Variety specials

Kat's "Kat's Korner: Doris Day, Rob Crow and what's left unsaid" did a wonderful job of reminding everyone of how fake Doris Day is. I loved it. I also loved Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Non-apology"




Barack keeps making steps that the Cult of St. Barack insist is him walking on water but look to those not vested in the myth of The Original Presidency as being one mistake after another.

"TV: An actual holiday treat" (Ava and C.I., The Third Estate Sunday Review):

The only thing you want to see less than leftovers Thanksgiving evening, is the over-stuffed ego of an under-talented pop tart who truly thinks they have the talent, vision and power to bring you a holiday special. We've navigated through seven years of rocky network specials that offered plenty of stuffing, plenty of turkey but damn little that qualified as special.

There were the bad performers who taped their concerts. For example, Madonna really thought her faux guitar playing and pretend-singing with a few tossed middle-fingers was just what America was waiting for. Or take divas Kenny Chesney and Beyonce who thought they could round out their bad and clunky stage moves and -- in Beyonce's case -- crotch grabbing with us-just-regular-folks footage and that would be special just because some network insisted it was "a special."

In all this time, only one special has been an unqualified success, Faith Hill's Fireflies. Faith created a program that qualified as special, that was appropriate for the holiday and that contained many nice surprises. It seemed to flow naturally and that's no easy feat.

It's a new decade and ABC thankfully benched big turkey Beyonce sparing America a third year of the diva lumbering around the stage with all the grace of a burly truck driver. Thursday night, ABC instead treated the country to A Very Gaga Christmas.

That actually was a great special. We were at C.I.'s for Thanksgiving and watched the special with her and Ava. They were leery of it before it started because there have been so many bad specials but this one was really worthwhile.

I used to watch specials. They used to be all over the TV. Back when you had three networks and maybe a syndicated one or an independent station playing basically re-runs, when those were your choices, music specials were TV fare. That was Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Mama Cass, Frank Sinatra, etc. Now music specials tend to go to HBO or Showtime. Sometimes the 'specials' are just concerts. After cable has aired concerts repeatedly, a year or two later, PBS airs them and claims that they are a special. A real special isn't a concert. But that's how degraded the format's become.

It's a real shame. It's also a shame that when Rosie O'Donnell tried to bring back variety shows a few years back she treated it as a high school production for her fan club instead of taking it seriously. She's ensured that the variety TV series will be dead for another few years.


"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):

Monday, November 28, 2011. Chaos and violence continue, Parliament is attacked, Nouri al-Maliki wants a wall around Baghdad, Jalal Talabaini wants US troops to remain in Iraq, discovery motions by David Coombs (Bradley Manning's attorney) reveal just how much the US federal government has ignored the law, and more. In Iraq today, a suicide bombing attack on a prison resulted in multiple deaths. AGI notes today's bombing was "a suicide attack on Hout prison in Taji". Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) reports the assailant "slammed a car packed with explosives into" the prison's gate and RTT adds, "The attack took place at about 8:00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT)". The spokesperson for Baghdad Operations Command, Quassem Ata, told Alsumaria TV, "Ambulances rushed to the explosion site and transported the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment and the corpses to the Department of FOrensic medicine." AFP observes, "It was not immediately clear if the attack was part of a prison escape attempt, which are fairly common in Iraq." Citing an unnamed security source, Aswat al-Iraq reports, "He said that among the victims were visitors to their imprisoned relatives and prison guards." Adnkronos Security notes that the bombing also "killed and maimed guards, police and other staff while they were arriving for work." Sky News reveals, "Police officials said the death toll increased after cleanup crews found more bodies while removing debris at the site." BBC News reports 19 dead and twenty two injured in the attack. Kareem Raheem (Reuters) notes the last reported attack on the city: "The town of Taji, the site of a major Iraqi military base, was hit by bombers in July, when two blasts in the parking lot of a municipal government building killed at least 28 people and wounded scores of others." Al Jazzera provides this context, "Monday's bombing comes amid a surge of violence across the country." Al Rafidayn words it this way, "Despite toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein eighty years ago, Iraq continues to be plagud by near daily violence leaving tens of thousands dead." The attack hit the US morning news cycle. It wasn't the end of attacks today in Iraq. In the one that will probably have the most impact the Baghdad-based government, Parliament was attacked. Confusion remains as to what it was attacked with. Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) puts it this way, "Also Monday, a mortar round landed inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, killing at least two people, police said. The round landed on the outdoor car park that belongs to the Iraqi Parliament compound and hit a car. " Citing the news channel Al-Arabiya, Adnkronos Security maintains it was a rocket. KUNA states mortars and that it "hit a parking lot near the parliament" leaving at least four injured. Aswat al-Iraq notes Parliament's Mohammed al-Khalidi states it was a car and a suicide bombing, "the car exploded outside the parliament building, where the driver was trying enter, but blocked by a military hummer, which obliged him to commit suicide." AFP emphasizes the confusion over details, "The explosion in the parking lot of the Iraqi parliament was caused by a mortar round, said Baghdad security spokesman Qassem al-Moussawi and several other sources. However, at least two sources at parliament said it was a car bomb." Parliament's spokesperson Aidan Helmi declares the attack was an attempted assassination of Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi and states the car involved was similar to the cars used in Nujaifi's security detail and that when asked to display a security badge, the car slammed into anothe car, the driver got out and detonated a bomb on his person. Jack Healy, Yasir Ghazi, Andrew E. Kramer and Zaid Thaker (New York Times) observe, "An attempted bombing steps outside Parliament would represent a serious security breach inside one of the capital's most heavily guarded sectors, raising questions about the competence -- or complicity -- of security forces. Parliament sits inside the Green Zone, the locked-down expanse along the Tigris River that houses many Iraqi governmetn buildings and the American Embassy." "In the one that will probably have the most impact the Baghdad-based government, Parliament was attacked"? That's a statement based on past precedent. In the rush-rush effort to forever pimp the newest cause (OWS currently) and ingore actual news in favor of what you wish was news, many things get forgotten. The Bremer walls? Does anyone remember why they went up? Because of attacks in Baghdad. Yeah, but it was one attack in particular that got them up real quick. Dropping back to the June 23, 2006 snapshot: The ten day old "crackdown" in Baghdad, which has had little measurable impact on stopping violence, sprouted a new development today: "State of emergency." As Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted this morning, "Earlier today, insurgents set up roadblocks and opened fire on U.S. and Iraqi troops close to the US-run Green Zone." The Associated Press reports this was done as fighting forces seemed intent on breaching "the heavily fortified Green Zone." As Sandra Lupien noted on KPFA's The Morning Show, amidst the violence, US troops "rushed to the area." Current prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has "ordered everyone off the streets" of Baghdad, provided "broader arrest powers" and placed "a ban on carrying weapons." Iraq last declared a state of emergency (or martial law) in November of 2004 for the entire country (exempting only Kurdish areas in the north).Then prime minister Iyad Allawi declared it when violence broke out through much of the country as US forces geared up for their attack on/slaughter of Falluja. Current prime minister al-Maliki has declared a state of emergency for Baghdad only. A state of emergency was declared for the city of Basra in May of this year. Euronews notes that the Basra state of emergency "has not deterred militants." Omar al-Ibadi and Haider Salahaddin (Reuters) report that today in Basra a car bomb went off (police say ten killed, hospital says five). Sam Knight (Times of London) reports that "the 5 million inhabitants of the Iraqi capital [were] given just two hours notice of a curfew" (started at 2:00 pm in Baghdad, as Knight notes, but it was set to end at 5:00 pm and not, as Knight reports, on Saturday -- since Knight filed, al-Maliki shortened the curfew). Knight notes the paper's Baghdad correspondent Ned Parker terming the "extended gun battle . . . just north of the fortified Green Zone" a "free-for-all." Along with gunfire and mortars, Reuters reports that two US troops died today "when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb southeast of Baghdad." What followed were mutliple bombings in Baghdad for mutliple days and Nouri floating that there could be 'forgiveness' for 'insurgents' and then the wallas and walls and walls throughout Baghdad. When the Green Zone was almost breached, when that safe area for Iraq's rulers was in danger, suddenly there was no tolerance for violence. When it was outside the Green Zone, when it remains outside, the tolerance is high and little is done by the Baghdad-based central government. So it is very likely that today's attack on Parliament will be taken more seriously than other recent attacks. Before we get to the pattern of recent attacks, let's note the Baghdad government's 'new' plans for protection. Saturday Al Mada also reported that Major General Qassim Atta, head of the Baghdad operations command, declared that they will be putting up cameras to monitor the streets of Baghdad. And there's more. Remember after the walls started going up, Nouri also wanted to put a moat around Baghdad? Edward Wong reported on that with "Iraqis Plan to Ring Baghdad With Trenches" on September 16, 2006: The Iraqi government plans to seal off Baghdad within weeks by ringing it with a series of trenches and setting up dozens of traffic checkpoints to control movement in and out of the violent city of seven million people, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Friday. The effort is one of the most ambitious security projects this year, with cars expected to be funneled through 28 checkpoints along the main arteries snaking out from the capital. Smaller roads would be closed. The trenches would run across farmland or other open areas to prevent cars from evading checkpoints, said the ministry spokesman, Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf. "We're going to build a trench around Baghdad so we can control the exits and entrances so people will be searched properly," he said in a telephone interview. "The idea is to get the cars to go through the 28 checkpoints that we set up." Well they never got the moat. But let's drop back to the May 4, 2010 snapshot: Occupied Iraq, ruled over by a US puppet whose fighting like crazy to hold on to the position. If US service members leave the Green Zone, Nouri falls. He knows that. The US military knows it, the US government knows it. So he's proposed madcap schemes to ensure his reign since he became prime minister in April of 2006. Two Circles Net reports, "Iraqi authorities have started the construction of a security wall around the capital Baghdad, reports the country's Al-Iraqiya TV citing a Baghdad security spokesperson. The concrete wall with eight checkpoints is to be completed in mid-2011." Once upon a time, Nouri proposed building a moat around Baghdad. A moat. Stagnant water. Just what Baghdad needs more of. Especially with all the cholera outbreaks. Nouri never got his moat but he will apparently get his walled-in-city. But he didn't get that either. Yet he still hasn't give up on it. Dar Addustour quotes Atta from the same press conference today declaring that Nouri has ordered a security wall be constructed around Baghdad in early 2012. If there's anything sadder than having run out of ideas it would have to be repeatedly promising you're about to implement one of your tired ideas. At what point do those ruled note that you promise and promise but fail to deliver? It's not just that he can't stop the violence, it's also that Nouri can't follow up on his own announcements to increase security. The most current pattern of violence is every two days for a major attack. So Basra is slammed with bombs on Thursday (Saturday Andrew E. Kramer noted the death toll for the Basra attacks had risen to 25). Two days later, Saturday, it was Baghdad. Al Mada reported Baghdad awoke to bombings Saturday. Laith Hammoudi (Miami Herald, McClatchy Newspapers) explained, "Some analysts fear that this year will mark a return to that bloodshed after the last two months, when the Shiite-led Iraqi government has undertaken a nationwide crackdown on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist party, especially in the country's southern provinces, where Shiites are the majority. The arrests have been criticized by Sunni Muslim leaders as illegal, but the government has defended them, claiming those arrested have ties to terrorist activities and are based on warrants issued by courts." And some analysts feel that point has already arrived and you're seeing the slow awakening of a renewal of that fissure (which never went away). Andrew E. Kramer (New York Times) reported the bombings "shattered the stillness of a crystalline autumn day in the desert". Zhang Xiang (Xinhua) provided a walk through, "In the morning, eight construction workers were killed and 13 others wounded when two roadside bombs went off almost simultaneously near their bus while travelling in the Abu Ghraib area, some 20 km west of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. [. . .] Separately, up to seven people were killed and 28 wounded before midday when three bombs went off successively at the crowded commercial area of Bab al-Sharji, where dozens of stalls scatter at the popular open market, an Interior Ministry source anonymously told Xinhua." Press TV quoted an eye witness, "Three bombs exploded one after the other. I saw a woman serving tea to customers, lose a leg in one of the explosions." Of the construction workers, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) quoted police officer Ahmed Salman, "The victims were traveling every day in a minibus from Abu Ghraib to Falluja to work in a number of reconstruction sites." Thursday, Saturday, Monday. And there was other violence on those days and there was violence on Friday and Saturday. The violence has not gone away. And as it has increased in the last eighteen or so months, it's been very obvious that Iraq's security ministries remain headless. There is no one heading them. And no one's supposed to note Nouri's failure with regards to that. Al Mada reports that Iraqi officials are a twitter over 'news' (rumors) that Nouri al-Maliki will fill the posts to head the security ministries before the end of the year (Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of National Security). These are the posts that have been vacant all along. When Nouri was named prime minister-designate, he had 30 days to name nominees for these posts and to get the nominees approved by Parliament. Instead of following the Constitution, and with the US government strong-arming everyone, the Parliament and the presidency looked the other way and allowed Nouri to move from prime minister-designate to prime minister despite his inability to meet the only Constitutional requirement for being named prime minister. When that happened in December 2010, the US newspapers which are supposed to be skeptical -- because the nature of journalism -- and independent and watchdog proved to be toothless and cowardly. Instead of barking, they assured readers that, by January (2011), Nouri would have filled those three posts. That didn't happen. Sadly their continued failure to predict the future hasn't steered any of them away from playing amateur prophet. They continue to ignore facts -- such as ALL US troops are not coming HOME at the end of the year from Iraq -- and instead offer fantasies served up as 'reporting.' Equally delusional is Iraqi President Jalal Talabani who insists that Nouri al-Maliki cannot be replaced, that no one else in Iraq -- with a population of 26 million within the country -- no one else can do the job. With a population of 26 million, including two who have been prime minister before Nouri al-Maliki -- the National Alliance backed Ibrahim al-Jaafari and head of Iraqiya Ayad Allawi. No one else, Jalal insists, can do Nouri's job. Maybe he meant to say that no one else can do it as poorly as Nouri does? Saturday Al Sabaah noted Iraqi President Jalal Talabani gave an interview to Iraqi Satellite TV in which he bemoaned the state of Iraq but insisted that the answer was not a vote to withdraw confidence in Nouri al-Maliki because, he claims, there is no alternative to Nouri. Not everyone agrees. The same day Jalal was insisting Nouri was the sole path of salvation for Iraq, Aswat al-Iraq reported: A Legislature of al-Iraqiya Alliance, led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, has said on Saturday that Iraq's current problem lies in the political programing, followed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to steer the State. "The current problem in Iraq is not linked to the Presidency or the Legislative authorities, but to the political programs of the Prime Minister, especially as regards to the security dossier, being the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces," Legislature, Haider al-Mulla told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. How many more bombings, how many more shootings, how many more kidnappings have to take place before the Parliament demands Nouri nominate ministers to head the three security ministers or steps down as prime minister? Or will the pennies tossed their way buy their silence? Dar Addustour notes that Parliment agreed to provide the families of the Basra dead with 500,000 dinars ($427.53 in US currency) and the wounded with 250,000 dinars ($213.77 in US currency). Over the weekend, Jalal wasn't just pretending he was Deniece Williams singing "Let's Hear It For The Boy" (while actually sounding like the character Deniece sketches in "Silly"), he was also insisting Iraq needs US troops on the ground in Iraq. W.G. Dunlop (AFP) reports, "Iraqi forces need an American troop presence or at least US training forces, President Jalal Talabani has said, according to a Saturday statement on the Iraqi presidency's website." As noted earlier this week, negotiations between the US and Iraq are ongoing, the Kurds are pressing for US troops, and the numbers that political blocs are throwing around currently: 8,000 to 15,000. Al Sabaah reports that Kurdistan Alliance MP Chuan Taha, who serves on Parliament's Security and Defense Committee notes that Iraq cannot defend their own skies and states they should sign an agreement with a foreign power such as the United States (the US is mentioned twice by Taha, no other country is named) to patrol the skies and this would be fine because the US bases in Qatar and other countries could be used preventing the building of a new US base on Iraqi soil. Kurdistan Alliance's Fuad Masum is quoted on what he sees as the need for Iraq keeping "a small number of trainers and American experts" in Iraq because, he says, Iraqi forces will not be fully ready to protect the country until 2020 and he states he awaits the results of the negotiations he expects to conclude with Nouri's DC visit next month. Ministry of Defense spokesperson Major General Mohammed al-Askari is quoted stating trainers will be needed and this does not mean Iraq's forces are "defective" just that they need additional coaching and assistance. This follows Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's remarks this weekend. Alsumaria TV notes, "Iraq needs an American presence after 2011, Talabani said in a TV interview arguing that Iraqi security forces are still facing difficulties in air and marine defense as well as in the use of new weapons. Reports of Air, marine, Armored and Infantry Forces' commanders reveal that Iraq needs an efficient US presence in Iraq or at least American trainers' presence, Talabani said." Dar Addustour notes US Vice President Joe Biden's upcoming Iraq visit to discuss these issues. Regardless of whether anything additional is agreed to, Jason Ditz (Antiwar.com) notes that the supposed 'end' doesn't mean billions of US tax payer dollars won't still be headed to Iraq, $6.5 billion for 2012 alone, "And most of that is going to be military spending, with the operational budget some $6.2 billion and another $300 million going to 'refugee programs'." Since the US has not lived up to the set goals for Iraqi refugees being admitted into the US -- a detail the US press has intentionally ignored to cover for the White House -- Congress should be asking for a detailed accounting of that $300 million request. Most likely "refugee" is a cover and we're looking at more walking around, CERP-type funds. One of the few reporters who hasn't forgotten Iraqi refugees is the Philadelphia Inquirer's Trudy Rubin. This is from her latest column "An Iraqi regrets helping United States:" Salam Hamrani is safe -- for now. My Iraqi fixer and friend endured two years in a Baghdad jail. His crime: helping American troops nab Shiite militants who were killing his Sunni neighbors. He was finally freed and escaped with his family to Greek Cyprus. Our reunion in Larnaca, Cyprus, was emotional and full of laughter. But Salam's story is a sad tale of U.S. failures and betrayals in Iraq. A Shiite whose uncle was hung by Saddam Hussein, Salam was thrilled when U.S. troops ousted the dictator. As Iraq collapsed into civil war, he was furious when the militant Shiite Mahdi army moved into his mixed neighborhood and started killing Sunnis. So he started tipping U.S. officers at a forward operating base in his district about the worst of these killers. When U.S. troops withdrew, family members of one of these thugs got friends in the Iraqi army to arrest him, along with his two sons. A Shiite army general who was chummy with the killer's mother and sister made sure Salam stayed in prison. Turning to the US and the topic of Bradley Manning who is finally headed for a military courtroom and an Article 32 hearing on December 16th at Fort Meade, Maryland. Monday April 5th, WikiLeaks released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Monday June 7, 2010, the US military announced that they had arrested Bradley Manning and he stood accused of being the leaker of the video. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) reported in August 2010 that Manning had been charged -- "two charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The first encompasses four counts of violating Army regulations by transferring classified information to his personal computer between November and May and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system. The second comprises eight counts of violating federal laws governing the handling of classified information." Manning has been convicted in the public square despite the fact that he's been convicted in no state and has made no public statements -- despite any claims otherwise, he has made no public statements. Manning has been at Quantico in Virginia, under military lock and key, for months. In March, David S. Cloud (Los Angeles Times) reported that the military has added 22 additional counts to the charges including one that could be seen as "aiding the enemy" which could result in the death penalty if convicted. David E. Coombs is Bradley's attorney and he provided a walk through on Article 104. Last week, Coombs noted: Recent accounts in the media regarding defense tactics, strategy, or intended courses of action at the Article 32 hearing are inaccurate. A pretrial hearing is not the appropriate venue for the defense to reveal its case. Instead, this hearing provides the defense with an opportunity to test the relative strengths and weaknesses of the government's case and to obtain needed pretrial discovery. The defense appreciates those who choose to support PFC Manning. However, these individuals or organizations should not be treated as official sources of information regarding his legal defense. All official statements will come through public releases from this office. As part of the discovery process, Coombs filed [PDF format warning] a request last week and it includes asking the government to provide the evidence they will be presenting. It also includes: 2. On 18 January 2011, the defense was notified that PFC Manning, at the direction of [redacted], was placed in suicide risk. This decision was made over the recoomendations of [redacted] and the defense appointed expert [redacted]. When PFC Manning was being ordered to surrender his clothes as part of the unnecessary suicide risk, the Brig made the decision to videotape this event along with an interrogation of PFC Manning by [redacted] and others. On 19 January 2011, the defense filed a preservation of evidence request with the government and a request for production of the video. The defense believes the video will support PFC Manning's claim of unlawful pretrial punishment. The government has yet to respond to the defense request. See R.C.M.405(e) Discussing (stating that inquiry into other issues such as legality of searches or the admissibility of evidence is proper by an Article 32 Investigating Officer). 3. The defense has previously requested a copy of all adverse administrative or UCMJ action, all supporting documentation, and any rebuttal materials to such action based upon the 15-6 investigation conducted by [redacted] or any other governmental investigation with regards to any individual that was subject of such an adverse action in relation to the alleged leak of classified information in this case. The previous requests included, but was not limted to, the following individuals: [redacted]. The government has so far only provided information in relation to [redacted]. The filing mainly underscores how the government has refused to follow the law. Not only has Bradley been held all this time, making a mockery of the Sixth Amendment, but the government has repeatedly refused to produce evidence -- whether it be on the computers allegedly involved and who had access to them or something as basic as an internal report. For example: White House: [redacted] was tasked to lead a comprehensive effort to review the alleged leaks in this case. He has completed a report detailing the rather benign nature of the leaks and the lack of any real damage to national security. The defense requests a copy of this review and any assessment given, or discussions concering, the WikiLeaks disclosures by any member of the government to [redacted]. The defense requests any e-mail, report, assessment, directive, or discussion by [redacted] to the Department of Defense concering this case in order to determine the presence of unlawful command influence. See R.C.M. 405(e). Additionally, defense requests any e-mail, report, assessment, directive, or discussion by [redacted] to the Department of State or Department of Justice concerning this case; For those who are confused, in the US, this is news. No, it's not being treated as such as we hear indulgent interviews with OWS-s who want to talk about their camp outs. But it's actual news. It has tremendous value both today and in the future. Bradley Manning is not a sidebar for you to rush over to the topic of Julian Assange with. You can beat off to Julian on your own time. In a few weeks, Bradley has his Article 32 hearing. While they are almost always a rubber stamp, it's also true that enough public attention could make the White House call off their witch hunt. Unless Barack's attempting to celebrate the government's treating of the Rosenbergs and wants that to be his historical legacy. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed in 1953 and I'm not implying Bradley could be (the prosecution insists they're not after the death penalty -- however, that doesn't mean, in a military trial, not an Article 32 hearing, the judge might rule otherwise). But the railroading of the Rosenbergs by the US government has been a stain on the nation that does not and will not wash away. As Barack frets more and more that he might be a one-term president, would he really want a similar miscarriage of justice on his small record? Show trials rarely deliver justice and Barack could step in and halt the proceedings at any time but only if he was pressured by the public to do so. iraq agi rtt the associated press sameer n. yacoub afp aswat al-iraq adnkronos security bbc news reuters kareem raheem al jazeera al rafidayn alsumaria tv dar addustour al sabaah cnn mohammed tawfeeq kpfa the morning show sandra lupien al mada mcclatchy newspapers the miami herald laith hammoudi the new york times andrew e. kramer xinhua zhang xiang press tv aswat al-iraq edward wong trudy rubin antiwar.com jason ditz

Tariq Ali, Sarah Flounders

If you're able to stream online and to enjoy it (no closed captioning at the link, sorry), I hope you'll click here for GRTV (Global Research). It's a 15 minute segment featuring Tariq Ali. He starts with the 2008 campaign for his talk about the war monger.

Tariq notes that he (TA) never denied the symbolic meaning, "but finally you get over these things and you have to judge a politician [...] not on the basis of the fine words he speaks and utters but on the basis of what he does. That must always be the criteria for judging any politician -- left, right or center -- what they do, not what they say."

It's the sort of reality flacid butterballs like Danny Schechter can never grasp or deal with.

(I know Tariq Ali. I do not know Danny Schechter and have never visited his ritzy -- but trashy decorated -- NYC home.)

Butterball blogged that he was betrayed and the reality is Butterball betrayed his own beliefs and that's what destroyed him. Did you hear him lead a charge against the Libyan War? No, Danny Dump only objects to wars loudly when a Republican is in the White House.



"U.S. promotes assassination threats against Iranian scientists" (Sara Flounders, WSWS):
The International Atomic Energy Agency made public the names of Iranian nuclear scientists in a new report released this week. Publishing their names makes these scientists targets for assassination.

This unprecedented violation of international guidelines, and of the IAEA’s own Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, is the most menacing proof to date that the agency is not even superficially a neutral U.N. body that monitors nuclear weapons. Showing the agency’s bias, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano met with the White House before meeting with U.N. officials on this latest report.

Several Iranian scientists have already been killed by bombs and drive-by shootings. The secretary general of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, Mohammad Javad Larijani, says the U.S. and Israel were behind the murders.

Exposing that these targeted killings are considered acceptable practice, U.S. presidential candidate Newt Gingrich declared that Washington is seeking to stop Iran’s nuclear program through maximum covert operations, including the assassination of scientists.

U.S. CIA or Israeli Mossad agents have also carried out virus attacks on the computers of legal Iranian centrifuges, explosions at Iranian industrial sites and continuing acts of sabotage. All this is part of an ongoing U.S. war that attempts to set back Iran’s development as a modern, self-sufficient country.

A new round of demands that other countries join in sanctions against Iran comes at a time of increasing crisis and upheaval in the region. The impact of an intractable capitalist economic crisis turns Pentagon war planners in an increasingly threatening direction.

The IAEA report was leaked to the press before its official release. Rather than presenting information from the agency’s countless inspections in Iran, it repeated discredited allegations originally made four years ago regarding a laptop computer “found” by U.S. authorities. The laptop supposedly showed Iran’s “intention” to construct atomic warheads.

The leak of the report follows a bourgeois media frenzy over a wild claim that Iran was planning to execute a Saudi ­ambassador in Washington, D.C.

Most ominous are the media reports of a possible Israeli military attack on Iran. Israel is totally dependent on U.S. financial, diplomatic and military aid to survive. Any attack on Iran could occur only with U.S. authorization and overflight clearance of regions where the Pentagon has controlled the sky for decades.

The right to develop nuclear energy

Like every other country, Iran is guaranteed the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology. Iran is also a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Today, at least 30 countries have nuclear power plants. According to the IAEA’s most recent “International Status and Prospects of Nuclear Power” report, another 65 countries “are expressing interest in, considering, or actively planning for nuclear power.” (iaea.org, March 2011)

But only Iran has faced every form of attack to block development of a nuclear energy program.

Every Iranian nuclear facility is under 24-hour-a-day surveillance by IAEA cameras, and Iran has not one nuclear weapon. Yet the U.S. continues to demand that Iran stop the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, because it could potentially lead to a nuclear weapon sometime in the future.

The IAEA does not criticize, attack or demand inspections of the more than 10,000 nuclear weapons that the U.S. holds, nor of the hundreds of nuclear weapons developed by Israel.

The bogus charges of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq — despite years of total monitoring of every industrial plant in Iraq — confirms that no inspection can satisfy Washington’s demands.

Sanctions on Iran’s oil refineries

The most recent U.S. sanctions are not focused on nuclear research. Instead, they are an attempt to hamper Iran’s petrochemical industry.

Iran nationalized its production of oil after a revolutionary upheaval drove U.S. and British imperialism out of Iran in 1979. Since then, every effort has been made to destabilize Iran and regain the vast wealth that once flowed into Western banks and corporations.

Due to its past unequal relation with imperialism and the years of sanctions since, Iran has had to import large amounts of refined oil and petroleum products, from gasoline to jet fuel, cooking gas and more. In 2008, Iran still had to import nearly 40 percent of its market needs.

However, after completion of seven new refineries and improvements to existing refineries, Iran is now almost self-sufficient in oil refining needs. This is why the U.S. is so determined to again block Iran’s refining capacity by hampering all forms of international investment.

As this entire resource-rich region continues to slip from U.S. imperialism’s control and domination, the danger of a Pentagon-inspired provocation against Iran escalates. All those who oppose imperialist war should be on heightened alert.

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Sara Flounders is a strong and consistent voice. She's 'too left' for some people but you'll notice she has a 'true north' like a compass. It does not vary. (I've stolen that compliment from something an editor said Thursday about C.I. I think the compliment applies to both women.)


"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):

Friday, November 25, 2011. Chaos and violence continue, Basra sacks its top security commanders, the Turkish government offers an apology to Kurds, Iraq's Parliament postpones a vote on US withdrawal, the latest round of negotiations involve thousands of US military, and more. AFP reports that an emergency session was held today by Basra's provincial council which "took the decision to fire three security commanders" as a result of yesterday's violence. Yesterday, Basra was slammed with multiple bombings. Nabil al-Jurani (AP) explained, "Three bombs went off in a popular open-air market in Basra, police officials said." BBC News quoted shop owner Noufal Hassan, "I immediately went out of my shop and saw the blood. The nearest shops were shattered and the cars were burned." Xinhua (link has text and video) added, "Among the dead and wounded were several policemen and Iraqi army soldiers." W.G. Dunlop (AFP) counted over 65 injured and they have 19 killed and they're able to back that up with figures from the Basra health directorate, Riyadh Abdelamir. Hossam Acommok (Al Mada) reports that an MP said the Basra council's vote was necessary because the security command had failed and is, therefore, responsible for the bombings and that their failure indicates they don't care "about the blood of Iraqis" as evidenced by the fact that a pervious series of bombings in Basra did not result in additional security measures. Today the United Nations issued the following statement on the bombings: The top United Nations official in Iraq today strongly condemned the series of bomb attacks in the country's southern city of Basra that has killed dozens of people and injured many more. Media reports indicate at least 19 people died yesterday as a rsult of the apparently coordinated bombings at a market in the city, with the last of three explosions causing most of the injuries. In a statement, the Secretary-General's Special Representative to Iraq Martin Kobler offered his condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and authorities of Basra and Iraq. In other violence reported yesterday, Reuters notes 1 police officer and his son were kidnapped in Ramadi, a Ramadi market bombing left five people injured, the Jalawla village mayor was shot dead in a market, an attack on a Mosul military checkpoint claimed the life of 1 Iraqi solider, 1 employee of the Ministry of Electricity was shot dead in Shura, an armed clash in Baaj left one Iraqi soldier dead and an Iraqi military officer injured and a Mussayab home bombing targeted a Sahwa leaving two people injured. Today's violence, Reuters notes, included 1 police officer and his son kidnapped in Qaim, a JBela bombing injured one person and that the death toll in the Basra bombings yesterday has now reached 21. Aswat al-Iraq reports the death toll has climbed to 50 in the Basra bombing with fifty injured. In addition, they note an attack on an Amiriya military check point which resulted in the death of 1 soldier and three more injured. In other news of violence, the Telegraph of London notes Iraq executed 16 people yesterday. They were all, of course, guilty because Iraq has the most fair and disciplined legal system in the world. Oh, wait, it doesn't. Which is why the fact that one of those executed, Firas Fleih al-Jaburi, was "a human rights activist who fought to improve prison condtions" should be especially alarming. Yesterday the Sunni Endowment Office in Baghdad was bombed leaving three people injured. On the political scene in Iraq, Aswat al-Iraq notes that although the Parliament was scheduled to vote on US withdrawal yesterday, they have postponed it. Alsumaria TV quotes MP Mohamed Al Khalidi stating, "Iraqi parliament voted during its third session of the second legislative quarter in the second legislative year presided by Parliament Speaker Osama Al Nujaifi, and in the presence of 236 MPs, to postpone voting over the legal committee's resolution regarding US withdrawal from Iraq. The voting would be carried out after hosting Iraqi Armed Forces General Commander Nuri Al Maliki. 142 MPs out of the present 236 voted for the postponement," Khalidi revealed noting that "Sader movement for its part abstained from voting." Al Mada reports that the Kurds are lobbying Nouri to keep US troops in disputed areas and to secure Iraqi air space. Reportedly a consensus is building for keeping 8,000 to 12,000 US troops and this is among the details Nouri will discuss on his DC visit next month. Al Rafidayn adds that it is after this meeting that immunity will be further explored and states, pay attention because the US press never did, that MP Sami al-Asakri explained that Nouri has the power in his role as commander in chief of the military to determine the number of US troops needed (I'm adding: If any) and that the blocs gave their input but that was just input. It's Nouri's role. Yes, we did note that well over a month ago. Yes, it is rather basic and, yes, it is legally sound. What's pushing these considerations? Could be (may not be, just could) that Nouri's in a bit of panic because while he can terrorize -- as he demonstrated repeatedly since 2006 -- the people, he can't do everything. Add to the mix efforts by provinces -- fully legal efforts -- to go semi-autonomous and with a still unresolved oil law (meaning who might or might not have claims on the money) and Nouri's desired response (which, based on pattern, will most likely be heavy-handed) and suddenly he's at risk of not only his continued war with the people he usually demonizes but potentially whole sections of a province or multiple provinces. That's what could possibly be motivating Nouri. And never forget, he's demonstrated for five years now that his sole goal is to ensure his own personal survival, it's not about the Iraqi people, it's not about the country's potential -- for Nouri, it's all about Nouri. And internal conflicts keep popping up. Salah Nasrawi (Al-Ahram Weekly) observes: A bitter row over the control of a military base in the disputed northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk is heightening tensions between the Iraqi government and the Kurds as US troops prepare to leave Iraq next month. Last Thursday, local Kurdish police blocked the transit of Iraqi military and government officials who had traveled to Kirkuk in order to enter the Al-Hurriya military base for a handover ceremony for departing US troops. Kurdish officials had earlier warned the government in the capital Baghdad from sending Iraqi army forces to take over the military facility, which they said they wanted to turn into a civilian airport instead. Still on internal conflicts, Thursday Dar Addustour reported on Dujail, in Salahuddin Province, and how residents took to the streets to show their approval of the possibility of Dujail leaving Salahuddin and becoming a part of Baghdad Province. Most interesting is that the same voices who screamed about Salahuddin wanting to become semi-autonomous and they want to argue that this can be done by a process . . . similar to what the Constitution's Article 119 says -- you know, what they ignored when they insisted Salahuddin Province couldn't go semi-autonomous. Today Aswat al-Iraq notes that 1500 poured into the streets to oppose merging with Baghdad Province. And today Alsumaria TV reports Ayad Allawi, head of Iraqiya, weighed in on the issue stating, "Iraqi constitution stipulated the right to establish federal regions. We are aware though that if federal regions were formed Iraq would be subject to clashes over administrative borders, wealth as well as oil and gas [. . ..] This is not the right time to call for regions' formation," While it's good that Allawi recognized the Constitution in his remarks, exactly when would be the right time to call for a formation? When an oil law is finally passed? It's nearly nine years since the start of the Iraq War. It's almost five years since Nouri agreed to work with Parliament to pass one -- as part of the White House benchmarks. There are all different ways you can measure the lack of progress. So when would be a good time? 80 years from now? 180? At what point do Iraqis get to determine their own fate? And it's really sad to hear Allawi echo Paul Bremer and countless other Americans by telling Iraqis to wait because it's "not the right time" just yet. Again, he did recognize the Constitution. That does put him ahead of Nouri al-Maliki. Ali Hussein (Al Mada) notes that State of Law (Nouri's political slate) also gives lip service to the Constitution -- "night and day," they brag -- but most repeatedly ignore and/or violate the Constitution. Hussein notes that all of Nouri and State of Law's attacks on independent bodies, freedom of expression and the powers of the Parliament were likely a test balloon for them to determine how much power Nouri can seize. Hussein notes State of Law MP Khalid al-Attiyah attempting to argue this week that the Constitution is just one document and ignoring the fact that political blocs wrote the Constitution (and passed it) and did so after "a great deal of wrangling." It would appear there is the Constitution of Iraq and there is the forever altering and changing Constitution as understood by State of Law. Blue Coat Systems is back in the news. From the October 31st snapshot: Mvelase Peppetta (Memeburn) reports alarm that the government of Syria has "internaet censorship equipment." It's illegal, according to US law, for it to have this Blue Coat Systems 'filter.' How did it get it? Apparently from Iraq. The US government okayed the sale of web censorship equipment to Iraq. Did the US government bother to run that past either the Iraqi people or the American people? No. Nor did it publicize the sale. Today Khaled Waleed (Niqash) reports on the issue: The US government says it is investigating how the devices got to Syria and Blue Coat Systems of Sunnyvale, the California-based company responsible for manufacturing the equipment, says it is cooperating fully. If the firm deliberately violated the sanctions -- which say special permission is required to import this kind of equipment into Syria -- then it could be liable for a fine of up to US$1 million. Although the 14 web monitoring devices were shipped to Dubai late in 2010 from where they were supposed to be sent to Iraq, Iraq itself has denied any involvement in the transaction. Nonetheless in Iraq, the issue is also causing concern. Since 2004, when the US put into effect the Syria Accountability Act, for what the US sees as Syria's support of "terrorism, involvement in Lebanon, weapons of mass destruction programs and the destabilizing role it is playing in Iraq", goods that contain more than 10 per cent componentry that is manufactured in the US have been prohibited from being exported there. However it is quite possible that Syria has been able to obtain embargoed goods through third parties. The question now is what Iraq had to do with the 13 Blue Coat web surveillance devices. Now the US government is worried about supplying freedom suppressing techonology? Now that Syria has the technology and might use it to harm the people of Syria. But the US allowed despot Nouri to have the technology even though he has a long record of suppressing freedom. Alsumaria TV reports, "State of Law Coalition didn't take long to explain Iraqi government's abstinence from voting over Arab League's resolution regarding Syria's incidents. Some leaders in the coalition expressed, in a press conference, their support to Syrian people's rights and affirmed that they are taken by surprise by the shift in some Iraqi parties' positions towards Damascus, a source told Alsumaria. " It might be easier to argue you support the rights of the Syrian people if you hadn't given them technology -- as Nouri did -- to spy on their own people. Meanwhile Waleed Ibrahim (Reuters) notes that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani announced today that Iraq "opposes any Wester or Turkish military intervention" in Syira and that "Talabani also said Iraqi military commanders favoured a continued U.S. troop presence in Iraq due to weaknesses in air and navel defences." Last week, Iraq and it's northern neighbor Turkey were involved in claims and counter-claims. Turkey claims Iraq owes it a ton of money and stopped Iraqi commercial flights from landing at Turkish airports. Iraq announced that they would do the same to Turkey and, on Sunday, Iraq did. Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) reports Turkish flights began landing in Iraq in Thursday and Iraqi flights landing in Turkey today. The ban is off. No word on what was agreed to in order to call the ban off and since there's no announcement that Iraq has paid millions to Turkey, the issue could flare up again. Staying on the topic of Turkey for a moment, the Daily Star reports: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued the first official apology Wednesday for a bloody military campaign that killed thousands of Kurds in southeast Turkey at the end of the 1930s. "If it is necessary to apologize on behalf of the state ... I am apologizing," Erdogan told his Justice and Development Party (AKP) members in Ankara in televised remarks. Erdogan said the airstrikes and ground operations in the city of Dersim -- now named Tunceli -- killed 13,800 people between 1936 and 1939, according to an official document of the time he cited in his speech. There are a lot of cute little games the press plays. For example, the increased Iraqi violence in the last 18 months is erased with the decision to repeatedly invoke the ethnic cleansing of 2006 and 2007. That little lie allows them to address that violence is on the incrase since 2009 and 2010. Another distortion they like to sell is that the PKK, a Kurdish rebel group, pops up in 1984 for no apparent reason. They ignore the historical discrimination and targeting of Kurds in Turkey by the Turkish government. Hopefully, this was the first in a series of steps Erdogan intends to take that does not involve violence or the continued bombing of northern Iraq. For 27 years now, violence has not stopped the PKK. It's unlikely to suddenly work this year. Yesterday the Associated Press noted that the European Union is calling for members of the EU to take in the residents of the Camp Ashraf. The camp houses a group of Iranian dissidents (approximately 3,500 people). Iranian dissidents were welcomed to Iraq by Saddam Hussein in 1986 and he gave them Camp Ashraf and six other parcels that they could utilize. In 2003, the US invaded Iraq.The US government had the US military lead negotiations with the residents of Camp Ashraf. The US government wanted the residents to disarm and the US promised protections to the point that US actions turned the residents of Camp Ashraf into protected person under the Geneva Conventions. As 2008 drew to a close, the Bush administration was given assurances from the Iraqi government that they would protect the residents. Yet Nouri al-Maliki ordered the camp attacked twice. July 28, 2009 Nouri launched an attack (while then-US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was on the ground in Iraq). In a report released this summer entitled "Iraqi government must respect and protect rights of Camp Ashraf residents," Amnesty International described this assault, "Barely a month later, on 28-29 July 2009, Iraqi security forces stormed into the camp; at least nine residents were killed and many more were injured. Thirty-six residents who were detained were allegedly tortured and beaten. They were eventually released on 7 October 2009; by then they were in poor health after going on hunger strike." April 8th of this year Nouri again ordered an assault on Camp Ashraf (then-US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was again on the ground in Iraq when the assault took place). Amnesty International described the assault this way, "Earlier this year, on 8 April, Iraqi troops took up positions within the camp using excessive, including lethal, force against residents who tried to resist them. Troops used live ammunition and by the end of the operation some 36 residents, including eight women, were dead and more than 300 others had been wounded. Following international and other protests, the Iraqi government announced that it had appointed a committee to investigate the attack and the killings; however, as on other occasions when the government has announced investigations into allegations of serious human rights violations by its forces, the authorities have yet to disclose the outcome, prompting questions whether any investigation was, in fact, carried out." Nouri al-Maliki is seen as close to the government in Tehran. They have made it clear that they want the dissidents out of Iraq and returned to Iran -- where they would face trial at best, torture most likely. Nouri has announced he will be closing Camp Ashraf at the end of this year. UK MP Brian Binley (Huffington Post) writes, "As things are evolving and if Maliki gets away with his plan to impose the deadline, just as the Christmas and New Year holidays are in full swing, the prospect is that the world will sit and watch while men and women are killed in cold blood or mutilated, crushed by US-supplied armoured personal carriers." Zohreh Shafaei (Scoop News) notes the concerns over what may happen to the residents of Camp Ashraf: I wrote about the story of my life in an article on August 2nd (American Chronicle) where I asked for help to save the life of my brother who resides in the camp Ashraf. He is the only member of family that I have left. Today, my brother and many others like him live in Camp Ashraf and are in a great danger. The situation is highly critical now as the Iraqi government has stated that it is going to close the camp by the end of the year 2011. This ultimatum is a decision to carry out a massacre of the inhabitants of the camp, where 3400 Iranian civilians, including 1000 women live. The inhabitants have already experienced two similar attacks in July 2009 and April 2011, where 47 persons were killed and hundreds were wounded. As for myself, I have already had six members of my family killed by the rule of the mullahs' dictatorship in Iran. I now have only one brother left who happens to live in the camp Ashraf now. Many of the 3400 civilians in the camp have experienced similar situation as myself, and their lives are at danger now. President Obama: The U.S. is responsible for securing the safety of the 3400 inhabitants of the camp, as the U.S. army accepted to protect their lives when they handed over their arms to the U.S. army. The fact is that by keeping the name of the MEK in the F.T.O. list, you are authorizing the Maleki government to carry out the massacre of innocent civilians Cindy Sheehan has recently returned from Cuba. She notes the day in a new post: Corporate profit is indeed a huge problem in our society, but so is this ravenous consumerism that 99% of the 99% revel in. If we could break the cycle of exploitation that not only builds the crap, but also makes us believe that we can't live without it, no profound change will occur. I guess this is what we call, "Preaching to the choir," because I believe that just about everyone who reads this is in solidarity with this message -- but, really, take a quick look around, like I do occasionally, and ask yourself if you are living the "American Dream," or the 'Nightmare." iraq press tv the associated press nabil al-jurani bbc news afp w.g. dunlop niqash khaled waleed the telegraph of london al mada al rafidayn dar addustour cnn mohammed tawfeeq cindy sheehan

"

Gravel calls it

RT has an interview with former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska -- he ran for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2008 -- and the link is text and video:

“All I can say about what the US is doing – it‘s immoral,” Gravel says, explaining that “as a result of 9/11, we have altered our moral compass. And people began to get used to brutalizing each other.”

“We Americans used to think ‘oh, what happened in Germany could never happen with us!’ Well, it is happening with us. And it is happening to the detriment of our global position.”

“In Afghanistan, in Iraq and in Vietnam at the era, all American soldiers died in vain,” Gravel claims, recalling the millions of war victims in Vietnam, which is now developing along its own path, regardless.

I happen to agree with him, we have gone down an awful road. We seem to embrace brutality. That's really all we do now. We're really unable to do much of anything except that, for some reason.

For some reason?

We're stuck in a loop on this because we want to be. We're unwilling to make demands of our parties -- whether you're Republican or Democrat or whatever. We won't make the demands needed. We won't say, "End wars or we walk." When we are willing to do that and do it in large numbers, we might be listened to.

Instead, the political parties know they really don't have to do anything. That's includes the national Green Party which has refused to lead. Barack Obama is the worst Democrat to be in the White House in my lifetime. The Greens should be leading with the criticism from the left. Instead they resort to silence.

Collectively, it's all of our fault.

Maybe one day we'll be disgusted enough to act in large numbers. Maybe one day.



"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):

Wednesday, November 23, 2011. Chaos and violence continue, a wife please for information on her husband who has been missing in Iraq for nearly nine years, Iraq War veteran J.R. Martinez wins Dancing with the Stars, the UN talks Camp Ashraf, and more. Starting in the US, Rene Lynch (Los Angeles Times) notes that 28-year-old Iraq War veteran J.R. Martinez and his dancing partner Karina Smirnoff won the Dancing With the Stars competition last night and that he declared of his trophy for the celebrated win, "Right now I'm going to put mine in bed. I'm going to tuck it in, and it's going to roll around with me. And then after that, once we've kind of grown apart, I'm going to glue it to the hood of my car and drive around Los Angeles and honk my horn and it will be my own parade." Jessica Derschowitz (CBS News) explains, "Martinez was 19 years old when his humvee hit an anti-tank mine in April 2003. He suffered smoke inhalation and burns to more than 40 percent of his body." Dreschowitz also provides video of David Martin's 2003 interview with Martinez. In 1991, Della Wright's children Nicholas and Mary died in an apartment fire that left her and her six-year-old daughter badly burned. Wright went on to start The People's Burn Foundation in 1997. The Indy Channel speaks with Wright who says of Martinez, "He got out there and he gave it his all, and he did not let what people could see change the way he was." The Washington Post's Reliable Source states that US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has "penned a letter of congratulations to Martinez" and quotes from the letter that "your victory sends a strong message about the strength and resilience of our wounded warriors." Turning to Iraq where W.G. Dunlop (AFP) reports that the Office of Security Cooperation -- Iraq (the ten enduring US bases we've been noting for a week now) will be "under US embassy authority." If true, that is news. If true? General Martin Dempsey is the Chair of the Joint-Chiefs of Staff. He was called before the Senate Armed Services Committee to testify on this issue (and did). If this were a program the Pentagon wasn't running, normal procedure would be for him to refer the questions to the State Dept and for Congress to call someone in who would represent a supervisory department. (I'm not doubting Dunlop was told that. I am expressing uncertainty as to whether or not what he was told was correct. It does not make sene for the Senate to ask the Pentagon to testify on programs that the State Dept will be running.) What's of greater interest is Dunlop's numbers make no sense. Again, people need to pay attention to Senate hearings. (To House hearings as well.) AFP should have paired Dunlop with someone covering last week's Senate hearing. (I don't expect Dunlop or the New York Times' Tim Arango to know, from Iraq, what took place in a DC hearing. That's a ridiculous expectation.) Dunlop speaks to US Lt Col Tom Hanson who informs him that there will be 157 Pentagon forces and "up to 763" contractors; however, that 763 won't be all at once (Dunlop summarizes him, we don't have the direct statement) and these contrators will be "involved in some aspect of bringing the equipment to the Iraqis and helping them learn how to operate it, and bringing (them) to a minimum level of proficieny on it, whether it's a tank or an airplane or an air traffic control systerm or radar." Do you see the problem with that? If you attended the hearing or read accurate coverage of it ( NYT's Elisabeth Bumiller and LewisRockwell.com's Laurence Vance got it right), you might be thinking, "That's not all the contractors." It's not all. There is a set number of contractors not noted in Dunlop's report. That set number is required for US military personnel working on the 10 Office of Security Cooperation -- Iraq "enduring" bases to be protected. Gen Dempsey was very clear on this count and we quoted him in full on it. Let's do so again: Senator Kay Hagan: We'll, as we continue this drawdown of our military personnel from Iraq, I really remain concerned about their force protection -- the individuals that will be remaining in Iraq. So what are the remaining challenges for our military personnel in Iraq in terms of managing their vulnerabilities, managing their exposures during the drawdown? General Martin Dempsey: Senator, are you talking about getting from 24,000, the existing force now and having it retrograde through Kuwait? Senator Kay Hagan: The ones that will remain over there. General Martin Dempsey: The ones that will remain -- Senator Kay Hagan: Their protection. General Martin Dempsey: Yes, Senator. Well, they will have -- First and foremost, we've got ten Offices of Security Cooperation in Iraq bases. And their activities will largely be conducted on these bases because their activities are fundamentally oriented on delivering the foreign military sales. So F-16s get delivered, there's a team there to help new equipment training and-and helping Iraq understand how to use them to establish air sovereignty. Or there's a 141 M1 Tanks right now, generally located at a tank gunnery range in Besmaya, east of Baghdad and the team supporting that training stays on Besmaya so this isn't about us moving around the country very much at all. This is about our exposure being limited to 10 enduring, if you will, Offices of Security Cooperation base camps. And doing the job of educating and training and equipping on those ten bases. Host nation is always responsible for the outer parameter. We'll have contracted security on the inner parameter. And these young men and women will always have responsibility for their own self-defense. Senator Kay Hagan: So we'll have contracted security on the inner-paramenter? General Martin Dempsey: That's right. FYI, Dunlop's article contains a clue that Dunlop's unaware of. Let's stay with the US presence in Iraq. Al Mannarah reports that among the options political blocs are weighing are these three options: the US trains Iraqi forces in a third country (that both the US and Iraq agree to), allow NATO to do the training, or Iraq can -- as Moqtada al-Sadr wants -- allow other countries (other than the US) to do the training. Moqtada has named France and Russia and inferred that there are other (unnamed) European countries his political bloc has been in contact with. Iraq's Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, has an interesting quote at the end of the article. Meanwhile Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Rebecca Santana (AP) reported ysterday that the US military turned over their Iraqi detainees to Iraq except for Ali Mussa Daqduq. Julian E. Barnes and Evan Perez (Wall St. Journal) reports that the US wants him to be taken to the US where it is assumed he would be face "trial by a military commission." In reported violence, Reuters notes that a Hawija attack utilizing multiple bombs and mortars resulted in nine people being injured and 2 suicide bombers taking their own lives (the police state that they killed 2 suspects) and that last night, in Samarra, a pharmacy was attacked and the owner shot dead while today in Dhuluiya "Iraqi security forces arrested a former military officer and his 19-year-old son." It was US and Iraqi forces. Aswat al-Iraq explains, "A Joint Iraqi-U.S. force has arrested an former high-ranking Iraqi Army officer in Dhiloyiya township of Salah al-Din Province, in an air-landing operation on Wednesday, a police source reported." They quote Abdul-Latif Kamel, the officer's brother, stating, "At 2 am this morning 4 US planes, carrying Iraqi soldiers have landed the soldiers on my brother's house, began to beat him and force him and his son to put-off their clothes, chained them and drove them to an unknown destination." In addition, Aswat al-Iraq notes, "At least 9 Iraqi civilians have been injured in a booby-trapped car explosion and mortar shell attacks on Hawija township of northern Iraq's Kirkuk Province on Wednesday, a Hawija hospital source reported." Also the Turkish military continues bombing northern Iraq. AFP reports, "Turkey has bombed the Sulaimaniyah and Arbil provinces of Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region, wounding one civilian, Kurdish officials said on Wednesday." Press TV notes that in addition to injuring 20-year-old Iraqi Hassan Abdullah, Qalat Dizah's Mayor Ismail Baz Hamed states, "The bombing caused heavy damage to farms and livestock in Qalat Dizah." Reuters notes that 1 shepherd was injured in the bombings. AP speaks to "local official" Azad Waso who states the bombings also killed 200 cattle. The government of Turkey, of course, insists that they are targeting the PKK. The PKK is one of many Kurdish groups which supports and fights for a Kurdish homeland. Aaron Hess (International Socialist Review) described them in 2008, "The PKK emerged in 1984 as a major force in response to Turkey's oppression of its Kurdish population. Since the late 1970s, Turkey has waged a relentless war of attrition that has killed tens of thousands of Kurds and driven millions from their homes. The Kurds are the world's largest stateless population -- whose main population concentration straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria -- and have been the victims of imperialist wars and manipulation since the colonial period. While Turkey has granted limited rights to the Kurds in recent years in order to accommodate the European Union, which it seeks to join, even these are now at risk." The Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq has been a concern to Turkey because they fear that if it ever moves from semi-autonomous to fully independent -- such as if Iraq was to break up into three regions -- then that would encourage the Kurdish population in Turkey. For that reason, Turkey is overly interested in all things Iraq. So much so that they signed an agreement with the US government in 2007 to share intelligence which the Turkish military has been using when launching bomb raids. However, this has not prevented the loss of civilian life in northern Iraq. Aaron Hess noted, "The Turkish establishment sees growing Kurdish power in Iraq as one step down the road to a mass separatist movement of Kurds within Turkey itself, fighting to unify a greater Kurdistan. In late October 2007, Turkey's daily newspaper Hurriyet accused the prime minister of the KRG, Massoud Barzani, of turning the 'Kurdish dream' into a 'Turkish nightmare'." It must be great to have an 'enemy' you can attack when those attacks destroy the very region you wish didn't exist, the region you fear encourages other Kurds to dream of a homeland. Must be nice to insist you're targeting 'terrorists' while you rip apart the country side of the Kurdistan Regional Government, kill livestock and Iraqis. All while pretending you're the injured party. And that your non-stop months of bombing were, of course, caused by others. Armed militias in Iraq are thought to have really made their mark with kidnappings starting in 2004. A 2003 kidnapping has resulted in a plea from a spouse. Al Mannarah reports that Fabien Nerac is asking that anyone who knows anything about her husband -- the father of their two children -- please contact Reporters Without Borders. French journalist Frederic Nerac is Fabien's husband. Frederic was working for ITN and in southern Iraq on March 22, 2003 when he and his interpreter Hussein Osman both disappeared -- the same day that ITN's Terry Lloyd was shot in Iraq. All three were enroute to Basra when they ended up stuck on the road, caught in the crossfire of US Marines and Iraqi soldiers, Terry Lloyd was shot and killed, his colleague Daniel Demoustier was able to make it to Kuwait (and safety) and DNA later revealed that Hussein Osman was among those who had been shot dead. But what happened to Frederic Nerac remains a question mark. A year after he went missing, Tom Newton Dunn (Daily Mirror) reported that "ITN cameraman Fred Nerac and translator Hussein Osman are believed to have been blasted by [US] tanks or helicopter gunships as Iraqis tried to take them to safety in a pick-up. The attack was so intense it is likely Belgian Nerac, 43, and Lebanese-born Osman, 31, were blown to bits." In October 2005, the Fench Foreign Ministry issued a statement declaring Frederic dead. Fabian continues searching for information and for her husband's body. Reporters Without Borders notes that 225 "journalists and media assistant [have been] killed since the start of fighting in Iraq in March 2003" and they list Frederic Nerac as "missing" along with one other journalist, Isam Hadi Muhsin al-Shumary. Today is the International Day to End Impunity "a call to action to demand justice for those who have been killed for exercising their right to freedom of expression and shed light on the issue of impunity." David Brunnstrom (Reuters) notes that as the central government out of Baghdad insists it will be removing people from Camp Ashraf, the European Union is calling for any plans to be put on hold to allow time for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to complete interviews with the residents to allow the UN to make a determination regarding their status. Camp Ashraf houses a group of Iranian dissidents (approximately 3,500 people). Iranian dissidents were welcomed to Iraq by Saddam Hussein in 1986 and he gave them Camp Ashraf and six other parcels that they could utilize. In 2003, the US invaded Iraq.The US government had the US military lead negotiations with the residents of Camp Ashraf. The US government wanted the residents to disarm and the US promised protections to the point that US actions turned the residents of Camp Ashraf into protected person under the Geneva Conventions. As 2008 drew to a close, the Bush administration was given assurances from the Iraqi government that they would protect the residents. Yet Nouri al-Maliki ordered the camp attacked twice. July 28, 2009 Nouri launched an attack (while then-US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was on the ground in Iraq). In a report released this summer entitled "Iraqi government must respect and protect rights of Camp Ashraf residents," Amnesty International described this assault, "Barely a month later, on 28-29 July 2009, Iraqi security forces stormed into the camp; at least nine residents were killed and many more were injured. Thirty-six residents who were detained were allegedly tortured and beaten. They were eventually released on 7 October 2009; by then they were in poor health after going on hunger strike." April 8th of this year Nouri again ordered an assault on Camp Ashraf (then-US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was again on the ground in Iraq when the assault took place). Amnesty International described the assault this way, "Earlier this year, on 8 April, Iraqi troops took up positions within the camp using excessive, including lethal, force against residents who tried to resist them. Troops used live ammunition and by the end of the operation some 36 residents, including eight women, were dead and more than 300 others had been wounded. Following international and other protests, the Iraqi government announced that it had appointed a committee to investigate the attack and the killings; however, as on other occasions when the government has announced investigations into allegations of serious human rights violations by its forces, the authorities have yet to disclose the outcome, prompting questions whether any investigation was, in fact, carried out." Nouri al-Maliki is seen as close to the government in Tehran. They have made it clear that they want the dissidents out of Iraq and returned to Iran -- where they would face trial at best, torture most likely. Nouri has announced he will be closing Camp Ashraf at the end of this year. UK MP Brian Binley (Huffington Post) writes, "As things are evolving and if Maliki gets away with his plan to impose the deadline, just as the Christmas and New Year holidays are in full swing, the prospect is that the world will sit and watch while men and women are killed in cold blood or mutilated, crushed by US-supplied armoured personal carriers." At one point, Nouri and his flunkies were floating that the residents might remain in Iraq but dispersed to other areas within the country. That was apparently empty talk in an attempt to distract. Aswat al-Iraq reports: State of Law MP Ali al-Shalah said that there are moves to close anti-Iranian Ashraf Camp through the Iraqi foreign ministry, which is trying to find a haven for them in European countries. Shalah told Aswat al-Iraq that his bloc "is trying to reach a peaceful and humanitarian solution to Ashraf Camp question", calling "western European countries to extend their assistance to finalize this question". Yesterday at the United Nations, Martin Nesirky, the spokesperson for the Secretary-General, was asked about Camp Ashraf: Question: What is the official position of the Secretary-General and UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] on the Camp Ashraf situation? I understand that there may be some doings here about this and by December, I understand that the camp is to be evacuated. What will happen to the residents? Spokesperson: Well, as you know, or perhaps you are aware, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Martin Kobler, has spoken about this topic; he did so at the beginning of this month -- on 3 November. I am not going to read out everything he said, but the point is that the United Nations is ready to assist in this matter. It is, of course, a matter of national sovereignty -- this Camp is in Iraq -- so it is a matter of national sovereignty for the Iraqi authorities. But, on the other hand, it is also clear that there needs to be a durable and peaceful solution to this problem. And that's why the United Nations is ready to assist. And when I say the United Nations, that means in the form of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, together with UNHCR, as you just mentioned; with the refugee agency. Question: The question is, since the camp is going to be evacuated at the same time that the [United States] troops are going to leave, and since there are a lot of concerns that that might lead to, well, they call it massacres, is there anything the UN can do beyond just assist? I mean, are there any plans to resettle, to…? Spokesperson: There are a number of problems that still need to be solved. And the Secretary-General himself has been involved in contacts with the Iraqi leaders and other international leaders on this topic. It is obvious that there needs to be a peaceful solution, it is obvious that we are some way from that; that there are still some problems that need to be solved. As I have mentioned, the key factors are that it is a matter of national sovereignty for the Iraqis, but equally, this is something that must be resolved in a peaceful way. And that's why the UN is saying it is ready to assist, and indeed is. And the Special Representative has had already, together with colleagues from the refugee agency, UNHCR, meetings with Iraqi officials and others to try to see what headway can be made. I think it is obvious that -- you've mentioned some of the different factors -- some people want to go abroad, to other countries in small groups, in large groups, in different combinations. These are all the kinds of questions that need to be resolved, and we are not there yet. Question: There are no plans to send them back to Iran? Spokesperson: The point here is that it needs to be a peaceful solution to this problem. And that's why the refugee agency, UNHCR, and the Special Representative are offering their services to help to try to bring that about. Okay, all right. Yes? We'll close with this from Ross Caputi's "Fallujah Remembered by a US Marine who Helped Destroy it in 2004" (World Can't Wait): It has been seven years since the 2nd siege of Fallujah -- the American assault that left the city in ruins, killed thousands of civilians, and displaced hundreds-of-thousands more -- the assault that poisoned a generation, plaguing the people who live there with cancers and their children with birth defects. It has been seven years and the lies that justified the assault still perpetuate false beliefs about what we did. The American veterans who fought there still do not understand who they fought against, or what they were fighting for. I know, because I am one of those American veterans. In the eyes of many of the people I "served" with, the people of Fallujah remain dehumanized and their resistance fighters are still believed to be terrorists. But unlike most of my counterparts, I understand that I was the aggressor, and that the resistance fighters in Fallujah were defending their city. iraq the associated press rebecca santana al mada dar addustour aswat al-iraq reuters press tv afp the world cant wait ross caputi