Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Talking Post

Tuesday, so why does it feel like Sunday morning 3:00 am? Uh, maybe because we're all going to have to work on a feature tonight.

The planned one, the one that is written. Because someone shows up at the very last minute, we've got to redo the whole thing.

Thank you and f**k you.

What happened?

What always happens? Someone gets their little feelings hurt and, instead of acting like the adult they're supposed to be, they go whining to C.I. "Those meanies, they're so mean! I'm a little flower, a tenderfoot, and my poor feelings are hurt. Sob. Sob. Sob."

It's really funny that something that's been noted since December 25, 2006 suddenly, as the announced feature is mere hours from going up (I was going to post it at midnight and take a real day off tomorrow) suddenly has The Nation magazine rushing in to say, "Oh wait! This is what's going on and this" and blah, blah, blah bullsh*t.

Jess was actually replying to that e-mail. Ava noticed he had been online for forty minutes and asked, "What are you doing?" He was replying. (Ava, Jess, Martha, Shirley and Eli help C.I. out with the e-mails that come into The Common Ills.) Jess was nicely refuting various points in his reply. Ava said, "No way in hell is that being sent!" She also noted that it was cute that a man wants to tell her and C.I. what being a woman is.

I would love to quote Ava here but I can't. She wouldn't mind if I did; however, I try to be work environment safe since that really became an issue for the community. But there is not a damn thing Ava said that I wasn't either just nodding with or verbally screaming agreement.

[I was adding links when Kat called. She suggested I just note everyone and since it will let me post this right away, I'll do that. In one way or another, named or not, I'm referring to The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man, C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review, Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, and Wally of The Daily Jot.]

I'm going to note that Elaine and I were actually going to have some fun time to be a couple and a day off because that feature was done. We'd all gotten together via the phone Monday night to do the last tweaks to it. It was set. And then The Nation magazine has to screw up my frigging holiday.

WalkOn, WalkOn.org. Yesterday's post had a really good e-mail from Beau. He was wondering if I was tired or if I just couldn't write about The Third Estate Sunday Review edition? It was the second one. I didn't realize, until I started writing, that Jim really said everything that could be said. I'm going to tackle "Am I Coward? Yes, I Am!" tonight and Kat's going to tackle "
"Mailbag" tonight. I understand now why C.I. really did not want that going up. But on " Am I Coward? Yes, I Am!," that was fun to write. But it was difficult to get finished because there were certain things that were repeatedly examined. Did we want to say this? Were we sure? And, as always, when it was about a woman, Ava and C.I. went over it with a fine tooth comb. Rebecca got two hilarious bits into that (one on Melissa Etheridge and the other on Chris Cornell). The Cornell thing wasn't an issue but the Etheridge thing was. Ava and C.I.'s feeling was it was too early to call the hit making days over. It's very likely, they said, that it was true but it was too early. Rebecca argued it was funny (it was) and she agreed to condense it from five lines at which point it went in. But that's what happens when we're writing. The discussions always take more time than it does to write.

Do we want to say this?

That's always the main question with any feature.

If it's an issue that has to do with African-Americans, anyone may bring it up, but we all do give extra emphasis (and the final word) to Betty, Cedric and Ty because they are African-American so they get the last word. We've discussed that before (several times) but most recently when Wally was addressing the so-called Student Nation in a roundtable and Rebecca said if she'd said what Wally did, C.I. would have done an "in fairness" and C.I. said the difference was it was about students and Wally was a student. So if it's something that directly effects or applies to you, you do get last word.

The roundtables move quicker because if there's something someone wants to clarify, they can jump in, those are just transcripts and, if someone didn't jump in when we were doing it, well that falls on them. But the other pieces are long in writing. And long in editing. (Jim and Dona edit the roundtables for length only. In addition, we can note "This has to go in" or "Go ahead and pull that so it will be shorter.")

In the piece we're dicussing right now, Elaine wanted it in there that Roger Waters had alluded to the illegal war. That was her big point after we'd written the first draft. "Pamela Sawyer" came up, by C.I., because there was a really long section that Dona felt was weighing the piece down. We were all comfortable with calling out Alicia Keys for trying to pass that dopey love song off as possibly about the illegal war. And Ava and C.I. came up with the Sally Hemings line. But it really did drag there so we had to condense it. C.I. came up with Pamela Sawyer which covered points Betty and Jess were making and they both said, "Yes!" as soon as C.I. said "Pamela Sawyer."

A lot of times, just something being funny can rescue it from the cutting block. But we do go over and over what goes up. (The editorials are the exception, we go over those less because they're the last thing we do and by then we're tired.) (Also Ava and C.I.'s commentaries. Those go up as written in one draft, one burst of energy.)

Is group writing a bad thing? (As AlterPunk has argued.) No. It makes the pieces stronger than they would be otherwise. You've got men and women, you've got a variety of races, you've got a variety of ages, etc. So we end up with a larger view because of the process. And that doesn't just apply to what goes up. I know I've learned a lot more because of the process and it's stuff that I can use. You can think, "Oh, that's how it is." And, like with me, I'm a Irish-American male. So I'm a White male. I might not get something on my own that a woman would pick up on or that someone of another race would. And it's not like most media is anything but White male to begin with so it really does expand me.

In roundtables, a lot of times, e-mails will come in after asking why C.I. didn't talk as much? Or, more recently, me? When I started taking part in those, I was really eager to share and get my thoughts out there. C.I. prefers to hear what other people think. As more time passes, that's how I am. Betty, for instance, is full of a lot of intelligence and she really has become a favorite in roundtables (or Mailbags) because she just cuts through it all. I love it when she's talking. I'm not sure, at the beginning, that I was really listening. I told her that awhile back and she said that she's a little more vocal now. When we used to do "The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review," she'll tell you, she really did get very comfortable sharing her thoughts. That's because her part came about midway and other stuff wouldn't be ready so she'd have to stretch. (We did that "live." It was a transcript and, at the start, we really did have to fit into 60 minutes.) So she'd have to stretch and C.I. was the only one who could have been the anchor. Betty will tell you anyone else and she wouldn't have felt as comfortable. But when they'd be told to stretch for 2 or 5 minutes and just have to stretch, she got a lot more comfortable. Now Cedric's another one who you really need to pay attention to. If he's bothered by some thing, you need to pay attention because he's really methodical. My big complaint right now is that Jess doesn't do more. I know why that is. Wanting to listen to others and also self-censoring or worrying about it. Jess is involved with Ava and I'm involved with Elaine and both women are very private. They're not about putting their lives up online. So I do understand why Jess pulls back. But he's got a whole lot to share. And his childhood and the way he was raised is so different from mine or anyone else participating. So, when he does speak, he's bringing a whole other thing or vibe to the roundtable. (And all of this is true on pieces we write as opposed to transcripts.) But everybody brings something different to the table and I think that's the greatest strength about The Third Estate Sunday Review.

Jim won't care about me sharing this story so I'll offer how it changed and changed us specifically. Early on when I started helping (and they'd already been writing together for months), Ava or C.I. was making a point, probably Ava, about a piece we were doing another draft on and it was late and we were all tired and Jim said something like, "It's only a feature. It's not the end the world." And, oh boy, did the gender lines show up on that. :D

I'm not knocking that. It should have shown up because of the point that was being made. But you saw all the women just immediately go like WTF? And then Ty and Jess were jumping in and I probably didn't say much because I was just starting to work with everyone. But Jim goes, "Okay, point made. This is something we need to discuss before we write another word."
And we've all learned that factor, the wide range of views, is really what makes that site so great.

Tonight, after we were done with the conversation and had scheduled the time to work (TONIGHT!) on the feature, Betty called me back and goes that she's going to work with Wally and Cedric because she knows how Wally gets. If Wally's pissed or ticked off, he does go into shut down mode. And that's one of those things we've learned. I remember, weeks after Hurricane Katrina, when Florida got hit and they were without electricity in places for weeks and weeks, with long lines for gasoline and buildings being torn apart or declared condemned, we had to prompt him to talk about it (in a roundtable, yes, but also just to us) and that's the sort of thing we've learned about each other. I'm a hot head and don't pretend otherwise. I'm pissed, everyone around me knows. But any way, the point about Betty, we were talking and all and she brought up about Hillary Clinton.

Betty was for her in the Democratic primary until she said that if Iraq was your issue and you needed to hear more from her than she was offering, look somewhere else. Betty had talked to C.I. about it, being for Hillary first, because she was really worried it would be an issue. It wasn't. C.I. went over Hillary's good points with Betty. And then Betty was expecting it to be a problem with the rest of us and it wasn't. And that's because Betty can remember the way the White House set the tone during Poppy Bush and it was a huge shift on race when Bill Clinton came in. That's a big issue to her because she was a kid during that and she has 3 kids now. She does not doubt that Bill and Hillary Clinton really care about race (and she'd be for Hillary in a minute now if Hillary would just start getting real about Iraq). That was a factor in her decision. Now I don't like Hillary Clinton at all. And what Betty brought up (with examples) wasn't anything I would've noticed on my own. But thanks to her and her sharing, I can see that side of Hillary and even give Hillary credit for it.

Bill Clinton wasn't perfect (or all that) and Hillary's not either. But that part is an important part. And even if I didn't know about it from Betty, I would appreciate that she knows enough to decide who to vote for. Search google for "My Interview With Betty" (I'm rushing tonight because I told Kat I would listen to her post before it went up) and this site and you should find two interviews with Betty. I think that captured her perfectly. That's not me bragging about myself. I just think she really, really opened up in those. She was funny because she loves to laugh as much as I do so you'll laugh when you read them, but notice the other parts and how she's not afraid to talk about pain or race.

I could really write about anyone like I'm doing Betty. I could pick anyone and share qualities that are just so incredible. And the fact that we all bring that to the table is the great strength of The Third Estate Sunday Review.

And we're a lot stronger than The Nation which is basically White Male On Parade, issue after issue.

I planned to write about Iraq tonight but I can't. I'm sorry. I wish I was the type to just say, "Okay, I'll deal with that later." But that's not my style. I will note that, unlike The Nation, I have regularly covered Iraq. And since I'm a college student doing my own site -- as opposed to a professional writer -- I think that goes to how sad The Nation is.

Pru wondered if I would link to something and who wouldn't for Pru? But since it's from The Socialist Worker (UK), I can do more than toss out a link. They let you repost in full. So I'll do that. It's a pretty important piece.


"To stop the bombs, get the troops out"
by Chris Bambery, editor of Socialist Worker
Following the failed bomb attempts at Glasgow airport and in central London last week, lurid headlines speak of a doctors' plot to bomb Britain. Armed police sealed off airports and the City of London.
Once more fear stalks our streets. All opponents of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan must deplore these attempted attacks.
The potential targets, whether they are holiday makers in Glasgow or clubbers in London, are not the architects of Britain's disastrous alliance with George Bush, nor its instruments or its beneficiaries.
Like the majority of people in this country, most of the potential victims of the bombs would oppose the British presence in Iraq and want the troops home.
Attacks on civilians in Britain are unjustifiable – just as are the killing of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere.
Terror laws
Media pundits have been quick to praise the changed tone adopted by the new prime minister Gordon Brown and home secretary Jacqui Smith.
Neither rushed to announce new terror laws and both made a point of blaming Al Qaida and not Muslims in general for the bomb attempts. Brown let it be known he would not use the phrase "war on terror".
But Brown repeated Tony Blair's claim that bombs in Britain are not a product of the carnage in the Middle East. He argued attacks occur "irrespective of Iraq, irrespective of Afghanistan, irrespective of what is happening in different parts of the world".
He stated that "the terrorist threat is long term and it's sustained. It is about those people who are essentially violent extremists who have a grievance against society, particularly against the values that we represent."
Stop the War Coalition convenor Lindsey German points out, "Even a government inquiry last year found that the growth of terrorism in Britain was due to the war in Iraq."
She adds, "There is one simple fact -- before the war in Iraq, Britain was not under threat from such bombings. Now it is.
"What Britain needs is not more terror laws but a change in foreign policy."
Following the attack at Glasgow airport the Stop the War Coalition in Scotland issued a statement deploring the attempted bombing.
It pointed out, "We reiterate our view that the roots of violence at home lie in the illegal war in the Middle East and we call again for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Iraq."
New Labour has rushed to argue that the 9/11 attacks pre-date the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. That misses the fact that ten years earlier, US-led forces devastated Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War and followed that with a decade of sanctions which left half a million children dead.
The Scottish Stop the War Coalition will be supporting and speaking at this weekend's march for peace in Glasgow. One of the messages must be to oppose any attempt to utilise these attacks to intensify the growing climate of Islamophobia.
Since last Friday's and Saturday's attempted attacks, bombings of civilians by US-led forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan have continued on a daily basis leaving scores of innocent victims dead each day.
For all those wanting an end to the threat of bombs in our towns and cities those attacks must stop.
© Copyright Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original and leave this notice in place.
If you found this article useful please help us maintain SW by » making a donation.

That is true. England wasn't a target until their leader got in bed with Bully Boy on illegal war. And analysts in the US have repeatedly said Bully Boy's actions have made America less safe, not any safer.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" and let me note that C.I. already knew about The Nation nonsense and still managed to do the snapshot, I'm not like that, sorry. I can't just keep the head down and do the work. Here's the snapshot:

Tuesday, July 3, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, Cindy Sheehan weighs in, Iraq Veterans Against the War stand up, Steven D. Green faces the death penalty, and more.

Starting with war resistance. Joshua Key's The Deserter's Tale continues to garner strong reviews. The latest is Hannah Morong's "How one soldier got out of Iraq" (ISR) which concludes: "The book's strength is its simplicity. It tells the story of an ordinary soldier, and by doing so, tells us more than we can ever learn from broad statistics. Because Josha Key's experiences are so typical of soldiers, the book shows how ordinary soldiers view life in Iraq, and the potential for those soldiers to turn against the war." To set the tone for later in the snapshot, we'll note this from Key's book, The Deserter's Tale (pp. 209-210):


A Canadian psychiatrist told me that you never truly emerge from post-traumatic stress disorder, that you simply learn to live with it.There are certain things that I avoid these days, such as alcohol and crowds, because I fear they will trigger more of my own blackouts. I know that thousands of American soldiers have abused drugs or committed suicide after returning home from war. It would be easy to follow in the steps of many in my own family and drown my shame and my sorrows in alcohol. Alcohol, however, could lead to the very problem of suicidal depression that have plagued vets for generations.

Key is not the only war resister who has told their story in book form. Another is Camilo Mejia whose Road from Ar Ramaid: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia came out in May. Writing for The Progressive Media Project (part of The Progressive), Camilo reflects on this time of year, July 4th, and wonders:

Is it patriotic to support a war that our president launched on false premises and that has turned into a disaster?
Or is it patriotic to oppose that war?
I had to face this question while in uniform.
Back in 2003, when I fought in Iarq, my infantry unit was going out on combat missions without bulletproof vests and without basic radio equipment. For a while, we even had to suspend patrols because we didn't have enough water to hydrate ourselves. After 10 months of deployment and five months of combat without a purpose, I made the agonizing decision not to return to the war. A few months later, I publicly denounced the war and vowed that I would no longer fight in it. That got me a 12-month sentence in a U.S. Army jail, demotion to the lowest rank and a bad-conduct discharge from the service. I have no regrets. Today, our young men and women in the military still find themselves in the role of occupiers, in a war that to this very day remains unjustified, a war that seems to be helping only U.S. companies like Halliburton that have profited from it.


Saying "no" to the illegal war is not something done or being done just by one or two people. There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

Also resisting are Iraq Veterans Against the War who have used their summer base tour to get the message out. Taylor Harwin (Port Folio Weekly) reports on the bus tour and notes that another message they are getting out is "a military member's right to speak out against a war they don't support." Harwin notes Jonathan Hutto is currently promoting his to-be-released book on this topic entitled Antiwar Soldier: How to Dissent within the Ranks of the Military. Harwin writes, "There was no counter-protest Sunday, and event organizer Liam Madden said he'd be surprised if the IVAW encountered one on any stage of the trip down the east coast."

As Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) observed today, there have been two arrests during the two. Since there's confusion, let's review what was already noted yesterday. Sunday's trumped up incident saw Madden, Nate Lewis and Adam Kokesh at Fort Benning. Friday, at Fort Jackson, Kokesh, Nate Lewis, Mike Black, Sholom Keller and Steve Mortillo were the five arrested. Lewis and Kokesh were arrested in both incidents, Madden was only arrested Sunday.

South Carolina's Columia City Paper notes the Fort Jackson arrest and reports: "The bus could be spotted last Friday riding throughout downtown Columbia and turned heads with large 'Impeach Bush' and 'Bring Them Home Now' slogans painted on its sides. There was a warm receptioon for the group at Sesquicentennial Park at the free barbecue the group threw for the public. One member of IVAW said he was particularly inspired by a couple that drove all the way from Spartanburg to show their support. The couple, who gave their names as Chris and Kim, both served in the Air Force during the first gulf war and said they were considering joining a war protest group when they saw the IVAW Columbia event listed on the Veterans for Peace Web site. Instead of just putting a charcoal burger to their mouths, the couple presented a $500 check to the group."

On Sunday's arrest (Madden, Lewis and Kokesh) at Fort Benning, The Brattleboro Reformer notes that Madden "and Lewis were not protesting at the gate and were simply asking what the entrance policy was when they were handcuffed and escorted to jail" -- link also includes audio, FYI. AP reports on the arrests here and, WRONGLY, maintains that the Fort Jackson arrest took place "Saturday morning". Friday is when the arrest took place (which is why we noted it here on Friday -- that was not a crystal vision). The fact that there is so much confusion over what did and did not take place and when is a sure sign that independent media should have given extensive coverage to the tour but, reality, they mainly elected to ignore it. Apparantly getting the word out on things actually happening is far less important than promoting counter-narratives on the daily "hot topics" at the Water Cooler.

Regardless, Iraq Veterans Against the War's summer base tour continues -- and though small media went AWOL on the topic, big media covered it and a documentary is being made for Showtime -- and their next stop is a fundraiser in Philadelphia on July 3rd at 6:00 pm; a fundraiser in NYC on July 5th at 7:00 pm; the Naval Sub Marine Base in Groton, CT on July 6th at 7:00 pm; and concluding at Fort Drum in NY on July 8th at 4:00 pm. They continue speaking their truth and they're not going to be silenced or make themselves useless. In Denver, Colorado tomorrow IVAW will stage Operation First Casualty from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm in the area between Market Street station and the Civic Center.

As Kat noted Friday, about Adam Kokesh's post describing the ups and downs of the bus tour thus far, "Which is probably why the kooks have the reaction to the bus tour that they do. It's not the TV that they can flip off or the newspaper they can toss in the trash. It's right there, the bus, in front of them, with 'Iraq Veterans Against the War' on it. The reality they [the kooks] run from is staring them in the face and in their own home towns. Adam writes about honks and thumbs up too and you better believe that for people seeing it [the bus] that are giving the warm response, it really means something." And it would mean even more if the independent media had worked to get the word out.

Another IVAW members is addressed by Kevin Zeese (Democracy Rising), Rev. Lennnox Yearwood, who is facing the same trumped up nonsense that Adam Kokesh, Liam Madden and Cloy Richards have already had to deal with from the US military brass. Zeese reports that the Chair of the Hip Hop Caucus, Rev. Yearwood, is the target for intimidation by the military. Rev. Yearwood (writing at Democracy Rising) notes that he's in the Air Force Reserve Individual Reserve and, "On March 26th of this year I received notification from the Air Force that they are taking action to honorably discharge me on the basis of 'behavior clearly inconsistent with the interest of national security'. Ironically, this letter arrived six days after I announced the launching of a national 'Make Hip Hop Not War' Tour at a press conference on Capitol Hill." Like Kokesh, he is scheduled to face a kanagroo 'hearing.' Rev. Lennox Yearwood's hearing is scheduled for July 12th, in Georgia, at Robins Air Force Base. He notes that Cindy Sheehan will be showing her support by attending and reminds, "This is our lunch-counter moment."

Cindy Sheehan. The Peace Mom. Sheehan stepped down at the end of May to recharge and regroup. Joe Allen (ISR) has written the best piece on that ("Shakeup in the antiwar movement," July - August 2007, International Socialist Review, pp. 5-6, for print readers) where he concludes:

All the factors are there for a vibrant antiwar movement in this country, as has been true for many years now; the major roadblock holding things back is the subordination of our movement to the Democrats. This must be broken in the course of building a vibrant and independent antiwar movement.
Sheehan's decision to leave the Democratic Party should be supported by all of us committed to building an antiwar movement that is for immediate withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq. And, as socialists we support her call for an alternative to the two-party system.
Thankfully, Sheehan is only taking a break in order to regroup. As she told Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, "We're closing down the factory, we're going to retool, and we're going to open up, and it will be a new and improved version of it. But we are definitely going to come at it from a totally different direction." We can only hope that she will return to political activity soon so that we can together get on with the tasks of ending of this criminal war.

Contributing at David Swanson's AfterDowningStreet, Cindy Sheehan writes today, "I have sat quietly back these past five weeks as the slaughter in Iraq sorrowfully surges along with George's bloody escalation -- and as the philosophical opposition to the war has soared to almost four out of every five Americans. . . . It has been recently reported that Nancy Pelosi said that impeachment is not 'worth it.' Her faulty reasoning is that impeachment would take too much time because they don't have the votes. If they could 'whip' their own Democratic caucus into shape to defend and protect our Constitution and the people of Iraq and our soldiers as they whupped, cajoled, threatened and browbeat the caucus into attaching 'non-binding' time lines onto the last war funding bill, then impeachment would not only be possible, but likely." Sheehan notes Rev. Yearwood's hearing and that he will be launching a march after the July 12th hearing which she is taking part in that will end in DC on July 23rd.

And while some stand and continue to stand, the violence continues.

Bombings?

Reuters reports 18 dead (thrity-five injured) from a Baghdad car bombing, a Kirkuk car bombing that claimed 2 lives (nineteen injured), three police officers wounded in Hawija by a grenade, a Kirkuk car bombing claimed 2 lives (nine wounded), and a car bombing outside Falluja resulted in at least 4 people dead (ten wounded).

Shootings?

CBS and AP report "an Iraqi army lieutenant colonel and an Interior Ministry intelligence officer were killed in separate drive-by shootings" today in Baghdad. Reuters notes 2 people killed in Samarra during a clash between two other groups (police and "gunmen"), a woman wounded in Kirkuk by Iraqi soldiers,


Corpses?

Reuters reports 18 corpses discovered in the capital.

Also today, the US military announced: "Two Marines assigned to Multi National Force-West died July 1 in a non-hostile related accident while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province." The two deaths bring the ICCC total number of US service members killed in the illegal war to 3586. The announcements also meant that at least 7 US service members died July 1st -- though the military elected to spoon that reality out slowly.

While the US military played 'cute' with the numbers, recent attention from the press eliminated that option with regards to an event that took place today. The US military announced: "An AH-64 Apache helicopter rescued two Task Force Marne pilots after enemy fire brought down their OH-58D Kiowa Attack helicopter south of Baghdad July 2. The OH-58 pilots received minor injuries. An Air Force Thunderbolt II destroyed the downed helicopter with two 500-pound laser-guided bombs after the pilots were evacuated from the area. The incident is under investigation." Throughout 2006 and at the start of 2007, the US military was happy to spin those incidents as 'hard landings' and other nonsense while denying that anyone in Iraq (other than the US) had the capabilities to bring down aircraft.


Turning to the issue of the oil grab, Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) reports that, after much arm twisting and over a year of pressure, the oil law -- that will allow foreign corporations (including the US) to steal up to 70% of the proceeds -- has been pushed through Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet and onto the Iraqi Parliament; however, "it was unclear whether the measure would overcome the political hurdles that have stalled it for months."
Andy Rowell (Oil for Change) observes that the stories being reported only cause confusion and steeers to an article by Ben Lado (UPI) which has Ashti Hawrami (Kurdistan Regional Goverment Natural Resources Minister) declaring, "We are not aware of anything being pass by the Cabinet." Rowell concludes, "Our guess here is that there is confusion between the revenue sharing law and the foreign investment/oil law. This confusion has been deliberately sown by the Bush administration and the Iraqi government, who have consistently sought to portray the foreign investment/oil law as a revenue sharing law -- when in fact revenue sharing is a separate piece of legislation."

We most recently noted Abeer in last Thursday's snapshot. Developments in that case today mean another planned ending will be postponed until Thursday. Abeer Qassim Hamza was gang-raped and murdered by US soldiers on March 12, 2006 in Mahmoudiyah. Her parents, Qassim Hamza Raheem and Fakhriya Taha Muhasen, and her five-year-old sister Hadeel Qassim Hamza, were murdered while she was gang-raped. One of the US soldiers involved was Steven D. Green who was to be tried in a civilian court due to the fact that he was discharged from the military before the events came to light. Reuters reports that US prosecutors have announced they will seek the death penalty. AP reports, "The notice, filed in U.S. District Court, cites 12 alleged offenses related to the slayings, including that the deaths were premeditated, involved sexual abuse and were committed with a firearm." Those were breaking so another topic got set aside for Thursday. Let's hope both reports fail to include Abeer's name because of the fact that it's breaking. This nonsense of referring to Abeer as "14-year-old girl" to render her (and all Iraqis?) faceless got old back in August.
















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