FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, 858-204-3565
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, 212-679-5100, ext. 11
BUSH ADMINISTRATION DENIES VISA TO NOTED CUBAN ATTORNEY
National Lawyers Guild Calls Visa Denial Punitive and Unrelated to National Security
October 29, Washington, D.C. In one of the first acts of the Bush Administration's latest crackdown on Cuba, the United States Department of State has apparently denied a visa to Guillermo Ferriol Molina, Vice-President of the Labor Law Society of the Cuban bar association and a member of the Board of Directors of the UN-affiliated International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL). Mr. Ferriol had been invited to the U.S. to speak at the 70th anniversary Convention of the National Lawyers Guild this week, as well as at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York.
On Friday, October 26, the State Department informed aides to Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) that Mr. Ferriol's visa had been denied on October 21. The State Department has not yet informed Mr. Ferriol of this decision. The decision to deny the visa, which overturned a preliminary decision more than a month earlier by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, followed a lengthy security advisory opinion check.
The State Department informed Doyle's aide that the visa was denied because Mr. Ferriol allegedly works for a union that is connected with the Cuban government, citing Presidential proclamations 5377 and 212(f), which prohibit entry of certain non-immigrants. However, Mr. Ferriol does not work for a union. In addition to his duties with the Labor Law Society and the IADL, both nongovernmental organizations, he is employed by CIMEX, a private company capitalized by the Cuban state which operates more than 80 enterprises in different industries throughout Cuba. In 2002, Mr. Ferriol was granted a visa to speak at the National Lawyers Guild Convention and at Sarah Lawrence, and his trip took place without incident.
National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn denounced the decision, citing it as "part of yet another shortsighted and futile attempt by the Bush Administration to decide Cuba's future by punishing the people of both the United States and Cuba."
In his October 24 announcement of new initiatives designed to hasten a "transition" in Cuba, Bush called on Cuban officials and ordinary Cubans to rise up against the current regime. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque responded by stating, "Cuba's reaction is one of indignation, but of absolute serenity and confidence in our strength. The word in order here is courage." He also laid out 12 initiatives that he proposed President Bush use as a way to aid Cuba, which included things such as respect for Cuba's right to independence and sovereignty, lifting the travel ban, the release of the "Cuban 5" (five Cubans imprisoned in the U.S. for their roles on reporting terrorist plans against Cuba by Cuban exiles in Miami), the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles (the alleged mastermind behind the bombing of a Cuban civilian jet and tourist hotels) and the immediate closing of the Guantanamo Naval Base.
That's from a press release put out by the National Lawyers Guild. I've been taking photos all day and my mind is mush. I'm not joking. The only topic I had to write on is one Jim's asked us all to hold off on. C.I. covered it yesterday and when Jim heard C.I. dictating the snapshot, he said, "Let's do something on this at Third." So everyone's holding for this weekend. I'm sure if I didn't have that holding pattern, I wouldn't feel like, "I can write about that! If I wasn't waiting."
Here's something elese I can't write about. From Jerry Lanson's "War Protests: Why No Coverage?" (Christian Science Monitor via Common Dreams):
Coordinated antiwar protests in at least 11 American cities this weekend raised anew an interesting question about the nature of news coverage: Are the media ignoring rallies against the Iraq war because of their low turnout or is the turnout dampened by the lack of news coverage?
I find it unsettling that I even have to consider the question.
That most Americans oppose the war in Iraq is well established. The latest CBS News poll, in mid-October, found 26 percent of those polled approved of the way the president is handling the war and 67 percent disapproved. It found that 45 percent said they’d only be willing to keep large numbers of US troops in Iraq “for less than a year.” And an ABC News-Washington Post poll in late September found that 55 percent felt Democrats in Congress had not gone far enough in opposing the war.
We covered this in the print edition of The Third Estate Sunday Review. We weren't up to going through the editing process. But there's a reason there wasn't intense press coverage and the answer is that one group shot itself in the foot. An article went up online last week, it garnered a hell of a lot of attention from the mainstream media. C.I. was returning calls at lunch one day and it was, "No, I haven't seen it. What did it say?" over and over. The press saw that and it didn't just slime one peace organization, it actually -- because the writers were IDIOTS and DEMOCRATIC PARTY HACKS -- slimed the mainstream press.
It's one thing -- and we're for that -- one organization saying, "I disagree with ___ because they're actions ___" Or their history. Or whatever. But the peace movement shot themselves in the foot. And the mainstream press saw it. And that was just crap. Whatever day it went up, it was news in newsrooms of papers, networks and cable news. It guaranteed that the peace actions over the weekend would not get significant coverage. Those two men (I believe we'll call them out this weekend online -- we just weren't up to editing that article Sunday after everything else we had to edit)are the reason this protest got so damn little coverage. Now the protests never get tremendous coverage to begin with. But those two idiot, assholes made sure that the press didn't want to touch the story.
Of course it was two men. And of course they are party hacks. And of course Leslie Cagan should have issued a statement but she didn't and so they were allowed to represent UPFJ. And as a result, no one wanted to go near the story. So why didn't the protests get coverage? Two idiots identifying as UPFJ who decided to write an article. They did very real damage.
After over 30 returned calls, C.I. said, "I don't think I even have to read it now." It had been explained over and over. We read it the next day, before we started speaking because we assumed it would come up (it did, but not like we expected -- although UPFJ should be aware that students saw it as a UPFJ problem -- not the two men's problme, they saw it as speaking for UPFJ and they weren't pleased with UPFJ).
I'm not knocking the question being asked. I am noting that, in this instance, the peace movement is more than partly to blame. That is reality.
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Tuesday, October 30, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, Naomi Wolf points to the "blinking lights" of democracy, the US military announces multiple deaths, Blackwater continues to simmer and the focus goes to Condi, Giuliana Sgrena responds to the sliming she received and more.
Starting with war resisters. Steve Gardner (Kitsap Sun) writes of the just published "The Most Influential People of 2007" in Seattle Magazine. and notes "Iraq war resister U.S. Army Lt. Ehren Watada appears, as does Olympic Sculpture Park shepherd Chris Rogers (who the magazine selected as the 2007 Person of the Year). Early learning advocate and the state's former first ladey Mona Locke is on the list, and so is former U.S. Attorney John McKay and Google's Narayanan 'Shiva' Shivakumar." Watada is the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. After months of working with the military (in good faith), Watada went public in June of 2006 after it became obvious that the military was stringing him along with false assurance. Watada (rightly) judges the Iraq War as illegal. In February of this year he was court-martialed in a kangaroo hearing presided over by Judge Toilet (aka John Head) who called a mistrial over defense objection and after the prosecution had presented their case which means double-jeopardy should prevent Watada from standing before a court-martial again. (Watada's service contract has already expired. He has been kept in the US military for months due to the issue of a potential court-martial.) US District Judge Benjamin Settle Friday is reviewing that and other issues and has extended the stay on Watada's case through November 9th.
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."
On the above NLG event, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) notes today, "Meanwhile the National Lawyers Guild is criticizing the Bush administration for refusing to allow a prominent Cuban attorney into the country. The guild had invited Guillermo Ferriol Molina to speak at the group's 70th anniversary convention this week but he was apparently denied a visa. Molina is the Vice-President of the Labor Law Society of the Cuban bar association and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers."
How does that happen? "There's this horrible phase in a closing democracy when leaders and citizens still think it's a democracy but the people who have already started to close it are just kind of drumming their fingers waiting for everyone to realize that that's not the dance anymore," explains Naomi Wolf on the October 26th episode of The Bat Segundo Show. Her new book is The End of America: Letters of Warning to a Young Patriot where she argues that democracy needs to be reclaimed in the United States before it is lost. Covering a large historical terrain, she outlines the "echoes" present in the US today that have been signals of a shift to a closed society in our historical past. Addressing the inaction of Congress on so many topics (including impeachment and the refusal to listen to the citizens on the issue of the illegal war), Wolf declared, "Congress is like an abused woman that keeps thinking, 'Surely my boyfriend will be nice now. What do you mean you're not turning over your e-mails? We're Congress! You can't just not listen to us.' So you're right to notice the American people are getting it before Congress is. The people in power right now are no longer engaged in the democratic social contract and so it does take us recognizing that we can't heal democracy only through conventional means of democracy. So, Nancy Pelosi, is saying we're not going to impeach. Guess what? The founders didn't intend for Nancy Pelosi to decide what the people are going to do when there's this kind of criminal assault on the Constitution and checks and balances. It's up to us. And that's why we started the American Freedom Campaign which is a democracy movement which now has five million members in really, like two months, across the political spectrum and we're driving a grassroots movement to push, to confront Pelosi, and to confront the leaders in Congress and to let them know this is an emergency, it's not business as usual and they can't unilaterally take issues like that off the table. We're now, impeachment is not yet an AFC position, this is just me speaking for myself, but from the historical blue print, seeing what is now in place -- it is not safe to leave those people in power anymore and I'm saying this to Republicans and Democrats alike. It is not safe to entrust the next election with them. So I don't think we just need to move forward with impeaching, this is me speaking personally -- not for the AFC, but from the historical blueprint, we need to do it now and also we need to prosecute for treason because it's not enough to get people like this out of power you have to get them behind bars." Will impeachment be an issue for AFC? Wolf explained that since it's a grassroots movement, the goals will be determined by the members. The fifty minute broadcast touches on a large number of issues and we'll note Wolf on another topic:
Blackwater just got another billion dollar contract after massacring 17 innocent civilians in Iraq, okay? They operate fully outside the law in Iraq. Order 17, Paul Bremer, guaranteed that they were unaccountable. So it's not just the Iraqis who have to worry about Blackwater. The second step in the ten-point blue print [of moving a state from democracy to fascist, Wolf charts this in her book The End of America] is to create a paramilitary force that's not answerable to the people. This is how, in Italy, Mussolini closed democracy using the Black Shirts. And this is how, in Germany, Hitler closed democracy using Brown Shirts. Paramilitary forces excerpt pressure on civilians. So what Americans don't know is that Blackwater is already operating in the United States. Homeland Security already brought them in to patrol the streets of New Orleans after Katrina. And Jeremy Scahill reported that they were firing, our contractors, were firing on civilians. We don't know, most of us, that Blackwater's business model calls for increased deployment here in the United States in the event of say a natural catastrophe or quote 'a public emergency.' And with Defense Authorization Act 2007, it is the president, who's hand in hand with Blackwater, who now has the unilateral power to determine what is a national emergency that calls for a quote 'restoration of public order.' And I just want to tell you that the invoking of a national emergency and the call to restore public order is the is the tenth step in the blue print to close down an open society.
Staying on the topic of the mercenaries of Blackwater USA new developments can be classified under "What Condi forgot to tell Congress about Blackwater." US Secretary of State and Anger Condi Rice most recently offered testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last week on Thursday, October 25th. Rice declared that ("thank God so far" -- putting someone or Someone on notice?) Blackwater was needed and that she just wouldn't know how to run the department she heads without Blackwater (prior to the rise of Blackwater and other mercenaries, embassy security staff were responsible for guarding State Dept employees in foreign countries) and insisted, "But we do recognize that their must be sufficient oversight, sufficient rules and that is why I have accepted the recommendations of the panel on the private security contractors." That would have been a good time to insert an item in today's news; however, she didn't. When speaking of reports that puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki had made a backdoor deal to grant immunity from prosecution to members of his cabinet, Rice did not want to talk about "rumor" or "unsubstantiated" claims "I'd like to state again, Mr. Chairman, because I'd rather state it in my own words than have it be stated for me. It is the policy of this administration -- and I'm quite certain that the president would feel strongly about this: That there shouldn't be corrupt officials anywhere. And that no official -- no matter how high -- should be immune from investigation, prosecution or, indeed, punishment should corruption be found." So no immunity for officials in al-Maliki's cabinet. Rice could have used that moment -- "in my own words" -- to address the issue of immunity that the State Department was granting. Because the department she heads had granted immunity. Noting that the Associated Press broke the story Monday, David Johnston (New York Times) reports today, "The State Department investigators from the agency's investigative arm, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, offered the immunity grants [to Blackwater] even though they did not have the authority to do so, the officials said. Prosecutors at the Justice Department, who do have such authority, had no advance knowledge of the arranement, they added. Most of the [Blackwater] guards who took part in the Sept. 16 shooting were offered what officials described as limited-use immunity, which means that they were promised they would not be prosecuted for anything they said in their interviews with the authorities as long as their statements were true."
This news came out Monday via AP. On Thursday, Rice faced the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Blackwater was a topic many touched on (Democrats and Republicans). Rice was not forthcoming. When the issue of immunity came up -- with regards to al-Maliki's cabinet -- Rice made no effort to inform Congress that the department she heads, the department which she is supposed to provide oversight to, had offered Blackwater guards involved in the incident immunity -- an immunity that her department did not have the power to offer.
CBS and AP report, "Law enforcement officials say the State Department granted them immunity from prosecution before taking their statements. They can still be prosecuted, bur fromer prosecutor David Laufman said it will be harder to make a case, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported. . . . The FBI can still interview the guards, but Laufman doubts they will cooperate." Terry Frieden (CNN) notes Senator Patrick Leahy has "accused the Bush 'amnesty administration' of letting its allies, including security contractors in Iraq, shirk responsibility for their actions" and Quotes Leahy declaring, "In this administration, accountability goes by the boards. That seems to be a central tenet in the Bush administration -- that no one from their team should be held accountable, if accountability can be avoided." Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) offers this perspective: "Under State Department contractor rules, Diplomatic Security agents are charged with investigating and reporting on all 'use of force' incidents. Although there have been previous Blackwater shootings over the past three years -- none of which resulted in prosecutions -- the Sept. 16 incident was by far the most serious." Johnston reports, "The immunity deals were an unwelcome surprise at the Justice Department, which was already grappling with the fundamental legal question of whether any prosecution could take place involving American civilians in Iraq. . . . In addition, the Justice Department reassigned the investigation from prosecutors in the criminal division who had read the statements the State Department had taken under the offer of immunity to prosecutors in the national security division who had no knowledge of the statements."
Waxman writes Rice today about the immunity:
Multiple news reports are asserting that the State Department compromised the investigation into the shootings and the potential for prosecutions of Blackwater personnel by offering immunity to the Blackwater guards. According to one report, agents of the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security promised Blackwater personnel 'immunity from prosecution' in order to elicit statements. Another report stated that the State Department offered 'limited-use immunity' without authority to do so so and without consulting with the Justice Department. According to these accounts, prosecution of Blackwater personnel has become, at minimum, "a lot more complicated and dfficult."
This rash grant of immunity was an egregious misjudgement. It raises serious questions about who conferred the immunity, who approved it at the State Department, and what their motives were. To help the Committee investigate these matters, I request that the State Department provide written responses to the following questions no later than noon on Friday, November 2, 2007:
1) What form of immunity was offered to the Blackwater personnel?
2) What limitations does this form of immunity impose upon the investigation?
3) Who authorized the offers of immunity?
4) Who was aware of the offers of immunity at or before the time that they were delivered?
5) When did you, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Griffin, Ambassador David Satterfield, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker learn of the grant of immunity?
6) What consultation, if any, was conducted with the Justice Department prior to the offers of immunity?
7) Has the State Department ever offered immunity to security contractor personnel as part of other investigations into contractor conduct? Please describe each such occasion.
I further request that knowledgeable officials appear at the previously scheduled briefing for Committee staff on November 2 to respond to questions about the State Department's written response to these questions.
Finally, I request that the State Department produce the following documents no later than Friday, November 9, 2007:
1) All communications relating to any offers of immunity to Blackwater personnel relating to the September 16, 2007, Nissor Square incident; and
2) All communications relating to any offers of immunity to Blackwater personnel or other private military contractors relating to other incidents in Iraq.
The letter is available online by [PDF format warning] clicking here.
Last Friday on the second hour of NPR's The Diane Rehm Show the issue of Rice's appearences before Congress was noted with Rehm explaining Congress felt Rice "has mismanaged diplomatic efforts in Iraq and they accused her of concealing information from Congress." A perfect example -- not known then -- would be the offer of limited-immunity to Blackwater employees. Again, that was not known then. NBC's Andrea Mitchell (who, along with Newsweek's Michael Hirsh and the Los Angeles Times' Doyle McManus, took part in the roundtable) explained, "Well in particular there were memos, internal Iraqi memos, that the State Department was well aware of, that she had not turned over, that she had not turned over memos on Blackwater, corruption in the Iraqi government, which is a growing problem. That she has ignored it, not brought it to their attention. Her worst nightmare is Henry Waxman. Henry Waxman sixteen terms now chairman of the House Oversight Committee and he is going after her and after the State Department and other government agencies. He has a pipeline of investigations and he just keeps one after the other." [For more on the broadcast, see Ruth's Saturday report.] Along with not turning over memos to Congress, Rice's department is now known for not telling Congress about the offer of limited immunity. While Condi's department has granted further immunity, Deborah Haynes (Times of London) reports others are attempting to pull some back: "The Iraqi Cabinet today approved a draft law lifting the immunity from prosecution enjoyed by foreign security companies contracted by the US-led coalition, but it was unclear how guards working for the controversial American firm Blackwater would be affected." Steve Negus (Financial Times of London) notes the next step for the bill would be the Iraqi parliament (where, for the record, the bill could have originated in) and that is is unclear "whether the proposed Iraqi legislation would apply retrospectively."
In other mercenary news, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) reports, "Meanwhile the British private military company Erinys has been sued in Texas over the death of a U.S. soldier who died after being hit by one of the company's convoys in Iraq. The lawsuit was filed by Perry Monroe, father of Christopher Monroe who died in southern Iraq two years ago. The lawsuit accuses the Erinys convoy of ignoring warnings and traveling at excessive speed after dark without lights fully on. At the time of the incident, the British company was working under a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers." Christopher Monroe died October 25, 2005. He was 19-years-old. Interestingly, although a mercenary caused the death, the Defense Department's announcement stated Monroe died "when his 5-ton truck was involved in an automobile accident with a civilian vehicle." It's cute the way departments of the US government work overtime to protect contractors. In the instance of Monroe's death, they are happy to make it sound as if an Iraqi's mini-van collided with the truck. AP reports that the mercenary company Erinys "has made more than $150 million in Iraq and has contracts to protect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to the lawsuit filled by the father of Army Spc. Christopher T. Monroe." In addition, the DoD trumpeted "civilian vehicle" was actually one "armored Suburban [which] struck Monroe and his truck, tearing off Monroe's right leg and throwing him 30 to 40 feet in the air" -- begging the question of how fast the mercenary vehicle was traveling (traveling at night "with headlights off" after having already been told of Monroe's convoy). Suzanne Goldenberg (Guardian of London) offers that Erinys "reportedly has close ties to the former Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi," notes that Monroe was on guard duty, that Erinys was traveling "at an estimated speed of up to 80mph on a dark road using only their parking lights" and that they were not under fire. In addition, Goldenberg notes that the company received a contract in 2003 "to provide security for Iraq's oil refineries and pipelines. . . . The first recruits of the 14,000-strong oil protection force raised by Erinys Iraq were members of the Iraqi Free Forces, the US-trained milita that was headed by Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi exile who was America's protege in the run-up to the invasion. Members of Mr Chalabi's inner circle were among the founding partners of Erinys Iraq."
Bombings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad mortar attack that wounded two people "near Milky Master shop" and a Salahuddin car bombing that claimed the lives of 3 Iraqi soldiers with nine more wounded. Reuters notes a Baghdad mini-bus bombing that left two people wounded as well as another on that claimed the life of 1 person (four more wounded), a grenade tossed into a Baghdad street that claimed the life of 1 "street cleaner" and left six more people injured, and a Baghdad car bombing that claimed the lives of 4 police officers (eight more injured).
Shootings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a police officer was shot dead on Monday in Mosul.
Corpses?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 5 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 4 corpses discovered in Mosul today, 1 in Kirkuk yesterday.
Meanwhile an Iraqi correspondent at Inside Iraq (McClatchy Newspapers) notes the death of a friend, Haider, over the weekend in a car accident: "Haider is my closest friend in Baghdad and the entire world. He was my friend from childhood when I was 6 years till we finished the high school. We had had great time. We used to play soccer, play ping-pong, chess and fishing small fish from the lake near by from Tigris river in Missan province in the south of Iraq. He chose the engineering college while my choice was teaching.
Today, the US military announced: "Three Multi-National Division - Center Soldiers were killed when their patrol was struck by an improvised explosive device southeast of Baghdad Oct. 30." ICCC places the US service member death toll since the start of the illegal war at 3842 with 36 for the month. CNN says it is 37 for the month.
As Iraq continues to fall apart as a result of the illegal war, Amit R. Paley (Washington Post) reports that 500,000 Iraqis could die of drowning in Mosul "and parts of Baghdad" as a result of problems with a Mosul dam -- a dam that $27 million has gone to for reconstruction and that the Army Corps of Engineers states has "an unacceptable annual failure probability". AFP reports that "the US 27 million dollar project launched two years ago to help strengthen the dam has been marred by incompetence and mismangement. The report said SIGIR's most recent inspection concludes that the project has made no headway in improving grout injection operations, and said that poor oversight had allowed millions of dollars in construction and equipment to go to waste."
"I don't know if he knew who was -- who were the passenger of the car, of course. I don't know if maybe he just answered to an order. So that's why I wanted Mario Lozano to tell the truth to the trial or in any way to tell the truth, and not just accusing me that it's my fault. It's not my fault. He was shooting to us. I didn't shoot to anybody. So, he shooted, and he has to give us a reason why he shooted, even if it was an order. When I was in United States, I heard from a lot of veterans against the war that they were obliged to shoot when they were in Iraq. So I think that we can understand that he also was a victim of the war. But he has to tell the truth, not just to tell that it's my fault. It's not my fault. He has to realize that it is his fault, because he shoot to us and to Calipari. He killed Calipari. So he has to explain. I can imagine that he has psychological problems because of the shooting, because it's normal for a normal person, it's normal to have pyschological problems if you kill a man." That's Guiulian Sgrena speaking with Amy Goodman today on Democracy Now! regarding the nonsense from the Dumb Ass yesterday who blamed her for the fact that he shot someone dead. From today's broadcast:
GIULIANA SGRENA: Oh, it's not true. I was just doing my work, and many other journalists went to interview the refugees, the refugees of Fallujah. Me, I usually go to interview the refugees, because I think that it's the people that more suffer for the situation. And also, in this case, I went there just to interview these refugees.
I know that for military, army, it's not the case to go around and to do an independent work, because they want the journalists just to be embedded, but I can say that in the same day, the same moment that I was there doing to interview the refugees of Fallujah, there was also a photographer working for the US Time taking pictures there. So I was not doing a work with terrorists, because if not everybody work with terrorists. I was just there to interview refugees.
And I think that this is the only way to do our job as we have to do it, because we have to listen to the people that is suffering under the occupation and not just interview the commanders or people that have weapons in their -- that they're using weapons. So I think that I was in a right position, and I will do always the same when I go around the world.
And I don't understand what mean Lozano by saying that I was going there, doing something with terrorists. They were not terrorists. What means? So we don't have the chance to do our work? Is it true that now we have not the chance to do our work true in Iraq, but this is because of the occupation and, of course, also because nobody in Iraq want to have witness there to see what is going on. But I was just doing my work.
AMY GOODMAN: Giuliana Sgrena, can you remind us what happened when you were released? From the point, well, that you learned you were going to be released -- first who you were held by and then what happened, all the way through the shooting on your road to the airport?
GIULIANA SGRENA: Yes, when I was released, Calipari came to pick me up, and we were on the road to the airport, after, of course, giving the news to the person that were interested in, and we were on the way to the airport. It was dark, because it was night. And at a certain point, we were not so far from the airport, when they started to shoot us. At the beginning, I couldn't understand who was shooting, because we were in the area controlled by the Americans, and I couldn't believe that the Americans, they were shooting to us. There was Italian agents with me. So, really, it was really a shock.
And immediately, when they started to shoot, Calipari stopped to talk, and I realized that something was going wrong, because he didn't speak to me. And the agent that was driving the car started to shout and to say that we were Italian, we were of the Italian embassy, just to try to stop the shooting. And when the shooting stopped, I saw that Calipari was killed. Me, I was wounded, and also the other agent. So, it was really a big shock.
But there were no warnings before the shooting. And the shooting, they reached the car, and they were, after -- we can say now, after the inquiry, the Italian inquiry, because there was an Italian inquiry of the Italian justice, that against the car was shooted fifty-eight bullets, and fifty-seven bullets were against the passengers of the car and only the last one against the engine of the car. So if they wanted to stop the car, they had to shoot to the engine or to the wheels, but not to the passengers. And that's why the Italian justice asked the trial for Lozano for voluntarily killing of Nicola Calipari. That's the point. It's not only my testify now; it's the conclusion of the Italian justice inquiry.
As Sgrena points out, the judge did not find Lozano innocent, the judge stated the case was out of Italy's jurisdiction -- prosecutors are appealing that ruling. Lastly, David Price's latest on the betrayal of a social science is a must read at CounterPunch. (Ideally, this will be quoted from in tomorrow's snapshot.)
ehren watadajohn brummettsoldiers of conscience
giuliana sgrenademocracy now
naomi wolf
the bat segundo show
amit r. paleythe washington post
the new york timesdavid johnstoncnn
npr
the diane rehm showdiane rehmandrea mitchellmichael hirshdoyle mcmanus
ruths report
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Little Squirt want "to scorn" me
A The Third Estate Sunday Review reader named Bill passed on Daniel Garrett's review of Carly Simon's Into White, "The Spiritual Beauty of a Sensual Woman: Carly Simon’s precious collection Into White." This is a really strong review and when we were reading it Saturday, I told Ty that I would note it here. If you haven't already read it, please make a point to.
Now let's turn to an e-mail sent into the public account for The Common Ills that's to me even though the idiot -- we'll call him "Little Squirt" -- can't figure out that something called "Kat's Korner . . ." and opens with "Kat:" is written by me. Little Squirt is bent out of shape over my "Kat's Korner: Dixie Chicks Taking The Long Way home while NYT gets lost along the way" which went up in May of 2006. No doubt, he'll soon be e-mailing about something I reviewed in 2005. Here's Little Squirt's e-mail:
To Whom It May Concern,
You quoted "someone" (with approval) as stating:
"As someone said of [Reba] McEntire, 'She was born trash, she'll dietrash. The only question is whether or not she'll apologize for cheerleading a war that's [sic] cost so many lives?'"
Reba McEntire is a great person; by way of contrast, you and the person you cited are low-rent, trifling mediocrities who are sorely lacking innative intelligence. Indeed, if you two are going to share a brain, then at least get one that works.
Sincerely,
----- [Little Squirt]
PS I do not care about you making this e-mail public as I certainly intend to scorn you on my blog for the world to see.
Little Squirt forgot to mention what his blog was. No great loss, I'm sure. "sic" means Little Squirt thinks I made an error with "that's". My Webster's show two meanings for "that's" and they are:
1) that is
2) that has
I was using the second. "that's cost so many lives" equals "that has cost so many lives" so Little Squirt probably shouldn't correct so smugly when he's so f**king wrong. "Innative" is not in my Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. I had to find it online. It means "native." The word choice Little Squirt was struggling for was "innate." "Innative," and I checked this out with an English professor, is not only used incorrectly in Little Squirt's sentence, it is obscure (or as the professor pointed out, "closeted").
Now I write the reviews for feel more than anything else. But if you're going to e-mail to correct something, you should be right that I was wrong (I wasn't) and you should be sure you use your own words correctly. Little Squirt is wrong twice over.
Scorn away, Little Squirt, but if you're writing to strangers about their grammer, you might try working on your own.
As I stated, Little Squirt is a stranger to me. If I had to guess about him, I'd assume he's a closeted gay guy who tries to think of a woman the minute he cums and tells himself that even though he just jerked off for several minutes to some male underwear advertisement, the fact that at the minute he juked, he cried, "Madonna!" (or maybe, "Reba!") means he's not gay.
I have many gay friends and respect them all. I do not respect closet cases. I have no respect for them. I never have. Which is why I have no closeted friends.
Along with playing that little game at the time of climax, I would guess Little Squirt probably has a bit of a Bible obsession and that's why he's still in the closet. There's a preening tone to the e-mail that suggests someone who's obsessed one too many times over the King James. (I'd especially guess an obsession with Luke.) Little Squirt honestly reminds me of Tony Perkins in the movie Crime of Passion.
I only have two friends who are into country music that are gay. (I live in the Bay Area. Most of my gay friends think country music is a joke.) They advised me that Reba is the Judy Garland for the closeted Little Squirts. Quote: "She's the perfect drag act because you don't need to look pretty to dress up like Reba."
Little Squirt, your bad musical tastes are not my concern nor your love for the tacky Reba. But if you want a tip, make peace with yourself. People will respect you a great deal more if you come out of the closet and you'll like yourself better. Good luck with your blog and your bad taste in music. Possibly, Bible study doesn't leave you a great deal of time to seek out good music?
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Monday, October 29, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, oil prices continue to soar, the US military reports a general wounded, a former US soldier attacks the press (disgracing himself and the country), and more.
Starting with war resisters. Saturday protests took place around the world. Brett Clarkson (Toronto Sun) reports that their protests included chants of "George Bush we know you, your daddy's a killer too!," that at least 1500 marched "from the U.S. Consulate to Moss Park in opposition to the Canadian military presence in Afghanistan and the U.S. war in Iraq" and that among those standing up for peace was US war resister Patrick Hart formerly "of the 101st Airborne Division, stationed in Fort Campbell, Ky. Hart, who is facing deportation from Canada, went AWOL in August 2005". Meanwhile Nicholas Davis (Toronto Sun) tells the story of Isaiah Trickey -- who grew up in Kenabeek Ontario with his two brothers and three sisters and both of his parents -- realization growing up that his mother was a historical figure. Isaiah's mother is Minnijean Brown Trickey one of The Little Rock Nine who stood up to racism, violence and the Arkansas National Guard to attend Little Rock Central High in 1957 therebysmashing the "Whites Only" policy at the high school. Over the years -- she served in the Clinton administration's Department of Interior -- when asked how a young, teenage woman could stand up, she's usually responded with some variation of, "It had to be done." Which it did but that didn't mean it didn't require tremendous bravery and strength for all nine of The Little Rock Nine (or their parents, as Minnijean Brown Trickey always notes). She married Roy Trickey in September of 1967 (by the way -- most of this isn't in the article, we're having a history lesson -- a needed one if any of this is new to you). Members of the SNCC, they actively protested the war in Vietnam. When Roy Trickey received his draft notice, he applied for CO status but when that was not granted, they left the US for Toronto, made a home there and raised their six children. The marriage ended in 1992 and Minnijean Brown Trickey returned to the US in 1999.
Turning to Hawaii, Rachel Gehriein (Kaui Garden Island News) reports that the Kaua's Peace 'Ohana rally on Saturday, "Supporter Linda Estes had one goal in mind as she held a sign in support for Lieutenant Ehren Watada. Watada, a Honolulu native, was the first commissioned officer in the U.S. armed forces to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq in June 2006. Watada believe the war to be illegal and wound make him party to war crimes."
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."
On this week's Progressive Radio, Matthew Rothschild interviewed Tariq Ali.
Matthew Rothschild: How stuck is the United States right now in Iraq? I mean Bush is trying the so-called surge of course and there seems to be no end in sight.
Tariq Ali: There is no end in sight till the US troops and the troops of their allies are withdrawn from that region. As long as US troops remain there, the area will be destabilized. The big question now is: Are the Iraqi parties going to succeed -- and the Iraqi groups -- going to succeed to rise above narrow identity politics and create a national government which preserves and maintains the unity of Iraq? This is an open question. I can't answer definitively one way or the other the way the occupation has gone it's sort of quite strange that when there are imperial, colonial style occupations, one of the things they do is divide the country.
Matthew Rothschild: It seems that the Bush administration is kind of leaning that way right now.
Tariq Ali: It does look like it. And Peter Galbrath and other Democrats writing in The New York Review of Books are more or less arguing for that. It's deeply shocking.
Matthew Rothschild: He's been pushing for that for awhile. Of course he's also been a lobbyist for the Kurds in the north.
Tariq Ali: He has. I think that is what explains it. But you know the nation that you can create a US-Israeli protectorate in northern Iraq and call it Kurdistan is not going to work because even as we speak the Turkish armies are massing on the border, the Turkish parliament has approved by an overwhelming majority -- I was surprised by the size of the majority -- that Turkey has the right to cross the border and take out the Kurds. Essentially, they've done that so that is going to destabilize them. And the Mediterraen -- cause Turkey is sort of a staunch pillar of NATO and has been since the second world war. So if they're now going to antagonize the Turks for the sake of creating a tiny protectorate in northern Iraq, it's not going to look good for them.
Matthew Rothschild: What do you make of the just kind of bread and butter arguments that are thrown around here in the United States for justifying the continued occupation? Tariq Ali, one is that we need to stay there for humanitarian reasons, that there's going to be a bigger bloodbath if we leave?
Tariq Ali: This is one of the more grotesque arguments which I hear. You know, if you look at it, you go in, you occupy a country, nearly a million people are dead -- civilians -- not combatants, 2 million refugees, the entire social infrastructure of the country is destroyed, it's divided basically into three regions and then you say if we leave there will be a mess. How could there be a bigger mess?
Tariq Ali went on to note that when the US leaves it won't be sunshine and flowers "but in the medium term there's a much, much better chance for Iraqis sorting this out than with foreign troops and bases on their soil." Elaine will note the interview tonight at her site Like Maria Said Paz.
Ali spoke of the growing tensions between Turkey and northern Iraq. From Friday's snapshot: "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'." If th assessment was accurate, it fell through quickly. Eric Margolis (Toronto Sun) notes, "No one should be surprised by the dangerous crisis between Turkey and Iraq-based Kurdish separatists. Critics long warned the U.S. invasion of Iraq would inevitably release the genii of Kurdish nationalism. Creation of a virtually independent, U.S.-backed Kurdish state in northern Iraq was certain to provoke Turkish fury." Barbara Miller (Australia's ABC) reports that "weekend talks between Iraqi and Turkish officials have broken down" and quotes Kurd and Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari state that the Turkish demands (turning over PKK leaders) "is a very heavy demand". Noting that 40 "Turks have been killed by the PKK in the past month," Lara Marlowe (The Irish Times) also sees the realationship between the two countries "continue to deteriorate".
Sabrina Tavernise (New York Times) observes, "Iraqi Kurdish officials, for their part, appear to be politely ignoring American calls for action, saying the only serious solution is political, not military. They have taken their own path, allowing the guerrillas to exist on their territory, while at the same time quietly trying to persuade them to stop attacks." Tim Butcher (Telegraph of London) reports, "Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq are warning local people to prepare to run for the hills if Turkey attacks" and quotes Kurdish farmer Mohammed Rajoul declaring, "They came and said we must get ready. They said if we see Turkish planes or helicopters we must not hide in our hourses but must hide outside among the rocks. This is the first time we have been told to prepare for attacks and we are afraid." As the tensions escalate, oil prices soar. AP reports, "Oil prices rose above $93 a barrel to a new trading high Monday in Asia on growing political tensions in the Middle East, a weak dollar and worries about the supply outlook ahead of winter." BBC also notes that crude has broken $93 a barrel. Mark Shenk (Bloomberg News) informs the price per barrel hit $93.80 "in New York after Mexico shut a fifth of its production and the dollar fell to a record low." Moming Zhou and Steve Goldstein (MarketWatch) note that after reaching $93.80 the price dropped to . . . $93.53 thereby closing "at a new record high". New Zealand's The National Business Review warns, "Prices are approaching all-time highs set in 1979 and early 1980, when prices rose to $38 a barrel, or the equivalent of $96 to $101 a barrel or more in today's dollars."
Violence within Iraq continued over the weekend. Sunday news came of ever more attacks on officials. Jenan Hussein (McClatchy Newspapers) reported that a "prominent member of the Supreme Election Committee in Basra" was shot dead in Basra today and that on Saturday a member of the Islamic Party was shot dead in Basra with three more being wounded and two being kidnapped. Reuters noted that the "retired police brigadier-general" was shot dead in Mosul, that a police officer was shot dead in Hawija and that a woman was shot dead in a Kut home invasion today while Saturday there was a Mosul gunfire attack on "a police colonel and his driver". The Kansas City Star reported, "Eleven tribal leaders who had banded with U.S. troops to fight the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaide in Iraq were kidnapped Sunday" -- the leaders were Sunni and Shi'ite sheiks and "members of the Salam Support Council" and a spokesperson for the group blames the Mahdi Army for the kidnappings while a family member of one of the kidnapped blames "Sunni extremists" (the corpses of Mishaan Hilan has already been discovered). AFP noted that last "Monday, Sadr had warned his fighters to obey the current six-month suspension of his Mahdi Army militia or face being branded as traitors." Amit R. Paley (Washington Post via San Jose Mercury News) noted the 11 kidnapped "had banded with U.S. soldiers to fight the Sunni insurgent group Al-Qaida in Iraq," that the kidnapping was "the latest in a string of such attacks" and that "Hadi al-Anbaki, a spokesman for the mostly Shiite council, said the attack was carried out by the Mahdi Army, a militia controlled by the anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. 'This was an ambus,' Anbaki said. The kidnapping highlighted the complex and quickly shifting nature of the bloodshed convulsing Iraq, with Shiite and Sunni groups increasingly targeting members of their own sects who align themselves with U.S. forces." Friday, Diane Rehm pointed out on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, the reported reduction in Shi'ite on Sunni and Sunni on Shi'ite violence has been replaced with inner-sect violence in Iraq. Camilla Hall (Bloomberg News) notes, "Ten Sunni and Shiite Muslim tribal sheikhs were seized on Oct. 27 as they returned to Diyala from a meeting in Baghdad to discuss combating al-Qaeda." Eleven were kidnapped but Mishaan Hilan's corpse has already been reported discovered. BBC is reporting that 8 of the kidnapped have been rescued and citing the Iraq Defence Ministry as their source.
Turning to some of today's violence . . .
A bombing in Baquba resulted in mass fatalities. CNN reports a bicycle bombing took place near an Iraqi police base. CBS and AP cite eye witness police recruit Akram Salam who believe "it must have been an inside job because the suicide bomber apparently was able to penetrate heavy security surrounding the police camp without being searched. He said police failed to stop the bomber when he changed course suddenly from the main road toward the recruits" and quote Salman stating, "The police are infiltrated. Many people join the police but they have affiliations with al Qaeda. The infiltrators made it easy for the bomber to attack us. There are two main checkpoints on the main road leading to the camp, it would be impossible for a man on a bicycle to pass without being properly searched." Ross Colvin (Reuters) reports the death toll from the Baquba bombing rose to 30 Iraqi police officers or recruits.
In other bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad car bombing that left four people wounded, a Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded three, a Tikrit car bombing that claimed 3 lives and left nine wounded, a Tirkit rocket attack on "a children playground . . . killing one child and injuring 7 others." Reuters notes that Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko, US general, has been injured in a Baghdad roadside bombing ("wounds were not life threatening"). Reuters notes a Siniya car bombing that claimed 8 lives and left thirteen wounded.
Shootings?
Reuters notes 3 women and 1 man were shot dead in a Mosul home invasion, 1 person shot dead in Iraq and a police officer was shot dead in Falluja. Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports , "Iraqi police said that an American convoy killed Citizen Qadir Noori, 45, he was driving his car on a main road connecting Kirkuk to Arbil."
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) report 4 corpses were discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 20 corpses (headless) were discovered west of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad. BBC says the Iraqi government denies the discovery.
Turning to criticism of the illegal war. Gethin Chamberlain (Telegraph of London) speaks with "[o]ne of the most senior British commanders in Iraq" who says "that there is no point in fighting on in Basra, likening British troops in the city to 'Robocop' and admitting that innocent people were hurt as a result of their actions." Meanwhile Joshua Partlow (Washington Post via Truthout) speaks with members of the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division and Sgt. Victor Alarcon tells him, "I don't think this place is worth another soldier's life." And criticism mounts in Australia as well. Paul Bibby (Sydney Morning Herald) reports that Andrew Wilkie ("former Australian intelligence officer turned Greens candidate" and "former Lieutenant-Colonel") has stated the death of two Australian soldiers in Afghanistan (Matthew Locke last week and David Pearce earlier in the month) should not have happened, that they "died unnecessarily because we should not have still been there" and he pins the reason Australian troops are still in Afghanistan on the US led illegal war in Iraq. Wilkie: "We would not have been in Afghanistan now if we had finished the job back when we could have finished the job in 2002. But because we were distracted by Iraq we really drew down on our forces in Afghanistan to go to Iraq. That allowed the anti-Government forces, primarily the Taliban, to be the serious threat that they are. Those two diggers died unnecessarily." Australia holds national elections Saturday, November 24th. Bully Boy athletic cup holder John Howard may or may not remain as prime minister. Australia's Herald-Sun reports that Wilkie's running mate, Bob Brown has made similar comments -- Brown: "That said, we ought not be in Afghanistan because the Bush administration backed by John Howard made a huge strategic error there at the start of this decade when they withdrew troops from Afghanistan, having taken over the country, got rid of the Taliban and went to the invasion of Iraq."
But while some realize it's time to leave, scum holds on -- as Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, the return of human cockroach, CIA asset and professional liar Chalabi. Youssef informs that puppet of the occuaption Nouri al Maliki named Chaliabi "as head of the services committee . . . tasked with bringing services to Baghdad" last month..
Finally in DUMB ASS news . . . Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today that Mario Lozano who WRONGLY shot dead Nicola Calipari, an Italian intelligence agent, has told Reuters the person responsible for the death is Giuliana Sgrena stating, "She went out there, she wanted to mingle with the terrorists and all that. Then she gets caught. Now we have to send, now we have to send good men to go after this one person that knows that she put herself in the situation. She knows that if she's going to go talk to terrorists, she knows there's a 99 percent chance she will get caught. So why'd she do that for? Is beyond my... I don't understand. So it's her fault that this is happening, it's not my fault. It's not my fault, it's not America's fault, it's not the Italian government's fault, it's Sgrena's fault." Lozano, not Sgrena, pulled the trigger. Sgrena did not go to Iraq to kill anyone, to rape anyone -- not even a 14 year-old girl, to steal law, or anything else. She went there to report and if Lozano can't grasp that what she did is a great deal more important than what he did that goes to the lousy education system we have the United States and military brass that prefer to order attacks on journalists instead of honoring the First Amendment. In the case Calipari he died. Sgrena was wounded as was Andrea Carpani. The fault for the two wounded and the death of Calipari is the US military which knew Sgrena was being taken to the Baghdad International Airport and apparently did not convey to those on the ground (which would include Lozano). The press attempting to cover a story is not to blame and that's embarrassing assertion coming from anyone. Lozano shot and killed Calipari. Not because Sgrena was doing her job but because his superiors weren't doing their job. Blaming Sgrena is embarrassing in and of itself, doing so when your actions have already sparked one international incident is begging for another one. This attitude, more than anything else, should demonstrate that the US military does not 'preserve' our freedoms. Our freedoms (under attack, to be sure) are guaranteed by the Constitution and preserved by American citizens. For making it clear that in his training by the US military, the freedoms Americans have and their importance was never stressed, Lozano -- dumb ass though he may be -- may deserve a huge thanks. His thanks are undercut by his blatant chauvinism ("good men") and the fact that he seems to be under mistaken belief that US soldiers had a damn thing to do with Sgrena's rescue. (They did not.) Reporters are not above criticism, but to imply that when they are hurt, kidnapped or killed while attempting to do their job -- however well or poorly they do the job -- is disgusting. Lozano killed Calipari. Pushing the blame off on Sgrena won't bring Calipari back to life or change the fact that Lozano shot him. That's reality. Reality is also that the Italian judge who announced the decision not to pursue charges yet has yet to release the opinion itself. Translation, it's not smart to anger a country when charges against you aren't completely dropped.
iraq
ehren watada
democracy nowamy goodman
matthew rothschild
tariq ali
giuliana sgrena
the national lawyers guild
the washington post
amit r. paleycamilla hallbloomberg newscnnpaul bibby
sabrina tavernisethe new york timeslara marlowe
mcclatchy newspapersnancy a. youssef
the diane rehm showdiane rehm
joshua partlow
like maria said paz
Now let's turn to an e-mail sent into the public account for The Common Ills that's to me even though the idiot -- we'll call him "Little Squirt" -- can't figure out that something called "Kat's Korner . . ." and opens with "Kat:" is written by me. Little Squirt is bent out of shape over my "Kat's Korner: Dixie Chicks Taking The Long Way home while NYT gets lost along the way" which went up in May of 2006. No doubt, he'll soon be e-mailing about something I reviewed in 2005. Here's Little Squirt's e-mail:
To Whom It May Concern,
You quoted "someone" (with approval) as stating:
"As someone said of [Reba] McEntire, 'She was born trash, she'll dietrash. The only question is whether or not she'll apologize for cheerleading a war that's [sic] cost so many lives?'"
Reba McEntire is a great person; by way of contrast, you and the person you cited are low-rent, trifling mediocrities who are sorely lacking innative intelligence. Indeed, if you two are going to share a brain, then at least get one that works.
Sincerely,
----- [Little Squirt]
PS I do not care about you making this e-mail public as I certainly intend to scorn you on my blog for the world to see.
Little Squirt forgot to mention what his blog was. No great loss, I'm sure. "sic" means Little Squirt thinks I made an error with "that's". My Webster's show two meanings for "that's" and they are:
1) that is
2) that has
I was using the second. "that's cost so many lives" equals "that has cost so many lives" so Little Squirt probably shouldn't correct so smugly when he's so f**king wrong. "Innative" is not in my Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. I had to find it online. It means "native." The word choice Little Squirt was struggling for was "innate." "Innative," and I checked this out with an English professor, is not only used incorrectly in Little Squirt's sentence, it is obscure (or as the professor pointed out, "closeted").
Now I write the reviews for feel more than anything else. But if you're going to e-mail to correct something, you should be right that I was wrong (I wasn't) and you should be sure you use your own words correctly. Little Squirt is wrong twice over.
Scorn away, Little Squirt, but if you're writing to strangers about their grammer, you might try working on your own.
As I stated, Little Squirt is a stranger to me. If I had to guess about him, I'd assume he's a closeted gay guy who tries to think of a woman the minute he cums and tells himself that even though he just jerked off for several minutes to some male underwear advertisement, the fact that at the minute he juked, he cried, "Madonna!" (or maybe, "Reba!") means he's not gay.
I have many gay friends and respect them all. I do not respect closet cases. I have no respect for them. I never have. Which is why I have no closeted friends.
Along with playing that little game at the time of climax, I would guess Little Squirt probably has a bit of a Bible obsession and that's why he's still in the closet. There's a preening tone to the e-mail that suggests someone who's obsessed one too many times over the King James. (I'd especially guess an obsession with Luke.) Little Squirt honestly reminds me of Tony Perkins in the movie Crime of Passion.
I only have two friends who are into country music that are gay. (I live in the Bay Area. Most of my gay friends think country music is a joke.) They advised me that Reba is the Judy Garland for the closeted Little Squirts. Quote: "She's the perfect drag act because you don't need to look pretty to dress up like Reba."
Little Squirt, your bad musical tastes are not my concern nor your love for the tacky Reba. But if you want a tip, make peace with yourself. People will respect you a great deal more if you come out of the closet and you'll like yourself better. Good luck with your blog and your bad taste in music. Possibly, Bible study doesn't leave you a great deal of time to seek out good music?
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Monday, October 29, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, oil prices continue to soar, the US military reports a general wounded, a former US soldier attacks the press (disgracing himself and the country), and more.
Starting with war resisters. Saturday protests took place around the world. Brett Clarkson (Toronto Sun) reports that their protests included chants of "George Bush we know you, your daddy's a killer too!," that at least 1500 marched "from the U.S. Consulate to Moss Park in opposition to the Canadian military presence in Afghanistan and the U.S. war in Iraq" and that among those standing up for peace was US war resister Patrick Hart formerly "of the 101st Airborne Division, stationed in Fort Campbell, Ky. Hart, who is facing deportation from Canada, went AWOL in August 2005". Meanwhile Nicholas Davis (Toronto Sun) tells the story of Isaiah Trickey -- who grew up in Kenabeek Ontario with his two brothers and three sisters and both of his parents -- realization growing up that his mother was a historical figure. Isaiah's mother is Minnijean Brown Trickey one of The Little Rock Nine who stood up to racism, violence and the Arkansas National Guard to attend Little Rock Central High in 1957 therebysmashing the "Whites Only" policy at the high school. Over the years -- she served in the Clinton administration's Department of Interior -- when asked how a young, teenage woman could stand up, she's usually responded with some variation of, "It had to be done." Which it did but that didn't mean it didn't require tremendous bravery and strength for all nine of The Little Rock Nine (or their parents, as Minnijean Brown Trickey always notes). She married Roy Trickey in September of 1967 (by the way -- most of this isn't in the article, we're having a history lesson -- a needed one if any of this is new to you). Members of the SNCC, they actively protested the war in Vietnam. When Roy Trickey received his draft notice, he applied for CO status but when that was not granted, they left the US for Toronto, made a home there and raised their six children. The marriage ended in 1992 and Minnijean Brown Trickey returned to the US in 1999.
Turning to Hawaii, Rachel Gehriein (Kaui Garden Island News) reports that the Kaua's Peace 'Ohana rally on Saturday, "Supporter Linda Estes had one goal in mind as she held a sign in support for Lieutenant Ehren Watada. Watada, a Honolulu native, was the first commissioned officer in the U.S. armed forces to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq in June 2006. Watada believe the war to be illegal and wound make him party to war crimes."
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."
On this week's Progressive Radio, Matthew Rothschild interviewed Tariq Ali.
Matthew Rothschild: How stuck is the United States right now in Iraq? I mean Bush is trying the so-called surge of course and there seems to be no end in sight.
Tariq Ali: There is no end in sight till the US troops and the troops of their allies are withdrawn from that region. As long as US troops remain there, the area will be destabilized. The big question now is: Are the Iraqi parties going to succeed -- and the Iraqi groups -- going to succeed to rise above narrow identity politics and create a national government which preserves and maintains the unity of Iraq? This is an open question. I can't answer definitively one way or the other the way the occupation has gone it's sort of quite strange that when there are imperial, colonial style occupations, one of the things they do is divide the country.
Matthew Rothschild: It seems that the Bush administration is kind of leaning that way right now.
Tariq Ali: It does look like it. And Peter Galbrath and other Democrats writing in The New York Review of Books are more or less arguing for that. It's deeply shocking.
Matthew Rothschild: He's been pushing for that for awhile. Of course he's also been a lobbyist for the Kurds in the north.
Tariq Ali: He has. I think that is what explains it. But you know the nation that you can create a US-Israeli protectorate in northern Iraq and call it Kurdistan is not going to work because even as we speak the Turkish armies are massing on the border, the Turkish parliament has approved by an overwhelming majority -- I was surprised by the size of the majority -- that Turkey has the right to cross the border and take out the Kurds. Essentially, they've done that so that is going to destabilize them. And the Mediterraen -- cause Turkey is sort of a staunch pillar of NATO and has been since the second world war. So if they're now going to antagonize the Turks for the sake of creating a tiny protectorate in northern Iraq, it's not going to look good for them.
Matthew Rothschild: What do you make of the just kind of bread and butter arguments that are thrown around here in the United States for justifying the continued occupation? Tariq Ali, one is that we need to stay there for humanitarian reasons, that there's going to be a bigger bloodbath if we leave?
Tariq Ali: This is one of the more grotesque arguments which I hear. You know, if you look at it, you go in, you occupy a country, nearly a million people are dead -- civilians -- not combatants, 2 million refugees, the entire social infrastructure of the country is destroyed, it's divided basically into three regions and then you say if we leave there will be a mess. How could there be a bigger mess?
Tariq Ali went on to note that when the US leaves it won't be sunshine and flowers "but in the medium term there's a much, much better chance for Iraqis sorting this out than with foreign troops and bases on their soil." Elaine will note the interview tonight at her site Like Maria Said Paz.
Ali spoke of the growing tensions between Turkey and northern Iraq. From Friday's snapshot: "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'." If th assessment was accurate, it fell through quickly. Eric Margolis (Toronto Sun) notes, "No one should be surprised by the dangerous crisis between Turkey and Iraq-based Kurdish separatists. Critics long warned the U.S. invasion of Iraq would inevitably release the genii of Kurdish nationalism. Creation of a virtually independent, U.S.-backed Kurdish state in northern Iraq was certain to provoke Turkish fury." Barbara Miller (Australia's ABC) reports that "weekend talks between Iraqi and Turkish officials have broken down" and quotes Kurd and Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari state that the Turkish demands (turning over PKK leaders) "is a very heavy demand". Noting that 40 "Turks have been killed by the PKK in the past month," Lara Marlowe (The Irish Times) also sees the realationship between the two countries "continue to deteriorate".
Sabrina Tavernise (New York Times) observes, "Iraqi Kurdish officials, for their part, appear to be politely ignoring American calls for action, saying the only serious solution is political, not military. They have taken their own path, allowing the guerrillas to exist on their territory, while at the same time quietly trying to persuade them to stop attacks." Tim Butcher (Telegraph of London) reports, "Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq are warning local people to prepare to run for the hills if Turkey attacks" and quotes Kurdish farmer Mohammed Rajoul declaring, "They came and said we must get ready. They said if we see Turkish planes or helicopters we must not hide in our hourses but must hide outside among the rocks. This is the first time we have been told to prepare for attacks and we are afraid." As the tensions escalate, oil prices soar. AP reports, "Oil prices rose above $93 a barrel to a new trading high Monday in Asia on growing political tensions in the Middle East, a weak dollar and worries about the supply outlook ahead of winter." BBC also notes that crude has broken $93 a barrel. Mark Shenk (Bloomberg News) informs the price per barrel hit $93.80 "in New York after Mexico shut a fifth of its production and the dollar fell to a record low." Moming Zhou and Steve Goldstein (MarketWatch) note that after reaching $93.80 the price dropped to . . . $93.53 thereby closing "at a new record high". New Zealand's The National Business Review warns, "Prices are approaching all-time highs set in 1979 and early 1980, when prices rose to $38 a barrel, or the equivalent of $96 to $101 a barrel or more in today's dollars."
Violence within Iraq continued over the weekend. Sunday news came of ever more attacks on officials. Jenan Hussein (McClatchy Newspapers) reported that a "prominent member of the Supreme Election Committee in Basra" was shot dead in Basra today and that on Saturday a member of the Islamic Party was shot dead in Basra with three more being wounded and two being kidnapped. Reuters noted that the "retired police brigadier-general" was shot dead in Mosul, that a police officer was shot dead in Hawija and that a woman was shot dead in a Kut home invasion today while Saturday there was a Mosul gunfire attack on "a police colonel and his driver". The Kansas City Star reported, "Eleven tribal leaders who had banded with U.S. troops to fight the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaide in Iraq were kidnapped Sunday" -- the leaders were Sunni and Shi'ite sheiks and "members of the Salam Support Council" and a spokesperson for the group blames the Mahdi Army for the kidnappings while a family member of one of the kidnapped blames "Sunni extremists" (the corpses of Mishaan Hilan has already been discovered). AFP noted that last "Monday, Sadr had warned his fighters to obey the current six-month suspension of his Mahdi Army militia or face being branded as traitors." Amit R. Paley (Washington Post via San Jose Mercury News) noted the 11 kidnapped "had banded with U.S. soldiers to fight the Sunni insurgent group Al-Qaida in Iraq," that the kidnapping was "the latest in a string of such attacks" and that "Hadi al-Anbaki, a spokesman for the mostly Shiite council, said the attack was carried out by the Mahdi Army, a militia controlled by the anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. 'This was an ambus,' Anbaki said. The kidnapping highlighted the complex and quickly shifting nature of the bloodshed convulsing Iraq, with Shiite and Sunni groups increasingly targeting members of their own sects who align themselves with U.S. forces." Friday, Diane Rehm pointed out on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, the reported reduction in Shi'ite on Sunni and Sunni on Shi'ite violence has been replaced with inner-sect violence in Iraq. Camilla Hall (Bloomberg News) notes, "Ten Sunni and Shiite Muslim tribal sheikhs were seized on Oct. 27 as they returned to Diyala from a meeting in Baghdad to discuss combating al-Qaeda." Eleven were kidnapped but Mishaan Hilan's corpse has already been reported discovered. BBC is reporting that 8 of the kidnapped have been rescued and citing the Iraq Defence Ministry as their source.
Turning to some of today's violence . . .
A bombing in Baquba resulted in mass fatalities. CNN reports a bicycle bombing took place near an Iraqi police base. CBS and AP cite eye witness police recruit Akram Salam who believe "it must have been an inside job because the suicide bomber apparently was able to penetrate heavy security surrounding the police camp without being searched. He said police failed to stop the bomber when he changed course suddenly from the main road toward the recruits" and quote Salman stating, "The police are infiltrated. Many people join the police but they have affiliations with al Qaeda. The infiltrators made it easy for the bomber to attack us. There are two main checkpoints on the main road leading to the camp, it would be impossible for a man on a bicycle to pass without being properly searched." Ross Colvin (Reuters) reports the death toll from the Baquba bombing rose to 30 Iraqi police officers or recruits.
In other bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad car bombing that left four people wounded, a Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded three, a Tikrit car bombing that claimed 3 lives and left nine wounded, a Tirkit rocket attack on "a children playground . . . killing one child and injuring 7 others." Reuters notes that Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko, US general, has been injured in a Baghdad roadside bombing ("wounds were not life threatening"). Reuters notes a Siniya car bombing that claimed 8 lives and left thirteen wounded.
Shootings?
Reuters notes 3 women and 1 man were shot dead in a Mosul home invasion, 1 person shot dead in Iraq and a police officer was shot dead in Falluja. Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports , "Iraqi police said that an American convoy killed Citizen Qadir Noori, 45, he was driving his car on a main road connecting Kirkuk to Arbil."
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) report 4 corpses were discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 20 corpses (headless) were discovered west of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad. BBC says the Iraqi government denies the discovery.
Turning to criticism of the illegal war. Gethin Chamberlain (Telegraph of London) speaks with "[o]ne of the most senior British commanders in Iraq" who says "that there is no point in fighting on in Basra, likening British troops in the city to 'Robocop' and admitting that innocent people were hurt as a result of their actions." Meanwhile Joshua Partlow (Washington Post via Truthout) speaks with members of the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division and Sgt. Victor Alarcon tells him, "I don't think this place is worth another soldier's life." And criticism mounts in Australia as well. Paul Bibby (Sydney Morning Herald) reports that Andrew Wilkie ("former Australian intelligence officer turned Greens candidate" and "former Lieutenant-Colonel") has stated the death of two Australian soldiers in Afghanistan (Matthew Locke last week and David Pearce earlier in the month) should not have happened, that they "died unnecessarily because we should not have still been there" and he pins the reason Australian troops are still in Afghanistan on the US led illegal war in Iraq. Wilkie: "We would not have been in Afghanistan now if we had finished the job back when we could have finished the job in 2002. But because we were distracted by Iraq we really drew down on our forces in Afghanistan to go to Iraq. That allowed the anti-Government forces, primarily the Taliban, to be the serious threat that they are. Those two diggers died unnecessarily." Australia holds national elections Saturday, November 24th. Bully Boy athletic cup holder John Howard may or may not remain as prime minister. Australia's Herald-Sun reports that Wilkie's running mate, Bob Brown has made similar comments -- Brown: "That said, we ought not be in Afghanistan because the Bush administration backed by John Howard made a huge strategic error there at the start of this decade when they withdrew troops from Afghanistan, having taken over the country, got rid of the Taliban and went to the invasion of Iraq."
But while some realize it's time to leave, scum holds on -- as Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, the return of human cockroach, CIA asset and professional liar Chalabi. Youssef informs that puppet of the occuaption Nouri al Maliki named Chaliabi "as head of the services committee . . . tasked with bringing services to Baghdad" last month..
Finally in DUMB ASS news . . . Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today that Mario Lozano who WRONGLY shot dead Nicola Calipari, an Italian intelligence agent, has told Reuters the person responsible for the death is Giuliana Sgrena stating, "She went out there, she wanted to mingle with the terrorists and all that. Then she gets caught. Now we have to send, now we have to send good men to go after this one person that knows that she put herself in the situation. She knows that if she's going to go talk to terrorists, she knows there's a 99 percent chance she will get caught. So why'd she do that for? Is beyond my... I don't understand. So it's her fault that this is happening, it's not my fault. It's not my fault, it's not America's fault, it's not the Italian government's fault, it's Sgrena's fault." Lozano, not Sgrena, pulled the trigger. Sgrena did not go to Iraq to kill anyone, to rape anyone -- not even a 14 year-old girl, to steal law, or anything else. She went there to report and if Lozano can't grasp that what she did is a great deal more important than what he did that goes to the lousy education system we have the United States and military brass that prefer to order attacks on journalists instead of honoring the First Amendment. In the case Calipari he died. Sgrena was wounded as was Andrea Carpani. The fault for the two wounded and the death of Calipari is the US military which knew Sgrena was being taken to the Baghdad International Airport and apparently did not convey to those on the ground (which would include Lozano). The press attempting to cover a story is not to blame and that's embarrassing assertion coming from anyone. Lozano shot and killed Calipari. Not because Sgrena was doing her job but because his superiors weren't doing their job. Blaming Sgrena is embarrassing in and of itself, doing so when your actions have already sparked one international incident is begging for another one. This attitude, more than anything else, should demonstrate that the US military does not 'preserve' our freedoms. Our freedoms (under attack, to be sure) are guaranteed by the Constitution and preserved by American citizens. For making it clear that in his training by the US military, the freedoms Americans have and their importance was never stressed, Lozano -- dumb ass though he may be -- may deserve a huge thanks. His thanks are undercut by his blatant chauvinism ("good men") and the fact that he seems to be under mistaken belief that US soldiers had a damn thing to do with Sgrena's rescue. (They did not.) Reporters are not above criticism, but to imply that when they are hurt, kidnapped or killed while attempting to do their job -- however well or poorly they do the job -- is disgusting. Lozano killed Calipari. Pushing the blame off on Sgrena won't bring Calipari back to life or change the fact that Lozano shot him. That's reality. Reality is also that the Italian judge who announced the decision not to pursue charges yet has yet to release the opinion itself. Translation, it's not smart to anger a country when charges against you aren't completely dropped.
iraq
ehren watada
democracy nowamy goodman
matthew rothschild
tariq ali
giuliana sgrena
the national lawyers guild
the washington post
amit r. paleycamilla hallbloomberg newscnnpaul bibby
sabrina tavernisethe new york timeslara marlowe
mcclatchy newspapersnancy a. youssef
the diane rehm showdiane rehm
joshua partlow
like maria said paz
Friday, October 26, 2007
Democracy Now!, Dave Lindorff, hysteria d.j.s
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
cnn
the daily jot
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
cnn
the daily jot
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