Tuesday. Long day but a good one personally. For the world? Bully Boy lied again and again and again. You have to wonder how that looks elsewhere. How stupid do we look to the rest of the world? Yes, polls show we're hated. But do they also think we're as stupid as Bully Boy pretends we are? You sort of picture people around the world -- Hong Kong, Moscow, Sydney, Paris, etc. -- sitting in front of the TV and seeing Bully Boy's latest speech before clucking, "Those poor Americans, they just don't realize what a moron and liar he is." We do. We really do.
For more on the speech, see C.I.'s "More lies from the Bully Boy," Cedric's "Bully Boy wins the Liar! Liar! competition again" and Wally's "THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY CAN'T STOP LYING!"
-- joint-post.
If you missed it, John Conyers was on Democracy Now! pushing his latest agenda. Thinking we're all going to applaud him as The Last Honest Member of Congress. Those days are gone.
Goodman questioned him on impeachment and I'm tossing in some of that with my response:
AMY GOODMAN: Congressman Conyers, it was interesting to see you at this major rally in Newark on Saturday. About more than a thousand people were there. It was the largest demonstration against war and violence at home for decades in Newark. Now, you spoke at the rally. Interestingly, people were there who had been arrested in your office, the forty-five in July who had been arrested because they were calling for you to continue to back the call for impeachment of President Bush. What is your response?
REP. JOHN CONYERS: Well, my response is that we have several things to do in -- I begin this part of our conversation by indicating that I have nothing but the highest regard for Cindy Sheehan. But the question of how we orchestrate moving a congressional schedule forward of accomplishments -- we're pretty proud of what we've done in eight months after having no control over the agenda for twelve years.
What the hell has Congress done? NOT ONE DAMN THING. A minimum wage increase over intervals that is tied to the illegal war so it is blood money. And? Let's see, they were so eager to rush off on their vacation that they made Bully Boy's illegal spying. Like Stevie Wonder sings, you ain't done nothing.
CONYERS: We also are trying to make sure that we don't bring resolutions or hearings that would put the election in jeopardy. We could close down the Congress -- I have been in more impeachment hearings than anybody in the House or the Senate. And our legislative attempts to reverse so many things would come to a stop. And it is doubtful if we wouldn’t go into an election with not one, but at least two attempts to remove the top executive officers in the country, I don't think that that can happen.
Election. He beats around the bush (ha ha) but that's the real thing. He will not perform his duty because he's more concerned about the 2008 election than he is about defending the Constitution.
AMY GOODMAN: Congressman Conyers, on the issue of the warrantless wiretapping, on the one hand you've had the Democrats going after Gonzales fiercely for the Bush administration's secret warrantless domestic surveillance program, yet signing off on the recent bill that the Bush administration had pushed for for further warrantless wiretapping.
REP. JOHN CONYERS: Well, the leadership was, of course, against the bill, and the majority of Democrats voted against the bill. But we've got this consideration: we've got 233 Democrats; forty of them are Blue Dogs, that is, conservative Democrats that frequently vote Republican. And then we have another group that are new to the Congress in their first term elected from red state congressional districts, which they felt that they would not be able to come back, and we couldn't get them over. So we didn't have all of our Democrats. It was not a solid position. But the leadership, Pelosi and I and Reyes, the head of the Intelligence Committee, we pleaded with everybody to vote with us in caucus, and we weren’t able to persuade some of the new members, and we weren’t able to persuade some of the Blue Dogs.
Wah! Wah! Nancy Pelosi wanted to be Speaker of the House. It's her job to keep the Dems in the House in line. That might mean rewards, that might mean punishment. If she's not able to do her damn job, she's useless.
As for Reyes? "Blue Dog" is the fun term this election cycle. Remember DINO? Reyes is DLC. He's also really a Blue Dog but he's the dumbest of them and they put their weight behind Jane Harman (mother of all Blue Dogs) so people forget he's a creepy little centrist.
AMY GOODMAN: Why would impeachment hearings put the election in jeopardy?
REP. JOHN CONYERS: Well, because unless I've got the Constitution in one hand and a calculator in the other, so I've got any kind of hearings on removing both the President and the Vice President -- or putting it in reverse, remove the Vice President and then the President -- within the months remaining, would require 218 votes in the House of Representatives. That's my calculator giving me this information.
I like Dennis Kucinich but I don't believe Dick Cheney has to be removed first. Bully Boy is at the top, he is responsible. Whether you believe he just does what Dick tells him or not, he's responsible. He needs to be removed. This idea that Dick Cheney has to be removed is nonsense and ___. Let's say Congress could get impeachment on track and get Bully Boy out of office by April, okay?
That leaves Cheney between April and January 2008 to 'rule'. Oh my God! Cheney's in charge!
Get a ___ing grip. Cheney would be a lame duck. Cheney would be able to accomplish very little. He'd be damaged goods from being the VP to someone who just got impeached. He'd be a fool to try to be elected in 2008 because he's so hated. Everyone in the administration would grasp that whoever won the 2008 election, they'd be putting in their own people. So you'd have leaks and backstabs and all the other stuff that happens when an administration is on the way out. Cheney would be powerless. Could he declare war on Iran?
With Congressional approval? No. Without? Then you impeach his ass. Let's say the fool took over on April 1st (April Fool's Day). Let's say he started an illegal war on April 15th over Congress' objection. By May, impeachment hearings should be under way.
I like Kucinich but I think he's all wrong about going after Cheney. Go after Bully Boy. Bully Boy's a Lame Duck, Cheney would be even less than that.
Conyers: And then, in the Senate we need two-thirds to convict.
What's his point? He's not in charge of the Senate, he's not even in the Senate. He needs to focus on the House.
Conyers: Notwithstanding all of my progressive friends that would love to see me start impeachment hearings, those votes I do not think exist in the House of Representatives or in the US Senate.
No one knows what the votes would be. That's why you have hearings. The ones into Nixon's crimes took a public that was so-so and made them decide he had to go.
That's reality. Conyers trying to be 'realistic' is lies. Like they say, no fool like an old fool.
He really needs to step down and stop running for office. He's old, he's tired, he should be out of here. He's destroyed his own legacy.
Now onto Iraq, here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot"
Tuesday, August 28, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, mass deaths rock Karbala, US 'business people' can't account for weapons sent to Iraq, this weekend Texas sees a major rally against the illegal war, and more.
Starting with war resistance. The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) issued a statement in support of Iraq war resister Ehren Watada this month. Watada is the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq (June 2006). In February of this year he was court-martialed and when it was obvious he stood a good chance of winning support of the jury, Judge Toilet (aka John Head) called a mistrial over defense objection. As the National Lawyers Guild president Marjorie Cohn has noted, double-jeopardy had already attached the case. Judge Toilet immediately scheduled a new court-martial -- yet another power he actually did not have which is why that March court-martial never took place. Currently, Watada's court-martial is on the October docket; however, due to the appeals process and the issues of double-jeopardy and whether or not the incompetent Judge Toilet will again be allowed to preside, Watada's attorneys have stated their belief that it is unlikely the court-martial will take place in October and, of course, the double-jeopardy issue could toss the court-martial completely (the Constitution of the United States forbids double-jeopardy).
The JACL began in 1929 and, at that time, its focus was on "the civil rights of Americans of Japanese ancestry, [but] today we are committed to protecting the rights of all segments of the Asian Pacific American community." Ben Hamamoto (Nichi Bei Times) reports that August 18th was when the JACL's "National Board voted to pass a resolution in support of the civil rights of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the Sansei U.S. Army lieutenant who refused deployment to Iraq on the grounds that he believes the war is illegal. The vote occurred at the organization's regular board meeting at its San Francisco headquarters." Hamamoto goes on to trace the long (and overly cautious) process the JACL took en route to that resolution (including watering down the resolution) which now includes "the National JACL Board believes that all American citizens have the right to a fair and impartial trial, which includes the right to have a trial presided over by an impartial judge and to be protected from double jeopardy." The watering down process stripped key portions from the statement. Hamamoto explains, "It does not, however, offer an explicit position on whether or not Head would be an impartial judge for a retrial, whether Watada's first hearing was fair, or whether trying him again would constitute double jeopardy." A number of people worked very hard to get even that passed and they deserve congratulations for what they accomplished.
Aimee Allison and David Solnit's Army Of None notes Watada's speech at last years Veterans for Peace conference in Seattle and excerpts this part, "I speak with you about a radical idea . . . The idea is this: that to stop an illegal and unjust war, the soldiers can choose to stop fighting it . . . Those wearing the uniform must know beyond any shadow of a doubt that by refusing immoral and illegal orders they will be supported by the people not with mere words but by action . . . To support the troops who resist, you must make your voices heard. If they see thousands supporting me, they will know. I have seen this support with my own eyes . . . For me it was a leap of faith. For other soldiers, they do not have that luxury. They must know it and you must show it to them. Convince them that no matter how long they site in prison, no matter how long this country takes to right itself, their families will have a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs, opportunities and education."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Zamesha Dominique, 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, 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, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
Back in June, Evan Knappenberger staged an eight day vigil on a tower in Washington state. He explained to Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!), ""I decided a couple of weeks ago that I needed to do something to affect a positive change in all these kind of negative things going on. I figured the best way to do that would be to draw some attention to these policies that the military is using to fight this war without actually -- you know, a war without conscription, basically. So in the middle of the night I had this great idea, just as a symbol of something kind of similar to what Operation First Casualty is, you know, to bring the war to the American people, because there is a big disconnect between the civilian population and those of us who were in Iraq. We can see -- as veterans of Iraq -- we understand kind of the way that these policies get perpetrated, and the American people need to be made aware of that. So I had this great idea to bring that home and ended up on a tower for eight days." Sunday, August 26th, began another vigil, this one in DC at the Mall on Washington where he has constructed a scaffold.
Knappenberger is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and IVAW's Adam Kokesh and Tassi McKee as well as Tina Richards and Washington Peace Center's Jay Marx are among the ones showing their support in DC. More information can be found at Tower Guard Vigil.
Kokesh will be in Fort Worth, Texas on September 1st for American People's Poll on Iraq Texas Townhall. Texans for Peace explains that "Presidential candidates, members of Congress and the world media will be in Fort Worth attending the Texas Republican Straw Poll" which makes it the perfect time for thos in the area to register their opposition to the illegal war. Along with Kokesh, also speaking will be Diane Wilson, Tina Richards, Ann Wright, and IVAW's Leonard Shetlon and CO (and Rev.) Hart Viges. A full list can be found here. Throughout the day (nine to five, this is a Saturday) there will be canvassing and straw polls, the pre-rally entertainment starts at one p.m. and the peace rally begins at 1:30 and lasts until 3:30. Fort Worth is a city in Texas, part of the Dallas and Fort Worth region known there as "DFW." Suburbs, towns and cities in the area include Denton, Plano, Arlington, Irvining, Bach Springs, Desoto, Duncanville, Lewisville, Addison, Grand Prairie and a host of others. There is a point. Texans for Peace notes that you can catch the Trinity Railway Express to Fort Worth and that at 12:30 pm volunteers will be helping transport people to the rally.
Community member Diana and her family took part in the April 2006 immigrants rally in downtown Dallas that had at least a half million participants making it the largest protest in Dallas' history. She noted the traffic issue when she shared her experiences from that rally. Today, she explained over the phone that the easiest thing for people to the north, east or south of Fort Worth wanting to attend Saturday's events but unsure of how to get there is to utilize the Trinity train. She suggests grabbing a Dart Express Train and taking it to Union Station (in downtown Dallas). You can pick up the TRE there. ("It's the big, brown -- same brown as UPS uses --train that runs right next to the two light rails," says Diana.) ADDED: Dallas and Billie both note that there is also a solid white train. Billie: "Brown or white, they are real trains that look like trains, not the light rail." Texans for Peace notes that the TRE (Trinity Railway Express) runs from eight in the morning until eleven at night on Saturdays.
The book noted earlier for the Watada quote was Army of None, published by Seven Stories Press, available at Courage to Resist and many other places, which is written by Aimee Allison and David Solnit. This Thursday there will be a release celebration for the event at Club Oasis (135 12th St., btwen. Madison and Oak Sts., Oakland 6 blocks E. of Broadway/12th St. -- click here for East Bay express' map of Club Oasis' location). The event is free and open to all. The authors will be there, Jeff Paterson will have a slide show, there will be a puppet show, poets, snakcs, a dj . . . The event starts at 6:30 pm. More information can be found [Warning: MySpace page] by clicking here.
Aug 29, at
12:00P,
Aimee and David on KPFA Radio! @ KPFA Radio 94.1;
Aug 30, at
6:00P
Army of None Book Release Party & Tour Kick-Off @ Oasis Restaurant & Bar - Oakland, CA;
Sep 14 at
4:00P
Army of None Workshop - San Jose, CA @ Californians for Justice, San Jose, CA;
Sep 14 at
7:30P
Army of None Book Release/Signing - San Jose, CA @ Dowtown San Jose - Location TBA;
Sep 15 at
12:00P
Army of None Tour in Pittsburgh, PA;
Sep 19 at
7:00P
Army of None Tour in Cleveland, OH;
Sep 20 at
6:00P
Army of None Tour @ Kent, OH;
Sep 23 at
6:00P
Army of None Tour @ Milwaukee, WI;
Sep 24 at
6:00P
Army of None Tour in Milwaukee, WI @ Milwaukee, WI;
Sep 25 at
7:00P
Army of None Tour @ Madison, WI;
Sep 26 at
6:00P
Army of None Tour @ Madison, WI;
Sep 27 at
6:30P
Army of None Tour @ May Day Books, Minneapolis MN;
Sep 28 at
10:00A
Army of None Tour @ High Schools in Minneapolis, MN;
Sep 28 at
7:30P
Army of None Tour @ Lyndale United Church of Christ, Minneapolis MN;
Sep 29 at
1:00P
Army of None Tour @ Rondo Community Outreach Library - St. Paul, MN;
Oct 12 at
7:00P
Army of None Tour @ Bluestockings Bookstore - New York City; and
Oct 17 at
7:00P
Army of None Tour @ Sanctuary for Independent Media - Troy, NY
Yesterday Hannah Allam (McClatchy Newspapers) revealed that the US government was funding the people fighting US forces in Iraq by ignoring the fact that Iraqi contractors were paying those people off to to do business in Al Anbar Province. Today James Glanz and Eric Schmitt (New York Times) report US is arming them as well and "federal agencies are investigating a widening network of criminal cases involving the purchasing and delivery of billions of dollars of weapons, supplies and other materiel to Iraqi and American forces" -- "the largest ring of fruad and kickbacks uncovered in the conflict here". Among those under investigation is "a senior American officer [Lt. Com. Levonda Joey Selph] who worked closely with Gen. David H. Petraeus in setting up the logistics operation to supply the Iraqi forces when General Petraeus was in charge of training and equipping those forces in 2004 and 2005". The reporters cite an August 18th interview with Petraeus where he explained "he made a decision not to wait for formal tracking systems to be put in place before distributing weapons". There is no tracking system for the tax payer dollars and no tracking system within Iraq where the weapons were apparently passed around like candy. (US arms already glut the blackmarket in Iraq.) Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted that the "investigation includes the Army Criminal Investigation Command, the Department of Justice, the FBI and others. The senior officer, Lt. Col. Levonda Joey Selph, worked closely with General Petraeus to set up logistic services for Iraqi forces." And in response to that, Pauline Jelinek (AP) reports, "The Pentagon is sending a team of investigators to Iraq because of the growing number of cases of fraud and other irregularities in contracts involving weapons and supplies for Iraqi forces."
While arms flow (unchecked and untracked) from the US to Iraq like milk and honey, what's the effect within the United States? From July 25th: "Billie passes on this from DFW's NBC 5, it's a video clip. You'll learn that law enforcement in North Texas has a bullet shortage -- law enforcement has a bullet shortage -- and they're being told that maybe they just shouldn't plan to buy any bullets until the illegal war is over? (Ellen Goldberg's the reporter, by the way.)" From the report:
Ellen Goldberg: The situation overseas has created a battle for bullets here at home . . . Law enforcement agencies across North Texas are waiting six months, even a year, on ammunition orders. That's the case for the Fort Worth P.D. They are still waiting on ammunition orders that they placed last year. The Dallas County Sheriff's department says that when it comes to 9 milimeter and Ball ammo they were told to call back quote: "when the war was over." The Denton County Sheriff's Dept. and Plano P.D. tell us they too are experiencing similar delays.
Sgt. Brian Stevens (Fort Worth Police Department): It's definitaly the war Everything they make bullet wise is headed that direction and we're fighting to get whatever we have to fight to get the scraps that are left over.
That is not just one area of the United States. Today Candace Rondeaux (Washington Post) reports: "The U.S. military's soaring demand for small-arms ammunition, fueled by two wars abroad, has left domestic police agencies less able to quickly replenish their supplies, leading some to conserve rounds by cutting back on weapons training, police officials said.To varying degrees, officials in Montgomery, Loudoun and Anne Arundel counties said, they have begun rationing or making other adjustments to accommodate delivery schedules that have changed markedly since the military campaigns began in Iraq and Afghanistan."
While police ration in this country, bullets fly freely in Karbala. Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "52 people were killed and 206 injured in clashes between gunmen and security forces near the shrine of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas". Martin Fletcher (Times of London) explains that "police ordered hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to leave Kerbala and imposed a nightime curfew. Addition security forces were rushed to the city from Baghdad and neighbouring provinces. US jets flew overhead in a show of force requested by the Iraqi government. The injured were rushed to hospitals on handcarts because vehicles had been banned." Carol J. Williams and Saad Fakhrildeen (Los Angeles Times) estimate that the amount of pilgrims ordered to leave was "more than 1 million". The BBC reports the eye witness account of one pligrim in a "hotel opposite the shrine of Imam Hussain": "Shots are being fired everywhere including at hotels. We have recently seen hotels going up in flames due to rockets being fired at them by militants. We cannot tell who is behind this. If we try to look down to see what is going on from our hotel rooms they tell us to close the curtains. We are not allowed to leave the hotel and the shrines have been closed down." AFP notes that many who were not able to evacuate are still "locked in their hotels" and that the battle "erupted in the early afternoon and grew fiercer after darkness fell". Williams and Fakhrildeen cite witnesses maintaining that the battle started with the throwing of "rocks, bricks and knives at police" -- thrown by the Mahdi Army -- "but quickly escalated into an exchange of rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 fire". CNN notes that "fighting reportedly spread to Baghdad after the Karbala clashes" and that in Baghdad "Mehdi Army fighters torched six offices belonging to the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq." Laith Hammoudi notes four people were kidnapped before the torching. Fletcher explains the two different narratives: police (and Iraq's Interior Ministry) are stating that Moqtada al-Sadr's militia started the battle "in an attempt to seize control of the area" and al-Sadr's people are stating it was starting by the "police linked to the Badr Brigade of beating pilgrims who were chanting their support for al-Sadr." Reuters observes, "The fighting is likely to be seen as embarrassing for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who wants to show that his security forces can take control of security from U.S.-led forces."
Turning to other violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad car bombing that claimed 1 life (three people were also wounded). Reuters notes 33 Iraqis killed by the US "in an airborne assault" (credited to US and Iraqi forces but anyone who's followed the briefings on Iraqi air force should laugh at such an assertion), a Baquba roadside bombing that injured ten peopleCNN reports an "air assault" on Monday by US forces ("and Iraqi troops") in Diyala province that left 33 suspected 'insurgents' dead following issues with the city's water supply.
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports two incidents where a total of 10 pilgrims were wounded in attacks (one in Baghdad, one to the south of Baghdad in Mahmudiya), a Baghdad attack on Haj Ismaiil mosque that left 3 people dead and 3 more kidnapped and Kirkuk shooting that claimed the life of 1 police officer who was traveling with his wife in their car. Reuters notes the wife was wounded and they note another Kirkuk shooting that left two police officers wounded.
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 13 corpses discovered in Baghdad.
In release news, CNN reports the "deputy oil minister and four other kidnapped employees were freed Tuesday after two weeks of captivity". The kidnapping took place on August 14th and the five released were not all that was kidnapped. Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reported then that Abdul Jabbar Al Wagga'a and 2 of his body guards "and 4 general directors" were kidnapped by unknown men who "were wearing a military uniform" when they invaded the marketing building of the Baghdad Oil Ministry (five people were wounded during the kidnapping).
Turning to nonsense news, AP reports Bully Boy spoke to American Legion convention in Reno, Nevada attempting to drum up support for his illegal (and lost) war. How bad was it? Even the official White House transcript uses "[sic]" to note Bully Boy's mistakes.
In legal news, Reuters reports Army Lt. Col. Steven Jordan's court-martial has ended and he was found "not responsible for abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, but was guilty of disobeying an order not to discuss an investigation into the case." Sam Provance, an NCO stationed at Abu Ghraib from September 2003 to February 2004, shares his thought (prior to the verdict) at Consortium News noting he wasn't asked to testify, but had he been, he could take apart "the myth that Jordan was not really all that much involved in interrogations. One of the soldiers who worked very closely with Jordan verified that he was fully familiar with the infamous 'hard site,' where much of the torture took place. Jordan had been seen there on more than one occasion, hanging out laid back with his feet propped up. My soldier informant also bragged that he had joined Jordan in beating up a prisoner."
the common ills
the daily jot
cedrics big mix
mikey likes it
iraq
ehren watada
ben hamamoto
army of noneaimeee allisondavid solnitdemocracy nowamy goodmanthe washington postthe new york timesmcclatchy newspapersthe los angeles timescarol j. williams
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
Marjorie Cohn, Third
Monday, Monday, ba-dah, ba-da-da-dah. :D I'm not as tired as I usually am on Mondays which is rather amazing because this weekend's writing session went longer than any in recent memory. But before that . . .
Okay, this is from National Lawyers Guild president Marjorie Cohn's "Turning Iraq into Vietnam:"
Congress has no more will to end the Iraq War than it did the Vietnam War. It was one year after our troops came home that Congress finally cut the funding for all support of the South Vietnamese government; Nixon didn't veto the bill because he needed insurance against impeachment. There is no substantial support in Congress or among the leading presidential candidates to bring all the troops home and disband the mega-bases Bush has built in Iraq.
Resistance to the Iraq War will continue to grow within the military. Like the Vietnamese, the Iraqis will be instrumental in ending Bush's war. The soldiers pegged it in their op-ed: Iraqis "will soon realize that the best way to regain their dignity is to call us what we are--an army of occupation--and force our withdrawal."
The Democratically controlled Congress is not ending the illegal war. They aren't doing a damn thing but making empty speeches. John Conyers was back at an impeachment rally over the weekend (I believe other topics were addressed as well). I'm really sick of them all and their empty words.
By the way, Marjorie Cohn's piece was written prior to Max Cleland's Democratic address. I mention that because, as C.I. noted, the Democratic response on Saturday means that all the little cowards who couldn't call out Bully Boy's lies about the illegal war last week (when it really mattered) can now slither out from under the rocks and weigh in. Cohn didn't wait for permission from the Democratic Party, just to be clear on that.
It's too bad so many did and do.
Let's turn to The Third Estate Sunday Review's latest edition:
Truest statement of the week -- Camilo Mejia speaking on Democracy Now! easily the truest statement of the week . . .
Truest statement of the week II -- except for Camilo Mejia speaking on Wakeupcall Radio! We had so many choices this week and nearly everyone of them was Mejia. Figuring that the potential nominees for this were stacked high, Ava and C.I. grabbed one of the 'truests' and used it in their TV commentary.
A Note to Our Readers -- Jim breaks down the edition and what happened. As he noted, Dona was on board with two truest statements because she wanted short features and she wanted the never ending edition done and over. :D
Editorial: IVAW supports war resisters, do you? -- This was the last thing we wrote. Ruth worked on this too. I'll note the pieces Ruth worked on because Jim was tired during the note and couldn't remember if Ruth worked on two or three pieces? She worked on three. This is a really good editorial and if I hadn't thought so already, I would have when I checked my voice mail on my cell. Everyone I knew called to say they liked this one.
TV: Fox tried to tell news 'jokes', no one laughed... -- Ava and C.I.'s commentary. I love this one. And Dona's long pointed out that no matter what anyone thinks of anything else up at the site, they cannot deny that Ava and C.I. do reporting. C.I. always says, "I'm not a reporter." But at The Third Estate Sunday Review, Ava and C.I. are reporting. They're calling friends at the networks, friends working on TV shows, agents, managers, you name it. All before they write a word. Generally, they do this during the week while chatting with friends anyway. This time? They had talked to a number of people about the show during the week but weren't planning on writing about it. Then came the never ending writing session and Jim and Dona both asked if Ava and C.I. would set aside The George Lopez Show this week because they felt the edition needed a hard hitting piece by Ava and C.I. Listening on the phone, we all started laughing as Ava and C.I.'s response which I couldn't put up here. They have been repeatedly trying to do the Lopez piece and keep getting asked to put it on hold. There is also the issue of pressure being put on them. So they said (finally) that they'd do it but it would be done late because what they'd heard was people in the news business in Texas were especially offended and they wanted to call some journalists in Texas they knew before writing one word. They spent two hours on the phone hunting down the story. Writing it took much less. This is journalism. But don't say that to them or they'll get mad. :D
Thoughts on GreenStone Media and the real lesson -- This was the longest piece in terms of writing. Ruth came into work on the edition because she was going to write about GreenStone Media for her report and when she found out Third was as well, she wanted to work with everyone (and everyone wanted to work with her). This took 6 hours and 27 minutes of writing. Dona and Jim and Jess spent at least 2 hours editing this after the writing (they edited while Ava and C.I. were doing their research for the TV commentary). There were plans for a roundtable or a mailbag. C.I. said, when we started working on this (at 10:00 pm EST) that there wouldn't be time for half of the planned feature. We should all have listened. :D Dona was especially concerned about the wording during the writing. She was a big fan of GreenStone Media. At one point, she was so tired and frustrated and couldn't find her Diet Pepsi. This wasn't a tiny bottle. Each writing session, Dona goes through at least one pack of smokes and two 2 liter bottles of Diet Pepsi. When I've been present for the writing editions, I've seen where she keeps it, right next to her. She has her glass on a table in front of her (a long with the ashtray) and the Diet Pepsi is right next to her chair. She puts it in the fridge Saturday morning. When she takes the first one out, she puts the second one in. Jim and Jess are drinking coffee mainly. Ava usually drinks water (as does C.I.) but if the pressure is especially tense on her and C.I., they will break out the tequila. I'm not joking. They will do shots. But the main thing is they both get really intense about their hair when things aren't working out on the writing. (The group writing.) Two hours and 42 minutes in, I heard C.I. ask Dona if she had a hair clip? Ava and C.I. both cannot stand for their hair to touch their forehead when they're exhausted. When I've been there (and not over the phone helping out), I've noticed you can tell when they're getting frustrated by how they play with their hair. First up, they'll use a pen and twist it around in their hair to pull the hair back. (Ava and C.I. tend to sit on the floor. They have about 20 pens with them and multiple pads because they're the ones who take the bulk of the notes. We're writing things as a group and Ava and C.I. are the ones taking all the notes.) At some point, one of them will grab the sun glasses. This is inside and at night. They'll put on their sunglasses and then, at the next level of frustration, take out the pen holding their hair away from their faces and push the sunglasses up on top of their heads to keep the hair away. So when the cry came for a hair clip, I knew we were on dangerous frustration ground. :D They, Jim or Dona, will usually be the ones in long pieces that will say, "We're missing the point." Jim and Dona will cut everyone off (even each other), Ava and C.I. will wait until everyone's done speaking. I heard Kat ask Dona if she could snag a cigarette at one point, another sign of frustration because Kat doesn't smoke. But this really was a hard one to nail. We probably overwrote on this big time. But at one point Betty fell asleep. She woke up and said she was sorry, she'd fallen asleep and asked what she'd missed. Jess told her nothing we were still debating whether "failure" would be used in the piece or not? That was a 29 minute sticking point. After we got past that, we really got into writing the piece and that aspect of it is probably the bulk of what made it up. I know what parts Ava and C.I. were asked to polish. (Jim, Jess and Dona asked Ava and C.I. to polish a few lines in the piece after Jim, Dona and Jess finished editing.) Jim says in the note it was two lines. It's more like seven. I could tell which ones because I worked on it. (The polish was jazzing up the lines to give them a little more life. They also contributed lines like that during the writing of the piece.) I asked my bud Tony to print it up today and see if he could mark with a highlighter what was obviously from Ava and C.I. He marked up all the lines they wrote during the writing edition as well as the ones they jazzed up after and it's seven that they jazzed up after. Oh, Dona's Diet Pespi freakout. I kept expecting someone to call me today (Ty, Jess or Jim) and say, "I'm the one who swiped her Pepsi as a joke!" No one did. But apparently her Diet Pepsi disappeared. She was asking about it during the writing of this edition and could never find it. One minute it was next to her then it was gone. :D (I can put in a smiley face because I was on a completely different coast so no way I swiped it.) At one point, Rebecca reminded her she tosses them after they're empty and suggested that might have happened. Dona didn't remember that but did go to look (through the recycle bin) and couldn't find it. At the end of the writing edition for this piece Dona asked, "Are we done now?" And we were. Then she asked, "Who the hell swiped my Diet Pepsi?" :D It was after this was written, before it was edited, that Ava and C.I. were asked by Dona and Jim to put aside the Lopez thing. I looked at Elaine and Rebecca (we're always together on our end) and we were all open mouthed. Both because they were being asked to put it aside again (this is like the third or fourth time) and because we had heard the hair clip remarks and knew that both Ava and C.I. were at the breaking point frustration wise. We weren't surprised by their unprintable remarks. Jess said, "Let's take a break." C.I. went off to take a shower. Ava walked away from the speaker phone so I don't know where she went. While we were discussing what else we could do (we had to replan the edition because so much time went into this piece), C.I. was back and Jim asked, "Well?" And C.I. said, "I'm not saying a word until Ava's back." Ava came back in about five minutes after and they agreed to put off the Lopez thing (with Ava noting they may not do it for Third and may toss it over to Maria, Francisco and Miguel's newsletter).
Bully Boy lies about Vietnam -- who calls him out?... -- Ty edited this piece, by the way. He did a great job on it. And Ava and C.I. deserve credit here too for getting stuff down because we were all talking a mile a minute because this was a topic we all had thoughts on and because we were trying to catch up on time. Also credit to Ty and Kat for saying the terms from Vietnam had to be included. (They both argued "had" and they were right.)
FAIR late to the party and a little lost -- Ruth worked on this piece. Ava and C.I. did not. They were writing their TV piece and we were going with this piece instead of another. The rest of us (Rebecca, Betty, Cedric, Wally, Elaine, Kat, Ruth and me got a three hour nap while the core six regrouped and figured out what could be part of the edition since we'd run behind time throughout. They also discussed illustrations.) I like this one a lot.
Obama sucks up again -- Before the break we worked on this. I think Ty was the editor on this piece too. So we did the GreenStone piece and the Vietnam piece and this and that took (in writing, not editing) about nine hours. We got hung up on this piece and realized half-way in we were addressing some stuff that wouldn't be important to the piece.
Highlights -- Betty, Wally, Elaine, Rebecca, Kat and me wrote this one.
Supermarket check out? -- This was just supposed to be a note but so much time had elasped (and Ty checked the e-mail account and readers were complaining about the huge delay) that Dona said (Jim backed her up) that we couldn't just put up a note. Jess said maybe the highlights could go up? (We hadn't written the editorial yet. Those of us who napped for 3 hours were back on the line -- or back up for Kat, she's out there with the core six). Ty said, "People are pretty angry." So Ava and C.I. said, "Here's a story" and gave us the lowdown on a grocery chain. They said use some stuff from that to open the 'we're running late' note and it should tide people over. So that's what we did. And it did tide them over.
Here's who worked on the edition:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
and Ruth of Ruth's Report
Be sure to check out Ma's "Black Bean Dip in the Kitchen" by the way. Now here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Monday, August 27, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces more deaths, the puppet goes into extreme paranoid mode, the number of internal refugees in Iraq increases, Allawi tries to stage a comeback, the US government funds those fighting against the US in Iraq, and more.
Starting with war resisters. In most PBS markets, the latest episode of NOW with David Branccachio began airing Friday and the first segment was an examination of how
Agustin Aguayo and James Burmeister became war resisters. Both served in Iraq and checked out from the military in Germany.
Aguayo, who holds both US and Mexican citizenship checked out to demonstrate how serious he was about being recognized as a CO (as a medic serving in Iraq, he'd refused to load his weapon). He left Germany and returned to the US via Mexico. Aguayo has fought for over three years to be recognizaed as a CO, through both the military channels and civilian courts. The second check out lasted less than thirty days before Aguayo turned himself in; however, the US military elected to court-martial him as a deserter. Throughout the pre-trial imprisonment and the court-martial Helga Aguayo, Agustin's wife, refused to be silenced and repeatedly raised attention to what was happening to her husband. She explained to Gillian Russom (CounterPunch) that what changed her opinion of the war "was seeing what it does to military families. I'm a mother [of twin daughtters], and seeing how it affects the children and the people really got to me. That made me ask questions and do research. And this war is just completely unnecessary." March 6th Agustin Aguayo was convicted in his court-martial and then sentenced. Amnesty International issued this statement: "It is evident from the statements made by Agustin Augyo, and members of his family that he is a legitimate conscintious objector whose opposition to war developed over the course of time and evolved further in response to his experiences in Iraq. Amnesty International believes that he took reasonable steps to secure relase from the army through applying for conscientious objector status. Amnesty International is of the view that the right to refuse to perform military service for reasons of conscience is protected under international human rights law. As such we consider Agustin Aguayo to be a prisoner of conscience and call for his immediate and unconditional release." Aguayo was credit for the time he was imprisoned before his court-martial (the end of September through the start of March) and was released after seven months. Earlier this month, Aguayo spoke in NYC (August 15th) at the Brecht Forum where he noted how medics in Iraq were told to treat the wounded US service members who might be able to recover to fight first. He is a member of
Iraq Veterans Against the War.
James Burmeister was a new face for American TV (he's been profiled by Canada's CBC before). Burmeister was in Germany following wounds received in Iraq after he experienced his third bombing. He had joined up when the talk was 'reconstruction' and 'rebuilding' and he believed the hype that humanitarian work was going to be done and the recruiter who told him he'd be doing just that. Instead, he found himself setting up traps for Iraqis -- leaving US property out in the open so that when Iraqis touched them that had 'violated US soveriegnty' and could be attacked. Burmeister, his wife and their young daughter set their sights on Canada where they now live in Ottawa and he attempts to be granted asylum by the Canadian government -- one that has refused to grant asylum to any war resisters (though they did during Vietnam). Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey are expected to hear in the next few weeks whether or not Canada's Supreme Court will hear their cases for refugee status. Hinzman and Hugey were the first to go public about going to Canada and they have worked their way through the 'system' (such as it is). The Supreme Court refusing to hear their cases would mean that the lower court's verdict stands and no refugee status will be granted; however, that does not mean deportation from Canada and, should they be deported from Canada, there is no law that says they must be sent back to the US.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Zamesha Dominique, 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, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, 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, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
Though Ronald R. Roach Jr. has not declared he's a war resister, his story does go to the way the US military attempts to track those who self-check out while denying to the press that they do. On Saturday, Mark Boshnack (The Daily Star) reported on Ronald R. Roach Jr. Friday morning arrest in New York and it contained an element common to many of the arrest stories (for those paying attention, "State police were looking for Roach for two days after receiving a request from the Army to locate him, [BCI Inv. Kevin] More said. . . . .More said he received assistance from troopers and Otsego deputies in searching the house, finding Roach hiding on a shelf near the ceiling. Roach's wife was home at the time, but she has not been charged, More said. Army spokeswoman Gini Sinclair said that Roach was with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Calvary, out of Fort Hood, Texas. He went AWOL on July 25, she said." The US military continues to pursue those who check out despite the lies that continue to tell the press and despite the fact that the press continues to repeat these lies.
Turning to Iraq, today Hannah Allem (McClatchy Newspapers) breaks the news that the US government is funding what they alternately call 'terrorists' and 'insurgents' in Al Anbar Province -- huge sums of reconstruction money have been handed over to those the US has labeled as enemies by Iraqi contractors in what amounts to little more than a security shakedown -- one that US and Iraqi officials have been aware of for some time. This has been going on since 2003 yet, surprisingly?, the US hasn't included that detail in their hype of the "Al Anbar model." Nor did Rear Adm. Mark Fox include it as he attempted to spin 'success' in yesterday's laughable press briefing (which avoided all mentions of deaths, FYI). The capital of the province is Ramadi and the city most well known to Westerners may be Falluja. So far this month, the US military has announced at least 10 deaths in Al Anbar Province, at least 17 last month. Allem notes: "Iraq's deadly insurgent groups have financed their war against U.S. troops in part with hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. rebuilding funds that they've extorted from Iraqi contractors in Anbar province."
If Fox was laughable on Sunday, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch was bizarre in his Friday press briefing via video-link from Iraq. Lynch insisted that he's 'out and about' which would make him the only high ranking officer that is. He used "we" a lot when speaking of what he passes off as his interaction with Iraqi locals in Baghdad and said that they are asking him "How can we help?" If true, they would be the only ones doing so judging by polls which find a majority of Iraqis want US forces out of Iraq and a majority 'supports' attacks on US forces. So the question becomes what sort of drugs are they giving the generals?
They're giving them pretty much everything else. Sunday, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Damien Cave (New York Times) reported that Gen. David Petraeus serves US Congressional members in the Green Zone on a junket asparagus soup and lobster tortellini. Who knew Patterson's Restaurant in London catered to the Green Zone?
While Patraeus and visiting members of the US Congress live it high on the hog, the US service members exist on MRIs or really bad fast food while that malnutrition rate among Iraqi children continues to rise. Maybe Patreause will send them a doggy bag? Stolberg and Cave describe the trips as good p.r. for Congress members who can stand up in the US Congress and declare "When I was in Iraq . . ." and the equivalent of "how I spent my sumer vacation".
Malnutrition isn't the only thing rising in Iraq. Noting an AP study, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) explained that "the death for Iraqi civilians is double what it was a year ago. Estimates show Iraq is suffering an average sixty-two deaths per day, up from thirty-three last year. Meanwhile the Iraqi Red Crescent reports the number of internally displaced Iraqis has also doubled over the course of the so-called U.S. troop surge. More than 1.1 million Iraqis are now internally-displaced, up from under four-hundred fifty thousand earlier this year." This is contrary what Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch spun to the press via video-link on Friday where he also declared no one serving under him could leave by Christmas (a question he was asked several times).
As things get worse in Iraq, the US installed puppet, Nouri al-Maliki, loses it. Yesterday, he held a press conference where he attacked . . . well everyone but his parents. He was, as Waleed Ibrahim and Wisam Mohammed (Reuters) note, supposed to be talking up the fact that he had pushed his government's plan (written by foreign oil companies) for the theft of Iraqi oil onto the legislature (Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi has already stated that it's not a sure thing and more talk is required) but instead he had yet another paranoid public episode where he attacked US Senators Carl Levin and Hillary Clinton by name. Chris Collins (McClatchy Newspapers) reminds that al-Maliki has lashed out others in the past, including the administration and former US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad; however, he added a new target for his rage: the US military which he declared was making "big mistakes." This took place, Carol J. Williams (Los Angeles Times) informs, at "a hastily called news conference" where al-Maliki also attacked France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. Kouchner visited Iraq last week in attempt to create some form of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Petter Allen (Telegraph of London) cites a Newsweek interview with Kouchner, which had just gone online, in which Kouchner explains he was on the phone with US Secretary of State and Anger Condi Rice and told her, "Listen, he's got to be replaced" and that Kouchner believes this should happen but "Bush is attached to Mr Maliki. But the government is not functioning."CNN reports the puppet issued a host of demands including that Levin and Clinton must come to their senses. He wasn't done, however. James Glanz (New York Times) observes
it's "a new level of stridency" for al-Maliki who had "previously reacted with anger to President Bush's criticism of the Iraqi government's lack of political process" al-Maliki also lashed out at the US military but not for the deaths of civilians outside Baghdad due to the ongoing airwar. Megan Greenwell (Washington Post) explains the puppet "denounced U.S. military raids in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad". Defending al-Sadr until his final days in office, no doubt. Greenwell also notes a second point that was supposed to be underscored by the press conference (before al-Maliki's outbursts dominated everything else) that a meeting on Sunday determined that the Iraqi government should "release an estimated 1,700 prisoners who are being detained without specific charges." On the issue of prisoners, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today, "The number of prisoners in U.S.-run jails in Iraq has also increased by fifty-percent under the so-called surge. The U.S. military is now holding some twenty-four thousand, five-hundred prisoners --- up from sixteen thousand earlier this year. Less than three hundred are from countries other than Iraq. Military spokesperson Captain John Fleming says the primary motivator for imprisoned insurgents is economic because they don't have jobs." For those late to the party, in October of 2006, IRIN estimated the unemployment rate in Iraq had risen to 60% and that's a result of the illegal war's continued chaos and violence. With the unemployment has come inflation and Reuters studied a 12 month period (June 2005 to July 2006) and found "a 70% rate of inflation."
Steven R. Hurst (AP) reported on the AP study over the weekend and noted, "Baghdad, however, still accounts for slightly more than half of all war-related killings -- the same percentage as a year ago, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. The tallies and trends offer a sobering snapshot after an additional 30,000 U.S. troops began campaigns in February to regain control of the Baghdad area. It also highlights one of the major themes expected in next month's Iraq progress report to Congress: some military headway, but extremist factions are far from broken. In street-level terms, it means life for average Iraqis appears to be even more perilous and unpredictable." This is underscored by Leila Fadel (Baghdad Observer, McClatchy Newspapers) reporting last week on a new word in the Iraqi vocabulary "Enaalso": "Two days ago an entire Sunni family was killed. The next day the Mahdi Army came back to kill a Shiite witness, he said. His family was spared, they live outside Iraq. 'Enaalso,' he said in Iraqi slang. It's a new Iraqi word, a phrase used to explain being turned in by an informant to a militia and then being killed. Literally it means he was 'chewed up.' It's what Iraqis now repeatedly say to explain the killings of families by militias that control their neighborhoods with fear and weapons; a word to explain the corpses that show up in the streets."
The US supported puppet is most likely on his final legs. At some point, the question may be asked why the US stood behind him so long? They believed he would push through the theft of Iraqi oil but maybe their first clue to what he could really accomplish occurred in May of 2006 when he missed the Iraq Constitional deadline to form a cabinet and gave himself an extra-constitutional extension . . . only to miss that deadline as well. CIA asset Iyad Allawi is auditioning heavily for the role of "strong man" in this illegal war production. Already three of his ministers have walked out of al-Maliki's cabinet (last Friday) and, as Democracy Now! noted Thursday, Allawyi is working with "Republican lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith, and Rogers" in an effort to become the new prime minister of Iraq. Allawi was previously interim prime minister. Walter Pincus (Washington Post) reports Allawi boasted on CNN yesterday of the hiring of the firm and that $300,000 was being spent on the effort (whose putting up the money, Allawyi refused to say). Pincus also notes that Robert D. Blackwill, who had been the Bully Boy's special envoy to Iraq, was reported to have been behind Allawi's appointment as interim prime minister and that, following the appointment, "Blackwill left the government to join Barbour Griffith" which also has Philip D. Zelikow (former "counserlor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice") as "[a] senior adviser". Along with reportedly having executed unarmed prisoners at a Baghdad police station in 2004, Allawi also used his tenure as interim prime minister to endorse death squads. In January 2005, when the US administration was publicly floating the idea of sending death squads into Iraq and surrounding countries to kill at will (and illegally), Roland Watson (Times of London) reported
Allawi to be among "the most vigorous supporters of the plan".
Staying on violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad bombing resulted in 1 death (three wounded). Reuters notes a man blew himself up in a Falluja mosque and wounded eleven people.
Reuters reported on Sunday that US forces dropped bombs on a home and the result were the deaths of 5 children and 2 women; and that a female sheepherder was killed by a bombing in Kirkuk. Also on Sunday, Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reported: "The spokesman of Kurdistan's forces guards and the deputy of the Peshmerga minister, Jabbar Yaour, said that 'two American helicopters and two plane fighters bombed early Sunday morning two locations of emergency police of Kurdistan region of about 500 meters of Qara Taba village (70 kilometers north of Baquba, which is the capital of Diyala province) killing four policemen and injuring eight others . Also two police cars were destroyed. Also, Yaour said that 'Kurdish police are in north Diyala to keep peace and fight terrorism in the area with the knowledge and approval of the collation troops and central government and the bombing was by mistake'."
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports the Iraqi army shot thirteen Iraqis making a pilgrimage as they traveled to Karbala. Reuters notes that 3 were killed in the shooting, and that "Reuters photographer said he saw one pilgrim shot dead outside his hotel". CBS and AP report: "A sniper killed a Shiite pilgrim on a Baghdad bridge Monday".
On Sunday, Reuters reported that pilgrims, one woman and six people (three children included in the wounded), were shot dead in Baghdad while another woman ("female shepherd") was killed in Kirkuk by a roadside bombing. Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reported "an American patrol opened fire (a machine gun)" in Baghdad and at least one person died while six more were wounded".
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 12 corpses discovered in Baghdad.
Today, the US military announced: "A Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West died Aug. 25 and in a separate incident, another Marine died Aug. 26, while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province." And they announced: "Two Task Force Lightning Soldiers were killed by enemy gunfire in Salah ad Din Province, Sunday." The deaths bring the ICCC total number of US service members killed in Iraq so far this month to 74 and the total number killed in the illegal war to 3732.
On Saturday, Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) reported on the mood in one mess hall in Iraq, "In the dining hall of a U.S. Army post south of Baghdad, President Bush was on the wide-screen TV, giving a speech about the war in Iraq. The soldiers didn't look up from their chicken and mashed potatoes. As military and political leaders prepare to deliver a progress report on the conflict to Congress next month, many soldiers are increasingly disdainful of the happy talk that they say commanders on the ground and White House officials are using in their discussions about the war." On a similar note, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) shared today, "In Puerto Rico, a call for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq earned a standing ovation Saturday at a conference of more than four thousand National Guard. Speaking at the opening of the National Guard Association general conference, Puerto Rico Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila said the war in Iraq is needlessly risking the lives of U.S. troops and damaging the U.S. abroad. He said: ''The daily death toll of Americans and their allies has caused irreparable anguish here in Puerto Rico, and throughout the country. The same could be said for the people of Iraq'."
Yesterday, 2008 Democratic presidential nominee hopeful John Edwards appeared on CBS' Face The Nation where he declared of the US Congress, "I think they should not submit a single funding bill to the president for the war that doesn't have a timetable for withdrawal. And I think they should use whatever legislative tool is available to them, including filibuster."
This is similar to what 2008 Democratic presidential nominee Mike Gravel has advocated. On August 8th, he explained it on the first hour (the only guest) on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show as follows: "The Constitution's very clear: the Congress makes the laws, the Executive has to enforce and obey the laws. But you now have to set it up so that he'll veto and how do you get this passed, this law passed? Real simple. You see, they do a cloture vote. Oh one cloture vote, two, can't do it. Stop. Or an override veto. Can't do it? Stop. That's ridiculous. The rules permit to have a vote on cloture every single day, seven days a week, and all the way through this August recess which they're all taking -- and then when the bill comes back vetoed they can repeat it every single day and, I promise you, Diane, that in twenty, forty days we will have a law on the books to withdraw the troops from Iraq. Now time is fleeting. This could have been done by Labor Day and all, I mean all the troops, would come home by Christmas." Both Gravel and Edwards are former US Senators. Whether the current Congress will take the advice or not remains to be seen.
Addressing Congress' refusal to lead, Ron Jacobs (CounterPunch) observes that Congress has served to tap down on the outrage over the illegal war by becoming partners with the White House in the continuation of the illegal war just as they did when they "provided Bush and Cheney with the legitmacy for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent occupation of that country" and that the fiery speeches (which never have action behind them) serve to "provide the prowar forces with the cover of democratic legitmacy because all of the bills even mentioning a withdrawal of forces have either been defeate or water down" which may indicate "Democratic leadership wanted all along -- a pretend antiwar opposition to the war in Congress that would take the wind out of the movement in the streets of the United States and insure the continuation of the war in the streets of Baghdad." No doubt fearing (rightly) a repeat of 2004, Jacobs cautions against the peace movement allowing themselves to become a Democratic electoral movement and notes how candidates against the illegal war are being marginalized likely to leave only pro-war Dem candidates standing:
"For those of us with a sense of history, this scenario played itself out in 1968 and left many antiwar Democrats with the choice of voting for the prowar Humphrey or not voting at all. So what is to be done? Plain and simple, the antiwar movement must be wrested back from those who would sell it to the Democratic Party. This means, plain and simple, that antiwar actions must not champion presidential candidates at the expense of the stated goal of immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq." Jacobs also notes some coming events including the the Stpember 15th rallies in DC, Los Angeles (and elsewhere), the "encampment and march the week of September 22 - 29" in DC "and a number of regional protests around the date of October 27th . . . being called by a number of national organizations, including UFPJ, Troops Out Now, and ANSWER."
Events took place over the weekend. Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) notes at least 4,000 turned out in Kennebunkport, Maine for the "march to the Bush family estate" and that Cindy Sheehan and Dennis Kucinich were among those participating. Sheehan is running for the US Congress in California's eighth district and Kucinich is running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008. Kucinich declared, "The democratic leaders can end this war now. They can go to president Bush and say Mr. Bush, we appropriated 97 billion dollars at the beginning of the summer for the war. That money can be used to bring the troops home and to set in motion the international security and peacekeeping force to stabilize Iraq. It does not take another vote. I want you to know that. The Democratic leaders have the responsiblity to end the war now." Goodman also noted "more than a thousand people marched in Newark this weekend in one of the largest demonstrations there in decades. The demonstrators were protesting the war in Iraq and violence at home."
marjorie cohn
the national lawyers guild
the common ills
like maria said pazkats korner
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
trinas kitchenthe daily jotcedrics big mix
mikey likes it
thomas friedman is a great man
iraqdemocracy nowamy goodmanmark boshnack
the los angeles timescarol j. williamsleila fadelmcclatchy newspapersnow with david branccaciopbs
the new york timessheryl gay stolbergjim rutenberg
damien cave
megan greenwell
the washington post
ron jacobs
Okay, this is from National Lawyers Guild president Marjorie Cohn's "Turning Iraq into Vietnam:"
Congress has no more will to end the Iraq War than it did the Vietnam War. It was one year after our troops came home that Congress finally cut the funding for all support of the South Vietnamese government; Nixon didn't veto the bill because he needed insurance against impeachment. There is no substantial support in Congress or among the leading presidential candidates to bring all the troops home and disband the mega-bases Bush has built in Iraq.
Resistance to the Iraq War will continue to grow within the military. Like the Vietnamese, the Iraqis will be instrumental in ending Bush's war. The soldiers pegged it in their op-ed: Iraqis "will soon realize that the best way to regain their dignity is to call us what we are--an army of occupation--and force our withdrawal."
The Democratically controlled Congress is not ending the illegal war. They aren't doing a damn thing but making empty speeches. John Conyers was back at an impeachment rally over the weekend (I believe other topics were addressed as well). I'm really sick of them all and their empty words.
By the way, Marjorie Cohn's piece was written prior to Max Cleland's Democratic address. I mention that because, as C.I. noted, the Democratic response on Saturday means that all the little cowards who couldn't call out Bully Boy's lies about the illegal war last week (when it really mattered) can now slither out from under the rocks and weigh in. Cohn didn't wait for permission from the Democratic Party, just to be clear on that.
It's too bad so many did and do.
Let's turn to The Third Estate Sunday Review's latest edition:
Truest statement of the week -- Camilo Mejia speaking on Democracy Now! easily the truest statement of the week . . .
Truest statement of the week II -- except for Camilo Mejia speaking on Wakeupcall Radio! We had so many choices this week and nearly everyone of them was Mejia. Figuring that the potential nominees for this were stacked high, Ava and C.I. grabbed one of the 'truests' and used it in their TV commentary.
A Note to Our Readers -- Jim breaks down the edition and what happened. As he noted, Dona was on board with two truest statements because she wanted short features and she wanted the never ending edition done and over. :D
Editorial: IVAW supports war resisters, do you? -- This was the last thing we wrote. Ruth worked on this too. I'll note the pieces Ruth worked on because Jim was tired during the note and couldn't remember if Ruth worked on two or three pieces? She worked on three. This is a really good editorial and if I hadn't thought so already, I would have when I checked my voice mail on my cell. Everyone I knew called to say they liked this one.
TV: Fox tried to tell news 'jokes', no one laughed... -- Ava and C.I.'s commentary. I love this one. And Dona's long pointed out that no matter what anyone thinks of anything else up at the site, they cannot deny that Ava and C.I. do reporting. C.I. always says, "I'm not a reporter." But at The Third Estate Sunday Review, Ava and C.I. are reporting. They're calling friends at the networks, friends working on TV shows, agents, managers, you name it. All before they write a word. Generally, they do this during the week while chatting with friends anyway. This time? They had talked to a number of people about the show during the week but weren't planning on writing about it. Then came the never ending writing session and Jim and Dona both asked if Ava and C.I. would set aside The George Lopez Show this week because they felt the edition needed a hard hitting piece by Ava and C.I. Listening on the phone, we all started laughing as Ava and C.I.'s response which I couldn't put up here. They have been repeatedly trying to do the Lopez piece and keep getting asked to put it on hold. There is also the issue of pressure being put on them. So they said (finally) that they'd do it but it would be done late because what they'd heard was people in the news business in Texas were especially offended and they wanted to call some journalists in Texas they knew before writing one word. They spent two hours on the phone hunting down the story. Writing it took much less. This is journalism. But don't say that to them or they'll get mad. :D
Thoughts on GreenStone Media and the real lesson -- This was the longest piece in terms of writing. Ruth came into work on the edition because she was going to write about GreenStone Media for her report and when she found out Third was as well, she wanted to work with everyone (and everyone wanted to work with her). This took 6 hours and 27 minutes of writing. Dona and Jim and Jess spent at least 2 hours editing this after the writing (they edited while Ava and C.I. were doing their research for the TV commentary). There were plans for a roundtable or a mailbag. C.I. said, when we started working on this (at 10:00 pm EST) that there wouldn't be time for half of the planned feature. We should all have listened. :D Dona was especially concerned about the wording during the writing. She was a big fan of GreenStone Media. At one point, she was so tired and frustrated and couldn't find her Diet Pepsi. This wasn't a tiny bottle. Each writing session, Dona goes through at least one pack of smokes and two 2 liter bottles of Diet Pepsi. When I've been present for the writing editions, I've seen where she keeps it, right next to her. She has her glass on a table in front of her (a long with the ashtray) and the Diet Pepsi is right next to her chair. She puts it in the fridge Saturday morning. When she takes the first one out, she puts the second one in. Jim and Jess are drinking coffee mainly. Ava usually drinks water (as does C.I.) but if the pressure is especially tense on her and C.I., they will break out the tequila. I'm not joking. They will do shots. But the main thing is they both get really intense about their hair when things aren't working out on the writing. (The group writing.) Two hours and 42 minutes in, I heard C.I. ask Dona if she had a hair clip? Ava and C.I. both cannot stand for their hair to touch their forehead when they're exhausted. When I've been there (and not over the phone helping out), I've noticed you can tell when they're getting frustrated by how they play with their hair. First up, they'll use a pen and twist it around in their hair to pull the hair back. (Ava and C.I. tend to sit on the floor. They have about 20 pens with them and multiple pads because they're the ones who take the bulk of the notes. We're writing things as a group and Ava and C.I. are the ones taking all the notes.) At some point, one of them will grab the sun glasses. This is inside and at night. They'll put on their sunglasses and then, at the next level of frustration, take out the pen holding their hair away from their faces and push the sunglasses up on top of their heads to keep the hair away. So when the cry came for a hair clip, I knew we were on dangerous frustration ground. :D They, Jim or Dona, will usually be the ones in long pieces that will say, "We're missing the point." Jim and Dona will cut everyone off (even each other), Ava and C.I. will wait until everyone's done speaking. I heard Kat ask Dona if she could snag a cigarette at one point, another sign of frustration because Kat doesn't smoke. But this really was a hard one to nail. We probably overwrote on this big time. But at one point Betty fell asleep. She woke up and said she was sorry, she'd fallen asleep and asked what she'd missed. Jess told her nothing we were still debating whether "failure" would be used in the piece or not? That was a 29 minute sticking point. After we got past that, we really got into writing the piece and that aspect of it is probably the bulk of what made it up. I know what parts Ava and C.I. were asked to polish. (Jim, Jess and Dona asked Ava and C.I. to polish a few lines in the piece after Jim, Dona and Jess finished editing.) Jim says in the note it was two lines. It's more like seven. I could tell which ones because I worked on it. (The polish was jazzing up the lines to give them a little more life. They also contributed lines like that during the writing of the piece.) I asked my bud Tony to print it up today and see if he could mark with a highlighter what was obviously from Ava and C.I. He marked up all the lines they wrote during the writing edition as well as the ones they jazzed up after and it's seven that they jazzed up after. Oh, Dona's Diet Pespi freakout. I kept expecting someone to call me today (Ty, Jess or Jim) and say, "I'm the one who swiped her Pepsi as a joke!" No one did. But apparently her Diet Pepsi disappeared. She was asking about it during the writing of this edition and could never find it. One minute it was next to her then it was gone. :D (I can put in a smiley face because I was on a completely different coast so no way I swiped it.) At one point, Rebecca reminded her she tosses them after they're empty and suggested that might have happened. Dona didn't remember that but did go to look (through the recycle bin) and couldn't find it. At the end of the writing edition for this piece Dona asked, "Are we done now?" And we were. Then she asked, "Who the hell swiped my Diet Pepsi?" :D It was after this was written, before it was edited, that Ava and C.I. were asked by Dona and Jim to put aside the Lopez thing. I looked at Elaine and Rebecca (we're always together on our end) and we were all open mouthed. Both because they were being asked to put it aside again (this is like the third or fourth time) and because we had heard the hair clip remarks and knew that both Ava and C.I. were at the breaking point frustration wise. We weren't surprised by their unprintable remarks. Jess said, "Let's take a break." C.I. went off to take a shower. Ava walked away from the speaker phone so I don't know where she went. While we were discussing what else we could do (we had to replan the edition because so much time went into this piece), C.I. was back and Jim asked, "Well?" And C.I. said, "I'm not saying a word until Ava's back." Ava came back in about five minutes after and they agreed to put off the Lopez thing (with Ava noting they may not do it for Third and may toss it over to Maria, Francisco and Miguel's newsletter).
Bully Boy lies about Vietnam -- who calls him out?... -- Ty edited this piece, by the way. He did a great job on it. And Ava and C.I. deserve credit here too for getting stuff down because we were all talking a mile a minute because this was a topic we all had thoughts on and because we were trying to catch up on time. Also credit to Ty and Kat for saying the terms from Vietnam had to be included. (They both argued "had" and they were right.)
FAIR late to the party and a little lost -- Ruth worked on this piece. Ava and C.I. did not. They were writing their TV piece and we were going with this piece instead of another. The rest of us (Rebecca, Betty, Cedric, Wally, Elaine, Kat, Ruth and me got a three hour nap while the core six regrouped and figured out what could be part of the edition since we'd run behind time throughout. They also discussed illustrations.) I like this one a lot.
Obama sucks up again -- Before the break we worked on this. I think Ty was the editor on this piece too. So we did the GreenStone piece and the Vietnam piece and this and that took (in writing, not editing) about nine hours. We got hung up on this piece and realized half-way in we were addressing some stuff that wouldn't be important to the piece.
Highlights -- Betty, Wally, Elaine, Rebecca, Kat and me wrote this one.
Supermarket check out? -- This was just supposed to be a note but so much time had elasped (and Ty checked the e-mail account and readers were complaining about the huge delay) that Dona said (Jim backed her up) that we couldn't just put up a note. Jess said maybe the highlights could go up? (We hadn't written the editorial yet. Those of us who napped for 3 hours were back on the line -- or back up for Kat, she's out there with the core six). Ty said, "People are pretty angry." So Ava and C.I. said, "Here's a story" and gave us the lowdown on a grocery chain. They said use some stuff from that to open the 'we're running late' note and it should tide people over. So that's what we did. And it did tide them over.
Here's who worked on the edition:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
and Ruth of Ruth's Report
Be sure to check out Ma's "Black Bean Dip in the Kitchen" by the way. Now here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Monday, August 27, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces more deaths, the puppet goes into extreme paranoid mode, the number of internal refugees in Iraq increases, Allawi tries to stage a comeback, the US government funds those fighting against the US in Iraq, and more.
Starting with war resisters. In most PBS markets, the latest episode of NOW with David Branccachio began airing Friday and the first segment was an examination of how
Agustin Aguayo and James Burmeister became war resisters. Both served in Iraq and checked out from the military in Germany.
Aguayo, who holds both US and Mexican citizenship checked out to demonstrate how serious he was about being recognized as a CO (as a medic serving in Iraq, he'd refused to load his weapon). He left Germany and returned to the US via Mexico. Aguayo has fought for over three years to be recognizaed as a CO, through both the military channels and civilian courts. The second check out lasted less than thirty days before Aguayo turned himself in; however, the US military elected to court-martial him as a deserter. Throughout the pre-trial imprisonment and the court-martial Helga Aguayo, Agustin's wife, refused to be silenced and repeatedly raised attention to what was happening to her husband. She explained to Gillian Russom (CounterPunch) that what changed her opinion of the war "was seeing what it does to military families. I'm a mother [of twin daughtters], and seeing how it affects the children and the people really got to me. That made me ask questions and do research. And this war is just completely unnecessary." March 6th Agustin Aguayo was convicted in his court-martial and then sentenced. Amnesty International issued this statement: "It is evident from the statements made by Agustin Augyo, and members of his family that he is a legitimate conscintious objector whose opposition to war developed over the course of time and evolved further in response to his experiences in Iraq. Amnesty International believes that he took reasonable steps to secure relase from the army through applying for conscientious objector status. Amnesty International is of the view that the right to refuse to perform military service for reasons of conscience is protected under international human rights law. As such we consider Agustin Aguayo to be a prisoner of conscience and call for his immediate and unconditional release." Aguayo was credit for the time he was imprisoned before his court-martial (the end of September through the start of March) and was released after seven months. Earlier this month, Aguayo spoke in NYC (August 15th) at the Brecht Forum where he noted how medics in Iraq were told to treat the wounded US service members who might be able to recover to fight first. He is a member of
Iraq Veterans Against the War.
James Burmeister was a new face for American TV (he's been profiled by Canada's CBC before). Burmeister was in Germany following wounds received in Iraq after he experienced his third bombing. He had joined up when the talk was 'reconstruction' and 'rebuilding' and he believed the hype that humanitarian work was going to be done and the recruiter who told him he'd be doing just that. Instead, he found himself setting up traps for Iraqis -- leaving US property out in the open so that when Iraqis touched them that had 'violated US soveriegnty' and could be attacked. Burmeister, his wife and their young daughter set their sights on Canada where they now live in Ottawa and he attempts to be granted asylum by the Canadian government -- one that has refused to grant asylum to any war resisters (though they did during Vietnam). Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey are expected to hear in the next few weeks whether or not Canada's Supreme Court will hear their cases for refugee status. Hinzman and Hugey were the first to go public about going to Canada and they have worked their way through the 'system' (such as it is). The Supreme Court refusing to hear their cases would mean that the lower court's verdict stands and no refugee status will be granted; however, that does not mean deportation from Canada and, should they be deported from Canada, there is no law that says they must be sent back to the US.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Zamesha Dominique, 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, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, 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, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
Though Ronald R. Roach Jr. has not declared he's a war resister, his story does go to the way the US military attempts to track those who self-check out while denying to the press that they do. On Saturday, Mark Boshnack (The Daily Star) reported on Ronald R. Roach Jr. Friday morning arrest in New York and it contained an element common to many of the arrest stories (for those paying attention, "State police were looking for Roach for two days after receiving a request from the Army to locate him, [BCI Inv. Kevin] More said. . . . .More said he received assistance from troopers and Otsego deputies in searching the house, finding Roach hiding on a shelf near the ceiling. Roach's wife was home at the time, but she has not been charged, More said. Army spokeswoman Gini Sinclair said that Roach was with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Calvary, out of Fort Hood, Texas. He went AWOL on July 25, she said." The US military continues to pursue those who check out despite the lies that continue to tell the press and despite the fact that the press continues to repeat these lies.
Turning to Iraq, today Hannah Allem (McClatchy Newspapers) breaks the news that the US government is funding what they alternately call 'terrorists' and 'insurgents' in Al Anbar Province -- huge sums of reconstruction money have been handed over to those the US has labeled as enemies by Iraqi contractors in what amounts to little more than a security shakedown -- one that US and Iraqi officials have been aware of for some time. This has been going on since 2003 yet, surprisingly?, the US hasn't included that detail in their hype of the "Al Anbar model." Nor did Rear Adm. Mark Fox include it as he attempted to spin 'success' in yesterday's laughable press briefing (which avoided all mentions of deaths, FYI). The capital of the province is Ramadi and the city most well known to Westerners may be Falluja. So far this month, the US military has announced at least 10 deaths in Al Anbar Province, at least 17 last month. Allem notes: "Iraq's deadly insurgent groups have financed their war against U.S. troops in part with hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. rebuilding funds that they've extorted from Iraqi contractors in Anbar province."
If Fox was laughable on Sunday, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch was bizarre in his Friday press briefing via video-link from Iraq. Lynch insisted that he's 'out and about' which would make him the only high ranking officer that is. He used "we" a lot when speaking of what he passes off as his interaction with Iraqi locals in Baghdad and said that they are asking him "How can we help?" If true, they would be the only ones doing so judging by polls which find a majority of Iraqis want US forces out of Iraq and a majority 'supports' attacks on US forces. So the question becomes what sort of drugs are they giving the generals?
They're giving them pretty much everything else. Sunday, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Damien Cave (New York Times) reported that Gen. David Petraeus serves US Congressional members in the Green Zone on a junket asparagus soup and lobster tortellini. Who knew Patterson's Restaurant in London catered to the Green Zone?
While Patraeus and visiting members of the US Congress live it high on the hog, the US service members exist on MRIs or really bad fast food while that malnutrition rate among Iraqi children continues to rise. Maybe Patreause will send them a doggy bag? Stolberg and Cave describe the trips as good p.r. for Congress members who can stand up in the US Congress and declare "When I was in Iraq . . ." and the equivalent of "how I spent my sumer vacation".
Malnutrition isn't the only thing rising in Iraq. Noting an AP study, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) explained that "the death for Iraqi civilians is double what it was a year ago. Estimates show Iraq is suffering an average sixty-two deaths per day, up from thirty-three last year. Meanwhile the Iraqi Red Crescent reports the number of internally displaced Iraqis has also doubled over the course of the so-called U.S. troop surge. More than 1.1 million Iraqis are now internally-displaced, up from under four-hundred fifty thousand earlier this year." This is contrary what Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch spun to the press via video-link on Friday where he also declared no one serving under him could leave by Christmas (a question he was asked several times).
As things get worse in Iraq, the US installed puppet, Nouri al-Maliki, loses it. Yesterday, he held a press conference where he attacked . . . well everyone but his parents. He was, as Waleed Ibrahim and Wisam Mohammed (Reuters) note, supposed to be talking up the fact that he had pushed his government's plan (written by foreign oil companies) for the theft of Iraqi oil onto the legislature (Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi has already stated that it's not a sure thing and more talk is required) but instead he had yet another paranoid public episode where he attacked US Senators Carl Levin and Hillary Clinton by name. Chris Collins (McClatchy Newspapers) reminds that al-Maliki has lashed out others in the past, including the administration and former US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad; however, he added a new target for his rage: the US military which he declared was making "big mistakes." This took place, Carol J. Williams (Los Angeles Times) informs, at "a hastily called news conference" where al-Maliki also attacked France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. Kouchner visited Iraq last week in attempt to create some form of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Petter Allen (Telegraph of London) cites a Newsweek interview with Kouchner, which had just gone online, in which Kouchner explains he was on the phone with US Secretary of State and Anger Condi Rice and told her, "Listen, he's got to be replaced" and that Kouchner believes this should happen but "Bush is attached to Mr Maliki. But the government is not functioning."CNN reports the puppet issued a host of demands including that Levin and Clinton must come to their senses. He wasn't done, however. James Glanz (New York Times) observes
it's "a new level of stridency" for al-Maliki who had "previously reacted with anger to President Bush's criticism of the Iraqi government's lack of political process" al-Maliki also lashed out at the US military but not for the deaths of civilians outside Baghdad due to the ongoing airwar. Megan Greenwell (Washington Post) explains the puppet "denounced U.S. military raids in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad". Defending al-Sadr until his final days in office, no doubt. Greenwell also notes a second point that was supposed to be underscored by the press conference (before al-Maliki's outbursts dominated everything else) that a meeting on Sunday determined that the Iraqi government should "release an estimated 1,700 prisoners who are being detained without specific charges." On the issue of prisoners, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today, "The number of prisoners in U.S.-run jails in Iraq has also increased by fifty-percent under the so-called surge. The U.S. military is now holding some twenty-four thousand, five-hundred prisoners --- up from sixteen thousand earlier this year. Less than three hundred are from countries other than Iraq. Military spokesperson Captain John Fleming says the primary motivator for imprisoned insurgents is economic because they don't have jobs." For those late to the party, in October of 2006, IRIN estimated the unemployment rate in Iraq had risen to 60% and that's a result of the illegal war's continued chaos and violence. With the unemployment has come inflation and Reuters studied a 12 month period (June 2005 to July 2006) and found "a 70% rate of inflation."
Steven R. Hurst (AP) reported on the AP study over the weekend and noted, "Baghdad, however, still accounts for slightly more than half of all war-related killings -- the same percentage as a year ago, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. The tallies and trends offer a sobering snapshot after an additional 30,000 U.S. troops began campaigns in February to regain control of the Baghdad area. It also highlights one of the major themes expected in next month's Iraq progress report to Congress: some military headway, but extremist factions are far from broken. In street-level terms, it means life for average Iraqis appears to be even more perilous and unpredictable." This is underscored by Leila Fadel (Baghdad Observer, McClatchy Newspapers) reporting last week on a new word in the Iraqi vocabulary "Enaalso": "Two days ago an entire Sunni family was killed. The next day the Mahdi Army came back to kill a Shiite witness, he said. His family was spared, they live outside Iraq. 'Enaalso,' he said in Iraqi slang. It's a new Iraqi word, a phrase used to explain being turned in by an informant to a militia and then being killed. Literally it means he was 'chewed up.' It's what Iraqis now repeatedly say to explain the killings of families by militias that control their neighborhoods with fear and weapons; a word to explain the corpses that show up in the streets."
The US supported puppet is most likely on his final legs. At some point, the question may be asked why the US stood behind him so long? They believed he would push through the theft of Iraqi oil but maybe their first clue to what he could really accomplish occurred in May of 2006 when he missed the Iraq Constitional deadline to form a cabinet and gave himself an extra-constitutional extension . . . only to miss that deadline as well. CIA asset Iyad Allawi is auditioning heavily for the role of "strong man" in this illegal war production. Already three of his ministers have walked out of al-Maliki's cabinet (last Friday) and, as Democracy Now! noted Thursday, Allawyi is working with "Republican lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith, and Rogers" in an effort to become the new prime minister of Iraq. Allawi was previously interim prime minister. Walter Pincus (Washington Post) reports Allawi boasted on CNN yesterday of the hiring of the firm and that $300,000 was being spent on the effort (whose putting up the money, Allawyi refused to say). Pincus also notes that Robert D. Blackwill, who had been the Bully Boy's special envoy to Iraq, was reported to have been behind Allawi's appointment as interim prime minister and that, following the appointment, "Blackwill left the government to join Barbour Griffith" which also has Philip D. Zelikow (former "counserlor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice") as "[a] senior adviser". Along with reportedly having executed unarmed prisoners at a Baghdad police station in 2004, Allawi also used his tenure as interim prime minister to endorse death squads. In January 2005, when the US administration was publicly floating the idea of sending death squads into Iraq and surrounding countries to kill at will (and illegally), Roland Watson (Times of London) reported
Allawi to be among "the most vigorous supporters of the plan".
Staying on violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad bombing resulted in 1 death (three wounded). Reuters notes a man blew himself up in a Falluja mosque and wounded eleven people.
Reuters reported on Sunday that US forces dropped bombs on a home and the result were the deaths of 5 children and 2 women; and that a female sheepherder was killed by a bombing in Kirkuk. Also on Sunday, Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reported: "The spokesman of Kurdistan's forces guards and the deputy of the Peshmerga minister, Jabbar Yaour, said that 'two American helicopters and two plane fighters bombed early Sunday morning two locations of emergency police of Kurdistan region of about 500 meters of Qara Taba village (70 kilometers north of Baquba, which is the capital of Diyala province) killing four policemen and injuring eight others . Also two police cars were destroyed. Also, Yaour said that 'Kurdish police are in north Diyala to keep peace and fight terrorism in the area with the knowledge and approval of the collation troops and central government and the bombing was by mistake'."
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports the Iraqi army shot thirteen Iraqis making a pilgrimage as they traveled to Karbala. Reuters notes that 3 were killed in the shooting, and that "Reuters photographer said he saw one pilgrim shot dead outside his hotel". CBS and AP report: "A sniper killed a Shiite pilgrim on a Baghdad bridge Monday".
On Sunday, Reuters reported that pilgrims, one woman and six people (three children included in the wounded), were shot dead in Baghdad while another woman ("female shepherd") was killed in Kirkuk by a roadside bombing. Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reported "an American patrol opened fire (a machine gun)" in Baghdad and at least one person died while six more were wounded".
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 12 corpses discovered in Baghdad.
Today, the US military announced: "A Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West died Aug. 25 and in a separate incident, another Marine died Aug. 26, while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province." And they announced: "Two Task Force Lightning Soldiers were killed by enemy gunfire in Salah ad Din Province, Sunday." The deaths bring the ICCC total number of US service members killed in Iraq so far this month to 74 and the total number killed in the illegal war to 3732.
On Saturday, Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) reported on the mood in one mess hall in Iraq, "In the dining hall of a U.S. Army post south of Baghdad, President Bush was on the wide-screen TV, giving a speech about the war in Iraq. The soldiers didn't look up from their chicken and mashed potatoes. As military and political leaders prepare to deliver a progress report on the conflict to Congress next month, many soldiers are increasingly disdainful of the happy talk that they say commanders on the ground and White House officials are using in their discussions about the war." On a similar note, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) shared today, "In Puerto Rico, a call for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq earned a standing ovation Saturday at a conference of more than four thousand National Guard. Speaking at the opening of the National Guard Association general conference, Puerto Rico Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila said the war in Iraq is needlessly risking the lives of U.S. troops and damaging the U.S. abroad. He said: ''The daily death toll of Americans and their allies has caused irreparable anguish here in Puerto Rico, and throughout the country. The same could be said for the people of Iraq'."
Yesterday, 2008 Democratic presidential nominee hopeful John Edwards appeared on CBS' Face The Nation where he declared of the US Congress, "I think they should not submit a single funding bill to the president for the war that doesn't have a timetable for withdrawal. And I think they should use whatever legislative tool is available to them, including filibuster."
This is similar to what 2008 Democratic presidential nominee Mike Gravel has advocated. On August 8th, he explained it on the first hour (the only guest) on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show as follows: "The Constitution's very clear: the Congress makes the laws, the Executive has to enforce and obey the laws. But you now have to set it up so that he'll veto and how do you get this passed, this law passed? Real simple. You see, they do a cloture vote. Oh one cloture vote, two, can't do it. Stop. Or an override veto. Can't do it? Stop. That's ridiculous. The rules permit to have a vote on cloture every single day, seven days a week, and all the way through this August recess which they're all taking -- and then when the bill comes back vetoed they can repeat it every single day and, I promise you, Diane, that in twenty, forty days we will have a law on the books to withdraw the troops from Iraq. Now time is fleeting. This could have been done by Labor Day and all, I mean all the troops, would come home by Christmas." Both Gravel and Edwards are former US Senators. Whether the current Congress will take the advice or not remains to be seen.
Addressing Congress' refusal to lead, Ron Jacobs (CounterPunch) observes that Congress has served to tap down on the outrage over the illegal war by becoming partners with the White House in the continuation of the illegal war just as they did when they "provided Bush and Cheney with the legitmacy for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent occupation of that country" and that the fiery speeches (which never have action behind them) serve to "provide the prowar forces with the cover of democratic legitmacy because all of the bills even mentioning a withdrawal of forces have either been defeate or water down" which may indicate "Democratic leadership wanted all along -- a pretend antiwar opposition to the war in Congress that would take the wind out of the movement in the streets of the United States and insure the continuation of the war in the streets of Baghdad." No doubt fearing (rightly) a repeat of 2004, Jacobs cautions against the peace movement allowing themselves to become a Democratic electoral movement and notes how candidates against the illegal war are being marginalized likely to leave only pro-war Dem candidates standing:
"For those of us with a sense of history, this scenario played itself out in 1968 and left many antiwar Democrats with the choice of voting for the prowar Humphrey or not voting at all. So what is to be done? Plain and simple, the antiwar movement must be wrested back from those who would sell it to the Democratic Party. This means, plain and simple, that antiwar actions must not champion presidential candidates at the expense of the stated goal of immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq." Jacobs also notes some coming events including the the Stpember 15th rallies in DC, Los Angeles (and elsewhere), the "encampment and march the week of September 22 - 29" in DC "and a number of regional protests around the date of October 27th . . . being called by a number of national organizations, including UFPJ, Troops Out Now, and ANSWER."
Events took place over the weekend. Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) notes at least 4,000 turned out in Kennebunkport, Maine for the "march to the Bush family estate" and that Cindy Sheehan and Dennis Kucinich were among those participating. Sheehan is running for the US Congress in California's eighth district and Kucinich is running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008. Kucinich declared, "The democratic leaders can end this war now. They can go to president Bush and say Mr. Bush, we appropriated 97 billion dollars at the beginning of the summer for the war. That money can be used to bring the troops home and to set in motion the international security and peacekeeping force to stabilize Iraq. It does not take another vote. I want you to know that. The Democratic leaders have the responsiblity to end the war now." Goodman also noted "more than a thousand people marched in Newark this weekend in one of the largest demonstrations there in decades. The demonstrators were protesting the war in Iraq and violence at home."
marjorie cohn
the national lawyers guild
the common ills
like maria said pazkats korner
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
trinas kitchenthe daily jotcedrics big mix
mikey likes it
thomas friedman is a great man
iraqdemocracy nowamy goodmanmark boshnack
the los angeles timescarol j. williamsleila fadelmcclatchy newspapersnow with david branccaciopbs
the new york timessheryl gay stolbergjim rutenberg
damien cave
megan greenwell
the washington post
ron jacobs
Friday, August 24, 2007
When the government spies
Friday! At last! :D
This'll probably be a short post because I've got stuff to do. This is from Democracy Now!:
Bush Administration Admits Telecoms Aided Gov't Spying
The Bush administration has acknowledged for the first time that telecommunications companies collaborated with the government's warrantless domestic surveillance program. The Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell made the admission in an interview with the El Paso Times. The Washington Post reports McConnell's statement could help plaintiffs in lawsuits against AT&T, Verizon, MCI and other telecoms. Until now the government has argued that the cases should be thrown out on the grounds that the subject matter is a state secret. During the same the interview McConnell urged Congress to retroactively provide immunity to telecom companies that participated in the surveillance program.
They knew what they were doing. They broke the law. They broke the consumers' trust and they broke the law. Just because you're asked to do something by the government doesn't make it legal. If it's against the law, it's against the law.
In case anyone's new to the issue, this is CCR's news release this month on the topic, "CCR IN COURT TODAY TO CHALLENGE NSA DOMESTIC SPYING PROGRAM AND NEW FISA LAW:"
Center for Constitutional Rights Believes Privileged Attorney-Client Communications Were Intercepted by NSA Without Warrants San Francisco, August 9, 2007 - The Center for Constitutional Rights appears today before Federal District Judge Vaughn R. Walker to argue that the NSA's program of warrantless surveillance is unconstitutional and should be struck down. The argument in CCR v. Bush comes days after Congress and the Bush administration passed the Protect America Act of 2007 which broadly expands the government's power to spy on Americans without getting court approval.
According to attorneys, there are substantial questions about whether the new law, which is temporary and due to expire in six months, is constitutional, and they will seek permission to file additional legal papers to that effect today. The law effectively removes oversight for spying from the FISA court and leaves it up to the Executive Branch to monitor itself, with Attorney General Gonzales having the primary responsibility for oversight. For that reason, CCR attorneys will argue in court today that the new law violates the Fourth Amendment's requirement that judges approve warrants for surveillance and do so only on evidence of probable cause.
The administration has continued to claim that the NSA program was always legal and that they have the inherent right to resume such surveillance at any time regardless of what the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) says. CCR attorneys therefore argue that their case has not been rendered moot by the new law, which in any event will expire in six months.
According to CCR attorney Shayana Kadidal, "Congress has ceded further power to an administration that has done nothing but abuse its power and betray the trust of the American people. Congress has given the President and Attorney General virtually unchecked power to spy on international calls of Americans without any oversight or accountability from the courts." CCR v. Bush was originally filed in federal court in New York but was subsequently transferred to San Francisco where other challenges related to the program, including cases against several large telecommunications companies for their role in the NSA Program, are being litigated.
CCR's case challenges the NSA's surveillance of people within the United States without judicial approval or statutory authorization. CCR filed the suit on its own behalf and on behalf of CCR attorneys and legal staff representing clients who fit the criteria described by the Attorney General for targeting under the NSA Surveillance Program. CCR has been one of the most active opponents of the illegal detention, torture and intelligence gathering practices this administration instituted in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. As part of its mission to fight violations of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, the Center for Constitutional Rights represents hundreds of men detained indefinitely without charge as "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay; Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen falsely accused of ties to terrorism and rendered from the United States to Syria for the purpose of being tortured; and Muslim immigrants unreasonably and wrongfully detained in the U.S. for months without probable cause or criminal charges in the wake of 9/11.
In the course of representing these clients, CCR's lawyers have engaged in thousands of telephone calls and e-mails with people outside the United States, including their clients, their clients' families and outside lawyers, potential witnesses, and others. Given that the government has accused many of CCR's overseas clients of being associated with Al Qaeda or of being of interest to the 9/11 investigation, there is little question that these attorneys fall within the likely range of victims of the NSA Surveillance Program.
CCR Executive Director Vincent Warren said, "It is virtually certain that the NSA spied on our confidential communications with our clients as well as conversations with other American attorneys outside of the U.S. The president violated his oath of office to faithfully execute the laws of this nation and instead secretly broke the law for years to spy on Americans. He has taken an axe to the Constitution."
The Center for Constitutional Rights is represented in the suit by CCR attorneys Shayana Kadidal and Michael Ratner, and CCR cooperating attorney David Cole, and Professor Michael Avery of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG).
For more information on the case, visit www.ccr-ny.org/NSAspying. This release is posted at www.ccr-ny.org/NSAspying/release.
Dad's got Lily Tomlin's comedy recordings on vinyl. On one of them, I think This Is a Recording, she does this routine as Ernestine on the phone with J. Edgar Hoover who used to run/ruin the FBI. And Ernestine's telling him he doesn't need to wiretap illegally, he can just recruit the operators at the phone company.
I'm reading a book of essays by Gore Videal called The Last Empire and in one of the essays, he talks about Cary Grant and how when Grant was on the phone operators would listen in. My point here is that people know right from wrong and the phone companies knew it was illegal for them to cooperate with the government. Or the executive branch of the government. They weren't cooperating with the legislative branch because they weren't obeying the laws.
They need to be held accountable and so does the administration. And people who make excuses for the White House aren't just saying "Listen to me! Listen to me!" -- they are doing a disservice to the Constitution and to every other citizen.
Now this is a new release from the National Lawyers Guild and the only thing I've done here is take out the e-mail addresses. If you want to write them, you can get the addresses by using the link but after the crazy loon that has spent how many weeks threatening C.I.? the last thing I want to do is put up someone's e-mail address and have them get a lot of e-mails like that. If you seriously have a question or want to share a comment, you can use the link to what I'm about to post and get the e-mail addresses there. This is from "National Lawyers Guild Calls on Congress to Repeal Warrantless Domestic Surveillance" which came out this month after our Democratically controlled Congress handed away the people's rights:
Marjorie Cohn, NLG president,
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director,
NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CALLS ON CONGRESS TO REPEAL WARRANTLESS DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE
Congress put its stamp of approval on the unconstitutional wiretapping of Americans by amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in the "Protect America Act of 2007."
The new law takes the power to authorize electronic surveillance out of the hands of a judge and places it in the hands of the attorney general (AG) and the director of national intelligence (DNI). FISA had required the government to convince a judge there was probable cause to believe the target of the surveillance was a foreign power or the agent of a foreign power. The law didn't apply to wiretaps of foreign nationals abroad. Its restrictions were triggered only when the surveillance targeted a U.S. citizen or permanent resident or when the surveillance was obtained from a wiretap physically located in the United States.
The attorney general was required to certify that the communications to be monitored would be exclusively between foreign powers and there was no substantial likelihood a U.S. person would be overheard.Under the new law, the AG and the DNI can authorize "surveillance directed at a person reasonably believed to be located outside of the United States." The surveillance can take place inside the United States, and there is no requirement of any connection with al-Qaeda, terrorism or criminal behavior. The mandate that the AG certify there is no substantial likelihood a U.S. person will be overheard has been eliminated.
The new law violates the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court has held that government wiretapping must be supported by a search warrant based on probable cause and issued by a judge. The Court has struck down warrantless domestic surveillance. Finally, the new law requires telephone companies to collect data and turn it over to the federal government. It also grants immunity against lawsuits to these companies, many of which are currently defendants in civil cases.
The rush to push this legislation through last week was likely a preemptive strike by Bush to head off adverse rulings in lawsuits challenging the legality of his Terrorist Surveillance Program.
On August 9, a federal district court in San Francisco was to hear oral arguments by lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild in CCR v. Bush. And on August 15, Guild lawyers and others will argue Al-Haramain v. Bush in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
By its terms, the new law will sunset in 180 days. But this is a specious limitation. The AG and DNI can authorize surveillance for up to one year. Just before the statute is set to expire around February 1, 2008, they could approve surveillance that will last until after Bush leaves office.The National Lawyers Guild calls on Congress to repeal the "Protect America Act of 2007."
And that's going to be it for me. Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Friday, August 24, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military reports another death, a US helicopter attack leaves many Iraqis dead, war resistance gets covered on PBS, activist, author, feminist, peace advocate Grace Paley passed away Wednesday, and more.
Starting with war resistance. This week's NOW with David Brancaccio (PBS, begins airing in most markets Friday nights) takes a look at war resistance:Choosing to go to war is both a government's decision and one made by individual enlistees. But changing your mind once you're in the army is a risky decision with serious consequences. On Friday, August 24 (checkyour local listings), we talk to two soldiers who went AWOL and eventually left the Army, but who took very different paths. NOW captures the moment when one man turns himself in, and when another applies for refugee status in Canada, becoming one of the 20,000 soldiers who have deserted the army since the War in Iraq began. Each describes what drove him to follow his conscience over his call to duty, and what penalties and criticism were endured as a result. "I see things differently having lived through the experience," former army medic Agustin Aguayo tells NOW. "When I returned from Iraq, after much reflection I knew deep within me I could never go back."The NOW website at www.pbs.org/now will offer more insight into the case made by conscientious objectors, as well as more stories of desertion in the ranks.In addition to the broadcast, a preview of the show is posted at YouTube. And the show will be available in various forms (audio, video, text -- though maybe not in full) at the NOW with David Brancaccio site.
Camilo Mejia is the new chair of Iraq Veterans Against the War. The decision of the new board members of IVAW were made last weekend. Tony Pecinovsky (People's Weekly World) reports on the Veterans for Peace conference and quotes Mejia explaining, "There is no greater argument against war than the experience of war itself. In the military you're not free to decide for yourself what is right and wrong. The fog of war is very real. Your main concern is staying alive" and explaining his decision to self-checkout, "I couldn't return knowing that we are committing war crimes. This war is criminal. But I'm no longer a prisoner of fear. I have hope that we can end this war." IVAW is gearing up for their big Truth in Recruting campaign. Adam Kokesh, who is co-chair of IVAW, is currently doing workshops (tonight at St. Bede's at the corner of St. Francis and San Mateo 7-9 pm PST). And Camilo Mejia tells his story in his own story of resistance in his new book Road from Ar Ramaid: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Zamesha Dominique, 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, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, 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, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
Turning to the jibber-jabber. The NIE was released yesterday. It is a much kinder and less explicit version of Peter W. Galbraith's "Iraq: The Way to Go" (The New York Review of Books, August 16, 2007). In the essay, Galbraith writes, "The Iraq war is lost. Of course, neither the President nor the war's intellectual architects are prepared to admit this. Nonetheless, the specter of defeat shapes their thinking in telling ways. The case for the war is no longer defined by the benefits of winning -- a stable Iraq, democracy on the march in the Middle East, the collapse of the evil Iranian and Syrian regimes -- but by the consequences of defeat." If that stance is still not clear, Alex Spillius (Telegraph of London) reports: "Frontline generals in Iraq spoke openly yesterday of the need to have a government that could function and guarantee security above all else, including democratic legitimacy. Brig Gen John Bednarek, who commands forces in Diyala province, told CNN that 'democratic institutions are not necessarily the way ahead in the long-term future'." As all the lies are dropped, the reality of the crimes being committed may be grasped. Maybe not.
Michael Ware and Thomas Evans (CNN) report that "officials now say they are willing to settle for a government that functions and can bring security." Yesterday, White House flack Gordon Johndroe declared (in Crawford, TX) that "we know that there are significant challenges ahead, especially in the political area. I would say that the strategy laid out by the President on January 10th was a strategy that provided for security first, so that there would be space for political reconciliation. The surge did not get fully operational until mid-summer. It is not surprising -- it is frustrating, but it's not surprising that the political reconciliation is lagging behind the security improvements. I think that is the way the strategy was laid out." The 'improved' security is a lie. Repeating, Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) reporting earlier this month that the US military claims of 'progress' were based on numbers they would not release and that McClatchy Newspapers' figures do not track with the findings the US military has trumpeted: "U.S. officials say the number of civilian casualties in the Iraqi capital is down 50 percent. But U.S. officials declined to provide specific numbers, and statistics gathered by McClatchy Newspapers don't support the claim." But clearly the generals, the officials and the White House are all on the same page regarding the 'problems' with democracy -- pure chance, of course.
Greg Miller (Los Angeles Times) summarizes the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE): "Despite some military progress, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is unable to govern his country effecitvely and the political situation is likely to become even more precarious in the next six to 12 months, the nation's intelligence agencies concluded in a new assessment released Thursday. The document, an update of a National Intelligence Estimate delivered in January, represents the view of all 16 U.S. spy agencies."
'Democracy' on hold or out the window . . . what to do, what to do? Bring in a 'strong man' dictator? Reuters reports that 3 "secularist ministers . . . will formally quit" the cabinet of Nour al-Maliki today and that three are from Iyad Allawi's party. Yesterday Democracy Now! noted Allawyi is working with "Republican lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith, and Rogers" in an effort to become the new prime minister of Iraq (Allawi was previously interim prime minister). CIA asset Allawi was still working with the CIA in 2003, as Jim Lobe (Foreign Policy in Focus) noted, in attempted "Iraqification" which was a popular thing in late 2003 as the White House and hand maidens of the press attempted to treat "Iraqification" as a process which would put Iraqis in control. The policy was at odds with much of the White House's aims and never got off the ground. Had it, it still wouldn't have allowed for Iraqi control. Allawi was interim Prime Minister following the start of the illegal war and, during that time, he made his 'mark' early on. Paul McGeough (Sydney Morning Herald via Common Dreams, July 2004) reported in July 2004: "Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings. They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security center, in the city's south-western suburbs."
Never having been handed democracy, Iraqis now face the very likely prospect that the puppet (al-Maliki) will be replaced with a dictator/strong man. It's not about what the Iraqis want or desire on the US government's end, it's just more of the same. A point driven home by the announcement that Abdel-Salam Aref has died in Jordan. In 2004, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) explained, "The US-installed regime in Iraq said last night it would pay a monthly pension to a former president overthrown more than 35 years ago in a coup that brought Saddam Hussein's Baath party to power. The Iraqi Governing Council says it will pay Abdel-Rahman Aref $1,000 a month and allocate $5,000 to cover his medical bills in Jordan. Aref rose to prominence in 1963 when he was appointed army chief of staff by his elder brother, then President Abdel-Salam Aref. He was overthrown in July of 1968 in a coup that was aided by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA also gave the Baath Party the names of some 5,000 Iraqi Communists who were then hunted down and killed or imprisoned. Following the coup, Baath party leader Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr became president, with Saddam as his right hand man."
As Peter W. Galbraith explains, there was no democracy following the start of the illegal war, not in what was imposed by the US (and the US shut out the UN). What exists is a system where the Shi'ites and Sunnis are two major groups (Sunnis the smaller of the two) and the system imposed has left one group shut out (elections would change that only to a small degree -- but they aren't happening) and the third most populous segment, the Kurds, are ready for their own country (Kurdistan). The system imposed on Iraq by the US was fatally flawed from the beginning so, it can be argued, ignorance wasn't the issue. Considering past history, a failed system that could be tossed aside quickly. Warren P. Strobel (McClatchy Newspapers) observes the the NIE's "best-case scenario" would be "Iraq's security will improve modestly over the next six to 12 months, but violence across the country will remain high. The U.S.-backed central government will grow more fragile and remain unable to govern. Shiite and Sunni Muslims will continue their bitter feuding. All sides will position themselves for an eventual American departure. In Iraq, best-case scenarios have rarely, if ever, come to pass."
Andrew Stephen (New Statesman) wonders if the Bully Boy is imploding and notes, "The conundrum, of course, is that it was precisely that dark art which got Bush into the White House in the first place. The poisonous divisiveness that gradually festered around him as a result now allows the state department, to take just one example reported in the Washington Post, to think nothing of simply ignoring an order from the president. Yet I suspect that the extent to which the Bush administration has become so shambolic will not come home to many Americans until the country returns to work on 4 September. Bush is now a truly rudderless president, with no realistic agenda left for the next 513 or so days, other than to tread water and hope for the best."
Is Bully Boy imploding? His laughable attempting to rewrite history this week indicates something strange. Robert Parry (Consortium News) evaluates the latest lunacy, "It is often said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. But a much worse fate may await countries whose leaders distort and falsify history. Such countries are doomed to experience even bloodier miscalculations. That was the case with Germany after World War I when Adolf Hitler's Nazis built a political movement based in part on the myth that weak politicians in Berlin had stabbed brave German troops in the back when they were on the verge of victory. And it appears to be the case again today as President George W. Bush presents the history of the Vietnam War as a Rambo movie with the heroic narrative that if only the U.S. military had stuck it out, the war would have been won. Or, more likely, the black wall of the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial would stretch most of the way to the U.S. Capitol." And Rosa Brooks (Los Angeles Times), who has gotten nothing but hisses in these snapshots, tackles the Bully Boy's nonsense, "Some might quibble with Bush's understanding of historical causation. Yes, many innocent civilians suffered in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam -- but it's more accurate to attribute their suffering to the prolongation of the war itself, rather than to the U.S. withdrawal as such. It's hard to be precise (as is the case in Iraq today, no one kept careful count of Vietnamese civilian casualties, and all sides in the conflict had an incentive to fudge the true figures), but somewhere between 1 million and 4 million civilians died as the war needlessly dragged on, many killed by U.S. weapons. Millions more were displaced. But those are details.
Bush went on to assert that 'another price to our withdrawal from Vietnam' was the rise of 'the enemy we face in today's struggle, those who came to our soil and killed thousands of citizens' on 9/11. Yup -- it's so obvious! The U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam caused the rise of Al Qaeda -- and, by extension, 'our withdrawal from Vietnam' ultimately turned Iraq into 'the central front' in 'the war on terror'." At a time when many left voices played dumb, stayed silent, Rosa Brooks addressed Bully Boy's nonsense, challenged it and put into perspective.
More willing to do that would go along way towards ending the illegal war.
The NIE is not the only report making the news. Another report, this time from an aid agency, also gives a grim picture. James Glanz and Stephen Farrell (New York Times) report that the Bully Boy's escalation has led to an escalation in the amount of Iraqi refugees. Citing figures by the Iraqi Red Crescent, the reporters declare "the total number of internally displaced Iraqis has more than doubled, to 1.1 million from 499,000, since the buildup [of troops -- the escalation] started in February."
Turning to some of today's violence, Carol J. Williams (Los Angeles Times) reports a US helicopter attack on Iraqis in western Baghdad that resulted in the deaths of "at least 18" Iraqis, that the US is claiming the helicopter attack was prompted by an attack from 'insurgents' but eye witnesses note it's the same thing as usual -- due to the heat some people sleep on their roofs and that's what was going on during the "predawn" attack by the US -- and that between 2 and 4 women were killed in the attack. Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "The U.S. military said in a press release that after ground troops came under attack helicopters were brought and 18 'enemy combatants were killed'. The military later amended the release putting the death toll at only 8. The military said armed men on rooftops were spotted. A military spokesman said no civilians were killed."
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad bombing that claimed the life of 1 Iraqi soldier (two more injured).
Shootings?
Reuters reports "two construction workers" were shot dead in Diwaniya, a barber was shot dead in in Hawija and 1 police officer was shot dead in Numaniya. CBS and AP report, "Sixty suspected al Qaeda in Iraq fighters hit national police facilities in a coordinated attack in Samarra, sparking two hours of fighting that saw three people killed and more than a dozen insurgents captured, Iraqi police said Friday. One policeman, a woman and an 11-year-old girl were killed in the fighting in the city 60 miles north of Baghdad, and nine others were injured. There were no details on insurgent casualties, but police arrested 14 suspects, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity."
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 9 corpses discovered in Baghdad and 1 corpse discovered in Hawija. Reuters notes a corpse discovered in Diwaniya..
Today the US military announced: "One Task Force Lightning Soldier died Aug. 24 as a result of injuries sustained from an explosion earlier in the day while conducting operations in Salah ad Din Province. Four Soldiers were also wounded and transported to a Coalition medical facility for treatment." The current numbers at ICCC are 3725 US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war with 67 for the month thus far. Reuters' count is also 3725 and they note "Britain 168 [and] Other nations 129".
Finally, author and activist Grace Paley died Wednesday. In Sisterhood is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium (ed. Robin Morgan, 2003), Paley contributed "Why Peace is (More Than Ever) A Feminist Issue":
Today's wars are about oil. But alternate energies exist now -- solar, wind -- for every important energy-using activity in our lives. The only human work that cannot be done without oil is war.
So men lead us to war for enough oil to continue to go to war for oil.
I'm now sure that these men can't stop themselves anymore -- even those who say they want to. There are too many interesting weapons. Besides, theirs is a habit of centuries, eons. They will not break that habit themselves.
For ourselves, for our girl and boy children, women will have to organize as we have done before -- and also as we have never done before -- to break that habit for them, once and for all.
Peace is a feminist issue, still and always, even if one women's group chose to walk away from that reality in order to justify an endorsement of Hillary Clinton. As Juan Gonzales (Democracy Now!) noted today, "Since the 1960s, Paley was very active in the antiwar, feminist, and anti-nuclear movements. She helped found the Greenwich Village Peace Center in 1961. Eight years later she went on a peace mission to Hanoi. In 1974, she attended the World Peace Conference in Moscow. In 1980, she helped organize the Women's Pentagon Action. And in 1985, Paley visited Nicaragua and El Salvador, after having campaigned against the US government's policies towards those countries. She was also one of the 'White House Eleven,' who were arrested in 1978 for unfurling an anti-nuclear banner on the White House lawn." Feminist Wire Daily writes that "Paley was known as much for her political activism on behalf of peace and women's rights as her literary accomplishments. Paley was jailed several times for her opposition to the Vietnam War, and traveled to Hanoi on a peace mission to negotiate for the release of American prisoners in 1969. She helped found the Women's Pentagon Action and the Greenwich Village Peace Center. . . . Most recently, she actively opposed the war in Iraq." When Paley went to NYC for the "Women on War" event in April 2003, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) interviewed her and the program aired some of that interview today:
AMY GOODMAN: Well, you were recently named the poet laureate of Vermont. It's very interesting. You're named by the governor, who is a Republican governor. Can you talk about how you relate to him in your meeting with him?
GRACE PALEY: Well, first of all, he really -- he didn't -- well, he had to sign the paper, but I was chosen by a group of other poets, a couple of whom had been laureates, like Galway Kinnell and Ellen Voigt, and a couple of other people who had to make a choice. I don't even think I was the best one, but that's beside the point. Still, there -- you know, there's time for others. And then I had to meet with him. He wanted to meet with me and talk to me, but before he really signed on. And I -- he knew a lot about me, and I said, well, I wasn't going to change very much, you know? I'd probably be the same person I was, no matter what. And we talked awhile about this fact. And he really -- and then he signed it. That's all.
AMY GOODMAN: Governor James Douglas?
GRACE PALEY: Yes. He's a Republican. He has a very mild manner, and I don't know whether that's the part of the Republicans of Vermont or what, but he's a Republican. I mean, there's no question about it.
AMY GOODMAN: But in terms of your poetry, more significantly, here he is naming you poet laureate, whether he chose you or not --
GRACE PALEY: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: -- he is for the war, and you're opposed.
GRACE PALEY: Yeah, right. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And you have been using your poetry a lot in the last few months to express that view.
GRACE PALEY: Well, I would do that, no matter what. I mean, this is what I'm about, and this is how I live my life. It's -- I don't even -- I wouldn't understand how to do otherwise.
Interviewed by Phyllis Exkhaus and Judith Mahoney Pasternak (War Resister League) at the start of this century, Paley reflected on what the peace movement accomplished: "Well, I think it did two things. It acted as an education in resistance and nonviolence. And probably the education in nonviolent direct action couldn't have been learned without a war. It had to take a war for people to learn that things could be defied and resisted. I think that was an important legacy of the peace movement."
Elaine Woo (Los Angeles Times) reports on Paley's work on the issue of draft resistance and notes "she also was an inveterate street-corner leafleteer and protest marcher who supported or helped found the Greenwich Village Peace Center, the War Resisters League, Women's Pentagon Action and the Feminist Press." The Feminist Press published Here And Somewhere Else (Two By Two) in March of this year which paired Paley's work with Robert Nichols (her second and surviving husband).
In the December 1998 issue of The Progressive, Anne-Marie Cusac noted a passage by Paely that stood out: "One of the things that art is about, for me, is justice. Now, that isn't a matter of opinion, really. That isn't to say, 'I'm going to show these people right or wrong' or whatever. But what art is about -- and this is what justice is about, although you'll have your own interpretations -- is the illumination of what isn't known, the lighting up of what is under a rock, of what has been hidden."
In 2002, she was among those signing "Not In Our Name: A Statement Of Conscience Against War And Repression." Meredith Tax remembers Paley at Women's WORLD: "Grace and I became close during the PEN Congress of 1986, during which we organized a meeting to protest the inadequate number of women speakers, which took over the ballroom of the Essex House Hotel and led to the formation of a Women's Committee in PEN American Center. Grace and I were co chairs of that committee until she moved to Vermont, and she became founding Chair of Women's World in 1994. Grace was the kindest and most generous person I have ever known. This is unusual in a writer, especially one of her quality, because writers tend to husband their inner resources for their work, but Grace had so many inner resources that she could afford to be generous. She gave unstining love to her family and friends, took speaking engagements at any whistlestop, often without pay, organized antiwar and antinuclear and women's demonstrations, worked endlessly against nuclear armaments, did draft counseling, protested on behalf of the environment, free expression, and a just peace betwen Israel and Palestine."
In addition, Matthew Rothschild interviewed Paley for Progressive Radio and Neda Ulaby (NPR) provides an audio overview of Paley's life and work. In terms of writing, "My Father Addresses Me On The Facts Of Old Age" (June 17, 2002) is available online at The New Yorker.
the common ills
mikey likes it
iraqcamilo mejia
iraq veterans against the war
democracy nowamy goodman
juan gonzalez
the new york timesstephen farrell
the los angeles timescarol j. williamsleila fadelmcclatchy newspapers
the washington post
This'll probably be a short post because I've got stuff to do. This is from Democracy Now!:
Bush Administration Admits Telecoms Aided Gov't Spying
The Bush administration has acknowledged for the first time that telecommunications companies collaborated with the government's warrantless domestic surveillance program. The Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell made the admission in an interview with the El Paso Times. The Washington Post reports McConnell's statement could help plaintiffs in lawsuits against AT&T, Verizon, MCI and other telecoms. Until now the government has argued that the cases should be thrown out on the grounds that the subject matter is a state secret. During the same the interview McConnell urged Congress to retroactively provide immunity to telecom companies that participated in the surveillance program.
They knew what they were doing. They broke the law. They broke the consumers' trust and they broke the law. Just because you're asked to do something by the government doesn't make it legal. If it's against the law, it's against the law.
In case anyone's new to the issue, this is CCR's news release this month on the topic, "CCR IN COURT TODAY TO CHALLENGE NSA DOMESTIC SPYING PROGRAM AND NEW FISA LAW:"
Center for Constitutional Rights Believes Privileged Attorney-Client Communications Were Intercepted by NSA Without Warrants San Francisco, August 9, 2007 - The Center for Constitutional Rights appears today before Federal District Judge Vaughn R. Walker to argue that the NSA's program of warrantless surveillance is unconstitutional and should be struck down. The argument in CCR v. Bush comes days after Congress and the Bush administration passed the Protect America Act of 2007 which broadly expands the government's power to spy on Americans without getting court approval.
According to attorneys, there are substantial questions about whether the new law, which is temporary and due to expire in six months, is constitutional, and they will seek permission to file additional legal papers to that effect today. The law effectively removes oversight for spying from the FISA court and leaves it up to the Executive Branch to monitor itself, with Attorney General Gonzales having the primary responsibility for oversight. For that reason, CCR attorneys will argue in court today that the new law violates the Fourth Amendment's requirement that judges approve warrants for surveillance and do so only on evidence of probable cause.
The administration has continued to claim that the NSA program was always legal and that they have the inherent right to resume such surveillance at any time regardless of what the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) says. CCR attorneys therefore argue that their case has not been rendered moot by the new law, which in any event will expire in six months.
According to CCR attorney Shayana Kadidal, "Congress has ceded further power to an administration that has done nothing but abuse its power and betray the trust of the American people. Congress has given the President and Attorney General virtually unchecked power to spy on international calls of Americans without any oversight or accountability from the courts." CCR v. Bush was originally filed in federal court in New York but was subsequently transferred to San Francisco where other challenges related to the program, including cases against several large telecommunications companies for their role in the NSA Program, are being litigated.
CCR's case challenges the NSA's surveillance of people within the United States without judicial approval or statutory authorization. CCR filed the suit on its own behalf and on behalf of CCR attorneys and legal staff representing clients who fit the criteria described by the Attorney General for targeting under the NSA Surveillance Program. CCR has been one of the most active opponents of the illegal detention, torture and intelligence gathering practices this administration instituted in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. As part of its mission to fight violations of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, the Center for Constitutional Rights represents hundreds of men detained indefinitely without charge as "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay; Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen falsely accused of ties to terrorism and rendered from the United States to Syria for the purpose of being tortured; and Muslim immigrants unreasonably and wrongfully detained in the U.S. for months without probable cause or criminal charges in the wake of 9/11.
In the course of representing these clients, CCR's lawyers have engaged in thousands of telephone calls and e-mails with people outside the United States, including their clients, their clients' families and outside lawyers, potential witnesses, and others. Given that the government has accused many of CCR's overseas clients of being associated with Al Qaeda or of being of interest to the 9/11 investigation, there is little question that these attorneys fall within the likely range of victims of the NSA Surveillance Program.
CCR Executive Director Vincent Warren said, "It is virtually certain that the NSA spied on our confidential communications with our clients as well as conversations with other American attorneys outside of the U.S. The president violated his oath of office to faithfully execute the laws of this nation and instead secretly broke the law for years to spy on Americans. He has taken an axe to the Constitution."
The Center for Constitutional Rights is represented in the suit by CCR attorneys Shayana Kadidal and Michael Ratner, and CCR cooperating attorney David Cole, and Professor Michael Avery of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG).
For more information on the case, visit www.ccr-ny.org/NSAspying. This release is posted at www.ccr-ny.org/NSAspying/release.
Dad's got Lily Tomlin's comedy recordings on vinyl. On one of them, I think This Is a Recording, she does this routine as Ernestine on the phone with J. Edgar Hoover who used to run/ruin the FBI. And Ernestine's telling him he doesn't need to wiretap illegally, he can just recruit the operators at the phone company.
I'm reading a book of essays by Gore Videal called The Last Empire and in one of the essays, he talks about Cary Grant and how when Grant was on the phone operators would listen in. My point here is that people know right from wrong and the phone companies knew it was illegal for them to cooperate with the government. Or the executive branch of the government. They weren't cooperating with the legislative branch because they weren't obeying the laws.
They need to be held accountable and so does the administration. And people who make excuses for the White House aren't just saying "Listen to me! Listen to me!" -- they are doing a disservice to the Constitution and to every other citizen.
Now this is a new release from the National Lawyers Guild and the only thing I've done here is take out the e-mail addresses. If you want to write them, you can get the addresses by using the link but after the crazy loon that has spent how many weeks threatening C.I.? the last thing I want to do is put up someone's e-mail address and have them get a lot of e-mails like that. If you seriously have a question or want to share a comment, you can use the link to what I'm about to post and get the e-mail addresses there. This is from "National Lawyers Guild Calls on Congress to Repeal Warrantless Domestic Surveillance" which came out this month after our Democratically controlled Congress handed away the people's rights:
Marjorie Cohn, NLG president,
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director,
NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CALLS ON CONGRESS TO REPEAL WARRANTLESS DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE
Congress put its stamp of approval on the unconstitutional wiretapping of Americans by amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in the "Protect America Act of 2007."
The new law takes the power to authorize electronic surveillance out of the hands of a judge and places it in the hands of the attorney general (AG) and the director of national intelligence (DNI). FISA had required the government to convince a judge there was probable cause to believe the target of the surveillance was a foreign power or the agent of a foreign power. The law didn't apply to wiretaps of foreign nationals abroad. Its restrictions were triggered only when the surveillance targeted a U.S. citizen or permanent resident or when the surveillance was obtained from a wiretap physically located in the United States.
The attorney general was required to certify that the communications to be monitored would be exclusively between foreign powers and there was no substantial likelihood a U.S. person would be overheard.Under the new law, the AG and the DNI can authorize "surveillance directed at a person reasonably believed to be located outside of the United States." The surveillance can take place inside the United States, and there is no requirement of any connection with al-Qaeda, terrorism or criminal behavior. The mandate that the AG certify there is no substantial likelihood a U.S. person will be overheard has been eliminated.
The new law violates the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court has held that government wiretapping must be supported by a search warrant based on probable cause and issued by a judge. The Court has struck down warrantless domestic surveillance. Finally, the new law requires telephone companies to collect data and turn it over to the federal government. It also grants immunity against lawsuits to these companies, many of which are currently defendants in civil cases.
The rush to push this legislation through last week was likely a preemptive strike by Bush to head off adverse rulings in lawsuits challenging the legality of his Terrorist Surveillance Program.
On August 9, a federal district court in San Francisco was to hear oral arguments by lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild in CCR v. Bush. And on August 15, Guild lawyers and others will argue Al-Haramain v. Bush in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
By its terms, the new law will sunset in 180 days. But this is a specious limitation. The AG and DNI can authorize surveillance for up to one year. Just before the statute is set to expire around February 1, 2008, they could approve surveillance that will last until after Bush leaves office.The National Lawyers Guild calls on Congress to repeal the "Protect America Act of 2007."
And that's going to be it for me. Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Friday, August 24, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military reports another death, a US helicopter attack leaves many Iraqis dead, war resistance gets covered on PBS, activist, author, feminist, peace advocate Grace Paley passed away Wednesday, and more.
Starting with war resistance. This week's NOW with David Brancaccio (PBS, begins airing in most markets Friday nights) takes a look at war resistance:Choosing to go to war is both a government's decision and one made by individual enlistees. But changing your mind once you're in the army is a risky decision with serious consequences. On Friday, August 24 (checkyour local listings), we talk to two soldiers who went AWOL and eventually left the Army, but who took very different paths. NOW captures the moment when one man turns himself in, and when another applies for refugee status in Canada, becoming one of the 20,000 soldiers who have deserted the army since the War in Iraq began. Each describes what drove him to follow his conscience over his call to duty, and what penalties and criticism were endured as a result. "I see things differently having lived through the experience," former army medic Agustin Aguayo tells NOW. "When I returned from Iraq, after much reflection I knew deep within me I could never go back."The NOW website at www.pbs.org/now will offer more insight into the case made by conscientious objectors, as well as more stories of desertion in the ranks.In addition to the broadcast, a preview of the show is posted at YouTube. And the show will be available in various forms (audio, video, text -- though maybe not in full) at the NOW with David Brancaccio site.
Camilo Mejia is the new chair of Iraq Veterans Against the War. The decision of the new board members of IVAW were made last weekend. Tony Pecinovsky (People's Weekly World) reports on the Veterans for Peace conference and quotes Mejia explaining, "There is no greater argument against war than the experience of war itself. In the military you're not free to decide for yourself what is right and wrong. The fog of war is very real. Your main concern is staying alive" and explaining his decision to self-checkout, "I couldn't return knowing that we are committing war crimes. This war is criminal. But I'm no longer a prisoner of fear. I have hope that we can end this war." IVAW is gearing up for their big Truth in Recruting campaign. Adam Kokesh, who is co-chair of IVAW, is currently doing workshops (tonight at St. Bede's at the corner of St. Francis and San Mateo 7-9 pm PST). And Camilo Mejia tells his story in his own story of resistance in his new book Road from Ar Ramaid: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Zamesha Dominique, 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, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, 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, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
Turning to the jibber-jabber. The NIE was released yesterday. It is a much kinder and less explicit version of Peter W. Galbraith's "Iraq: The Way to Go" (The New York Review of Books, August 16, 2007). In the essay, Galbraith writes, "The Iraq war is lost. Of course, neither the President nor the war's intellectual architects are prepared to admit this. Nonetheless, the specter of defeat shapes their thinking in telling ways. The case for the war is no longer defined by the benefits of winning -- a stable Iraq, democracy on the march in the Middle East, the collapse of the evil Iranian and Syrian regimes -- but by the consequences of defeat." If that stance is still not clear, Alex Spillius (Telegraph of London) reports: "Frontline generals in Iraq spoke openly yesterday of the need to have a government that could function and guarantee security above all else, including democratic legitimacy. Brig Gen John Bednarek, who commands forces in Diyala province, told CNN that 'democratic institutions are not necessarily the way ahead in the long-term future'." As all the lies are dropped, the reality of the crimes being committed may be grasped. Maybe not.
Michael Ware and Thomas Evans (CNN) report that "officials now say they are willing to settle for a government that functions and can bring security." Yesterday, White House flack Gordon Johndroe declared (in Crawford, TX) that "we know that there are significant challenges ahead, especially in the political area. I would say that the strategy laid out by the President on January 10th was a strategy that provided for security first, so that there would be space for political reconciliation. The surge did not get fully operational until mid-summer. It is not surprising -- it is frustrating, but it's not surprising that the political reconciliation is lagging behind the security improvements. I think that is the way the strategy was laid out." The 'improved' security is a lie. Repeating, Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) reporting earlier this month that the US military claims of 'progress' were based on numbers they would not release and that McClatchy Newspapers' figures do not track with the findings the US military has trumpeted: "U.S. officials say the number of civilian casualties in the Iraqi capital is down 50 percent. But U.S. officials declined to provide specific numbers, and statistics gathered by McClatchy Newspapers don't support the claim." But clearly the generals, the officials and the White House are all on the same page regarding the 'problems' with democracy -- pure chance, of course.
Greg Miller (Los Angeles Times) summarizes the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE): "Despite some military progress, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is unable to govern his country effecitvely and the political situation is likely to become even more precarious in the next six to 12 months, the nation's intelligence agencies concluded in a new assessment released Thursday. The document, an update of a National Intelligence Estimate delivered in January, represents the view of all 16 U.S. spy agencies."
'Democracy' on hold or out the window . . . what to do, what to do? Bring in a 'strong man' dictator? Reuters reports that 3 "secularist ministers . . . will formally quit" the cabinet of Nour al-Maliki today and that three are from Iyad Allawi's party. Yesterday Democracy Now! noted Allawyi is working with "Republican lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith, and Rogers" in an effort to become the new prime minister of Iraq (Allawi was previously interim prime minister). CIA asset Allawi was still working with the CIA in 2003, as Jim Lobe (Foreign Policy in Focus) noted, in attempted "Iraqification" which was a popular thing in late 2003 as the White House and hand maidens of the press attempted to treat "Iraqification" as a process which would put Iraqis in control. The policy was at odds with much of the White House's aims and never got off the ground. Had it, it still wouldn't have allowed for Iraqi control. Allawi was interim Prime Minister following the start of the illegal war and, during that time, he made his 'mark' early on. Paul McGeough (Sydney Morning Herald via Common Dreams, July 2004) reported in July 2004: "Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings. They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security center, in the city's south-western suburbs."
Never having been handed democracy, Iraqis now face the very likely prospect that the puppet (al-Maliki) will be replaced with a dictator/strong man. It's not about what the Iraqis want or desire on the US government's end, it's just more of the same. A point driven home by the announcement that Abdel-Salam Aref has died in Jordan. In 2004, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) explained, "The US-installed regime in Iraq said last night it would pay a monthly pension to a former president overthrown more than 35 years ago in a coup that brought Saddam Hussein's Baath party to power. The Iraqi Governing Council says it will pay Abdel-Rahman Aref $1,000 a month and allocate $5,000 to cover his medical bills in Jordan. Aref rose to prominence in 1963 when he was appointed army chief of staff by his elder brother, then President Abdel-Salam Aref. He was overthrown in July of 1968 in a coup that was aided by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA also gave the Baath Party the names of some 5,000 Iraqi Communists who were then hunted down and killed or imprisoned. Following the coup, Baath party leader Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr became president, with Saddam as his right hand man."
As Peter W. Galbraith explains, there was no democracy following the start of the illegal war, not in what was imposed by the US (and the US shut out the UN). What exists is a system where the Shi'ites and Sunnis are two major groups (Sunnis the smaller of the two) and the system imposed has left one group shut out (elections would change that only to a small degree -- but they aren't happening) and the third most populous segment, the Kurds, are ready for their own country (Kurdistan). The system imposed on Iraq by the US was fatally flawed from the beginning so, it can be argued, ignorance wasn't the issue. Considering past history, a failed system that could be tossed aside quickly. Warren P. Strobel (McClatchy Newspapers) observes the the NIE's "best-case scenario" would be "Iraq's security will improve modestly over the next six to 12 months, but violence across the country will remain high. The U.S.-backed central government will grow more fragile and remain unable to govern. Shiite and Sunni Muslims will continue their bitter feuding. All sides will position themselves for an eventual American departure. In Iraq, best-case scenarios have rarely, if ever, come to pass."
Andrew Stephen (New Statesman) wonders if the Bully Boy is imploding and notes, "The conundrum, of course, is that it was precisely that dark art which got Bush into the White House in the first place. The poisonous divisiveness that gradually festered around him as a result now allows the state department, to take just one example reported in the Washington Post, to think nothing of simply ignoring an order from the president. Yet I suspect that the extent to which the Bush administration has become so shambolic will not come home to many Americans until the country returns to work on 4 September. Bush is now a truly rudderless president, with no realistic agenda left for the next 513 or so days, other than to tread water and hope for the best."
Is Bully Boy imploding? His laughable attempting to rewrite history this week indicates something strange. Robert Parry (Consortium News) evaluates the latest lunacy, "It is often said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. But a much worse fate may await countries whose leaders distort and falsify history. Such countries are doomed to experience even bloodier miscalculations. That was the case with Germany after World War I when Adolf Hitler's Nazis built a political movement based in part on the myth that weak politicians in Berlin had stabbed brave German troops in the back when they were on the verge of victory. And it appears to be the case again today as President George W. Bush presents the history of the Vietnam War as a Rambo movie with the heroic narrative that if only the U.S. military had stuck it out, the war would have been won. Or, more likely, the black wall of the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial would stretch most of the way to the U.S. Capitol." And Rosa Brooks (Los Angeles Times), who has gotten nothing but hisses in these snapshots, tackles the Bully Boy's nonsense, "Some might quibble with Bush's understanding of historical causation. Yes, many innocent civilians suffered in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam -- but it's more accurate to attribute their suffering to the prolongation of the war itself, rather than to the U.S. withdrawal as such. It's hard to be precise (as is the case in Iraq today, no one kept careful count of Vietnamese civilian casualties, and all sides in the conflict had an incentive to fudge the true figures), but somewhere between 1 million and 4 million civilians died as the war needlessly dragged on, many killed by U.S. weapons. Millions more were displaced. But those are details.
Bush went on to assert that 'another price to our withdrawal from Vietnam' was the rise of 'the enemy we face in today's struggle, those who came to our soil and killed thousands of citizens' on 9/11. Yup -- it's so obvious! The U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam caused the rise of Al Qaeda -- and, by extension, 'our withdrawal from Vietnam' ultimately turned Iraq into 'the central front' in 'the war on terror'." At a time when many left voices played dumb, stayed silent, Rosa Brooks addressed Bully Boy's nonsense, challenged it and put into perspective.
More willing to do that would go along way towards ending the illegal war.
The NIE is not the only report making the news. Another report, this time from an aid agency, also gives a grim picture. James Glanz and Stephen Farrell (New York Times) report that the Bully Boy's escalation has led to an escalation in the amount of Iraqi refugees. Citing figures by the Iraqi Red Crescent, the reporters declare "the total number of internally displaced Iraqis has more than doubled, to 1.1 million from 499,000, since the buildup [of troops -- the escalation] started in February."
Turning to some of today's violence, Carol J. Williams (Los Angeles Times) reports a US helicopter attack on Iraqis in western Baghdad that resulted in the deaths of "at least 18" Iraqis, that the US is claiming the helicopter attack was prompted by an attack from 'insurgents' but eye witnesses note it's the same thing as usual -- due to the heat some people sleep on their roofs and that's what was going on during the "predawn" attack by the US -- and that between 2 and 4 women were killed in the attack. Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "The U.S. military said in a press release that after ground troops came under attack helicopters were brought and 18 'enemy combatants were killed'. The military later amended the release putting the death toll at only 8. The military said armed men on rooftops were spotted. A military spokesman said no civilians were killed."
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad bombing that claimed the life of 1 Iraqi soldier (two more injured).
Shootings?
Reuters reports "two construction workers" were shot dead in Diwaniya, a barber was shot dead in in Hawija and 1 police officer was shot dead in Numaniya. CBS and AP report, "Sixty suspected al Qaeda in Iraq fighters hit national police facilities in a coordinated attack in Samarra, sparking two hours of fighting that saw three people killed and more than a dozen insurgents captured, Iraqi police said Friday. One policeman, a woman and an 11-year-old girl were killed in the fighting in the city 60 miles north of Baghdad, and nine others were injured. There were no details on insurgent casualties, but police arrested 14 suspects, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity."
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 9 corpses discovered in Baghdad and 1 corpse discovered in Hawija. Reuters notes a corpse discovered in Diwaniya..
Today the US military announced: "One Task Force Lightning Soldier died Aug. 24 as a result of injuries sustained from an explosion earlier in the day while conducting operations in Salah ad Din Province. Four Soldiers were also wounded and transported to a Coalition medical facility for treatment." The current numbers at ICCC are 3725 US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war with 67 for the month thus far. Reuters' count is also 3725 and they note "Britain 168 [and] Other nations 129".
Finally, author and activist Grace Paley died Wednesday. In Sisterhood is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium (ed. Robin Morgan, 2003), Paley contributed "Why Peace is (More Than Ever) A Feminist Issue":
Today's wars are about oil. But alternate energies exist now -- solar, wind -- for every important energy-using activity in our lives. The only human work that cannot be done without oil is war.
So men lead us to war for enough oil to continue to go to war for oil.
I'm now sure that these men can't stop themselves anymore -- even those who say they want to. There are too many interesting weapons. Besides, theirs is a habit of centuries, eons. They will not break that habit themselves.
For ourselves, for our girl and boy children, women will have to organize as we have done before -- and also as we have never done before -- to break that habit for them, once and for all.
Peace is a feminist issue, still and always, even if one women's group chose to walk away from that reality in order to justify an endorsement of Hillary Clinton. As Juan Gonzales (Democracy Now!) noted today, "Since the 1960s, Paley was very active in the antiwar, feminist, and anti-nuclear movements. She helped found the Greenwich Village Peace Center in 1961. Eight years later she went on a peace mission to Hanoi. In 1974, she attended the World Peace Conference in Moscow. In 1980, she helped organize the Women's Pentagon Action. And in 1985, Paley visited Nicaragua and El Salvador, after having campaigned against the US government's policies towards those countries. She was also one of the 'White House Eleven,' who were arrested in 1978 for unfurling an anti-nuclear banner on the White House lawn." Feminist Wire Daily writes that "Paley was known as much for her political activism on behalf of peace and women's rights as her literary accomplishments. Paley was jailed several times for her opposition to the Vietnam War, and traveled to Hanoi on a peace mission to negotiate for the release of American prisoners in 1969. She helped found the Women's Pentagon Action and the Greenwich Village Peace Center. . . . Most recently, she actively opposed the war in Iraq." When Paley went to NYC for the "Women on War" event in April 2003, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) interviewed her and the program aired some of that interview today:
AMY GOODMAN: Well, you were recently named the poet laureate of Vermont. It's very interesting. You're named by the governor, who is a Republican governor. Can you talk about how you relate to him in your meeting with him?
GRACE PALEY: Well, first of all, he really -- he didn't -- well, he had to sign the paper, but I was chosen by a group of other poets, a couple of whom had been laureates, like Galway Kinnell and Ellen Voigt, and a couple of other people who had to make a choice. I don't even think I was the best one, but that's beside the point. Still, there -- you know, there's time for others. And then I had to meet with him. He wanted to meet with me and talk to me, but before he really signed on. And I -- he knew a lot about me, and I said, well, I wasn't going to change very much, you know? I'd probably be the same person I was, no matter what. And we talked awhile about this fact. And he really -- and then he signed it. That's all.
AMY GOODMAN: Governor James Douglas?
GRACE PALEY: Yes. He's a Republican. He has a very mild manner, and I don't know whether that's the part of the Republicans of Vermont or what, but he's a Republican. I mean, there's no question about it.
AMY GOODMAN: But in terms of your poetry, more significantly, here he is naming you poet laureate, whether he chose you or not --
GRACE PALEY: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: -- he is for the war, and you're opposed.
GRACE PALEY: Yeah, right. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And you have been using your poetry a lot in the last few months to express that view.
GRACE PALEY: Well, I would do that, no matter what. I mean, this is what I'm about, and this is how I live my life. It's -- I don't even -- I wouldn't understand how to do otherwise.
Interviewed by Phyllis Exkhaus and Judith Mahoney Pasternak (War Resister League) at the start of this century, Paley reflected on what the peace movement accomplished: "Well, I think it did two things. It acted as an education in resistance and nonviolence. And probably the education in nonviolent direct action couldn't have been learned without a war. It had to take a war for people to learn that things could be defied and resisted. I think that was an important legacy of the peace movement."
Elaine Woo (Los Angeles Times) reports on Paley's work on the issue of draft resistance and notes "she also was an inveterate street-corner leafleteer and protest marcher who supported or helped found the Greenwich Village Peace Center, the War Resisters League, Women's Pentagon Action and the Feminist Press." The Feminist Press published Here And Somewhere Else (Two By Two) in March of this year which paired Paley's work with Robert Nichols (her second and surviving husband).
In the December 1998 issue of The Progressive, Anne-Marie Cusac noted a passage by Paely that stood out: "One of the things that art is about, for me, is justice. Now, that isn't a matter of opinion, really. That isn't to say, 'I'm going to show these people right or wrong' or whatever. But what art is about -- and this is what justice is about, although you'll have your own interpretations -- is the illumination of what isn't known, the lighting up of what is under a rock, of what has been hidden."
In 2002, she was among those signing "Not In Our Name: A Statement Of Conscience Against War And Repression." Meredith Tax remembers Paley at Women's WORLD: "Grace and I became close during the PEN Congress of 1986, during which we organized a meeting to protest the inadequate number of women speakers, which took over the ballroom of the Essex House Hotel and led to the formation of a Women's Committee in PEN American Center. Grace and I were co chairs of that committee until she moved to Vermont, and she became founding Chair of Women's World in 1994. Grace was the kindest and most generous person I have ever known. This is unusual in a writer, especially one of her quality, because writers tend to husband their inner resources for their work, but Grace had so many inner resources that she could afford to be generous. She gave unstining love to her family and friends, took speaking engagements at any whistlestop, often without pay, organized antiwar and antinuclear and women's demonstrations, worked endlessly against nuclear armaments, did draft counseling, protested on behalf of the environment, free expression, and a just peace betwen Israel and Palestine."
In addition, Matthew Rothschild interviewed Paley for Progressive Radio and Neda Ulaby (NPR) provides an audio overview of Paley's life and work. In terms of writing, "My Father Addresses Me On The Facts Of Old Age" (June 17, 2002) is available online at The New Yorker.
the common ills
mikey likes it
iraqcamilo mejia
iraq veterans against the war
democracy nowamy goodman
juan gonzalez
the new york timesstephen farrell
the los angeles timescarol j. williamsleila fadelmcclatchy newspapers
the washington post
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)