Friday, June 15, 2007

Glen Ford, Dem nominees (Cedric)

Elaine's off tonight. She, Mike, Wally, Rebecca, Trina and their families are in Chicago. Betty will be filling in for Rebecca and Kat for Mike. Who'd you get? Cedric.

Count yourself unlucky. I started this before my Iraq study group but I ended up on the phone and am now very late. I'll write about what we discussed.

"Why Barack Obama Needs a Whuppin'" (Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report)
Barack Obama is the antithesis of Black Power, a man who promises with every word he speaks, with every nuance of phrase and body language, and through his voting record as a U.S. Senator, that he personifies the definitive end of Black organized struggle in the United States - a unilateral surrender to white racism. This is his appeal to the white masses: that they will no longer be challenged to confront history, or to relinquish privilege in the present.
Obama's siren song to African Americans is of an entirely different nature. He does not have to sing it; we provide the music, ourselves. The lyrics and melody are actually alien to Obama, but he has heard them off and on in his strange sojourn through life, and senses their power to sway us. He understands that most of us will demand nothing from him - not even elemental allegiance. His "Black" flank, he knows, is covered, while his white "progressive" flank is neutralized and confused by Black failure to recoil at his betrayals of the most basic elements of social democracy. The field is wide open to the greatest opportunist to emerge from melanin-rich ranks in the New Millennium.
Obama has already cashed in on his "Race, but not really, Card" - to the tune of $25 million dollars in contributions in the first three months of this year, three-quarters of it from corporations. This does not happen by accident. Since setting foot in the U.S. Senate, Obama has directed his entire message machine to the task of convincing corporate America that he is a friend who can be counted on to leave the actual Power Game in their hands. One of his first votes was to transfer most class action suits to federal courts, where multi-billion-dollar companies found guilty of race, gender or general employee abuse are fined the equivalent of the millionaire CEO's latest weekend at the casinos in Monaco. In the process of taking class action suits out of state courts, where the penalties to offending corporations have historically been much harsher, Obama voted against an amendment to put a cap of 30 percent on credit card debt charges. A fraction of that multi-billion dollar gift to the most unproductive sector of the economy wound up in his campaign coffers.

I printed that up to take into the discussion and also used the stuff we wrote Sunday for "Get America Out Of Iraq" because I think there are many more important topics than who is running for a party nomination in 2008, I also think that if it's going to be discussed, it needs to be done so in a serious manner.

I keep reading in the press about all the supposed support Barack Obama has from African-Americans. I don't see it. My family and my friends aren't on the Barack bandwagon. We think the exact thing that Glen Ford's written. That's how we see Barack Obama -- an opportunist who expects every African-American to line up behind him not because he's going to do anything to lift us as a people but because he's bi-racial.

He's like any of the big names that fit into the mainstream/White world and then have a scandal. O.J. Simpson suddenly remembers he's African-American when Nicole's murdered. Michael Jackson, who's bleached his skin so much that he needs his own racial category, spends years hanging with this little White boy and that little White boy and a scattering of White stars suddenly wants the African-American community to rise up en mass and support him from charges of pedophilia.

I have no problems with cross-overs. But to me, a cross-over means you cross-over into larger society and are still a part of your community. It doesn't mean you cross-over and slam the door behind you.

Barack Obama's the ultimate cross-over. He's a glossy image produced by merging the p.r. for the Supremes and Charlie Pride. "There is no Black America," he's said and that just demonstrates he is not one of us. He has crossed-over and slammed the door. He's not a part of our community.

When African-Americans see the mainstream media suddenly glom on an someone and hold the person up to us as an "example," it usually turns us off. And, as Betty has pointed out, there is something really disgusting about bi-racial Barack Obama being held up by the mainstream as the Black community's supposed poster boy. When Betty talks about that, I am nodding. I understand where she's coming from. She's an African-American with three children who are as well. The message being sent is not that African-Americans can maybe become president some day, it's that the country's opened up enough that the child of a White parent and an African-American parent can be greeted warmly. For those of us who are African-American and are not half White, there's no message in it for us. We're not effected. We're not being told what's possible for us and that's only all the more clear when the poster boy is one who says "There is no Black America."

So we talked about this and then we talked about the candidates' positions on the war. Most don't have them. You can include Barack Obama with his "me too!" to the James Baker Circle Jerk. That's not a plan and that's especially disappointing for someone who can't shut up about how he was against the illegal war before it began. You should have a real plan then. But like Glen Ford points out (and C.I.'s pointed this out too), Obama only was against the war when he had an opponent. And I'm checking my e-mail and see something C.I. sent. We're going to touch on the topic of Barack Obama at The Third Estate Sunday Review this weekend so look for it. C.I. and Jim are on board and I am too. I know Betty and Ty will be so, unless we go for a fiction edition (C.I. says Jim thinks too much has gone on to do that this weekend), we'll be writing about it Sunday. Barack Obama, the gutter campaigner.

Bill Richardson' plan did impress a lot of people tonight. Like them, I didn't know a great deal about him and wasn't sure I liked what I knew. But he is making the Iraq war part of his campaign and, as my cousin noted tonight, Richardson knows he's a member of a minority. It was really strange to realize that the Hispanic candidate had more in common with us than did the one who is supposedly "Black."

Dennis Kucinich has a real plan and we've actually discussed it before so we didn't need to spend a lot of time on it tonight (we think he has the strongest plan). Mike Gravel's was one we really explored tonight and a lot of people hadn't heard of him. The other thing we discussed was John Edwards' plan. I should say that we discussed seriously. That was Kucinich, Richardson, Gravel and Edwards. We discussed the other 'plans' and were less than impressed. With Chris Dodd, he's got a powerful speech but where are the specifics in detail? With him, our feeling was we'd wait and see and maybe if his website got serious and posted some actual Iraq content we would consider him. The rest (Joe Biden, Obama and Hillary Clinton) we weren't impressed with.

Now this is campaign literature. In Kucinich's case, he can and has introduced bills and, in Gravel's case, he's provided an actual bill that could be introduced. But the rest, I think we need to make sure they realize how important Iraq is. ("We" is written from a Democratic standpoint. I'm not aware of Greens currently running for their party's nomination. When that happens, we will certainly discuss their plans.)

We were impressed with Bill Richardson because we knew so little about him and he is coming out of the gate very serious about Iraq. We even booted up my computer and went looking for an online video of him speaking to get a better sense of him.

So if you're going to talk about candidates, my suggestion is talk about where they stand on issues, what are they proposing? Not about who's ahead in the polls or the fund raising.

That's it for me tonight and Wally and I will be doing a joint-post at our own sites on Saturday.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Friday, June 15, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces the deaths of more US service members, a US jet crashes in Iraq, gas shortages plauge Iraq and more.


Starting with US service members. Today, the US military has announced multiple deaths of US service members. They announced: "Three Task Force Lightning Soldiers were killed as a result of injuries sustained from an explosion near their vehicle while conducting operations in Kirkuk Province, Thursday." And they announced: "One Task Force Lightning Soldier was killed as a result of injuries sustained from small arms fire while conducting operations in Diyala Province, Thursday." And they announced [PDF format warning]: "A Task Force Lightning Soldier died Wednesday in a non-combat related incident, which is currently under investigation." That was five announced deaths which took the current ICCC total for the number of US service members killed in the illegal war since it began (March 2003) to 3519 with the total for the month of June thus far at 42.

That was before a F-16 crashed in Iraq today. CBS and AP report that the US Air Force is calling the crash "an accident" and not giving out any details which includes the status of the pilot. CNN reports that plan "crashed in Iraq at 12:27 a.m." and that "Pentagon sources" have told them the pilot died in the crash. Reuters notes the crash comes as 9 helicopters have already crashed in Iraq this year. The Toledo Blade reports, "A fighter pilot from Toledo's 180th Fighter Wing, Ohio Air National Guard, is unaccounted for after a crash while flying an F-16 today during a mission in Iraq."


Turning to war resistance. In June of 2006, Ehren Watada became the first US officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq and in February of 2007 his kangaroo court-martial ended in a mistrial over the objections of the defense when Judge Toilet sensed (rightly) things weren't going well for the prosecution. As noted Tuesday, Mike Barber (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) reports the second court-martial is set to start July 23rd. Barbara Kelly (Juneau Empire) covers the issue of war resistance in a recent column (June 12th) and notes "those who take such a stand are execrcising a certain kind of moral courage . . . In speaking of Lt. Ehren Watada's refusal to deploy to Iraq, Maj. Gen. John Batiste who has been outspoken in his criticism of the president's Iraq policy, recentlyl stated that Watada followed his conscience. Batiste says he respects Watada even though he does not agree with what the lieutenant did. Batiste does not consider Watada a coward." But he has become a cultural touchstone. Zbignew Zingh (Dissident Voice) uses Watada as one of his examples of how we have now arrived at "Cola Crime." Also today, Megan Kung (Asian Week) writing about an exhibit of Tezuka Osaumu's artwork notes: "With Guantanamo Bay, Karl Rove, Iraq and 9/11, it does seem like we're living an anime. Too bad fighting those 'shadowy' forces in real life is not that easy -- remember Ehren Watada?" A lot do. His story has traveled far and wide and, if the military does attempt another court-martial, even more people will be paying attention than in February.

The movement of resistance within the US military grows and includes Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

This week, Iraq Veterans Against the War Adam Kokesh learned that the kangaroo 'court' on him had rendered a verdict: the honorably discharged marine was informed he'd received a general discharge from the IRR. Earlier, Geoffrey Millard (Truthout) reported on Kokesh and the compilation tells the story up through the news that came out Wednesday -- this is a video report. Kokesh states at the end, "I think what they were hoping to achieve with this decision is that because it won't effect my benefits the way an other-than-honorable-discharge would that I would go away quietly but that's not but that's not the case and I don't think they understood or any of the things that I've written or bothered to read the e-mail responses to the plea bargain but I'm standing on principle and we're going to contest this on principle and it's not going to go away."

Liam Madden and Cloy Richards are also targeted for speaking out against the illegal war.
Cloy's mother, Tina Richards wrote (at Grassroots America) about their recent Memorial Day march, "He [Cloy] could have chosen to march with the Marines and received numerous cheers. For him, it's not a choice. He has a moral imperative to speak out to end this war, and for this he is booed. It is not an easy route to take, but the one our family has chosen. Our children are being killed and maimed as others celeberate and we will not let them forget it. That Memorial Day was one of distress; I waited to see if my son was going to make it through another tough day. Another memory of what Iraq wrough him. Would I walk in and find him with a gun in his mouth, or even worse, I didn't come in time. Every day I fear my son will not survive this war." The US military has no such concerns. They've been happy to launch a witch hunt and a campaign of intimidation and silence at Cloy Richards despite knowing full well that he suffers from PTSD. That was the US military's own 'special thank you' to Cloy Richards.

In different ways, it's a thank you they hand out to many as Aaron Glantz (IPS) demonstrates as he explores the realities for today's returning Iraq veterans which already includes at least 400 homeless while Vietnam homeless veterans "did not usually become homelss until nine to 12 years after their discharge." Today, the Pentagon announces more money is needed for veterans. Kristin Roberts (Reuters) reports that the Pentagon announced today that America's "military's mental health system fails to meet the needs of troops and is too short of funds and staff to help service members sent to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan . . . Repeated and extended deployments to those war zones over the past five years have driven the need for mental health services higher, but resources have not climbed in response, members of a Defense Department task force said." Are you shocked and suprised? Then you must work for the alleged FactCheck.org which made a point of denying this issue in 2004. Aaron Glantz notes, "A recent study by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government found that by the time the Iraq and Afghanistan wars end, there will be at least two and a half million vets. Because of that, the Harvard study concluded, Congress will have to double the VA's budget simply to avoid cutting services."

In Iraq, John Ward Anderson and Joshua Partlow (Washington Post) report the escalation has reached its target and 28,500 additional US service members have been put on the ground and quote Giddy Gabor Sister II of the Green Zone, Chris Gaver, declaring the "we'll be able to execute the strategy as it was designed." Such a Happy Talker. In the real world, Andrew North (BBC) reports that fuel shortages in Baghdad are leading to massive lines (including one where the people went out at daybreak and over 900 were in line), notes that the Ministry of Oil has declared it "a crisis," and that the "attacks on bridges . . . have seriously disrupted fuel tanker traffic into the city." What, what? Didn't the US military, Garver in fact, at the start of the week assure the world that the bridge bombings were of little effect? Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) reported Tuesday on Garver's reassurance that it was of no great consequence "because we have other resources, we have 20,000 troops on each side of the river" but did allow it may be "inconvenient for the people who live there". You think? (It's more than 'inconvenient' for the US military -- no matter how Garver spins it.)

This is the sort of thing Matthew Rothschild (The Progressive) is addressing when he notes Iraq is "going to hell" while other things are focused on. Rothschild goes on to recount Admirall Fallon and John Negroponte 'lobbying' al-Maliki on the oil law "which would turn over Iraqi's liquid treasure to foreign corporations like ExxonMobil. This is the paramount concern of the Bush administration. It is being sold to the American people as a way to equalize revenues to various segments of Iraqi society. But the true reason for it is to line the pockets of U.S. oil executives." Marilyn Bechtel (People's Weekly World) notes that, in the US, "We rarely hear that a powerful labor movement is defending workers' rights, campaigning for an end to the U.S.-led occupation and for better daily living conditions for ordinary people, and upholding the Iraqi people's right to keep control of their country's great oil resources. This month, people across the U.S. are getting a glimpse of that other reality, as they hear from two Iraqi trade union leaders, Faleh Abood Umara, general secertary of the Oil Workers Union, and Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, president of the Electrical Utility Workers Union and the first woman to head a national union in Iraq." The tour continues through the 29th and information is available at US Labor Against the War. Bechtel notes that during the tour thus far, they have met with AFL-CIO's John Sweeny as well as US Congress members Lynn Woolsey and Dennis Kucinich -- Kucinich is, of course, both a member of Congress and running for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

From the criminal theft of Iraqi oil to violence . . . It's Friday. Most are following the F-16 story or Robert Gates surprise visit.

Bombings?

Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) reports a roadside bombing in Baghdad that left seven Iraqis injured. the mosque attacks continue today with Reuters noting that one in "Basra was destroyed" John Ward Anderson and Joshua Partlow (Washington Post) report "At least 13 Sunni mosques were attacked on Thursday" and today the mosque attacks continued with Reuters noting that one in "Basra was destroyed" today. AP informs that the attacks on the mosque began on Thursday with some damage and then, on Friday, a new attack ("planting bombs inside the structure and exploding it completely"). Deborah Haynes (Times of London) reports: "Only the front gate of the Talha Ibn Abdellah mosque was left standing after the gang planted bombs around the compound, blowing up two domes and a minaret."


Corpses?

CBS and AP note, "The remains of a Brazilian engineer who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2005 have been found and positively identified, the Brazilian foreign ministry said Thursday. The remains of engineer Joao Jose Vasconcellos were identified by forensic experts in Kuwait with support from Brazilian embassy personnel, the ministry said in a statement. It did not say when or where the remains were found, which arrived Thursday in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo." From CNN: "Baghdad authorities also reported finding 25 bodies." [Reuters notes 5 corpses discovered in Baghdad yesterday.]

Robert Gates, US Secretary of Defense, made a surprise visit to Baghdad today. This follows an incident yesterday. Thomas E. Ricks (Washington Post) reports that US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated David Petraues "isn't in touch with what's going on in Baghdad" after he saw Thursday's USA Today Q&A where David Petraues gushed over alleged "astonishing signs of normalcy" in Baghdad. Senator John McCain, naturally, clutched his chest, wept and soldiered on as only Senator Crazy can do: with High Drama. CBS and AP report that, in Baghdad, Gates attempted to find a middle between the general and Senate Majority Leader Reid declaring the results to be "a mixed bag." No confirmation to rumors that Gates then hollered "Hit me! Papa's got a mixed bag!" while breaking it down old school with the Mashed Potato.

Meanwhile, one of McClatchy Newspapers' Iraqi correspondents has posted (at Insided Iraq) about Falluja noting, "The city is under seige. You cann not go in only through certain checkpoints witha badge issued by the marines. The main soccer field in the city is now a cemetery. The only amusement park in the city was looted and destroyed; its trees were used by the locals to bake their bread. Now the former amusment park is intended to be the next cemetery. Instead of being the city of mosques it will be the city of cemeteries and this will be another achieveement of the invasion that residents of Fallujah will remember through generations." The correspondent goes on to note the need for burials, for cell phone service to be restored, electricity, water and notes that the US military does not allow people to come and go freely: "In a prison you can enter but you can not leave. In Fallujah you can not enter and you can not leave."

In media news, the latest episode of Bill Moyers Journal airs on PBS in many markets tonight (check your local listings) and in a commentary in the latest episode, he notes:

We have yet another remarkable revelation of the mindset of Washington's ruling clique of neoconservative elites--the people who took us to war from the safety of their Beltway bunkers. Even as Iraq grows bloodier by the day, their passion of the week is to keep one of their own from going to jail.
It is well known that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby--once Vice President Cheney's most trust adviser--has been sentenced to 30 months in jail for perjury. Lying. Not a white lie, mind you. A killer lie.
Scooter Libby deliberately poured poising into the drinking water of democracy by lying to federal investigators, for the purpose of obstructing justice. Attempting to trash critics of the war, Libby and his pals in high places -- including his boss Dick Cheney-- outed a covert CIA agent. Libby then lied to cover their tracks. To throw investigators off the trail, he kicked sand in the eyes of truth. "Libby lied about nearly everything that mattered," wrote the chief prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.
The jury agreed and found him guilty on four felony counts.

And?

You'll need to check out Bill Moyers Journal. Remember, Hilda (Hilda's Mix) notes that, online, Bill Moyers Journal is welcoming to all -- it has text, audio and video. And that can't be stressed enough.

In other media news, as independent media continues to be under attack, News Dissector Danny Schechter's "Special Blog: Can Our Media Channel Survive?" announces the potential fate of Mediachannel.org which may shut down: "If we can get 1500 of our readers (that means you) to give $25, we can keep going for another quarter. [PLEASE CLICK HERE TO MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION ONLINE]"

Finally, independent journalist John Pilger is on a speaking tour with his new book Freedom Next Time and his documentary Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror (which looks at DC, Afghanistan and Iraq). His next stop is Chicago for the 2007 Socialism conference. At 11:30 am Saturday June 16th, he and Anthony Arnove will participate in a conversation, audience dialogue and book signing (Arnove is the author most recently of IRAQ: The Logic of Withdrawal) and that evening (still June 16th) at 7:30 Pilger will be at Chicago Crowne Plaza O'Hare (5440 North River Road, Rosemont, IL 60018) as part of a panel of international activists. To attend the conference, the fee is $85. For Saturday and Sunday only, the price is $70. To attend only one session, the cost is ten dollars. "Presented by The Center for Economic Research and Social Change, The Nation Institute, with support from the Wallace Global Fund. Co-sponsors: Obrera Socialista, Socialist Worker, International Socialist Review, and Haymarket Books. For ticket information, call 773-583-8665 or e-mail info@socialismconference.org For media inquiries, contact (212) 209-5407 or ruth@nationbooks.org. For more information, email info@socialismconference.org." The Socialism 2007 conference will take place in Chicago from June 14-17. Along with Pilger and Arnove, others participating will include Laura Flanders, Kelly Dougherty, Joshua Frank, Amy Goodman, Sharon Smith, Dave Zirin, Camilo Mejia, Jeremy Scahill, Jeffrey St. Clair and many others.










at

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Mini-post

Some great e-mails and I say thank you for them. A few apologized for seeing me as an ogre. No apology needed. I know we all get caught up in the "Independent media will save us!" mode but the reality is that independent media is no different from any other media, it's only interested in getting the word out for itself.

It will cover something if it thinks it will get them attention. The same as with the mainstream media. I especially don't expect people from generations younger than me to get that. They are confused and wondering if the coverage of the war is adequate? It's not. If you lived through Vietnam, you not only grasp that the coverage is inadequate, you also grasp that independent media is not doing a thing to end the illegal war.

Why should they? It's a money maker for them. It drives up their circulation and their audience. A lot of talk about how big media benefits from its ties to the war machine but, be honest, if little media gave a damn about the illegal war, they'd cover it seriously. They don't. They string readers and listeners along with the bare minimum (or what they hope is the bare minimum) and make a 'name' for themselves as a 'brave voice' but they aren't trying to end the war.

Take The Nation who is now exploring the concept of aetheists. They probably do need to having pushed how many religious articles off on readers after the 2004 post-election hula hoop was the mythical 'vangical voters? But that's where they're at --any topic other than Iraq.

"The Perfect (Sine) Wave" (William S. Lind, CounterPunch):
Looking idly at the front page of last Wednesday's Washington Post Express as I rode the Metro to work, I received a shock. It showed a railroad station in Iraq, recently destroyed by an American air strike. So now we are bombing the railroad stations in a country we occupy? What comes next, bombing Iraq's power plants and oil refineries? How about the Green Zone? If the Iraqi Parliament doesn't pass the legislation we want it to, we can always lay a couple of JDAMs on it.
It turns out the bombed railroad station was no fluke. An AP story by Charles J. Hanley, dated June 5, reported that
U.S. warplanes have again stepped up attacks in Iraq, dropping bombs at more than twice the rate of a year agoAnd it appears to be accomplished by a rise in Iraqi civilian casualties.
In the first 4 1/2 months of 2007, American aircraft dropped 237 bombs and missiles in support of ground forces in Iraq, already surpassing the 229 expended in all of 2006, according to Air Force figures obtained by The Associated Press.
Nothing could testify more powerfully to the failure of U.S. efforts on the ground in Iraq than a ramp-up in airstrikes. Calling in air is the last, desperate, and usually futile action of an army that is losing. If anyone still wonders whether the "surge" is working, the increase in air strikes offers a definitive answer: it isn't.

I could be wrong but I believe Lind is a conservative. If CounterPunch thinks it's worthy of note then that's good enough for me. It's also true that conservatives have often been more serious about the war (supporting it as well as opposing it) than most of the mushy left. C.I. made a similar statement about a year ago, wondering did the War Hawks want this war more than the doves wanted to end it? I think that question is still worth asking? Like C.I., I'm not referring to the people, I'm referring to our chattering class. So if Lind's a conservative (if), it doesn't really matter to me. CounterPunch has taken the illegal war very seriously and hasn't dropped it for weeks at a time.

This isn't much of a post but I'm really attempting to avoid revisiting two things from yesterday. I'll be honest, I haven't let it go. I'll add further that I am not going to. Not now, not ever. You do not screw one of my best friends over and see me ever forget it.


"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Wednesday, June 13, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military annouonces the deaths of more service members, the US military and government play The Al-Maliki Squeeze while the puppet babbles incoherently, the mosque bombed in Samarra in February of 2006 is bombed again, and more.

Starting with news of war resistance, Kim Johnson, Duluth's WDIO, reports on Luke Kamunen who, like his two twin brothers Leo and Leif, self-checked out of the US military on the Christmas break and notes, "The brothers' story is not an isolated one. In fact, the Department of Defense reports desertions have risen 35 percent in the past two years -- from more than 2,400 in 2004 to about 3,300 in 2006" and notes that Luke Kamunen "was surprised" to encounter many others who had done the same "when he was detained by the military". (As noted here before, Luke is now discharged, his brothers state they will turn themselves into the US military at some point.)


The movement of resistance within the US military grows and includes Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

Resistance to the illegal war isn't limited to one segment of the population. Amy Goodman (writing at Truthdig) reports on the off broadway production Voices in Conflict -- a high school production that Wilton High School (in Connecticut) decided wasn't fit for the school's theater. As disturbing as the attempted censorship of the play was, Goodman reports on equally alarming detail -- in the high schol clases, these students are not allowed to discuss Iraq even in US history whether they each have "to bring in a current-event news item" -- Jimmy Presson explains, "We are not allowed to talk about the war while discussing current events." Who teaches that class? And do they also work at The Nation? (Democracy Now!, by the way, spends the hour today with Vanessa Redgrave discussing art, politics and more.)

Turning to Iraq . . .

This morning Damien Cave (New York Times) reported on the latest ravings of the madman installed by the US as puppet of the occupation -- al-Maliki declaring that, "We have eliminated the danger of sectarian war." Sounds like someone needs to check their Desoxyn dosage. But reality can sometimes break through even the thickest drug induced fog even if it can be processed correctely. Look at Nouri al-Maliki's statements today. AP reports he's now likening events into Iraq to the American Civil War which would seem indicate that Iraq has not "elimated the danger of sectarian war" as al-Maliki claimed yesterday.

What semi-snapped out of his drugged stupor? A bombing in Samara. BBC calls the site "one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, the al-Askari shrine in Samarra." The Scotsman notes that bombing "was a repeat of last year's bombing that shattered the Askariya shrine's dome" while Steve Negus (Financial Times of London) explains that bombing "destroyed the minarets of the Askariya shrine." Minarets? Those are the two towers or columns that previously stod on either side of the mosque. Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reports, "It wasn't clear how the attackers evaded the shrine's guards to mount the stunning operation, detonating the blasts aound 9 a.m., and bringing down the two slender golden minarets that flanked the dome's ruins at the century-old mosque." Sam Knight (Times of London) notes two reactions -- the puppet "declared a curfew in Baghdad and asked for American reinforcements to be sent to the mainly Sunni town, which has been under a military blockade in recent weeks, to contain any violence" and Moqtadr al-Sadr "called for restraint, declaring three days of mourning and peacful demonstrations." Deborah Haynes (Times of London) notes the reaction of some Iraqis in Baghdad -- shop keeper Shiras Assem decalres, "We are preparing for any attack by the Mahdi Army. We closed the street and we expect to be attacked. Maybe they will hit the local Sunni mosque. We have set up a night watch until this morning. We will not sleep tonight."; and broker Marwan Faled who declares, "We have gather together the young me[n] in our street, each one has a weapon. We told them to be ready if anyone attacks us we will all open fire. We expect an attack during the curfew because we don't trust the checkpoint at end of our road. I plan to stay at home over the next few days because I believe more people will be killed." Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) notes that the Iraqi police have stated the columns were brought down by "mortar rounds fired by unknown fighters" while "witnesses said the explosions seems to have come from inside the church" and that despite appeals "for calm" already "five Sunni mosques in the southern port city of Basra were attacked, apparently in reprisal, and Sunni mosques were also struck in Zaiyuna and south of Baghdad." AFP reports that yesterday "there had been a row between the security forces" with two different groups (one from Baghdad, the other from Tikrit) present and saying they were in charge of security as well "some exchange of [gun] fire too" before the Baghdad contingent assumed security responsibilities and they quote an eye witness who states, "I was near the shrine when I heard big explosions that sent a thick cloud of dust in the sky covering the entire area. I quickly ran to the street from where I could see the shrine clearly. I saw one of the minarets was down. Seven minutes later as I was watching the shrine, another explosion occured and the second minaret came crumbling down." Al Jazeera notes that al-Maliki announced that the security team guarding the mosque (that would be the forces sent from Baghdad) would be arrested. Along with the curfew, ban on public demonstrations and driving in Samarra that has been imposed, Alexandra Zavis (Los Angeles Times and the link also contains an AP Television clip) adds that Moqtada al-Sadr's 30 member parliament bloc has walked out in protest and this "could present a major challenge to Maliki, who is under intense pressure to deliver political and economic reforms aimed at appeasing the Sunni Arab minority". In addition to the Samarra curfew and bans, Mariam Karouny (Reuters) details the "three-day curfew in Baghdad" that has resulted from the Samarra attack though how a capital under crackdown for over a year can be further 'cracked down' may be open to question. Since Moqtada al-Sadr is calling for public, peaceful demonstrations, al-Maliki's "three-day curfew" may be an attempt to circumvent al-Sadr.

Zavis noted the "intense pressure" al-Maliki was facing from non-Iraqis. War Pornographer Michael Gordon (New York Times) noted yesterday that he accompanied US ambassador Ryan Crocker and Admiral William J. Fallon to a face-to-face with puppet Nouri al-Maliki and the point of the meeting was to pressure on the 'benchmark' of getting the oil legislation privatized (turning over as much as 70% of the profits to foreign corporations) passed in July.
Today, Damien Cave (New York Times) reported that the deputy US Secretary of State John D. Negroponte showed up out of the blue in Baghdad yesterday to pressure al-Maliki who released a statement following the meeting attesting that he would use all of his limited power "to persuade Parliament to approve several proposals that the Americans had identified as benchmarks, including an oil law". The law, like 'liberation' has always been just around the corner and you can drop back a year ago when al-Maliki was first 'rolling up the sleeves' to push through the US written oil law that would then be imposed upon the allegedly soveign nation of Iraq. Andy Rowell (Oil Change) observes that the privatization "seems to be in real trouble" and notes Tariq Shaif telling "a news conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank" some unpleasant realities while Rowell notes that al-Maliki's cabinet's Happy Talk of 'give us one month' is vaguely familiar: "If my memory serves me right, that's what he said about three months ago." Which is true and, again, al-Maliki was installed claiming the theft of Iraqi oil was top of his list but he's still 'trying', all this time later.



Bombings?

Reuters reports a Baghdad mortar attack that claimed 4 lives (10 more wounded), a Taji bombing that killed an Iraqi soldier (4 more wounded), a Mandili bombing that killed three (five more wounded), and a Ramadi car bombing that killed 4 Iraqi police officers (11 more wounded).

Shootings?

Reuters reports one college student shot dead

Meanwhile, on the heels of yesterday's news from IRIN that Iraqi children are having to work to support families comes Tina Susman and Zeena Kareem (Los Angeles Times) report on the rise of cholera in Iraqi children with five reported case "in the last three weeks, a worrying sign as summer sets in and the war leaves sewage and sanitation systems a shambles. All of the cases were among children younger than 12 in the southern city of Najaf and were reported by medical officials on alert for signs of the potentially lethal ailment, Claire Hajaj of the United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, said Tuesday."


In addition, the US military announced today: "One Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier was killed when a roadside bomb detonated during combat operations in an eastern section of Baghdad June 11." And they announced: "One Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier was killed when a roadside bomb detonated during combat operations in an easter section of Baghdad June 11." And they announced: "A Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West was killed June 12 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province." ICCC's current count for the total number of US service members who have died in Iraq since the start of the illegal war is 3513.


In media news, as independent media continues to be under attack, News Dissector Danny Schechter's "Special Blog: Can Our Media Channel Survive?" announces the potential fate of
Mediachannel.org which may shut down: "If we can get 1500 of our readers (that means you) to give $25, we can keep going for another quarter. [PLEASE CLICK HERE TO MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION ONLINE]"

Finally, independent journalist John Pilger is on a speaking tour with his new book Freedom Next Time and his documentary Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror (which looks at DC, Afghanistan and Iraq). June 13th finds him in San Francisco showing his film and discussing his book at Yerba Beuna Center for Arts (beginning at 7:00 pm, doors open at 6:00 pm) and the price of admission is $15 general and $5 for students. "Presented by The Center for Economic Research and Social Change, The Nation Institute, and KPFA, with support from the Wallace Global Fund. For ticket information, call 415-978-2787 or order online at http://www.ybca.org/. In person tickets at YBCA Box office located inside the Galleries and Forum Building, 701 Mission Street at Third. (Hours: Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat & Sun: noon - 5 pm; Thu: noon - 8 pm.) For media inquiries, contact (212) 209-5407 or ruth@nationbooks.org For more information, email pilgersf@gmail.com." From San Francisco, he moves on to Chicago for the 2007 Socialism conference. At 11:30 am Saturday June 16th, he and Anthony Arnove will participate in a conversation, audience dialogue and book signing (Arnove is the author most recently of IRAQ: The Logic of Withdrawal) and that evening (still June 16th) at 7:30 Pilger will be at Chicago Crowne Plaza O'Hare (5440 North River Road, Rosemont, IL 60018) as part of a panel of international activists. To attend the conference, the fee is $85. For Saturday and Sunday only, the price is $70. To attend only one session, the cost is ten dollars. "Presented by The Center for Economic Research and Social Change, The Nation Institute, with support from the Wallace Global Fund. Co-sponsors: Obrera Socialista, Socialist Worker, International Socialist Review, and Haymarket Books. For ticket information, call 773-583-8665 or e-mail info@socialismconference.org For media inquiries, contact (212) 209-5407 or ruth@nationbooks.org. For more information, email info@socialismconference.org." The Socialism 2007 conference will take place in Chicago from June 14-17. Along with Pilger and Arnove, others participating will include Laura Flanders, Kelly Dougherty, Joshua Frank, Amy Goodman, Sharon Smith, Dave Zirin, Camilo Mejia, Jeremy Scahill, Jeffrey St. Clair and many others.
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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Indymedia, bad hair and bad manners

So, it's Tuesday. Read Mike. Read Rebecca. (Rebecca from Monday. She's changed Monday's post tonight.) I think they say it better than I could. This is what I mean about C.I. being taken advantage of. Some think I'm an ogre for saying "no" on monies. (Which C.I. could override because we're talking about C.I.'s monies.) But this is what I'm talking about. C.I. gives and gives and the payback is? A stab in the back.

I think Nora Barrows Friedman and Dahr Jamail stabbed C.I. in the back tonight. As I know the story, Flashpoints was happy to get some attention from The Common Ills. So tonight, when they're talking about the story of the New York Times getting it wrong about the play Fallujah and they're mentioning FAIR and Project Censored (the latter of which didn't write a damn word about the New York Times story) and how wonderful it is that they are there to "follow through." When the reality is, FAIR issued an action alert on Monday. After C.I. covered the original article on May 29th (which FAIR did not do) and after C.I. steered the piece at The Third Estate Sunday Review on the correction at the start of this week.

This is the reality of independent media. They want you, they need you, oh, how they do appreciate your money. But they don't. That's why I do not give and will not give. I saw C.I. go through this nonsense during Vietnam. A lot of begging hands and C.I. gave every bit of money possible to the point that C.I. went from very wealthy to beyond poor -- flat broke.

Now I have no control over what C.I. links to or doesn't. But I do have a say on money because I insisted and the reason I insisted was I never want to see those days again. Those people, supposed professionals, will bleed you dry. There was a woman in 2000 or 2004 who gave everything she won in the lottery to the Democratic Party. I read about that in the paper and I thought, "You poor woman." Do you see the Democrats going around to her today? I doubt it. She no longer has her millions.

I saw the same damn thing with C.I. It was so interesting to see all the indy media types come running back once C.I. was back on top, once C.I. had a ton of money again. I think those people are vultures and I think they do the jobs they do because they're unable to get real employment.

I saw the same cycle from our Vietnam days repeating and that's why I pleaded with C.I. not to write a check, not to give any donation, without checking with me first. Just being able to say, "I'll have to get back to you" sends some off in a snit (which demonstrates my point each time).

So if you ever thought, "Elaine, you're just too harsh about independent media" . . . well, didn't we hear reality tonight on Flashpoints radio? Didn't we hear people applauded for "following through" -- one that never wrote a word, one that only addressed the subject on Monday. Did we hear a damn word about The Common Ills?

No. But hasn't Flashpoints enjoyed the attention from The Common Ills? Yes, they have. I will have to leave it at that but, yes, they have.

How did they say "Thank you"? They didn't. Because independent media never says "thank you," they only use. It would have taken two seconds to say, "And, of course, The Common Ills called this out in real time." No one said it. Not Dennis Bernstein, not Nora Barrows Friedman and not Dahr Jamail.

They expect things to be done for them. I know how independent media is. I remember all the lies of how they were going to change the world and they were going to be different and then I saw them all treat Jimmy Carter as though he was the second coming of Henry Wallace.

They use and they self-promote but they never give anything back. The names get changed, some people fade and new ones pop up, but independent media never changes.

A perfect example of that is the fact that women are so grossly underrepresented in 2007. This is post-second wave of feminism. Where are the women with equal footing?

Look for them, find them. If you're lucky, you may find one as a host or co-host or columnist. You won't find them invited in. You never do. The Nation can invite centrists in but they still can't provide even half the space to women that they do to men, forget equal space, they can't even provide half the space.

Look at who gets invited on programs as guests and find the women for me.

Or you can just note that the government confirmation for the use of white phosphorus came on Democracy Now! but no one, including Dahr Jamail, on Flashpoints tonight, felt the need to give Amy Goodman any credit. Want to pretend that anything's changed for women in all this time? Tell it to someone who's not seeing the same crap repeated today.

They can, and do, invite a twice busted internet predator on as a respected guest (male, of course) but where are the women? If abortion's in the news, they may toss out a crumb or two to women. That's it.

Where are the people of color? The civil rights movement and the Black Power movement were going strong when independent media was going to change the world. Find magazines or programs, all this time later, that address race and, no, an annual piece on Brown v. Board is not addressing race.

Independent media (with few exceptions) is as full of crap today as it was during Vietnam. However, to give some credit to the earlier era, they at least did cover the conflict in Vietnam. They treated it as the big story that always needed to be touched upon. Today, they treat the Iraq war as an after thought.

So I will repeat, do not give your money to independent media. It doesn't deserve it. It makes big promises, huge ones, and it never comes through. (You can give to Danny Schechter if you have it. You can give to Matthew Rothschild and The Progressive if you have it. No one will be surprised by my comments on Schechter. If any are by comments on Rothschild, check any community site on July 4th. You do not want to miss it. You should also check any community site on Labor Day. Rothschild will not be mentioned that day but something -- having to do with independent media -- will go up, something you are not aware of that will make someone very uncomfortable. You can go to any community site, it will be posted at all. You can also give to CounterPunch.)

As I said last night, C.I. doesn't get paid for this, it's not a "job." It is a profession C.I. ran from (the family profession). C.I. doesn't give interviews (as C.I.). C.I. doesn't ask for link trades or tradeoffs with independent media. C.I. plays cheerleader for one and all and, time and again, the tradeoff there is that people soak up the attention but never give back.

That might be okay, in most instances. C.I.'s not a glory hog and shuns publicity. Always has. But when you're discussing something C.I.'s covered from the beginning and you're not giving credit, you really aren't hurting C.I.

You're just demonstrating that, like most of the great unwashed indymedia crowd, you were raised in a barn where manners meant you snorted before nudging your way to the trough.

That, with few exceptions, is the reality of independent media. It was the reality during Vietnam, it's the reality today.

I think I'm going to call this post "Indymedia, bad hair and bad manners" in honor of three from the Vietnam era who've figured out they knew me "when" and feel the need to write and beg for money. I didn't give it then and was derided as a, quote, "greedy trust fund baby." Since I wasn't asking anyone else for money, I fail to see how I was "greedy." But I will note that all three were happy to join others in bleeding C.I. dry and then, after they had, act as though C.I. was a perfect stranger. Again, only until C.I. was back on top and had more money than they'll ever have -- at which point, they suddenly were C.I.'s best friend all over again. (C.I. is forgiving, C.I. is not forgetful.)

Independent media's always been good about begging. They've also been good about self-promoting. They just aren't very good with loyalty or manners and, I would argue, the treatment of Cindy Sheehan in 2006 demonstrated that.

Finally, to the three who think I should give them money today, I'm, quote, "the greedy trust fund baby," remember? You write as if you've forgotten that phrase you loved to use. I haven't forgotten it. Or forgotten that you sponged off everyone while I put my money to good use helping war resisters and the movement. Or that your idea of 'making your voice heard' was showing up at a demonstration only if you were there to cover it. Otherwise, you always had something more important to do, now didn't you?

"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Tuesday, June 12, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, a new Gabor sprouts in the Green Zone, Iraqi children seek employment, and more.


Starting with Iraq Veterans Against the War Adam Kokesh who was interviewed by Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) today and explained some issues that the press has misreported:

That is a very good question because a lot of the coverage has grossly simplified the issue and said that I wore my uniform to a protest, which isn't really accurate at all. What we were doing was conducting something called Operation First Casualty. And it's called that because it has long been said that the first casualty of war is the truth. So what we did was conduct a mock combat patrol through the streets of Washington, DC, in order to bring a small part of the truth of the occupation home to the American people and give them a small sense of what it's like to have squads of men in uniform, with rifles, although we were simulating them of course, running around the streets of their city. And we also had civilians playing affected peoples. They weren't playing Iraqis or pretending to speak Arabic or anything like that, but we treated them as we would treat Iraqi civilians on a daily basis. So it was more street theater than general protest, and I do not need to show up to a protest in a uniform to represent myself as a veteran. But for this particular demonstration we were simulating a combat patrol, and so that is what we did, that's why it was appropriate in that setting. Now, normally, as I did -- or as I am doing today, I should say, I wear this Marine Corps boonie cover, and that is how I choose to represent myself as a veteran.

Kokesh, along with Liam Madden and Cloy Richards, is being targeted by the US military for speaking out. Last week, a (kangaroo) hearing was held regarding his discharge from the Interactive Ready Reserves. Kokesh addressed the status there noting "you may recieve multiple discharges throughout your military career. But it's your last one that is revelant in terms of your benefits" which is why the US military is now attempting to override the honorable discharge he received from the marine corps in November with an other-than-honorable discharge. He also addressed how this issue effects more than just himself, Richards and Madden and the reception he's receiving:

Adam Kokesh: Well, actually it's been quite surprising to see a lot of people from my old unit contacting me and supporting me in my efforts in trying to get, to ensure that the Uniform Code of Military Justice is not applied beyond it's jurisdiction into the inactive reserve. They appreciate that, and I think a lot of people in the military appreciate what I am doing and why am trying to fight this case so hard. Even though the board recommended me for a general discharge last week, which wouldn't affect my benefits if it's approved, it does not do anything to establish a precedent and the next guy facing the same charges might receive an OTH or something worse potentially. And everyone in active duty is going to be in the IRR at some point, if they're not past their eight-year contract when they get out of the military, most are on four-year contracts, and they spend -- they stand to spend about four years in the inactive reserve. And, if it's not safe for these combat vets coming home to speak their minds, then it's not safe for anyone.

Evan Knappenberger also appeared on today's Democracy Now! and discussed his actions last Thursday in Washington state, "I decided a couple of weeks ago that I needed to do something to affect a positive change in all these kind of negative things going on. I figured the best way to do that would be to draw some attention to these policies that the military is using to fight this war without actually -- you know, a war without conscription, basically. So in the middle of the night I had this great idea, just as a symbol of something kind of similar to what Operation First Casualty is, you know, to bring the war to the American people, because there is a big disconnect between the civilian population and those of us who were in Iraq. We can see -- as veterans of Iraq -- we understand kind of the way that these policies get perpetrated, and the American people need to be made aware of that. So I had this great idea to bring that home and ended up on a tower for eight days."

Amy Goodman: Ended up what?

Evan Knappenberger: I ended up sitting up on this tower for eight days, wearing my uniform, kind of like I did in Iraq, when I was guarding these fields in Iraq.

Knappenberger also spoke of the study he did while serving in Iraq which "concluded that there were close to 3/4 of a million civilian deaths over the course of the Iraq war. Now I would guess it is probably upwards of a million."

Amy Goodman: Well that actually coincides with the two studies done most recent, a million, and before that The Lancet, the British medical journal published that study from Johns Hopkins University, saying around 655,000 soldiers -- rather, civilians, had died in Iraq.

Evan Knappenberger also spoke of suicide and noted he questions the official US military figure of 122 suicides by service members while serving in Iraq noting that his unit "had 45 combat casualties and 15 suicides" and explaining that these are suicides taking place in Iraq and that suicides of vets taking place in the US "are not counted . . . The army does not want to admit to taking any more losses than they possibly can." Yesterday, CNN reported on a study for the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health led by Dr. Mark S. Kaplan which found "The risk of suicide among male U.S. veterans is double that of the general population." This study did not include any veterans who have served in Afghanistan or the current illegal war in Iraq and, presumably, no women. Meanwhile, the Kavkaz Center noted a recent US army survey which "showed that 20% of soldiers and 15% of marines suffered from acute depression, anxiety or stress."



Meanwhile, Joel Bleifuss (In These Times) writes about the topic of war resistance, noting the brothers Kamunen -- Leo, Leif and Luke -- who self-checked out January 2nd of this year. Bliefuss is the editor of In These Times. For those needing a scorecard, two of the big three independent print magazines are weighing in -- The Progressive and now In These Times -- which leaves Katrina vanden Heuvel (editor and publisher of The Nation) as the only 'voice' of a magazine that elects to be silent on the issue of war resistance. Katrina vanden Heuvel, now more than ever, The Peace Resister. (And before anyone writes in on those Ehren Watada articles -- the 2006 ones were all "online exclusives" and Editor's Cut, her blog, can't be bothered with war resistance -- though there was time for American Idol.) Speaking of Ehren Watada, he remains the first US officer to refuse to deploy to Iraq. In February he faced a kangaroo court in which Judge Toilet (John Head) declared a mistrial over the objections of the defense. Mike Barber (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) reports that Charles H. Jacoby Jr. (Lt. Gen.) is now in charge of Fort Lewis and this means, "He inherits the court-martial of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, who refused last year to go to Iraq with a Stryker Brigade, saying the war is illegal. Earlier this year, Watada's first trial ended in a mistrial. The start of the second trial July 23 was stayed by the Army Court of Appeals; pretrial motions are to be heard July 6."


The movement of resistance within the US military grows and includes Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

Turning to Iraq. Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspaper) noted of Monday's bombing over the Tigris River (Diyala province) that this was "at least the seventh attack on Iraqi bridges in the past two months," beginning "with the destruction of the Sarafiya bridge in Baghdad," that the May 11th bombing in Taji involved three car bombings focused on two bridges, that the June 2nd bombings "severely damaged a bridge that links a highway from Baghdad with the northern city of Kirkuk, forcing traffic headed to Baghdad to pass through Diyala province." To repeat, Diyala province is where yesterday's bombing took place. First, traffic is forced through Diyala and then the bridge in Diyala is attacked -- but the US military wants to pretend there's no pattern or planning going on here. CBS and AP note that, as a result of that bombing, "vehicles were being forced to detour to a road running through al Qaeda-controlled territory to reach important nearby cities." Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) observed, "The bridge linked towns on the eastern side of the bridge, which are Shiite, with those on the western side of to the bridge, which are Sunni Arab. . . . Bridges are crucial in central Iraq, where the broad Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their tributaries wind through the countryside. Each attack has hampered commerce and made daily life more difficult for Iraqis." But Lt. Col. Chris Garver declares, "Willie, my love, a new Gabor sister is in town."
Garver tells Rubin that "knocking down the bridge may or may not have significance, because we have other resources" blah blah blah. Translation, Zza Zza just joined big sister Ava to make for two Gabor sisters living it up in the Green Zone.

In the real world, CBS and AP report today: "Suspected Sunni insurgents bombed and badly damaged a span over the main north-south highway leading from Baghdad on Tuesday -- the third bridge attack in as many days in an apparent campaign against key transportation arteries. . . . About 60 percent of the bridge was damaged, and cars could still pass over it via one lane, police said."

As the infrastructure continues to crumble, the violence continues. Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) reports on a typical April day in Baghdad when "a bomb ripped a jagged hole in the road near Abu Mohammed's small grocery store. Gunfire crackled along the street as U.S. soldiers responded to the attack. Someone pounded frantically on the grocer's locked door, pleading for help. Mohammed recognized the frightened voice as that of a local teenager and let him inside. The 17-year-old had been struck by a bullet in the chaos that followed the explosion and was bleeding heavily. Within two hours, the boy was dead. Witnesses charge he was killed by U.S. troops firing randomly." Yesterday, Norman Solomon (CounterPunch) noted that "the Iraqis killed by Americans don't become much of an issue in the realms of U.S. media and politics. News coverage provides the latest tallies of Iraqis who die from 'sectarian violence' and 'terrorist attacks,' but the reportage rarely discusses how the U.S. occupation has been an ascending catalyst for that carnage." (Solomon's writing of the uncovered/undercovered air war going on in Iraq and also suggesting that those attempting to end the war focus on all the fatalities because, historically, as elections approach, US presidents sometimes try for some sort of drop in on the ground figures in an effort to make it seem the war may ending when the air war is actually being increased. More on the topic of this technique used in the past, Vietnam, can be found in War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning us to Death -- a documentary adaptation of Solomon's book of the same title, narrated by Sean Penn, which will be shown in DC on the 20th of this month and which you can already order on DVD.)

In other news, IRIN reports that "thousands" of Iraqi children now live in the streets and 11% under the age of 14 are working due to the extreme poverty. IRIN takes a look at twelve-year-old Abdel-Salim who is the only male in his family after the illegal war counted his father as 'collatoral damage'. So the twelve-year-old boy works each day (12 hour days) "in the streets selling chocolates and pencils. I eat just one meal a day to save money, and when I return I just want to sleep." For the record, Baghdad's high today was 109 degrees fahrenheit with all week expected to be over 100 degrees.

IRIN's report comes as Colum Lynch and Joshua Partlow (Washington Post) note a new United Nations report issued yesterday which found that "the recent U.S. military buildup in Baghdad" has not ended the violence and, quoting from the UN report, "civilian casualties continue to mount".

In news of some of today's civilian casualties.

Bombings?

Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad bombing in the Al Waleed neighborhood that wounded 3 people, a Baghdad explosion in the downtown square that claimed the lives of 2 (2 more injured), a Baghdad mortar attack that killed 1 Iraqi (2 more injured), a Baghdad explosion that killed 1 Iraqi soldier (2 more wounded), a bombing outside of Baghdad that wounded two en route to the capital, a Baghdad bombing ("in Bab Al Muathim neighborhood downtown") that claimed 2 lives (6 more injured), two corpses in Baghdad exploded as police attempted to move them and 5 police officers injured in a Kirkuk bombing. Reuters notes a bombing near Ramadi that claimed the lives of 3 police officers (15 more wounded). CBS and AP report "gunmen stormed the house of the Sunni mayor of Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, forcing the family members outside, then blowing up the house, the police officials said."

Shootings?

Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports an Iraqi police officer wounded in a Baghdad shooting, "Gunmen exploded two houses of displaced families in Al Khalis town early morning today," a Khalis attack on a minu bus that left 2 Iraqis dead (2 more wounded), a Khalis shooting that left 2 Iraqis dead, a Bob Al Muathim attack where 3 police officers were shot dead and a Kirkuk attack in which a police officer was shot dead -- dropping back to yesterday, Laith Hammoudi also notes that an Iraqi civilian was killed by "British forces [who] opened fire targeting a taxi" in Baghdad. Reuters notes that today a police officer was shot dead in Hawija.

Corpses?


Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 26 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes that a corpse was discovered in Tikrit.


In the US, Peter Speigel (Los Angeles Times) reports, the US army missed their target for recruitment last month "marking the first time in almost two years the service has fallen short and renewing questions about whether the war in Iraq is having a long-term effect on the well being of the Army." This announcement comes as the US Department of Defense "expressed hope today [Monday] that a provision in the stalled immigration bill that would have allowed some undocumented aliens to join the military won't fall off the radar screen."


In media news, as independent media continues to be under attack, News Dissector Danny Schechter's "Special Blog: Can Our Media Channel Survive?" announces the potential fate of
Mediachannel.org which may shut down: "If we can get 1500 of our readers (that means you) to give $25, we can keep going for another quarter. [PLEASE CLICK HERE TO MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION ONLINE]"

Finally, independent journalist John Pilger is on a speaking tour with his new book Freedom Next Time and his documentary Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror (which looks at DC, Afghanistan and Iraq). June 13th finds him in San Francisco showing his film and discussing his book at Yerba Beuna Center for Arts (beginning at 7:00 pm, doors open at 6:00 pm) and the price of admission is $15 general and $5 for students. "Presented by The Center for Economic Research and Social Change, The Nation Institute, and KPFA, with support from the Wallace Global Fund. For ticket information, call 415-978-2787 or order online at http://www.ybca.org/. In person tickets at YBCA Box office located inside the Galleries and Forum Building, 701 Mission Street at Third. (Hours: Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat & Sun: noon - 5 pm; Thu: noon - 8 pm.) For media inquiries, contact (212) 209-5407 or ruth@nationbooks.org For more information, email pilgersf@gmail.com." From San Francisco, he moves on to Chicago for the 2007 Socialism conference. At 11:30 am Saturday June 16th, he and Anthony Arnove will participate in a conversation, audience dialogue and book signing (Arnove is the author most recently of IRAQ: The Logic of Withdrawal) and that evening (still June 16th) at 7:30 Pilger will be at Chicago Crowne Plaza O'Hare (5440 North River Road, Rosemont, IL 60018) as part of a panel of international activists. To attend the conference, the fee is $85. For Saturday and Sunday only, the price is $70. To attend only one session, the cost is ten dollars. "Presented by The Center for Economic Research and Social Change, The Nation Institute, with support from the Wallace Global Fund. Co-sponsors: Obrera Socialista, Socialist Worker, International Socialist Review, and Haymarket Books. For ticket information, call 773-583-8665 or e-mail info@socialismconference.org For media inquiries, contact (212) 209-5407 or ruth@nationbooks.org. For more information, email info@socialismconference.org." The Socialism 2007 conference will take place in Chicago from June 14-17. Along with Pilger and Arnove, others participating will include Dahr Jamail, Laura Flanders, Kelly Dougherty, Joshua Frank, Amy Goodman, Sharon Smith, Dave Zirin, Camilo Mejia, Jeremy Scahill, Jeffrey St. Clair and many others.









norman solomon
matthew rothschild
at

Monday, June 11, 2007

Monday rant

This will be a long rant. You'll understand why as you read along.

"The Silence of the Bombs" (Norman Solomon, CounterPunch):
Three years have passed since most Americans came to the conclusion that the Iraq war was a "mistake." Reporting the results of a Gallup poll in June 2004, USA Today declared: "It is the first time since Vietnam that a majority of Americans has called a major deployment of U.S. forces a mistake." And public opinion continued to move in an antiwar direction. But such trends easily coexist with a war effort becoming even more horrific.
In Washington, over the past 25 years, top masters of war have preened themselves in the glow of victory after military triumphs in Grenada, Panama, the 1991 Gulf War, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. During that time, with the exception of the current war in Iraq, the Pentagon's major aggressive ventures have been cast in a light of virtue rewarded -- in sync with the implicit belief that American might makes right.
"The problem after a war is with the victor," longtime peace activist A. J. Muste observed several decades ago. "He thinks he has just proved that war and violence pay."
The present situation has a different twist along the same lines. The Iraq war drags on, the United States is certainly not the victor -- and the U.S. president, a fervent believer in war and violence, still has a lot to prove.
Faith that American might makes right is apt to be especially devout among those who command the world's most powerful military -- and have the option of trying to overcome wartime obstacles by unleashing even more lethal violence.
These days, there's a lot of talk about seeking a political solution in Iraq -- but the Bush administration and the military leaders who answer to the commander in chief are fundamentally engaged in a very different sort of project. Looking ahead, from the White House, the key goal is to seem to be winding down the U.S. war effort while actually reconfiguring massive violence to make it more effective. Two sets of figures have paramount importance in mainline U.S. media and politics -- the number of U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and the number of them dying there. Often taking cues from news media and many lawmakers on Capitol Hill, antiwar groups have tended to buy into the formula, emphasizing those numbers and denouncing them as intolerably high.

C.I. asked me to note that, so I did. My opinion? If Iraq's so damn important (I think it is) don't go off on other topics. Stay consistent. C.I. likes Norman Solomon, I admire most of his work. I don't think he's treated the war as seriously as he could or should. The bombings was a topic he wrote about months ago. Now he's writing about it again. Iraq is sometimes his topic, Iraq is sometimes not. I do not question Norman Solomon's talent or his intentions. I will state very clearly that Iraq is not something to be picked up and dropped repeatedly. I will note that we never need another summer like last year when independent media took weeks off from the topic of Iraq.

Later in the column, Norman Solomon notes what the peace movement "needs" to do. You want to influence the movement, stay focused. No one needs to hear from a drop-in visitor. It doesn't sound helpful, it sounds like scolding. (I am sure that is not his intent but that is how it comes off. These are my opinions, not C.I.'s, who will probably tell me, "Gee, I wouldn't have asked you to note the article if I'd known you'd write all of that.")

Iraq is an illegal war and no one's yet to take up Molly Ivins' challenge to focus on Iraq. Don't even say "C.I. does" because C.I. took that up before. The reason C.I. is listened to on Iraq is because C.I. doesn't drop it and go chasing after the latest fancy of the moment. (Rebecca has more to say on that tonight. She is furious and I don't blame her. Had I seen the thing first, I would be writing about that opic.) It is really amazing that the left's strongest commentator on Iraq is my friend. No question, C.I. knows the topic. But, also no question, C.I. didn't set out to do what's going on at The Common Ills.

C.I. didn't want to be a reporter, ended up working several jobs in college because parents said "You will major in journalism" and C.I. said "___ no," and yet there's C.I. on Friday having to report on Liam Madden's press conference because who else is doing it? Today Sunny asked a question that pops up frequently in the e-mails (this time she was asking for herself and not because of an e-mail): Is C.I. really going to stop The Common Ills in November of 2008? To be honest, having spoken to C.I. at length Sunday night, I think so. If it was October 2008 today, the site would cease. It is too much work, it is too much time. C.I. still has the same cold from getting caught in a downpour three weeks ago.

Where are all the commentators on Iraq? A column once a month isn't cutting it. No program dedicated to the topic isn't cutting it. People my age and older have an obligation to be leading this, not whining, "Where are the kids?" Students are active and increasing their activism. They are doing their part. People my age and older have a historical perspective (if they didn't bake their minds completely) that they can bring to this and who does that? Seriously.

Who does that and does it seriously?

While I was on the phone with C.I., C.I. was on another phone attempting to figure out whether two bombings were actually the same and two different news organizations were using different locations. As I listened in on that, I thought how ridiculous. This isn't C.I.'s job, C.I. doesn't get paid for this. But there are people who present as journalists and where are they?

Norman Solomon goes on to note that there are air wars going on. He doesn't mention the children killed in the school attack or any of the others that have been covered at The Common Ills. It's not that it's not being covered, it's that professional journalists aren't doing their damn job. I could go further and note that on May 29th, C.I. addressed something that is the topic of an action alert today but Rebecca's grabbing that. I will note that, like her, I am highly offended that C.I.'s work is built upon and not credited.

At some point, three months?, the bombing of bridges will be the 'big story' and let's all watch and notice how C.I. was telling the truth about that months ago (as with the helicopter crashes) but will receive no credit (as with the helicopter crashes) as people rush in to suddenly pontificate about something that has been ongoing for months while they wasted everyone's time on another topic.

When people e-mail asking, "Why wouldn't you give to independent media?", I always explain that I do contribute to public radio and that, other than that, I have no desire to because I know too many friends (such as C.I.) that give and give and nothing ever changes. Having watched The Common Ills be ripped off for, what, almost three years now, I have another reason. I am sick of it. I told Hilda I'd write something for her newsletter (Hilda's Mix) and have been attempting to think of a topic. I have it now. I'm going to note the top ten times The Common Ills has been ripped off without credit and it will be completed before Friday so it can run in her newsletter on Tuesday.

That's all I've got to say tonight. I'm really disgusted (read Rebecca's post when it goes up later).

"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Monday, June 11, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces the deaths of more US service members, bridge bombings continue (and only one reporter notes the strategic importance behind the bombings), The Poetic Ravings of Puppet al-Maliki, and more.

Starting with war resistance. "In the current environment have you seen a lot of resistance to this war among enlisted men, among officers, among young people?" Michael Ratner asked on WBAI's Law and Disorder today (the program streams online and also airs on other radio stations across the country). "It's interesting," Tod Ensign answered, "This is a good time to talk about it. Because until about a year ago, the Pentagon was claiming that there was not an uptake, there was not an increase in desertions, for example. If you accept their figures as, you know, somewhat accurate, that seemed to be the case -- that the three years before . . . we invaded Iraq had higher desertion rates than the three years after. However, this last year, there's been a pretty substantial increase in the number of desertions and I would say it's increased by at least fifty percent. So that would suggest that, you know, soldiers, to some extent, are voting with their feet. Now, of course, the military always says, 'You know a lot of deserters are driven by family problems or financial issues or they just can't stomach the military" which of course is true, in some cases. But I do think there is an increase in the attitude among soldiers, especially guys that have already served over there that this is an endless war and there's nothing to be gained by them going back again."

And demonstrating how right Ensign is, Nancy Montgomery filed two stories on this subject yesterday for Star and Stripes. In her first article, Montgomery noted that the US army states 3,300 is the desertion figure for the last year and that "a news report in April citing Army statistics said more deserters were facing courts-martial than in previous years. But [Maj. Anne] Edgecomb said that of deserters outprocessed at Fort Knox, Ky., where many U.S. Army Europse soldiers who desert end up, 70 percent are administratively discharged."
In both articles, Montgomery notes the Military Counseling Network in Germany which notes the following conditions usually prevent criminal charges: "they must not be on a deployment list; they must not have pending actions against them under the Uniform Code of Military Justice; they have to make it back to the U.S. before 30 days, when an arrest warrant is issued; and they should turn themselves in after 30 days when they've been dropped from their unit's rolls to one of two personnel control centers, Fort Knox or Fort Sill, Okla." In both article, Montgomery reports on 23-year-old Chris Capps who made the decision to self-checkout, "flew to the States and stayed in New York City until he knew he had been dropped from his unit's rolls. After that, Capps said, his commander had no authority over him. Capps turned himself in at Fort Sill. In fewer than four days, he was out of the Army, with an other-than-honorable discharge." Capps explains to Montgomery that he didn't try for Conscientious Objector status because he isn't opposed to all wars and because he "knew a soldier in his battalion who sought and won CO status and didn't want to go through the process. 'The chain of command treated him like [crap],' Capps said." Montogmery's second article focuses more on CO status and includes Vincent La Volpa who was awarded CO status and discharged honorably "in 2005 with a Purple Heart earned during his Iraq tour" whose statements on his CO decision include: "I contemplated the cause and its value. Feeling that the means was not worth the sacrifice for the uncertain end. I felt that I had to make a decision. Am I for this or am I against it? I decided I am against it." In the second article, Montgomery notes MCN's Michael Sharp whoe explains that in 2006, they were dealing with "eight to 10 nes cases monthly" of enlisted needing advice about discharges and that has gone up to "15 to 20" a month.

Also covering the topic yesterday was Heather Wokusch (OpEdNews) who covers the cases of Kyle D. Huwer, Clifton F. Hicks and "John" (a psuedonym). John self-checked out and is back in the US avoiding his family ("avid Bush-supporters; his uncle works for a weapons manufacturer and his stepfather, for an oil company") but has some contact with his girlfriend "Sarah" who notes the difference between media in Germany and in the US, "Watching the news here [US] really makes me angry, people are so detached from reality. They increse the troop deployments from 12 to 15 months, and no one besides the military families recognizes it. They are sending back national guard people for multiple deployments, no one recognizes it. You hardly hear anything about what that puts on the families, emotionally and financially. I'm deeply mad and sad about that at the same time."
John explains to Wokusch the transformation he had while serving in Iraq and notes, "It was not what I was expecting at all. There are people in Iraq making HUGE sums of money profiting over poorly supervised and ill-run government contracts. When you hear about the cost of the war in Iraq, it's this kind of thing that's doing it, not the body armor, having to pay the soliders a couple of meager extra bucks, or armoring the humvees. It's paying KBP $90 for every time I turn in my laundry while paying poor Pakistani and Filipino workers who work long hours with no days off for years at a time (and handling thousands of bags of laundry) $15 a day." [Note: Heather Wokusch's article also contains an audio-visual stream option.]

Clifton Hicks is now discharged and some may remember his story from Peter Laufer's
Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq. In the book Laufer recounts how Hicks father posted one his son's letters home (from Iraq) online and the military's response was "a Field Grade Article 15" (p. 185) which Hicks learned after his woke him up one morning kicking his cot and, pay attention easily shocked Heather Hollingsworth-types, cursing at him. "They were going to throw me in jail for treason." After he was demoted to private and fined $800, Hicks applied for CO status. Hicks told Laufer, "If I don't get it? I have other avenues of approach to get home. I've told them I am not going back to Iraq" and would rather go to prison but "[i]t won't come to that, though, because I think I'm too smart for that to happen to me. Civil disobedience is an option -- just refuse to put the uniform on. Maybe a hunger strike. There's all kinds of things you can do. It's looking like they'll approve it. But if they don't, I have Plan B, Plan C, all the way up to desertion" (p. 187). Laufer's chapter on Hicks ends with Hicks being told he will receive CO status and a discharge. [Reminder, Laufer now hosts a two hour program each Sunday morning on KPFA from 9:00 to 11:00 am PST. The program is not yet named -- though it is airing -- and Laufer's program airs in Larry Bensky's old time slot.]

The movement of resistance within the US military grows and includes Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

On today's Law and Disorder, Todd Ensign noted that Iraq Veterans Against the War has "a chapter up at Fort Drum which is where we have our coffee house [Different Drumer Cafe] and that's the first on base chapter of IVAW that I'm aware of." Dalia Hashad asked him where Fort Drum was and Ensign responded "about sixty miles straight north of Syracuse, almost to the Canadian border and most New Yorkers know it as a reserve base; however, under Reagan it was turned into an active infantry base. Now it's the most heavily deployed division in the US army. It's a very active combat infantry base."

Dalia Hashad: Can you explain for people who don't know what the coffee house is? Or how it came about?

Todd Ensign: Good question. During the Vietnam war, those of us who are older -- in the older generation recall there were over 20 coffee houses that were formed mostly by civilians initially at or near US military bases -- army and marine bases and navy and airforce too. And these were very important in building the GI movement and building the opposition to the war within the ranks. They had an enormous impact. There's a very fine documentary called Sir! No Sir! that some of your listeners have probably seen that tells that story and it's really pretty amazing to realize that those coffeehouses were often largely run and staffed by soldiers, active duty soldiers".

[Mike notes Law and Disorder each week at his site and, here, we'll also probably pick up more from the interview later in the week. Attorneys (and activists) Dalia Hashad, Michael Ratner, Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith host the one hour radio program.]

The attempts to silence Iraq Veterans Against the War's Adam Kokesh, Cloy Richards and Liam Madden (as well as others) from speaking out continues. War resister Stephen Funk (who announced his refusal to deploy to Iraq in April 2003) writes (The Huffington Post) about Kokesh and observes, "If Sgt. Kokesh wanted to play it safe, he would have waited to protest until after June 18th, when he was scheduled to be discharged from the Individual Ready Reserve. At that point he would no longer be held accountable to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. But the anniversary of the war happened to fall earlier in the year, and true patriots do not wait until it is convenient or safe to act upon their beliefs. That the military would charge someone so close to discharge with misconduct for such a minor indiscretion shows how desperate they are to contain the emerging antiwar voices among their ranks as discontent with the war continues to rise." Kokesh is specifically targeted for engaging in street theater, Operation First Casualty. [Language warning] Jeff Mullins (The Brooklyn Rail) takes a look at Operation First Casualty and notes that it "is modeled after the Vietnam-era protest action Operation Rapid American Withdrawal that took place in Pennsylvania during the summer of 1970. This variation came out of a brainstorming session among the Washington D.C. chapter of IVAW earlier this year. The vets felt 'tired of just being part of other people's protest,' explained Adam Kokesh, a member of the D.C. chapter. IVAW, a national veterans organization founded in July of 2004, performed the first Operation First Casualty in D.C. this past March." Michael Borkson (Boston IMC) has posted video and photos from Liam Madden's press conference last Thursday (covered in Friday's snapshot, text can also be found in this write up we did at The Third Estate Sunday Review).

While some try to end the illegal war, others are eager for it to continue and the US military is yet again attempting to sell a technique as a "plan." John F. Burns and Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) reported this morning on what the US military wants to call the "Anbar model." The thinking is that al-Anbar Province has been a success and the 'plan' that has worked so well there can be exported to other areas. The technique involves attempting to bring Sunni fighters into the process. The reality is this is nonsense for several reasons. al-Anbar is not at peace (even with all the greased palms of tribal leaders by the US military), it was where 10% of last month's US service member fatalities took place, it is where chlorine bombs explode and it only looks like a 'success' because putting all the US military into Baghdad for the lastest version of the year-long-and-ongoing 'crackdown' didn't do a damn bit of good. By comparison to Baghdad, al-Anbar suddenly looks like a 'winner.' In other news from the land of crazy, John F. Burns (New York Times) reported Saturday on puppet of the occupation, Nouri al-Maliki, who either fancies himself a reborn beat poet or needs to check his meds -- al-Maliki knows his enemies are all over (including Ayad Alawi) and describes them -- Woody Allen couldn't have written a bigger laugh getting line in Bananas -- as "a black ant on a black rock on a dark night."

While someone checks the puppet's dosage, violence continued across Iraq today. As noted many times, the bombings of the bridges is not accidental and it's rarely covered. There were two bridge bombings in the last 24 hours. The one near Mahmudiya resulted in the US military releasing this statement: "Three Coalition Force Soldiers were killed and six were wounded when the checkpoint they were manning was struck by a suicide car bomb south of Baghdad near Mahmoudiya June 10. An interpreter was also wounded in the attack, which destroyed part of a highway overpass. All the wounded were evacuated to Coalition medical facilities for treatment." ICCC's current total for US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war is 3512. Al Jazeera notes US military spokesperson Christopher Garver who says, "The checkpoint was damaged by the explosion, as was the bridge. The force of the explosion dropped part of the span but it did not fall on anybody." Oh really? CBS and AP note private contractor Donald Campbell stating that he and others "worked with a U.S. army quick reaction force for some 45 minutes to pull trapped men from the rubble, scrambling over the fallen concrete" and CBS and AP note: "At one point, a Bradley armored vehicle with a tow chain pulled a slab off a pinned victime to free him. Then a shot went up, 'Morphine! Morphine!' and a black T-shirt-clad Briton administered painkillers to the freed man" while one person was reportedly crushed by the falling 'span.'

That bombing took place late Sunday. Reuters notes one today in the Diyala province where "a major bridge" was blown up. Mohammed al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) is the only one currently noting, "The bombing of this bridge will make the residents of the North eastern parts of the province take one route through the violent city of Baqouba to go to Baghdad, residents said." That is, after all the point, and has been. The bridge bombings have a point and a strategy.

In other violence today . . .


Bombings?

Mohammed al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports the heavily fortified Green Zone was again mortar attacked, while two other Baghdad mortar attacks left 7 Iraqis injured, a Baghdad explosion at Al Wathiq square left 3 wounded and a Diyala explosion claimed the life of 1 Iraqi soldier (2 more wounded). Reuters reports a Samarra roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 2 police officers (three more wounded),

Shootings?

Reuters reports a home invasion in Mosul where 4 women and 1 man were shot dead, a Hawija drive-by shooting that killed 1 Iraq (2 wounded) and the central bank of Mosul's general director, Khaireddine Ahmed, was shot dead along with two bodyguards.

Corpses?

Mohammed al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 17 corpses discovered in Baghdad.

In other media news, as independent media continues to be under attack, News Dissector Danny Schechter's "Special Blog: Can Our Media Channel Survive?" announces the potential fate of Mediachannel.org which may shut down: "If we can get 1500 of our readers (that means you) to give $25, we can keep going for another quarter. [PLEASE CLICK HERE TO MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION ONLINE]"


Finally, independent journalist John Pilger is on a speaking tour with his new book Freedom Next Time and his documentary Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror (which looks at DC, Afghanistan and Iraq). June 11th, Pilger will be in Los Angeles at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (244 S. San Pedro St.) and will discuss his book and show his documentary beginning at 7:00 pm (doors open at 6:00 pm). The price of admission to the even is five dollars. "Directions, maps, and parking info at: http://www.jaccc.org/directions.htmPresented by The Center for Economic Research and Social Change, and The Nation Institute, with support from the Wallace Global Fund. For ticket information, call or visit the JACCC. Box office: 213-680-3700 (Box Office Hours: Monday - Saturday: Noon - 5 pm)For media inquiries, contact (212) 209-5407 or ruth@nationbooks.org For more information, email pilger.la@gmail.com."June 13th finds him in San Francisco showing his film and discussing his book at Yerba Beuna Center for Arts (beginning at 7:00 pm, doors open at 6:00 pm) and the price of admission is $15 general and $5 for students. "Presented by The Center for Economic Research and Social Change, The Nation Institute, and KPFA, with support from the Wallace Global Fund. For ticket information, call 415-978-2787 or order online at http://www.ybca.org/. In person tickets at YBCA Box office located inside the Galleries and Forum Building, 701 Mission Street at Third. (Hours: Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat & Sun: noon - 5 pm; Thu: noon - 8 pm.) For media inquiries, contact (212) 209-5407 or ruth@nationbooks.org For more information, email pilgersf@gmail.com."From San Francisco, he moves on to Chicago for the 2007 Socialism conference. At 11:30 am Saturday June 16th, he and Anthony Arnove will participate in a conversation, audience dialogue and book signing (Arnove is the author most recently of IRAQ: The Logic of Withdrawal) and that evening (still June 16th) at 7:30 Pilger will be at Chicago Crowne Plaza O'Hare (5440 North River Road, Rosemont, IL 60018) as part of a panel of international activists. To attend the conference, the fee is $85. For Saturday and Sunday only, the price is $70. To attend only one session, the cost is ten dollars. "Presented by The Center for Economic Research and Social Change, The Nation Institute, with support from the Wallace Global Fund. Co-sponsors: Obrera Socialista, Socialist Worker, International Socialist Review, and Haymarket Books. For ticket information, call 773-583-8665 or e-mail info@socialismconference.org For media inquiries, contact (212) 209-5407 or ruth@nationbooks.org. For more information, email info@socialismconference.org."The Socialism 2007 conference will take place in Chicago from June 14-17. Along with Pilger and Arnove, others participating will include Dahr Jamail, Laura Flanders, Kelly Dougherty, Joshua Frank, Amy Goodman, Sharon Smith, Dave Zirin, Camilo Mejia, Jeremy Scahill, Jeffrey St. Clair and many others.
at