Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Canada in Distress" went up Sunday and I'll repost it later this week. It's a wonderful comic. It's not intended to be funny. It is one of my favorites.
I'm a little down because of the news that Victor Rabinowitz died. I heard it on Democracy Now! today during lunch and knew C.I. would be noting it in the snapshot. Just when I was thinking that, C.I. called. You know the only news source thus far may be Democracy Now! I've searched online for an obiturary. I couldn't find anything. C.I. called at the end of the last my session (Sunny put the call through as soon as I was alone) and had the same problem. C.I. hates noting deaths and would have just done a clip-fest. But there's nothing. I just checked again. C.I.'s big question was about the first marriage. It was over forty-years ago and did I know if the woman considered herself a private person because "I'm not doing a news site and if she wants her privacy, I don't want to invade that." I had no idea. We both knew Joni Rabinowitz (child from the first marriage) is an activist (an incredible activist) but I honestly don't know.
When I got home, I logged on to see what C.I. ended up and I thought it was a good overview. You get a joke in there (a true one, HH did have to issue a 'corrective'), you get some basic facts. We knew him due to the war resistance issue during Vietnam. He was a very passionate man with very strong convictions. If you were really lucky, or that's how I saw it, you got to hear him speak in the evening when he had more time and it would just be these razor sharp brain, so focused. On those rare times when I was present, I would listen in awe. C.I. could always keep up and contribute. The conversations moved much to swiftly for me to both follow and contribute so I elected to follow and I wasn't alone. It was a pleasure just to hear him structure an argument.
One of the great things about that time period is that if you were against the war, you met some wonderful people. I know young people are active today. Whether they are students or young adults struggling in the work force, they are active. I hope they get the same opportunities we had in terms of interaction. There was such diversity back then. (I'm not saying there isn't now. I would assume that there is. I know C.I. matches people up and I'm sure others do as well so that a lively, diverse network exists.) There was huge opposition to what the US was doing in Vietnam. But I frequently wonder if, on the ground, there's the kind of mingling that I was fortunate enough to have. There were so many amazing people -- my age then and older -- and there was this tremendous reach out.
You had a left, absolutely, but this highly diverse left. In addition, there were people from around the religious spectrum. You had centrists who would be very, very passionate about ending the war. Plus, you had all the ground work laid by working for Civil Rights. Today's young people are having to find their own paths with no recent models (other than the anti-globalization movement which was demonized long before they came of age). When C.I. and I were on the road back then, there was never a feeling of isolation. That's partly because C.I. knows everyone, no question. Rebecca, in college, was an early riser and she would always be up on the weekend when one of us or both of us would be getting in. (I'm not painting Rebecca as a prude. She'd laugh at the idea for good reason. But usually, Fridays for instance, it would be one action after another, planning sessions, strategies and it was really easy not to get home until five or six in the morning on Saturdays. Rebecca always had a Friday date with a 'straight' meaning a jock more often than not. Not anyone interested in ending the illegal war. Her attitude was always, "Just tell me what you need me to do. March, speak, hand out literature, no problem.") She, Rebecca, would always be eager to run somewhere. Usually the grocery store for coffee. We were forever running out of coffee in college. I think we always had fresh coffee brewing. But C.I. would always say "I need to shower first." Rebecca would want to leave right then and impatiently wait for C.I. to finish showering. Sure enough, we would always run into someone C.I. knew.
It was like that on the road as well. I remember one time in Alabama when we were being harassed by the police because we were student activists. I don't remember what the trumped up charge was -- probably something to do with a tailight -- but we were taken in the squad car to be jailed. C.I. was whispering to me not to worry. I was that time because the guys were pretty freaky. I was thinking, "They're going to take us somewhere, rape us and kill us." We get to the jail and the guy in charge knows C.I. Needless to say, we were let go.
But even leaving aside the C.I. factor (knowing everyone), there was just a great deal of mixing. You'd meet these amazing people. Like Victor Rabinowitz. I hope it's like that for students today. Those were amazing times and you realized how many people were with you in the struggle to end the illegal war.
Maybe social networks online provide the groundwork today? I really don't know. But I do know that tomorrow's leaders are the young working to end the illegal war today.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Monday, November 19, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, another contractor shooting takes place in Iraq, Operation Happy Talk offers another wave, a defender of war resisters has passed away and more.
Starting with war resistance. Last Thursday the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of US war resisters Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, Aaron Glantz (reporting for IPS) quotes war resister Ryan Johnson explaining, "The Canadian government decided not to fight an illegal war. Canada was going to go into the war in Iraq, but then decided that because the U.N. did not sanction it, Canada would not participate in the war in Iraq. That's a major reason that I came to Canada. Canada felt the same way I did about the war in Iraq." Thomas Walkom (Toronto Star) observed that, "If Canada's federal government had the inclination to face down Washington just a bit, both men -- who almost certainly qualify for permanent resident status –would be welcomed, not as refugees but as landed immigrants. That's how Canada treated U.S. draft dodgers and deserters from the Vietnam War. And it worked out fine." Meanwhile war resister Brad McCall has started his own website. McCall went to Canada after he learned of abuses in Iraq from returning US soldiers. When attempting to enter Canada, he was stopped at the border and arrested. He is in Canada now and is speaking out.
Turning to the topic of Iraq War resister Ehren Watada who saw a court victory two weeks ago, Marilyn Bechtel (People's Weekly World) observes, "Judge Settle's response marked a rare civilian intervention into military court proceedings. Settel, who served as a military lawyer in the 1970s, was recently appointed to the federal bench by President Bush. Though Watada's term of mililtary service officially ended last December, the Army has not release him. He is now performing administrative duties at Fort Lewis, Wash." Settle is US District Court Judge Benjamin Settle. Ben Terrall (Dissident Voice) notes that the preliminary injuction issued by Settle resulted in a gathering in San Francisco's Chinatown and quotes Ying Lee of the Watada Support Group declaring, "At the time that we called the news conference we did not know that the judge was going to give his decision yesterday." Lee went on, "The decision was due by today, so he was early (…) we are very appreciative of a United States Federal judge respecting the constitution and saying the trial cannot proceed." Ben Hamamoto (Nichi Bei Times) also covers the San Francisco support rally and
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
The voice of war resister Camilo Mejia is featured in Rebel Voices -- playing now through December 16th at Culture Project and based on Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's best-selling book Voices of a People's History of the United States. It features dramatic readings of historical voices such as war resister Mejia, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Malcom X and others will be featured. Zinn will take part in the November 18th presentation (the official opening night -- but performances are already taking place) and musician Allison Mooerer will head the permanent cast while those confirmed to be performing on selected nights are Ally Sheedy (actress and poet, best known for films such as High Art, The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order, the two Short Circuit films, St. Elmo's Fire, War Games, and, along with Nicky Katt, has good buzz on the forthcoming Harold), Eve Ensler who wrote the theater classic The Vagina Monologues (no, it's not too soon to call that a classic), actor David Strathaim (L.A. Confidential, The Firm, Bob Roberts, Dolores Claiborne and The Bourne Ultimatum), actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Clueless -- film and TV series, Gregory and Chicken Little), actress Lili Taylor (Dogfight, Shortcuts, Say Anything, Household Saints, I Shot Andy Warhol, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, State of Mind) and actor, director and activist Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Beloved, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Rainmaker, Places In The Heart, Dreamgirls, Shooter and who recently appeared on Democracy Now! addressing the US militarization of Africa) The directors are Will Pomerantz and Rob Urbinati with Urbinati collaborating with Zinn and Arnove on the play. Tickets are $21 for previews and $41 for regular performances (beginning with the Nov. 18th opening night). The theater is located at 55 Mercer Street and tickets can be purchased there, over the phone (212-352-3101) or online here and here. More information can be found at Culture Project.
Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan
The plan had been to fold the above into a summary; however, e-mails really want it included in each snapshot in full so, despite saying that we'd fold into the snapshot via a summary, it will instead run in full in each snapshot until their next announcement on the Winter Soldier Investigation at which point we'll run that one in each snapshot.
Turning to Iraq. McClatchy's Hussein Kadhim noted Saturday, "Today , Sahwa ( Awaking ) council members in Hour Rijab in Doura found 30 unidentified dead bodies in a deserted house in the area which were transferred to A Shiite mosque first then to Doura police station. - Police found ( 4 ) unidentified dead bodies in the following neighborhoods in Baghdad : ( 2 ) two were found in west Baghdad ( Karkh bank ) ; 1 in Doura and 1 in Amil. While ( 2 ) bodies were found in east Baghdad ( Risafa bank ) 1 in Sadr city and Suleikh." On Sunday, China's Xinhau reported the second attack in two weeks on officials with Iraq's Finance Ministry when the vice-finance minister's convoy was attacking in Baghdad with a roadside bomb that claimed the lives of 5 civilians and left nine more wounded as well as wounding one of the vice-finance minister Salman Mgotar's bodyguards. In Baghdad. It's important to repeat that: "In Baghdad." The reason it's important is that it's time to for the press to make like Moondoggie, grab their boogie boards and ride the latest wave of Operation Happy Talk. First to paddle out, Cara Buckley and War Pornographer Michael R. Gordon (New York Times) explaining that US military flacks are saying violent attacks are down while then noting "But since the source for the data is American military reports, and not the Iraqi government, the figures do not provie an exhaustive measure of sectarian violence." While spitting out the press releases they're fed, the two refuse to acknowledge that had the 'security' so 'improved' they'd be able to travel in and out of the Green Zone without either the paper's team of black-shirted bodygaurds or a military escort. For the record, they cannot. To cover their own butts (Gordo's got a lot to cover), they tack on: "Even as military officials announced the figures, Iraq had one of its deadliest days in weeks, with at least 22 people killed." Apparently having paddled out too far from shore to hear that warning call, Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) so desperate to stay ahead of the curl, she misses that basic point in a report she files this morning ignoring the violence to tell readers that the worst is over. Save it for after the pig roasting lua, Tina, when it's time to for a group sing-along to "Morning Has Broken."
Susman does find the time to mention what AP reported this morning, that Iraq's Olympic soccer team is minus three members and an assistant coach -- all of whom are now "seeking asylum in Australia" after vanishing "at dawn Sunday from the home of colleagues in Australia, where they were staying after playing Australia's Olympic team." Olympic defectors? It's all very cold war.
Meanwhile tensions continue between northern Iraq and Turkey with Turkish troops still massed on the northern border. At issue, the PKK, part of a Kurdish separatist movement and identified by the European Union, the United States and others as a 'terrorist' organization. They've had safe haven in northern Iraq where the Kurds reign. Today the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) decided to do something. It's not anything that defuses the situation but maybe their act today -- like so many other topics -- it will just go unreported? Shamal Aqrawi and Aseel Kami (Reuters) report that the KRG is banning "journalists from travelling to Kurdish rebel bases, officials said on Monday, accusing the media of aggravating the crisis with Turkey." Was it the media that kidnapped 8 Turkish soldiers? (No, it wasn't.) This latest attack on the press comes as the Independent of London reports that oveer 200 journalists have been killed in the Iraq War making it "the deadliest by far for the media trying to cover it," and notes the lack of investigations into the murders of journalists which allows "impunity for the killers from the Shia or Sunni militant groups or government run death squads." Before you try to determine whether the US military is Sunni or Shia, it's quickly noted that "about 15 reporters have been killed by US troops". Left unstated is that there were no real investigations there either. Chapter ten of Amy Goodman and David Goodman's The Exception to the Rulers ("KIlling the Messengers") documents some of the killings early in the illegal war including the attack on the Palestine Hotel -- you can also see Danny Schechter's amazing documentary Weapons of Mass Deception for more on the hotel attack including interviews with survivors. Meanwhile Reporters Without Borders notes the release of journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi who was kidnapped in Baghdad November 16th and released today of Al-Bagdadiyah. However, AP photographer Bilal Hussein remains held by the US military. Nineteen months after being taken into custody, he has still not received a trial. Bilal Hussein has been a prisoner since April 12, 2006. Free Bilal is an online petition calling for his release.
On Sunday Reuters reported: "An Iraqi provincial governor accused U.S. troops of opening fire on civilian cars south of Baghdad on Sunday, wounding six people, and threatened to suspend ties with U.S. officials over the 'brutal' attack." Bobby Caina Calvan and Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) report that the US Embassy and the US military issued a joint-statement yesterday apologizing for the incident and stating that 2 Iraqis were killed in the attack and four wounded while Muthanna province govenor Ahmed Marzook al-Salal is demanding that the victims and families be compensated. These are not the only innocent Iraqis to have been killed of late. On Saturday, Cara Buckley (New York Times) covered the ongoing response to the US air and ground assault that resulted in killing members of US collaborators Awakening Council with the council maintaining that "four dozen" of their members were killed. This was followed on Sunday with Maher Nazeh and Ross Colvin (Reuters) reporting that despite the US military's continued, "an American militray official" has confirmed to them that this did indeed happen and states, "There was some confusion and we were not able to turn off the attack quickly enough." Before anyone thinks only US forces are killing, Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reported on Saturday, "Saturday afternoon, gunmen executed five civilians in front of the public in Mosul Al-Jadeda (New Mosul ) west of the city .
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) notes a Baghdad roadside bombing this morning claimed 1 life and left seven more people wounded, another Baghdad roadside bombing wounded two more people, a third Baghdad roadside bombing wounded three people, a Bagdad car bombing left five wounded, a Biji car bombing wounded five people and a Basra missile attack claimed the lives of 6 members of one family ("five of them are children") and left two more wounded.
Shootings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "Around 3.15 p.m., An Italian security company which works with communication in Iraq opened fire randomly injuring one woman and two other men in Karrada neighborhood (downtown Baghdad), a source from Baghdad security plan operation said." BBC reports that 33 people have been arrested by Iraqi forces and that 2 of the arrested are American who were security contractors while some of the other 31 include people who were being escorted by the company. Cara Buckley (New. York Times) reports it is 21 arrested and only 1 is a contractor -- he is American and eye witness accounts have him shooting an 18-year-old Iraqi female in the leg as she was crossing a street. On Saturday, Scott Shane (New York Times) filed a fluff report on brothers Cookie and Buzzy -- Howard "Cookie" Krongard being the inspector general for the State Department who has repeatedly provided cover for the mercenary company Blackwater, Buzzy being his brother who serves on the advisory board. If you waded through the fluff, you learned Buzzy had announced Friday he was quitting the advisory board. For those who have forgotten, last week Cookie testified to Congress and repeatedly asserted that his brother was not working for Blackwater. He was confronted with e-mail exchanges and other documentation. Only after he took a break did he admit that brother Buzzy was serving on the advisory board. He stated he had called his brother on the break and just learned that information. Deep in Shane's Saturday report, Buzzy says he told Cookie he was serving on the advisory board "a few weeks ago." Which would mean no phone call was needed in the middle of Cookie's appearence before Congress last week. (US) ABC News reports that the September 16th slaughter of Iraqis by Blackwater is now the subject of a US grand jury investigation.
Corpses?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) notes 3 corpses were discovered in Baghdad, 1 corpse was discovered in the Tigris River and 4 corpses were discovered in Samarra. Reuters notes that Sunday 2 corpses were discovered in Suwayra, a three-year-old child's corpse was discovered in Kut, 1 corpse was discovered in Iskandariya and 1 in Latifiya.
Turning to activism. Today Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) explored the ongoing actions in the Port of Olympia:
AMY GOODMAN: More than four hundred antiwar demonstrators marched through Olympia, Washington Saturday to protest the war in Iraq and police brutality aimed at demonstrators in the past two weeks. Police beat back and repeatedly used pepper spray on peaceful protesters who were trying to stop military shipments to and from Iraq in the port of Olympia. At least 66 people have been arrested, 150 others badly injured since the protests began November 7th. On Saturday, demonstrators used non-violent direct action to block military equipment for 17 hours, forced a convoy back into the port.
Olympia Port Militarization Resistance is a group that was formed in 2006 by community peace activists. They wanted to "end their participation in the illegal occupation of Iraq by stopping the military use of the port of Olympia." Phan Nguyen as a member of Olympia Port Militarization Resistance, works as a IT specialist. He was arrested after participating in the non-violent protest in the port of Olympia in November 2006 and the port of Tacoma in March of 2007. Phan Nguyen joins us now from Seattle, Washington. We welcome you to Democracy Now!. Tell us what you have been doing in your group in the port of Olympia.
PHAN NGUYEN: Thanks Amy. What we have been doing is -- this has started since May 2006, in which the community has responded to the military's use of our port as pretty much a revolving door for war operations in Iraq. They have been using the port to ship striker vehicles to and from Iraq through the port of Olympia. And we decided enough is enough. We are not going to stand for it; we are not going to tolerated it. We have the power to do something about it, and, you know, we are just going to implement it. That is what the Port Militarization Resistance, or PMR is all about. It is about the local residents taking action and understanding that there are so many ways to challenge war, to challenge war and occupation. And we are going to explore every single way and we are going to get it done.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, the latest action in this last two weeks, first, what is a striker vehicle? Explain what that does. Now that wasn't going to Iraq but coming from Iraq, going over to Ft. Lewis, is that right?
PHAN NGUYEN: That is correct. These are striker vehicles from 3rd brigade, 3rd striker brigade, the second combat infantry division. They had actually left Olympia in May of 2006. And when they had left -- on their way out, we had actually blockaded them because we did not want to send them to Iraq. There were being sent in advance of the third striker brigade soldiers being sent to Iraq. And we were hoping by stopping the striker vehicles from reaching Iraq, we would prevent the deployment of the third brigade soldiers. Now the 3rd brigade has since returned, minus 48 soldiers who were killed in Iraq. And who knows how many Iraqis were killed as a result of 3rd brigade's deployment.
Now that they returned, their equipment is returning as well. And we are saying, no, we don't want the equipment to be returned only to be fixed and shipped back to Iraq for further use. It needs to end now. And we understand that the road to Iraq goes through the port of Olympia. And at that point, we decided we're going to block it again. This time, we are going to contain the vehicles, keep them from being sent to Ft. Lewis, keep it from being used again. And that is what we started doing a couple of weeks ago when this all began, when the ship arrived on Monday November 5th.
And so, what we ended up doing was creating blockades. We, as you had mentioned, we reclaimed our own port for 17 hours on November 9 and again on November 13. This is our port and we're going to take control of it. We started -- we actually were able to stop military shipments coming out of the port, while allowing civilian shipments to leave and or enter the port. As well on November 13th, there was a really powerful women's solidarity action in which 39 women were arrested, blockading the port, showing solidarity with the women of Iraq and showing their own strong solidarity this is the community in action. Other communities can follow our lead and do the same thing. We understand that it is possible and it just was far more successful beyond what we could have envisioned as long as you know that you can do this, as long as you know it is possible, then it is all yours. This is our community.
In other activism news, Marianne Mork and Ramy Khalil (Socialist Alternative) report on Friday's student actions:
"I've been angry for many, many years about our administration and so have lots of youth. I'm really frustrated, for one, because I can't vote for President or legislators, but I can make a stand for what I believe in." - Amy Englesberg, 17 year-old high school senior (Bellingham Herald)In Seattle on November 16, over 500 students took a bold stand against the war in Iraq and military recruitment in schools. Students from over 30 high schools and nearly 10 universities and colleges walked out of classes at noon and converged at Westlake Center for a mass rally and march.The Seattle walkout was part of a national student walkout on November 16 called by Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR) and a coalition of antiwar organizations in coordination with the national Iraq Moratorium protests. Socialist Alternative also played a major role in organizing these walkouts. Students organized walkouts in at least 8 cities or counties: Brattleboro (Vermont), Boston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Whatcom County, and Lewis County.The Seattle walkout drew students from numerous towns and suburbs: Shoreline, Everett, Kenmore, Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue, Issaquah, Renton, Bremerton, Bellingham, Anacortes, and Belfair.In Minneapolis/St. Paul, 700-900 students organized a walkout. According to "The Olympian," 300-400 students from South Puget Sound Community College and Capital high schools organized a walkout in Olympia. The "Bellingham Herald" reported that around 100 Ferndale and Windward high school students walked out of classes and marched through Bellingham. On November 15, Tacoma high school students and Socialist Alternative organized a walkout of nearly 100 students.
The reporters note that adults also participated in the actions and that it was the YAWR 2005 walkout that inspired Ehren Watada "to refuse to fight in Iraq".
Finally, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today, "And the civil rights attorney Victor Rabinowitz has died at the age of 96. In 1937 he helped found the National Lawyers Guild. He was a longtime law partner with Leonard Boudin." Rabinowitz wife, Joanne Grant Rabinowitz, passed away two years ago (January 2005). In his Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir, Rabinowitz listed his contribution to preserving the NLG as one of the things he was proudest of in his professional life. In addition to being a founder, he was also president of the NLG from 1967-1970. With Joanne Grant Rabinowitz (married 1965 until her death in 2005), he had two children: Mark and Abby; and he had two children from his first marriage: Peter and Joni. Among Rabinowitz' many professional accomplishments were his work with war resisters during Vietnam, his lifelong advocacy of the Constitution (even when administrations and Congress seemed estranged from the Bill of Rights) and forcing professional cocktail circuit embellisher Hendrik Hertzberg to issue what we'll term a "corrective" to a 1985 smear against the NLG. In addition to the many cases he argued himself and with partners, Rabinowitz also filed amicus curiae briefs on cases, such as New York Times Co. v. United States, where he was not counsel but the issues involved were too important to stand on the sidelines.
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jeremy hinzmanbrandon hughey
ehren watadamarilyn bechtelmarianne morkramy khalilben terrell
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Monday, November 19, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Robert Parry, Margaret Kimberley
Yesterday, Mike's "PBS' NOW and talking music & the war with Ruth" noted what was on NOW with David Brancaccio this week. I didn't have an e-mail before I posted Wednesday night. Which is strange because there was one on Thursday time stamped Wednesday but it wasn't in there Wednesday night. (C.I. had the same thing happen.) It would be very hard to blog on Thursday if I wasn't on vacation or holiday due to the fact that I have the veterans' group on Thursday night. In that same post, Mike also interviews Ruth (Ruth's Report) so don't miss that.
"Bush's Clever Cognitive Dissonance" (Robert Parry, Consortium News):
In a broader sense, Bush's Nov. 15 speech reflected what has been a core rhetorical device of the modern American Right, the clever use of cognitive dissonance -- the confident assertion of positions that fly in the face of reality.
I first encountered this tactic in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan sought to frustrate the intent of government policies from the 1970s by appointing individuals who were hostile to those goals but who claimed to embrace the same principles.
For instance, Reagan disdained President Jimmy Carter's emphasis on "human rights" but instead of making a complete break, Reagan appointed Ernest Lefever as the State Department's human rights pointman.
Though Reagan and the Right hailed Lefever as a champion of human rights, the nomination foundered after critics, including his own family members, presented evidence of his racial prejudices and fondness for South Africa’s apartheid government.
(After Lefever's nomination was pulled, Reagan turned to a more astute practitioner of this technique, a bright and aspiring neoconservative named Elliott Abrams.)
In dealing with environmental issues, Reagan took a similar tack. Instead of directly challenging environmental policies enacted during the previous decade, he appointed right-wing "environmentalists" who talked about their love of nature while quietly dismantling regulatory protections.
What the Right -- and especially the neocons -- drew from these experiences was that the Washington press corps could be tough when contesting some narrow falsehood or a slight hypocrisy, but would ignore audacious misrepresentations, at least when they came from Republicans backed by aggressive right-wing media attack groups.
Bush has proved to be a master of this technique because he shows even fewer scrupples than the average politician in making claims that are at clear variance with the truth.
For instance, in his last two addresses to the United Nations General Assembly, Bush has hailed the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights although its tenets are in contradiction of his claims that he can kill, kidnap, detain, torture and spy on anyone of his choosing anywhere in the world.
Nevertheless, Bush displayed a well-founded confidence that the U.S. press corps wouldn’t challenge him on these obvious hypocrisies -- and he was right. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Bush to World: Up Is Down."]
Indeed, one of the most successful features of Bush's presidency may be his ability to exploit cognitive dissonance to avoid accountability for his actions. While Bush doesn't blush when his actions belie his words, the American political system can't seem to cope, incapable of either reconciling Bush’s dishonesty or enforcing any accountability upon him.
The national press corps and other Washington institutions -- like the emperor's subjects in the old fable -- try as best they can to ignore the obvious.
Robert Parry and his sons Nat and Sam will be speaking in Arlington, VA tomorrow beginning at 4:00 pm. The details are in the snapshot.
That is one reason I'm highlighting the article above. (Rebecca loves Robert Parry's reporting.) Another reason is that it goes to the problems today. They did not begin in 1992. I also think you can see Dianne Feinstein in the above. I'm thinking of her ridiculous record and, most recently, supporting the nomination of Mukasey. You can decided for yourself whether she's a liar or chooses to play stupid to avoid harsher criticism.
Another reasons was I never liked Lefevre and anything that reminds people of that misfit is worth highlighting. I was reading along attempting to figure out what to excerpt and found that name. "Misfit" is being kind.
"Democrats Love Bush" (Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report):
The Democratic party is a gigantic cesspool of treachery, treachery towards its rank and file, treachery to the constitution, and treachery to international law. The party's leadership goes out of its way to continue its back stabbing, claiming an inability to stop the Bush reign of terror. Every Bush nominee is confirmed, every funding request for the occupation of Iraq is granted. Conversely, every Democrat who attempts to stand up is smacked down, dismissed as crazy and thwarted at every turn.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich made good on his pledge to bring an impeachment resolution against Dick Cheney to the House floor. His efforts were necessary and noble, but the leadership made it clear they had no use for defending the Constitution. The House leadership worked with Republicans to send the resolution into a Judiciary committee black hole, and Kucinich made a personal plea to John Conyers, committee chairman. "I believe impeachment remains the only tool Congress has to prevent a war in Iran. This information relates directly to the Article III charges in the resolution. I urge your timely consideration." Kucinich will have better luck writing to Santa.
[. . .]
Democrats claim to oppose what Republicans advocate, but you wouldn't know it from their actions. Democratic Senators joined Republicans in approving the Bush administration nominee for Attorney General, Michael Mukasey. Mukasey ducked and dodged and wouldn't give a straight answer when asked if he considered waterboarding to be torture and therefore illegal. Democratic Senators such as Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein were typical Democratic traitors. As members of the Judiciary committee they had a responsibility to lead the charge against Mukasey, instead they gave him the thumbs up. Feinstein has already confessed that she plans to support legislation giving immunity to the telecom corporations who went along with the illegal NSA spying scheme.
Di-Fi. I thought the two excerpts were compatible. Mukasey couldn't have happened without Di-Fi and Schumer and, as C.I. has pointed out, the telecommunications industry is Di-Fi's biggest donor. (Di-Fi has gone on record saying that telecoms should be granted immunity if they broke the law.) We have a huge 'bi-partisan' mess on our hands. You can see it on every issue including the illegal war. 'Bi-partisan' means two major parties collaborate together to overturn both the Constitution and the will of the American people. If you're planning to vote in
2008, please make a point to check out all candidates who are running, not just the two main parties.
That's going to be it. I started this over 2 hours ago but stopped because C.I. was working on something and I wanted to hear it. Great piece going up at The Common Ills tomorrow/later this morning (provided C.I. finds time to type it up) so don't miss it.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Friday, November 16, 2007. Chaos and violence contine, the war resistance movement continues, Congress accomplishes nothing (but does get a vacation), Brian De Palma's film Redacted opens in select cities, and more.
Starting with war resistance. Canada's War Resisters Support Campaign. staged rallies across Canada yesterday in support of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey whose appeal the Supreme Court refused to hear. Tracy Huffman and Debra Black (Toronto Star) report that Hinzman was at a rally in Toronto but not making public statements, instead letting Jeffry House (Hinzman, Hughey and many other war resisters in Canada's attorney) speak, "He's disappointed. He's tired of talking." John Ward (Canadian Press via London Free Press) dexplains that the focus will now be on the country's federal government and quotes House stating "the focus now turns to a political solution" and Canadian Friends Service Committee's Jane Orion Smith stating the legislature can "create a provision for them to stay." Kari Huus (MSNBC) cites Lee Zaslofsky of the War Resisters Support Campaign explaining, "What we need is for the (Liberal) party as a whole to take a stance on this. Together (the three parties) have a majority, and if they act together they can put something through the House of Commons." The Liberal Party currently has 96 seats in the House of Commons, the New Democratic Party has 30 seats. Those two bring the total to 126 which is the number of seats the Conservative Party holds. Bloc Quebecois holds 49 seats and 3 seats are held by the Independents (four seats are vacant). CKNW (AM 980) quotes Vancouver organizer Bog Ages explaining that the Bloc Quebecois and New Democratic Party members are on board and "we have a number of Liberal MP's who said they would support us. So, all we have to do, we'd like the Liberal Party as a whole to take a stand. But even if they're split, enough of them, that combined with the other parties, they have a majority, potentially, in Parliament, to change the law." The New Democratic Party cites the poll where 64.4 percent of Ontarians believe the war resisters should be allowed to remain in Canada, notes that NDP Citizenship and Immigration Critic Olivia Chow is introducing a motion to call for hearings on the issue and quotes her declaring, "To deport courageous war resisters who oppose the illegal invasion of Iraq is saying Yes to George W. Bush's war and No to supporting and protecting people seeking peace."
In the US, Tom Hayden declared, "I hope that the Canadian people stop the Bush Administration from using the Harper government to hound a handful of war resisters and erase Canada's proud heritage as a haven for resisters and refugees." Rebecca (Sex and Politics and Attitude and Screed) also lamented the events in Canada (and compared Prime Minister Stephen Harper to adult acne): "if i was even slightly right about what canada once was, i know the people can still stand up and force their government to stand with them. but they better do so quick. if they want to see how it looks when they don't, just take a gander southward. we're becoming the text book example of a failed state."
In July of 2004, Democracy Now! spoke with Jeremy Hinzman:AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. Can you talk about how you made your decision?
JEREMY HINZMAN: Pretty much what it came down to was-- I mean, I won't go into the false pretences and everything that we know about, but being in an illegal war, it would be being complicit and a criminal enterprise, and you may say that, oh, well, you're not a policymaker or a general or whatever, that the Nuremberg principles wouldn't apply to you. But in light of what's happened since Abu Ghraib, when they scapegoated like the lower enlisted soldiers for simply carrying out what the policy was from the upper echelons, I think it's pretty fair to say that we made the right decision. Because I was in the infantry and there is a good chance that I would have-- I would have been pretty active in a negative way. And so I'm-- that's why we came here pretty much is that I wasn't-- I don't want to shoot people. I would have been happy to go to Iraq as a port-a-potty janitor or operation human shield. I just don't want to shoot people.
Goodman spoke with Hinzman again on October 15, 2004 and also participating in the interview were Jeffry House and Brandon Hughey:
AMY GOODMAN: Brandon Hughey, why did you go into the military?
BRANDON HUGHEY: My story basically starts off almost the same way. I enlisted when I was 17 years old with basically the promise of a way to better my life financially. Again, it is a way to get a college education without amassing thousands of dollars of debt.
AMY GOODMAN: Where did you grow up?
BRANDON HUGHEY: I grew up in San Angelo, Texas. So, also when I signed the contract, I wasn't naive to the fact that I could be deployed to fight in a war, but I did have this image growing up that I would be sort of -- a good guy, if you will, and fighting for just causes and fighting to defend my country, and after I got out of basic training, and when I realized that basically the U.S. had attacked a country that was no threat to them, in an act of aggression, it shattered that myth, I guess you could say.
AMY GOODMAN: How old were you when you signed up?
BRANDON HUGHEY: I was 17.
At the rallies for Hinzman and Hughey, among those attending were war resisters from the Vietnam era and war resisters from today's illegal war. Huffman and Black note Kimberly Rivera -- Iraq veteran, mother of two -- spoke at one rally: "I strongly believe we are doing the wrong thing in Iraq." Rivera went on to explain that, while serving in Iraq, when she looked "at the shaken crying Iraqi children" she was reminded "of her own daughter in Texas.": John Ward notes war resister Tim Richard attending one rally and wondering, "Why is it legal for me (to stay), because my father was born in New Brunswick, and not legal for somebody else who did the exact same thing?"
Meanwhile war resister Rodney Watson has gone public. Suzanne Fournier (The Province) notes the 29-year-old, African-American, Iraq veteran self-checked out a year ago and now lives in Canada and quotes him stating, "I I realized the war had nothing to do with 9/11 or helping Iraqis or stopping terrorists. It's all about guarding oil for the U.S. , , , I'd rather do my time in jail than be a party to the racism I saw in Iraq. As an African-American, I grew up with racism. But in Iraq, I saw the same kind of abuse and mistreatment, only this was U.S. enlisted soldiers and American contractors, like security forces, abusing Iraqis."
Tom Regan (NPR News Blog) points out the difference between this week's court action (or inaction) and last week's. While Hugey and Hinzman were not allowed to seek out a legal remendy by the Canadian Supreme Court, last week US District Judge Benjmain Settle ruled in Ehren Watada's favor, "The judge says the military court is ignoring Watada's constitutional right not to face double jeopardy after his first court-martial ended in a mistrial.
The injunction means Watada has a better chance of winning his case, but it also means he might not get a chance to test his central argument -- that the Iraq war is illegal -- in court."
Noting the Watada ruling yesterday, NPR's Martin Kaste (All Things Considered) covered the story and Kenneth Kagan, Watada's civilian attorney along with James Lobsenz, explained the double-jeopardy issue (the February court-martial ended in a mistrial over defense objection) was something many courts grasp: "Civilians courts understand that, state courts understand that but for some reason military courts weren't acknowledging that reality."
Another reality that some (the press) has a hard time acknowledging is the number of service members electing to check out of the military on their own. AP reports that this year the desertion rate has jumped to "the highest rate since 1980, with the number of Army deserters this year showing an 80 percent increase" since the start of the illegal war. AP continues to deny reality by offering the claim that the US military does little to track down those who go AWOL or desert -- despite the mountain of public evidence to the contrary.
As to the figure cited, September 21st, Nick Watt (ABC's Nighline) examined war resisters and noted the number of people being processed for desertion at Fort Knox "jumped 60% last year" (to 1,414 for Fort Knox -- US military figures) while concluding his report with, "If the total for the first six months of 2007 doubles by year end, it will become the highest annual total in twenty-six years." At 80% the total has more than doubled and not only is there another full month left in the year, it's also true that you have to be gone at least 30 days to be declared a deserter (unless you're Agustin Aguayo and the military wants to screw you over) and, in addition, the military figures have been 'lower' than they should be before (NPR caught that earlier this year) and the rolls aren't up to date for AWOL let alone desertion.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
The voice of war resister Camilo Mejia is featured in Rebel Voices -- playing now through December 16th at Culture Project and based on Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's best-selling book Voices of a People's History of the United States. It features dramatic readings of historical voices such as war resister Mejia, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Malcom X and others will be featured. Zinn will take part in the November 18th presentation (the official opening night -- but performances are already taking place) and musician Allison Mooerer will head the permanent cast while those confirmed to be performing on selected nights are Ally Sheedy (actress and poet, best known for films such as High Art, The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order, the two Short Circuit films, St. Elmo's Fire, War Games, and, along with Nicky Katt, has good buzz on the forthcoming Harold), Eve Ensler who wrote the theater classic The Vagina Monologues (no, it's not too soon to call that a classic), actor David Strathaim (L.A. Confidential, The Firm, Bob Roberts, Dolores Claiborne and The Bourne Ultimatum), actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Clueless -- film and TV series, Gregory and Chicken Little), actress Lili Taylor (Dogfight, Shortcuts, Say Anything, Household Saints, I Shot Andy Warhol, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, State of Mind) and actor, director and activist Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Beloved, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Rainmaker, Places In The Heart, Dreamgirls, Shooter and who appeared on Democracy Now! Friday addressing the US militarization of Africa) The directors are Will Pomerantz and Rob Urbinati with Urbinati collaborating with Zinn and Arnove on the play. Tickets are $21 for previews and $41 for regular performances (beginning with the Nov. 18th opening night). The theater is located at 55 Mercer Street and tickets can be purchased there, over the phone (212-352-3101) or online here and here. More information can be found at Culture Project.
Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan
Starting next week, IVAW's announcement above will be summarized in each snapshot until the March testimony begins. Winter Soldier is the documentary that was made of the 1971 investigation and it is available via Vietnam Veterans Against the War for $28.95 (four dollars of that is for shipping). Staying with films for a minute more, Brian De Palma's Redacted opens today in select cities and, although fiction, is inspired by real life events -- specifically the gang-rape and murder of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza and the murder of her five-year-old sister and both parents.Opening Today:
11/16/2007 Berkeley, CA: Shattuck Cinemas Los Angeles, CA: The Landmark Palo Alto, CA: Aquarius 2 Pasadena, CA: Laemmle's One Colorado Cinemas San Francisco, CA: Embarcadero Center Cinema Santa Ana, CA: South Coast Village 3 West Hollywood, CA: Sunset 5 Washington, DC: E Street Cinema Chicago, IL: Landmark's Century Centre Cinema Cambridge, MA: Kendall Square Cinema New York, NY: Sunshine Cinema New York, NY: Lincoln Plaza Philadelphia, PA: Ritz at the Bourse
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad bombing claimed 1 life and left four more wounded, a Baquba mortar attack left six people wounded, while 2 Baquba bombings left three civilians and four police officers wounded.
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that an Iraqi 1st Lieuntenant and his brother were shot dead in Misan while en route to their home today and yesterday "5 civilians were injured in a random fire by the Iraqi army in Al Siniyah town north west of Tikrit city."
Kidnappings?
Reuters reports Muntazer al-Zaidi, a 26-year-old journalist for Iraqi television, was kidnapped in Baghdad today.
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 4 corpses were discovered in Baghdad.
As the violence continues the US State Department has had a public relations nightmare with diplomats not filling posts and threats from the chain of command that they would be ordered to Baghdad. This morning Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) reported that an announcement would be coming today "that volunteers have filled all 48 open jobs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for next year and that it will not order any foreign service officers to work there against their will, officials said yesterday." NPR's Morning Edition reported earlier today that the positions had been filled; however, Reuters -- citing a State Department flack -- reports that it may -- may -- be unnecessay to order some diplomats to Baghdad and quotes Sean McCormack insisting, "It appears that we are getting very nearly to the point where we will have volunteers for all of the open, identified jobs."
As Reuters notes, some objecting to be assigned to Baghdad have compared it to a death sentence. This as DPA reports that the Turkish military has been moving tanks to the northern border of Iraq. Gareth Jones (Reuters) reports that some members of Turkey's ruling political party have stated Turkish troops will not enter Iraq if the PKK disarmed. Since they really aren't able to make that promise and since the PKK would be highly unlikely to disarm under such a vague offer, the tensions continue between northern Iraq and Turkey.
Turning to the US Congress, the Democratic shell-game (Let's tell the voters this is a withdrawal!) passed in the House but didn't come to a vote today in the Senate. Noam M. Levey (Los Angeles Times) reports the measure garnered only 53 votes of support and that Congress is now expected to leave DC for their two-week Thanksgiving vacation. For those attempting to keep track, Congress just took a 30-day vacation in September but apparently carving a turkey takes several days when you're in the US Congress. Possibly the lack of spines makes the standing difficult? Pelosi pushed through the measure in the House and many in the Out of Iraq caucus held their news and voted to support it -- even though it did not mean withdrawal and even though it would have given Bully Boy $50 billion more dollars for the illegal war. Earlier this week, Democratic Senator Russ Feingold went on record opposing the measure because it continued funding the Iraq War and was toothless and non-binding. Toothless and non-binding? In "Don't Ask Her to Play Hostess" news Corporate Crime Reporter's Russell Mokhiber (via CounterPunch) shares the latest social tidbit from US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, "I'm not happy when people come to my house." Oh. So that's why she entertained the Dalai Lama at the MCI Center in 2005. And those of us in her district just assumed the location was another reward to her corporate donors. Actually, it's Fancy Nancy having another public fit over the fact that CODEPINK potests. She loved CODEPINK . . . when they called out the powerful . . . back when Republicans controlled everything. Now that Democrats control both houses in the US Congress and CODEPINK stays true to their purpose of calling out the powerful, Fancy Nancy has a snit fit. Repeatedly. Fancy Nancy declares of CODEPINK, "And if they think the longer they stay there the better the chances they will have a meeting with me -- I think I've disabused them of that notion." No, all she's done is demonstrate that from Richard Nixon through PW Botha on up to the Bully Boy and a hop and skip over to Fancy Nancy the bunker mentality thrives. CODEPINK is nation wide with chapters all over but many in the Bay Area see it as the "home team" so, when you're already tanking in the polls, with your highest negatives and your lowest approval ratings ever, it's probably not a good idea to go after them or present yourself an advocate against free speech. Fancy Nancy's a Maryland transplant (that never really took) so possibly she's unaware where the Free Speech Movement began? The eighth district's own Joe Lieberman appears eager to continue digging her own grave.
Finally, Robert Parry was a guest on CounterSpin today where he explained his article "Why We Write" (Consortium News) and spoke of the immediate positive effects during and following Watergate that quickly fell away and how the US press became what it is today. He and his sons Nat and Sam will be speaking at Busboys and Poets in Arlingtion, Virginia Saturday Nov. 17th from four p.m. to six p.m. discussing their new book Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush. Sam and Nat Parry have established their own journalist skills at Consortium News and they and Robert Parry can discuss any of the topics pertaining to the current administration but remember that Robert Parry has been doing investigative journalism for years -- long enough to have had neocon Daniel Pipes insult his reporting long, long before the Iraq War -- a sure sign his investigations cause discomfort.
iraqand the war drags ondonovanjeremy hinzmanbrandon hugheyehren watadademocracy nowamy goodman
martin kastenprall things considerediraq veterans against the war
redactedbrian de palma
the washington post
karen deyoung
anthony arnovehoward zinn
robert parry
"Bush's Clever Cognitive Dissonance" (Robert Parry, Consortium News):
In a broader sense, Bush's Nov. 15 speech reflected what has been a core rhetorical device of the modern American Right, the clever use of cognitive dissonance -- the confident assertion of positions that fly in the face of reality.
I first encountered this tactic in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan sought to frustrate the intent of government policies from the 1970s by appointing individuals who were hostile to those goals but who claimed to embrace the same principles.
For instance, Reagan disdained President Jimmy Carter's emphasis on "human rights" but instead of making a complete break, Reagan appointed Ernest Lefever as the State Department's human rights pointman.
Though Reagan and the Right hailed Lefever as a champion of human rights, the nomination foundered after critics, including his own family members, presented evidence of his racial prejudices and fondness for South Africa’s apartheid government.
(After Lefever's nomination was pulled, Reagan turned to a more astute practitioner of this technique, a bright and aspiring neoconservative named Elliott Abrams.)
In dealing with environmental issues, Reagan took a similar tack. Instead of directly challenging environmental policies enacted during the previous decade, he appointed right-wing "environmentalists" who talked about their love of nature while quietly dismantling regulatory protections.
What the Right -- and especially the neocons -- drew from these experiences was that the Washington press corps could be tough when contesting some narrow falsehood or a slight hypocrisy, but would ignore audacious misrepresentations, at least when they came from Republicans backed by aggressive right-wing media attack groups.
Bush has proved to be a master of this technique because he shows even fewer scrupples than the average politician in making claims that are at clear variance with the truth.
For instance, in his last two addresses to the United Nations General Assembly, Bush has hailed the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights although its tenets are in contradiction of his claims that he can kill, kidnap, detain, torture and spy on anyone of his choosing anywhere in the world.
Nevertheless, Bush displayed a well-founded confidence that the U.S. press corps wouldn’t challenge him on these obvious hypocrisies -- and he was right. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Bush to World: Up Is Down."]
Indeed, one of the most successful features of Bush's presidency may be his ability to exploit cognitive dissonance to avoid accountability for his actions. While Bush doesn't blush when his actions belie his words, the American political system can't seem to cope, incapable of either reconciling Bush’s dishonesty or enforcing any accountability upon him.
The national press corps and other Washington institutions -- like the emperor's subjects in the old fable -- try as best they can to ignore the obvious.
Robert Parry and his sons Nat and Sam will be speaking in Arlington, VA tomorrow beginning at 4:00 pm. The details are in the snapshot.
That is one reason I'm highlighting the article above. (Rebecca loves Robert Parry's reporting.) Another reason is that it goes to the problems today. They did not begin in 1992. I also think you can see Dianne Feinstein in the above. I'm thinking of her ridiculous record and, most recently, supporting the nomination of Mukasey. You can decided for yourself whether she's a liar or chooses to play stupid to avoid harsher criticism.
Another reasons was I never liked Lefevre and anything that reminds people of that misfit is worth highlighting. I was reading along attempting to figure out what to excerpt and found that name. "Misfit" is being kind.
"Democrats Love Bush" (Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report):
The Democratic party is a gigantic cesspool of treachery, treachery towards its rank and file, treachery to the constitution, and treachery to international law. The party's leadership goes out of its way to continue its back stabbing, claiming an inability to stop the Bush reign of terror. Every Bush nominee is confirmed, every funding request for the occupation of Iraq is granted. Conversely, every Democrat who attempts to stand up is smacked down, dismissed as crazy and thwarted at every turn.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich made good on his pledge to bring an impeachment resolution against Dick Cheney to the House floor. His efforts were necessary and noble, but the leadership made it clear they had no use for defending the Constitution. The House leadership worked with Republicans to send the resolution into a Judiciary committee black hole, and Kucinich made a personal plea to John Conyers, committee chairman. "I believe impeachment remains the only tool Congress has to prevent a war in Iran. This information relates directly to the Article III charges in the resolution. I urge your timely consideration." Kucinich will have better luck writing to Santa.
[. . .]
Democrats claim to oppose what Republicans advocate, but you wouldn't know it from their actions. Democratic Senators joined Republicans in approving the Bush administration nominee for Attorney General, Michael Mukasey. Mukasey ducked and dodged and wouldn't give a straight answer when asked if he considered waterboarding to be torture and therefore illegal. Democratic Senators such as Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein were typical Democratic traitors. As members of the Judiciary committee they had a responsibility to lead the charge against Mukasey, instead they gave him the thumbs up. Feinstein has already confessed that she plans to support legislation giving immunity to the telecom corporations who went along with the illegal NSA spying scheme.
Di-Fi. I thought the two excerpts were compatible. Mukasey couldn't have happened without Di-Fi and Schumer and, as C.I. has pointed out, the telecommunications industry is Di-Fi's biggest donor. (Di-Fi has gone on record saying that telecoms should be granted immunity if they broke the law.) We have a huge 'bi-partisan' mess on our hands. You can see it on every issue including the illegal war. 'Bi-partisan' means two major parties collaborate together to overturn both the Constitution and the will of the American people. If you're planning to vote in
2008, please make a point to check out all candidates who are running, not just the two main parties.
That's going to be it. I started this over 2 hours ago but stopped because C.I. was working on something and I wanted to hear it. Great piece going up at The Common Ills tomorrow/later this morning (provided C.I. finds time to type it up) so don't miss it.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Friday, November 16, 2007. Chaos and violence contine, the war resistance movement continues, Congress accomplishes nothing (but does get a vacation), Brian De Palma's film Redacted opens in select cities, and more.
Starting with war resistance. Canada's War Resisters Support Campaign. staged rallies across Canada yesterday in support of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey whose appeal the Supreme Court refused to hear. Tracy Huffman and Debra Black (Toronto Star) report that Hinzman was at a rally in Toronto but not making public statements, instead letting Jeffry House (Hinzman, Hughey and many other war resisters in Canada's attorney) speak, "He's disappointed. He's tired of talking." John Ward (Canadian Press via London Free Press) dexplains that the focus will now be on the country's federal government and quotes House stating "the focus now turns to a political solution" and Canadian Friends Service Committee's Jane Orion Smith stating the legislature can "create a provision for them to stay." Kari Huus (MSNBC) cites Lee Zaslofsky of the War Resisters Support Campaign explaining, "What we need is for the (Liberal) party as a whole to take a stance on this. Together (the three parties) have a majority, and if they act together they can put something through the House of Commons." The Liberal Party currently has 96 seats in the House of Commons, the New Democratic Party has 30 seats. Those two bring the total to 126 which is the number of seats the Conservative Party holds. Bloc Quebecois holds 49 seats and 3 seats are held by the Independents (four seats are vacant). CKNW (AM 980) quotes Vancouver organizer Bog Ages explaining that the Bloc Quebecois and New Democratic Party members are on board and "we have a number of Liberal MP's who said they would support us. So, all we have to do, we'd like the Liberal Party as a whole to take a stand. But even if they're split, enough of them, that combined with the other parties, they have a majority, potentially, in Parliament, to change the law." The New Democratic Party cites the poll where 64.4 percent of Ontarians believe the war resisters should be allowed to remain in Canada, notes that NDP Citizenship and Immigration Critic Olivia Chow is introducing a motion to call for hearings on the issue and quotes her declaring, "To deport courageous war resisters who oppose the illegal invasion of Iraq is saying Yes to George W. Bush's war and No to supporting and protecting people seeking peace."
In the US, Tom Hayden declared, "I hope that the Canadian people stop the Bush Administration from using the Harper government to hound a handful of war resisters and erase Canada's proud heritage as a haven for resisters and refugees." Rebecca (Sex and Politics and Attitude and Screed) also lamented the events in Canada (and compared Prime Minister Stephen Harper to adult acne): "if i was even slightly right about what canada once was, i know the people can still stand up and force their government to stand with them. but they better do so quick. if they want to see how it looks when they don't, just take a gander southward. we're becoming the text book example of a failed state."
In July of 2004, Democracy Now! spoke with Jeremy Hinzman:AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. Can you talk about how you made your decision?
JEREMY HINZMAN: Pretty much what it came down to was-- I mean, I won't go into the false pretences and everything that we know about, but being in an illegal war, it would be being complicit and a criminal enterprise, and you may say that, oh, well, you're not a policymaker or a general or whatever, that the Nuremberg principles wouldn't apply to you. But in light of what's happened since Abu Ghraib, when they scapegoated like the lower enlisted soldiers for simply carrying out what the policy was from the upper echelons, I think it's pretty fair to say that we made the right decision. Because I was in the infantry and there is a good chance that I would have-- I would have been pretty active in a negative way. And so I'm-- that's why we came here pretty much is that I wasn't-- I don't want to shoot people. I would have been happy to go to Iraq as a port-a-potty janitor or operation human shield. I just don't want to shoot people.
Goodman spoke with Hinzman again on October 15, 2004 and also participating in the interview were Jeffry House and Brandon Hughey:
AMY GOODMAN: Brandon Hughey, why did you go into the military?
BRANDON HUGHEY: My story basically starts off almost the same way. I enlisted when I was 17 years old with basically the promise of a way to better my life financially. Again, it is a way to get a college education without amassing thousands of dollars of debt.
AMY GOODMAN: Where did you grow up?
BRANDON HUGHEY: I grew up in San Angelo, Texas. So, also when I signed the contract, I wasn't naive to the fact that I could be deployed to fight in a war, but I did have this image growing up that I would be sort of -- a good guy, if you will, and fighting for just causes and fighting to defend my country, and after I got out of basic training, and when I realized that basically the U.S. had attacked a country that was no threat to them, in an act of aggression, it shattered that myth, I guess you could say.
AMY GOODMAN: How old were you when you signed up?
BRANDON HUGHEY: I was 17.
At the rallies for Hinzman and Hughey, among those attending were war resisters from the Vietnam era and war resisters from today's illegal war. Huffman and Black note Kimberly Rivera -- Iraq veteran, mother of two -- spoke at one rally: "I strongly believe we are doing the wrong thing in Iraq." Rivera went on to explain that, while serving in Iraq, when she looked "at the shaken crying Iraqi children" she was reminded "of her own daughter in Texas.": John Ward notes war resister Tim Richard attending one rally and wondering, "Why is it legal for me (to stay), because my father was born in New Brunswick, and not legal for somebody else who did the exact same thing?"
Meanwhile war resister Rodney Watson has gone public. Suzanne Fournier (The Province) notes the 29-year-old, African-American, Iraq veteran self-checked out a year ago and now lives in Canada and quotes him stating, "I I realized the war had nothing to do with 9/11 or helping Iraqis or stopping terrorists. It's all about guarding oil for the U.S. , , , I'd rather do my time in jail than be a party to the racism I saw in Iraq. As an African-American, I grew up with racism. But in Iraq, I saw the same kind of abuse and mistreatment, only this was U.S. enlisted soldiers and American contractors, like security forces, abusing Iraqis."
Tom Regan (NPR News Blog) points out the difference between this week's court action (or inaction) and last week's. While Hugey and Hinzman were not allowed to seek out a legal remendy by the Canadian Supreme Court, last week US District Judge Benjmain Settle ruled in Ehren Watada's favor, "The judge says the military court is ignoring Watada's constitutional right not to face double jeopardy after his first court-martial ended in a mistrial.
The injunction means Watada has a better chance of winning his case, but it also means he might not get a chance to test his central argument -- that the Iraq war is illegal -- in court."
Noting the Watada ruling yesterday, NPR's Martin Kaste (All Things Considered) covered the story and Kenneth Kagan, Watada's civilian attorney along with James Lobsenz, explained the double-jeopardy issue (the February court-martial ended in a mistrial over defense objection) was something many courts grasp: "Civilians courts understand that, state courts understand that but for some reason military courts weren't acknowledging that reality."
Another reality that some (the press) has a hard time acknowledging is the number of service members electing to check out of the military on their own. AP reports that this year the desertion rate has jumped to "the highest rate since 1980, with the number of Army deserters this year showing an 80 percent increase" since the start of the illegal war. AP continues to deny reality by offering the claim that the US military does little to track down those who go AWOL or desert -- despite the mountain of public evidence to the contrary.
As to the figure cited, September 21st, Nick Watt (ABC's Nighline) examined war resisters and noted the number of people being processed for desertion at Fort Knox "jumped 60% last year" (to 1,414 for Fort Knox -- US military figures) while concluding his report with, "If the total for the first six months of 2007 doubles by year end, it will become the highest annual total in twenty-six years." At 80% the total has more than doubled and not only is there another full month left in the year, it's also true that you have to be gone at least 30 days to be declared a deserter (unless you're Agustin Aguayo and the military wants to screw you over) and, in addition, the military figures have been 'lower' than they should be before (NPR caught that earlier this year) and the rolls aren't up to date for AWOL let alone desertion.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
The voice of war resister Camilo Mejia is featured in Rebel Voices -- playing now through December 16th at Culture Project and based on Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's best-selling book Voices of a People's History of the United States. It features dramatic readings of historical voices such as war resister Mejia, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Malcom X and others will be featured. Zinn will take part in the November 18th presentation (the official opening night -- but performances are already taking place) and musician Allison Mooerer will head the permanent cast while those confirmed to be performing on selected nights are Ally Sheedy (actress and poet, best known for films such as High Art, The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order, the two Short Circuit films, St. Elmo's Fire, War Games, and, along with Nicky Katt, has good buzz on the forthcoming Harold), Eve Ensler who wrote the theater classic The Vagina Monologues (no, it's not too soon to call that a classic), actor David Strathaim (L.A. Confidential, The Firm, Bob Roberts, Dolores Claiborne and The Bourne Ultimatum), actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Clueless -- film and TV series, Gregory and Chicken Little), actress Lili Taylor (Dogfight, Shortcuts, Say Anything, Household Saints, I Shot Andy Warhol, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, State of Mind) and actor, director and activist Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Beloved, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Rainmaker, Places In The Heart, Dreamgirls, Shooter and who appeared on Democracy Now! Friday addressing the US militarization of Africa) The directors are Will Pomerantz and Rob Urbinati with Urbinati collaborating with Zinn and Arnove on the play. Tickets are $21 for previews and $41 for regular performances (beginning with the Nov. 18th opening night). The theater is located at 55 Mercer Street and tickets can be purchased there, over the phone (212-352-3101) or online here and here. More information can be found at Culture Project.
Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan
Starting next week, IVAW's announcement above will be summarized in each snapshot until the March testimony begins. Winter Soldier is the documentary that was made of the 1971 investigation and it is available via Vietnam Veterans Against the War for $28.95 (four dollars of that is for shipping). Staying with films for a minute more, Brian De Palma's Redacted opens today in select cities and, although fiction, is inspired by real life events -- specifically the gang-rape and murder of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza and the murder of her five-year-old sister and both parents.Opening Today:
11/16/2007 Berkeley, CA: Shattuck Cinemas Los Angeles, CA: The Landmark Palo Alto, CA: Aquarius 2 Pasadena, CA: Laemmle's One Colorado Cinemas San Francisco, CA: Embarcadero Center Cinema Santa Ana, CA: South Coast Village 3 West Hollywood, CA: Sunset 5 Washington, DC: E Street Cinema Chicago, IL: Landmark's Century Centre Cinema Cambridge, MA: Kendall Square Cinema New York, NY: Sunshine Cinema New York, NY: Lincoln Plaza Philadelphia, PA: Ritz at the Bourse
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad bombing claimed 1 life and left four more wounded, a Baquba mortar attack left six people wounded, while 2 Baquba bombings left three civilians and four police officers wounded.
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that an Iraqi 1st Lieuntenant and his brother were shot dead in Misan while en route to their home today and yesterday "5 civilians were injured in a random fire by the Iraqi army in Al Siniyah town north west of Tikrit city."
Kidnappings?
Reuters reports Muntazer al-Zaidi, a 26-year-old journalist for Iraqi television, was kidnapped in Baghdad today.
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 4 corpses were discovered in Baghdad.
As the violence continues the US State Department has had a public relations nightmare with diplomats not filling posts and threats from the chain of command that they would be ordered to Baghdad. This morning Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) reported that an announcement would be coming today "that volunteers have filled all 48 open jobs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for next year and that it will not order any foreign service officers to work there against their will, officials said yesterday." NPR's Morning Edition reported earlier today that the positions had been filled; however, Reuters -- citing a State Department flack -- reports that it may -- may -- be unnecessay to order some diplomats to Baghdad and quotes Sean McCormack insisting, "It appears that we are getting very nearly to the point where we will have volunteers for all of the open, identified jobs."
As Reuters notes, some objecting to be assigned to Baghdad have compared it to a death sentence. This as DPA reports that the Turkish military has been moving tanks to the northern border of Iraq. Gareth Jones (Reuters) reports that some members of Turkey's ruling political party have stated Turkish troops will not enter Iraq if the PKK disarmed. Since they really aren't able to make that promise and since the PKK would be highly unlikely to disarm under such a vague offer, the tensions continue between northern Iraq and Turkey.
Turning to the US Congress, the Democratic shell-game (Let's tell the voters this is a withdrawal!) passed in the House but didn't come to a vote today in the Senate. Noam M. Levey (Los Angeles Times) reports the measure garnered only 53 votes of support and that Congress is now expected to leave DC for their two-week Thanksgiving vacation. For those attempting to keep track, Congress just took a 30-day vacation in September but apparently carving a turkey takes several days when you're in the US Congress. Possibly the lack of spines makes the standing difficult? Pelosi pushed through the measure in the House and many in the Out of Iraq caucus held their news and voted to support it -- even though it did not mean withdrawal and even though it would have given Bully Boy $50 billion more dollars for the illegal war. Earlier this week, Democratic Senator Russ Feingold went on record opposing the measure because it continued funding the Iraq War and was toothless and non-binding. Toothless and non-binding? In "Don't Ask Her to Play Hostess" news Corporate Crime Reporter's Russell Mokhiber (via CounterPunch) shares the latest social tidbit from US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, "I'm not happy when people come to my house." Oh. So that's why she entertained the Dalai Lama at the MCI Center in 2005. And those of us in her district just assumed the location was another reward to her corporate donors. Actually, it's Fancy Nancy having another public fit over the fact that CODEPINK potests. She loved CODEPINK . . . when they called out the powerful . . . back when Republicans controlled everything. Now that Democrats control both houses in the US Congress and CODEPINK stays true to their purpose of calling out the powerful, Fancy Nancy has a snit fit. Repeatedly. Fancy Nancy declares of CODEPINK, "And if they think the longer they stay there the better the chances they will have a meeting with me -- I think I've disabused them of that notion." No, all she's done is demonstrate that from Richard Nixon through PW Botha on up to the Bully Boy and a hop and skip over to Fancy Nancy the bunker mentality thrives. CODEPINK is nation wide with chapters all over but many in the Bay Area see it as the "home team" so, when you're already tanking in the polls, with your highest negatives and your lowest approval ratings ever, it's probably not a good idea to go after them or present yourself an advocate against free speech. Fancy Nancy's a Maryland transplant (that never really took) so possibly she's unaware where the Free Speech Movement began? The eighth district's own Joe Lieberman appears eager to continue digging her own grave.
Finally, Robert Parry was a guest on CounterSpin today where he explained his article "Why We Write" (Consortium News) and spoke of the immediate positive effects during and following Watergate that quickly fell away and how the US press became what it is today. He and his sons Nat and Sam will be speaking at Busboys and Poets in Arlingtion, Virginia Saturday Nov. 17th from four p.m. to six p.m. discussing their new book Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush. Sam and Nat Parry have established their own journalist skills at Consortium News and they and Robert Parry can discuss any of the topics pertaining to the current administration but remember that Robert Parry has been doing investigative journalism for years -- long enough to have had neocon Daniel Pipes insult his reporting long, long before the Iraq War -- a sure sign his investigations cause discomfort.
iraqand the war drags ondonovanjeremy hinzmanbrandon hugheyehren watadademocracy nowamy goodman
martin kastenprall things considerediraq veterans against the war
redactedbrian de palma
the washington post
karen deyoung
anthony arnovehoward zinn
robert parry
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Laura Flanders, Amy Goodman
As if the Clinton era give-away of the public airwaves wasn't enough, now FCC chair Kevin Martin wants to go further. Ruth has posted the statement by Commissioners Copps and Adlestein opposing the move and you can read it here (she includes the link to the statement at the FCC but that is in PDF format). You need to contact the people in Congress that represent you and you also need to contact the following three members of the FCC who are in favor of this move:
Chairman Kevin J. Martin: KJMWEB@fcc.gov
Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate: dtaylortateweb@fcc.gov
Commissioner Robert McDowell: Robert.McDowell@fcc.gov
If it seems so familiar, it's because it is. During Bully Boy's first administration, the FCC -- then chaired by Colin Powell's son Michael -- attempted to do this as well. The results were Congressional hearings and judiciary involvement. Despite that, they're trying it again.
"Victory for Ehren Watada" (Laura Flanders, Common Dreams):
This country sets aside two days to honor military service. On Veterans Day we celebrate the living; on Memorial Day we remember the dead.
I'd like to propose a third national holiday: Active Duty day. A day to celebrate those who refuse to leave their conscience at home. A day to cherish those who elevate this nation’s morals by refusing to participate in illegal acts.
Leading this year's Active Conscience-on-Duty Day parade should be First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq.
"To me," Watada told a court earlier this year, leading soldiers into battle in Iraq "means to participate in a war that I believe to be illegal."
Last Thursday a civilian judge handed Watada a victory against those in the military who would like to see him silenced, convicted and locked up.
In June 2006, Watada gained international attention when he publicly denounced the Iraq war as an illegal occupation and then refused to deploy with his Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade.
This February, his court-martial ended in a mistrial, after which his attorneys claimed that Fifth Amendment constitutional protections protected him from a second round in court.
On November 8, Judge Benjamin Settle agreed: "The same Fifth Amendment protections are in place for military service members as are afforded to civilians - . To hold otherwise would ignore the many sacrifices that American soldiers have made throughout history to protect these sacred rights," he wrote.
In issuing a preliminary injunction, the Judge concluded that "it is likely" that Watada will succeed in his claims that a second court-martial would violate constitutional protections against being tried twice for the same crimes.
That was a big victory. Loliese e-mailed wondering why C.I. didn't note more of the column in yesterday's snapshot? The snapshot went up late (due to two unplanned speaking events on Iraq that they grabbed at the last minute) so there was not time to note a great deal. The second reason is the end of the column, which is strong but might or might not be missing one person. In terms of? An Army captain was AWOL and about to be declared a deserter. C.I. didn't have time to find out what happened there (it's in today's snapshot, at the end of my post)? But no one knew if the man was missing, self-checked out or what? (Details in the snapshot.) So I told C.I. (who called asking if I'd heard anything about the Army captain -- I hadn't) yesterday that I would provide a lengthy excerpt. I'm glad Flanders wrote about it. (I do enjoy Flanders' work.) But Nation readers should be thrilled she wrote about it because if she hadn't written about it online at the magazine's site, no one would have known. I believe Katrina vanden Heuvel tired herself out with a weekend post about when she went off to college. Making a brief cameo in the story starring vanden Heuvel was the late Norman Mailer. vanden Heuvel seems to exist so that we can't say, "All women do the heavy lifting." Instead, we have to say, "Some women do the heavy lifting." Flanders is one carrying her weight as well as a lot of others (male and female).
I would love to tell you that I listen to her radio show but when we get done with the writing edition of The Third Estate Sunday Review, I just crash. I go to sleep. We're participating in the writing. Usually, we don't participate in the editing (that's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. doing the editing -- or re-editing) so most of the time, we're done around six or seven in the morning. That's nothing like what the gang does, staying up five more hours, sometimes six or seven, but since we start on Saturday night, that's a very long time even so. In the 'old days,' we would start while Flanders' radio program was on. In those days, it was a three hour live broadcast on Saturday and Sunday. Now they've shortened it to a one hour broadcast and it airs, I believe, at one p.m. Sunday. I'm always asleep. I usually wake up shortly after because I'm at Mike's and Trina (his mother) usually gets back from church around 1:30 p.m. and begins cooking lunch. The smells from Trina's Kitchen usually wake me up. Although I have been so tired before that I've slept on through until 60 Minutes came on. (In which case, I'm rushing to get dressed and on the road back home.)
I miss the old show at the old time. (By the way, read Ava and C.I.'s "TV: The drip-drip of Carpoolers.")
Now, back on topic, tomorrow we learn whether another victory will take place. Tomorrow war resisters Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, now in Canada, should learn whether or not the Supreme Court of Canada will hear their appeal. (Details in C.I.'s snapshot at the end of this post.) I am hoping for the best and trying not to think about anything other than that hope.
Yesterday, Amy Goodman interviewed Studs Terkel [watch, listen and/or read "'Arbitrary Methods' of UN and EU Terrorism Blacklists Criticized" (Democracy Now!)]. She has a strong column about Terkel which I would also recommend.
"Studs Terkel: Curiosity Didn't Kill This Cat" (Amy Goodman, Common Dreams):
"I have, after a fashion, been celebrated for having celebrated the lives of the uncelebrated among us; for lending voice to the face in the crowd." That is the opening line of Studs Terkel's long-awaited memoir, "Touch and Go." I made a pilgrimage to Chicago to see Terkel, one of the 20th century’s greatest journalists, interviewers and storytellers.
After writing a dozen books, winning the Pulitzer Prize, having a play produced on Broadway, winning the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the George Polk Career Award and the presidential National Humanities Medal, and hosting a daily radio show on WFMT in Chicago for close to half a century, he has, at 95 years old, written his memoir. "I tape, therefore I am," he writes. "I tape, therefore they are. Who are they, these etceteras of history, hardly worth a footnote? Who are they of whom the bards have seldom sung?"
Though he won his Pulitzer for his oral history “The Good War,” about World War II, he says there is a greater generation:
"It was in the '60s, there was the civil rights movement, it flourished, at least for a time, and the rise, resurgence, of feminism; the gays and lesbians coming out as free people. So that's the generation, I think the greatest."
While he is a man of the 20th century, he continues to write about the 21st century. In fact, he has just sued AT&T for collaborating with the government in eavesdropping.
Terkel says this is not new. He was wiretapped in the 1950s, during the McCarthy era. Of the government spies and their telecom allies, then and now, Terkel says:
"They are un-American. Thomas Paine, the most eloquent visionary of the American Revolution, speaks of this country in which a commoner can look at a king and say, 'Bugger off!' I've known this before, because my phone was tapped in the days when the keyword was 'Commie.' "
So that's Goodman's column and you might try using the link not just to read all of it but to send it to your local paper (e-mail or regular mail) and ask them to run it.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Wednesday, November 14, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the Green Zone is targeted, the US military announces deaths, an army captain who went AWOL turns himself in, news due out from Canada's Supreme Court, and more.
Indybay Media has posted an (audio) interview with war resister Brad McCall conducted by Courage to Resist. Brad McCall is the war resister who self-checked out and attempted entry into Canada only to be arrested (September 19, 2007) crossing the border. McCall explains in the interview that he applied for CO status and waited ("and begged and begged and begged") before realizing it wasn't happening.
Brad McCall: I made, the final decision, I made it one night. I found out -- or one day. I talked to a friend of mine in Colorado Springs and he told me about these GIs that were running to Canada and I was like, 'Wow, this is cool.' . . . I went to another one of my friends' house and got on my laptop at her house and we both looked and saw that it's very possible. And we found Resisters.ca on the internet and that night I made the choice that a week later we would leave. She traveled with me as just a friend and that we'd leave in a week which, as a matter of face, was payday. So I knew I would need some cash to get on the road and get moving."
Courage to Resist: So you drove to British Columbia?
Brad McCall: Yes.
Courage to Resist: And did you connect immediately with other resisters up there?
Brad McCall: Well, initially the first thing that happened to me up there when I got to British Columbia was I was arrested at the border. For that week that I was still in Fort Carson, I had e-mail contact with Canada and with people that were willing to help me and I didn't realize that my parents actually had my e-mail password and they were watching all of this go down. And they were e-mailing all these e-mails to my commander and first sergeant so they knew I was going to Canada.
Courage to Resist: Well I guess I don't need to ask about support from your family for this decision?
Brad McCall: Oh, oh, God, no. I've been disowned. But that's why I love Canada. I have nothing to go back to in the United States so I'm very content with staying here for the rest of my life.
Courage to Resist: So you were arrested at the border?
Brad McCall: Yes, I was arrested at the border on the command of the US army by Canadian Border Services Agency -- not by US services, but Canadian services -- put into a Canadian jail for two days until my lawyer showed up and got me.
Courage to Resist: Now this was a Canadian lawyer, yes?
Brad McCall: Yes.
Courage to Resist: From a Canadian support committee for GI resisters?
Brad McCall: No, he's just a, uh, young lawyer. He supports the cause. He's an immigration lawyer. And he said -- the first thing he told me -- he said. "Me helping you guys out is a no-brainer." He said, "I'm not associated with the War Resisters Support Campaign or the War Resisters League or any anti-war group. I'm a lawyer by myself and I'm helping you guys out. And he's really an awesome guy.
Courage to Resist: An unsung hero.
Brad McCall: Yes, very much so.
Courage to Resist: So he got you out of the clink --
Brad McCall: Yes.
Courage to Resist: And then what did you do next?
Brad McCall: Well, um, while I was in jail, I filed refugee claim stating that I was requesting to be a refugee from the United States on ground that if I go back to the United States, I will be persecuted or legally prosecuted for my beliefs -- politically, morally and spiritually.
Courage to Resist: Right.
Brad McCall: And so that's what I've done. I've started my refugee claim, working on that --
Courage to Resist: And what's the status of that claim right now? Where are you in the process?
Brad McCall: Right now it's just a claim. It has to come under review by the Refugee Board of Canada and they will determine whether or not I am liable for refugee status. . So far there's only been two that have come up to the Refugee Board, only two claims by war resisters, and they have both been denied. They're in the appeals process right now.
Courage to Resist: This is Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey.
Brad McCall: Exactly.
Courage to Resist: Exactly. They're going to the Supreme Court I understand?
Brad McCall: Exactly. So me I'm not really expecting a victory in the way of getting refugee status. I'm not expecting that so I'm having to go ahead and prepare for other plans.
Hinzman and Hughey are waiting to hear whether or not Canada's Supreme Court will grant a hearing to their appeal over the Immigration and Refugee Board (really one person) denying them refugee status. Hinzman was the first resister during the Iraq War who went to Canada to go public with his resistance. He became the first to apply for refugee status (January 2004). He lives there with his wife Nga Nguyen and their son Liam. Prior to making the decision, Hinzman applied for CO status and was denied. Hughey went to Canada in March 2004. McCall's stories of conflicts with his family are echoed in the early reaction of Brandon Hughey's father. However, at the 2005 Veterans for Peace conference held in Texas, David Hughey delivered an amazing speech explaining the conflicts and how they had been resolved concluding with "I just thought I'd come up and introduce myself. I do support my son." The War Resisters Support Campaign announces:
Supreme Court decision on Hinzman & Hughey expected on THURSDAY NOV. 15th, 2007
The Supreme Court of Canada is expected to post its decision on whether or not it will hear the appeal by US war resisters Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey THIS THURSDAY at 9:45 am.
The decision will be posted at . . . [click here] (the case number for Jeremy Hinzman is 32113, and for Brandon Hughey it is 32111).
If the decision is negative, join protests in cities across the country. Check the take action page for listing of protests locations.
If the decision is positive, we will celebrate right across the country -- but there will still be much work to do to ensure that US soldiers who refuse to fight in Iraq have refuge in Canada. In TORNOTO, join us at 7 p.m. at Grossman's Tavern, 379 Spadina Avenue (at Cecil Street) for a 'Leave to Appeal' party.
That is tomorrow. On Iraq, McCall declared, "I want people to realize this is new era of war and Iraq is not going to -- if we don't stop Iraq, Iraq is not going to be the last step, not going to be the last frontier or whatever that the United States tries to take, it's just the beginning of a long series of wars that I can see in the future. It's not going to be pretty. And we've got to do something about it now. We have to do something about it now."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
The voice of war resister Camilo Mejia is featured in Rebel Voices -- playing now through December 16th at Culture Project and based on Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's best-selling book Voices of a People's History of the United States. It features dramatic readings of historical voices such as war resister Mejia, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Malcom X and others will be featured. Zinn will take part in the November 18th presentation (the official opening night -- but performances are already taking place) and musician Allison Mooerer will head the permanent cast while those confirmed to be performing on selected nights are Ally Sheedy (actress and poet, best known for films such as High Art, The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order, the two Short Circuit films, St. Elmo's Fire, War Games, and, along with Nicky Katt, has good buzz on the forthcoming Harold), Eve Ensler who wrote the theater classic The Vagina Monologues (no, it's not too soon to call that a classic), actor David Strathaim (L.A. Confidential, The Firm, Bob Roberts, Dolores Claiborne and The Bourne Ultimatum), actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Clueless -- film and TV series, Gregory and Chicken Little), actress Lili Taylor (Dogfight, Shortcuts, Say Anything, Household Saints, I Shot Andy Warhol, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, State of Mind) and actor, director and activist Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Beloved, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Rainmaker, Places In The Heart, Dreamgirls, Shooter and who appeared on Democracy Now! Friday addressing the US militarization of Africa) The directors are Will Pomerantz and Rob Urbinati with Urbinati collaborating with Zinn and Arnove on the play. Tickets are $21 for previews and $41 for regular performances (beginning with the Nov. 18th opening night). The theater is located at 55 Mercer Street and tickets can be purchased there, over the phone (212-352-3101) or online here and here. More information can be found at Culture Project.
Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan
IVAW's announcement above will be in tomorrow and Friday's snapshot and then it will appear summarized in each snapshot until the March testimony begins.
Turning to the topic of AWOL, Robert Przbylski (noted here and here and here) is no longer missing. The Army captain was stationed in Germany, due to deploy to Iraq early next year and has disappeared last month. From the beginning, Stars and Stripes' John Vandiver has owned the story because no one else could show interest. Sunday Vandiver
reported the Przbylski turned himself in last Friday: "When Przylski turned himself in Friday night he was on the brink of being declared a deserter, a designation that can take effect after 30 consecutive days of unauthorized absence. Officials said Przybylski was still in AWOL status when he turned himself in. It is unclear whether the prospect of being classified a deserter was a fact in Przybylski's return. It also remains unclear what prompted him to depart in the first place." What is known is that he went missing last month (October 10th -- if not before), that his unit had learned they were deploying to Iraq in March, that he comes from a military family (his father is a retired army Lt. Col.) and that Przybylski had already served one tour of duty in Iraq. Vandiver reports that the absence is under investigation and Przybylski is currently "restricted to Baumholder barracks and [will] be given a temporary assignment while the case is investigated."
Turning to the topic of Turkey and northern Iraq, Paul Schemm (AP) reports, "Kurdish guerillas watch the border for any signs that Turkey's military will carry out threats to sweep across. But other rumblings are coming from inside Iraq: a new ambivialence among Iraq's Kurds about support for their rebel cousins holed up in the mountains. The fear -- expressed by Kurdish officials and on the streets -- is that the showdown could threaten the relatively peaceful and prosperous enclave that Kurds have carved out since 1991 after generations of poverty and oppression." Meanwhile, following reports of the Turkish attacks on northern Iraq Monday and yesterday, China's Xinhua reports Aydogan Babaoglu (the commander of Turkey's air force) has declared it didn't happen stating: "None of the aircraft of Turkish Air Forces conducted a cross-border operation, and such reports are groundless." Bay Fang (Chicago Tribune) tries to track it down noting the following are on record stating attacks took place: Fouad Hussein (spokesperson for Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq) states two airplanes flew in and "dropped flares on five villages" on Monday, Iraqi army Col. Hussein Tamir ("who supervises border guards") states "helicopters opened fire on abandoned Iraqi villages". Damien Cave (New York Times) cited Iraqi officials for a "Turkish military aircraft" attack in northern Iraq Tuesday and noted, "Officials from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region could not agree on whether helicopters or planes had been used" while also quoting Fouad Hussein. Today's Zaman, citing "[u]nnamed Kuridsh officials," report "that the villages" were "Pirbela, Birsaka, Avashin and the Norgole area". In addition, eye witnesses have reported what they saw and heard. Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London) quotes Ibrahim Mazori stating, "I was on the other side of the mountain when I heard huge explosions and could smell TNT powder all over the area" while . Meanwhile CBS and AP note that Jala Talabani, Iraq's Kurdish president, declared today, without any further comment, that, "The crisis with Turkey has passed." Similar statements have been made before.
Turning to some of today's reported violence . .
Bombings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing ("targeted an American patrol") that claimed the lives of 2 civilians and left three more wounded (this was the bombing that targeted the Green Zone -- a second Baghdad roadside bombing targeting "an American patrol" had no reported casualties) and a Babil car bombing targeting "a host tent for Sheikh Ammar Al-Gurtani" claimed the lives of 3 civilians and left eight more wounded. CNN notes, "The sheiks and the al-Kardani tribe are part fo the 'Iskandairya Awakening,' one of Iraq's emerging 'awakening' movements -- the grass-roots citizen groups opposing al Qaeda in Iraq." And, left unstated, taking money from the US.
Shootings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 Iraqi soldier shot dead in Hawija and, when police reported on the scene, 1 police officer was shot dead.
Kidnappings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a farmer was kidnapped "between Hawija and Abassiyah".
Corpses?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 5 corpses were discovered in Iraq.
Today, the US military announced, "A Multi-National Corps - Iraq Soldier was killed today during military operations near the city of Mosul. The Soldier was mortally wounded by gunfire while providing security to a Police Transitional Team training mission near an Iraqi Police Station." And they announced: "Two Multi-National Division -- North Soldiers died as a result of an explosion while conducting operations in Diyala Province, Nov. 13. Additionally, four MND-N Soldiers were wounded and evacuated to a coalition hospital." Reuters count is 3863 US service members have died thus far in the illegal war. ICCC's total is also 3863 with 19 for the month thus far. (Neither total includes the 4 US service members who are known to have died from the physical wounds they received in Iraq after leaving Iraq: Jack D. Richards, Gerald J. Cassidy, John "Bill" Smith and Raymond A. Salerno III.) And Paul Tait and Missy Ryan (Reuters) report that the roadside bombing "targeting a passing American military convoy, killed a U.S. soldier and a civilian and wounded seven people including five soldiers, the U.S. military said. . . . The explosion in Baghdad was close to a checkpoint where hundreds of Iraqis who work inside the sprawling complex queue every morning." The US military announcement reads: "An explosively formed penetrator detonated in Central Baghdad Nov. 14, killing a Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier and wounding five others. Also, one Iraqi civilian was killed and two others were wounded."
Another attack on the Green Zone? Guess it will be harder to spin that as "safety" -- but give the Operation Happy Talkers time, give them time. Meanwhile the central government in Iraq continues to be in shambles. AP reports: "Iraqi troops seized the west Baghdad headquarters of a powerful Sunni Muslim group Wednesday, cordoning off the building and ordering employees out, the group said. Iraqi security forces dispatched by the Sunni Endowment, a government agency that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines, surrounded the mosque complex where the group is based at 9 a.m. and demanded that the building be evacuated before noon, the Association of Muslim Scholars said in a statement posted on its Web site." CBS and AP note the Association of Muslim Scholars' spokesperson Mohammed Bahsar al-Faydi is of the opinion that the forces "were not government forces but the personal guards of Ahmed Abdul-Ghafoor al-Samarraie, the head of the Sunni Endowment". Reuters notes that they were Sunni Endowment security guards and that in addition to everyone being kicked out of the building "a radio broadcast from the mosque had been stopped." Paul Tait and Missy Ryan also note that a de-de-Baathification bill is being hailed as 'progress' even though it's just been given to parlaiment (from Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet) and "[o]fficals had previously said the bill had already been given to parliament." As Damien Cave (New York Times) notes, this follows yesterday's call by the Sadr bloc for Parliament to be dissolved.
On the issue of the displaced Iraqis, nothing's being done. Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today, "The leading refugee-advocate group Refugees International has issued a scathing critique of the Bush administration's treatment of displaced Iraqis. In a new report, Refugees International says the U.S. has been 'unforgivably slow' in resettling Iraqi refugees. Almost five million Iraqis are believed to have been displaced since the U.S. invasion. The U.S. is admitting more than three times as many Iranian immigrants as it is Iraqis." Hannah Allam (McClatchy Newspapers) quotes the report's co-author, Kristele Younes, declaring, "The first reason for this is the lack of political will. Until very recently, the Bush administration never even acknowledged the humanitarian crisis because they were concerned that it would be interpreted as acknowledging failure in Iraq. And President Bush still has yet to acknowledge that there are now almost 5 million Iraqis who've had to leave their homes." Younes co-authored the report with Jake Kurtzer and it includes the following policy recommendations:
1. The U.S. immediately appoint a senior PRM official to be based in the region and charged with coordinating both the assistance and resettlement components of its response; 2. The U.S. immediately appoint an ambassador level diplomat to be based in Syria; 3. The U.S. and other donors provide earmarked bilateral assistance to countries hosting large numbers of Iraqi refugees, either directly or through a Trust Fund established by the UN or the Arab League; 4. The U.S. fund all pending UN appeals at a level of 50% or more; 5. The UN country teams make responding to Iraqi refugees needs a priority, with the UN resident representatives acting as coordinators of the overall national UN response and as liaisons with the diplomatic and donor communities.
In mercenary news, David Johnston and John M. Broder (New York Times) report that the FBI investigation into Blackwater's slaughter of 17 Iraqis on September 16th have not released a report but reportedly "have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case."
In peace activism news, more activity in Olympia. On Monday, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted, "In Olympia Washington, 15 anti-war demonstrators were arrested over the weekend while attempting to block a military convoy carrying Stryker vehicles. The protests were organized by the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance which aims to stop the U.S. military from using the Port of Olympia to ship equipment to Iraq. Protest organizers also accused police of brutalizing dozens of peaceful demonstrators and journalists. On Saturday police dressed in riot gear repeatedly used pepper spray and batons to break up the protest." The actions have continued and AP reports, "Police wearing riot gear fired pepper spray bullets into a crowd of more than 150 protesters Tuesday night at the Port Olympia and several military convoys eventually moved out" with approximately 50 activists arrested. Jeremy Pawloski (The Olympian) reports, "Olympia police in riot gear wore gas masks as they prepared to remove protesters from the main entrance about 11 p.m. At the same time, military convoys left for Fort Lewis from the port exit to Marine Drive" and that in addition to the pepper spray and pepper spray bullets, there are reports that "police also threw two concussion grenades into the crowd." And last week, Morton West High School students learned that their protest -- following the guidelines the school imposed -- against the illegal war was resulting in suspension and possible expulsion. The Columbia College Chicago chapter of SDS has started an online petition:
We are writing in defense of the students who now face excessive disciplinary actions at the hands of various Morton West school administrators. Our sympathies lie with the courageous and moral struggle that the students have taken up, and with their parents who still support them. The struggle for a peaceful and just society absent of war should not be met with punishment, but should be supported by the community as a whole, especially from within the educational setting. Furthermore, It is our firm belief that an injury to freedom for students anywhere is an injury to freedom for students everywhere. This is why we urge all Morton West administrators to drop all disciplinary action against the said students, and to remove any indications of said events from their permanent records. We urge you to respect these students right to free expression now and in the future. (Written by Columbia College Chicago Students for a Democratic Society)
At Consortium News, Robert Parry's "Why We Write" explains the basics of the site, yes, but also explains the very real need for Consortium News. He and his sons Nat and Sam will be speaking at Busboys and Poets in Arlingtion, Virginia Saturday Nov. 17th from four p.m. to six p.m. discussing their new book Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush. Sam and Nat Parry have established their own journalist skills at Consortium News and they and Robert Parry can discuss any of the topics pertaining to the current administration but remember that Robert Parry has been doing investigative journalism for years -- long enough to have had neocon Daniel Pipes insult his reporting long, long before the Iraq War -- a sure sign his investigations cause discomfort.
iraq
brad mccall
jeremy hinzman
brandon hughey
robert przybylskijohn vandiver
democracy nowamy goodman
anthony arnovehoward zinn
robert parry
bay fang
patrick cockburn
hannah allemmcclatchy newspapers
the new york timesdamien cavemichael kramerdavid johnstonjohn m. broder
Chairman Kevin J. Martin: KJMWEB@fcc.gov
Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate: dtaylortateweb@fcc.gov
Commissioner Robert McDowell: Robert.McDowell@fcc.gov
If it seems so familiar, it's because it is. During Bully Boy's first administration, the FCC -- then chaired by Colin Powell's son Michael -- attempted to do this as well. The results were Congressional hearings and judiciary involvement. Despite that, they're trying it again.
"Victory for Ehren Watada" (Laura Flanders, Common Dreams):
This country sets aside two days to honor military service. On Veterans Day we celebrate the living; on Memorial Day we remember the dead.
I'd like to propose a third national holiday: Active Duty day. A day to celebrate those who refuse to leave their conscience at home. A day to cherish those who elevate this nation’s morals by refusing to participate in illegal acts.
Leading this year's Active Conscience-on-Duty Day parade should be First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq.
"To me," Watada told a court earlier this year, leading soldiers into battle in Iraq "means to participate in a war that I believe to be illegal."
Last Thursday a civilian judge handed Watada a victory against those in the military who would like to see him silenced, convicted and locked up.
In June 2006, Watada gained international attention when he publicly denounced the Iraq war as an illegal occupation and then refused to deploy with his Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade.
This February, his court-martial ended in a mistrial, after which his attorneys claimed that Fifth Amendment constitutional protections protected him from a second round in court.
On November 8, Judge Benjamin Settle agreed: "The same Fifth Amendment protections are in place for military service members as are afforded to civilians - . To hold otherwise would ignore the many sacrifices that American soldiers have made throughout history to protect these sacred rights," he wrote.
In issuing a preliminary injunction, the Judge concluded that "it is likely" that Watada will succeed in his claims that a second court-martial would violate constitutional protections against being tried twice for the same crimes.
That was a big victory. Loliese e-mailed wondering why C.I. didn't note more of the column in yesterday's snapshot? The snapshot went up late (due to two unplanned speaking events on Iraq that they grabbed at the last minute) so there was not time to note a great deal. The second reason is the end of the column, which is strong but might or might not be missing one person. In terms of? An Army captain was AWOL and about to be declared a deserter. C.I. didn't have time to find out what happened there (it's in today's snapshot, at the end of my post)? But no one knew if the man was missing, self-checked out or what? (Details in the snapshot.) So I told C.I. (who called asking if I'd heard anything about the Army captain -- I hadn't) yesterday that I would provide a lengthy excerpt. I'm glad Flanders wrote about it. (I do enjoy Flanders' work.) But Nation readers should be thrilled she wrote about it because if she hadn't written about it online at the magazine's site, no one would have known. I believe Katrina vanden Heuvel tired herself out with a weekend post about when she went off to college. Making a brief cameo in the story starring vanden Heuvel was the late Norman Mailer. vanden Heuvel seems to exist so that we can't say, "All women do the heavy lifting." Instead, we have to say, "Some women do the heavy lifting." Flanders is one carrying her weight as well as a lot of others (male and female).
I would love to tell you that I listen to her radio show but when we get done with the writing edition of The Third Estate Sunday Review, I just crash. I go to sleep. We're participating in the writing. Usually, we don't participate in the editing (that's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. doing the editing -- or re-editing) so most of the time, we're done around six or seven in the morning. That's nothing like what the gang does, staying up five more hours, sometimes six or seven, but since we start on Saturday night, that's a very long time even so. In the 'old days,' we would start while Flanders' radio program was on. In those days, it was a three hour live broadcast on Saturday and Sunday. Now they've shortened it to a one hour broadcast and it airs, I believe, at one p.m. Sunday. I'm always asleep. I usually wake up shortly after because I'm at Mike's and Trina (his mother) usually gets back from church around 1:30 p.m. and begins cooking lunch. The smells from Trina's Kitchen usually wake me up. Although I have been so tired before that I've slept on through until 60 Minutes came on. (In which case, I'm rushing to get dressed and on the road back home.)
I miss the old show at the old time. (By the way, read Ava and C.I.'s "TV: The drip-drip of Carpoolers.")
Now, back on topic, tomorrow we learn whether another victory will take place. Tomorrow war resisters Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, now in Canada, should learn whether or not the Supreme Court of Canada will hear their appeal. (Details in C.I.'s snapshot at the end of this post.) I am hoping for the best and trying not to think about anything other than that hope.
Yesterday, Amy Goodman interviewed Studs Terkel [watch, listen and/or read "'Arbitrary Methods' of UN and EU Terrorism Blacklists Criticized" (Democracy Now!)]. She has a strong column about Terkel which I would also recommend.
"Studs Terkel: Curiosity Didn't Kill This Cat" (Amy Goodman, Common Dreams):
"I have, after a fashion, been celebrated for having celebrated the lives of the uncelebrated among us; for lending voice to the face in the crowd." That is the opening line of Studs Terkel's long-awaited memoir, "Touch and Go." I made a pilgrimage to Chicago to see Terkel, one of the 20th century’s greatest journalists, interviewers and storytellers.
After writing a dozen books, winning the Pulitzer Prize, having a play produced on Broadway, winning the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the George Polk Career Award and the presidential National Humanities Medal, and hosting a daily radio show on WFMT in Chicago for close to half a century, he has, at 95 years old, written his memoir. "I tape, therefore I am," he writes. "I tape, therefore they are. Who are they, these etceteras of history, hardly worth a footnote? Who are they of whom the bards have seldom sung?"
Though he won his Pulitzer for his oral history “The Good War,” about World War II, he says there is a greater generation:
"It was in the '60s, there was the civil rights movement, it flourished, at least for a time, and the rise, resurgence, of feminism; the gays and lesbians coming out as free people. So that's the generation, I think the greatest."
While he is a man of the 20th century, he continues to write about the 21st century. In fact, he has just sued AT&T for collaborating with the government in eavesdropping.
Terkel says this is not new. He was wiretapped in the 1950s, during the McCarthy era. Of the government spies and their telecom allies, then and now, Terkel says:
"They are un-American. Thomas Paine, the most eloquent visionary of the American Revolution, speaks of this country in which a commoner can look at a king and say, 'Bugger off!' I've known this before, because my phone was tapped in the days when the keyword was 'Commie.' "
So that's Goodman's column and you might try using the link not just to read all of it but to send it to your local paper (e-mail or regular mail) and ask them to run it.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Wednesday, November 14, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the Green Zone is targeted, the US military announces deaths, an army captain who went AWOL turns himself in, news due out from Canada's Supreme Court, and more.
Indybay Media has posted an (audio) interview with war resister Brad McCall conducted by Courage to Resist. Brad McCall is the war resister who self-checked out and attempted entry into Canada only to be arrested (September 19, 2007) crossing the border. McCall explains in the interview that he applied for CO status and waited ("and begged and begged and begged") before realizing it wasn't happening.
Brad McCall: I made, the final decision, I made it one night. I found out -- or one day. I talked to a friend of mine in Colorado Springs and he told me about these GIs that were running to Canada and I was like, 'Wow, this is cool.' . . . I went to another one of my friends' house and got on my laptop at her house and we both looked and saw that it's very possible. And we found Resisters.ca on the internet and that night I made the choice that a week later we would leave. She traveled with me as just a friend and that we'd leave in a week which, as a matter of face, was payday. So I knew I would need some cash to get on the road and get moving."
Courage to Resist: So you drove to British Columbia?
Brad McCall: Yes.
Courage to Resist: And did you connect immediately with other resisters up there?
Brad McCall: Well, initially the first thing that happened to me up there when I got to British Columbia was I was arrested at the border. For that week that I was still in Fort Carson, I had e-mail contact with Canada and with people that were willing to help me and I didn't realize that my parents actually had my e-mail password and they were watching all of this go down. And they were e-mailing all these e-mails to my commander and first sergeant so they knew I was going to Canada.
Courage to Resist: Well I guess I don't need to ask about support from your family for this decision?
Brad McCall: Oh, oh, God, no. I've been disowned. But that's why I love Canada. I have nothing to go back to in the United States so I'm very content with staying here for the rest of my life.
Courage to Resist: So you were arrested at the border?
Brad McCall: Yes, I was arrested at the border on the command of the US army by Canadian Border Services Agency -- not by US services, but Canadian services -- put into a Canadian jail for two days until my lawyer showed up and got me.
Courage to Resist: Now this was a Canadian lawyer, yes?
Brad McCall: Yes.
Courage to Resist: From a Canadian support committee for GI resisters?
Brad McCall: No, he's just a, uh, young lawyer. He supports the cause. He's an immigration lawyer. And he said -- the first thing he told me -- he said. "Me helping you guys out is a no-brainer." He said, "I'm not associated with the War Resisters Support Campaign or the War Resisters League or any anti-war group. I'm a lawyer by myself and I'm helping you guys out. And he's really an awesome guy.
Courage to Resist: An unsung hero.
Brad McCall: Yes, very much so.
Courage to Resist: So he got you out of the clink --
Brad McCall: Yes.
Courage to Resist: And then what did you do next?
Brad McCall: Well, um, while I was in jail, I filed refugee claim stating that I was requesting to be a refugee from the United States on ground that if I go back to the United States, I will be persecuted or legally prosecuted for my beliefs -- politically, morally and spiritually.
Courage to Resist: Right.
Brad McCall: And so that's what I've done. I've started my refugee claim, working on that --
Courage to Resist: And what's the status of that claim right now? Where are you in the process?
Brad McCall: Right now it's just a claim. It has to come under review by the Refugee Board of Canada and they will determine whether or not I am liable for refugee status. . So far there's only been two that have come up to the Refugee Board, only two claims by war resisters, and they have both been denied. They're in the appeals process right now.
Courage to Resist: This is Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey.
Brad McCall: Exactly.
Courage to Resist: Exactly. They're going to the Supreme Court I understand?
Brad McCall: Exactly. So me I'm not really expecting a victory in the way of getting refugee status. I'm not expecting that so I'm having to go ahead and prepare for other plans.
Hinzman and Hughey are waiting to hear whether or not Canada's Supreme Court will grant a hearing to their appeal over the Immigration and Refugee Board (really one person) denying them refugee status. Hinzman was the first resister during the Iraq War who went to Canada to go public with his resistance. He became the first to apply for refugee status (January 2004). He lives there with his wife Nga Nguyen and their son Liam. Prior to making the decision, Hinzman applied for CO status and was denied. Hughey went to Canada in March 2004. McCall's stories of conflicts with his family are echoed in the early reaction of Brandon Hughey's father. However, at the 2005 Veterans for Peace conference held in Texas, David Hughey delivered an amazing speech explaining the conflicts and how they had been resolved concluding with "I just thought I'd come up and introduce myself. I do support my son." The War Resisters Support Campaign announces:
Supreme Court decision on Hinzman & Hughey expected on THURSDAY NOV. 15th, 2007
The Supreme Court of Canada is expected to post its decision on whether or not it will hear the appeal by US war resisters Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey THIS THURSDAY at 9:45 am.
The decision will be posted at . . . [click here] (the case number for Jeremy Hinzman is 32113, and for Brandon Hughey it is 32111).
If the decision is negative, join protests in cities across the country. Check the take action page for listing of protests locations.
If the decision is positive, we will celebrate right across the country -- but there will still be much work to do to ensure that US soldiers who refuse to fight in Iraq have refuge in Canada. In TORNOTO, join us at 7 p.m. at Grossman's Tavern, 379 Spadina Avenue (at Cecil Street) for a 'Leave to Appeal' party.
That is tomorrow. On Iraq, McCall declared, "I want people to realize this is new era of war and Iraq is not going to -- if we don't stop Iraq, Iraq is not going to be the last step, not going to be the last frontier or whatever that the United States tries to take, it's just the beginning of a long series of wars that I can see in the future. It's not going to be pretty. And we've got to do something about it now. We have to do something about it now."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
The voice of war resister Camilo Mejia is featured in Rebel Voices -- playing now through December 16th at Culture Project and based on Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's best-selling book Voices of a People's History of the United States. It features dramatic readings of historical voices such as war resister Mejia, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Malcom X and others will be featured. Zinn will take part in the November 18th presentation (the official opening night -- but performances are already taking place) and musician Allison Mooerer will head the permanent cast while those confirmed to be performing on selected nights are Ally Sheedy (actress and poet, best known for films such as High Art, The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order, the two Short Circuit films, St. Elmo's Fire, War Games, and, along with Nicky Katt, has good buzz on the forthcoming Harold), Eve Ensler who wrote the theater classic The Vagina Monologues (no, it's not too soon to call that a classic), actor David Strathaim (L.A. Confidential, The Firm, Bob Roberts, Dolores Claiborne and The Bourne Ultimatum), actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Clueless -- film and TV series, Gregory and Chicken Little), actress Lili Taylor (Dogfight, Shortcuts, Say Anything, Household Saints, I Shot Andy Warhol, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, State of Mind) and actor, director and activist Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Beloved, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Rainmaker, Places In The Heart, Dreamgirls, Shooter and who appeared on Democracy Now! Friday addressing the US militarization of Africa) The directors are Will Pomerantz and Rob Urbinati with Urbinati collaborating with Zinn and Arnove on the play. Tickets are $21 for previews and $41 for regular performances (beginning with the Nov. 18th opening night). The theater is located at 55 Mercer Street and tickets can be purchased there, over the phone (212-352-3101) or online here and here. More information can be found at Culture Project.
Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan
IVAW's announcement above will be in tomorrow and Friday's snapshot and then it will appear summarized in each snapshot until the March testimony begins.
Turning to the topic of AWOL, Robert Przbylski (noted here and here and here) is no longer missing. The Army captain was stationed in Germany, due to deploy to Iraq early next year and has disappeared last month. From the beginning, Stars and Stripes' John Vandiver has owned the story because no one else could show interest. Sunday Vandiver
reported the Przbylski turned himself in last Friday: "When Przylski turned himself in Friday night he was on the brink of being declared a deserter, a designation that can take effect after 30 consecutive days of unauthorized absence. Officials said Przybylski was still in AWOL status when he turned himself in. It is unclear whether the prospect of being classified a deserter was a fact in Przybylski's return. It also remains unclear what prompted him to depart in the first place." What is known is that he went missing last month (October 10th -- if not before), that his unit had learned they were deploying to Iraq in March, that he comes from a military family (his father is a retired army Lt. Col.) and that Przybylski had already served one tour of duty in Iraq. Vandiver reports that the absence is under investigation and Przybylski is currently "restricted to Baumholder barracks and [will] be given a temporary assignment while the case is investigated."
Turning to the topic of Turkey and northern Iraq, Paul Schemm (AP) reports, "Kurdish guerillas watch the border for any signs that Turkey's military will carry out threats to sweep across. But other rumblings are coming from inside Iraq: a new ambivialence among Iraq's Kurds about support for their rebel cousins holed up in the mountains. The fear -- expressed by Kurdish officials and on the streets -- is that the showdown could threaten the relatively peaceful and prosperous enclave that Kurds have carved out since 1991 after generations of poverty and oppression." Meanwhile, following reports of the Turkish attacks on northern Iraq Monday and yesterday, China's Xinhua reports Aydogan Babaoglu (the commander of Turkey's air force) has declared it didn't happen stating: "None of the aircraft of Turkish Air Forces conducted a cross-border operation, and such reports are groundless." Bay Fang (Chicago Tribune) tries to track it down noting the following are on record stating attacks took place: Fouad Hussein (spokesperson for Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq) states two airplanes flew in and "dropped flares on five villages" on Monday, Iraqi army Col. Hussein Tamir ("who supervises border guards") states "helicopters opened fire on abandoned Iraqi villages". Damien Cave (New York Times) cited Iraqi officials for a "Turkish military aircraft" attack in northern Iraq Tuesday and noted, "Officials from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region could not agree on whether helicopters or planes had been used" while also quoting Fouad Hussein. Today's Zaman, citing "[u]nnamed Kuridsh officials," report "that the villages" were "Pirbela, Birsaka, Avashin and the Norgole area". In addition, eye witnesses have reported what they saw and heard. Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London) quotes Ibrahim Mazori stating, "I was on the other side of the mountain when I heard huge explosions and could smell TNT powder all over the area" while . Meanwhile CBS and AP note that Jala Talabani, Iraq's Kurdish president, declared today, without any further comment, that, "The crisis with Turkey has passed." Similar statements have been made before.
Turning to some of today's reported violence . .
Bombings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing ("targeted an American patrol") that claimed the lives of 2 civilians and left three more wounded (this was the bombing that targeted the Green Zone -- a second Baghdad roadside bombing targeting "an American patrol" had no reported casualties) and a Babil car bombing targeting "a host tent for Sheikh Ammar Al-Gurtani" claimed the lives of 3 civilians and left eight more wounded. CNN notes, "The sheiks and the al-Kardani tribe are part fo the 'Iskandairya Awakening,' one of Iraq's emerging 'awakening' movements -- the grass-roots citizen groups opposing al Qaeda in Iraq." And, left unstated, taking money from the US.
Shootings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 Iraqi soldier shot dead in Hawija and, when police reported on the scene, 1 police officer was shot dead.
Kidnappings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a farmer was kidnapped "between Hawija and Abassiyah".
Corpses?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 5 corpses were discovered in Iraq.
Today, the US military announced, "A Multi-National Corps - Iraq Soldier was killed today during military operations near the city of Mosul. The Soldier was mortally wounded by gunfire while providing security to a Police Transitional Team training mission near an Iraqi Police Station." And they announced: "Two Multi-National Division -- North Soldiers died as a result of an explosion while conducting operations in Diyala Province, Nov. 13. Additionally, four MND-N Soldiers were wounded and evacuated to a coalition hospital." Reuters count is 3863 US service members have died thus far in the illegal war. ICCC's total is also 3863 with 19 for the month thus far. (Neither total includes the 4 US service members who are known to have died from the physical wounds they received in Iraq after leaving Iraq: Jack D. Richards, Gerald J. Cassidy, John "Bill" Smith and Raymond A. Salerno III.) And Paul Tait and Missy Ryan (Reuters) report that the roadside bombing "targeting a passing American military convoy, killed a U.S. soldier and a civilian and wounded seven people including five soldiers, the U.S. military said. . . . The explosion in Baghdad was close to a checkpoint where hundreds of Iraqis who work inside the sprawling complex queue every morning." The US military announcement reads: "An explosively formed penetrator detonated in Central Baghdad Nov. 14, killing a Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier and wounding five others. Also, one Iraqi civilian was killed and two others were wounded."
Another attack on the Green Zone? Guess it will be harder to spin that as "safety" -- but give the Operation Happy Talkers time, give them time. Meanwhile the central government in Iraq continues to be in shambles. AP reports: "Iraqi troops seized the west Baghdad headquarters of a powerful Sunni Muslim group Wednesday, cordoning off the building and ordering employees out, the group said. Iraqi security forces dispatched by the Sunni Endowment, a government agency that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines, surrounded the mosque complex where the group is based at 9 a.m. and demanded that the building be evacuated before noon, the Association of Muslim Scholars said in a statement posted on its Web site." CBS and AP note the Association of Muslim Scholars' spokesperson Mohammed Bahsar al-Faydi is of the opinion that the forces "were not government forces but the personal guards of Ahmed Abdul-Ghafoor al-Samarraie, the head of the Sunni Endowment". Reuters notes that they were Sunni Endowment security guards and that in addition to everyone being kicked out of the building "a radio broadcast from the mosque had been stopped." Paul Tait and Missy Ryan also note that a de-de-Baathification bill is being hailed as 'progress' even though it's just been given to parlaiment (from Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet) and "[o]fficals had previously said the bill had already been given to parliament." As Damien Cave (New York Times) notes, this follows yesterday's call by the Sadr bloc for Parliament to be dissolved.
On the issue of the displaced Iraqis, nothing's being done. Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today, "The leading refugee-advocate group Refugees International has issued a scathing critique of the Bush administration's treatment of displaced Iraqis. In a new report, Refugees International says the U.S. has been 'unforgivably slow' in resettling Iraqi refugees. Almost five million Iraqis are believed to have been displaced since the U.S. invasion. The U.S. is admitting more than three times as many Iranian immigrants as it is Iraqis." Hannah Allam (McClatchy Newspapers) quotes the report's co-author, Kristele Younes, declaring, "The first reason for this is the lack of political will. Until very recently, the Bush administration never even acknowledged the humanitarian crisis because they were concerned that it would be interpreted as acknowledging failure in Iraq. And President Bush still has yet to acknowledge that there are now almost 5 million Iraqis who've had to leave their homes." Younes co-authored the report with Jake Kurtzer and it includes the following policy recommendations:
1. The U.S. immediately appoint a senior PRM official to be based in the region and charged with coordinating both the assistance and resettlement components of its response; 2. The U.S. immediately appoint an ambassador level diplomat to be based in Syria; 3. The U.S. and other donors provide earmarked bilateral assistance to countries hosting large numbers of Iraqi refugees, either directly or through a Trust Fund established by the UN or the Arab League; 4. The U.S. fund all pending UN appeals at a level of 50% or more; 5. The UN country teams make responding to Iraqi refugees needs a priority, with the UN resident representatives acting as coordinators of the overall national UN response and as liaisons with the diplomatic and donor communities.
In mercenary news, David Johnston and John M. Broder (New York Times) report that the FBI investigation into Blackwater's slaughter of 17 Iraqis on September 16th have not released a report but reportedly "have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case."
In peace activism news, more activity in Olympia. On Monday, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted, "In Olympia Washington, 15 anti-war demonstrators were arrested over the weekend while attempting to block a military convoy carrying Stryker vehicles. The protests were organized by the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance which aims to stop the U.S. military from using the Port of Olympia to ship equipment to Iraq. Protest organizers also accused police of brutalizing dozens of peaceful demonstrators and journalists. On Saturday police dressed in riot gear repeatedly used pepper spray and batons to break up the protest." The actions have continued and AP reports, "Police wearing riot gear fired pepper spray bullets into a crowd of more than 150 protesters Tuesday night at the Port Olympia and several military convoys eventually moved out" with approximately 50 activists arrested. Jeremy Pawloski (The Olympian) reports, "Olympia police in riot gear wore gas masks as they prepared to remove protesters from the main entrance about 11 p.m. At the same time, military convoys left for Fort Lewis from the port exit to Marine Drive" and that in addition to the pepper spray and pepper spray bullets, there are reports that "police also threw two concussion grenades into the crowd." And last week, Morton West High School students learned that their protest -- following the guidelines the school imposed -- against the illegal war was resulting in suspension and possible expulsion. The Columbia College Chicago chapter of SDS has started an online petition:
We are writing in defense of the students who now face excessive disciplinary actions at the hands of various Morton West school administrators. Our sympathies lie with the courageous and moral struggle that the students have taken up, and with their parents who still support them. The struggle for a peaceful and just society absent of war should not be met with punishment, but should be supported by the community as a whole, especially from within the educational setting. Furthermore, It is our firm belief that an injury to freedom for students anywhere is an injury to freedom for students everywhere. This is why we urge all Morton West administrators to drop all disciplinary action against the said students, and to remove any indications of said events from their permanent records. We urge you to respect these students right to free expression now and in the future. (Written by Columbia College Chicago Students for a Democratic Society)
At Consortium News, Robert Parry's "Why We Write" explains the basics of the site, yes, but also explains the very real need for Consortium News. He and his sons Nat and Sam will be speaking at Busboys and Poets in Arlingtion, Virginia Saturday Nov. 17th from four p.m. to six p.m. discussing their new book Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush. Sam and Nat Parry have established their own journalist skills at Consortium News and they and Robert Parry can discuss any of the topics pertaining to the current administration but remember that Robert Parry has been doing investigative journalism for years -- long enough to have had neocon Daniel Pipes insult his reporting long, long before the Iraq War -- a sure sign his investigations cause discomfort.
iraq
brad mccall
jeremy hinzman
brandon hughey
robert przybylskijohn vandiver
democracy nowamy goodman
anthony arnovehoward zinn
robert parry
bay fang
patrick cockburn
hannah allemmcclatchy newspapers
the new york timesdamien cavemichael kramerdavid johnstonjohn m. broder
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