC News' Bob Woodruff's introduction of Shatha al Awsy, Zaineb Obeid, Huda Ahmed, Ban Adil Sarhan, Alaa Majeed and Sahar Issa, "These six Iraqi women have reported the war in Baghdad from inside their hearts. They have watched as the war touched the lives of their neighbors and friends, and then they bore witness as it reached into the lives of each and every one of them. All the while, they have been the backbone of the McClatchy bureau, sleeping with bulletproof vests and helmets by their beds at night, taking different routes to work each day, trying to keep their employment by a Western news organization secret." The New York Times reproduces excerpts of Sahar Issa's speech -- speaking for all six women -- in an editorial today, "To be a journalist in violence-ridden Iraq today, ladies and gentlemen, is not a matter lightly undertaken. Every path is strewn with danger, every checkpoint, every question a direct threat. Every interview we conduct may be our last. So much is happening in Iraq. So much that is questionable. So much that we, as journalists, try to fathom and portray to the people who care to know." Iraqi correspondents contribute to McClatchy Newspapers articles via bylines, via end credits, via background, etc. Inside Iraq is the newspaper chain's blog that is run by their Iraqi correspondents.
Turning to the environment. In the White House press briefing yesterday, Elaine Quijano asked White House flack Dana Perino, "Back on the wildfires for a moment. Senator Barbara Boxer, this morning in a hearing, suggested that they're limited in the amount of National Guard equipment available to them in California because of the commitments in Iraq. Specifically she said, 'Right now we are down 50 percent in terms of our National Guard equipment because they're all in Iraq. The equipment -- half of the equipment, so we really will need help.' Do you have a response to that?" No, Perino didn't. But along with equipment, questions also exist regarding numbers. At a Defense Department briefing yesterday, Paul McHale dismissed questions about "the Marines out at Twentynine Palms actually going to the firefighting lines" stating, "I can tell you unequivocally that the ongoing warfighting activities in CENTCOM had no negative effect at all with regard to our ability to provide sufficient forces to assist civilian authorities in fighting the wildfires. You made reference to the Marines at Twentynine Palms. We have 550 Marines -- basically, a Marine battalion -- prepares to fight fires if and when . . . " Actually, a Marine battalion can go up to 1,000. 500 is the bare minimum for a battalion. Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Peter Aylward had to be repeatedly pinned on the issue of training before finally responding "Yes, ma'am. Okay." Sunday on 60 Minutes, Scott Pelly did a report on the increasing fires in the western United States. Speaking with fire fighters, Pelley stated, "You know, there are a lot of people who don't believe in climate change" to which fire fighter Tom Boatner (chief of fire operations for the federal government) replied, "You won't find them on the fire line in the American West anymore. Cause we've had climate change beat into us over the last ten or fifteen years. We know what we're seeing, and we're dealing with a period of climate, in terms of termperature and humidity and drought that's different than anything people have seen in our lifetimes." This week on PBS' NOW with David Brancaccio (Fridays most markets, check local listings), they will take a look at global warming and ask "Can Evangelicals and scientists find common ground?" NOW journeys to Alaska to find out and record the environmental changes. On their website they have posted an essay by Dr. Eric Chivian, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientist, and Rev. Richard Cizik. And completely unrelated (but that force this paragraph in really didn't work, did it) Lisa Pease wonders "Why Is the CIA Suppressing JKF Files?" at Consortium News.
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