Friday, December 21, 2007

Robin Morgan, The Ballet, Ralph Nader

Friday! The Weekend! :D I'm excited this time of year always! :D

Okay, in a week where we've talked about how some Wiener Boys wanted to minimize Ike Turner's torture of Tina Turner and even suggest that Tina needs to 'forgive' Ike, I really thought this thing spoke to reality. This is from Robin Morgan's "The Four Solictice Miracles:"

The fourth is a woman I've met only once. Her face is hard and lined. She is poor, not young, not educated. She works as a doorkeeper at an old house in a side street in Catania, in Sicily. I was there in the mid-1990s, during an Italian book tour with Maria Nadotti (real name), friend and journalist who's also my Italian editor/translator/interpreter. On our last day, as Maria and I rushed to the airport, this woman recognized us from a TV interview we'd done on violence against women (in Sicily, yet). She called out. Maria translated rapidly.
"Is it really true?" the woman asked, clutching Maria with one hand and me with the other. "What you said? That women in many places are fighting back, against the violence? Against being beaten?"
"Yes," we said, sophisticated writers trying hard to swallow the emotion rising in our throats, "It's true. Women are fighting back. Many, many places. Far beyond Sicily. All over the world."
"And one day they will make it stop? The pain? They--we--will make this happen?" Her eyes shone.
"Yes," we cried, openly now, clinging to each other and her, "One day. Women everywhere. Trying. Yes."
She nodded, blessing us with a radiant, gap-toothed smile.
"That is very good," she sighed. Then added, with great dignity, "Because then I am not all alone in my fight."
The following year I dedicated the Italian edition of The Demon Lover: The Roots of Terrorism to this woman, whose name I'd learned was Adriana Russo, and I've told this story, too, in many countries since that day. Hearing it, women spontaneously cry out, in answer to a Sicilian woman they'll never meet, "You are not alone." Yet wherever she stands, she herself recreates all possibility. She is indeed The Doorkeeper, who opens the portal and shows the way. Her card--replete with angels and magi, you bet--arrives every December. And so does my greeting, in fractured Italian.

What this time of year means to Morgan is connecting with four women and that's one of the four. Again, I picked her because of the nonsense behind all the Ike Loving Tributes that domestic abuse really isn't 'bad' and it's not anything to 'judge' Ike by. It's just part of who he was. That's been the crap we've had to hear from the boomer men and they kept sounding that note so often, we really should start asking, "How many women have they beat in their life?" Because, honestly, that's what it seems like when all they do is defend 'poor' Ike. That's a really good piece by Robin Morgan and all four women she's writing about are really interesting but I went with that one because Tina Turner's been chided, insulted and told she "has to" 'forgive' her torturer.

Okay, I want to talk about C.I.'s "I Hate The War." I told you last week that there were changes coming to the Thursday night entry. :D C.I. mentions me in the entry and notes that I was a sounding board. That was basically me going, "Do it!" :D C.I. really wanted to do it and really needed to do it. If you haven't read it, "And the war drags on" is no longer the song noted in the Thursday entry or the title.

From a writing perspective, the Thursday entry has been hard for about four months now. On Thursdays, C.I.'s speaking to student groups and women's groups and other groups. There are the three entries (two in the morning and the "snapshot"). There is the roundtable for the gina & krista round-robin that C.I. always participates in. There is the column for the round-robin that has to be written. And then C.I. has to do the Thursday night entry (and get up three to four hours later and start all over). Because Sunday and Thursday are both "And the war drags on," some people expect them to be the same type of entry. They're not and can't be. Sunday night's catches you up on the violence on Sunday and usually on Saturday. On Thursdays, C.I.'s already covered the violence in the "snapshot" that day. And C.I.'s tired and just wanting to go to sleep and say "Screw it." We've talked about this for awhile now and usually on Saturdays it's one of the things we talk about when we're doing our early in the morning run.

The song "I Hate The War" is written by Greg Goldberg and on The Ballet's Mattachine! (The Ballet's the group that recorded the song) and we all love that song now. And that includes C.I. The title works as a title for an entry title. And it's a way to shake things up. But C.I. was (last week) really on the fence about the reaction. And I kept going, "You think you've got two more months left" of those Thursday night entries. "You need to do this," is what I said. But C.I. hates to make any big changes without checking with the community.

It was too late (last Friday) for Gina and Krista to do a poll before Thursday (they would have done it but C.I. didn't want to push that off on them). And my point was that, "Yeah, we all want everything just like we want it when we want it but no one's going to be upset about this change." See, here I write what I want and that's what I do. C.I. has to speak for the community (C.I. built the community) and that means knowing where they stand, knowing what they're comfortable with and knowing where to push. But my big point was that no one was going to be upset and that C.I.'s put in enough time that no one in the community is going to feel like, "What! Why wasn't I consulted!"

C.I. basically felt like, "I'm singing the song twice a week and the second night I'm really starting to phone it in." There have been some amazing entries in the last four months on Thursday night but they've been really, really hard to do (or "churn out" to use C.I.'s phrase).

And the other reasons for the change, which C.I. notes in the entry, were really important reasons to C.I. You've got about 44 or 45 weeks of The Common Ills left (if it goes dark after the elections). C.I. really wanted to use that once a week slot to promote that song, to promote an independent band and because "It's the sort of song that, during Vietnam, it wouldn't have mattered. It wouldn't have gotten attention if the group was open about being gay because that would have killed off the song back then." C.I. really felt this was important for a huge number of reasons. And I was going that those were good reasons.

And I also know that if The Common Ills is going to go dark before the elections it would be right now because C.I. hates winter and hates cold. And C.I.'s not in California due to speaking and always coming to my area at the end week to see Rebecca's baby (to see all of us, but that really is about being there for Rebecca and her baby and Rebecca was there for C.I.'s kids -- Rebecca has the "miracle baby" -- both because it was so late and because of her history with miscarriages). C.I. needs that California sun to feel alive and having to go where it's cold every week and end up here (where we have real winters! :D) and already being tired, I really could see C.I. saying, "Forget it" right now if it was going to happen. I don't mean this month but I mean next month when it feels like winter's never going to end.

So I was always saying "Go for it." I don't think any member minded but I will say that as a sounding board, I was never voicing objections (but C.I. voiced enough objections for five people! :D).

Here's the opening verse and chorus to "I Hate The War:"

It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh

That's a really cool lyrical opening. And the song's amazing in terms of you want to sing along and all. But it's just a great song. And C.I. really felt like if it was the song every Thursday between now and the elections, it was a way of stressing (including to some of C.I.'s friends who are so convinced that if they record a song against the illegal war, their careers will go up in flames) that people are recording these songs today.

I mean, that's 40+ times that song gets noted. And we're going to remember it. Even if it's someone who doesn't hear the song, years from now, we'll remember, "Yeah, there was a group called The Ballet that did this song called 'I Hate The War'." I mean, I love Neil Young's Living With War CD. And I love Joni Mitchell and Ann Wilson for making great albums and weighing in and standing up. And Ben Harper and Michael Franti are tops in my book. But this is a group that wasn't around for my dad and stuff. This is a group that's emerged today. And they do deserve to be applauded and to be noted.

"And The War Drags On" is a song I didn't know until The Common Ills. I go, "Dad, what's this song?" And he's dragging out the vinyl and we're listening and it's a great song. (I love that song.) But C.I.'s been speaking with 'young people' (that would be my age group! :D) since Feb. 2003 about the illegal war and talking about the importance of using your power and your voice and here's a group that is and it's just totally in keeping with everything C.I. talks about so there was no way I was going to say, "No, poll first."

My dad can reel off all these great songs from when he was my age and younger that were against Vietnam. And I love those songs. And I love the few and the brave from Dad's time that are standing up today. But here's a group a little older than me, starting out, and they're standing up. And it's a song I can point to when I'm Dad's age and go, "Yeah, we had people weighing in."

And C.I. knows how it works. Those songs from Dad's day didn't become standards off one recording. They became standards because everyone was covering them. And everyone was talking about them. And there was a base of knowledge about the song for those who cared. These days, not only are most chicken to cover "I Hate The War," they are also not covering songs today. You get them dropping back to the sixties and doing whole albums of Beatles sons (I'm not talking about Ann Wilson who did covers and picked them so that they commented on today, that was art -- I am talking about people like a 'peace' voice who has not weighed in via song on the war despite putting out three albums since the war started, two of which were cover CDs). (Dolly Parton also did a cover album and picked songs that commented on today, to give another example of someone proving you can pick covers wisely.) So including the song each week is a way to raise awareness of it. I could talk more about it but I think we're going to write about it this weekend for The Third Estate Sunday Review. (We wrote about the group last Sunday in "Best war song you may not have heard.") After that piece, I'll probably write about the song some more here.

Did you catch Rebecca's post Tuesday? I loved it:

that's from ralph nader's site. i saw that while surfing the net and if it's already aired in your area, get the dvd. you can rent it or you can buy it. (or you can have a wonderful who gives it to you - the way c.i. gave it to me.) i love this film.
do i regret my vote in 2000? yes, i do. i voted for al gore.

:D After I read that, I told myself I had to highlight Ralph Nader this week and haven't had time until now. So this is from his "Big Oils Profit and Plunder:"

While many impoverished American families are shivering in the winter cold for lack of money to pay the oil baron their exorbitant price for home heating oil, ex-oil man, George W. Bush sleeps in a warm White House and relishes his defeat of the Congressional attempt to get rid of $15 billion in unconscionable tax breaks given those same profit-glutted oil companies like ExxonMobil when crude oil was half the price it is today.
This is the same George W. Bush who, calling himself a "compassionate conservative" in October 2000 made this promise to the American people: "First and foremost, we’ve got to make sure we fully fund the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which is a way to help low-income folks, particularly here in the East, pay for their high, high fuel bills."
So what did this serial promise-breaker propose this year? Mr. Bush wanted to cut the fuel aid program by $379 million! This entire assistance program is funded at about half of the $5 billion that state governors and lawmakers believe is essential to meet the needs of the six million people eligible to apply for such help this year.
Everyone in Washington knows that the big, coddled, subsidized oil industry has many politicians over a barrel. When it comes to oily Bush and Cheney though, the global melting industry has these two indentured servants marinated in oil.
Look at what ending regulation of natural gas prices has produced: prices up 50 percent since last year. Home heating oil prices are up 30 percent. Bush's own Energy Department estimates the rise of heating oil costs will impose an average increase of $375 for customers this winter. No way that supply and demand explains this gouge.

This is going to be a big issue throughout winter as the bills start coming in. By the end of winter, I have a feeling a lot of people are going to be hurting but it's not an issue we get much attention on.

I will be posting Monday and probably just a brief note on Tuesday. (But don't hold me to that! :D)

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

Friday, December 21, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, it's reported that Dems will round out their year of selling out with promises to sell out even more, media discussions on PTSD, the 3900 mark hovers, and more.

Starting with war resistance. Travis Lupick (Canada's Straight) notes the season and, "It will be a lean Christmas for some Iraq-war resisters living in Vancouver. These former U.S. army recruits are waiting on refugee claims and are fighting a return to the U.S. that could include imprisonment. Brad McCall moved to Vancouver after abandoning his army company in September. He told the Straight that this Christmas was going to be different from those of his childhood in Alabama. There wold be no spending money on presents this year, said McCall, who is still without a work visa. But it's not all bad. 'I've got plenty of dinner invitations,' he added. 'There will be no lack of food for me.' McCall said that he would spend the holidays quietly, just hanging out with his Canadian girlfriend. He maintains that he has no regrets, including joining the U.S army. 'Now that I'm in Canada and I'm in Vancouver, I realize how little I did really know about the world,' he said. 'I had pretty much been brainwashed my entire life, not to realize the struggles that are happening all over the world on a daily basis'." The publication first told McCall's story in October when Charlie Smith reported on McCall's attempt to enter Canada September 19, 2007 only to be denied entry by Canadian authorities, "I don't know what kind of police officer he was. He put me in handcuffs in front of all these people that were watching that were trying to get into Canada also. I told them, 'Why are you playing the part of the hound dog for the U.S. army?' They didn't know what to say. They just started stuttering and mumbling."


On November 15th, the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of war resisters Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey. The Canadian Parliament has the power to let war resisters stay in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use. Both War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist are calling for actions from January 24-26.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).


Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan

March 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation.


"In the face of a scandalous health care system, failing schools, and a fraudulent endless war, we are as docile as tattered scarecrows in a field of rotten tomatoes. As for that war, you may have heard that a quarter of the heavily-armed 'shooters' working in the streets of Baghdad for the Administration's mercenary Blackwater foreign legion are alleged to be chemically influenced by steroids or other mind-altering substances," declares Bill Moyers on tonight's Bill Moyers Journal. That's from tonight's essay and you can catch it right now at YouTube. PBS is fundraising in some markets so if you're thinking of watching PBS programming this week, check your local listings to make sure that the program airs at its usual time. On WBAI Sunday, 11 a.m. to noon, The Next Hour will feature Paul Krassner and Sean Kelly joining Janet Coleman and David Dozier for a discussion about the season. Monday's Cat Radio Cafe (also on WBAI, from two p.m. to three p.m.) will continue the seasonal motif with Coleman and Dozer. And Wednesday (the 26th), CCCP returns to WBAI for their monthly broadcast. The Christmas Coup Comedy Players is original comedy programming created for public radio. It will air from two p.m. to three p.m. and feature Coleman, Dozer, John McDonagh, Marc Kehoe, Scooter, Moogy Klingman and (Wally's favorite) Will Durst. Remember WBAI broadcasts from NYC and for those not in the broadcast area, WBAI streams online. For those who may miss Bill Moyers Journal, remember it streams online and it provides transcripts as well. It is fully accessible for all news consumers. PBS' NOW with David Brancaccio also regularly airs tonight (again, check your local listings) and the half-hour program will be addressing the issue of being homeless as they probe a new program which provides apartments to homeless persons." This show is already posted online for streaming. NOW with David Branccacio has also selected their "Top 10 NOW reports of 2007" (currently on the front page of the website).
And lastly, Rory O'Connor examines what's being left out in the promotion of the selection for Time magazine's latest "Person of the Year" in "Time to Cover up?" (MediaChannel.org).

From media notes to media gossip passed off as reporting. Frank James (Baltimore Sun) notes an article that ran in an online publication we don't note (the 'objective' reporters that aren't). Grasping fully that the grapple with the truth at PoorLice andTicksOh and the truth always loses, it's equally true the website is a megaphone for the Jane Harman types so when they 'report' something, fully grasp that they may be attempting to advance something that's not set. They report that "Iraq fatigue" has set in among the Congressional Democrats not at the top of the House or Senate. This "fatigue" -- the laughable 'news' source tells you -- is from a number of factors including the desire to "avoid showdowns with Bush over the war, wherever possible". There have been no showdowns with the White House. PoorLiceandTicksOh then wants to talk about how "forcing" votes on withdrawal hasn't worked. What withdrawal? There's been no voting on withdrawal -- forced or otherwise. PoLiceandTicksOh may be advancing for the "Blue Dogs" (no surprise) but if their report is correct, then prepare yourself for issues such as "troop readiness," diplomatic escalation and the alleged benchmarks while the Dems new strategy will be "to push Bush to accelerate any withdrawals called for by Petraeus". That's not a strategy. That's cowardice and a betrayal of the Congress. Petraeus can give any report he wants (and we now all grasp it doesn't even have to be factual) but the United States Congress is the third branch of the federal government, a branch co-equal with the executive and judicial. The idea that a new 'strategy' will be to do whatever General Davey Petraeus says is an insult to the Constitution. Citizens elected Congress members and they weren't elected to turn over the powers to a military general. Could it happen? Anything could but Nancy Pelosi already has her record lowest numbers in the eighth district currently and she is facing re-election. If she wants to hand the seat over to Cindy Sheehan, she should go ahead and pursue this non-strategy. Sheehan is a serious challenger. It's not a vanity campaign and she actually stands for something. Katha Pollitt and others didn't grasp it before the polling but Pelosi, who looks so wonderful from outside the Bay Area, has been a middle-of-the-roader while representing one of the country's leftist districts. She's going to have to campaign to win the election -- this from the woman who called off her regular townhalls in 2006 after she flat out lied to constitutents that there were no plans for permanent bases in Iraq and, when challenged on that lie, tried to back peddle with, "Well, nothing's permanent. Nothing lasts forever." No, nothing does. Including Congressional terms. Something Pelosi's beginning to grasp.

We're going to stay on the Congress for a bit more. The following is the letter that Senator Hillary Clinton wrote last week (December 12th) to Secretary of State Condi Rice, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Attorney General Michael Mukasey:

I write to express my deepest concern about recent news reports that the U.S. government has failed to properly respond in the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, a young American woman who claims that she was brutally raped and detained in Iraq by U.S. contractors. I urge you to take swift action to investigate these allegations immediately.
As I hope you are all aware, recent news accounts indicate that Ms. Jones, a Halliburton/KBR employee in Baghdad, alleges she was gang-raped by her fellow employees and then held under guard against her will in a shipping container in order to prevent her from reporting the horrific crime. She states that she was denied food and water during her detention and told that she would be fired if she left Iraq to seek medical attention. More than two years later, news reports state that no U.S. government agency or department has undertaken a proper investigation of the incident.
These claims must be taken seriously and the U.S. government must act immediately to investigate Ms. Jones' claims. These allegations implicate all three of your departments. If one of your departments has already launched a private investigation, I urge you to disclose your findings without delay. If no investigation has been started, I urge you to decide the proper course for an inquiry into these claims and to commence your investigation with the utmost urgency.

Click here for the PDF formatted letter. First, note that Clinton didn't just send the letter to Mukasey -- who, as AG, is over the Department of Justice -- it effects all three departments. (And more.) Second, Clinton led on this issue among women in the Congress and Clinton wasn't one of the women running for office in 1992 on the gender-quake and the rage of what was done to Anita Hill in 1991. Hello, Di-Fi, where are you? Patty Murray was among those women and she is circulating a letter similar to Clinton's (and also to all three department heads). Republican Olympia Snowe (who ran for the Senate three years after) has signed on to Murray's letter. But a lot of women were happy in 1992 to point to Anita Hill facing the all male Senate panel and say that's why we needed to elect them. Many of them got elected and many are still in office. Exactly what are they doing? (There's no reason to let the men off the hook but I am noting, for those too young to remember or those who forgot, the mistreatment of Anita Hill in 1991 fueled the 1992 genderquake which a number of female politicians were eager to ride the wave of. Of the male Senators, Florida's Senator Bill Nelson is among those being active on the issue. And, of course, it was a House Rep, Republican Ted Poe, who immediately sprung into action.)

Marie Tessier (The Women's Media Center) observes, "The Jones case is the perfect storm of competing public values. It is a dreadful reflection of a thriving American culture of violence against women. It is one odious long-term consequence of an ill-conceived war in Iraq in an era of troop cutbacks. It illustrates the fate of crime victims in the real world experience of criminal and employment law. Still, Jones, now 23, is an emblem of a new generation of women who have come of age expecting justice for sexual assault, and willing to tell their families, the media and the world about their exploitation. They intend to hold law enforcement officials and employers accountable for every violation of trust that has followed the crime. As employment lawyers know, Jamie Leigh Jones is, in the end, one extreme example among thousands of victims of violence whose jobs and careers suffer as a result. Experiences like hers at KBR are the reason that sexual assault is recognized as an occupational safety problem throughout the workforce by the Centers for Disease Control and the Pentagon, for example." Stephanie Mencimer (Mother Jones) zooms in on the possibility that Jones may not be able to sue KBR:

When Jones went to work for KBR in Texas, and later for its subsidiary, Overseas Administrative Services, she signed contracts containing mandatory binding arbitration clauses, which required her to give up her right to sue the companies and any right to a jury trial. Instead, the contracts forced Jones to press her case through private arbitration, which she did in 2006. In that forum, the company that allegedly wronged her pays the arbitrator who is hearing the case. For that she can thank Dick Cheney.At the time of the alleged attack on Jones, KBR was a subsidiary of Halliburton, the behemoth military-contracting and oil-technology firm. (KBR was sold off earlier this year.) So Jones is covered by the Halliburton dispute-resolution program, which was implemented when Cheney was Halliburton's CEO. The system bears the markings of Cheney's obsession with secrecy and executive power. On his watch, Halliburton, in late 1997, made it more difficult for its employees to sue the company for discrimination, sexual harassment, and other workplace-related issues.

AP explains that along with Jones, Tracy Barker (sexually assaulted by a State Department employee STILL employed by the State Dept even after he admitted to the assault) and notes of the third woman that Rep Poe spoke of, but did not identify, that she "was molested several times and raped by a KBR co-worker. After the alleged rape, her attacker was allowed to work alongside her. Military officers escorted him off the base when she complained, and she was fired."

On Iraq, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorializes regarding the military bombings by Turkey, "Turkey's air and land attacks on Kurdish civilian targets in an attempt to disable the Kurdish separatist group, the PKK, have been roundly condemned by both Iraqi and Kurdish governments. Not only was the Iraqi government not notified -- so that's how we treat soverign nations -- our own military commanders there were left in the dark, and Gen. David Patraeus is angry about how it was handleed. So now U.S. and Turkish officials are reviewing how the attacks went, hoping to 'streamline' the process furhter. Gosh, not informing two of the four concerned parties seems pretty streamlined to us." China's Xinhua reports that Condi Rice spoke with Ali Babacan, Turkey's Foreign Minister, Wednesday night via phone and that "during the phone conversation, Babacan told Rice that Turkey was pleased with intelligence sharing from the United States." In other news from the Kurdish north of Iraq, Damien McElroy (Telegraph of London) reports that the region's prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani, has stated that things "must be changed" or the Kurdish MPs will leave the 'coalition' (puppet) government which would destroy al-Maliki's leadership role (emphasis on "role"). Things? The oil law and the referendrum on oil-rich Kirkuk [whether it remains a part of the central (puppet) government or is folded into the Kurdistan region]. Also at the Telegraph of London, Con Coughlin provides (apparently unknowingly) the laugh for the day: the United Kingdom's new Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, states "the big difference between Iraq and Afghanistan is that Iraq has the wealth and resources to finance its own reconstruction, whereas Afghanistan has to reply on hand-outs." For those not in on the joke, that lie's been repeated many, many times before. Click here for the Institute for Policy Studies' "Wolfowitz Chronology" to be reminded of War Hawk Paul Wolfowitz telling Congress pre-Iraq War and after it started that reconstruction would be paid for with Iraqi oil.


War Hawk Down? Many hoped when John Howard was outed in elections and Kevin Rudd became the country's new prime minister. AFP notes that Rudd "was elected on a promise that he would pull out the 550 troops deployed in Iraq along with the British forces in the south of the country." In addition, Australia has approximately 1,000 troops stationed 'outside' of Iraq. AFP reports Rudd commented on a surprise trip to Baghdad today, "Australia will continue to support our friends in Iraq through navy deployment in the Gulf to assist in long-term security of Iraqi exports." Doesn't sound like Australia is "out" of the illegal war or that the new prime minister is planning for that.

While Democratic leadership may or may not be planning a coma for 2008 (you really can't call it caving after it keeps happening), it's worth noting that the number of service members announded dead since the start of the illegal war currently stands at 3896. That's four away from the 3,900 marker. With over a week left in the year, it might end with the marker being reached.

Perspective on the Democratic 'leadership' in Congress: The 3000 mark was reached December 31, 2006. And, in one year's time, nearly a thousand have died. The Congress held their first session on January 4, 2007. At that point the number dead was 3006. There was a huge shake-up in the Congress, for any who've forgotten. Democrats promised a lot with regards to Iraq and they delivered nothing. In the November 2006 elections, they had a sweep. They had hoped to win control of one house. They won control of both houses of Congress. Since their first session, 890 US service members have been announced dead in Iraq. Since they were handed control, Byron W. Fouty and Alex R. Jimenez went missing. They were part of a group that was slaughtered. (By Iraqis waived through checkpoints, for those who've forgotten.) Hopefully, they are still alive. But they went missing May 12th. (They are two of four missing since the start of the illegal war. Keith M. Maupin went missing April 16, 2004 and Ahmeda Qusai al-Taei went missing right before the November elections, October 23, 2006. Ahmeda Qusai al-Taei is the US soldier who married an Iraqi and was captured while visiting her in Baghdad, outside the Green Zone.) The count doesn't include the deaths from physical wounds following the departure from Iraq. Five service members are known to have died. The number is probably higher. This year three died, from physical wounds received in Iraq, after leaving Iraq: Jack D. Richards (July 29, 2007), Gerald J. Cassidy (September 25, 2007) and Anthony Raymond Wasielewsk (October 8, 2007). In addition there are the many who have come back with mental traumas and have taken their own lives. They aren't included in the count either.

That is what Democrats have to show for their non-action after the American people went to the polls in November 2006 to give them control of both houses of Congress with a mandate to end the illegal war. They have not ended the illegal war (they really haven't even tried to end it) and 890 US service members have been announced dead in Iraq since Congress' first session of this year.

In some of today's reported violence . . .

Bombings?

Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad car bombing that claimed the lives of 4 police officers and 1 civilian (seven police officers and one more civilian were also wounded) and the driver of the car was also killed, and an Al Salam mortar attack that claimed the life of 1 child (two more wounded).

Shootings?

Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 people shot dead in Diyala province.

Kidnappings?

Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 person was kidnapped in Al Touz.

Corpses?

Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses discovered in Baghdad.

Mohammed Al Dulaimy also reports, "The U.S. military and Iraqi police said one Iraqi police officer was killed and one marine was injured in an altercation at a joint outpost in the Jazeera area of Ramadi on Wednesday. The police officer died of stab wounds and the marine was treated for minor injuries from lacerations at a military hospital. The U.S. military said the incident is under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Colleagues of the police officer said the man's throat was slit." On Thursday, Stephen Farrell (New York Times) reported on an event that left someone, assumed to be 18-year-old Waleed Khalid Khudhaier, an Iraqi police officer, dead -- Farrell noted that the event was under investigation (an Iraqi police officer and a US marine are thought to have been involved in a knife battle on a base and the police officer was killed) and that:

The incident is an embarrassment for the United States military, which has paised Anbar as a model for Sunni tribes and American soldiers cooperating to fight fundamentalist groups like Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown militant group that United States intelligence officials say is led by foreigners. The death has provoked local anger and demands for legal action.


Today UNICEF announced, "An estimated two million children in Iraq continue to face threats including poor nutrition, disease and interrupted education. Iraqi children were frequently caught in the crossfire of conflict throughout 2007. Insecurity and displacement continues to cause hardship for many in the most insecure parts of the country and further eroded access to quality essential services country-wide." Among the many distrubing facts UNCIEF reports, we'll grab two. "Hundreds of children lost their lives or were injured by violence and many more had their main family wage-earner kidnapped or killed." Earlier this week, IRIN reported that "Iraqi women parliamentarians and activists are pressing for a new law to help the increasing number of widows and divorced women in their war-torn country" and quoted parliamentarian Nadira Habib stating that violence had created ("over the past three decades") over 1 million widows in Iraq but the country plans to cut subsidies in next year's budget, despite the fact that "country's social protection programme" already only provides the US equiavalent of fifty-dollars a month to those in need. Cara Buckley (New York Times) reported on some of the problems facing Iraq's internally displaced refugees and noted that you have to jump through a hoop to get new benefits in another area -- you must return to the area that turned you and your family into a refugee to ask them to take you off the role (one of the women interviewed by Buckley explained it was just too dangerous for her to return there) and then apply in your new neighborhood.

UNICEF also notes: "Approximately 1,3500 children were detained by military and police authorities, many for alleged security violations." Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) examines the realities of the US prison releases in Iraq and doesn't find 'happy' and 'pretty.' She tells the story of a woman (Leila Nasser) who sees her husband hauled away while she's six-months pregnant because he committed the 'crime' of sleeping on the roof. At least 15 months later, she waits outside the prsion for Mohammed Amin's release, waits with their one-year-old son Moubin that the father has never seen due to the 'crime' of sleeping on his home's roof. Fadel notes, "More than 25,000 Iraqis are now in US dentention facilities. The Jihad reconciliation committee of Sunni and Shiite Muslims had requested that 562 men be released. Last month, 48 people were released, but more were detained."

In other non-progress news, Reuters reports, "Iraq's powerful Shiite Muslim leader, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, has called for curbs on US-backed neighourhood patrol units, which are mainly Sunni, saying weapons should only be in the hands of the government. Mr Hakin, head of the biggest party in the Shiite-led government, praised the role of the patrols, known to Iraqis as 'Awakening councils', in contributing to a sharp drop in violence but said they should only play an auxillary role."

Finally, two things on the issue of the PTSD. The Army Times' Kelly Kennedy spoke with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) today about her recent reporting:

JUAN GONZALEZ: Your series presents a really fascinating picture of how the medical folks who dealt with some of these soldiers, the psychologists who dealt with them, reacted to their situation, and also how the commander dealt with being faced with an actual mutiny by his troops. Could you enlighten us about that some more?
KELLY KENNEDY: Yeah, I think there's--that's one of the key differences of this war. I'm a veteran myself, and I served in Mogadishu, and I served in Desert Storm. We didn't know what PTSD was--post-traumatic stress disorder. We didn't have mental health people we could go to while we were out in the field or while we were out in battle. We didn't talk about ethics. We didn't talk about how we were feeling or how we would react professionally to certain situations. And these guys are. They're going to mental health, and they're saying, "Hey, I'm upset about this." And the mental health people are talking with the unit commanders and saying, "Hey, maybe you need to pull your guys out Adhamiya," or "Hey, maybe your guys need some more rest." And they're certainly saying, "Listen, if you think you're going to act unprofessionally, you need to do something else. You need to take care of that." And I think that's huge. I don't think a lot of people understand that that's a big difference in this war, between the last war and this war.
And the reason they do that is because early on in this war we did have situations where troops did not behave properly. In Vietnam, we certainly saw it. For these guys to stand up and say, "Listen, we're not sure we can handle it right now," could be considered very courageous, in my mind. The commander, I think, also realized that, and he said as much, that he sees the two sides of the situation.
After Bravo Company's IED went off, Charlie Company was supposed to go back out and patrol the same area. When some of the members who had been patrolling with Charlie Company before the scout platoon went as the quick reaction force to the IED attack for Bravo Company, they were struck by how much it looked like the first IED attack that--the roadside bomb attack, and they reacted as if it were their own men, and they went right to mental health and they got sleeping medications, and they basically couldn't sleep and reacted poorly.
And then, they were supposed to go out on patrol again that day. And they, as a platoon, the whole platoon--it was about forty people--said, "We're not going to do it. We can't. We're not mentally there right now." And for whatever reason, that information didn't make it up to the company commander. All he heard was, "2nd Platoon refuses to go." So he insisted that they come. They still refused. So volunteers went out to talk with them, and then he got the whole situation. In the meantime, it was called a mutiny, which is probably a bigger word than should be used for it, but that's what the battalion called it.
And eventually, what they did was they separated the platoon. They said, you know, "You guys aren't acting well together anymore, so we're going to split you up, and we're going to have you work with other platoon sergeants, other squad leaders, and see if we can turn things around this way." But they also punished them, in a sense, by flagging them and saying that they couldn't get promotions and they couldn't get their awards for two months. So there was a feeling that there had to be punishment for these soldiers refusing to go on a mission, but there was also understanding that the guys may have acted properly in this case.
AMY GOODMAN: Kelly Kennedy, I think what is so profound about this story is the refusal of the men to go out. Were there women, by the way, in this unit?
KELLY KENNEDY: No, it was all infantry.
AMY GOODMAN: The refusal of these men to go out, because they were afraid they would commit a massacre. Explain that.
KELLY KENNEDY: Yeah. They're--I need to say this: they are good guys. I mean, I saw them take care of each other. I saw them take care of Iraqis.
When the IED, the roadside bomb, went off, it was so close to one of the Iraqi police stations that they should have been able to see somebody burying that. It was right in front of somebody's house, and nobody said anything. Nobody said to these guys, "Listen, there's a bomb here. We're worried about you," even though they had been going out and patrolling and doing what they were supposed to be doing, in their minds. So when that IED went off and killed their five friends, they're in--you have to understand, they've been living together for a year like brothers in the basement of this old palace. And it's--they're right on top of each other and going out and taking care of each other on the battlefield, daily firefights. And so, they're closer probably than anyone could be. And when they lost their five men, they--I think they gave up on the Iraqi people. If the Iraqi people weren't willing to fight for them, then what was the point? And they were so angry. They just wanted to go out and take out the whole city. They didn't understand why they couldn't finish up what they call the war, and the whole idea of counterinsurgency is that you're supposed to be building relationships, but they're trying to build relationships with people who obviously aren't that concerned about them. So this idea of a massacre was just--they were just so angry, they could barely contain it anymore.

And yesterday on All Things Considered (NPR), Daniel Zwerdling explored the topic of PTSD and noted the number of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and being discharged without all their health benefits which means receiving treatment for PTSD is very dificult which is why there is a "call on the nation's leaders to declare an amnesty" and "restore full benefits to all troops who were discharged for misconduct or other behaivor after they returned from combat if they were also diagnosed with mental health problems such as PTSD." Ruth noted Zwerdling yesterday. And the December 17th snapshot contains links to the Army Times series.


























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Thursday, December 20, 2007

Tina Turner, Poland, Glen Ford

Thursday. One day until the weekend! :D I was going to do a post tonight that went one way but then I talked to Jim (who called back late last night just to say hi and that he'd call tomorrow). He and Dona were getting ready to leave today to be at her folks for Christmas. Jim and Dona have been a couple since early 2005.

It's not a secret.

So maybe Dona shouldn't be insulted to Jim? That was the one detail he didn't tell Elaine about regarding Wiener Man who wanted to 'correct' Ava and C.I.'s "Ike Turner (Ava and C.I. feature)". He thought he was ticked off just because he was Dona's boyfriend. C.I. called early this morning (and woke up Jim :D) and said, "I don't want to know who wrote it and I'm certainly not wasting time reading it. But as I understand what Elaine wrote there are some key points. So I'm going to list them and just let me know if I have them correct." So Jim listened and goes, "Yeah, you got it." Then he goes, "One more thing." And apparently Dona explaining in the simplest terms is confusing for Wiener Man because there was a part in there that Jim found insulting. C.I. goes, "That is insulting. Okay, it's being dealt with."

And it was. Wow. :D C.I.'s "Jamie Leigh Jones and other realities ignored" went up this morning. Yesterday, you should have caught Rebecca's "the strong women (and thank god we have them!)" which I didn't know about until after it went up and Elaine's "Only women & countries get 'discovered'" which is the one I was telling you about last night (in "Torture, Dave Lindorff, Dave Zirin").

Jim and I talked about some stuff including how Jim decided he was wasting his time on a reply. He spent all yesterday checking everything in Ava and C.I.'s article and it was all verifiable. Jim was planning on doing a footnoted e-mail and then after all the work (that's when he called Elaine), he decided Wiener Man wasn't worth it.

See Wiener Man's going that Ava and C.I. are wrong and then going "It doesn't matter." Well (A) they aren't wrong. And (B) if it doesn't matter, why are you wrongly accusing them to begin with?

Wiener Man thinks Ava and C.I. don't know Tina as well as he does (from a week working on a report years ago). And Wiener Man thinks that Tina needs to "forgive" Ike and that's 'possible.' Since he thinks he's so smart and so all knowing, I figured I would set the record straight. This is from New Zealand's Stuff:

Friends of Tina said there is no way the Private Dancer singer will be attending Ike's funeral in San Diego.
One friend said: "Tina hasn't seen Ike for 35 years and last time she did see him he treated her appallingly, so there's no way she will be going to the service to pay tribute to him."

It's no big deal that Ike tortured Tina? Seems like Tina thinks it's a big deal. And she should think it's a big deal. It's only in the sick fantasies of Wiener Man that Tina needs to forgive Ike.
What do the people think? This is a letter to the UK's News & Star:

Ike just famous as wife beater
Ike Turner: Nobody can name a song written by him
IT WAS interesting listening to all the news bulletins about the death of Ike Turner. All the radio stations played "River Deep Mountain High."
This is the one record that Ike Turner was never allowed to have anything to do with.
Phil Spector would only let Tina Turner sing on it if Ike Turner would promise not to interfere. Ike and Tina Turner needed a hit on both sides of the ocean, they didn't get it at the time in the US, but it was a minor hit in the UK and Europe. The trouble is, nobody can name a song that was written by Ike Turner, even "Nutbush City Limits" was written by Tina.
Maybe he was just famous for being a convicted drug abuser and a wife beater.
Not a very flattering epitaph.
SALLY PENTON

Ha! Rock & Roll never forgets! :D

By the way, Dad called Wiener Man this decade's Phyllis George for suggesting that Tina Turner needed to forgive the man who tortured her, put her in the hospital repeatedly, threatened to kill her and more. I didn't get it. Who is Phyllis George? He said she was a lot of things but tried to be a morning news host (he thinks on CBS' Morning Show) and he interviewed this guy who had been in prison for rape and was innocent. He'd been released and the woman who had knowingly lied about him was on the show too. After interviewing them, the man looked mad at the woman who had gotten him falsely imprisoned, Phyllis George goes, "Give us a hug." :D What an idiotic thing to say. That's like Wiener Man saying Tina needs to forgive Ike. "Give us a hug, Wiener Man!" :D

What's Tina think of Ike today? She's written a musical that makes it pretty clear. This is from EURweb.com:

*The New York Post is reporting that Tina Turner has written an autobiographical musical titled "Simply the Best," which will follow her rise to fame, the abuse suffered under ex-husband Ike Turner and her belief that he is the reincarnation of the tyrannical Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III.
As the Post puts it: "Simply the Best" portrays Ike Turner as a gun-wielding, cocaine-sniffing, wife-beating monster whose signature line is: "That b*tch will taste my wrath like it's her own saliva!"
The musical is aiming for London production next year before heading to Broadway, the Post reports. It will feature music from Tina Turner's back catalog to narrate her journey from Nutbush, Tenn. to superstardom. Among the songs in the show are "Nutbush City Limits," "I Can't Stand the Rain," "Let's Stay Together," "Private Dancer" and "What's Love Got To Do With It?"

That must be a shock for Wiener Man who just knows that Tina will forgive Ike. If he doesn't grasp why that's the way it is, he can call me up and we can set a week where he stays at my place and I beat him every day the way Ike beat Tina and then, at the end of the week, he can stagger off back home and call me the next week to let me know if he 'forgives' me. How's that for a deal?

Who would have thought, I mean let's be really serious here, who would have thought that the death of a torturer would result in defenses of him? That's insane.

And when Elaine's going "Little boy, Mommy and Daddy . . ." that just captures it perfectly. He is a little boy. He can't accept reality and he loves him some Ike so much that it doesn't matter how many times Ike beat Tina. That's not important. All that matters is that he loves him some Ike and he feels sorry for his crush because Ike was a criminal.

What an idiot.

Hey, you think the Iraqis should give the US a big hug (and wet kiss) five years after the US finally leaves? You think they should be grateful too? Poland's pulling out of Iraq. This is from Reuters:

Eighty-five percent of Poles support the withdrawal of Poland's troops from Iraq next year, as recommended by the centre-right government to the reluctant president, a poll by TNS OBOP showed on Thursday.

Meanwhile the US is stuck there because neither Bully Boy nor the Democratic leadership in Congress will bring the troops home. This is from Glen Ford's "When Spies and Generals Do More for Peace Than Democrats:"

Democratic leadership has once again caved in to Bush on war spending, after last month shunting aside Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s bill to impeach Dick Cheney. Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s rationale -- shared by Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers -- is that impeachment is a diversion from all the great works that the Democrats want to accomplish in this and the next Congress. But of course, they have accomplished very little on the domestic front, and nothing on the peace front. They almost seem to enjoy their whippings -- like suburban, weekend masochists in a red-light district. If this were not so -- if Democratic leadership really wanted to gum up the works of war, and rail to high heaven against Bush and Cheney’s crimes -- they could do so even without a working majority. One can only conclude that Democratic leadership believes that allowing Bush to keep his war going, and permitting Bush and Cheney to pile up felony upon felony against the Constitution, is good for Democrats. From a moral standpoint, that puts the mutinous spies and generals who dared to buck their president on Iran heads and shoulders above the Democratic so-called "opposition" in Congress.

That's it for me tonight. Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Thursday, December 20, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces another death, Jamie Leigh Jones testified yesterday but look who can't cover it, the refugee crisis continues and more.


Starting with war resistance. Joe McMorrow (Western Catholic Reporter) notes Sophie Scholl and Franz Jagerstatter (who both resisted the Nazi regime in Germany) and how the Catholic Church in Germany remained silent and McMorrow builds on that to call out: "The general indifference by Canadian Catholics to the plight of American war deserters who have fled to Canada in recent years rather than fight in Iraq is evidence that selective conscientious objection to war is still viewed as somehow not a valid Catholic moral, position. This despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Catholic moral theologians agree with these deserters: the Iraq war is unjust; destertion, in a situation where there are no other alternatives, is preferable to participation in an unjust war. The war in Iraq is conservatively estimated to have taken the lives of over 100,000 civilians and violates every traditional criterion used to justify war: the invasion of Iraq is not defensive, is not declared by a lawful authority, is not a last resort, does not sufficiently distinguish between civilian and military participants, and is not likely to create more good than the harm it is inflicting. Yet, the plight of American deserters who have fled to Canada for refuge has not drawn a word of attention from the Canadian Conference of Cahtolic Bishops (CCCE)."

The Canadian Parliament has the power to let war resisters stay in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use. Both War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist are calling for actions from January 24-26.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan

March 13th through *16th* are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. I would assume that this is fairly obvious but I would have assumed wrong: IVAW is asking that there be no anti-war rallies, marches, etc. called for the national level during that time period and that, since the Investigation is based in DC, that no "local" anti-war actions be planned for that period in DC. The illegal war started on March 19, 2003 so that's two days after the event. The 19th falls on a Wednesday. If there are other actions held during that period, we won't be noting them. This is something that was in planning stages for some time, something that a lot of people have worked very hard on and it's been announced for sometime. IVAW has carved out these dates and we will note the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation announcement in every snapshot leading up to this event. We won't be noting any other actions that take place during this time period. I don't believe any one group leads and I certainly don't believe the peace movement should attempt to hide behind the military (is there any room left with the White House and Democratic leadership already crowded around back there?). But this is a major event that's required intense planning and organizing and they gave more than enough notice ahead of time that everyone should have been aware of the event. Those days should belong to the Investigation. And the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation is a public event. So, in terms of mobilization, if any group or organization wants to mobilize, they can can mobilize people to Investigation which will include the testimonies of those who have served as well as people from Iraq and Afghanistan who have survived the illegal war.

Today on Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman noted, "On Capitol Hill, Justice Department officials are coming under criticism for refusing to attend a hearing on allegations of rape ans sexual assault of female contactors in Iraq. A former employee has sued Halliburton and its former subsidiary KBR after she says she was gang-raped by employees of the company in Baghdad. The alleged victim, Jamie Leigh Jones, accuses the company and the U.S. government of covering up the crime." Feminist Wire Daily summarizes: "Jones filed a lawsuit against her former employers, Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR in May, stating that she was drugged and gang-raped by a group of her co-workers in the KBR camp in the Green Zone in Iraq in 2005. In her testimony, Jones stated that her experience while working for contractors in Iraq was not an isolated incident, reports the Associated Press. Representative Ted Poe, R-TX, who was contacted for help by Jones's father while she was held in Iraq by her co-workers after the attack, also testified that several women have now come forward with allegations of sexual harassment and assault while employed by Halliburton's former subsidiary, KBR. As of yet, no charges have been brought against Jones's alleged attackers. According to ABC News, legal experts say they might never even have to stand trial: A loophole in US law effectively leaves contractors working in Iraq out of the jurisdiction of US courts." [Feminist Daily News Wire's item is also up at Feminist Majority Foundation.] On yesterday's House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, Maddy Sauer (ABC News) points out that DoJ "refused to send a representative to answer questions from Congress today on the investigations into allegations of rape and sexual assault on female American contractors." Rebecca Carr (Cox News via The Plains Dealer) observes, "Glaring at the empty seat assigned to an absent Justice Department official, Rep. Louie Gohmert, Republican of Texas, vowed to 'move Justice in the right direction.' Gohmert told Jones she is giving a voice to other victims of rape." Barbara H. Peterson (OpEdNews) considers the meanings of these events: "Is the United States taking a step backwards in the area of women's rights? It would seem so. Violence against American women goes un-prosecuted, and women who have suffered violence remain traumatized with no justice in sight." CNN quotes Rep Poe declaring, "We need a new sheriff in Iraq to enforce federal laws." We also a need a US State Department that provides the oversight it is supposed to. AP notes that Rep Poe "says three women -- including Tracy Barker, who submitted written testimony of her account and was at the hearing -- contacted him" -- three women who have also been assaulted. The Secretary of State is Condi Rice. She heads the State Department and she assumed those duties January 26, 2005 which means she was in the charge of the department that was supposed to be overseeing contractors when the assaults on Jones and Barker took place. Tracy Barker was harassed by contractors, true, but she was assaulted by an employee of the State Department -- Ali Mokhtare -- an employee who, as of 20/20's report last Friday was still employed by the State Department. It's not as if the State Department's a model department. Warren P. Strobel (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that Charles Williams, who was in charge of oversight for the department's embassy construction in Iraq just became "the third senior State Department official to depart amid failures in managing the burgeoning U.S. diplomatic presence in Iraq. The department's inspector general and head of diplomatic presence in Iraq." Barker's statement was noted in yesterday's snapshot and maybe the fact that she submitted her statement in writing is why some of the press ignored her today? Jones testified in public. Flip through the New York Times today to find that report.

It's not there.

Jane Fonda speaking in January of this year (here for video, here for text)

Last month, in the Washington Post, there was a heart-breaking article by Nancy Trejos about the women's lives in Iraq. The headline was, "Women Lose Ground in the New Iraq. Once They Were Encouraged to Study and Work; Now Life Is 'Just Like Being in Jail'." The article was on page A12. If the female half of the world were visible and powerful, that article would have been the lead story, on the front page and above the fold.
And to return to the Abeer Al-Janabi's tragic story.
The U.S. Army wants us to believe that what happened to Abeer was just another tale of a few bad apples. One of the soldiers allegedly responsible -- the pupropted ringleader, private Steven Green, of Midland, Texas -- had a criminal record, and a history of drug abuse and emotional problems. Once, the army would have rejected him. But in 2005, desperate for recruits, they dismissed his dangerous past by granting him a so-called "moral waiver," and accepted him into their ranks.

On the first point, and Jamie Leigh Jones would be on the front page of today's New York Times (instead of not even noted) while on the second point, US soldiers carried out a criminal conspiracy to gang-rape and murder Abeer Qassim Hamza and to murder her parents, Qassim Hamza Raheem and Fakhriya Taha Muhsasen, and her five-year-old sister Hadeel Qassim Hamza on March 12, 2006. Brian De Palma's brilliant film Redacted is work of fiction inspired by Abeer. Dan Geist (IPS) examines the film, "Brian De Palma's new movie 'Redacted' is a fictional take on the overseas exploits of another youthful resident of the city, one who Midland days are not touted by the local Chamber of Commerce. The real-life character whose deeds inspired the film is Steven Dale Green. Still shy of his twentieth birthday, he had already racked up a record of alcohol and drug abuse that included three misdemeanor convictions. Meanwhile, two years after Bush had declared a United States victory in its latest war, the U.S. Army was experiencing a severe recruitment shortfall. More liberal, embracing attitudes naturally gained sway in the hiring office. Thus it was that the newly anointed Private First Class Green arrived in another oil-rich country, Iraq, in the autom of 2005. There, if the acounts of his fellow soldiers are to be credited, this younger son of Midland left his mark on history as well. Steven Green is alleged to be the primary insitgator of the Mahmudiyah atrocity, a slightly altered version of which forms the centrepiece of 'Redacted'. One afternoon in March 2006, a group of U.S. soldiers based in that suburb of Baghdad, well lubricated by whiskey-and-energy-drink cocktails, stormed the home of 14-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi. As two soldiers took turns raping the girl, her parents and five-year-old sister were shot dead in another room, allegedly by Green. According to the testimony of the other soldiers involved, Green proceeded to rape Abeer and kill her. One of his associates then poured kerosene on her body, which was set ablaze. Following a tip from another man in their unit, four soldiers were arrested for their roles in the crme and a fifth for failing to report it. Green was discharged from the Army on psychiatric grounds before his participation came to light. The two men who first raped Abeer -- Sergeant Paul Cortez and Specialist James Barker -- ultimately confessed and are now serving prison sentences that will last a minimum of 10 and 20 years, respectively, perhaps much longer. Their roles are merged in one 'Redacted' character, B.B. Rush."

In some of today's reported violence . . .

Bombings?

Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad car bombing claimed 3 lives and left twenty-eight people injured. Reuters notes, "A suicide bomber wearing a belt packed with explosives struck a recruiting station for neighbourhood patrols in the twon of Kannan in restive Diyala province. Police said 13 volunteers were killed and 10 wounded. The U.S. military said a U.S. soldier was killed and 10 U.S. soldiers were wounded." Hammooudi informs that the "neighborhood patrols" were the "Sahwa (awakening)" council -- the attack continues a trend. Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) quotes an official who explains, "There was a meeting with U.S. forces at the time of the attack, when the suicide attacker aws able to get inside before exploding himself."

Shootings?

Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 person was shot dead in Baquba and, also in Baquba, an armed clash resulted in 2 deaths.

Corpses?

Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 2 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) notes a US military statement released today on the discovery (apparently between the eighth of December and the eleventh but who knows) of 26 corpses in Muqdadiya.


Turning to the refugee crisis. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees notes, "Popular Arab Iraqi musician Naseer Shamma on Tuesday launched a fund-raising campaign that he hopes will raise millions of dollars to help Iraqi refugees in major host countries such as Syria and Jordan" and quotes Shamma declaring, "I did not know before today that there are many layers [of Iraqi refugees] under the poverty line. UNHCR has done its share but it is time now for the Arab people to do their share and support Iraqi refugees." Over 4 million Iraqi refugees have been created by the illegal war (that's internally and externally displaced Iraqis). Of course some aren't in Iraq technically and some aren't in another country technically. Miret El Naggar (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "Hundreds of Palestinian refugees who've been forced out of thier homes in Iraq are stranded in a remote stretch of the Syrian desert, where they're living in tents that offer little shelter against blinding sandstorms and the biting cold of winter nights, according to humanitarian aid workers and refugees. Syrian authorities have barred the Palestinians from leaving the Tanaf refugee camp near the border with Iraq. Journalists aren't allowed to visit." On all Iraqi refugees, Church World Service notes, "Despite recent reports their homes, it is reportedly a small percentage and those returning face an uncertain future given continuing violence and widespread humanitarian needs. As well, authorities in Iraq, Syria and Jordan have begun restricting movement of civilians, raising concerns about the ability to flee dangerous areas." Cara Buckley (New York Times) examines Maha Hashim and Afraah Kadhom and their families are two of the refugees Buckley examines. Both women tell similar details -- monies ran out in Syria, return to Baghdad . . . to nothing. There is no work, there is no place to live. A truck bombing destroyed Hashim's home and she (and her children) live in an uncle's apartment, Kadhom's is gone. Bombed. Rubble. Hashim's husband was a police officer. He was shot dead in 2006. Kadhom's "father and four brothers were killed two years ago" in a home invasion. On employment, Ali al-Fahdily (IPS) quotes Mohammad al-Dulaymi explaining, "To survive in Iraq under U.S. occupation, there are only two jobs; police and garbage collection. Unemployment is leading many Iraqis to join the security forces despite the risk invovled."

Finally, on the heels of Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism latest study noting the effects of Operation Happy Talk, FAIR has issued an analysis (which sounds similar to some of the points Peter Hart was making last Thursday and Friday) entitled "War Is Over -- Say the Pundits" (here for Common Dreams, here for FAIR):

To hear many in the mainstream media tell it, the Iraq War is of diminishing importance to American voters. But the evidence for such a shift in the electorate is thin at best--suggesting that journalists and pundits are really the ones who would rather not talk about Iraq as we head into an election year.The New York Times offered a glimpse of this argument in a November 25 piece headlined "As Democrats See Security Gains in Iraq, Tone Shifts." The article suggested that "leading Democratic presidential candidates" were having trouble acknowledging "success" in Iraq while still opposing the war: "But the changing situation suggests for the first time that the politics of the war could shift in the general election next year, particularly if the gains continue." This was carried further a few days later by the Washington Post (11/28/07), where it was reported that the "debate at home over the Iraq war has shifted significantly," a phenomenon that "has strategists in both parties reevaluating their assumptions about how the final year of the Bush presidency and the election to succeed him will play out." The Post suggested that the "evolving public attitudes reflect, or perhaps explain, a turn in Washington as well." The suggestion that Washington might be reacting to subtle changes in public opinion is a curious one; if public sentiment were truly guiding policy, then U.S. troops would have long been on their way out.




















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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Torture, Dave Lindorff, Dave Zirin

Wendesday. I think everybody knows that Elaine and I are a couple. :D I was on the phone with her tonight (like most nights) and she is so pissed. Some man decided that he knows more about everything than two 'little women' like Ava and C.I. "Ike Turner (Ava and C.I. feature)" has offended him because Ike is his pin-up and who cares if Ike beat Tina Turner over and over, who cares if he sent her to the emergency room and made things so bad that she tried to kill herself, he loves Ike!

Elaine is furious. Jim called her to tell her about an e-mail and she intends to unload tonight, so check out her site because I have a feeling this will be one of the strongest things she's written all year.

When she started filling in for Rebecca in the summer of 2005, I was dating Nina and didn't even know Elaine. Rebecca asked us all to call and check in to see if she need help learning Blogger/Blogspot or anything at all. I had only started my site a little before that so I was just glad not to be the newbie. :D

But we got to know each other and I begged and begged her to start her own site when Rebecca got back from vacation. Which she did. And we were the blog twins before we were a couple. Nina and I broke up (this is written with Nina's permission, I called her and told her what was going on and she said write whatever I want and to tell Elaine, "Rip that asshole to shreads!" meaning the guy who wants to excuse Ike Turner). Nina thought I was interested in Elaine and I got that from others. Elaine got that on her end too. But we weren't in a relationship or thinking about one or planning one. We were just friends.

When I told her about Nina and I breaking up, we didn't jump into a relationship. We honestly thought everyone was insane because we were just friends. Then, at the start of the summer of 2006 (or around there) we began to date and became a couple.

Wally knew because he had come up from Florida to spend a few weeks with me. But even Tony didn't know. Tony's my best friend. He lives on my street. Our dads were best friends growing up. (Tony's dad's my boss at work.) Our parents do stuff together all the time. And I didn't tell Tony. I wouldn't have told Wally but (a) I needed to tell someone and (b) since Wally was around the whole time he was going to catch on.

A little while after, we all went out to California and spent two weeks at C.I.'s. Wally ran interference for us and no one knew we were a couple. (Or we thought that. C.I. knew.) As it went on, I was dying to tell everybody and we were keeping it quiet. Rebecca called a roundtable for her site (that we all reposted at our sites) and in it, I almost announced we were a couple. I was just kind of hinting. But C.I. jumped in and said, "Don't." C.I. also said (and that's in the roundtable if someone wants to look it up) that stuff around that was being pulled. Everyone in the roundtable was wondering what was going on?

So that's when I figured out that C.I. knew. Or maybe just suspected. So Elaine and I came out as a couple in a roundtable and we were beating around the bush and finally C.I. just goes something like, "They're a couple okay!"

:D

We don't talk about the details because Elaine's really private and that's cool.

But my point in all that is I've known her for how long now? We've been a couple for how long now? And I've never heard her so angry. So be sure to check out Like Maria Said Paz. And, to be clear, whatever she writes, I support 100%. And I'm offended just hearing of that stupid e-mail.

On the plus, there are ALL these e-mails coming in from women. I was talking to Dona on the phone yesterday and she said it wipes her out to read them because these women are writing in and saying "thank you" for the piece and explaining why it means so much to them, because they were beaten by a husband or a boyfriend.

I don't know if Jim's even going to bother to reply. I called him twice today and he didn't call back. I found out why from Elaine. He was working on a reply to that guy. Jim takes it very seriously. Ava and C.I. are that site's calling card. And if some big name wants to write and try to rip them apart, he's picked the wrong person to write to. Jim's not going to stand for that. He will tell you himself, Ava and C.I.'s writing made that sight. What they do now is a direct reflection of Ava and C.I.'s work.

When it started, The Third Estate Sunday Review was supposed to be a site for college stuff. They were going to do these reports on what it was like to be a student today and all. They did do that. They did some great reports on that early on.

But they did this amazing report on a woman in their class and why she had an abortion and why she didn't support parental consent laws. And that story was just ignored. In the early days, Jim was always thinking of links and stuff like that. And this was a hard hitting report and an amazing story. So Jim thought it would get some attention. When it didn't, he felt awful because the woman had really put herself through a lot of crap to tell her story to them. (She was raped by her father or step-father, I haven't read the story in a long time.) When it didn't get attention, Jim was pretty ticked off because that woman had really torn herself apart to share that story.

But when they did that first edition, Jim goes, "We have to do TV! Everyone on campus, even if they say they don't, watches TV." Ava and C.I. didn't want to. They hated the idea. But they all worked on the TV piece. And that became the thing people noticed!

And Jim was noticing that all the stuff that was getting attention in the reviews were what Ava and C.I. were writing. That's when Jim said, "These need to be Ava and C.I. only." So Ava and C.I. got stuck writing about a topic they didn't even want included! :D

But that is what gets the most attention to this day. And Jim has long said that's the site's calling card.

The man who wrote seemed to be on a huffy bike about feminism, by the way. That's pretty sad.

But Jim will tell you that when it was a group process, he would dismiss Ava and C.I.'s stuff and they would have to fight to get it in. And even after it became just their feature, he'll tell you he still didn't get what they were doing. It wasn't just the jokes that people were responding to, it was the whole point of reference. Even before he got what they were doing, he appreciated it. Then he got it and he really appreciated it.

But they wouldn't have had credit were it not for the fact that Jim, Dona, Jess and Ty got sick of reading e-mails, hearing from friends and families, "Your thing on ___ [TV show] was great! I loved that!" They were happy to say, "It was great and Ava and C.I. are amazing." But they didn't want to take credit for things they weren't doing so they ended up crediting Ava and C.I. (over their objections). And the minute that happened, the minute it was known that it was just two women writing it, suddenly these nasty and violent e-mails came in.

Which shows you how things work in the world, right?

"Feminism" was never a dirty word to me. Ma's a feminist. I grew up with a lot of socialists in my family and they didn't 'scare' me so you know feminism wasn't going to. At it's most basic, it just means we all are equal and that's not controversial, or shouldn't be. We should all have equal rights. But Ava and C.I. offered a weekly feminist take on TV. And they did so, read Susan Faludi's book, at a time when women were under assault.

That spoke to a lot of people. Feminists and non-feminists. The humor would draw you in and you could (or I could) read it and laugh and then a couple of days later really get what they were saying. At a time when women's voices were being pushed off the landscape, Ava and C.I. offered a weekly TV commentary that refused to play "worship the man!"

They've done some amazing writing. And they've got a huge following. And Jim's going to take it very personally if some name writes in and writes some lies about Ava and C.I. We all are but I'm trying not to get angry.

There have been six to write in about the article that didn't say "I loved it." One of them exchanged e-mails with Ty and he's cool with what they wrote. The other five men are dip ****s. And I should point out that everyone of the five (even the sixth) are names you see online all the time, people who write for a living. That may be the most depressing thing about it. (Although the sixth guy was cool after they exchanged e-mails.)

Did you read "Abeer" this morning? C.I. wrote an amazing essay.

And think about that, think about how AP says it was the worst war crime of the war -- it was the worst that we know of -- and then ask where was the coverage of it?

AP doesn't have to be embarrassed. They covered it. They reported on it regularly. The Washington Post did some good stuff too. But the New York Times didn't. They offered excuses and they refused to print Abeer's name. Even during the Article 32 hearing, they wouldn't print her name. And small media, except for Off Our Backs and Robin Morgan, ran from the story. We didn't get reports on it, we didn't get discussions or roundtables. That is so disgusting. And Rebecca, Elaine and C.I. were calling it out at their sites in real time, noting the silences and how disgusting it was. (And we all called it out in pieces at The Third Estate Sunday Review.)

Ike lovers should stop e-mailing Third and start asking them what they ever wrote about Abeer (nothing). Then they should ask themselves what they've written about Tracy Barker or Jamie Leigh Jones. If you don't know about the two women, you should read "TV: ABC's Cesspool" -- Ava and C.I.'s TV commentary this week. Both women, from the US, went to Iraq to work and they were both sexually assaulted. Jamie Leigh Jones was drugged and gang-raped. Tracy Barker was sexually harassed repeatedly and then a member of the State Department sexually assaulted her. There have been no consequences for any of the men involved.

But why should there be in a world where left men can e-mail Third this week to whine that Ike Turner was a good man?

I mean, it goes hand in hand. They won't call out Ike, they will lie about Ike Turner. And then they don't write about Abeer or Jamie Leigh Jones or Tracy Barker. Why would they when they defend a man who beat women? Doesn't that about tell you all you need to know?

Barker and Jones were sexually assaulted by Americans being paid by our taxes. That should offend you right there. The fact that the men never got punished should outrage you even more.

I'm just a college student, but, hey, I know enough not to assault a woman. I know that's wrong, I know it's not 'fun' for a woman. I know if she says 'no' she's not really wanting me to push her. But I have to wonder about the five men who seem to think Ike Turner deserves our forgiveness. He's a rotten person. The world's better off because he's dead.

And think about Tina Turner. She's alive and probably seeing all these valentines being written about the man who tortured her.

I mean, as far as I'm concerned, anyone who wants to write about torture better be against it. If I saw one of those five men writing about torture, I'd immediately think, "Unless it's a woman, right? Then it's okay." Because that is what they say. Ike Turner tortured Tina. He made her life a living hell. But when Ike does it, it's okay? That's kind of like how it's not supposed to be a crime if the White House approves it, right?

If you don't get yet how sick and screwed up Iraq is (because of the US), grasp that American males thought they could go to Iraq and drug a woman to force themselves onto her. Or that a man who works for the State Department, still works for, can assault a woman.

These are things that you get fired in the real world. Not in Iraq. And we're paying for it. We're paying for this crap. That's disgusting.

Dave Lindorff isn't disgusting. :D He's a great writer. And he's got a piece entitled "When Impeachment is Out of Print:"

Over this weekend and by noon today, 82,000 Americans signed a petition sponsored by Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) and two other members of the House Judiciary Committee, Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), calling on that committee and its chairman, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) to begin immediate hearings on Rep. Dennis Kucinich's bill to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney.
There was no report in the nation's corporate media on the three Judiciary Committee members' call (they are three senior members of the House Democratic Party), and no report on the remarkable public response to their petition.
As always when the story involves impeachable crimes by the Bush administration, the corporate media has been silent, devoting its news minutes and its column inches to meaningless stories about the twin horseraces for the presidential nomination, which themselves have blacked out any word of the main crowd-pleasers in those campaigns, Republican Ron Paul and Democrat Kucinich.
Impeachment is the elephant in the room. Everyone knows that this country is being run by a criminal syndicate that has rigged elections, hidden its knowledge of the 9-11 attacks, lied the country into war, plotted to out an important CIA undercover operative and then obstruct a criminal investigation into that act, subverted most of the articles of the bill of rights, emasculated the Congress and the Courts (which it has also shamelessly packed with shameless hacks), betrayed veterans, surrendered a major American metropolis to the devastation of a hurricane, plotted to enable the declaring or martial law, tortured and kidnapped people in violation of international law and obstructed efforts to deal with the unprecedented crisis of global warming for an unconscionable seven years.
But the media won't allow any talk of holding this administration to account. It's not just that we are being told that the only power and duty we as citizens have is to vote once every two or four years (after which we are supposed to shut up and consume), but that we are not to be told about, or to talk about these larger crimes that are occurring, and worsening, day by day.

It's past time to impeach. I don't think it's too late. I don't think it's too late next month or the month after. I do think it's required and that if we don't impeach Bully Boy we are sending a bad message historically that will forever say we agreed with it, we tolerated it and we accepted it. I didn't. If you didn't, call your reps. Don't write 'em, call 'em. And tell whoever answers the phone you want to see impeachment and that your Congress member needs to do the right thing and follow the Constitution they took an oath to uphold.

I just called Tony because we were talking about a column today and I was going to highlight it. It was Dave Zirin writing about the Barry Bonds and major league baseball story. And I can't find it. I asked Tony where we saw that and he said CounterPunch but I'm not seeing it. If Tony hadn't seen it too, I'd think I dreamed it. There it is. I was scrolling down the left of the CounterPunch page and trying to find it and couldn't. Because I wasn't on the home page, I'd already gone to Zirin's article (which means it's not listed on the links to the left when you're on it). This is from his "George Mitchell's Drugs of Choice:"

The Mitchell Report on steroids is shaking the baseball world from cap to cleats. It names 86 players, and calls for a vast reformation of what is being called "the steroid era" in Major League Baseball. The 20-month, $20 million investigation has been accepted as gospel by the hoi polloi. Yet having slogged through the 400-page dirge, it's difficult to not agree with ESPN's Jayson Stark that the report contains "way too many instances of name- dropping ... with a blank check here or an address-book listing there, but no true corroboration anywhere." And yet this hearsay is being accepted as fact because of the reputation of the man behind the report: former Sen. George Mitchell.
As a fawning press corps mentions at every turn, this is an individual beyond reproach: the former Senate majority leader, former federal judge and "the man who brokered the Northern Ireland peace deal." Mitchell played to the hilt the role of "wise man" upon announcing his findings last Thursday, speaking with the gravity of an Anglican minister.
But before we collectively sanctify his findings as holy writ, perhaps we should also consider the man behind it. When not "saving baseball," Mitchell works as a D.C. lobbyist carrying water for Big Tobacco and other corporations that traffic in human misery. By shedding even a modest light on the company he keeps, a serious shadow is cast on not merely the messenger but the deeply flawed message.
Mitchell's sins are as lengthy as they are hidden. First, there is the senator's drug of choice: tobacco, a substance that has tagged more toes than any steroid. In 1997, Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times that his law firm Verner, Lipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand "earned more than $10 million in fees in 1997 from the five largest tobacco companies." The work has continued, with big tobacco paying top dollar to make sure they can survive the class-action lawsuit settlements that threaten to bankrupt their industry.

It's a really strong column and he's also pointing out who got called out and who got a pass. So check it out. Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Wednesday, December 19, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, sexual assault victims of American contractors tell their story, Steven D. Green finally gets a court date, Operation Happy Talk's effects are noticed and more.

Starting with war resistance. We're noting s3nn5 video online, whic is one of the PSAs in support of war resisters in Canada, entitled "Let them stay: US war resisters in Canada (2 of 3)" and we're focused on Ryan Johnson, Jeremy Hinzman and Clifford Cornell.

Ryan Johnson: The contract, when you go to sign your contract, it's about 30 pages long. And you go, 'Okay, I want to flip through this real quick.' And the sergeant that's helping you with your contract and stuff, they say, 'No, you don't have time to read it. I'll just tell you what each page basically says that you're -- or what the contract basically says. And he just goes, 'Well the contract basically says that you're going to be signed up for four years and after that, you have four years of call-back basically -- if there's a military action we can call you back. At the end of the contract, it says that everything in this contract that we have promised, as in the army, 'can be changed at any time without your notice. And, uh, it also states in there that everything I promised is non-negoitable so I have to serve my four years no matter what.

Jeremy Hinzman: I did break a contract. I signed up for four years, I didn't stay for four years. But a contract is two ways. It's two people agreeing to certain terms and conditions and the army didn't live up to it's to its terms and conditions. It-it's not defending the Constitution of the United States . . .

Ryan Johnson: Most units, just like mine, are saying they aren't going to accept any Conscientious Objector claims. You can apply but you won't be granted.

Clifford Cornell: My first sergeant who's my higher supervisor, he got up in front of a formation and basically told us there was like two guys who applied for [CO] status. He got up there and told us those two guys who applied for it and that he didn't want anyone else to apply for it because we was going to Iraq whether we liked it or not.

Ryan Johnson: There is I think when I left there was 15 other people that went AWOL from my unit alone So I mean if you look at how many units are deploying in any given time, if there's five or fifteen or twenty from that unit that go AWOL, that's a lot of people going AWOL. Being AWOL in the States, it's impossible to do and actually like have a real life. I mean you have a choice to going back to jail or living underground for the rest of your life. That's what choices you have unless you go to Canada. That's the only other options that I know of.

The Canadian Parliament has the power to let war resisters stay in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use. Both War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist are calling for actions from January 24-26.


There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).


Meanwhile IVAW is organizing a March 2008 DC event:

In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan


March 13th through 15th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation.

Turning to the US Senate. Yesterday, Senator Russ Feingold declared, "The issue I heard most about this year as I traveled around the state was anger over the President' war in Iraq and Congress' inability to end it. If those of us in Congree who want to end this war don't take every opportunity to push back against this administration, we will be just as responsible for keeping our troops in Iraq." The statement came on the day the issue of funding the illegal war rose again, "just days after the Senate authorized another $189 billion dollars in war funding," as Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted. Feingold proposed an amendment to the bill on funding (link has text and audio):

The amendment is one I have offered before and I will not hesitate, if I must, to offer again and again and again. I'd add the 17 cosponsors is the greatest number we've ever had for this amendment. It requires the President to begin safely redeploying U.S. troops from Iraq within 90 days of enactment, and requires redeployment to be completed within 9 months. At that point, with the bulk of our troops safely out of Iraq, funding for the war would be ended, with four narrow exceptions: providing security for U.S. government personnel and infrastructure; training the Iraqi Security Forces; providing training and equipment to U.S. servicemen and women to ensure their safety and security and conducting targeted operations, limited in duration and scope, against members of al Qaeda and other affiliated international terrorist organizations.
Some of my colleagues complain that we have spent too much time debating Iraq this year. They'd rather be talking about issues. Well, we have a lot of important priorities here, but nothing is more important to me or my constituents than ending this disastrous war. As I do every year, I held a townhall meeting in every county in Wisoncsin this year. That's 72 meetings, for those of you who aren't from the Badger state. I heard a lot from my constituents at these meetings about health care and education. But the number one issue I heard about was foreign affairs, particularly the war in Iraq. Let me tell you, they weren't asking why Congress is spending so much time on this issue. They weren't asking us to give the President more time for his so-called surge. Like Americans all across the country, they want an end to this war and they want to know what's stopping us.
The Senate needs to address the concerns and demands of our constitutents, who more than a year ago voted for a change in congressional leadership in large measure because of the debacle in Iraq. But we have yet to follow through and end this misguided war, before more Americans are injured and killed. And we are about to adjourn for the year and let the war drag on even longer.

As Goodman noted, none of the senators who are campaigning for the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential nomination were present for the vote. (Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and Barack Obama.) The vote was 24 in favor and 71 opposed with no Republican crossing over to vote in favor. Independent Bernie Sanders voted in favor of the Feingold amendment. Carl Levin, a Democrat, did not. Along with the four Democrats on the campaign trail who didn't vote, Dianne Feinstein also didn't vote. Levin proposed a toothless timetable (non-binding) which would not-demand or require troops out of Iraq in a year. CNN reports that 50 voted in favor and 45 against. Here's how the 'purpose' of the Levin amendment was worded: "To express the sense of Congress on the transition of the missions of United States Forces in Iraq to a more limited set of missions as specified by the President on September 13, 2007." Yes, it really was that weak. With both amendments stripped from the bill, the bill passed. "A critical victory," was how Manu Raju (The Hill) described it, for the White House when the vote was 70 in favor of funding and 25 against leading Raju to observes, "Ultimately, Democratic leaders declined to levy pressure on their caucus to block the latest round of unfettered Iraq money." Goodman noted it is "a $555 billion omnibus spending bill that includes another $70 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

What Feingold proposed was not "TROOPS HOME NOW!" and, in fact, isn't significantly different from much of what Clinton, Obama and John Edwards (not a senator anymore, he didn't miss the vote) have pushed at various times (especially Obama and Clinton). Levin's was just a joke. He explained to the Senate that "our amendment expresses the sense of the Congress that we should have a goal for the removal of most of our forces in a reasonable time mainly as a way of telling the Iraqi leaders they must accept responsibility for their own future. Our amendment expresses the sense of the Congress. It is not legally binding, but it puts us on record, and it sends a message. It says it is the sense of" blah, blah, blah, nonsense. It didn't pass. It wouldn't have done a damn thing if it had. He wasted everyone's time with something that didn't take a stand (the amendment itself did not take a stand, I'm not referring to the vote) and something that, in his own words, was "not legally binding" because he wanted to be "on record". He's on record now. As someone who did not vote for Feingold's amendment (which would not have ended the illegal war) and as someone who is so foolish that he grandstands in the Senate with a non-proposal.

Moving over to the US House of Representatives. Today the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security held a hearing on the sexual assaults of Jamie Lee Jones and Tracy Barker while working in Iraq. Barker [PDF format warning] submitted a statement to the committee where she noted that "under the direct supervision of Crystal Daniels and Byron Marcee, I was exposed to physical threats, verabl abuse, and sexually explicit conversations on a daily basis" and "[n]othing was done to resolve the sexually hostile work environment or investigate the complaints" but "[d]espite the promise of confidentiality under the HDRP" ", Kara Hall, a human resources supervisor received several of my complaints and forwarded them to Marcee and Daniels. As a result, Daniels and Marcee retaliated against me by escalating the abusive behavior and screaming at me for filing the formal complaints with human resources. After filing yet another complaint, Wesley Lane, a human resources supervisor, called me in to her office and informed that Daniels and Marcee had filed a report complaining of my job performance. While in Hall's office, I was not permitted to leave or call anyone. Lane followed me into the bathroom and watched me as I urinated. When I asked her why she was doing this she said it was to keep me from calling Houston again, or anyone else, to report the abuse. Hall then instructed me to return to my living container and remain there for three days, I was not permitted to speak with anyone, and if I was seen outside, I would be fired." Iraq or not, US corporations operate under US laws. And what Barker's describing are serious violations. She was moved to the Basra compound where "I was assigned to a shared office space with Sherman Richardson. Richardson had hung pictures of prostitutes and animals having sex with one other on his office walls and he often talked about how he took his Rest and Relaxtion time in Thailand where he would hire prostitutes. Other male employees would visit Richardson in the office to seek information on how to obtain a prostitute while on R&R." Let's be clear that this is paid for with US tax dollars. The work environment that wouldn't be allowed in the US (and shouldn't have been allowed in Iraq) was paid for with US tax dollars. Basra Camp contained no HR personnel and she took her complaints to the camp manager Craig Grabien who 'dealt' with them apparently by sexually harassing Barker "on a daily basis by insisting that I sleep with him because he was camp manager and he could provide benefits in exchange for sexual favors." Complaining to the hotline did not good and, in fact, only caused Grabien to increase his sexual harassment. Barker explains the physical assualt by an employee (still an employee) of the US State Department: "On June 23, 2005, I accompanied U.S. Department of State employee, Ali Mokhtare, to his living quarters to complete a work order for an alleged faulty air conditioner and to discuss employment opportunities within the U.S. State Dept. Once we arrived, Mokhtare said the air conditioner was working fine. I immediately felt uncomfortable expressed that I was going to leave. Mokhtare said he wanted to explain the war to me and a story about a 'Filipino woman.' As Mokhtare began to talk about the war, he poured two drinks of Jack Daniels and Coke and offered me one. I declined but eventually took the drink in my hand anyway. Mokhtare then began to talk about a Filipino woman in Saudi Arabia who was repeatedly raped by a prince, and although she reported it to the police, no one believed her and the prince continued to rape her. Finally, the woman became so distraught she committed suicide by jumping out of a window. In the midst of telling this story, Mokhtare grabbed my breasts and tried to kiss me on the mouth. I screamed 'No!' and escaped Mokhtare's hold and began to run toward the door. Mokhtare grabbed hold of me again, put his hands around my throat and tried to force his lips on my mouth and against the back of my hand; I pushed him away, escaped his hold, and ran from the living quarters. Mokhtare followed after me screaming in Arabic as I ran in the direction of my living quaters." Barker immediately reported the assualt and was told, by Grabien, that the State Dept's Diplomatic Security would investigate. Barker turned over a statement to them and asked for protection but was told by Grabien and the State Dept's Brian Hathaway "to just avoid Mokhtara." Barker explains that when Mokhtare was interviewed, he initally refused to talk but opened up in a second interview with the State Dept's Diplomatic Security: "During the interview, Mokhtare admitted to the agents he inappropriately grabbed my breast and attempted to kiss me. He also admitted to telling me the story of a Filipino woman who was raped by a prince in Saudi Arabia. Mokhtare's story was exactly as I had explaiend to agent Hathaway, he even goes so far as to admit his actions were 'inappropriate' and he 'made a mistake'." He committed assault and he damn well knew better. Barker continues: "According to the agents notes, when they confronted him about an inconsistent statement he made regarding his alcohol consumption he became agitated and angry." Now pay attention because as bad as it all is it just continues. As you pay attention remember that woman, Condi Rice, heads the State Dept. Barker explains that she brought her clothes, as ordered, worn the night of the attack (slacks, a shirt and a vest) so that Hathaway could photograph them and then Grabien stated she had to wear the outfit "the following day . . . so that Hathaway could determine whether it was sexually provocative to men." What the hell kind of a department is Condi Rice mis-running? That's Tracy Barker. Videos of the hearing are here.

Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by employees of Halliburton/KRB and then held in a container to keep her from talking. "I went to support Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq on July 25, 2005. Upon arrival at Camp Hope, I was assigned to an all male barrack." Though she complained, nothing was done, she was verbally harassed. On her fourth day, she was offered, by fellow employees, drinks and one told her not to worry "I saved all my Ruffies for Dubai." Jones, "I thought he was joking and felt safe with my co-workers." She was drugged, she was gang-raped. She complained to KBR and a rape kit was taken. The doctor "confirmed that I had been penetrated both vaginally and anally and that I was, quote: 'quite torn up down there'. She indicated that based upon the damages to my genitalia, it was apparent that I had been raped." Jones had to pause there before continuing, "The KBR security then took me to a trailer and locked me in a room with two armed guards outside my door. I was imprisoned in the trailer for approximately a day. One of the guards finally had mercy and let me use a phone. I called my dad who contacted Congressman Ted Poe who took actions to get me out of the country. I believe he saved my life. I was later interviewed by Halliburton-KBR supervisors and it was made clear to me that I had essentially two choices: '(1) Stay and get over it or (2) Stay with no guarantee of a job in Iraq or Houston.' Because of the severity of my injuries, I elected to go home despite the obvious threat of being fired." In the US, Jones sought treatment, physical and mental, and Halliburton required her to see a doctor whose first question was: "Are you going to sue Halliburton?" Jones explains that when asked that question, she and her mother walked out of the office. In May 2007, the State Department phones to say that there was no rape kit or photographs. When Jones insisted the kit and photos existed, a few things turned up with most of it missing. Jones explains, "I have had reconstructive surgery on my breasts and pectoral muscles due to disfigurement caused by the brutal attack. I am still waiting for a follow up surgery because I am still not back to normal." Jones noted that "there has been no prosecution after two and a half years." Nor did the State Department employee who assaulted Barker get fired. The question goes to Condi Rice who appears either totally ignorant of what's going on in her department or just doesn't care. The Justice Department's response? While the State Dept apparently gives away money with no supervious and isn't concerned about incidents that they are aware of, the Justice Dept is supposed to prosecute assaults. What do they say? They refused to attend the hearings. We're neither quoting from or linking to the nonsense that Brian A. Benczkowski (Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General) sent (via letter) to the committee. Rep John Conyers is the chair of the House Judiciary Committee. He asked, "Does anyone in this room feel it is acceptable for an American citizen like Ms. Jones to be drugged, raped and falsely imprisoned? Does anyone think it is appropriate that almost 2 1/2 years after the incident, there has not been a single prosecution in the case? Does anybody believe it is appropriate that the DOJ victims' rights ombudsman summarily rejected Ms. Jones complaint 6 months ago, and she was not even seen by a federal prosecutor until October? This is no small matter given that there are some 180,00 civilian contractor employees in Iraq, including more than 21,000 Americans, plus additional security contractor employees. And there are other troubling reports of similar sexual assaults against contractor employees." DoJ is clearly not doing their job but, repeating, Rice's department was over the contractors and it's time Rice faced some serious questions about exactly what she sees as women's 'role' in the combat zone because by doing nothing (the two incidents took place on her watch, no doubt many took place on Colin Powell's as well) she sends a message that these assaults are tolerated.

Anna Driver (Reuters) notes Rep Ted Poe stated that, "The individuals who assaulted Jamie must be rounded up and tried. Nonfeasance by civilian contracting companies cannot be tolerated." Driver also notes that Conyers and Hillary Clinton "have called for action".

Staying with sexual violence. March 12, 2006, US soldiers carried out a criminal conspiracy to gang-rape and murder Abeer Qassim Hamza and to murder her parents, Qassim Hamza Raheem and Fakhriya Taha Muhsasen, and her five-year-old sister Hadeel Qassim Hamza. The conspiracy included blaming the War Crimes on 'insurgent.' Jane Fonda has noted (here for video, here for text):

Abeer was a 14-old-girl, living with her family about 50 miles south of Baghdad, trying to grow up as best she could in a country ravaged by violence and war.Until March 12, 2006, when her life was cruelly cut short. On that night, five American soldiers, dressed all in black, allegedly burst into the home where Abeer lived with her family.After spending the evening drinking whiskey mixed with energy drinks and playing cards, the soldiers must have decided to execute the crime they allegedly had been planning for weeks. According to the charges, the men took turns raping 14-year-old Abeer before shooting her. In the next room, her mother, her father, and her five-year-old sister were executed. When the men were done, they drenched the bodies in kerosene and set them on fire.Then, the prosecutors say, they went back to base and grilled up some chicken wings for dinner. It was months before this crime came to light.
.
Robin Morgan has noted, "Abeer means 'fragance of flowers.' She was 14 years old. According to a statement by one of the accused, the soldiers first noticed her at a checkpoint. On March 12, after playing cards while slugging whisky, they canged into civvies and burst into Abeer's home. They killed her mother, father and five-year-old sister and 'took turns' raping Abeer. Finally, according to the statement, they murdered her, drenched the bodies with kerosene, and set them on fire. Then the GIs grilled chicken wings." In the Article 32 hearing in August 2006, Captain Alex Pickands noted of the War Crimes of those then still serving in the military, whose defense tried to say life is hard in Iraq and boring and golly gee, gotta blow off some steam,: "Murder, not war. Rape, not war. That's what we're here talking about today. Not all that business about cold food, checkpoints, personnel assignments. Cold food didn't kill that family. Personnel assignments didn't rape and murder that 14-year-old little girl." Ryan Lenz (AP) notes that four soldiers have been convicted "in one of the war's worst atrocities" and that Steven D. Green, who was not part of the US military when the crimes became known having already discharged out, is now scheduled to be tried on "April 13, 2009, in Paducah, Ky." Lenz notes how long this has dragged on and it has. The US government issued their press release on the arrest of Green July 3, 2006. (Lenz report is also here.)

In some of today's reported violence . . . Well, only one organization really worked on that today. Want to guess which one?

Bombings?

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing that claimed the life of 1 police officer and left three more wounded.

Shootings?

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a gun battle that left three people not engaged in the battle injured.

Corpses?

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 corpse discovered in Baghdad.



Meanwhile, the Center for Constitutional Rights is representing over 250 Iraqi "torture victims". Attorney Susan Burke explained to Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) today:

Well, this is actually a continuation of a lawsuit that we previously filed back in June of 2004. We had brought it as a class action after the leaking of the Taguba Report and after we had been approached by some of the victims of the Abu Ghraib torture.
And one thing I would point out is that this--CACI's conduct in this instance--CACI employees were directly involved in torturing prisoners. This is information that's known. It's information that is known to the Department of Justice. Yet, there have not been any criminal prosecutions. So when you think about the passage of time here, you have to ask: why have there been no criminal prosecutions? It's very troubling, and it's very concerning that our civil action is the only current mechanism for accountability for the private participation in the Abu Ghraib scandal. The other comment I would make is that there's a perception that it was just the Abu Ghraib scandal and that that's the only place where the torture occurred. You know, sadly, that's just not true. The same type of conduct was happening elsewhere. People were being mistreated in other facilities. And again, CACI was not in all of the facilities, but they were in a substantial number, and their employees participated.

Burke was also on to discuss with Goodman the lawsuit against the mercenary company Blackwater:

AMY GOODMAN: Explain this latest suit.
SUSAN BURKE: This is a lawsuit on behalf of the family of Ali Abbas [phon.]. This gentleman was a rug merchant, and he was gunned down for absolutely no reason, leaving behind a twenty-day-old baby daughter and family. It is again another instance in which Blackwater shooters, you know, shot first, asked questions later.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain exactly what you understand transpired on September 9.
SUSAN BURKE: What happened is that Blackwater was driving through an area and began to engage in fire. This particular gentleman was inside his rug store. He had just put his fifteen-year-old younger brother in the cab to go home. Hearing the shooting outside, he walked outside, concerned about his younger brother, because he heard the shots. So he walks out of the rug store and gets shot and killed.
AMY GOODMAN: And how did you learn about this?
SUSAN BURKE: We learned about this from the family members. What happened is, as you know, we have--we represent a fair number of Iraqis in a separate suit, so we do have offices over in Baghdad. We were approached by the family of this victim to try to bring some form of accountability to Blackwater.

On the September 16th slaughter, Democracy Now!, in a broadcast exclusive, also broadcast of footage of one witness being interviewed:

ALI KHALAF SALMAN: [translated] OK, he said: They stopped in a semicircle.

SUSAN BURKE: They…

ALI KHALAF SALMAN: [translated] The cars. One was right here, and one here, one here, one here, in a semicircle.
SUSAN BURKE: So all four were in the actual round part of the square?

ALI KHALAF SALMAN: [translated] Yes, yes. OK, he said: The man in the third car started firing his gun towards this direction, the Yarmouk direction, and he fired three to four shots randomly.
SUSAN BURKE: What did that man look like?
ALI KHALAF SALMAN: [translated] He was big, big mustache.
SUSAN BURKE: Mustache. Strong.

ALI KHALAF SALMAN: [translated] He was white. He said: Actually, he was facing the convoy. When he started shooting, I turned my back to see if there are anybody moved from the traffic towards the--he was trying to make sure that nobody was moving, actually.

SUSAN BURKE: So he turned to see if a movement had provoked the shooting?

ALI KHALAF SALMAN: [translated] Yes, exactly.

SUSAN BURKE: OK.

ALI KHALAF SALMAN: [translated] As you just said, he thought that he was shooting above the car level, but when he turned his face towards traffic, he heard this woman crying, "My son! My son!" And then he ran into that direction, and he saw her son, who was a medical student. He was all covered in blood. He said he went--when he heard the woman crying, he went towards that direction, and he tried to help the medical student who was covered in blood, help him out of the car. But the mother inside was holding tight to her son. And he raised his hand to stop--
SUSAN BURKE: Stop the shooting.

ALI KHALAF SALMAN: [translated] Stop the shooting. He was telling them, "Don't shoot, please." He said, while he raised his hand and asking them not to shoot, this time the man in the fourth car shot the mother dead. A machine gun. He said, the car was number four in line. And then, when the person in car number four, a security man, started shooting, he shot the mother dead. And the cars in front of this car, the civilian cars, actually, they spread around to the sides. I think they were scared.
And he said the doctor's car was an automatic car. Because he died behind the wheel, the car started moving by itself, because it was an automatic car, towards the square. And at this moment, they started shooting the car with big machine guns, and the car exploded.
Finally, Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism notes the effects of Operation Happy Talk. As Iraq has fallen off the radar, surprise, surprise, more people think the illegal war is going well. PEW's summary of the findings:For years, public views of the war in Iraq were increasingly negative and seemingly unlikely to change direction. But as the troop surge resulted in lower levels of violence in Iraq, public perceptions of the war improved markedly. In November, 48% of Americans said things were going very or fairly well in Iraq, up 18 points from February. However, improved public impressions of the Iraq did nothing to lift war support: 54% favored bringing the troops home as soon as possible, a proportion largely unchanged from earlier in the year.
The November 28th "Iraq snapshot" addressed the Project for Excellence in Journalism's [PDF format warning] "Journalists in Iraq: A survey of reporters on the front lines" and noted:In other findings, 62 percent say that their "editors back home" have lost interest in reports of day-to-day violence (no kidding) and the only significant increases have been in reports on contractors (79%) and "U.S. military strategy" (67%). The respondents rated the "Impact on Iraqi civilians" as the most under reported (40%) while the respondents rated "U.S. Military strategy" as the most over reported (29%).When the press loses interest (and when reporters internatlize the tastes of their bosses), reality doesn't stand much of a chance. While the violence didn't disappear, while things are not 'better' and even the myth of the Great Return has fallen apart, how are most Americans supposed to know that when the bulk of All Things Media Big and Small won't cover Iraq?










jeremy hinzman




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