In what I hope was an e-mail intended to make me laugh, someone sent an article where Oprah was talking about how she was scared to get 'political' and endorse Obama because she thought it might hurt her. My first thought was, "What a coward." My second thought was, "I wish she'd been scared when she decided to endorse the illegal war." Or are we all supposed to forget how she brought Judith Miller and others on to make the case for war and how Oprah went along with it and scolded a woman in her studio audience for daring to object?
Oprah Winfrey has the blood of Iraqis on her hands, the blood of US troops on her hand. It's cute that now she's worried. Too bad she didn't worry back when it actually mattered. As I said, I hope the e-mail was intended to be funny. War Hawk Oprah wants to play like she's never been political before.
"'The End of America': Feminist Social Critic Naomi Wolf Warns U.S. in Slow Descent into Fascism" (Democracy Now!):
AMY GOODMAN: You talk then -- four, developing a paramilitary force and surveiling ordinary citizens. Those are the fourth and fifth steps.
NAOMI WOLF: Yeah, that’s another big one. I just want to note about the blurring of the line why we’re in such a moment of danger right now. The President has said that he can say, "Amy Goodman, you're an enemy combatant. Naomi Wolf, you're an enemy combatant. This guy behind the camera, you're an enemy combatant. A person walking down the street, enemy combatant. can be anyone. A person walking down the street, enemy combatant." And it doesn’t matter that we're innocent US citizens. I mean, we could be Republicans, we could be evangelicals. It doesn't matter. He can take us, and if he says it's true, that makes it true, because it's a status offense, and he can put us in a ten-by-twelve-foot cell in a Navy brig in solitary confinement for three years, making it difficult for us to see our families, to contact an attorney, to get charges filed.
They can't torture us yet, though I was chilled to learn that an adviser to the White House was reported in a British newspaper yesterday as not ruling out waterboarding against US citizens. However, psychologists know that prolonged isolation makes sane people insane. That's what happened to Jose Padilla. So, you know, when I say everyone’s got their moment at which they start to silence themselves, the day I read in the New York Times that someone I identify with has been named an enemy combatant and is sitting in a Navy brig in isolation, that's when I'm going to stop talking in a context like this, because that’s when I will become too afraid.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Naomi Wolf. Her book is The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. Number six in these ten steps toward fascism: infiltrate citizen groups. Seven: arbitrarily detain and release citizens. Eight: target key individuals. Infiltrate citizens’ groups, the evidence?
NAOMI WOLF: Well, the ACLU is suing many agents of the state for illegally infiltrating citizens' groups. It's not a new thing in the United States. COINTELPRO did it quite a lot. But it is a hallmark -- it's an extension of a surveillance society, and it's a hallmark. It's an extension of step number four, which was the surveillance apparatus. Now, you can't close down a democracy without a surveillance apparatus aimed at ordinary citizens. And what many of us know is that there's been a heightening of surveillance in the wake of 9/11.
But what we've got to understand is that our country is unique right now in directing the crackdown on civil liberties and surveillance at citizens. In countries like England and Spain, experienced the same terror attacks, the same kind of terror attacks by the same bad guys that we did, but they're not using that as a pretext to strip citizens of civil liberties in the same way. And what is so terrifying -- again, Italy had a surveillance apparatus, people were informing on each other; Germany, surveillance, the Stasi in East Germany. You couldn’t have a conversation with your neighbor without fearing that it was going to go into your file.
You can't close down a society without a paramilitary force. We skipped over that one. It's very important. Blackwater, the Blackshirts, the Brownshirts, that's not answerable to the people, and surveillance.
So why am I petrified, you know, when I read about Blackwater and about surveillance? I was on the watch list for a year and a half, Amy, which means that every time I got on a plane, I got taken aside for extra searching, quadruple-S high-risk Naomi, you know. And I was told, "You're on a list." And I found out that many critics of the administration are on the list: ACLU staffers, Ted Kennedy, antiwar activists, David Altoon [phon.], a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran who was critical of the Iraq war. Not only is he on the list, but people who come to me in tears after my readings are more upset that now their kids are on the list if they write a letter critical of the Bush administration.
I know several people who are on the watch list. They have a huge hassle when they travel. The lists are useless. David Nelson, the late Ricky Nelson, ended up on the list at one point because there was another David Nelson (who probably was also innocent) so every time David Nelson of TV fame was trying to fly, he'd be stopped. It's nothing but an enemies list these days. The same type Richard Nixon had.
It's appalling how few people call out the echoes (to use Wolf's term) of either a fascist state or life under Nixon. Probably Orpah won't be adding that to her book list. Too 'political.'
Back to the e-mails (I wrote about Oprah last night and a bunch of Oprah freaks e-mailed today), I was asked if I don't realize how important Oprah is to reading? Don't I realize she sells millions of books!
No, she doesn't. She gets a book on the top ten, no question. But that's just the ball rolling. Then it's on the list and it's the thing to buy. Books don't sell millions in a month with few exceptions.
It's equally true that the bulk of her choices are badly written psycho-dramas. That's how she got taken in with the James Fry book. It was pure psycho-drama. That may be an actual term but I use it to mean something (a) more dramatic than melodrama and (b) with a lot of psych-lite tossed in that provides easy answers but no real applicable solutions.
I forget the name of the first author she got into trouble on. It was before Fry and he made the comment (rightly) that he wasn't going after Oprah's fan base with his book. Oprah had a snit-fit, cancelled the book club and then, when she brought it back, at first said they were going to read 'classics.' That was a way to make sure no living author could insult her. Having plowed through many bad books by dead people (mainly men, does anyone ever notice that?), she then had the "courage" to again tackle living authors.
She doesn't want to be 'political' so she misses most of the needed books. Most of her selections are a notch above those romance novels. For every Toni Morrison, her readers have to plow through four 'life lessons' that really should come stamped "Chicken Soup for the Soul."
Having used her show and her platform to sell the illegal war (she also sold Bully Boy in the 2000 election, but people tend to forget that as well), she really owes it to America to pick a minimum of four books against the war until it ends. Sometimes it seems like her show may end before the illegal war does. Maybe that would be a good thing and her cult could attempt to get back their own lives. For all the flack Martha Stewart got, at least no one thought they were doing more than cooking and decorating. The Cult of Oprah thinks they are "improving" themselves. As though badly written books could accomplish that.
Oprah has no shame. She's far from alone.
"Have They No Shame?" (Amy Goodman, Common Dreams):
Every Saturday, the president of the United States gives a radio address to the nation. It is followed by the Democratic response, usually given by a senator or representative. This past Saturday the Democrats chose retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez to give their response, the same general accused in at least three lawsuits in the U.S. and Europe of authorizing torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners in Iraq. This, combined with the Democrats' endorsement of Attorney General Michael Mukasey despite his unwillingness to label waterboarding as torture, indicates that the Democrats are increasingly aligned with President Bush's torture policies.
Sanchez headed the Army's operations in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004. In September 2003, Sanchez issued a memo authorizing numerous techniques, including "stress positions” and the use of "military working dogs" to exploit "Arab fear of dogs" during interrogations. He was in charge when the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison occurred.
Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who headed Abu Ghraib at the time, worked under Gen. Sanchez. She was demoted to colonel, the only military officer to be punished. She told me about another illegal practice, holding prisoners as so-called ghost detainees: "We were directed on several occasions through Gen. [Barbara] Fast or Gen. Sanchez. The instructions were originating at the Pentagon from Secretary Rumsfeld, and we were instructed to hold prisoners without assigning a prisoner number or putting them on the database, and that is contrary to the Geneva Conventions. We all knew it was contrary to the Geneva Conventions." In addition to keeping prisoners off the database there were other abuses, she said, like prison temperatures reaching 120 to 140 degrees, dehydration and the order from Gen. Geoffrey Miller to treat prisoners "like dogs."
And it's not just about treatment of prisoners. In 2006, Karpinski testified at a mock trial, called the Bush Crimes Commission. She revealed that several female U.S. soldiers had died of dehydration by denying themselves water. They were afraid to go to the latrine at night to urinate, for fear of being raped by fellow soldiers: "Because the women, in fear of getting up in the hours of darkness to go out to the portolets or the latrines, were not drinking liquids after 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon. And in 120-degree heat or warmer, because there was no air conditioning at most of the facilities, they were dying from dehydration in their sleep. What [Sanchez's deputy commanding general, Walter Wojdakowski] told the surgeon to do was, 'Don't brief those details anymore. And don't say specifically that they’re women. You can provide that in a written report, but don't brief it in the open anymore.'" Karpinski said Sanchez was at that briefing.
Did I miss Katrina vanden Heuvel calling this out? No, I didn't miss it. She never wrote about it. She's too busy body hugging the Democratic Party to call them out. And when you're putting Sanchez on the air, you need calling out. When you're saying, "He speaks for us!" you need calling out. "Operation Happy Talk rolls into the shore" is amazing and addresses how the bulk of our independent media prolongs the illegal war and wastes everyone's time in their efforts to be an arm of the Democratic Party.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
November 28, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces a mass wounding of US soldiers, a new survey of US journalists in Iraq provides a lot of answers, and more.
Starting with war resistance. Following the refusal of the Canadian Supreme Cour to hear the appeals of US war resisters Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, the best road to legal recognition appears to be the Canadian Parliament. The War Resisters Support Campaign has a two minute and forty-six seconds video PSA on the situation.
In 2003, the Liberal government upheld international law and refused to join the war in Iraq.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien
Iraq war debate -- March 17, 2003
Chretien: If military action proceeds without a new resultion of the [United Nations] Security Council, Canada will not participate.
[Applause. Standing ovation.]
Since 2004, dozens of U.S. soldiers have left the military and come to Canada.
These soldiers have come to Canada because they oppose the war in Iraq.
They need a provision from the Canadian government to let them stay.
US War Resister Justin Colby: My name is Justin Colby. I was a specialist in the United States Army. I served for three years. I spent one year in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. I joined the army after 9-11 and I left the army after my year in Iraq, before my unit was going to go back. And I left because Iraq never attacked the United States and the things that we did there led me to believe that we weren't defending our country.
On November 15th, 2007, the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of U.S. war resisters.
As a result, U.S. war resisters living in Canada face deportation back to the U.S.
If deported, they face imprisonmnet, or even deployment back to Iraq.
US War Resister Kimberly Rivera: I'm Kimbely Rivera. I served three months in Iraq and I'm here with my family.
A 2007 poll found that 64.6% of Ontario voters and 71% of Liberal voters want U.S. war resisters to stay in Canada.
US War Resister Phil McDowell: My name is Phil McDowell. I'm a former sergeant in the United States Army. I joined the army after September the 11th. I served a one-year tour in Iraq from 2004 to 2005. During my tour I realized that the war was unjust and illegal and the reasons for the invasion were lies. After completing my contractual agreement with the army, I was called back into service for another fifteen-month tour. At that time, I refused to deploy, moved to Canada because I believed I'd be able to stay here. We're asking Liberals to support a provision that would allow Iraq War Resisters to remain in Canada.
U.S. war resisters need the support of the Liberal Party to live in Canada.
War Resisters Support Campaign
http://www.resisters.ca/
Cindy Sheehan (OpEdNews) urges people to utilize Courage to Resist's easy to mail or e-mail resources to allow the Canadian government to know you are watching and to support organizations supporting war resisters as well as supporting war resisters:
Support actual war resisters in Canada by sending them expense money. From my friend Ryan (I gave him and his wife money to get to Canada over two years ago):
In light of the recent Supreme Court denial in Canada, I (Ryan Johnson), My wife (Jen Johnson) and Brandon Hughey need help raising funds to travel to Ottawa to attend hearings before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, where War Resisters will be giving Testimony to the committee. At these hearings the committee will be deciding on whether or not to make a provision to allow war resisters to stay in Canada. This is one of our last chances to be able to continue living in Canada. We will be leaving December 7th because the hearings are December 11th, 2007 so we need to act fast. They may try to send guys back soon and we need to have a strong War Resister Presence. We appreciate all of the support and Want to thank all of you who can help.
Checks/money orders can be sent for Ryan, Jen and Brandon to:312 Tower RdNelson, BC V1L3K6
L-girl (We move to canada) blogs, "I know I've been belabouring the war and war resisters lately, but as I've said elsewhere, this blog reflects what's on my mind. I'm so disgusted, enraged, heartsick, horrified -- got any words? -- at what's going on in Iraq, at how veterans are being treated in the US, at how ordinary citizens are being treated in the US. Wmtc is a chance to vent that, and maybe bring some items to your attention that you haven't seen." And who wouldn't be horrified? The illegal war started -- over international opposition -- and continues. War resisters who have taken a stand and said "no" need support. As Guy Charron (WSWS) observes, "The war has, moreover, resulted in untold violence and countless atrocities. According to studies by reputable agencies, the war and the accompanying destruction of Iraq society have caused the death of over one million Iraqis and the flight of millions of people from their homes and Iraq altogether. If the Canadian government intervened in the Hinzman and Hughey cases to prevent their raising the illegality of the war, it wasn't just to save the Bush administration from embarrassment. Ottawa feared Canada would become a haven for 'war resisters' and a pole of resistance to the war. Given a different decision on Hinzman's and Hughey's refugee claim, thousands more might well have joined them."
If you are in Canada, you can utilize the contact info at War Resisters Support Campaign to let members of the Canadian Parliament know you support legislation allowing war resisters to stay in Canada. If you are in the United States (or elsewhere), you can utilize the contact info and/or forum at Courage to Resist. Public outcry didn't stop the illegal war from starting and public opposition has yet to end it. War resisters in Canada who have gone public are putting a great deal on the line. Use the links to show your support for them.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Rodney Watson, 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. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
The voice of war resister Camilo Mejia is featured in Rebel Voices -- playing now through December 16th at Culture Project and based on Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's best-selling book Voices of a People's History of the United States. It features dramatic readings of historical voices such as war resister Mejia, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Malcom X and others will be featured. Musician Allison Mooerer will head the permanent cast while those confirmed to be performing on selected nights are Ally Sheedy (actress and poet, best known for films such as High Art, The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order, the two Short Circuit films, St. Elmo's Fire, War Games, and, along with Nicky Katt, has good buzz on the forthcoming Harold), Eve Ensler who wrote the theater classic The Vagina Monologues (no, it's not too soon to call that a classic), actor David Strathaim (L.A. Confidential, The Firm, Bob Roberts, Dolores Claiborne and The Bourne Ultimatum), actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Clueless -- film and TV series, Gregory and Chicken Little), actress Lili Taylor (Dogfight, Shortcuts, Say Anything, Household Saints, I Shot Andy Warhol, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, State of Mind) and actor, director and activist Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Beloved, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Rainmaker, Places In The Heart, Dreamgirls, Shooter and who recently appeared on Democracy Now! addressing the US militarization of Africa) The directors are Will Pomerantz and Rob Urbinati with Urbinati collaborating with Zinn and Arnove on the play. Tickets are $21 for previews and $41 for regular performances (beginning with the Nov. 18th opening night). The theater is located at 55 Mercer Street and tickets can be purchased there, over the phone (212-352-3101) or online here and here. More information can be found at Culture Project.
Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan
March 13th through 15th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation.
IVAW is attempting to get the truth out. The need for that is demonstrated right now by a new poll by the Pew Research Center which illustrates just how successful Operation Happy Talk can still be (especially when so few bother to counter it). Demetri Sevastopulo (Financial Times of London via MSNBC) surveys the polls results and finds a shift in Pew's figures from February -- then 30 percent of Americans surveyed said the illegal war was going well and now 47 percent say it is while 53 percent surveyed in February said bring the troops home and now that number is 54 percent. Eric Boehlert (Media Matters) examines Nightline (US' ABC network) and finds "that Nightline's interest in covering the war . . . waned. The program certainly was not alone. Most television news outlets, and the networks, in particular, have drastically cut back on the amount of airtime they now give to the war. Sometimes it appears as though the war doesn't even exist." And that's big media -- little media's no better. If you're a magazine or broadcast program -- big or small -- you should probably doing a self-check right about now because very few hands are clean and this latest poll is a reflection of what passes for coverage.
Did someone say coverage? The New York Times runs an important story on Iraq. On the front page? Stop, we're all laughing. A6 or A7? It didn't even make the news section. Richard Perez-Pena's report is entitled "Grim View of Iraq Dangers in Survey of Journalists" and runs on C5 (the business section, page five). Perez-Pena is summarizing a poll of "American journalists in Iraq" by the Project for Excellence in Journalism with most answering the survey "in October" -- considered 'less deadly'. Perez-Pena informs: "In a newly released survey, American journalists in Iraq give harrowing accounts of their work, with the great majority saying that colleagues have been kidnapped or killed and that most parts of Baghdad are too dangerous for them to visit." That was October. Where in your news coverage have you seen that indicated? What outlet? PEJ notes that they surveyed "111 journalists from 29 news organizations reporting from Iraq."
PEJ's report is entitled [PDF format warning] "Journalists in Iraq: A survey of reporters on the front lines" and opens with this paragraph:
After four years of war in Iraq, the journalists reporting from that country give their coverage a mixed but generally positive assessment, but they believe they have done a better job of covering the American military and the insurgency than they have the lives of ordinary Iraqis. And they do not believe the coverage of Iraq over time has been too negative. If anything, many believes the situation over the course of the war has been worse than the American public has perceived, according to a new survey of journalists covering the war from Iraq.
The report quotes a bureau chief stating, "Welcome to the new world of journalism, boys and girls. This is where we lost our innocence. Security teams, body armor and armored cars will forever now be pushed in between journalism and stories." They praise the embedding (get in bed with the US military) program and self-report that theyve done an "excellent" or "good" job reporting on the US military (82%). I'll bite me tongue and move on. No, actually, I won't. The New York Times is notorious among the enlisted in Iraq for blowing them off -- it's a complaint that's registered every year of the illegal war. So it's interesting to turn to page 16 of the study and see that PEJ has blown the enlisted off as well. That's really embarrassing and goes to why the coverage today sucks so bad. I'm not talking about "embedding," I am talking about journalists talking with average soldiers and anyone who covered a war zone in the past will tell you that. But PEJ also doesn't feel they are important or sources. They asked the journalists to rank their access to a group of "key sources" and there are eight listed:
1) Iraqi civilians
2) Other international diplomats/officials
3) Iraqi government officials
4) High ranking American military officers
5) American diplomats/officials
6) Iraqi sectarian leaders
7) Western private contractors
8) Iraqi terrorists/insurgents
The only military on the list are "High ranking American military officers" -- the ones the press already takes dictation from. Where are the enlisted? And how could PEJ have done a survey and not noticed that obvious flaw? 85% of the respondents have been embedded and of those who have 35% state that they were required to ask permission (from brass) "to interview soldiers." Obviously, it's far more difficult to speak to the enlisted than to a military p.r. flack with what's really an honorary title -- but don't those honorary titles look good in print. Of this embedded segment, 33% reply "yes" to the question of "Does the U.S. Military screen out reporters whose coverage of the war has been critical in the past?"
The journalists give themselves low marks (62% rated this area "fair to poor") on covering "the lives of ordinary Iraqis." It would be interesting to see a survey on earlier periods, especially on the issue of average Iraqis since in the Times' 'glory' days of Dexy and Burnsie, women didn't appear to exist in Iraq. (Sabrina Tavernise and other reporters that followed allowed Times readers to know that women did live in Iraq.) The survey finds -- remember this, "Six out of ten (63%) of the journalists surveyed say that Iraqi staffers do all or most of the street reporting outside the Green Zone."
In other findings, 62 percent say that their "editors back home" have lost interest in reports of day-to-day violence (no kidding) and the only significant increases have been in reports on contractors (79%) and "U.S. military strategy" (67%). The respondents rated the "Impact on Iraqi civilians" as the most under reported (40%) while the respondents rated "U.S. Military strategy" as the most over reported (29%).
Staying on Iraq but flashing back to the days of Judith Miller at the New York Times -- does anyone remember how Miller and Warren Hoge launched their grudge f--k against the United Nations in story after story? Miller's no longer with the paper and Hoge is on the down low. So Alan Feuer grabs duty and apparently does so without any editorial assistance which would explain how the world is learning of Texan "Farah Fawcett" for the first time. It's two r's: Farrah Fawcett. Having never heard of Farrah Fawcett, it's not all that surprising that Feuer hasn't heard of other things -- like the law. Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. received a sentence of one year and one day in prison. For what? Feuer tells you he "broke the rules of the United Nations program" -- no, he broke the law. Not a rule, a law. He bribed. He broke the law. The UN -- Miller and Hoge told you -- was the root of all corruption. Wyatt admitted his guilt and it's buried in the paper. "Act of kindess" and "he saved my life." Remember to use those two phrases when writing a judge about sentencing. They moved Wyatt's judge enough to show the felon mercy. (Fawcett was among those writing the judge asking for mercy -- for those wondering how she comes into the story.)
Not a lot of mercy in Iraq. Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) notes, "For the second day in a row, U.S. soldiers on Tuesday killed Iraqi civilians when they fired on a vehicle that they thought was a threat, the U.S. military said." Damien Cave (New York Times) offers, "The shootings by soldiers appear to receive less attention from Iraqi officials because, unlike contractors, whose legal situation remains murky, American soldiers are subject to military laws." They also receive less attention because they're rarely reported and when they are reported, there's an effort to explain them away -- even when it's the case of Iraqi children and women being shot in their own homes. Of the US military's apologies, Fadel quotes Saad Abdul Wahid asking, "Is sorry enough to bring back our friends to life? They keep making their mistakes day by day and we are paying too much." Meanwhile an Iraqi correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers shared this event at Inside Iraq on Tuesday, "Yesterday noon, an American squad from the United State Army (about ten to twelve) broke in Al-Mansour preparatory school for one reason or another. We don't have the right to ask them why they came to the school. The soldiers spread in different spots of the school walking towards the back yard which is used as a soccer field. Most of the students were in their classes when the squad came, but still there were many students in the yard who were terrified to see the American soldiers with their guns. One of the students was upset to see the soldiers and he threw a stone and hit one of them. Three soldiers surrounded him kicking him with their boots for some minutes on different parts of his body."
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing wounded three civilians and another one that wounded "two soldiers and one civilian."
Shootings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports "4 bodyguards of state minister for tribal affairs were wounded" in a clash with the Iraqi military in Baghdad while Muhaned Mekhlif was shot dead "in Al Hawija west of Kirkuk." Reuters notes that 4 people were shot dead by Iraqi soldiers because they were 'suspected insurgents' (or that's what the Iraqi Defence Ministry states) and that 27 people were arrested. The US military announced: "A female suicide bomber detonated an explosive laden suicide-vest, wounding seven U.S. Soldiers and five Iraqi citizens in Baqubah, Nov. 27."
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses discovered in Baghdad.
Today the UNHCR released a brief report on the returning refugees. Someone get a copy to CBS and AP who flat out lie ("More Iraqi refugees, heartened by reports of the lull in violence in Baghdad, were beginning to return"). Though Damien Cave has reported on the refugees being bussed in bought, CBS and AP play dumb there as well. (It is playing, right?) Reality from the UNHCR: approximately 800 left Syria for Baghdad on approximately 15 buses provided by the central (puppet) government in Iraq (no word on how much they were paid to return) and -- pay attention CBS and AP -- "most said they were going back to Iraq because they had run out of money and could no longer afford to stay in Syria, which is hosting more than 1.4 million Iraqi refugees." The UNHCR's figures find that the tiny trickle of returnees is composed of 14% returning due to the 'safety' myths and 70% returning "because of tougher visa regulations and because they are not allowed to work and can no longer afford to stay in Syria." Get it yet?
On Democracy Now! today, Naomi Wolf discussed her new book The End of America: Letters of Warning to a Young Patriot. She outlined the ten signs when an open society closes and becomes a fascist state and why Americans need to pay attention to. Picking up the discussion at Iraq:
Naomi Wolf: . . . they used the fake yellow-cake documents to argue that Iraq was trying to secure yellow-cake uranium and remember the famous soundbye, 'We can't wait for the smoking gun to come in the form of a mushroom cloud' to drive us into an illegal war with a nation we were not at war with.
Amy Goodman: You also talk about the language like the Department of Homeland Security.
Naomi Wolf: That is where I, as a social critic and student of language, get really scared. It's scary enough to see these ten steps but what is terrifying to me personally is how many actual phrases are being recycle and tactics. Homland security [the German phrase] "heimat" became popularized by the National Socialists [NAZIs]. Goebbels developed the practice of embedding journalists. Leni Reifenstahl was embedded for instance in Poland.
Amy Goodman: She's the famous German film maker.
Naomi Wolf: I mean if you look at the sequence of Hitler descending in an airplane and in Leni Reifenstahl's famous Triumph of the Will and being greeted by the uniformly armed para-military surrounding their leader and he's saying, 'Help us accomplish our mission' and then you look at other famous images from this administration --
Amy Goodman: Like George Bush on "Mission Accomplished."
Naomi Wolf: Accomplished." Exactly. You look at how Hitler said 'We have to invade Czecholslavakia, they're a staging ground for terrorists and they're abusing their ethnic minorities' -- again, a country that we're not at war with; when the WMD charge vanished, the White House said we have to invade Iraq 'staging ground for terrorists and they're abusing their ethnic minorities' -- on and on and on.
In her latest column (changing the topic), Goodman wonders about the shame factor involved in the Democratic Party using torture czar Ricardo Sanchez to deliver their radio address last Saturday. This Sunday on RadioNation with Laura Flanders, the program broadcasts a June discussion on the Constitution and national security under Bully Boy featuring Slate's Dahlia Lithwick, John Nichols and David Cole.
iraq
jeremy hinzmanbrandon hughey
phil mcdowell
cindy sheehan
richard perez penathe new york timeseric boehlertmcclatchy newspapersleila fadel
guy charron
naomi wolf
democracy now
amy goodman
iraq veterans against the war
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Mitt and Oprah
I'm not a Republican so, on my end, the GOP race for president provides non-stop laughs. Mitt Romney may be the GOP's Barack Obama -- he makes as many mistakes as Obama, he's as toothy as Obama and he tends to get treated with kid gloves.
He's for legal immigration -- in his presidential campaign. Considering that his family moved to Mexico after the Supreme Court said Mormon or not, no multiple wives only to move back, you have to wonder if they all crossed 'legally'? His family moved to Mexico in 1879 and moved back (quickly) in 1912. That's thirty-three years. I'll assume many of the wives had multiple children. Considering that they left the US when the Supreme Court declared that multiple wives were illegal and that Mitt's own father was born in Mexico, I wonder what the status was there?
I don't obsess over it. I could honestly care less. But it always make me laugh when Mitt tries to explain 'immigration.'
Mitt's a Mormon and wants everyone to know it won't interfere with his office. But tolerance appears to only swing one way with Mitt.
"A Muslim belongs in the Cabinet: Muslims are uniquely qualified to help deter Islamist threats" (Mansoor Ijaz, Christian Science Monitor):
I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that "jihadism" is the principal foreign policy threat facing America today. He answered, "…based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration."
Romney, whose Mormon faith has become the subject of heated debate in Republican caucuses, wants America to be blind to his religious beliefs and judge him on merit instead. Yet he seems to accept excluding Muslims because of their religion, claiming they're too much of a minority for a post in high-level policymaking. More ironic, that Islamic heritage is what qualifies them to best engage America's Arab and Muslim communities and to help deter Islamist threats.
I am an American-born citizen of the Islamic faith. I stand as a living symbol of all that America offers in its system of liberty, justice, and, most of all, opportunity. I am also proud of my Muslim heritage and beliefs, and, true to the American work ethic, I have worked tirelessly to raise up the voices of disaffected Muslims everywhere and help them, too, share in America's promise.
In other ugly news, "Love it! Love it! Love it!" squeals Oprah bouncing on a bed. "Lovely goodies!" she squals going through figt baskets left for her. Does anyone else wonder if she that greedy or is she that much of a fraud for her TV audience? I don't watch Oprah -- for good reason -- but I knew C.I. would be addressing her in the snapshot. It was cute watching Oprah traveling around with a bunch of White women in Maine and Georgia. Nice to know she stops a second for African-Americans in Georgia to acknowledge them. "You'll are a lot of fun," she says moving quickly, "see you later."
Then it was time to bring along a prop: Stedman's daughter. Brought along so people would stop whispering about Gayle and Oprah. Is that really going to work?
Either you believe Oprah was unable to get Stedman to commit and probably find her pretty pathetic to be dragging his daughter around with her for local 'color' or you think, "Of course they didn't get married! She's in love with Gayle!"
In Macon, she drops into a place that has a sizeable African-American customer base. So naturally, she sits down with an old White man and a young white Woman -- neither of whom she knew before she walked up to sit with them. I could only take about five minutes of the big O so I missed the upcoming segment about what happened when the electricity went out as they were taping?
I think it's great that Oprah's conveying to her audiences how little she cares about the world and how just following her around with a camera should make for, she thinks, riveting television.
She sits her in chair, in front of an audience, and introduces clips of herself. It's "This is Your Life" sold as "This is All Of Our Lives!" She's entered the "Life With Lucy" stage, someone needs to break it to her.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Tuesday, November 27, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces deaths, the puppet enters into a death pact for Iraq, US presidential politics get 'star power' and more.
Starting with war resistance. Following the refusal of the Canadian Supreme Cour to hear the appeals of US war resisters Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, the best road to legal recognition appears to be the Canadian Parliament. Cindy Sheehan (OpEdNews) urges people to utilize Courage to Resist's easy to mail or e-mail resources to allow the Canadian government to know you are watching and to support organizations supporting war resisters as well as:
Support actual war resisters in Canada by sending them expense money. From my friend Ryan (I gave him and his wife money to get to Canada over two years ago):
In light of the recent Supreme Court denial in Canada, I (Ryan Johnson), My wife (Jen Johnson) and Brandon Hughey need help raising funds to travel to Ottawa to attend hearings before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, where War Resisters will be giving Testimony to the committee. At these hearings the committee will be deciding on whether or not to make a provision to allow war resisters to stay in Canada. This is one of our last chances to be able to continue living in Canada. We will be leaving December 7th because the hearings are December 11th, 2007 so we need to act fast. They may try to send guys back soon and we need to have a strong War Resister Presence. We appreciate all of the support and Want to thank all of you who can help.
Checks/money orders can be sent for Ryan, Jen and Brandon to:312 Tower RdNelson, BC V1L3K6
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Rodney Watson, 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. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
The voice of war resister Camilo Mejia is featured in Rebel Voices -- playing now through December 16th at Culture Project and based on Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's best-selling book Voices of a People's History of the United States. It features dramatic readings of historical voices such as war resister Mejia, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Malcom X and others will be featured. Musician Allison Mooerer will head the permanent cast while those confirmed to be performing on selected nights are Ally Sheedy (actress and poet, best known for films such as High Art, The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order, the two Short Circuit films, St. Elmo's Fire, War Games, and, along with Nicky Katt, has good buzz on the forthcoming Harold), Eve Ensler who wrote the theater classic The Vagina Monologues (no, it's not too soon to call that a classic), actor David Strathaim (L.A. Confidential, The Firm, Bob Roberts, Dolores Claiborne and The Bourne Ultimatum), actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Clueless -- film and TV series, Gregory and Chicken Little), actress Lili Taylor (Dogfight, Shortcuts, Say Anything, Household Saints, I Shot Andy Warhol, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, State of Mind) and actor, director and activist Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Beloved, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Rainmaker, Places In The Heart, Dreamgirls, Shooter and who recently appeared on Democracy Now! addressing the US militarization of Africa) The directors are Will Pomerantz and Rob Urbinati with Urbinati collaborating with Zinn and Arnove on the play. Tickets are $21 for previews and $41 for regular performances (beginning with the Nov. 18th opening night). The theater is located at 55 Mercer Street and tickets can be purchased there, over the phone (212-352-3101) or online here and here. More information can be found at Culture Project.
Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan
March 13th through 15th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation.
Let's dive into the nonsense. Bully Boy and his puppet Nouri al-Maliki came to an agreement -- in it al-Maliki sells out Iraq and gets his own ass protected. CBS and AP play dumb together stating of the agreement: "It would also help the Iraqi government thrwart any attempt to suspend or repeal a constitution drafted with U.S. help and adopted in a nationwide vote in 2005. That appeared to be a reference to any attempt to remove the government by violence or in a coup." Now there are a number of facts that are questionable in those two sentences but since when does repealing a constitution mean "violence" or "coup"? It doesn't. And Iraqis are (naturally) interested in writing their own constitution as opposed to having one written for them. Ron Jacobs (CounterPunch) explains reality, "Meanwhile the government in Baghdad's Green Zone is asking the US military to commit to a longterm agreement to stay in Iraq in substantial numbers. Besides the obvious fact that the Green Zone government really has no say in how long the US military occupies Iraq, the fact that those in power are asking the military to remain is an acknowledgement that their power does not come from the Iraqi people but from the military power of Washington. In fact, according to the November 26, 2007 Associated Press story discussing this 'request' by the Green Zone government, the request was made because 'Iraq's government, (is) seeking protection against foreign threats and internal coups.' One can be certain that those internal coups most likely refer to Washington's fear of a victorious insurgency." James Gerstenzang and Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) put their two brains together and all they can come up with that's worth noting is that the new 'agreement' "guarantee a U.S. troop presence in Iraq for at least a few more years." Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) can't find any current critics of al-Maliki's offensive attempt to circumvent the Iraqi parliament (Question: Who ratifies treaties in the United States? The Congress. One more aspect of 'democracy' that never got exported to Iraq.) but she does note that in al-Maliki has (rightly) "critized the U.S. military presence in palaces that formerly belonged to Saddam Hussein and chastised American forces for operating with 'impunity' in Iraq." Thom Shanker and Cara Buckley (New York Times) probably summarize the events better than any mainstream outlet: "In Iraq on Monday, there was little public discussion of the agreement. It is not a popular move politically because many Iraqis view the United Nations mandate as a reminder that they cannot yet control their own destiny and must rely on outsiders.In the past, members of the Iraqi Parliament have complained that allowing the continued presence of international forces abrogates the country's sovereignty. While some of the complaints can be labelled political rhetoric, there is also a real underlying resentment that the nation still needs American help." Well, the puppet government needs help. The Iraqi people are more than willing to take control of their country. It's only the US installed government that falters.
What's missing from the coverage? The voices of Iraqis who aren't the play toys of puppet al-Maliki. Haifa Zangan is the author of City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance (Seven Stories Press), and writes for al-Quds and the Guardian of London. Yesterday she was a guest on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show where she spoke of Paul Bremer dismantling the government, destroying military, the police, jobs for women (90% of women are employed) and much more.
Diane Rehm: The question becomes: If the US withdrew would all of that sectarian violence cease? Do you really believe that?
Haifa Zangan: If you give a minute. There was, there are the powers on the ground in Iraq now. The US army multi-national forces, there are 60,000 of them a parallel army to the US military there which is the mercenary contractors, the security firms, they are both of them enjoy complete immunity from Iraqi law. But the mercenary firms, the security firms, unlike the US army, they enjoy also immunity from the American law and the international law and those people are really creating havoc within the country. Those contractors have their own sub-contractors who are willing to kill more and more to continue the war.
Zangan spoke of Iraq's long, long history and explained why she doesn't believe it will be an Iraqi-Iraqi on violence bloodbath should the US military leave Iraq. Raed Jarrar (Raed in the Middle) also notes the history of the country -- that Baghdad recently celebrated it's 1245th anniversary and that in 20 previous occupations, when foreign forces left the country, there withdrawal was not followed with a "full scale war between Sunnis and Shiites". Haifa Zangan explained to Rehm, "It seems like every day of the extension of the staying of the American troops and what's called the multi-national forces in Iraq bringing with it new problems for Iraqi people deeping what is there already. . . . I think their support for the militias would stop, Iraqis themselves would take control of their country."
Rehm returns to the topic of violence later in the interview.
Haifa Zangan: It's not just the Apaches, the helicopters, not only the pre-dawn arrests by the US troops led by with . . . and in collaboration with what's called the Iraqi army and the Iraq police but also we are targeted by the militias and that is not the sectarian war between Iraqi people themselves. The militias? Each political party in Iraq at the moment taking part in what's called the political process as designed by Paul Bremer and the occupation, each one of them has its own militia. Take for example, the Supreme Court for Islamic Revolution --which was established in Iran and has no base whatsoever in Iraq -- went with the occupation and Iraq -- with its own powerful well trained militia -- they are in control of what's called the government now.
Ron Jacobs (CounterPunch) sums up the realities of the illegal war and occupation in four short sentences: "Making occupation and calling it peace. Killing fewer and calling it progress. Rotating troops and calling it a withdrawal. Setting up new death squads and calling them allies. Lowering standards and calling it opening new opportunities." Hence the violence continues.
Bombings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded a taxi driver, another that "near that Amana bus station" that wounded three, a Baghdad car bombing that wounded two, a Diyala bombing where the bomber killed himself and 7 others and thirteen wounded and "Around 9.30 a.m., a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol in an area of about 2 km of Suleiman Beck of Tuz Khurmatu (east of Tikrit). Eyewitnesses said that a Humvee was destroyed. Also they saw a helicopter came to the scene taking the killed and injured soldiers with them." Reuters notes a Mosul car bombing wounded four people.
Shootings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a clash in Basra that began last night and ended this morning involving multiple weapons and resulting in 1 death and a "few others injured." Al Jazeera reports a Baghdad shooting by US forces that claimed the lives of 4 "bank employees" traveling in a minibus to work ("three women and one man"). CBS and AP note that 1 child also died making the number shot dead by US forces to make five killed and quote a US military spokesperson (Gregory Smith) stating that "some of the warning fire ricocheted and may have killed two to three individuals." This follows a Monday shooting.
Reuters notes "two men and a child" were shot dead by US forces "near Baijia" while their car "approached a roadblock." CBS and AP note that the men died immediately, however, the child lingered until dying from the wounds received and that a US military spokesperson has expressed "regret that civilians are hurt or killed". Reuters notes that today the US military announced US forces had shot and killed a man in Ramadi at a checkpoint on Sunday.
Corpses?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Reuters adds to that to note 5 more discover for a total of eight corpses in Baghdad while 4 were discovered in Mosul and another 4 in Tikrit.
Turning to a mass shooting noted yesterday, Reporters Without Borders is calling for an investigation into "the murders of 11 close relatives of Dia al-Kawwaz, the Amman-based editor of the online newspaper Shabeqat Akhbar al-Iraq": "We call on the government to order an investigation to identify those responsible for this carnage and to bring them to justice. The impunity reigning in Baghdad for the past five years encourages attacks on journalists and their families. It is even more disturbing when security forces see what is happening and yet take no action. Police at a security checkpoint near the Kawwaz family home failed to intervene or give chase." CBS and AP note a spokesperson for Iraq's Interior Ministry denies that any shootings took place but al-Kawaz has "accused the Interior Ministry forces of involvement in the deaths. Dhia al-Kawaz said they raided a wake in Iraq for his slain family Tuesday in the predominatly Shiite city of Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, tearing down banners commemorating the dead." Mohammed al Dulaimy and Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) note that mass shooting "was the third mass killing reported in Baghdad since Friday".
And today the US military announced: "Two Multi-National Division - North Soldiers were killed as a result of injuries sustained from an explosion near their vehicle while conducting operations in Salah ad Din province, Nov. 27. Additionally, two Soldiers were wounded and transported to a Coalition medical facililty for treatment."
Over the weekend, Christopher Brauchli (CounterPunch) provided an overview of the mammoth complex being called an embassy in Iraq noting it was over budget by $144 million thus far, that is is still empty and "[n]o one knows when anyone will move in." This despite Charles Williams, of the US State Dept.'s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, testifying in July that , "We are slated to complete the project in September of this year and personnel can begin to move into offices and residences shortly thereafter." To many the multi-acre compound in Baghdad is nothing more than a permanent US military base. On the subject of bases in Iraq, Chris Dodd's campaing for president released this statement yesterday: "Frankly, it's hard to believe that the Administration is just beginning to figure out what the future bilateral relationship with Iraq should look like after more than four years of military occupation. But, this [White House] declaration of principles is more notable for what it doesn't say than what it does. It does not require Iraqi leaders to make substantive progress on their political benchmarks nor does it end US military involvement in Iraq. Indeed, Senator Dodd is fearful that the lack of clarity on the long-term presence will be used as a justification by this Administration for a permanent military presence in Iraq, at precisely the time when we should be declaring the opposite. In a Dodd Administration, there will be no permanent bases in Iraq."
Staying with US politics. How stupid is Mark Halperin? We'll assume he was too busy rushing to get in a shout out to Sammy Power to do a reality check. Oprah Winfrey will be hitting Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire to campaign for Barack Obama. Really? That's the message a campaign wants to send? In October, Oprah's already questionable school for girls made headlines as various young females went public with sexual abuse. Oprah boo-hooed in public. As if she hadn't brought it all on herself. (See Margaret Kimberley's January 2007 piece on Oprah's school.) Tears allow Oprah to silence her fans but exactly whom does Campaign Obama think will be on the campaign trail? And as if that scandal wasn't bad enough -- let's be clear that as the victim of child sexual abuse it was incumbent upon Oprah Winfrey to ensure that any activity or organization she initiated was a safe environment for children which she clearly did not -- she's plugged/hawked plastic surgeon Jan Adams like crazy. Adams, of course, is the surgeon who peformed surgery on Donda West -- Kanye West's mother -- before she died. Chicago Sun-Times notes this embarrassing statement by Team Orpah today on their part in making Jan Adams a 'trusted' voice: "Since he was booked as a guest commentator on the subject of medical television, not in his capacity as a surgeon, and since we did not promote him as a cosmetic surgeon, there was no reason t do a background check on him." TMZ notes Adams' DUIs and mutliple malpractice suits as well as posts a clip of Oprah endorsing him on her show. It's never Oprah's fault. That may play on daytime TV to lonely viewers who have no where else to go but the news press isn't the entertainment press and what kind of a political campaign puts a celebrity on the road whose organization (school in Africa) is plagued by sexual abuse controversy and who has promoted a doctor many see as responsible for a high-profile death? Considering her own history of sexual abuse, the Big O should be spending all of her time addressing the sexual abuse at her school in Africa. She really can't 'transcend' that outside of her viewing 'dynasty'. How long ago was it that Oprah was 'testifying' that the school sexual abuse scandal was "one of the most devastating, if not the most devastating experience of my life"? Monday, November 5th.
Halpern quotes Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe yacking about how Oprah has never stepped into politics before. Incorrect. As Bill Moyers Journal aptly demonstrated in it's debut episdoe, Oprah sold the illegal war. She used her daytime show to sell the illegal war. Which makes her the perfect fit for Obama. Paul Street (Black Agenda Report) noted last month that Obama's "I was against the war" five-year anniversary was called out by US Senator and presidential contender Chris Dodd who reminded that Obama "forgot to celebrate another anniversary. Last July 26th marked the third anniversary of the New York Times story in which Obama admitted that he did not know how he would have voted on the Iraq resolution had he been serving in the United States Senate at the time of the vote."
Meanwhile, US Senator Joe Biden's presidential campaign is marketing a new advertisement featuring testimonials to Biden from fellow presidentidal candiates Senator Hillary Clinton ("Amen to Joe Biden because he's 100% right"), John Edwards ("I actually agree with what Senator Biden said"), Obama ("I think Joe is exactly right") and Bill Richardson ["(Biden's solution) may be ultimately the right solution"). Away from the love-fest, US House Rep Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign announced: "The Congressman has the utmost respect for Senator Biden and his years of service to the nation. He just happens to be wrong on some very major issues; and, if the other candidates agree with him, then they're wrong, too. They voted to authorize the war in Iraq. They approved continued funding of the war. They voted for the Patriot Act. They supported trade agreements that have had a devastating impact on American workers. They have failed to challenge the President and the Vice President for their unrepentant and continued violations of the U.S. Constitution. There's a reason that Congressman Kucinich was the only candidate delberately excluded from the ad blitz. Joe Biden knows, and the other Democratic candidates know, that Dennis Kucinich doesn't walk their line. If voters are dissatisfied with the Biden tweedle-dums and tweedle-dees, they should vote for someone who represents their beliefs and their values. Not someone who says, 'I agree with Joe.' Dennis doesn't agree with Joe. Or Hillary. Or Barack. Or John. Or Chris. Or Bill." Bill Richardson is the subject of a blog post by Shailagh Murray (Washington Post) which maintains: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other D.C. Democrats are as unpopular in the Hawkeye state as President Bush. Richardson said an 'anti-Washington dysfunctional relationship-feeling' pervades the Iowa landscap and that the Democratic Congress has been a huge disappointment, by failing to end the war or find common ground with Republicans on a whole host of important issues." Mike Gravel is also running for the Democratic nomination and Mary MacElveen (OpEdNews) focuses on his strengths, "I want you to watch this feed in full as Mike Gravel so rightly states that this is an 'oil war' I feel that this is an important feed especially with the Iowa caucuses are only weeks away and right after many Christians celebrate Christmas. It is important that all Democrats watch this feed as they go to the polls in the New Hampshire primary in order to make an informed decision. He is the only one who is telling the American people the truth, yet CNN and NBC blocked him from telling it. In the spirit of Christmas, one must remember these Ten Commandments which are, you shall not murder, you shall not steal and you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. The war in Iraq has violated everyone of these commandments. . . . Our soldiers and their families are the ones who will pay the price when men like Gravel are marginalized by the media and the Democratic leadership. When Gravel speaks out, the phrase that comes to mind is: With age comes wisdom. And to prove so, he has fought this battle before where others have not."
Finishing out electoral politics, Ralph Nader has stated he will announce by the end of the year whether he will run for president. Richard Winger (Ballot Access News) reports on a very sad group of people. There are the sad ones who thought 'winning' came by attempting to deny ballot access to a candidate and there are Pennsylavnia Supreme Court Justices who had conflicts of interest (this is not disputed). Having tried to block Nader from the Pennsylvania ballot in 2004, sad group one and sad group two scheme to force "Nader's bank to seize almost $80,000 from Nader's account". Something to think about for 2008: When you endorse a "Don't Run, ___!" campaign, there are others who are going to carry it even further. Since America needs more choices and more access, the smartest thing to do is remember that in a democracy, anyone who wants to run for office should run. A US Socialist Worker editorial takes on the concept of "'realistic' strategy": "With the 2008 election season in full swing, the pressure is on for activists to start doing the 'reasonable' thing -- and adjust their expectations and demands to something that can be achieved. In fact, however, a look at the last several weeks of the Democrats' behavior -- both in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail -- offers object lessons about who the 'party of the people' really listens to (not us), and how much it will deliver (not much) unless it faces pressure. The problem with the politics of compromise is it accepts that the Democratic Party represents 'the people.' And it assumes that the rights and freedoms we have today are the product of what politicians achieved in the past, so we need to work for the best of them today to push back the Republican agenda. . . . The Democrats' failure to fulffill hopes that they would take action to end the occupation of Iraq needs to be understood the same way. They may have talked tough about the war to win their November 2006 victory, but the Democrats are every bit as committed as the Republicans to defending U.S. economic and military interests around the world. Some Democrats differ with the Bush administration on how the war was carried out and how the occupation should continue. But there's aggreement on the goal. That's why, in a recent debate, none of the three front-running presidential contenders [Clinton, Edwards and Obama] would commit to pulling all U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of a hypothetical first term -- 2013, a full decade after the invasion."
iraq
jeremy hinzmanbrandon hughey
cindy sheehan
ron jacobs
ned parker
the los angeles timesleila fadel
the new york timesthom shankercara buckley
anthony arnovehoward zinn
raed jarrar
the diane rehm show
the washington post
He's for legal immigration -- in his presidential campaign. Considering that his family moved to Mexico after the Supreme Court said Mormon or not, no multiple wives only to move back, you have to wonder if they all crossed 'legally'? His family moved to Mexico in 1879 and moved back (quickly) in 1912. That's thirty-three years. I'll assume many of the wives had multiple children. Considering that they left the US when the Supreme Court declared that multiple wives were illegal and that Mitt's own father was born in Mexico, I wonder what the status was there?
I don't obsess over it. I could honestly care less. But it always make me laugh when Mitt tries to explain 'immigration.'
Mitt's a Mormon and wants everyone to know it won't interfere with his office. But tolerance appears to only swing one way with Mitt.
"A Muslim belongs in the Cabinet: Muslims are uniquely qualified to help deter Islamist threats" (Mansoor Ijaz, Christian Science Monitor):
I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that "jihadism" is the principal foreign policy threat facing America today. He answered, "…based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration."
Romney, whose Mormon faith has become the subject of heated debate in Republican caucuses, wants America to be blind to his religious beliefs and judge him on merit instead. Yet he seems to accept excluding Muslims because of their religion, claiming they're too much of a minority for a post in high-level policymaking. More ironic, that Islamic heritage is what qualifies them to best engage America's Arab and Muslim communities and to help deter Islamist threats.
I am an American-born citizen of the Islamic faith. I stand as a living symbol of all that America offers in its system of liberty, justice, and, most of all, opportunity. I am also proud of my Muslim heritage and beliefs, and, true to the American work ethic, I have worked tirelessly to raise up the voices of disaffected Muslims everywhere and help them, too, share in America's promise.
In other ugly news, "Love it! Love it! Love it!" squeals Oprah bouncing on a bed. "Lovely goodies!" she squals going through figt baskets left for her. Does anyone else wonder if she that greedy or is she that much of a fraud for her TV audience? I don't watch Oprah -- for good reason -- but I knew C.I. would be addressing her in the snapshot. It was cute watching Oprah traveling around with a bunch of White women in Maine and Georgia. Nice to know she stops a second for African-Americans in Georgia to acknowledge them. "You'll are a lot of fun," she says moving quickly, "see you later."
Then it was time to bring along a prop: Stedman's daughter. Brought along so people would stop whispering about Gayle and Oprah. Is that really going to work?
Either you believe Oprah was unable to get Stedman to commit and probably find her pretty pathetic to be dragging his daughter around with her for local 'color' or you think, "Of course they didn't get married! She's in love with Gayle!"
In Macon, she drops into a place that has a sizeable African-American customer base. So naturally, she sits down with an old White man and a young white Woman -- neither of whom she knew before she walked up to sit with them. I could only take about five minutes of the big O so I missed the upcoming segment about what happened when the electricity went out as they were taping?
I think it's great that Oprah's conveying to her audiences how little she cares about the world and how just following her around with a camera should make for, she thinks, riveting television.
She sits her in chair, in front of an audience, and introduces clips of herself. It's "This is Your Life" sold as "This is All Of Our Lives!" She's entered the "Life With Lucy" stage, someone needs to break it to her.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Tuesday, November 27, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces deaths, the puppet enters into a death pact for Iraq, US presidential politics get 'star power' and more.
Starting with war resistance. Following the refusal of the Canadian Supreme Cour to hear the appeals of US war resisters Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, the best road to legal recognition appears to be the Canadian Parliament. Cindy Sheehan (OpEdNews) urges people to utilize Courage to Resist's easy to mail or e-mail resources to allow the Canadian government to know you are watching and to support organizations supporting war resisters as well as:
Support actual war resisters in Canada by sending them expense money. From my friend Ryan (I gave him and his wife money to get to Canada over two years ago):
In light of the recent Supreme Court denial in Canada, I (Ryan Johnson), My wife (Jen Johnson) and Brandon Hughey need help raising funds to travel to Ottawa to attend hearings before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, where War Resisters will be giving Testimony to the committee. At these hearings the committee will be deciding on whether or not to make a provision to allow war resisters to stay in Canada. This is one of our last chances to be able to continue living in Canada. We will be leaving December 7th because the hearings are December 11th, 2007 so we need to act fast. They may try to send guys back soon and we need to have a strong War Resister Presence. We appreciate all of the support and Want to thank all of you who can help.
Checks/money orders can be sent for Ryan, Jen and Brandon to:312 Tower RdNelson, BC V1L3K6
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Rodney Watson, 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. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
The voice of war resister Camilo Mejia is featured in Rebel Voices -- playing now through December 16th at Culture Project and based on Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's best-selling book Voices of a People's History of the United States. It features dramatic readings of historical voices such as war resister Mejia, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Malcom X and others will be featured. Musician Allison Mooerer will head the permanent cast while those confirmed to be performing on selected nights are Ally Sheedy (actress and poet, best known for films such as High Art, The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order, the two Short Circuit films, St. Elmo's Fire, War Games, and, along with Nicky Katt, has good buzz on the forthcoming Harold), Eve Ensler who wrote the theater classic The Vagina Monologues (no, it's not too soon to call that a classic), actor David Strathaim (L.A. Confidential, The Firm, Bob Roberts, Dolores Claiborne and The Bourne Ultimatum), actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Clueless -- film and TV series, Gregory and Chicken Little), actress Lili Taylor (Dogfight, Shortcuts, Say Anything, Household Saints, I Shot Andy Warhol, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, State of Mind) and actor, director and activist Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Beloved, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Rainmaker, Places In The Heart, Dreamgirls, Shooter and who recently appeared on Democracy Now! addressing the US militarization of Africa) The directors are Will Pomerantz and Rob Urbinati with Urbinati collaborating with Zinn and Arnove on the play. Tickets are $21 for previews and $41 for regular performances (beginning with the Nov. 18th opening night). The theater is located at 55 Mercer Street and tickets can be purchased there, over the phone (212-352-3101) or online here and here. More information can be found at Culture Project.
Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan
March 13th through 15th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation.
Let's dive into the nonsense. Bully Boy and his puppet Nouri al-Maliki came to an agreement -- in it al-Maliki sells out Iraq and gets his own ass protected. CBS and AP play dumb together stating of the agreement: "It would also help the Iraqi government thrwart any attempt to suspend or repeal a constitution drafted with U.S. help and adopted in a nationwide vote in 2005. That appeared to be a reference to any attempt to remove the government by violence or in a coup." Now there are a number of facts that are questionable in those two sentences but since when does repealing a constitution mean "violence" or "coup"? It doesn't. And Iraqis are (naturally) interested in writing their own constitution as opposed to having one written for them. Ron Jacobs (CounterPunch) explains reality, "Meanwhile the government in Baghdad's Green Zone is asking the US military to commit to a longterm agreement to stay in Iraq in substantial numbers. Besides the obvious fact that the Green Zone government really has no say in how long the US military occupies Iraq, the fact that those in power are asking the military to remain is an acknowledgement that their power does not come from the Iraqi people but from the military power of Washington. In fact, according to the November 26, 2007 Associated Press story discussing this 'request' by the Green Zone government, the request was made because 'Iraq's government, (is) seeking protection against foreign threats and internal coups.' One can be certain that those internal coups most likely refer to Washington's fear of a victorious insurgency." James Gerstenzang and Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) put their two brains together and all they can come up with that's worth noting is that the new 'agreement' "guarantee a U.S. troop presence in Iraq for at least a few more years." Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) can't find any current critics of al-Maliki's offensive attempt to circumvent the Iraqi parliament (Question: Who ratifies treaties in the United States? The Congress. One more aspect of 'democracy' that never got exported to Iraq.) but she does note that in al-Maliki has (rightly) "critized the U.S. military presence in palaces that formerly belonged to Saddam Hussein and chastised American forces for operating with 'impunity' in Iraq." Thom Shanker and Cara Buckley (New York Times) probably summarize the events better than any mainstream outlet: "In Iraq on Monday, there was little public discussion of the agreement. It is not a popular move politically because many Iraqis view the United Nations mandate as a reminder that they cannot yet control their own destiny and must rely on outsiders.In the past, members of the Iraqi Parliament have complained that allowing the continued presence of international forces abrogates the country's sovereignty. While some of the complaints can be labelled political rhetoric, there is also a real underlying resentment that the nation still needs American help." Well, the puppet government needs help. The Iraqi people are more than willing to take control of their country. It's only the US installed government that falters.
What's missing from the coverage? The voices of Iraqis who aren't the play toys of puppet al-Maliki. Haifa Zangan is the author of City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance (Seven Stories Press), and writes for al-Quds and the Guardian of London. Yesterday she was a guest on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show where she spoke of Paul Bremer dismantling the government, destroying military, the police, jobs for women (90% of women are employed) and much more.
Diane Rehm: The question becomes: If the US withdrew would all of that sectarian violence cease? Do you really believe that?
Haifa Zangan: If you give a minute. There was, there are the powers on the ground in Iraq now. The US army multi-national forces, there are 60,000 of them a parallel army to the US military there which is the mercenary contractors, the security firms, they are both of them enjoy complete immunity from Iraqi law. But the mercenary firms, the security firms, unlike the US army, they enjoy also immunity from the American law and the international law and those people are really creating havoc within the country. Those contractors have their own sub-contractors who are willing to kill more and more to continue the war.
Zangan spoke of Iraq's long, long history and explained why she doesn't believe it will be an Iraqi-Iraqi on violence bloodbath should the US military leave Iraq. Raed Jarrar (Raed in the Middle) also notes the history of the country -- that Baghdad recently celebrated it's 1245th anniversary and that in 20 previous occupations, when foreign forces left the country, there withdrawal was not followed with a "full scale war between Sunnis and Shiites". Haifa Zangan explained to Rehm, "It seems like every day of the extension of the staying of the American troops and what's called the multi-national forces in Iraq bringing with it new problems for Iraqi people deeping what is there already. . . . I think their support for the militias would stop, Iraqis themselves would take control of their country."
Rehm returns to the topic of violence later in the interview.
Haifa Zangan: It's not just the Apaches, the helicopters, not only the pre-dawn arrests by the US troops led by with . . . and in collaboration with what's called the Iraqi army and the Iraq police but also we are targeted by the militias and that is not the sectarian war between Iraqi people themselves. The militias? Each political party in Iraq at the moment taking part in what's called the political process as designed by Paul Bremer and the occupation, each one of them has its own militia. Take for example, the Supreme Court for Islamic Revolution --which was established in Iran and has no base whatsoever in Iraq -- went with the occupation and Iraq -- with its own powerful well trained militia -- they are in control of what's called the government now.
Ron Jacobs (CounterPunch) sums up the realities of the illegal war and occupation in four short sentences: "Making occupation and calling it peace. Killing fewer and calling it progress. Rotating troops and calling it a withdrawal. Setting up new death squads and calling them allies. Lowering standards and calling it opening new opportunities." Hence the violence continues.
Bombings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded a taxi driver, another that "near that Amana bus station" that wounded three, a Baghdad car bombing that wounded two, a Diyala bombing where the bomber killed himself and 7 others and thirteen wounded and "Around 9.30 a.m., a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol in an area of about 2 km of Suleiman Beck of Tuz Khurmatu (east of Tikrit). Eyewitnesses said that a Humvee was destroyed. Also they saw a helicopter came to the scene taking the killed and injured soldiers with them." Reuters notes a Mosul car bombing wounded four people.
Shootings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a clash in Basra that began last night and ended this morning involving multiple weapons and resulting in 1 death and a "few others injured." Al Jazeera reports a Baghdad shooting by US forces that claimed the lives of 4 "bank employees" traveling in a minibus to work ("three women and one man"). CBS and AP note that 1 child also died making the number shot dead by US forces to make five killed and quote a US military spokesperson (Gregory Smith) stating that "some of the warning fire ricocheted and may have killed two to three individuals." This follows a Monday shooting.
Reuters notes "two men and a child" were shot dead by US forces "near Baijia" while their car "approached a roadblock." CBS and AP note that the men died immediately, however, the child lingered until dying from the wounds received and that a US military spokesperson has expressed "regret that civilians are hurt or killed". Reuters notes that today the US military announced US forces had shot and killed a man in Ramadi at a checkpoint on Sunday.
Corpses?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Reuters adds to that to note 5 more discover for a total of eight corpses in Baghdad while 4 were discovered in Mosul and another 4 in Tikrit.
Turning to a mass shooting noted yesterday, Reporters Without Borders is calling for an investigation into "the murders of 11 close relatives of Dia al-Kawwaz, the Amman-based editor of the online newspaper Shabeqat Akhbar al-Iraq": "We call on the government to order an investigation to identify those responsible for this carnage and to bring them to justice. The impunity reigning in Baghdad for the past five years encourages attacks on journalists and their families. It is even more disturbing when security forces see what is happening and yet take no action. Police at a security checkpoint near the Kawwaz family home failed to intervene or give chase." CBS and AP note a spokesperson for Iraq's Interior Ministry denies that any shootings took place but al-Kawaz has "accused the Interior Ministry forces of involvement in the deaths. Dhia al-Kawaz said they raided a wake in Iraq for his slain family Tuesday in the predominatly Shiite city of Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, tearing down banners commemorating the dead." Mohammed al Dulaimy and Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) note that mass shooting "was the third mass killing reported in Baghdad since Friday".
And today the US military announced: "Two Multi-National Division - North Soldiers were killed as a result of injuries sustained from an explosion near their vehicle while conducting operations in Salah ad Din province, Nov. 27. Additionally, two Soldiers were wounded and transported to a Coalition medical facililty for treatment."
Over the weekend, Christopher Brauchli (CounterPunch) provided an overview of the mammoth complex being called an embassy in Iraq noting it was over budget by $144 million thus far, that is is still empty and "[n]o one knows when anyone will move in." This despite Charles Williams, of the US State Dept.'s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, testifying in July that , "We are slated to complete the project in September of this year and personnel can begin to move into offices and residences shortly thereafter." To many the multi-acre compound in Baghdad is nothing more than a permanent US military base. On the subject of bases in Iraq, Chris Dodd's campaing for president released this statement yesterday: "Frankly, it's hard to believe that the Administration is just beginning to figure out what the future bilateral relationship with Iraq should look like after more than four years of military occupation. But, this [White House] declaration of principles is more notable for what it doesn't say than what it does. It does not require Iraqi leaders to make substantive progress on their political benchmarks nor does it end US military involvement in Iraq. Indeed, Senator Dodd is fearful that the lack of clarity on the long-term presence will be used as a justification by this Administration for a permanent military presence in Iraq, at precisely the time when we should be declaring the opposite. In a Dodd Administration, there will be no permanent bases in Iraq."
Staying with US politics. How stupid is Mark Halperin? We'll assume he was too busy rushing to get in a shout out to Sammy Power to do a reality check. Oprah Winfrey will be hitting Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire to campaign for Barack Obama. Really? That's the message a campaign wants to send? In October, Oprah's already questionable school for girls made headlines as various young females went public with sexual abuse. Oprah boo-hooed in public. As if she hadn't brought it all on herself. (See Margaret Kimberley's January 2007 piece on Oprah's school.) Tears allow Oprah to silence her fans but exactly whom does Campaign Obama think will be on the campaign trail? And as if that scandal wasn't bad enough -- let's be clear that as the victim of child sexual abuse it was incumbent upon Oprah Winfrey to ensure that any activity or organization she initiated was a safe environment for children which she clearly did not -- she's plugged/hawked plastic surgeon Jan Adams like crazy. Adams, of course, is the surgeon who peformed surgery on Donda West -- Kanye West's mother -- before she died. Chicago Sun-Times notes this embarrassing statement by Team Orpah today on their part in making Jan Adams a 'trusted' voice: "Since he was booked as a guest commentator on the subject of medical television, not in his capacity as a surgeon, and since we did not promote him as a cosmetic surgeon, there was no reason t do a background check on him." TMZ notes Adams' DUIs and mutliple malpractice suits as well as posts a clip of Oprah endorsing him on her show. It's never Oprah's fault. That may play on daytime TV to lonely viewers who have no where else to go but the news press isn't the entertainment press and what kind of a political campaign puts a celebrity on the road whose organization (school in Africa) is plagued by sexual abuse controversy and who has promoted a doctor many see as responsible for a high-profile death? Considering her own history of sexual abuse, the Big O should be spending all of her time addressing the sexual abuse at her school in Africa. She really can't 'transcend' that outside of her viewing 'dynasty'. How long ago was it that Oprah was 'testifying' that the school sexual abuse scandal was "one of the most devastating, if not the most devastating experience of my life"? Monday, November 5th.
Halpern quotes Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe yacking about how Oprah has never stepped into politics before. Incorrect. As Bill Moyers Journal aptly demonstrated in it's debut episdoe, Oprah sold the illegal war. She used her daytime show to sell the illegal war. Which makes her the perfect fit for Obama. Paul Street (Black Agenda Report) noted last month that Obama's "I was against the war" five-year anniversary was called out by US Senator and presidential contender Chris Dodd who reminded that Obama "forgot to celebrate another anniversary. Last July 26th marked the third anniversary of the New York Times story in which Obama admitted that he did not know how he would have voted on the Iraq resolution had he been serving in the United States Senate at the time of the vote."
Meanwhile, US Senator Joe Biden's presidential campaign is marketing a new advertisement featuring testimonials to Biden from fellow presidentidal candiates Senator Hillary Clinton ("Amen to Joe Biden because he's 100% right"), John Edwards ("I actually agree with what Senator Biden said"), Obama ("I think Joe is exactly right") and Bill Richardson ["(Biden's solution) may be ultimately the right solution"). Away from the love-fest, US House Rep Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign announced: "The Congressman has the utmost respect for Senator Biden and his years of service to the nation. He just happens to be wrong on some very major issues; and, if the other candidates agree with him, then they're wrong, too. They voted to authorize the war in Iraq. They approved continued funding of the war. They voted for the Patriot Act. They supported trade agreements that have had a devastating impact on American workers. They have failed to challenge the President and the Vice President for their unrepentant and continued violations of the U.S. Constitution. There's a reason that Congressman Kucinich was the only candidate delberately excluded from the ad blitz. Joe Biden knows, and the other Democratic candidates know, that Dennis Kucinich doesn't walk their line. If voters are dissatisfied with the Biden tweedle-dums and tweedle-dees, they should vote for someone who represents their beliefs and their values. Not someone who says, 'I agree with Joe.' Dennis doesn't agree with Joe. Or Hillary. Or Barack. Or John. Or Chris. Or Bill." Bill Richardson is the subject of a blog post by Shailagh Murray (Washington Post) which maintains: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other D.C. Democrats are as unpopular in the Hawkeye state as President Bush. Richardson said an 'anti-Washington dysfunctional relationship-feeling' pervades the Iowa landscap and that the Democratic Congress has been a huge disappointment, by failing to end the war or find common ground with Republicans on a whole host of important issues." Mike Gravel is also running for the Democratic nomination and Mary MacElveen (OpEdNews) focuses on his strengths, "I want you to watch this feed in full as Mike Gravel so rightly states that this is an 'oil war' I feel that this is an important feed especially with the Iowa caucuses are only weeks away and right after many Christians celebrate Christmas. It is important that all Democrats watch this feed as they go to the polls in the New Hampshire primary in order to make an informed decision. He is the only one who is telling the American people the truth, yet CNN and NBC blocked him from telling it. In the spirit of Christmas, one must remember these Ten Commandments which are, you shall not murder, you shall not steal and you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. The war in Iraq has violated everyone of these commandments. . . . Our soldiers and their families are the ones who will pay the price when men like Gravel are marginalized by the media and the Democratic leadership. When Gravel speaks out, the phrase that comes to mind is: With age comes wisdom. And to prove so, he has fought this battle before where others have not."
Finishing out electoral politics, Ralph Nader has stated he will announce by the end of the year whether he will run for president. Richard Winger (Ballot Access News) reports on a very sad group of people. There are the sad ones who thought 'winning' came by attempting to deny ballot access to a candidate and there are Pennsylavnia Supreme Court Justices who had conflicts of interest (this is not disputed). Having tried to block Nader from the Pennsylvania ballot in 2004, sad group one and sad group two scheme to force "Nader's bank to seize almost $80,000 from Nader's account". Something to think about for 2008: When you endorse a "Don't Run, ___!" campaign, there are others who are going to carry it even further. Since America needs more choices and more access, the smartest thing to do is remember that in a democracy, anyone who wants to run for office should run. A US Socialist Worker editorial takes on the concept of "'realistic' strategy": "With the 2008 election season in full swing, the pressure is on for activists to start doing the 'reasonable' thing -- and adjust their expectations and demands to something that can be achieved. In fact, however, a look at the last several weeks of the Democrats' behavior -- both in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail -- offers object lessons about who the 'party of the people' really listens to (not us), and how much it will deliver (not much) unless it faces pressure. The problem with the politics of compromise is it accepts that the Democratic Party represents 'the people.' And it assumes that the rights and freedoms we have today are the product of what politicians achieved in the past, so we need to work for the best of them today to push back the Republican agenda. . . . The Democrats' failure to fulffill hopes that they would take action to end the occupation of Iraq needs to be understood the same way. They may have talked tough about the war to win their November 2006 victory, but the Democrats are every bit as committed as the Republicans to defending U.S. economic and military interests around the world. Some Democrats differ with the Bush administration on how the war was carried out and how the occupation should continue. But there's aggreement on the goal. That's why, in a recent debate, none of the three front-running presidential contenders [Clinton, Edwards and Obama] would commit to pulling all U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of a hypothetical first term -- 2013, a full decade after the invasion."
iraq
jeremy hinzmanbrandon hughey
cindy sheehan
ron jacobs
ned parker
the los angeles timesleila fadel
the new york timesthom shankercara buckley
anthony arnovehoward zinn
raed jarrar
the diane rehm show
the washington post
Monday, November 26, 2007
Marjorie Cohn and an embarrassing 'reporter'
Monday post where I try to recover from the trip back.
"Remembering Victor Rabinowitz: Legal Giant of the Left" (Marjorie Cohn, marjoriecohn.com):
On November 16, 2007, Victor Rabinowitz, one of the giants of the legal profession and a tireless fighter for social justice, died at the age of 96. One of the founders of the National Lawyers Guild 70 years ago, Victor defended unpopular clients when other lawyers were afraid to touch them. During the McCarthy period, he and his partner Leonard Boudin represented unions that were considered to be left-wing.
The firm counted as clients Daniel Ellsberg, Paul Robeson, Julian Bond, Dashiell Hammett, Dr. Benjamin Spock, the Rev. Philip Berrigan, Alger Hiss, the Black Panthers, the Salvador Allende government in Chile, and the Cuban government.
Victor handled several landmark cases. In 1950, he challenged the provision of the Taft-Hartley Act that prevented unions from representing workers unless all union officers swore a loyalty oath that they were not members of or affiliated with the Communist Party. He lost the case 5 to 4 in the Supreme Court. His work in the Supreme Court case of United States v. Yellin was instrumental in the demise of the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In 1964, in a 8 to 1 decision, the Supreme Court held in Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino that U.S. courts cannot review the legality of the Cuban nationalizations of U.S.-owned property under international law. Victor represented the government of Cuba in that case.
John Mage, prominent radical lawyer and Officer and Director of the Monthly Review Foundation, wrote a review of Victor's book, Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir, for Monthly Review. Mage recalled his favorite Victor story: "In the Cuban bank litigation, Victor (representing the Cubans) was served with a discovery demand that he forwarded to the Cuban Finance Ministry, at that time headed by Che. Shortly afterwards he was in Havana for an anniversary celebration and was invited to accompany Guevara. Che directed Victor's attention to the confetti being thrown from an office tower and said 'remember that discovery demand? . . . There it is.'"
The Rabinowitz Boudin partnership "constituted the defining invention of radical lawyering," said Northwestern law professor Bernardine Dohrn, a leader of the Weathermen who became the Guild student organizer while Victor was NLG president in 1967. The firm "always represented the most controversial victims of oppressive state power: labor struggles, the Community Party cases, constitutional right to travel and political speech issues, defense of the Cuban revolution, support for the civil rights/Black Freedom Movement, defense of anti-Vietnam War activists, and legal defense of Palestinian political activists," Dohrn added.
In his book, Victor characterized McCarthyism as "the era of Great Fear." In those days, it was the fear of Communism; today, it is the fear of Terrorism that the administration uses as an excuse to decimate civil liberties. Describing the government repression against Communists, leftists, and those suspected of being associated with them, Victor wrote, "It was the worst of times . . . It was a terrible and terrifying time." Even the ACLU "succumbed to the red scare" in those days.
That's the only highlight for tonight's entry. Fortunately, it's a strong one.
What else?
I want to talk about Sarah Olsen and her post at PR Watch that is credited to her but refers to herself -- in the text -- as "Sarah Olsen." If Olsen didn't just post, if she actually wrote it, it's an embarrassment, a huge one.
But the reality is that it's an embarrassment regardless of whether she or someone else wrote it. She is not the story and, all these months later, she and her supporters can still not grasp it.
It was bad enough when Ehren Watada was facing years in prison if convicted of a court-martial and she lined up her little aging boy crew. Norman Solomon, Phil Donahue and assorted others who DID NOT write about Watada suddenly wrote columns about Olsen.
That was embarrassing. That was embarrassing for all the men involved.
If you've forgotten, Olsen was being asked by the prosecution to testify at Watada's hearing. She wouldn't say whether she would or wouldn't. That's why she didn't get any editorials supporting her. A person has to take a stand before an editorial board is going to take a stand. Olsen made herself the story, eating up valuable print space and air time, begging for support while she refused to say whether or not she'd testify. It was pathetic.
It wasn't journalism.
So a lot of men who DO NOT write about Watada rushed forward to write about Olsen.
Watada, who was looking at prison time, did not need to stop what he was doing in order to protect the WEAK Sarah Olsen.
The PATHETIC Sarah Olsen who would not stand up for herself wanted the world to stand for.
Watada did take care of the issue.
His thanks?
A snit-fit from an UNGRATEFUL Olsen who implied he was self-serving and that she'd been wronged.
He was self-serving?
He was taking a stand against an illegal war. Sarah Olsen didn't take a stand for anything. She wouldn't even stand up for herself.
But she was happy to PROMOTE herself.
In the post at PR Watch signed by Sarah Olsen, she supposedly writes about Watada's recent victory and does that by taking THREE PARAGRAPHS out of nine to write about herself. ONE THIRD. She is not the story.
Should there be a crucifixtion, remember that Sarah Olsen provided the wood and the nails. She'll have no one to blame but herself.
When the writers' strike is over, if two friends of C.I.'s resume their script about the Watada story, be prepared to see a portrait of a journalist far worse than the character Sally Field played in Absence of Malice. If Olsen gets nailed to the cross, remember that she herself supplied the wood, the nails and the hammer.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Monday, November 26, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, a Bully Boy down under goes down, Damien Cave explodes the myth of "The Great Return" and more.
Starting with war resistance. Sonali Kolhatkur returned to hosting duties of KPFK's Uprising (she was on maternity leave) and her first guest was Lee Zaslofsky of the War Resisters Support Campaign. Kolhatkur began by noting "the Canadian Arab Federation is the latest" organization to rally around the call that US war resisters should be allowed to remained in the US. Kolhatkur and Zaslofsky then addressed the basics of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey whose appeal the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear. What of the reception among Canadian, Kohlhatkur asked and Zaslofsky explained both the polling in Ontario (64.6% state that the war resisters should be permitted to remain in Canada) and that, in terms of personal interation, the response has been "great warmth and a great welcome actually" with a diverse based support from labor, the United Church of Canada, the Quakers and the Mennonites among others. "We have always had a two pronged approach to this, one of them being the legal process," Zaslofsky stated. "Essentially the courts are finished with this. So we've intensified our efforts on the political front which we've always been doing" but this became the best path in the wake of the Supreme Court refusal to hear Hinzman and Hughey's appeals. The Canadian Parliament has not gotten behind legislation at this point; however, they will hold hearings next month.
Zaslofsky explained that when he went to Canada (during Vietnam), at the border you could apply for permanent residence but today you either apply in your home country and wait a year for the process or you come into Canada and apply for refugee statues. Also regarding then and now, he made the point, "First of all, there were quite a few enlistees that came to Canada" referring to then and, referring to now, explained "we believe there is a poverty draft in the United States." This is based on the resisters they enounter in Canada, the fact that they enlisted for basics such as health care, college, etc. Things that are seen as rights in other 'advanced' countries but are seen as 'luxuries' in the United States. Zaslofsky estimates that, in addition to the forty to fifty US war resisters who have applied for refugee status in Canada, "we estimate there may be several hundred" US war resisters who have come to Canada, are working jobs without documentation and are waiting to see what happens to the known war resisters before going public. Also noted was the concern that deportation might kick in: "We're concerned that what will happen is that the Canadian government will start becoming an enforcement arm for the Pentagon and start rounding up war resisters and sending them back." Zaslofsky pointed out Canada's resistance to the illegal war, refusal to take part in it and stated "it seems very consistent that Canada would then protect other Americans who agree" with the same stand regarding the Iraq War's illegality. As he noted, both the War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist have launched campaigns to force the Canadian parliament to step up and do the job that the Canadian government once did: provide a haven to war resisters.
Corey Glass, another US war resister in Canada, shared his story yesterday with Brett Clarkson (Toronto Sun): "For Corey Glass, the last straw was a video of Iraqi children talking about how they wanted to grow up to be suicide bombers so they could kill Americans. It's the moment when Glass, who was born and raised in small-town Indiana, decided to quit the war. . . . For him, he says it was the right decision. Glass, in fact, doesn't see his decision to desert as breaking his word. Instead, he says the U.S. government broke its word by mounting a war based on a now widely discredited claim Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction." Clarkson notes that the hearings in Parliament are scheduled to take place December 6th.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Rodney Watson, 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. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
The voice of war resister Camilo Mejia is featured in Rebel Voices -- playing now through December 16th at Culture Project and based on Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's best-selling book Voices of a People's History of the United States. It features dramatic readings of historical voices such as war resister Mejia, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Malcom X and others will be featured. Musician Allison Mooerer will head the permanent cast while those confirmed to be performing on selected nights are Ally Sheedy (actress and poet, best known for films such as High Art, The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order, the two Short Circuit films, St. Elmo's Fire, War Games, and, along with Nicky Katt, has good buzz on the forthcoming Harold), Eve Ensler who wrote the theater classic The Vagina Monologues (no, it's not too soon to call that a classic), actor David Strathaim (L.A. Confidential, The Firm, Bob Roberts, Dolores Claiborne and The Bourne Ultimatum), actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Clueless -- film and TV series, Gregory and Chicken Little), actress Lili Taylor (Dogfight, Shortcuts, Say Anything, Household Saints, I Shot Andy Warhol, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, State of Mind) and actor, director and activist Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Beloved, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Rainmaker, Places In The Heart, Dreamgirls, Shooter and who recently appeared on Democracy Now! addressing the US militarization of Africa) The directors are Will Pomerantz and Rob Urbinati with Urbinati collaborating with Zinn and Arnove on the play. Tickets are $21 for previews and $41 for regular performances (beginning with the Nov. 18th opening night). The theater is located at 55 Mercer Street and tickets can be purchased there, over the phone (212-352-3101) or online here and here. More information can be found at Culture Project.
Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan
March 13th through 15th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation.
Turning to The 'Great Return' -- bussed in and bought. You've heard the lies, you've heard the myths. Today, Damien Cave (New York Times) becomes the first big or small media reporter to bring you some reality. You learn that "Under intense pressure to show results after months of political stalemate, the government has continued to publicize figures that exaggerate the movement back to Iraq and Iraqis' confidence that the current lull in violence can be sustained." You learn that, yes, the trickle of returnees are coming from Syria and often from busses since Iraqi's central (puppet) government is sending busses into Syria and paying off refugees to return. You learn about the United Nations polling 110 families who have returned: 46% returned because they had no money, 25% due to Syria's increased requirements for a visa "and only 14 percent said they were returning because they had heard about improved security." And you learn that the refugee criisis continues with the United Nations figure for October being 28,017 internally displaced Iraqis. It's the sort of reporting many outlets could have done but refused to. Just last week the BBC has some of the same information but attempted to spin it. While the article succeeds by Times standards, it is also a major article by any standard. Sadly, the same New York Times that sold the myth of the returns and the myth of 'safer' on their front pages elects to hide the strongest piece they've contributed on Iraq in some time on page A7.
"On Saturday," Danny Schechter (News Dissector) observes of the paper, "a front page story reported yet another major horrific casualty-causing bomb blast in Baghdad. On Sunday, two side by side front page stories spoke of 'military successes' as if the military battle had been won. Did they read Saturday's paper?" The article referred to was by Stephen Farrell (whose earlier version was noted in Friday's snapshot) and noted Friday's Baghdad bombing that claimed 13 lives and left at least fifty-seven people wounded. The paper should have run the early version in print. Instead, readers were fed the lie that for "months" there was a "lull in violence" ("had extended from weeks into months"). It hadn't even made it to two months despite the hype. The twin car bombings on September 26th were not "months" before November 23rd. And of course yesterday Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reported a Baghdad Sunday car bombing which claimed 9 lives with at least thirty-nine wounded. (Farrell reports on that in today's New York Times.)
There has been no lull. Violence has continued throughout the escalation. 'Success' is actually the buying off of milita groups as Ali al-Fadhily (IPS) has pointed out. As Robert Parry (Consortium News) has pointed out, the prisons in Iraq (US prisons and Iraqi) are overcrowded with new people being arrested constantly. At some point, the mass graves that keep getting discovered might clue some people in. November 22nd, Damien Cave (New York Times) reported on 40 discovered "near Ramadi" and argues the "area [was] controlled until recently by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia". Kathleen Lucadamo (New York Daily News) reported on the November 17th discovery of 30 corpses "in southern Baghdad"Of course, November 6th, Waleed Ibrahim (Reuters) reported on mass graves containing 30 corpses discovered "north of the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi." These are far from the only ones discovered this month. The US threw a lot of money around to questionable sources who then did whatever they wanted and as long as it could be portrayed as 'safer' (easy to do when mass graves aren't discovered until months after) the majority of the media didn't care all that much. Hala Jaber (Times of London) reports today: "Members of the Baghdad Brigade receive $300 a man each month from the Americans, who also provide vehicles, uniforms and flak jackets. In return the brigade keeps out Al-Qaeda, dismantles roadside bombs and patrols the area, a task performed with considerable swagger by many of its 4,000 recruits." Jaber is reporting on the Sunni militias. The US 'plan' of addressing the frustrations and anger of the Sunni population from the US arming Shi'ite thugs is to turn around and upset Shi'ites by arming Sunni thugs. And people wounded why civilians leave Iraq and why Iraq is the biggest refugee crisis currently. These 'sweethearts' funded and armed by the US show the 'love' by, for instance, entering a school, going "from one class to the next, looking for mobile phones with 'unIslamic' ringtones. One child with a pop music ringtone was slapped and kicked in the legs as a warning to others." Thugs. Armed thughs patrolling inside a school and harassing the young. Armed and funded by the US. And their 'school patrol' is far from the worst of their 'duties.' Thugs, death squads, will not bring 'security' to Iraq. They will, however, buy time for distractions. As Ava I noted (The Third Estate Sunday Review), Martha Raddatz (ABC News) spoke some basic truth on PBS' Washington Week: "Every day that Iraq is not in the news is a good day for the president." Radditz also noted that the administration would shift the 'measures' for 'success' in Iraq. You see that today as Paul Tait (Reuters) that despite the US military swearing control of fourteen provinces could be handed over to Iraqis by the end of the year, Lt. Gen. James Dubik states they will not be able "to take control of most of Iraq's 18 provinces by the end of the year". There's no movement foward on the de-de-Baathification. Yesterday the measure was raised in the Iraqi Parliament and Mariam Karnouny (Reuters) reported that "a row" broke out: "It was the first time parliament had taken up any major bills this year that Washington believes will help heal the deep divide between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs. Objections to the bill from a key Shi'ite faction and arguments over whether it had been submitted properly prevented the draft law from being read out fully, participants at the closed-door session told Reuters." Meanwhile the tensions between Turkey and northern Iraq have not eased -- 100,000 Turkish troops remain stationed on the border and the US continues to send military generals into Turkey for talks. Reuters reported yesterday that US General Bantz Craddock was in Ankara on Saturday and his visit followed recent trips by US General David Petraeus and US General James Cartwright.
Over the weekend, Philip Pullella (Reuters) reported Pope Benedict "made a pressing appeal on Saturady for an end to the war in Iraq and decried the plight of the country's Christian minority." On Sunday, another call was made by a religious leader. Barbara Miller (AM on Australia's ABC) reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams ("the leader of the world's 70 million Anglicans") again called out the illegal war, compared the US "unfavourably to . . . the British Empire" and stated that attacks against Iraqn or Syria would be "criminal."
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Kirkuk car bombing claimed the life of 1 Iraqi soldier and left five more wounded and a Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded two people. Reuters notes a Mosul roadside bombing that claimed 1 life and left another person wounded.
Shootings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "Around midday A gunman killed a woman as she was shopping in Al Banat (girls in Arabic) market according to eye witnesses" in Basra, that Jabar Kadhim was shot dead in Babil, an attack using bombs and gunfire that killed at least 1 person in Kanan and a clash in Al Muqdadiyah that resulted in 4 deaths. Reuters notes that 1 police officer was shot dead in a Kut home invasion.
And Jordan's Al Bawaba reports another attack on a journalist, Shabeqat Akhbar al-Iraq's editor Dia al-Kawwaz whose home was invaded Sunday by "militiamen [who] sprayed his relatives with bullets". Ammar Karim (AFP) quotes al-Kawwaz declaring, "Four gunmen entered my family house in Shab area. Two of my sisters, their husbands and seven children between five and 10 years old were killed yesterday (Sunday) morning" in Baghdad. BBC notes, "The police in Baghdad have not confirmed the attack, but one officer told the BBC the killings had occured".
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 4 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes that 3 corpses were discovered in Mosul.
Aaron Glantz has long observed that the signature wound for US service members serving in the Iraq War is brain injury. Ruth noted on Friday that USA Today's Gregg Zoroya studied "military and civilian records" and determined that "At least 20,000 U.S. troops . . . were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries". Audio of Zoroya discussing the discovery with Madeline Brand (NPR's Day by Day) can be found here. Meanwhile Simon Basketter (Great Britain's Socialist Worker) reports a study of the British military commissioned by General Sir Richard Dannatt has found "morale is at an all time low. . . . This report highlights the depth of anger among troops about shortages in equipment and manpower, poor food and housing. It says soldiers are deliberately taking 'sickies' to avoid going on operations."
Earlier we noted the 'preventive' 'security' the US has bought by arming and funding death squads/militias. The issue of the preventive paradigm was addressed today on WBAI's Law and Disorder with Jules Lobel who has co-authored with David Cole Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror (The New Press).
Michael Ratner: But if I look at the preventive paradigm on Iraq, for example, that we went to war, at least publicly -- for their reasons -- to prevent an imminent attack on the United States, a dangerous attack, or to stop them from attacking us, or developing a bomb or weapons of mass destruction, that was essentially b.s. They went to war against Iraq -- we can't all articulate exactly the reasons but it has to do with a combination of oil, presence in the Mid East, those kind of issues, and the preventive paradigm was just put up there as a way of trying to get people to go along with an attack for really imperialist reasons around Iraq. How does your book address that issue?
Jules Lobel: Yeah, I think that, obviously, in many cases the preventative rational is simply a smoke screen for something that they want to do for other reasons and the war in Iraq might be a good example of this. But the trouble is that in a time of crisis or a time when people feel an emergency, they're very susceptible to this preventive rational and even if it masks other reasons we felt that you had to take on what was the rational and show why it was counter-productive -- even if it was the true rational. From our perspective, even if Bush and company really believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and if they weren't lying to us -- which we think that they were -- but even if they weren't the underlying analysis is still the same: It still is illegal to engage in preventive war and it's still counter-productive and very dangerous as we have seen. So I think the second point of the book was really to show that these actions taking under this preventive rational are usually counter-productive and have been counter-productive in this situation. What is viewed by many people -- even people of goodwill.
Earlier this month, Ranter was named the 2007 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. On the broadcast, Ratner gave credit to ("too modest," stated co-hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith) to the Center for Constitutional Rights (of which he is president) and joked prizes came your way if you lived long enough. The three also noted that a future broadcast would note the life and recent passing of Victor Rabinowitz.
Today on Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman noted the US military was again trying to implicate Iran in Iraqi violence, "The U.S. military's claim comes as new statistics show that the vast majority of foreign fighters in Iraq are not coming from Iran but Arab allies of the United States. The New York Times reports Saudi Arabia and Libya were the source of about 60 percent of the foreign fighters who came to Iraq in the past year. While American officials have accused Iran of aiding anti-U.S. militants, only 11 Iranians are in U.S. detention in Iraq."
Goodman also spoke with journalist Tara McKelvey about the Democratic Party response to Bully Boy's radio address on Saturday -- a response they elected to turn over to an Abu Ghraib torture czar: Ricardo Sanchez.
AMY GOODMAN: That was University of Wisconsin Professor McCoy. We're joined today from Washington, D.C., by Tara McKelvey. She's author of a new book; it's called Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War. Tara is also senior editor at the American Prospect and a research fellow at New York University's Center for Law and Security. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Tara McKelvey.
TARA McKELVEY: Thanks for inviting me.
AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. Were you surprised the Democrats chose retired General Sanchez to give their Saturday radio address?
TARA McKELVEY: Yeah. I was at home over the long weekend, and I got an email about Sanchez's doing the radio address, and I just kept staring at the email and thinking, like, how could they do this? I was really, really surprised by it.
AMY GOODMAN: You write about him extensively, among many other issues, in Monstering. Talk about his significance.
TARA McKELVEY: Well, one of the things that he did was he spoke a lot with General Geoffrey Miller, who had come over from Guantanamo in the fall of 2003, and they talked about the types of interrogations that would take place at Abu Ghraib. And at that point, Miller had decided that Abu Ghraib would be the central intelligence collection place in Iraq, and it was tremendous pressure on these officers, as well as the entire military, to get what was known as "actionable intelligence" from detainees who were held in Iraq, because there were so many attacks on American troops. And it was in September of 2003 that Sanchez issued a memo that outlined certain guidelines for interrogations. And these included many of the things that had been used at Guantanamo, like sleep deprivation or stress positions.
And when you first hear of these things, you don't think that they sound so bad, you know, like Giuliani was saying, "You know, I stay awake all the time on the campaign trail. You know, sleep deprivation, what's so horrible about that?" But the fact is that over a period of time, sleep deprivation, it causes a body to collapse entirely, and a person will die.
As far as stress positions go, again, according to the official guidelines, it can mean something like having a person crouch in a position for no more than, say, forty-five minutes. And the truth of the matter at Abu Ghraib was somewhat different. The stress positions were used for much longer periods of time, and they also encompassed a wide variety of positions, one of which was something called a Palestinian hanging, which is where they have the person's hands tied behind their back and then they're suspended from their hands. So then, at a certain point, the person's shoulders would become dislocated. And according to a lot of people who were at the prison at the time, you could hear people screaming in their cells at night since they were being held in these positions. And in addition, there was this photograph, what was known as "the Iceman." It was a prisoner named al-Jamadi. Maybe you remember that picture. He actually died while being held in what was known as the Palestinian hanging. So stress positions are anything but benign.
And then, the other thing to remember is that at Guantanamo, you know, however you feel about these interrogation techniques, at Guantanamo they were done under highly controlled circumstances. For instance, the prisoner-to-detainee [sic] ratio at Guantanamo was one-to-one. At Abu Ghraib, the prison was overcrowded. They didn't have enough people working there. You know, they were getting mortared at night. And the ratio of prisoner to guard at Abu Ghraib was seventy-five-to-one. So these techniques were being introduced in an environment that was utterly chaotic.
Goodman mentions McKelvey's exclusive interview with Lynndie England during the broadcast. Click here to read McKelvey's "A Soldier's Tale" (marie claire).
In other news, on the heels of Poland's announcement that they will withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2008, Australia held elections on Saturday. Prime Minister John Howard -- a Bully Boy wannabe -- has held power for eleven years. He was not victorious on Saturday.
Patrick Barta and Rachel Pannett (Wall St. Journal) called the results "a humiliating defeat," as Australia's littlest bully John Howard has been sent packing in the country's federal election. Gemma Daley (Bloomberg News) summed up the Labor Party's winning platform: "tackle climate change, restore workers' bargaining power and withdraw Australian troops from Iraq." Michelle Grattan (Sydney Morning Herald) explained the winning side of the election: "Kevin Rudd will be prime minister and, as John Howard said in his last desperate days during the campaign, Australia will change. Just how much, we will learn over coming months and years." AP observed, "Australia has elected a new prime minister who has promised to withdraw his country's 550 combat troops from Iraq, and leave twice that number there in mostly security roles. Kevin Rudd succeeds John Howard, who had said all the troops would stay as long as needed. Rudd is also promising to change Australia's approach to climate change, and make the issue his top priority." Combat troops are not "all troops." Australia's troops have largely been stationed in the Green Zone at an embassy (although they did enter Iraq right before the start of the illegal war in one of the least noted episodes of the Iraq War).
Remember the Pacifica Radio Archives special broadcast begins tomorrow (7:00 a.m. EST) and the lineup can be found here.
iraq
jeremy hinzmanbrandon hugheybrett clarksoncorey glass
kpfkuprising
sonali kolhatkar
gregg zoroyausa todayruths reportday by daynpr
democracy nowamy goodman
anthony arnovehoward zinn
damien cavethe new york times
stephen farrell
ali al-fadhily
robert parry
law and disorder
michael ratner
michael smith
heidi boghosian
"Remembering Victor Rabinowitz: Legal Giant of the Left" (Marjorie Cohn, marjoriecohn.com):
On November 16, 2007, Victor Rabinowitz, one of the giants of the legal profession and a tireless fighter for social justice, died at the age of 96. One of the founders of the National Lawyers Guild 70 years ago, Victor defended unpopular clients when other lawyers were afraid to touch them. During the McCarthy period, he and his partner Leonard Boudin represented unions that were considered to be left-wing.
The firm counted as clients Daniel Ellsberg, Paul Robeson, Julian Bond, Dashiell Hammett, Dr. Benjamin Spock, the Rev. Philip Berrigan, Alger Hiss, the Black Panthers, the Salvador Allende government in Chile, and the Cuban government.
Victor handled several landmark cases. In 1950, he challenged the provision of the Taft-Hartley Act that prevented unions from representing workers unless all union officers swore a loyalty oath that they were not members of or affiliated with the Communist Party. He lost the case 5 to 4 in the Supreme Court. His work in the Supreme Court case of United States v. Yellin was instrumental in the demise of the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In 1964, in a 8 to 1 decision, the Supreme Court held in Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino that U.S. courts cannot review the legality of the Cuban nationalizations of U.S.-owned property under international law. Victor represented the government of Cuba in that case.
John Mage, prominent radical lawyer and Officer and Director of the Monthly Review Foundation, wrote a review of Victor's book, Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir, for Monthly Review. Mage recalled his favorite Victor story: "In the Cuban bank litigation, Victor (representing the Cubans) was served with a discovery demand that he forwarded to the Cuban Finance Ministry, at that time headed by Che. Shortly afterwards he was in Havana for an anniversary celebration and was invited to accompany Guevara. Che directed Victor's attention to the confetti being thrown from an office tower and said 'remember that discovery demand? . . . There it is.'"
The Rabinowitz Boudin partnership "constituted the defining invention of radical lawyering," said Northwestern law professor Bernardine Dohrn, a leader of the Weathermen who became the Guild student organizer while Victor was NLG president in 1967. The firm "always represented the most controversial victims of oppressive state power: labor struggles, the Community Party cases, constitutional right to travel and political speech issues, defense of the Cuban revolution, support for the civil rights/Black Freedom Movement, defense of anti-Vietnam War activists, and legal defense of Palestinian political activists," Dohrn added.
In his book, Victor characterized McCarthyism as "the era of Great Fear." In those days, it was the fear of Communism; today, it is the fear of Terrorism that the administration uses as an excuse to decimate civil liberties. Describing the government repression against Communists, leftists, and those suspected of being associated with them, Victor wrote, "It was the worst of times . . . It was a terrible and terrifying time." Even the ACLU "succumbed to the red scare" in those days.
That's the only highlight for tonight's entry. Fortunately, it's a strong one.
What else?
I want to talk about Sarah Olsen and her post at PR Watch that is credited to her but refers to herself -- in the text -- as "Sarah Olsen." If Olsen didn't just post, if she actually wrote it, it's an embarrassment, a huge one.
But the reality is that it's an embarrassment regardless of whether she or someone else wrote it. She is not the story and, all these months later, she and her supporters can still not grasp it.
It was bad enough when Ehren Watada was facing years in prison if convicted of a court-martial and she lined up her little aging boy crew. Norman Solomon, Phil Donahue and assorted others who DID NOT write about Watada suddenly wrote columns about Olsen.
That was embarrassing. That was embarrassing for all the men involved.
If you've forgotten, Olsen was being asked by the prosecution to testify at Watada's hearing. She wouldn't say whether she would or wouldn't. That's why she didn't get any editorials supporting her. A person has to take a stand before an editorial board is going to take a stand. Olsen made herself the story, eating up valuable print space and air time, begging for support while she refused to say whether or not she'd testify. It was pathetic.
It wasn't journalism.
So a lot of men who DO NOT write about Watada rushed forward to write about Olsen.
Watada, who was looking at prison time, did not need to stop what he was doing in order to protect the WEAK Sarah Olsen.
The PATHETIC Sarah Olsen who would not stand up for herself wanted the world to stand for.
Watada did take care of the issue.
His thanks?
A snit-fit from an UNGRATEFUL Olsen who implied he was self-serving and that she'd been wronged.
He was self-serving?
He was taking a stand against an illegal war. Sarah Olsen didn't take a stand for anything. She wouldn't even stand up for herself.
But she was happy to PROMOTE herself.
In the post at PR Watch signed by Sarah Olsen, she supposedly writes about Watada's recent victory and does that by taking THREE PARAGRAPHS out of nine to write about herself. ONE THIRD. She is not the story.
Should there be a crucifixtion, remember that Sarah Olsen provided the wood and the nails. She'll have no one to blame but herself.
When the writers' strike is over, if two friends of C.I.'s resume their script about the Watada story, be prepared to see a portrait of a journalist far worse than the character Sally Field played in Absence of Malice. If Olsen gets nailed to the cross, remember that she herself supplied the wood, the nails and the hammer.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Monday, November 26, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, a Bully Boy down under goes down, Damien Cave explodes the myth of "The Great Return" and more.
Starting with war resistance. Sonali Kolhatkur returned to hosting duties of KPFK's Uprising (she was on maternity leave) and her first guest was Lee Zaslofsky of the War Resisters Support Campaign. Kolhatkur began by noting "the Canadian Arab Federation is the latest" organization to rally around the call that US war resisters should be allowed to remained in the US. Kolhatkur and Zaslofsky then addressed the basics of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey whose appeal the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear. What of the reception among Canadian, Kohlhatkur asked and Zaslofsky explained both the polling in Ontario (64.6% state that the war resisters should be permitted to remain in Canada) and that, in terms of personal interation, the response has been "great warmth and a great welcome actually" with a diverse based support from labor, the United Church of Canada, the Quakers and the Mennonites among others. "We have always had a two pronged approach to this, one of them being the legal process," Zaslofsky stated. "Essentially the courts are finished with this. So we've intensified our efforts on the political front which we've always been doing" but this became the best path in the wake of the Supreme Court refusal to hear Hinzman and Hughey's appeals. The Canadian Parliament has not gotten behind legislation at this point; however, they will hold hearings next month.
Zaslofsky explained that when he went to Canada (during Vietnam), at the border you could apply for permanent residence but today you either apply in your home country and wait a year for the process or you come into Canada and apply for refugee statues. Also regarding then and now, he made the point, "First of all, there were quite a few enlistees that came to Canada" referring to then and, referring to now, explained "we believe there is a poverty draft in the United States." This is based on the resisters they enounter in Canada, the fact that they enlisted for basics such as health care, college, etc. Things that are seen as rights in other 'advanced' countries but are seen as 'luxuries' in the United States. Zaslofsky estimates that, in addition to the forty to fifty US war resisters who have applied for refugee status in Canada, "we estimate there may be several hundred" US war resisters who have come to Canada, are working jobs without documentation and are waiting to see what happens to the known war resisters before going public. Also noted was the concern that deportation might kick in: "We're concerned that what will happen is that the Canadian government will start becoming an enforcement arm for the Pentagon and start rounding up war resisters and sending them back." Zaslofsky pointed out Canada's resistance to the illegal war, refusal to take part in it and stated "it seems very consistent that Canada would then protect other Americans who agree" with the same stand regarding the Iraq War's illegality. As he noted, both the War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist have launched campaigns to force the Canadian parliament to step up and do the job that the Canadian government once did: provide a haven to war resisters.
Corey Glass, another US war resister in Canada, shared his story yesterday with Brett Clarkson (Toronto Sun): "For Corey Glass, the last straw was a video of Iraqi children talking about how they wanted to grow up to be suicide bombers so they could kill Americans. It's the moment when Glass, who was born and raised in small-town Indiana, decided to quit the war. . . . For him, he says it was the right decision. Glass, in fact, doesn't see his decision to desert as breaking his word. Instead, he says the U.S. government broke its word by mounting a war based on a now widely discredited claim Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction." Clarkson notes that the hearings in Parliament are scheduled to take place December 6th.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Rodney Watson, 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. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
The voice of war resister Camilo Mejia is featured in Rebel Voices -- playing now through December 16th at Culture Project and based on Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's best-selling book Voices of a People's History of the United States. It features dramatic readings of historical voices such as war resister Mejia, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Malcom X and others will be featured. Musician Allison Mooerer will head the permanent cast while those confirmed to be performing on selected nights are Ally Sheedy (actress and poet, best known for films such as High Art, The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order, the two Short Circuit films, St. Elmo's Fire, War Games, and, along with Nicky Katt, has good buzz on the forthcoming Harold), Eve Ensler who wrote the theater classic The Vagina Monologues (no, it's not too soon to call that a classic), actor David Strathaim (L.A. Confidential, The Firm, Bob Roberts, Dolores Claiborne and The Bourne Ultimatum), actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Clueless -- film and TV series, Gregory and Chicken Little), actress Lili Taylor (Dogfight, Shortcuts, Say Anything, Household Saints, I Shot Andy Warhol, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, State of Mind) and actor, director and activist Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Beloved, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Rainmaker, Places In The Heart, Dreamgirls, Shooter and who recently appeared on Democracy Now! addressing the US militarization of Africa) The directors are Will Pomerantz and Rob Urbinati with Urbinati collaborating with Zinn and Arnove on the play. Tickets are $21 for previews and $41 for regular performances (beginning with the Nov. 18th opening night). The theater is located at 55 Mercer Street and tickets can be purchased there, over the phone (212-352-3101) or online here and here. More information can be found at Culture Project.
Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan
March 13th through 15th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation.
Turning to The 'Great Return' -- bussed in and bought. You've heard the lies, you've heard the myths. Today, Damien Cave (New York Times) becomes the first big or small media reporter to bring you some reality. You learn that "Under intense pressure to show results after months of political stalemate, the government has continued to publicize figures that exaggerate the movement back to Iraq and Iraqis' confidence that the current lull in violence can be sustained." You learn that, yes, the trickle of returnees are coming from Syria and often from busses since Iraqi's central (puppet) government is sending busses into Syria and paying off refugees to return. You learn about the United Nations polling 110 families who have returned: 46% returned because they had no money, 25% due to Syria's increased requirements for a visa "and only 14 percent said they were returning because they had heard about improved security." And you learn that the refugee criisis continues with the United Nations figure for October being 28,017 internally displaced Iraqis. It's the sort of reporting many outlets could have done but refused to. Just last week the BBC has some of the same information but attempted to spin it. While the article succeeds by Times standards, it is also a major article by any standard. Sadly, the same New York Times that sold the myth of the returns and the myth of 'safer' on their front pages elects to hide the strongest piece they've contributed on Iraq in some time on page A7.
"On Saturday," Danny Schechter (News Dissector) observes of the paper, "a front page story reported yet another major horrific casualty-causing bomb blast in Baghdad. On Sunday, two side by side front page stories spoke of 'military successes' as if the military battle had been won. Did they read Saturday's paper?" The article referred to was by Stephen Farrell (whose earlier version was noted in Friday's snapshot) and noted Friday's Baghdad bombing that claimed 13 lives and left at least fifty-seven people wounded. The paper should have run the early version in print. Instead, readers were fed the lie that for "months" there was a "lull in violence" ("had extended from weeks into months"). It hadn't even made it to two months despite the hype. The twin car bombings on September 26th were not "months" before November 23rd. And of course yesterday Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reported a Baghdad Sunday car bombing which claimed 9 lives with at least thirty-nine wounded. (Farrell reports on that in today's New York Times.)
There has been no lull. Violence has continued throughout the escalation. 'Success' is actually the buying off of milita groups as Ali al-Fadhily (IPS) has pointed out. As Robert Parry (Consortium News) has pointed out, the prisons in Iraq (US prisons and Iraqi) are overcrowded with new people being arrested constantly. At some point, the mass graves that keep getting discovered might clue some people in. November 22nd, Damien Cave (New York Times) reported on 40 discovered "near Ramadi" and argues the "area [was] controlled until recently by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia". Kathleen Lucadamo (New York Daily News) reported on the November 17th discovery of 30 corpses "in southern Baghdad"Of course, November 6th, Waleed Ibrahim (Reuters) reported on mass graves containing 30 corpses discovered "north of the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi." These are far from the only ones discovered this month. The US threw a lot of money around to questionable sources who then did whatever they wanted and as long as it could be portrayed as 'safer' (easy to do when mass graves aren't discovered until months after) the majority of the media didn't care all that much. Hala Jaber (Times of London) reports today: "Members of the Baghdad Brigade receive $300 a man each month from the Americans, who also provide vehicles, uniforms and flak jackets. In return the brigade keeps out Al-Qaeda, dismantles roadside bombs and patrols the area, a task performed with considerable swagger by many of its 4,000 recruits." Jaber is reporting on the Sunni militias. The US 'plan' of addressing the frustrations and anger of the Sunni population from the US arming Shi'ite thugs is to turn around and upset Shi'ites by arming Sunni thugs. And people wounded why civilians leave Iraq and why Iraq is the biggest refugee crisis currently. These 'sweethearts' funded and armed by the US show the 'love' by, for instance, entering a school, going "from one class to the next, looking for mobile phones with 'unIslamic' ringtones. One child with a pop music ringtone was slapped and kicked in the legs as a warning to others." Thugs. Armed thughs patrolling inside a school and harassing the young. Armed and funded by the US. And their 'school patrol' is far from the worst of their 'duties.' Thugs, death squads, will not bring 'security' to Iraq. They will, however, buy time for distractions. As Ava I noted (The Third Estate Sunday Review), Martha Raddatz (ABC News) spoke some basic truth on PBS' Washington Week: "Every day that Iraq is not in the news is a good day for the president." Radditz also noted that the administration would shift the 'measures' for 'success' in Iraq. You see that today as Paul Tait (Reuters) that despite the US military swearing control of fourteen provinces could be handed over to Iraqis by the end of the year, Lt. Gen. James Dubik states they will not be able "to take control of most of Iraq's 18 provinces by the end of the year". There's no movement foward on the de-de-Baathification. Yesterday the measure was raised in the Iraqi Parliament and Mariam Karnouny (Reuters) reported that "a row" broke out: "It was the first time parliament had taken up any major bills this year that Washington believes will help heal the deep divide between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs. Objections to the bill from a key Shi'ite faction and arguments over whether it had been submitted properly prevented the draft law from being read out fully, participants at the closed-door session told Reuters." Meanwhile the tensions between Turkey and northern Iraq have not eased -- 100,000 Turkish troops remain stationed on the border and the US continues to send military generals into Turkey for talks. Reuters reported yesterday that US General Bantz Craddock was in Ankara on Saturday and his visit followed recent trips by US General David Petraeus and US General James Cartwright.
Over the weekend, Philip Pullella (Reuters) reported Pope Benedict "made a pressing appeal on Saturady for an end to the war in Iraq and decried the plight of the country's Christian minority." On Sunday, another call was made by a religious leader. Barbara Miller (AM on Australia's ABC) reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams ("the leader of the world's 70 million Anglicans") again called out the illegal war, compared the US "unfavourably to . . . the British Empire" and stated that attacks against Iraqn or Syria would be "criminal."
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Kirkuk car bombing claimed the life of 1 Iraqi soldier and left five more wounded and a Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded two people. Reuters notes a Mosul roadside bombing that claimed 1 life and left another person wounded.
Shootings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "Around midday A gunman killed a woman as she was shopping in Al Banat (girls in Arabic) market according to eye witnesses" in Basra, that Jabar Kadhim was shot dead in Babil, an attack using bombs and gunfire that killed at least 1 person in Kanan and a clash in Al Muqdadiyah that resulted in 4 deaths. Reuters notes that 1 police officer was shot dead in a Kut home invasion.
And Jordan's Al Bawaba reports another attack on a journalist, Shabeqat Akhbar al-Iraq's editor Dia al-Kawwaz whose home was invaded Sunday by "militiamen [who] sprayed his relatives with bullets". Ammar Karim (AFP) quotes al-Kawwaz declaring, "Four gunmen entered my family house in Shab area. Two of my sisters, their husbands and seven children between five and 10 years old were killed yesterday (Sunday) morning" in Baghdad. BBC notes, "The police in Baghdad have not confirmed the attack, but one officer told the BBC the killings had occured".
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 4 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes that 3 corpses were discovered in Mosul.
Aaron Glantz has long observed that the signature wound for US service members serving in the Iraq War is brain injury. Ruth noted on Friday that USA Today's Gregg Zoroya studied "military and civilian records" and determined that "At least 20,000 U.S. troops . . . were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries". Audio of Zoroya discussing the discovery with Madeline Brand (NPR's Day by Day) can be found here. Meanwhile Simon Basketter (Great Britain's Socialist Worker) reports a study of the British military commissioned by General Sir Richard Dannatt has found "morale is at an all time low. . . . This report highlights the depth of anger among troops about shortages in equipment and manpower, poor food and housing. It says soldiers are deliberately taking 'sickies' to avoid going on operations."
Earlier we noted the 'preventive' 'security' the US has bought by arming and funding death squads/militias. The issue of the preventive paradigm was addressed today on WBAI's Law and Disorder with Jules Lobel who has co-authored with David Cole Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror (The New Press).
Michael Ratner: But if I look at the preventive paradigm on Iraq, for example, that we went to war, at least publicly -- for their reasons -- to prevent an imminent attack on the United States, a dangerous attack, or to stop them from attacking us, or developing a bomb or weapons of mass destruction, that was essentially b.s. They went to war against Iraq -- we can't all articulate exactly the reasons but it has to do with a combination of oil, presence in the Mid East, those kind of issues, and the preventive paradigm was just put up there as a way of trying to get people to go along with an attack for really imperialist reasons around Iraq. How does your book address that issue?
Jules Lobel: Yeah, I think that, obviously, in many cases the preventative rational is simply a smoke screen for something that they want to do for other reasons and the war in Iraq might be a good example of this. But the trouble is that in a time of crisis or a time when people feel an emergency, they're very susceptible to this preventive rational and even if it masks other reasons we felt that you had to take on what was the rational and show why it was counter-productive -- even if it was the true rational. From our perspective, even if Bush and company really believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and if they weren't lying to us -- which we think that they were -- but even if they weren't the underlying analysis is still the same: It still is illegal to engage in preventive war and it's still counter-productive and very dangerous as we have seen. So I think the second point of the book was really to show that these actions taking under this preventive rational are usually counter-productive and have been counter-productive in this situation. What is viewed by many people -- even people of goodwill.
Earlier this month, Ranter was named the 2007 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. On the broadcast, Ratner gave credit to ("too modest," stated co-hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith) to the Center for Constitutional Rights (of which he is president) and joked prizes came your way if you lived long enough. The three also noted that a future broadcast would note the life and recent passing of Victor Rabinowitz.
Today on Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman noted the US military was again trying to implicate Iran in Iraqi violence, "The U.S. military's claim comes as new statistics show that the vast majority of foreign fighters in Iraq are not coming from Iran but Arab allies of the United States. The New York Times reports Saudi Arabia and Libya were the source of about 60 percent of the foreign fighters who came to Iraq in the past year. While American officials have accused Iran of aiding anti-U.S. militants, only 11 Iranians are in U.S. detention in Iraq."
Goodman also spoke with journalist Tara McKelvey about the Democratic Party response to Bully Boy's radio address on Saturday -- a response they elected to turn over to an Abu Ghraib torture czar: Ricardo Sanchez.
AMY GOODMAN: That was University of Wisconsin Professor McCoy. We're joined today from Washington, D.C., by Tara McKelvey. She's author of a new book; it's called Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War. Tara is also senior editor at the American Prospect and a research fellow at New York University's Center for Law and Security. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Tara McKelvey.
TARA McKELVEY: Thanks for inviting me.
AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. Were you surprised the Democrats chose retired General Sanchez to give their Saturday radio address?
TARA McKELVEY: Yeah. I was at home over the long weekend, and I got an email about Sanchez's doing the radio address, and I just kept staring at the email and thinking, like, how could they do this? I was really, really surprised by it.
AMY GOODMAN: You write about him extensively, among many other issues, in Monstering. Talk about his significance.
TARA McKELVEY: Well, one of the things that he did was he spoke a lot with General Geoffrey Miller, who had come over from Guantanamo in the fall of 2003, and they talked about the types of interrogations that would take place at Abu Ghraib. And at that point, Miller had decided that Abu Ghraib would be the central intelligence collection place in Iraq, and it was tremendous pressure on these officers, as well as the entire military, to get what was known as "actionable intelligence" from detainees who were held in Iraq, because there were so many attacks on American troops. And it was in September of 2003 that Sanchez issued a memo that outlined certain guidelines for interrogations. And these included many of the things that had been used at Guantanamo, like sleep deprivation or stress positions.
And when you first hear of these things, you don't think that they sound so bad, you know, like Giuliani was saying, "You know, I stay awake all the time on the campaign trail. You know, sleep deprivation, what's so horrible about that?" But the fact is that over a period of time, sleep deprivation, it causes a body to collapse entirely, and a person will die.
As far as stress positions go, again, according to the official guidelines, it can mean something like having a person crouch in a position for no more than, say, forty-five minutes. And the truth of the matter at Abu Ghraib was somewhat different. The stress positions were used for much longer periods of time, and they also encompassed a wide variety of positions, one of which was something called a Palestinian hanging, which is where they have the person's hands tied behind their back and then they're suspended from their hands. So then, at a certain point, the person's shoulders would become dislocated. And according to a lot of people who were at the prison at the time, you could hear people screaming in their cells at night since they were being held in these positions. And in addition, there was this photograph, what was known as "the Iceman." It was a prisoner named al-Jamadi. Maybe you remember that picture. He actually died while being held in what was known as the Palestinian hanging. So stress positions are anything but benign.
And then, the other thing to remember is that at Guantanamo, you know, however you feel about these interrogation techniques, at Guantanamo they were done under highly controlled circumstances. For instance, the prisoner-to-detainee [sic] ratio at Guantanamo was one-to-one. At Abu Ghraib, the prison was overcrowded. They didn't have enough people working there. You know, they were getting mortared at night. And the ratio of prisoner to guard at Abu Ghraib was seventy-five-to-one. So these techniques were being introduced in an environment that was utterly chaotic.
Goodman mentions McKelvey's exclusive interview with Lynndie England during the broadcast. Click here to read McKelvey's "A Soldier's Tale" (marie claire).
In other news, on the heels of Poland's announcement that they will withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2008, Australia held elections on Saturday. Prime Minister John Howard -- a Bully Boy wannabe -- has held power for eleven years. He was not victorious on Saturday.
Patrick Barta and Rachel Pannett (Wall St. Journal) called the results "a humiliating defeat," as Australia's littlest bully John Howard has been sent packing in the country's federal election. Gemma Daley (Bloomberg News) summed up the Labor Party's winning platform: "tackle climate change, restore workers' bargaining power and withdraw Australian troops from Iraq." Michelle Grattan (Sydney Morning Herald) explained the winning side of the election: "Kevin Rudd will be prime minister and, as John Howard said in his last desperate days during the campaign, Australia will change. Just how much, we will learn over coming months and years." AP observed, "Australia has elected a new prime minister who has promised to withdraw his country's 550 combat troops from Iraq, and leave twice that number there in mostly security roles. Kevin Rudd succeeds John Howard, who had said all the troops would stay as long as needed. Rudd is also promising to change Australia's approach to climate change, and make the issue his top priority." Combat troops are not "all troops." Australia's troops have largely been stationed in the Green Zone at an embassy (although they did enter Iraq right before the start of the illegal war in one of the least noted episodes of the Iraq War).
Remember the Pacifica Radio Archives special broadcast begins tomorrow (7:00 a.m. EST) and the lineup can be found here.
iraq
jeremy hinzmanbrandon hugheybrett clarksoncorey glass
kpfkuprising
sonali kolhatkar
gregg zoroyausa todayruths reportday by daynpr
democracy nowamy goodman
anthony arnovehoward zinn
damien cavethe new york times
stephen farrell
ali al-fadhily
robert parry
law and disorder
michael ratner
michael smith
heidi boghosian
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)