"Look at MoveOn.org, it's become an arm of the Obama campaign," Chris Hedges said on today on WBAI's Law and Disorder and Michael Ratner agreed and noted how embarrassing the e-mails from MoveOn had become and how he couldn't believe those were on left positions because none of their stances were stances he would take. Hedges also got in a reply to Tom Hayden's Pathetic Democratics of America, thank goodness. Tom Hayden went around trashing Chris Hedges all through 2008 thinking it would intimidate Hedges into saying, "Forget Ralph, I'm voting for Barry O!" Hedges never did.
So Hedges talked about how he supported Ralph and how these people who keep compromising what they believe in aren't accomplishing anything. Agreed.
Hedges was talking about "Brand Obama" and how he always knew Barry was lying about Iraq but people couldn't claim they were surprised by Barry's war on Afghanistan because that was lined out by Barry over and over. He talked about how Barry was marketed and people 'identified' with the image and thought, "He's just like me!" And of course Barry wasn't.
I mentioned Michael Ratner again and he spoke the most (or I registered his comments the most in the broadcast -- it might be the latter). But Michael Smith also had some important remarks to make and that was especially true at the start of the program when he and M. Ratner were talking about Barack's cavings.
But Chris talked about standing with Ralph and how Ralph had always stood for what was important. Which I agree with. (This community endorsed Ralph. Ava and C.I. didn't endorse anyone. They noted that they would be voting for Ralph or Cynthia but have never said who. They covered Ralph at Third and C.I. included Ralph in snapshot after snapshot.)
And Chris Hedges can talk like he does because he talked that talk when it mattered.
Jeremy Scahill -- C.I. covers some of his interview in the snapshot -- was also on the program and he really can't talk like that because he did advance Barack, he did cover for Barack. He can claim otherwise but there were his statements at Winter Soldier to Real News and there was the whole cover for Barack on Blackwater but find a way to rip Hillary apart for doing what he (Jeremy) said he wanted. Cover for Barry for refusing to pull mercenaries but when Hillary supports your cause, trash her. That's what Jeremy did.
And there's more and C.I. could walk you all the way through it but I'll just note those two things myself and note how Jeremy needs to stop trying to trick people.
Now he has been telling the truth since the inauguration. I will give him that and I will even applaud him for that. But to act like he's been there all along?
I've been there all along. C.I. and Elaine have been there all along. In fact, C.I. and Elaine have been explaining he wasn't anti-war FOREVER. Long before he declared he was president. They have written -- over and over -- about how they went to the pricey fundraiser for Barry's Senate run and were intending to max out with the donations only to get face to face with the War Hawk and have him tell Elaine that the US couldn't leave Iraq because they were over there now. Elaine's written over and over about how shocked she was to hear this from the 'anti-war' senator and so shocked she was speechless but how C.I. immediately confirmed that Barry was saying what he was saying: That the US couldn't withdraw and that the withdrawal option ended after the war started. At which point, they had choice words and got the hell out of there without donating a dime to the War Hawk.
Jeremy talked about how he's not invited on as many shows and his work doesn't pop up in as many places because of telling the truth. That's true and I'd be sorry for him except C.I. went from 145 links according to Technorati to 19 for telling the truth abotu Barry.
If others had done what C.I. was doing, we might have Ralph or Cynthia in the White House. And it's people like C.I. who take on Barry every damn day.
And those are the ones who created the space in which Jeremy exists now. The ones who broke down the barriers and called it like it was.
Chris Hedges did that. I applaud him. And I'll never forget when C.I. called each of us one by one before Chris endorsed Ralph. C.I. explained that we could do whatever we wanted to but Chris was about to endorse Ralph and because of that C.I. wasn't going to call Chris out on anything. C.I. explained how Chris was going to be attacked (and boy was he!) and that what he was doing was brave and "I just don't feel right, even if he does something awful, calling him out as a result." We weren't asked to hold back but we all agreed that we would.
Because that was brave. And Chris Hedges showed a lot of bravery with that. And he showed a lot of bravery telling the truth about Barack. (So did John Pilger, to name another.)
Jeremy's doing some great work now and I will give him credit for it but I will not allow history to be rewritten. Sorry.
Jeremy noted that MSNBC is nothing but "Blue State Fox" ("except for a few programs") and I agree with that only I don't add in "except for a few programs." I say it's the whole damn network once it drops news and goes into "opinion" in the evenings.
And other than his 2008 behaviors, I will give Jeremy some serious credit. But I won't allow history to be rewritten.
Okay, now on to Third. Along with Dallas, the following worked on the latest edition:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ
and Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends.
And Isaiah. He worked on it too. And here's what we came up with.
Truest statement of the week -- Drew Barrymore. I'm glad she got it. And I really love the illustration that Kat and Betty's kids did.
A note to our readers -- Jim breaks down the edition and does a 'coming attractions' teaser at the end. :D
Editorial: In essence, we are terrorists -- C.I. wants to go in and link to the NYT article in the illustration. We wrote the editorial and a painting Kat did was going to be the illustration but there wasn't time for it to dry so C.I. grabbed the NYT article and they scanned the headline and a paragraph for the illustration. But the article's not mentioned in the editorial (because that wasn't the planned illustration). I really love this editorial.
TV: The Goode Family's Bad Misfortune -- And I love this commentary by Ava and C.I. They praise Mike Judge's new show and they take on the Idiot Bellafante at the New York Times and they just do a really good and funny job.
Worst Dolls -- This was a short feature we worked on and Jim didn't work on it. He didn't claim he did. But I need to clear up something. Betty's middle son woke up and came through where they were working (I heard him on the phone) and he said, "What about those dolls? Those dolls were weird." And that's how we got this feature. Jim's right that Jess took the picture but if Betty's son hadn't woken up (bad dream), we wouldn't have had this short feature. So credit to Betty's middle child. Middle child. I said "middle son." Middle child. Betty's daughter is the youngest. Betty only has two sons.
Reaction to the denial of marriage equality -- This is Drew on FSRN transcript. We thought it would be truest but we were looking for a short feature and Dona said let's transcribe the segment.
Roundtable -- This is what Jim was working on while short features were being done. This is him, Ann (Cedric's wife), Betty, Elaine and C.I. addressing a number of issues.
Winter Soldier Southwest -- Isaiah and Kat did the illustration that go with the remarks. Check out the illustrations because I really think they're great.
Worst Web Site ABC.go.com (Ava and C.I.) -- Ava and C.I. knocked this off quickly. I couldn't believe it. They'd done their TV commentary and Jim asked them for another one and Ty told them three topics in the e-mails that readers were complaining about. They chose this one and watched ABC online and had this article in about 30 minutes.
Worst scene stealer of the 20th century -- Dona came up with the idea for this short feature. It is really weird to realize a 1942 movie had this going on in it. :D
The digital switch -- This was a longer feature and it's just answering readers' questions about the digital switch due June 12th.
Adam Kokesh -- Adam's video. He's exploring whether or not to run for Congress and there will be a money bomb on July 4th.
Racist in the White House -- Robert Gibbs. I couldn't think of his name! I blanked.
Flipper commits suicide -- Short feature and Jess came up with this one.
Highlights -- Kat, Wally, Betty, Cedric, Rebecca, Marcia, Stan and I worked on this. As Jim points out in his note, Ruth's on vacation. She didn't work on it. No, she didn't. But she usually does and we left her in the credits so nah-nah-nah. :D I miss Ruth a lot by the way. I like Ruth a lot. I respect her and I really love her. But I didn't realize I was going to miss her like I'm doing. I'll hear something on the radio and think, "Oh, I need to tell Ruth . . ." and then stop because I remember she's in Japan.
Okay, check out my mother's "Noting one of the fallen in the Kitchen" and here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Monday, June 1, 2009. Chaos and violence continue, Iraq's Health Ministry issues an undercount and various outlets run with it, May proves to be the deadliest month for US service members in Iraq, Barack continues torture, Iraqi gays under assault finally get some attention from Pacifica, and more.
We're going to start with an exchange broadcast today on KPFK's Connect the Dots with Lila Garrett between Garrett and LA City Council member Bill Rosendahl and the topic was marriage equality:
Bill Rosendahl: . . . we're not equal in America today. We're not equal anywhere on the earth. In fact, I put a motion in last week on the council about the outrage in going on Iraq right now. While we have 130,000 troops there, spending billions of dollars, killing a lot of local people, that gay people are being round up and murdered. Over 600 have been documented and we're there watching it happen. And it's just outrageous and our president should get up and show some real leadership and, frankly, say, "Look, we're in Iraq to create freedom there and democracy and gay people are not going to be any more murdered just because they're gay." And that's what's going on -- tortured and murdered. And so, we suffer as gay people all over the planet. We have a better life here in American and in the west than a lot of gay people have in other parts of the planet. They're literally killed for their realities but here in the States we still don't have our basic civil rights. I mean, when is our president going to get up and talk about Don't Ask, Don't Tell? Our people are in the military. They're thrown out of the military. He promised us that, I'm expecting real leadership out of him. And I must say I am disappointed. He has not taken the leadership seriously enough. I don't like what he's doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I don't like what he's continuing to do in Iraq. He better not get to boisterous about North Korea and Iran. You know, he should focus on our infrastructure, our education and bring peace to the planet, not more imperial war.
Lila Garrett: Wait a minute. 600 gay people were murdered? By whom?
Bill Rosendahl: 600 gay people in Iraq were murdered by --
Lila Garrett: By?
Bill Rosendahl: -- family and by folks within the militia who see gay people out in the street being more public. They round us up and then they kill us. And then there's an incredible torture mechanism that they do which I don't really want to say on the air but it's just disgusting how they end up putting us to death and to know about it from international gay and lesbian groups and to know our government knows it's going on and has said nothing about it, to me, is outrageous and I want our president to show some real leadership on this.
Lila Garrett: Yeah, but I really have to know, these 600 murdered people, you say by families and militia, are you talking about the American militia
Bill Rosendahl: No. No, no, no. No, I'm talking about several, what I consider, perversions of the Koran. There are people who believe in Mohammad that also believe to be gay is wrong and that 'honor' murders can take place. So some of it is literally families killing their own. And others are groups that are just part of the community who single out young gay men because they figure they are gay and kill them. They literally kill us.
Lila Garrett: Are you saying, that this is happening in Iraq or is happening in Iran?
Bill Rosendahl: This is happening in Iraq as we're talking right now, Lila.
Lila Garrett: By Iraqis?
Bill Rosendahl: By Iraqis.
Lila Garrett: And the United States is not stopping it?
Bill Rosendahl: It is not stopping it.
Lila Garrett: This is unbelievable.
Bill Rosendahl: It is unbelievable. It's outrageous. It is a living hell for my folks over there.
Lila Garrett: I don't understand why this isn't the story in the United States.
Bill Rosendahl: Well because the American media is so perverted. They spend all this time about Miss America and all that at the same time this is going on over there. They spend more time on trivia here than they do on real stories. They spent some quality time on that young lady that was in Iran that was arrested as a spy who was a reporter. But this particular issue has gotten no press, mainstream press, it has gotten a lot of other press and there's a lot of e-mails that are circulated and the gay and lesbian international groups have documented it, have gone over there and are the ones who first brought it to my attention. And that's why I brought it to the attention of my colleagues on the City Council and we unanimously passed a resolution. In fact, my chief of staff Mike Bonahma was with the vice president of the United States the next day, Joe Biden, because he was one of the early Obama supporters, and mentioned it to him, handed him the resolution and as Biden left the room, he said, "I'll get back to you on it." So hopefully our president will show real leadership and show an outrage to this.
Lila Garrett: Let's not hold our breath before Obama shows real leadership.
Bill Rosendahl: I know.
Lila Garrett: I want to get back to these 600 gay people that have been murdered. By the Iraqis -- by whom among the Iraqis? By the Sunnis?
Bill Rosendahl: No, no, no. I'm talking about family. I'm talking about just the militias and the insurgents in general. They consider this [being gay] wrong and a murderous act and they literally kill us. And when the numbers started to become hundreds -- and now it's over 600 documented -- that's when it was brought to my attention. In fact, one of the international leaders of the gay group read a letter that was sent to him by a 25-year-old gay man who was in that threatened position. So we're trying to raise the awareness out there, the public awareness, and you're helping with that, Lila, by putting it on your show.
As noted May 15th, "Ruben Vives (Los Angeles Times) reports that the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to approve Council Rep Bill Rosendahl's 'resolution calling for federal legislation urging the Iraqi government to prevent the persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people'." Lila noted that the segment was taped ahead of time so, for perspective, the resolution passed May 15th. This year, the targeting's been noted here first in more on the issue, you can see this snapshot, this entry and the roundtable Friday night ["Roundtable on Iraq," "Roundtabling Iraq," "the roundtable," "Iraq," "Iraq in the Kitchen," "Roundtable on Iraq," "Talking Iraq," "Iraq," "Talking Iraq roundtable" and "Iraq roundtable"] That's going back to the start of April and it is not true that the MSM has ignored it. They could do a lot more but they have covered it and where there has been no amplification is in Panhandle Media which appears to feel it's a 'niche' story to be left to the LGBT media. In April, Wisam Mohammed and Khalid al-Ansary (Reuters) and Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN), the Dallas Morning News, UPI and AFP reported on it. Michael Riley (Denver Post) covered the story and covered US House Rep Jared Polis' work on the issue (which included visiting Iraq), PDF format warning, click here for his letter to Patricia A. Butenis. Polis is quoted at his website stating, "The United States should not tolerate human rights violations of nay kind, especially by a government that Americans spend billions of taxpayer dollars each year supporting. Hopefully my trip and letters to US and Iraqi officials will help bring international attention and investigation to this terrible situation and bring an end to any such offenses." For the New York Times, Timothy Williams and Tareq Maher's "Iraq's Newly Open Gays Face Scorn and Murder" covered the topic. BBC News offered "Fears over Iraq gay killing spate." The Denver Post offered an editorial entitled "Killing of gay Iraqis shouldn't be ignored: We applaud Rep. Jared Polis for his efforts last week to shine the spotlight on the killings of homosexuals in Iraq," Nigel Morris offered "Iraqi leaders attacked over spate of homophobic murders" (Independent of London), the Telegraph of London covers the issue here. Neal Broverman (The Advocate), Jessica Green (UK's Pink News), and Doug Ireland
covered it (here's one report by Ireland at GayCityNews -- he's filed more than one report), AFP reported on it again when signs went up throughout Sadr City with statements such as "We will punish you, perverts" and "We will get you, puppies" (puppies is slang for gay men in Iraq) and Liz Sly (Los Angeles Times) reported on that as well. Chris Johnson offered "Polis seeks to aid Iraqis: Says gays 'fear for their life and limb' after fact-finding trip to Baghdad" (Washington Blade), Killian Melloy (The Edge -- this is the April 2nd story that contains the State Dept stating it's not happening -- the denial) and [PDF formart warning] the April 15th "Iraq Status Report" by the US State Dept notes the killings. Amnesty International weighed in as did the International Gay and lesiban Human Rights Campaign. Jim Muir (BBC News -- text and video) reported on the targeting and the attacks. UK Gay News covered it, last week ABC News offered Mazin Faiq's "Tortured and Killed in Iraq for Being Gay" Chicago Pride and UPI covered the latest deaths last week. And AFP and Jessica Green (UK's Pink News) covered the public statement from Moqtada al-Sadr about how they needed to be "eradicated" for "depravity" and he thinks they can be 'taught' not to be gay. As for the technique, Bill Rosendahl didn't want to discuss on air Doug Ireland (ZNet) reported on that in May:
As the murder campaign targeting Iraqi gays intensifies, a leading Arabic television network last week revealed the use of a horrifying new form of lethal torture against Iraqi gay men -- anti-gay Shiite death squads are sealing their anuses with a powerful glue, then inducing diarrhea, which leads to a painful and agonizing death. The use of this stomach-turning new torture was first reported by the Al Arabiya network, which is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates and was alerted to the story by a leading Iraqi feminist and human rights activist.Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), told Al Arabiya that the torture substance "is an Iranian-manufactured glue that, if applied to the skin, sticks to it and can only be removed by surgery. After they glue the anuses of homosexuals, they give them a drink that causes diarrhea. Since the anus is closed, the diarrhea causes death. Videos of this form of torture are being distributed on mobile telephones in Iraq." Al Arabiya said its reporter confirmed the use of this anal torture by "visiting the Baghdad morgue in Bab-al-Moazaam in central Baghdad, where Neman Mohsen, the medical examiner, confirmed they have the bodies of seven homosexuals in the morgue. He said, 'We were not able to identify the culprits, who dumped the bodies in front of the morgue and fled without being seen.'" A two-person team from Human Rights Watch (HRW) currently in Iraq to investigate persecution of LGBT people has also confirmed the use of this form of torture. In a widely-circulated email from Iraq, the head of HRW's LGBT desk, Scott Long, said he and his colleague had gathered evidence which confirms the Al Arabiya report and that HRW would make its own detailed report after the organization's two staffers return to the United States next week.
Over the weekend, Alsumaria reminded, "After the US administration agreed to publish photos of Iraqi detainees' torture in US prisons, US President Barack Obama reversed the decision and asked a federal appeals court to block the publication of images showing detainee abuse, citing concern it could incite violence in Iraq and Afghanistan." On the torture photos, Diane Bartz and Philip Barbara (Reuters) report that Antonio Taguba states he did not tell the Telegraph that he had seen the photos that Barack is refusing to release. Jeremy Scahill explains Taguba saw another set. The torture continues under Barack Obama as WBAI's Law and Disorder noted today when co-hosts Michael Ratner and Michael Smith spoke with Jeremey Scahill (Heidi Boghosian and Dahlia Hashad also co-host the program)
Jeremy Scahill: I think that one of the clearest pieces of evidence that we have that a prosecution, a criminal prosecution of those that authorized the torture, ordered the torture and carried it out would be the best preventative measure from this happening again would be is the fact that torture is continuing right now at Guantanamo under Barack Obama of course Michael Ratner has been at the forefront of litigating the illegality of Guantanamo and defending prisoners there -- I write about Michael in this article -- but the point here is that Obama on January 22nd issued an Executive Order saying that Guantanamo would be closed in a year futhermore he said that the United States will respect the Geneva Conventions particularly Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions that would prohibit the abuse of prisoners in US custody. What we know now is that not only are there -- is there systematic torture continuing to happen at Guantanamo but that Obama -- and this is what my article is about -- is continuing to allow the use of a notorious military police unit at Guantanamo known as the Immediate Reaction Force -- the IRF. This force is so notorius that lawyers representing Guantanamo detainees have created a new lexicon or language to describe the operations of this force. They say that they're IRF-ing prisoners or prisoners are being IRF-ed up by them. In short, this is a riot type squad that comes in with what Clive Stafford Smith describes as Darth Vader outfits. They come into a cell five men deep, they douse prisoners in chemicals. Each of the five thugs sent in there is assigned to a different body part of the prisoner -- the head, the right arm, the left arm, the right leg, the left leg -- and there job is to "subdue resitve or combative prisoners." What I found in my investigation is that this thug squad -- Michael, you've called them the Black Shirts of Guantanamo --
Michael Ratner: I've called them the Black Shirts of Guantanamo, Jeremy, taken from your original book, when I always made a distinction between US fascism and German because I said we don't have people on the street beating people up and you said, 'Oh no, Michael, we got Blackwater Black Shirts.' And these IRF guys, Immediate Reaction Force people, those guys are the Black Shirts of Guantanamo. There's no --
Jeremy Scahill: They're being used to punish people. This is not about stopping a prisoner from stabbing a guard, this is not about stopping a riot in a prison. What we found is that prisoners who take an extra styrofoam cup after a meal and keep it in their cell as some psychological form of comfort -- that they have some other possession in their cell -- they, the IRF teams, are called in and they beat them to a pulp. Among the tactics they use, they put prisoners' heads in toilets and then flush the toilet repeatedly. They did that to a British resident named Omar Deghayes who is one of the key in the Spanish investigation. They have smeared feces from another prisoner on the face of other prisoners. A man who is being represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights -- this was after Obama's inauguration -- was doused in chemicals, beaten and then had one of these IRF team members urinate on his head as part of the "displinary measures" taken. This force, from the lawyers I've talked to, is entirely illegal in terms of the actions it's taking under international law and under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
"This is still continuing under Obama and I think that's the point that's most important," says Scahill who ties the refusal to prosecute in with the continuation. Chris Hedges was also on the program. Mike may note that tonight. We'll link to Mike tomorrow if he does or note it here on our own. Hedges, Scahill, Sister Dianna Ortiz, Michael Ratner, Andy Zee and others (like Laura Flanders because, as Diane Keaton notes in Love & Death, you've got have some uglies in the mix) will take part June 3rd at seven p.m. in a discussion at New York Society for Ethical Culture. Meanwhile, Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "President Barack Obama reversed his decision to release detainee abuse photos from Iraq and Afghanistan after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki warned that Iraq would erupt into violence and that Iraqis would demand that U.S. troops withdraw from Iraq a year earlier than planned, two U.S. military officers, a senior defense official and a State Department official have told McClatchy." It's really been cute and hilarious to watch the ever changing story from the US government. Barack was forced to change his mind . . . by Gen David Petraeus and Gen Ray Odierno! Now Barack was forced to change his mind by Nouri! Reality, Barack controls his own damn mind. He wasn't tricked. He wasn't forced. He made the decision. It's on him. Just like he's made the decision to continue torture. In the Wall St. Journal today, George McGovern offers "My Advice for Obama" which includes "order all U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan by Thanksgiving". Which he could do. If he wanted to. No one's 'tricking' Barry O, no one's twisting his arm. He's continuing the illegal wars because he wants to and he thinks he can get away with it. (And the Cult of St. Barack's refusals to call him out allows him to think the whole world will remain silent as he flaunts his own War Crimes.)
Turning to corruption in Iraq. Last Monday the Trade Minister resigned. An Iraqi correspondent for McClatchy observed:
Questioning the minister of trade was a real big and new event for Iraqis who used to see the corrupt officials always abroad. During the last two week, the story of corruption was the main story of all Iraqis. The corruption in the Iraqi governmental departments dominated the conversations of all Iraqis. Some Iraqis started giving suggestions and solutions about fighting corruption.
The Trade Minister was Abed Falah al-Sudani. And Saturday, Liz Sly (Los Angeles Times) reported on his arrest which required the plane he was leaving Iraq on turning around: "When the plane landed at Baghdad's airport, Abdul Falah Sudani, the country's trade minister until he was forced to resign last week, was promptly arrested. Sudani is charged with procuring substandard foodstuffs for Iraq's food-ration program, but the allegations against his ministry go beyond that. Omar Abdul Sattar, a member of the Iraqi parliament's anti-corruption committee, said the sums stolen could amount to "hundreds of millions of dollars."Sly notes that in 2006, the Electiricy Minister made it out of Iraq, from a jail cell in fact, and moved on to Chicago. Rather amazing when you consider how difficult it is and was for Iraqi refugees to make it to the US. BBC adds of today's arrest: "Officials said Abdul Falah Sudani had been on a flight to the United Arab Emirates which was asked to turn back to Baghdad so he could be arrested." Richard Spencer (Telegraph of London) quotes a passenger on the plane stating, "The captain told us we had to go back to Baghdad because of congestion at the destination airport." Nada Barkri (Washington Post) reported: "The arrest warrant accuses Sudani, a 62-year-old dual British-Iraqi national, of stealing public money and mismanaging the ministry by importing expired foods and employing his relatives, including two brothers." Sami Moubayed (Asia Times) notes al-Maliki's campaign against graft is doubtful and that there are 997 arrest warrantes on corruption charges still waiting for al-Maliki's signature despite al-Maliki's public claims to be stamping out corruption:Inspired by the new atmosphere in Iraq, an Iraqi blog, www.kitabat.com (which means "writings"), ran an article accusing one of Maliki's aides of corruption, calling on the prime minister to sack even his closest advisors if found to be guilty. The writer, Ali Hussein, was immediately sued by the prime minister, who demanded compensation of a staggering one billion Iraqi dinars (over US$800,000), claiming that nepotism charges brought against his aide-de-camp were untrue. It must be noted that the blog's creator, Iyad al-Zamili, who has been residing in Germany since 2003, was himself a former supporter of Maliki, most notably during the provincial elections of January 2009. The striking contrast between the story of the "Sudani three" and that of Maliki's aide, raises doubt about the prime minister's commitment to the anti-graft drive. One of the reasons why the prime minister is so furious is that the 62-year-old Sudani is a member of Maliki's own Da'wa Party. If Maliki was aware of Sudani's wrongdoings - but ignored them - then he is guilty. If he had no idea what was taking place, then he is equally guilty. This is the 10th time a ministerial seat has become vacant under Maliki, after members of the Iraqi Accordance Front and the Sadrist bloc stepped down in 2007. People are starting to wonder whether Maliki is heading a real cabinet, or a wobbly coalition where ministers resign - or fall - with no prior notice? The trade minister, after all, was originally brought down by parliament, which is headed by the new Sunni speaker Iyad Samarrai, and not by the prime minister.
Reuters released a story yesterday that's garbage and we were going to ignore it but it's being picked up elsewhere (Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, etc. -- and the Wall St. Journal has written their own unsigned 'report'). It asserts -- and remember this came out yesterday -- that civilian deaths in Iraq -- that undefined 'civilian' term -- fell to an all time low. They made that assertion before May was over, of course. They made that assertion while they were, in fact, reporting on Saturday deaths in a story posted after the lowest-deaths-ever! In other words, they published the story before May was over.They also didn't use their own figures. They used the Health Ministry's figures. Figures which have repeatedly turned out to be wrong -- so much so that those choosing to cite their figures today seem intent to take part in a lie. Once upon a time, when Nancy A. Youssef was in Iraq, McClatchy kept track of civilian deaths (the ones they were able to) and published a monthly number a few months after a month ended. Once upon a time. McClatchy hasn't publised an Iraq story in six days. But once upon a time, once upon a time, it used to. Maybe they'll do so again? In the meantime, 134 is the number of "civilians" killed in Iraq in May, alleges the Health Ministry. We're getting 226 deaths.
We'll walk through slowly. A word on who's counted. Suicide bombers are not counted in this total. They died but I seriously doubt they'd be considered "civilians" by the Ministry. Would Sahwa? They're not being brought into the government. What does that make them? We have counted all deaths except bombers and except for US civilians (2 US civilians were killed in the Green Zone in May, 2 US civilians were killed in Falluja in May) and US service members. Now here's the breakdown.
May 1st, 10 people reported dead (6 in Mosul bombing, 2 people shot dead in Tikrit, 2 in Mosul). May 2nd, 3 dead (killed in Kirkuk bombing). May 3rd, only wounded. May 4th, 14 dead (4 in Baghdad bombing, 4 in Baghdad grenade attack, 1 in Diyala bombing, 1 shot dead in Mosul, 1 Iraqi soldier shot dead, 3 corpses in Mosul). May 5th, 4 dead dead, (2 shot dead in Mosul, 1 shot dead in Baghdad, 1 corpse in Kirkuk). May 6th, 2 dead (2 dead in Mosul from roadside bombings). May 7th, 3 dead (1 12-year-old boy shot dead in Mosul as well as 2 fishermen shot dead on the day before but reported on May 7th). May 8th, only wounded. May 9 - 10th, 2 dead (1 shot dead in Basra, 1 shot dead in Mosul). May 11th, 6 dead (1 in Baghdad roadside bombing, 2 in a Kirkuk car bombing, 1 shot dead in Baghdad, 1 shot in Mosul, 1 corpse of a 5-year-old boy discovered in Baghdad). May 12th, 7 dead (6 in Kirkuk bombing, 1 corpse of a 13-year-old girl in Diyala Province). May 13th, 7 dead (1 Baghdad roadside bombing, 2 in a Mosul car bombing, 2 in a Ramadi roadside bombing, 1 shot dead in Mosul, 1 shot dead in Baghdad). May 14th, 6 dead (3 shot dead in Baquba, 3 shot dead in Kirkuk). May 15th, 1 dead (1 shot dead in Baghdad). May 16 - 17th, 20 dead (1 in Baghdad mortar attack, 4 in Baghdad roadside bombings, 1 in Mosul roadside bombing, 1 in Basra grenade attack, 3 in Baghdad roadside bombing, 1 in Mosul car bombing, 2 shot dead in Mosul, 1 shot dead in Jalawla, 1 corpse in Mosul, 1 near Samarra and 4 in Baquba). May 18th, 2 dead (1 in Kirkuk roadside bombing, 1 in Basra bombing). May 19th, 3 dead (2 dead in Taji roadside bombing, 1 killed in Mosul). May 20th, 2 dead (1 shot dead in Mosul, 1 corpse discovered in Mosul) plus 40 dead (one Baghdad bombing -- using Alsumaria's final figures) for total of 42. May 21st, 24 dead (2 dead in Baghdad bombing, 2 shot dead in Mosul, 12 dead in a Baghdad bombing, 8 dead in Kirkuk bombing). May 22nd, 4 dead (1 dead in Mosul roadside bombing and Reuters goes back to the 21st to add 1 dead in Mosul roadside bombing, 2 corpses in Mosul). May 23rd, 10 dead (2 dead in Diyala roadside bombing, 1 US citizen dead in Green Zone and we're not including that in the count, 4 dead in Mosul roadside bombing, 1 6-year-old shot dead in Mosul, 1 adult shot dead in Mosul, 2 corpses found in Salahuddin and -- not counted in our count -- 1 US civilian's corpse found in Green Zone). May 24th, 12 dead (8 dead in Mosul bombing, 3 shot dead in Mosul, 1 in Hilla). May 25th, 11 dead (6 corpses discovered in Baquba, 2 shot dead in Mosul, 2 people killed in Awisat, 1 infant killed in a grenade attack). May 26th, 5 dead (1 dead in Mosul bombing, 4 shot dead in Kirkuk). May 27th, 8 dead (4 dead in Abu Ghraib bombing, 3 shot dead in Mosul, dropping back to the 25th 1 dead in Mosul roadside bombing). May 28th, 3 dead (1 dead in Mosul roadside bombing, 1 shot dead in Diwainyah, 1 corpse discovered in Kirkuk). May 29th, 9 dead (8 dead in Baquba bombings, 1 corpse discovered in Telkeif). May 30th, 3 dead (2 in Baquba roadside bombing and 1 shot dead in Baquba). May 31st, 5 dead (1 corpse discovered in Kirkuk, Reuters drops back to the 30th to note 1 dead in Haswa bombing, 2 dead in Samarra roadside bombing and 1 dead in Iskandariya bombing). That adds up to at least 226 reported deaths.
There are probably more than 226 reported and we've probably missed a death on any of the days linked. The deaths are primarily reported by McClatchy and Reuters but there's also Alsumaria, DPA and the US military in the mix. Should McClatchy do a study, there numbers would be more precise.
So far ignoring the undercount, the BBC reports on what is known: US service members's deaths in the month of May. The total currently stands at 24 -- whether that number will climb or not is unknown. While today is June 1st, M-NF has a long, long history of letting end of the month deaths trickle out slowly. As it stands currently, that death toll is the highest since September 2008. Sunday the US military announced: "TIKRIT, Iraq – A U.S. Soldier died as a result of a non-combat related injury in Tikrit, Iraq, May 31. The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next-of-kin and release by the Department of Defense. The incident is under investigation." AP adds, "A second soldier, assigned to the 3rd Sustainment Command, died from injuries caused by a vehicle accident in Tallil, south of Baghdad, the statement said."
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Sahar Issa and Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) report a Baghdad bombing at a market which claimed 4 lives and left thirteen injured, a Baghdad roadside bombing which left three people injured, a Baquba suicide bombing in which 1 person died (besides the bomber) and three people were injured and a Mosul grenade attack which claimed 1 life (a boy) and left fifteen people wounded. Reuters notes a Mosul mortar attack which left two police officers injured.
Corpses?
Sahar Issa and Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) report 14 corpses discovered in Khan Beni Saad and 50 corpses discovered in Diyalal Province (discovered over the last two months) were buried today.
So you could say over 70 dead or, you could play like the Health Ministry and say "Maybe one death across Iraq today."
In other news, On the front page of the New York Times this morning, Joe Stumpe and Monica Davey's "Abortion Doctor Slain By Gunman In Kansas Church" about the assassination of Dr. George Tiller and notes:Mr. Obama issued a statement after Dr. Tiller's killing, saying, "However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence."To which any self-respecting abortion rights supporter should respond: Bullf**kings**t.The changeling is the problem. Barry O is the problem. He's the problem because he stands for nothing. He betrays the left and gets away with it. Proposition 8 WOULD NOT have passed in California without his support. He refused to call out the robocalls using his words, his own voice. Now a doctor's been assassinated and Barry wants to offer Pie In The Sky. How dare that Barry O state "however profound our differences . . ." It was a crime. It was murder. He's yet again watered down reality and, make no mistake, that is why the Republicans (including Arianna) flocked to him. They don't want to be Democrats. It's not socially acceptable to be Republicans. Barry O was the watered down, in name only, Democrat. The man who stood for nothing his entire life and played changeling throughout college and throughout his time in Chicago.Debra Sweet observes at World Can't Wait and CounterPunch:
What about the "leaders" of the Democratic Party who counsel us to find common ground with these fascists and religious fanatics? You have a president who invites an outspoken homophobe to give his inaugural prayer, citing "common ground" with this as somehow a step forward. You have a president who won't come out in favor of gay marriage, tacitly encouraging many of his supporters to vote FOR Proposition 8 in California. You have a president who bends over backwards to give legitimacy to the anti-abortion cause, to the honesty of their leaders' convictions.
If you watched the scene developing in May, weeks before Barack Obama's appearance at the Notre Dame commencement, as Randall Terry and hundreds of others were getting arrested on the campus, and working themselves into a frenzy -- all carefully covered by the national media -- and you saw Obama give a speech that didn't confront them for being wrong, you knew a murder like this would happen. The "pro-choice" movement, for its part, has surrendered its activism and resources almost completely to the Democratic Party and its "common ground" strategy.
This will inevitably get our abortion doctors killed, and drive others from practice.
Lastly, today on the second hour of NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, the one and only Valerie Harper was the guest -- the multiple Emmy award winning actress, Rhoda to many, and who is delivering an AMAZING performance as Tallulah Bankhead in Matthew Lombardo's play Looped which plays in DC at the Lincoln Theatre right now through June 28, 2009. Valerie demonstrated the humor, brains, memory, guts and much more she's always been known for. In terms of memory, several callers met her briefly over the years and were surprised to find -- such as the woman from Florida back in 70s who briefed her before Valerie faced reporters to explain why the Equal Rights Amendment was needed -- that Valerie didn't just say, "Oh, I remember you too," she actually did as she recalled what the people looked like, what they spoke of. As amazing as her memory is, her talent's even more amazing and those in the DC area should check her out in Looped, she's fantastic. Diane's show is archived and you can stream it for free. Rhoda fans should know Diane gets her to pick her favorite episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and explain why. Valerie also gives credit to all the writers on the show including one of TV's best sitcom writers, Treva Silverman.
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