Monday, August 13, 2007

Danny Schechter, Amy Goodman, Third

Monday, Monday, shouldn't trust that day. Another week. I always hate Mondays. Okay, let me wade in.

This is from Amy Goodman and Danny Schechter's "'The Media Dissector' Danny Schechter on Karl Rove's Resignation, the Subprime Mortgage Crisis and AT&T's Censorship of Pearl Jam:"

DANNY SCHECHTER: I’ve been writing about it, and I also made the film In Debt We Trust, and we have a website, stopthesqueeze.org, to try to organize a campaign for debt relief in America. In other words, Bono has called for debt relief in Africa. We have to start fighting for debt relief in America. A moratorium on these foreclosures would be a first step, and also an investigation into the profiteers on Wall Street. We're talking about literally billions of dollars that have just been spent by the Federal Reserve and by central banks around the world to try to prop up the system. A lot of that is really benefiting the people who created the problem in the first place: the hedge funds, the financial analysts who went ahead with this effort.
This subprime thing is really serious. I don't know if your viewers are all clear of it, or your listeners, but basically people who didn't have adequate credit to get homes were told, "No problem. Just pay us a little bit more, and we will give you the mortgage." Then they took the mortgage. They resold the mortgage back into Wall Street into what are called securitization trusts. These trusts then not only financed more acquisitions and buyouts and the like, but they also basically made incredible amounts of money for these people.
So we're now facing a situation, the New York Times -- I love this phrase -- just the other day talked about a "moral hazard," meaning that the risk takers who brought on this panic would feel bailed out again. And they are being bailed out again. And the problem is the opposition is not saying much about it. The Democrats are not talking about it. Activists are ignoring it, maybe because economics is the dismal science.
But we have been getting a lot of response to our film, In Debt We Trust, and to this issue, because it’s an issue that brings together people across the partisan lines, across class lines, across racial lines. It could be the issue that could lead to a fight for economic justice in this country.

That's your cabbage. (I like spinach!) Could you follow it? I followed about half of it. It's over my head. I like Danny and that's why I'm including it. Hopefully, you could follow all of it. "Subprime"? I donnu know. I don't have a mortgage. I've never applied for one. It's a housing crisis brought on by greedy bankers and they were preying on people with bad credit that they knew would have to struggle and eventually lose their homes. They were set up to fail. I'd recommend Danny's movie In Debt We Trust. (And I'm not slamming him for the stuff above, I'm just noting some of it's beyond me. It's important, he knows it's important, so I included it and hopefully other people will be able to follow it entirely.)

Now here he and Amy Goodman are talking about censorship and this I could follow:

DANNY SCHECHTER: Amy, that is so great. And, you know, the thing about this is, of course, AT&T is saying, no, it was one of our contractors that did this in an unauthorized way. We're working with the band to get this song out online. You know, they're basically not boasting that they did it. They're basically trying to, you know, cover up the fact that they were involved or implicated in it.
But, you know, this is only part of a much deeper problem. I spent ten years in rock and roll radio, and, you know, I was just back up in Boston. WBCN was the station I worked for. And the radio there is terrible. It's all controlled by big corporate media outlets. There's very little of the diversity on the airwaves that we really need. So this is a problem, and a serious one, of censorship. But the real censorship seems to be the manipulation by big telecom companies and radio companies and media companies, basically, of our airwaves. So it comes back to that once again.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s interesting. A reader to the -- emailed the Chicago Sun-Times saying AT&T's Blue Room Webcast had also silenced comments during two performances -- I may be pronouncing this wrong -- at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee last June, cutting remarks by the John Butler Trio bemoaning the lack of federal response to Hurricane Katrina and comments about Bush and the war in Iraq by singer Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips. The article from the Chicago Sun-Times saying it's not the first time AT&T has done these edits. AT&T did confirm that other unspecified political comments had been cut from its webcasts.
DANNY SCHECHTER: Yeah, nor will it be the last time, unless we take on this issue and begin to speak up for democracy on the airwaves, not just Democracy Now!, but broader, more diversity on the airwaves and more support for artists who are speaking out on important issues. And, you know, this just brings that issue back in front of our faces again.

They also talked about the news of a departure. If you're asking what departure, check out
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Karl Rove Leaves the Administration" below:

karlroveleaves

Now let's talk The Third Estate Sunday Review:

Truest statement of the week -- Marjorie Cohn was the pick because she cut through all the crap last week. It was the truest statement of the week.

A Note to Our Readers -- Jim breaks down the edition.

Editorial: The way it was/is -- Every week, Rebecca tries to work in a Barbra Streisand song. :D This week, she finally was able to. This is a perspective and historical editorial and moves surprisingly quick.

TV: P(ure)BS -- a lot of people worry Jim puts too much pressure on Ava and C.I. to deliver but, be honest, when Ava and C.I. turn out something like this as a result from a last minute request, Jim's pressure may not be a bad thing. This is great. They're addressing The Charlie Rose Show and the so-called History Detectives, both on PBS.

2 Books, 20 minutes -- Book discussion and we're reviewing two great books, Aidan Delgado's book (don't make me type the title, I'll mispell it!) and Army of None. If you're not familiar with them, go read the discussion. If you are familiar with them, read the discussion to see if your favorite parts were what we emphasized. They are both great books.

Roundtable -- I don't know what to say here. Betty, Cedric, Ty, Rebecca and Ava are really strong in the opening so praise to them. As it moves along, you get the bombshell. I've been asked not to name the backstabber so I really don't have anything else to say about this other than read it.

She's a celebrity, get her out of here! -- Koo Koo Katrina is a celebrity, not a journalist!

Weeks load of crap in one morning -- Yeah, the thing that was e-mailed by one of their readers, what we're responding to, came from Lotta Links. Are you surprised? Lotta Links is a lot of cowardice. Of course they'd come out strong for rapists and murderers.

Iraq -- Betty's idea. I hated this. I've read over and don't now. I had minimal participation in this. So the fact that it turned out okay doesn't have anything to do with me.

David Bacon's "Living Under Trees" now showing -- In Fresno, David Bacon has an exhibit. This gives you some of the details. If you're in that area (I'm not), you should check it out.

Highlights -- Kat, Wally, Rebecca, Cedric, Betty, Elaine and me wrote this and picked the selections except where noted.

So that's the edition and here's who worked on it:

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,
and Wally of The Daily Jot

Now for everyone who e-mailed asking if my mother was really okay, yes, and if you still don't believe me, be sure to read her "Spinach, Orange and Almond Salad in the Kitchen."
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Monday, August 13, 2007. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, Operation Happy Talk makes a splash and thank the left and 'left' voices there, US withdrawal fights a strong push-back via spin while one of Bully Boy's nearest and dearest withdraws from the White House, John Howard flaps his gum yet again -- this time in a letter to the puppet of the illegal occupation, the puppet doesn't have time for mail as he faces stinging criticism, and more.


Starting with war resistance, Agustin Aguayo is the focus of Mary Wiltenburg's "When a US soldier in Iraq won't soldier" (Christian Science Monitor) which traces Aguayo's involvement in the US military, working two and three jobs to support his family, Aguayo thought of joining the Army Reserves but was persuaded the Army was the better choice, went to basic training and was distrubed by the chants ("Left, right, kill!," "We are not men. We are beasts," etc.), realized on the eve of deployment to Iraq that he couldn't kill anyone. Helga Aguayo searched online and discovered conscientious objector, a term that applied to her husband and one they had never heard of. That's why it's shameful when publications such as The Nation (the 'leading magazine of the left') refuse to cover war resisters in print or reduce Camilio Mejia (as they did in their overly praised article last month) to a 'deserter' while never noting that his 8-year-contract was up, had been up, and that as a noncitizen the US military could not extend Mejia's contract. Mejia applied for CO status and was rejected. But by all means, let's applaud The Nation for it's repeated cowardice and it's repeated silence. The AP has done a better job covering the war resistance than the laughable Nation magazine. (Community members remember, check in on Labor Day.) In fairness, voices who didn't use the platform to note Ehren Watada but were happy to use their platforms to note a reporter should share the shame of The Nation.


Like Mejia, Agustin's CO application was rejected. Wiltenburg notes, "The decision was divided: Aguayo's company commander and investigating officer called him 'absolutely sincere' and said he had a 'legitimate concern with being a soldier.' The next four levels of command recommended rejection; one called Aguayo's application 'an attempt to remedy [the] anxiety all soldiers face during an extended deployment in a combat theater'." Perspective. "The investigating officer said that it was in the best interest of the military to discharge him and that he believed that Agustin was sincere. However, higher ups in the chain of command -- that never met with my husband -- decided that he wasn't sincere and just didn't really give a reason, just said that he didn't qualify as a conscientious objector," Helga Aguayo speaking to Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) Arpil 20, 2007. Mary Wiltenburg's "When a US soldier in Iraq won't soldier" (Christian Science Monitor) is the first of multi-part story on Aguayo The Christian Science Monitor is doing. So those wanting to be informed can look to that paper and ignored the useless Nation magazine..

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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. IVAW and others will be joining Veterans For Peace's conference in St. Louis, Missouri August 15th to 19th.



Over the weekend, the US military made a number of announcements including Saturday when the US military announced: "A Task Force Lightning Soldier died Friday in a non-combat related incident, which is currently under investigation." And, on Sunday, the US military announced: "A Task Force Marne Soldier was killed by small arms fire while conducting a dismounted patrol southeast of Baghdad August 11." and they announced: "Four Task Force Marne Soldiers were killed and four others were wounded by an explosion during combat operations south of Baghdad Aug. 11." Today, they announced: "A Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier was attacked during combat operations in a western section of the Iraqi capital Aug. 13." The deaths bring the total number of US service members killed in the illegal war ever closer to 3700. The cakewalk that had Bully Boy declaring "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended" beneath the banner declaring "Mission Accompished" in May 1, 2003 over four years ago When that lie was told at a photo op to sell the illegal war, Jesse Alan Givens was the 140th US service member to die in the illegal war. ICCC's current total is 3690. 3,550 US service members have died in Bully Boy's illegal war since he strutted around on the USS Abraham Lincoln beneath the manner crowing, "In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." Repeating that, 3,550 have died since Bully Boy's photo op. The 3700 mark looms and, so far this month, 32 US service members have lost their lives in Bully Boy's illegal war.

The five deaths announced Sunday indicate a new strategy in attacks on US service members. Megan Greenwell (Washington Post) reports the first soldier was shot dead to draw "the others to a house rigged to explode." It was a set up. And nothing in the US military press releases notes that.


As the 'cakewalk' had dragged on (and on and on . . .) some of the world leaders who supported it (the few) have been replaced. France has a new prime minister. Nicolas Sarkozy met with Bully Boy Saturday for a "casual lunch." Bruce Crumley (Time magazine) notes Sarkozy showed up Saturday for "the kennebunkport weenie roast" late, "45 minutes late," at a time when a new poll in France found 40% of the citizens want no improvement in the strained relationship between France and the United States that cratered over the illegal war and 26% of those responding expressed the desire for even greater distance between France and the United States. That's 66% of the country not wanting a big hug from the Bully Boy so, to no one's surprise, the two leaders, as Crumley characterizes it, agreed to disagree.

There remains a great deal of 'disagreement' between Bully Boy and the rest of the world and you don't need to look at the international polling and note how great the drop in favorable opinions of the US since Bully Boy began his illegal war to be aware of that. You can look at England's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, who has replaced "The Poodle" Tony Blair and isn't as pliable as Blair causing alarm in the US administration. Sean Rayment and Philip Sherwell (Telegraph of London) report: "America is preparing to pour thousands of extra troops into southern Iraq amid fears that Gordon Brown is committed to withdrawing British troops from the region early next year." While England plans to turn over southern Iraq to the Iraqis, the US prepares to station US troops there.

They can do that thanks to Bully Boy's escalation, which has led to approximately 160,000 service members stationed in Iraq (the highest number since Janutary 2005). Over the desires of the US public and the 'symoblic' resistance of the US Congress, Bully Boy began increasing the number of troops in Iraq at the start of this year. Tim Reid (Times of London) reports the Bully Boy thinks he can continue the escalation "well into next year" and cites a "a string of positive reports" on Iraq that Reid maintains have "left Democrats increasinly powerless to end the war."

The "positive reports" do not refer to any progress in Iraq or even official presentations. They refer to the waves of Operation Happy Talk that began in mid-July. An illegal war the White House refused to end and the US Congress played dumb about -- what to do? Grab a box of "Iraq War Helper!" Which is exactly what the administration began doing in July. Which is why and how you got nonsense such as US General Walter E. Gaskin declaring "we have turned the corner, we truly turned the corner" while for some reason referring to Iraqi soldiers's "hard". No one questioned it because the waves of Operation Happy Talk were splashing and isn't homoerotic subtext what we all expect from generals in the US military?

As Reuters' Kristen Roberts noted, one of the few, General Gaskin's briefing was very "optimistic." And strange and divorced from reality. But Gaskin was a piker compared to Lt. General Ray Odierno, Commander Mulitnation Corps-Iraq, who declared that a "bit more time" was needed for the illegal war and that General David Petraues's September report really wasn't going to tell anyone anything worth knowing because it would be November before anything could be known. In that press conference, Odierno immediately clarified,
"What I was saying is -- again, my remarks were, in 45 days I will have a better idea if the trends are continuing, and that's September. Obviously, we have an assessment we will conduct in September that will provide -- that General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will provide. I was not looking at extending that time frame when they have to report back. What I imagine we'll have to do is do assessments that follow that initial assessment in September, and that's -- I'm assuming we'll continue to do assessments while we're here." He would clarify it again on Friday and some of our 'brave voices' would get it wrong and say he clarified it for the first time on Friday. Not true, he did it in the original press briefing. Odierno was part of the push back, the lowering of expectations.

In that, he was successful. In the same press briefing, he also attempted to sell the unproven link between the Iranian government and resistance fighters in Iraq. He was less succsessful there because reporters pressed him forcing him to admit that there was "no specific intelligence" and, still in the same press conference, "We don't see any evidence -- significant evidence". That didn't prevent the New York Times' Michael Gordon from repeatedly citing the false link in July or August or utilizing Odierno as his source (including last week). What a few others questioned, Michael Gordon ran with. No surprise since Judith Miller's former co-writer was there to sell the illegal war from the start. Of course, it helps that 'star' 'reporter' Gordo has to answer to few and that the Baghdad chief for the New York Times is John F. Burns who could, and did, start off the month publicly opining, "I think there's no doubt that those extra 30,000 American troops are making a difference." He did so not in print because reporters aren't allowed to opine on the pages of the New York Times, that's a no-no. So he took his cheerleading on over to right-winger Hugh Hewitt's radio show where he also opined that the US withdrawing from Iraq will
"lead to much higher, and indeed potentially cataclysmic levels of violence, beyond anything we've seen to date." No word yet on when Burnsie plans to handicap the Kentucky Derby.

The waves of Operation Happy Talk also saw sporting events presented as indicators of 'progress.' All the little boys of the press who never got to play sports in their pimply, geeky, sunken chest schools days grabbed their jock straps and pounded furiously at their key boards over soccer matches and what it 'means'? If it meant anything, and it didn't, the alarm should have sounded when the Iraqi soccer team defeated the one from Vietnam. That should have sent a shudder through the jock-boys' spines since, of course, Vietnam was a defeat for the US not all that long ago. So those wanting to read the tea cups (or the sweat stains on the jock cups) should have pondered if that means that, in Iraq, the US has an even stronger resistance?

Where there are no sane comparisons to be made there is John Howard. Howard is not just (for now) the prime minister of Australia, he is the last of the Bully Boy defenders who got on board with the illegal war and (for now) still holds his official title. Now Howard didn't get way on board with actual troops. In fact, his loud mouth and hyperbole appear to be a desperate attempt to compensate for that and prove he can waddle with 'the big boys.' While he talks big, he sends very few troops. (Australians would not put up with him increasing the troop levels and they may not be putting up with him much longer as the election looms.) But Howard loves to shoot the mouth and this year decided the thing to do was to interject himself in US politics as he went on attack against US Senator and 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.and the Democratic Party claiming their victories in 2008 would be a winfall for terrorists and terrorism. "Barack Obama: Warmonger" (Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report) has made embarrassing steps repeatedly though the Sammy Power crowd tries so hard to prop him up. In this instance, dropping Chicken Sop for the Soul and leaving aside the I Talk Tough rhetoric, Obama actually scored points -- against a world leader. (It should have been a tip off to his chaotic campaign, but they're all so lost.) Noting that the loud mouth John Howard liked to talk big but has only provided approximately 1,000 troops to Iraq (that would be approximately 159,000 troops less than the US), Obama declared Howard should put up or shut up, send 20,000 more troops into Iraq, because
"[o}therwise, it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric." Howard sulked off and tried to keep his head down. But there's a wave of Operation Happy Talk to ride (actually it's over but Howard's timing has always been poor) and damned if Howard's going to miss jock talk! Australia's ABC reports Howard has dashed off a letter to puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki declaring that "Iraqis should follow the example of their nation's Asian Cup-winning soccer team". How so? By only some returning (briefly) to Iraq following the win? That is what happened. The ones he returned got a secluded, within the heavily guarded Green Zone, muted celebration. Somehow that didn't get splashed across the front pages of the New York Times, et al.

al-Maliki doesn't really have time for pen pals these days. He's just returned from trips to Turkey and Iran. Prior to leaving, he saw walk outs in the Iraqi Parliament and his own cabinet. al-Maliki's manner of dealing with it was to term those protesting obstructionists and began speaking publicly (yet again) about conspiracies to oust him. The whole country of Iraq was against him! The travel apparently did him well and he returned to Iraq, as Megan Greenwell (Washington Post) notes in a more peaceful and moderately sane (for him) mood declaring that he was committed to resolving "the growing political crisis" and that "[h]is primary goal will be to reconcile with nearly half of his cabinet members, who have stopped attending meetings in three separate protests against his leadership."

For some Iraqi leaders, the response was, "It's not that easy." Reuters reports that Adnan al-Dulaimi ("a senior figure in the main Sunni Arab political bloc in Baghdad") has declared (in an open statement to al-Maliki), "Your brothers in Baghdad are suffering in genocide carried out by militias and the death squads with Iranian planning, instructions and weapons. If you think what is happening to us will end at Baghdad then you are wrong. By God, this war that started in Baghdad will not stop here. It will extend to every Arab spot where the Arabic tongue is spoken. It is a war of history." Others joined al-Dulaimi in condemning the puppet. Suleiman al-Khalidi (Reuters) reports Sheikh Harith al-Dari ("the top Sunni cleric") stated, "If the Americans remain with this policy and rely on the same men who proved their failure again and again then they will leave Iraq in failure. . . . The U.S. administration should rectify its position in Iraq and stop depending on puppets . . . who have proven their failure."CBS and AP focus on al-Dulaim, and ignored al-Dari, noting that al-Dulami had spoken out against the Shia militias "unprecedented genocide campign".

As the waves of Operation Happy Talk started, 'war critics' showed up to say it was winnable and few bothered to note the 'critics' had argued for the illegal war to begin with. As July drew to a close and August began, the left and the 'left' largely made themselves useless as they accepted talking points (such as 'only 72 Americans died in Iraq in July!' -- a lie when they wrote their pieces) to move to 'bigger' points. Here's reality, the push-back was obvious in July. Save your bigger points until after you address the lies that are being told right then.
They didn't, because they know best. Obviously. After all they stopped the illegal war from even starting, didn't they? Oh, no, they didn't. And if anyone needing to see how that effort failed in real time need only review those end of July start of August critiques. "Wait! We had the MSM to go up against before the illegal war started! They were all selling it!" Yes, and they were all selling it again last month and this month and where the hell were you? Which is why CBS can report a new poll that finds a 10% bump in support for the escalation that Bully Boy calls the 'surge.' Attitudes against the illegal war have hardened and that remains true as the same poll indicates -- 30% want a timetable for withdrawal, 30% want US troops home now. But via a hard-sell by the MSM and a lot of crap from left and 'left' voices, he did get a 10% bump in approval for his escalation. The bump didn't translate into a bump for the Bully Boy himself (he stands at 29% approval rating in the latest poll) but it wasn't about Bully Boy. He has no election to win. He's over. The war drags on. And what the p.r. stunt proved was that (a) the MSM would run with it, (b) the voices with platforms would largely take the spin and say, "True, but . . " instead of calling it lies out right, and (c) new 'techniques' could be seen as worth exploring if a hard sell took place. The lesson for the administration (and War Hawks) was that they might be able, if the press real hard, to string the illegal war along by tri-mesters.

The War Hawks can laugh at portions of the left who make themselves useless, who will accept the same spin the MSM does, and who will be so dense and stupid that they will applaud crap and encourage people to view it. "No End In Sight when the peace movement gets behind crap" addressed that nonsense at various left and 'left' voices began praising a 'documentary' by a Council for Foreign Relations flunky which ignored the entire issue of the illegal war to instead sell the lie that the US screwed up on the ground. No End In Sight exists for one reason only, to sell the concept of wars of choice, wars based on lies, and get us to all agree that the real problem is with the planning, not the illegalities themselves. "Blood on the scarecrow, blood on the plow," as John Mellencamp once sang.

CBS and AP note, "At least 37 people were killed or found dead in sectarian violence nationwide. Nearly half of that number, 17, were tortured bodies discovered in Baghdad, officials said." In some of today's reported violence . . .


Bombings?Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad mortar attack claimed 1 life (three wounded),

Shootings?

Reuters notes an Iraqi soldier was shot dead in Hilla.

Kidnappings?

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Laylan kidnapping today where a truck driver was seized "on Gargcha bridge". Reuters notes that "the mayor of town of Dijla" was kidnapped today.

Corpses?

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 18 corpses discovered.

Over the weekend, some realities emerged in the press. Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times)
reported that all was not as upbeat as the waves of Operation Happy Talk maintained such as in the Amil section of the capital where checkpoints are set up everywhere but that hasn't stopped Amil and the Bayaa section from accounting for being the site of 160 discovered corpses since May. Meanwhile, in the foreign press, reports emerged of a US helicopter killing 8 Iraqi electrical workers when a rocket was fired on them. Richard A. Oppel Jr. (New York Times) was pretty much alone in the MSM in picking up the story and was told by the US military that, on Thursday, in that area, a US helicopter had killed "six men" but they were 'insurgents' who were "in the back of a truck." After speaking with Oppel, the US military would issue a statement and in the military press release on the helicopter firing they would note "eight insurgents" were killed, up two by their original figure -- and consistent with the reports of the US military killing 8 electrical workers last Thursday.

As if to counteract that reality, Stephen Farrell showed up in today's New York Times selling a wave of Operation Happy Talk about the US military taking in a 9-month old girl, Fatima, and raising her on a base in the midst of a war zone with no concern as to what this will mean for Fatima when the US military leaves, no questions as to why relief agencies weren't utilized, no questions about the huge breakdown in command that allowed such a violation to occur but lots of sop to sell the illegal war for a few more tri-mesters.

In other news, the US military is trumpeting their recent war games (click here for Nancy A. Youssef's report) which predicts chaos will come to Iraq when the US withdraws. Chaos came in March 2003. The war game is a game and as useless to reality as holding the Monopoly deed to Park Place when you have no place to live. In the real world, Robert Hutton (Bloomberg News) reports that the United Kingdom's Parliament is predicting the Bully Boy's escalation will fail and that "[t]he cross-party panel of lawmakers called on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to set out a policy to promote reconciliation between rival political factions in Iraq." The escalation is a failure and the US military pulled back and slowed the announcements of the deaths of US service members in an attempt to trick -- fortunately many were willing to be tricked. There has been no progress. All this time later, potable water, electricity and security remain impossible. The point being made in the British Parliament are similar to the ones made by US Senator and 2008 presidential hopeful Joe Biden on PBS' The Charlie Rose Show Thursday -- there is no diplomtic 'surge,' there is no progress in basic needs, the focus has been on the privatization of Iraqi oil at the expense of what is good for Iraqis and there is no way to claim that the escalation of US troops into Iraq has resulted in progress.


In news of withdrawals, Karl Rove will leave the White House. Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) reports, Rove will leave Aug. 31st and this "comes while he is at the center of several Congressional investigations. Last month Senate Judiciary Chair Patrick Leahy subpoenaed Rove to testify about his role in the politicization of the Justice Department and the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. So far Rove has ignored the subpoena and has refused to testify, citing executive privilege. In addition, two weeks ago Rove skipped a Congressional hearing on the allegedly improper use by White House aides of Republican National Committee email accounts. Rove told the Wall Street Journal that he is resigning in order to spend more time with his family. For the past 19 years Rove worked as George W. Bush's closest political advisor, first in Texas, then in Washington. During that time he earned the nickname of Bush's Brain." Goodman explored the topic in depth today with News Dissector Danny Schechter who noted, "Well, with his brain gone, what's left? I mean, this is rats deserting a ship. You know, the ship is sinking, clearly. His comment --- President Bush's comment the other day --- he doesn't speak English --- is indicative of an administration that doesn't know what it's doing or where it's going. Bush's top adviser leaving is certainly not going to make it any easier for him. We're going to see more and more crises.

















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Friday, August 10, 2007

William Blum, Willi Langthaler, Matthew Rothschild

Saturday morning! It's the weekend! And Friday's gone great because after they were done speaking, C.I., Jim, Ty, Jess and Ava came over here. I'll probably be blogging quick because I don't want to miss out on any of the fun. The Iraq study group went really well, as usual. What else?

William Blum has a good piece at AfterDowningStreet. I can't really excerpt from it because it is hard to pull out one section. But read it. He's covering about a million things and doing so historically. He's talking about withdrawal and the realities of Vietnam since that's always used (in distortions) as an example and he's talking about pretty much everything. It's a must read so check it out.

Now if Phyllis Bennis don't mind, and Katha Pollitt don't mind, we can take a little time and learn a little about the Iraqi resistance. From Willi Langthaler's "Extraordinary interview with pro-resistance Iraqi Nationalist:'

Abduljabbar al Kubaysi, influential political leader of the Iraqi resistance and secretary-general of the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance (IPA) elaborates on the new situation evolving in Iraq

Q: In the last period the European media when touching Iraq have been speaking only on a sectarian civil war. What is really happening?

Actually the US occupiers as well as the government imposed by them are pushing for this sectarian civil war. Also the Iranians have interest in this as they are looking for a federation in the South as well. Their attempt is to make the Sunni, the Christians, the Mandeans leave to have a purely Shiite zone. Under the conditions of war this sectarian drive has an immediate effect.
The US uses this as an argument to stay in Iraq as they claim that they would be needed to settle this strife.
There is, however, so much evidence that the intelligence services of the US, of the Iraqi as well as of the Iranian government are the real source of the violence. They plant bombs or pack them into cars which are then being exploded by remote control or by helicopter in both Shiite and Sunni areas deliberately killing civilians not involved in politics. Thus, they try to spark the sectarian conflict.
In the beginning, the media used to check on the site of the blast and often eye witnesses contradicted the official version that a person exploded himself. Now they use to cordon off the area and impede questions to the locals. They want to have the news spread that militants did the massacre while it was governing forces or the US who planted explosive loads. In most of the cases there is no person involved killing himself. In these cases you can be sure that the ruling coalition is involved.
For example, they changed the name of an important road in the Al Adhamiye district in Baghdad from a Sunni religious figure to a Shiite one during the night. It was the Shiite community of al Adhamiye itself to change it back to the original name. Then they came again with their Hummers…

If Phyllis Bennis don't mind, and Katha Pollitt don't mind, we can take a little time and play one more song . . . :D

By the way, I saw Pollitt's latest column, it was e-mailed to me. If someone thought I was linking to that crap, they're wrong. Alleged feminist Pollitt has written "Let Us Now Praise Child Molestors." That's what that crappy column is as she praises a pedophile for being right. Some feminist. You Go Useless Pollitt!

Matthew Rothschild, who doesn't look like left over chicken parts, just FYI, has something worth noting and Beau passed this on to me. It's from "The U.N. Mirage in Iraq:"


The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expects to send all of thirty more U.N. personnel to Iraq. But the staff union at the U.N. opposes this, and even wants those currently in Iraq to be withdrawn until the safety situation there improves.
Sounding like a mouthpiece of the Bush Administration, the Secretary-General said he would urge "Iraqi government leaders to do their own part in promoting and engaging in inclusive political dialogue."
This is the blame-Maliki first strategy, which Hillary Clinton has also signed on to.
The Secretary-General is supposed to involve himself in regional dialogue, as well, though it’s difficult to imagine how he’ll be able to succeed there, as Bush and Cheney are threatening to attack Iran virtually every day now.
It's also difficult to imagine how the U.N. will be able to help the security situation any. The response by Britain's U.N. ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, was laughable. He said he hopes "the U.N. will soon be able to redeploy a contingent to Basra, where its expertise would be helpful in delivering capacity building in Iraq's southeast."

The illegal war is lost and the US wants to hide the problems by pushing the appearance that the UN is in control in some way. They aren't. They won't be. More smoke and mirrors from the administration that's been blowing smoke up all of our asses for six years now.

I'm going to take a few seconds real quick to talk about Cindy Sheehan who's declared her run for Congress. I think she has a real shot at winning and think just by running she's raising the stakes again. She's sending a message that going-along-to-get-along won't come easy. The people want change and, yet again, Cindy Sheehan's leading the way. She's talked about how others should run and I agree with that. If you know someone qualified that would do a good job of representing the people, tell him or her to run. And take some time this weekend to tell everyone you know that Cindy Sheehan's running (and running to win) because this isn't just about Sheehan's race, it's about our character as a country. If we had real people who took their jobs seriously, we'd have impeachment hearings right now. Instead, we've got no impeachment, no end to the illegal war, no telling Bully Boy the illegal spying is over, we got nothing. We'll continue to have nothing until we start demanding more. Get the word out on Cindy.

Now the snapshot. They got here this evening and C.I. was just getting time to work on it during the ride over. It was funny to watch because C.I. was in the back seat on both cell phones, typing away furiously and saying, "Give me a second" to me. A second was thirty minutes later. :D But it's a great snapshot. Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Friday, August 10, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military starts another whisper campaign about al-Sadr, a US helicopter goes down, Joe Biden comes out against the privatization of Iraqi oil, and the draft is in the (US) air again.


Starting with war resisters. Agustin Aguayo served as a medic in Iraq and refused to load his weapon. He had applied for CO status but was told he'd have to wait until after deploying to Iraq to find out the status. His CO status was denied and he took the issue to the civilian courts. After serving one tour in Iraq and while his case was working through the courts, the military expected him to deploy a second time. Aguayo self-checked out and was gone for less than thirty days before turning himself in. Despite being gone less than thirty days (September 2nd through September 26th) and turning himself in, the US military prosecuted Aguayo for desertion (the general rule is that you have to be gone 30 or more days for desertion). Aguayo and his wife Helga Aguayo are now telling his story and how it effected their family. Rosalino Munoz (People's Weekly World) reports that Agustin and Helga are attempting to decide what to do with regards to the civilian case and must decide by September 5th whether or not to appeal to the Supreme court. Munoz notes, " At issue is whether a soldier's conscienctious objection to war can develop after enlistment and outside of an organized religion, as well as whether the Army can deny a soldier's claim to conscientious objection without a response to the soldier's arguments."

Were the military to follow their own stated policies, there would be no questions as to what qualifies for a CO but they don't, as Aguayo, John A. Rogowsky Jr. and many others have discovered. From the US military's "Selective Service System: Fast Facts:" "Beliefs which qualify a registrant for CO status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be." Despite that basic reality, Aguayo, Rogowsky and others have been told that they're not religious enough, that their religion is not recognized, when religion really is NOT required for CO status. In Aguayo's case, the military refused to recognize that time in Iraq deepened Aguayo's faith (already present when he enlisted).

Munoz notes that Aguayo's attorneys believe he has a strong case but Aguayo wants to review the strengths with them before going further with the case due to a concern that a loss in the Supreme Court could reverse the gains that service members had made during Vietnam. Aguayo is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and another IVAW member, provides an update on war resister Marc Train. Adamo Kokesh (Sgt. Kokesh Goes to Washington) reports that Train has been charged "under Article 15 of the UCMJ for being AWOL for 114 days . . . They are now in the process of kicking him out under Chapter 12-14. . . . So a little soft time at Fort Stewart and he should be home free." Train self-checked out after taking part in the DC actions to end the illegal war in March of this year. Kokesh also reposts Eli Israel (the first service member to publicy refuse to continue serving in the illegal war while stationed in Iraq) story, told in Israel's own words. Sarah Olson (Political Affairs) reported on Train in June and quoted him stating, "Just because we volunteered, doesn't mean we volunteered to throw our lives away for nothing. You can only push human beings so far. Soldiers are going to Iraq multiple times. The reasons we're there are obviously lies. We're reaching a breaking point, and I believe you're going to see a lot more resistance inside the military." Tran is a member of IVAW (and was on his way to being discharged from the military -- by mutual agreement between him and the brass -- until he signed on to Appeal for Redress) and, like other IVAW members, has posted about his experiences and observations there. At the end of April, he wrote, "This Administartion has been emboldened by the lack of effective mass outrage. Now, what I mean by that is that our country as a whole has not effectively demonstrated its outrage about the policies of this Administration; the workers are still going to their jobs, the traffic is still flowing; products are still being consumed. As long as this is all functioning and every measure of control is in place, and as long as Congress continues to nervously shift about and take no determined action, the Administration does not feel threatened by the anger of its opposition."


There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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. IVAW and others will be joining Veterans For Peace's conference in St. Louis, Missouri August 15th to 19th.

Meanwhile, the US military is trumpeting the news that the Army met its targeted recruitment goals for the month of July . . . while hoping no reporters note that the target was brought down some time ago both in terms of numbers and qualifications. And hoping no one notices how much money is being spent on a still non-existant draft in the US. In an indication of things being explored and floated, if not yet on the way, Bully Boy's assistant and deptuty National Security Director on Iraq and Afghanistan Lt. General Douglas Lute spoke with Michelle Norris on NPR's All Things Considered today where he pushed the draft
("a national policy decision point that we have not yet reached, Michelle" -- note, "not yet reached") and declared of the draft, "I think it makes sense to certainly consider it and I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table, but ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another." While "one means or another" may be a nicer way of saying "by all means necessary," there's no denying that draft boards have been set up, that tax payer monies are being spent on them and that Bully Boy's assistant is now floating the option which -- pay attention, Nancy Pelosi -- unlike impeachment is not 'off the table.' Returning to the issue of the qualifications waived to meet the targets, Stephen D. Green, fingered as the ring leader by others who participated in the war crimes against 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and her family (Abeer was gang-raped while her parents and five-year-old sister were murdered in the next room, then she was murdered and her body set on fire to destroy any evidence) is an example of the lowering standards since he went from jail to the military via a 'moral waiver' that overlooked not only his most recent arrest but his prior arrests. In other military crime news, Feminist Wire Daily reports that Cassandra Hernandez' rape by "three of her malecounterparts" in the US Air Force has led not to punishment for the alleged rapists, but instead to charges against Hernandez with the three alleged rapists being "granted immunity from the sexual assault charges" for agreeing to testify against Hernandez. This assault on Cassandra Hernandez is only a surprise to those who have looked the other way while the US military brass has regularly and repeatedly excused and ignored the assualts on women serving in the military. The assault by the brass on Suzanne Swift is only one of the more recent public disgraces. The US military brass has repeatedly and consistently refused to address the assaults on women (and on gay male victims of assualt) and Congress has repeatedly and consistently refused to excercise their oversight obligations.

On a related crime note, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today: "In other news on Iraq, the U.S. military has dropped all charges against two Marines connected to the shooting deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt had been charged with three counts of premeditated murder and Capt. Randy Stone with dereliction of duty for failing to properly report the civilian deaths. Five Marines still face charges for shooting dead two dozen unarmed men, women and children in Haditha on November 19, 2005."

Goodman also notes Joe Biden's nosies with regards to punishments for the Bully Boy (we'll get back to that) but that's not really the big news regarding US Senator and 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden. Appearing yesterday on PBS' The Charlie Rose Show, Biden discussed the upcoming September 'progress' reports to Congress and noted that there has been no military progress in Iraq though he understood why Gen. David Petraeus would attempt to finesse that bit of reality. Biden then went on to offer his take on the administration's political attempts (which have failed, as Biden noted) in Iraq and identified Dick Cheney as the one blocking progress. (I'm not endorsing that, or endorsing Biden's kind words for US Secretary of State and Anger Condi Rice, et al.) Rose questioned whether Cheney could really be against progress and Biden utilized the oil revenue sharing 'benchmark'. We've heard that utilized before by all Dem candidates for president except Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich in a manner that lumps the oil revenue sharing and the theft of Iraqi oil into one provision. Biden didn't lump them together -- a possible sign that other candidates may also join Kucinich and Gravel in calling out the theft of Iraqi oil. Biden delcared, "Look at what we keept trying to write into the law: privatization. Who are we to tell them to privatize?"

Biden's comments come as growing resistance mounts in the US (led by United Steel Workers) to the theft of Iraqi oil and as news of a poll gains traction. Aaron Glantz (OneWorld via Common Dreams) reports on the Oil Change International poll of Iraqis that "found nearly two thirds od Iraqis oppose plans to open the country's oilfields to foreign companies. The poll found a majority of every Iraqi ethnic and religious group believe their oil should remain nationalized. Some 66 percent of Shi'ites and 62 percent of Sunnis support government control of the oil sector, along with 52 percent of Kurds." Glantz quotes Antonia Juhasz (author of The BU$H Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time) explaining, "We're talking about opening up the second largest oil reserves in the entire world to foreign investment. It costs about $75 a barrel -- and about 60 cents to get it out of the ground. Do the math."

As Great Britain's Socialist Worker reports, "The pro-US Iraqi government has outlawed the country's oil workers' union under a law passed during the regime of Saddam Hussein. The order comes as opposition is mounting to a proposed oil law that would hand over the country's natural resource to foreign companies. The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) has spearheaded opposition to the proposed law."

On February 23, 2007, Antonia Juhasz spoke with Kris Welch on KPFA's Living Room
about the oil law and explained the basics:.

Antonia Juhasz: It's really American, and let me clarify that as Bush administration, propaganda that this law is the path towards stability in Iraq. It is absolutely propaganda. This law is being sold as the mechanism for helping the Iraqis determine how they will distribute their oil revenue. That is not what this law is about. That is the bottom end of an enormous hammer that is this oil law. This oil law is about foreign access to Iraq's oil and the terms by which that access will be determined. It is also about the distribution of decision making power between the central government and the region as to who has ultimate decision making power and the types of contracts that will be signed. There are powers that be within Iraq that would very much like to see that power divvied up into the regions, between the Kurds and the Shia in particular, and then there are powers that would like to see Iraq retained as a central authority. The Bush administration would like the central government of Iraq to have ultimate control over contracting decisions because it believes it has more allies in the central government than it would if it was split up into regions. The Bush administration is most concerned with getting an oil law passed now and passed quickly to take advantage of the weakness of the Iraqi government. The Iraqi government couldn't be in a weaker negotiating position and the law locks the government in to twenty to thirty-five year committments to granting the most extreme versions of exploration and production contracts to US companies or foreign companies. Meaning that foreign companies would have access to the vast majorities of Iraq's oil fields and they would own the oil under the ground -- they would control the production and they would in contracts yet to be determined get a percentage of that profit but they'd be negotiating essentially when Iraq is at its weakest when Iraq is hardly a country. And that's what this oil law is all about. What Iraqis are saying very clearly and have said to Raed [Jarrar] and, in particular, to the loudest voices being the Iraqi oil unions is that the only people who want to see this law passed now are the Americans. There's no other reason to push that law through."


Turning to some of the violence on the ground in Iraq . . .

CBS and AP report a US helicopter that went down in Kirkuk, wounding two Americans on board, cite the Iraqi military as the source for the news that the helicopter hit an electric pole and note that on July 31st and July 3rd US helicopters were brought down "after coming under fire".

Bombings?
Reuters reports a Kirkuk car bombing that claimed 11 lives (with at least 45 more people wounded). CBS and AP report a Baquba roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 2 bus passengers and left at least four others wounded.

Shootings?

Reuters reports Wisam al-Maliki (the son of sheikh over puppet Nouri al-Maliki's tribe) was shot dead in Garna. CBS and AP report a man was shot dead in Baquba.

Corpses?

Reuters reports that three corpses were discovered in Rutba.


In other news, Reuters reports that the UN Security Counsel has backed a proposal for a slightly more visible United Nations role in Iraq and denies charges that the US strong-armed the proposal in order to shift the responsibilites off on the UN; however, they do note that Hoshiyar Zebari, Iraq's Foreign Minister, has stated the obvious via a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that "prior consent" for any authorization having to do with Iraq needs to have the "prior consent" from Iraq's government. Iraqi's Parliament was rightly outraged when the US government got the UN to extend authorization for their role as 'peace keepers' in Iraq without either the US or the UN bothering to seek the input or authorization of the Iraqi government.


Meanwhile, as the government of US puppet Nouri al-Maliki is in disarray (while he visits Iran), Sue Pleming (Reuters) reports that the US administration continues to (publicly) stress their support for al-Maliki while Olga Oliker (Rand Corporation) notes that replacing the puppet now would "backfire" on the administration and states, "To be a colonial puppet master you need a much stronger understanding and subtle knowled of the culture and history than the U.S. has demonstrated over the past few years in Iraq." In an apparent move to defocus attention from the US puppet government's many failures (security, electritcy, water, food, etc.), AFP reports that Col. John Castles is the point-person to restart the whisper campaign that Moqtada al-Sadr is in Iran. Though the allegations earlier this year were never proven, they did serve to distract for a number of weeks. No doubt that is again the hope with the latest whisper campaign.

In political news, Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan officially announced her candidacy for California's 8th Congressional District in the 2008 election yesterday in San Francisco. Sheehan will be competing with other candidates including US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who currently holds the seat. Among those present for the announcement was whistle blower Daniel Ellsberg who endorses the run. Sheehan will be running as independent candidate and for more on this see Rebecca's post from last night.

Sheehan declared last month that she would run for Congress if Pelosi refused to put impeachment back on the table by July 23rd after repeated (and rightful) anger over the Democratically controlled Congress' refusal to end the illegal war. As legal scholar Francis A. Boyle (Dissident Voice) observes, ."Despite the massive, overwhelming repudiation of the Iraq war and the Bush Jr. administration by the American people in the November 2006 national elections conjoined with their consequent installation of a Congress controlled by the Democratic Party with a mandate to terminate the Iraq war, since its ascent to power in January 2007 the Democrats in Congress have taken no effective steps to stop, impede, or thwart the Bush Jr. administration's wars of aggression against Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, or anywhere else, including their long-standing threatened war against Iran. To the contrary, the new Democrat-controlled Congress decisively facilitated these serial Nuremberg crimes against peace on May 24, 2007 by enacting a $95 billion supplemental appropriation to fund war operations through September 30, 2007." Or as veteran DC correspondent Helen Thomas (Seattle Post-Intelligencer via Common Dreams) points out, "President Bush has the Democrats' number on Capitol Hill. All he has to do is play the fear card and invoke the war on terror and they will cave.What's more, the president has found out that he can break the law and the rubber stamp. Democratic Congress will give him a pass every time." Sheehan's announced candidacy comes as Matt Renner (Truthout) reports, "The Blue Dogs have apparently informed the Democratic leadership in the House that they support the ongoing occupation of Iraq. According to Mahoney, he met with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and told her 'The president should be free to maintain troops in Iraq, if the purpose is to thwart terrorism'." The Blue Dogs are War Hawks (and include Loretta Sanchez whose greedy hands would rather grabs billions in pork than end the illegal war) and centrists who have repeatedly stabbed the Democrats base in the back. The 2004 demise of Blue Doggie Martin Frost should have been a lesson -- a Republican-lite running against a Republican will lose every time. That's what happened to Texas' Frost who shortly before his political demise was toying challenging Pelosi for the House leadership post. Frost, like most Blue Dogs, runs from the Democratic Party while taking the national monies. Frost's campaigns were noted by Texas community members for their use of yard signs and campaign materials that never mentioned Frost was a Democrat and for slurs and slams against other Democrats perceived as liberal (such as Pelosi) to assure voters he wasn't one of those 'crazy Democrats'. Long term Congress member Frost went up against newbie incumbent Pete Sessions thanks to the illegal redistricting of Texas' congressional lines (assisted in the process by the US Homeland Security Dept. which spied on state Democrats). Voters presented with wishy washy Frost and proud-to-be-a-Republican Sessions chose Sessions. There's a moral in the story. There's a moral in the story of St. John Conyers as well as in some outlets rush to claim that racism is involved in expecting a senior member of Congress who has repeatedly advocated impeachment of the Bully Boy, who has written a book about the necessity to impeach the Bully Boy, and who shows up at various gatherings (such as the large peace rally in DC this year) to state the people can fire Bully Boy. St. Conyers wants all the applause and refuses to do anything. For some reason, some outlets see themselves as defenders not of the people or the Constitution but as St. Conyers' personal fan club. The reality is Conyers could move on impeachment and, by his public statements (which his office often later recants or distorts) but elects not to. Disgusing those realities by suggesting a racist attack is going on against Conyers is really pathetic and, interesting to note, that many suggesting that lie were no where to be found when Cynthia McKinney was twice ousted from the House of Representatives via racial slurs. As Betty, Cedric and Ty have noted: "As we said last week, he's old, he's tired, it's past time he gave up his seat and let some new blood in. The only disgrace has been what he has done to his own image." (Betty's seen the latest nonsense and notes that it will be addressed by her in Sunday's roundtable.) The topic of impeachment wasn't avoided on PBS where Bill Moyers examined it seriously last month. That one hour look (including guests such as John Nichols) at impeachment on Bill Moyers Journal is repeating and can also be viewed, listened to or read online currently. As a weak alternative to impeachment, Senator Joe Biden is floating 'later actions.' As Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today: "Impeachment has been making headlines recently in the city of Kent, Ohio. Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden has suggested criminal charges could someday be filed against members of the Bush administration. In a recent interview with Newsweek, Biden said there are alternatives to the impeachment of President Bush. Biden said: 'I think we should be acquiring and accumulating all the data that is appropriate for possibly bringing criminal charges against members of this administration at a later date'." This 'later' nonsense has also been floated by St. Conyers is nothing but nonsense. The 1992 elections gave Democrats the control of Congress and the White House and they unwisely decided to put Iran-Contra behind them. The crimes of Reagan and Bush were swept under the rug and we're all paying for that today. By the same token, in January 2009, after Bully Boy leaves office, the DC conventional wisdom (that so many elected Dems are held hostage by) would be, "He's out of office, leave it alone." If impeachment does not take place, Bully Boy walks and anyone suggesting otherwise is taking an ahistorical view of the situation.








aaron glantz





Posted by at

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Marjorie Cohn, CCR, Ken Silverstein, John Nichols

Thursday and I'm starting late. I'm going to dive right into impeachment talk.

Let's focus on the illegal spying that Bully Boy's doing. FISA is a rubber stamp court. They rarely ever turn down any warrant request. The only thing FISA does is make the government go through a review process where the FISA court reviews the paper work and stamps it. Now this is from Marjorie Cohn's "FISA Revised: A Blank Check for Domestic Spying:"

Responding to fear-mongering by the Bush administration, the Democrat-led Congress put its stamp of approval on the unconstitutional wiretapping of Americans.
George W. Bush has perfected the art of ramming ill-considered legislation through Congress by hyping emergencies that don't exist. He did it with the USA Patriot Act, the authorization for the Iraq war, the Military Commissions Act, and now the "Protect America Act of 2007" which amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
FISA was enacted in 1978 in reaction to excesses of Richard Nixon and the FBI, who covertly spied on critics of administration policies. FISA set up a conservative system with judges who meet in secret and issue nearly every wiretapping order the administration requests.
But that wasn't good enough for Bush. In 2001, he secretly established his "Terrorist Surveillance Program," with which the National Security Agency has illegally spied on Americans. Instead of holding hearings and holding the executive accountable for his law-breaking, Congress capitulated once again to the White House's strong-arm tactics. As Congress was about to adjourn for its summer recess, Bush officials threatened to label anyone who opposed their new legislation as soft on terror. True to form, Congress - including 16 Senate and 41 House Democrats - caved.

In 2005, the New York Times exposed Bully Boy's illegal spying program. They had the story since before the election but refused to run it. So they finally run it (after the 2004 election) and the Democrats weren't in control of Congress then. The November 2006 elections put the Dems in charge. In January 2007, they were sworn in. Where are the hearings? A federal judge found the spying program illegal. Where are the hearings?

Instead of hearing, we got Congress rubber stamping a law as they rushed off to vacation, a law that the White House apparently wrote and I thought Congress wrote legislation. The new law, Cohn explains, means that now the approval for spying comes from Alberto Gonzales (or who ever is the Attorney General) and the Director of National Intelligence.

Marjorie Cohn is the president of the National Lawyers Guild. Another strong organization is the Center for Constitutional Rights and this is from their "CCR IN COURT TODAY TO CHALLENGE NSA DOMESTIC SPYING PROGRAM AND NEW FISA LAW:"

On August 9, 2007, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) appeared 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."

Now why does CCR have to do the fight Congress should be doing?

We've all heard the excuse, the whine from Democrats in Congress that "We don't control a house." Now they control two. Where are the hearings?

We can't get impeachment, but we can't even get public hearings on Bully Boy's illegal spying. That's crap. Democrats need to worry less about the 2008 election and concentrate a little more on doing their damn job. Chief among them is John Conyers who could put impeachment on the table any time he wants. But he won't do that. He doesn't do a lot of things. Like why did John Conyers agree to an interview with Ken Silverstein, request that it be by e-mail and then, four months later, still not reply? I think the answer is in the questions. Here are two of the six questions Silverstein was asking in "Six Questions (Without Answers) for Congressman John Conyers on Impeachment and Alberto Gonzalez:"

Is President Bush (and/or Vice President Cheney) guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors in regard to leading the country into the war in Iraq?
Polls show that impeachment of President Bush is supported by a notable section of the public. Why isn’t impeachment on the table? Have the Democrats decided for political reasons that impeachment should not be pursued? Was the congressman pressured by the party leadership to steer clear of the topic, as has been reported?

Conyers won't answer questions. And Congress won't do anything. This is from John Nicols'
"Bush More 'Disastrous' Than Nixon" and the link goes to David Swanson's site:

"The system worked in Watergate," Bernstein told the Denver Post.
Even after Nixon was reelected in a 49-state landslide in 1972, Bernstein said, the president was checked and balanced in the manner intended by the founders of the American experiment.
The news media investigated Nixon, and editorialized boldly when the president's lawless behaviors were exposed.
The Congress responded to those revelations with hearings and demands for White House tapes and documents. When the materials were not forthcoming, Congress went to court to force Nixon and his aides to meet those demands.
The courts responded by aggressively and consistently upholding the authority of Congress to call the president to account.
And when it became clear that Nixon was governing in contradiction to the Constitution, the U.S. House took appropriate action, with Democrats and Republicans on the Judiciary Committee voting for three articles of impeachment. Congressional Republicans, led by Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, then went to the White House to inform their party’s president that he stood little chance of thwarting an impeachment vote by the full House or surviving a trial in the Senate.
Nixon resigned and so ended a constitutional crisis created by a president's disregard for the rule of law -- a crisis that was cured by an impeachment move by House members who respected their oaths of office.
Today, says Bernstein, the system that worked in the 1970s is failing as the country witnesses presidential and vice presidential misdeeds that former White House counsel John Dean has correctly characterized as "worse than Watergate."

The system isn't working. Congress refuses to do their job. We can put pressure on them and maybe if we put enough pressure on them they'll finally act. But it says a great deal about how little they respect the rule of law, the Constitution, and our system that they require so much pressure to do their job.

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

Thursday, August 9, 2007. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, Bully Boy says Iran is the cause of the destruction of Iraq, talk of installing a new dictator surfaces, impeachment remains 'off the table,' and more.
Starting with war resisters. Camilo Mejia is the first known Iraq War veteran to become a war resister. At the end of last month, Maria Hinojosa of NOW with David Brancaccio interviewed Mejia (transcript, audio, excerpt) about his time in Iraq, his determining that the war was illegal and his book Road from Ar Ramaid: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia (The New Press) which was published in May. "When you join the military," Mejia declared, "you think that you're going to do it to protect freedom to fight for democracy. And finding yourself in a war that's not legitimate by international law standards, where you're abusing prisoners in a war that's being fought in the streets, and you see that the bulk of the human loss, it's civilian, it's very difficult to conciliate your participation in that war and what you're doing in that war with the reasons that led you to -- to sign a military contract." And in Mejia's case (and many others), a contract that is worthless for the signee because the US military isn't bound by it. (Mejia, a non US citizen, had reached the end of the 8 year contract but was the victim of 'stop loss' despite the fact that, as a non citizen, this was not allowed under prior or existing policies.) Noting that Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience (following his was court-martialed and sentencing), Hinojosa asks him where he see his "place now in the year 2007 in these United States?" Mejia responds, "I see myself as part of a movment. And the number of people -- deserting the military when I returned from Iraq was 22. And I believe the number is up to nine -- 9,000 or more soldiers who have deserted or gone AWOL since the beginning of the Iraq war. And I see a l-long way ahead of us. I see a long struggle. And I see myself as part of that struggle."
Amnesty International also supported Abdullah Webster who was court-martialed in June 2004 after he refused to serve in Iraq citing religious reasons (Webster is Muslim) for refusing to serve in the illegal war. Webster joined the US military in 1985 and was set to retire in 2005. The came the illegal war. Webster had served in the first Gulf War but had converted to Islam (1994). Webster first attempted (September 2003) to be granted CO status and then followed that with a request for assignment to non-combat services. Instead, the US military said he would deploy to Iraq (Feb. 2004). His wife Sue spoke of the June 3, 2004 court-martial and his being sentenced to 14 months noting, "An abiding memory I have is of him being led off back to his cell as I watched distraught, in tears, holding our 22-month-old daughter in my arms." In April of 2005, Webster was released from military prison.

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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. IVAW and others will be joining Veterans For Peace's conference in St. Louis, Missouri August 15th to 19th.

To stay on PBS' NOW with David Brancaccio for a moment before moving on, this week's show will feature David Cay Johnston (New York Times) and Beth Shuman discussing with Brancaccio "the state of our country's vast income divide and how it's hurting those just trying to make ends meet." The program begins airing Friday on most PBS stations, check your local listings.

Moving to the New York Times, has the new, smaller size resulted in less need for facts? Damien Cave semi-reports on the US bombing a resedential section of Baghdad but forgets to list the number of civilians local authorities say died. This is the same Damien Cave who couldn't tear himself away from any detail in February 2005 (including the very serious crime -- we're sure -- of manure being flung in Ohio) to push the "ATTACKS ON US MILITARY WITHIN THE US" alarmist nonsense that (we're sure) he wishes everyone could forget. Ladies and gentlemen, the Divine Damien, Dung Will Be Flung Tonight. When it comes to vandalism (being passed off as terrorism), Cave doesn't miss a detail. When it comes to human lives, he apparently misses 17. That is the number of civilians Megan Greenwell (Washington Post) reports killed in the US air strike on Sadr Ctiy citing "military and Iraqi police". Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted that "U.S. troops and warplanes have waged a major attack on the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad. . . . The Washington Post described the raid as one of the largest in a series of U.S. attacks against Shiite militias. The raid on Sadr City came shortly after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki left Baghdad for Tehran where he met with several Iranian leaders. Hundreds of Baghdad residents held protests last night against the U.S. for attacking Sadr City less than 24 hours before the start of a major Shiite holiday. Meanwhile Iraqi officials have imposed a strict curfew and banned all vehicular traffic in Baghdad until Saturday in an attempt to prevent car bombings during the holiday." Also in today's Washington Post, Ann Scott Tyson reported on the lastest switcheroo by the US which is now backing the Sunni leading to worries and concerns within the puppet government and, presumably, within the US military. Col. Steve Townsend seems rather blase as he tells the Post, "I assume they . . . have killed some of us [US troops]. We have killed a lot of them. If they are willing to move foward with us, I'm willing to keep an open mind." Of course, "Col" Townsend won't be the one doing any training, that will fall to lower leveled service members. While any meaningful peace plan would have to pull him the resistance (which the US has been in talks with for over a year now), there is a difference between that and what's being done here. It's equally true that the real point is to keep everyone off balance -- or at least Sunni and Shia (the US has operated the illegal war as if no one else was present in Iraq). You can apply the "learned helplessness" technique Jane Mayer discussed with Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) yesterday. Keep 'em off balance, keep 'em guessing. Pit Sunni against Shia, Shia against Sunni, let chaos and violence run free and maybe the US won't be seen as the illegal invader it is but instead as the great savior.

On the topic of Iraqi deaths, Patrick McElwee appeared on KPFK's Uprising today where he spoke with host Sonali Kolhatkar about the 'benchmark' the US administration probably won't flaunt. Next week, Iraqi fatalities since the start of the illegal war are expected to reach the one million mark. Where is the coverage? McElwee noted that Fox "News" recently had Britty Hume embed in Iraq where he was on US aircraft while it dropped around 25 bombs and though there was time for rah-rah, there was not one report about where the bombs landed and what happened to the people present. McElwee declared that's "what's needed now is some organized pressure on our leaders to end this war." McElwee is with Just Foreign Policy and you can learn more by visiting this page of their site.

As the deaths pile up, so do the insults. Kim Gamel (AP) reports that Saad Eskander, director of the Iraqi National Library, has repeatedly attempted to get US and Iraqi troops to leave the facilities but has been ignored while windows have been broken and US forces have repeatedly "entered the building without permission".




Bombings?



Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Basra mortar attack that wounded a police officer "and other civilians." Reuters notes a Baghdad roadside bombing that claimed 3 lives and a Baghdad mortar attack that killed 1 person and left 2 more injured and that "two small bridges in Salahudding province" were blown up. AP reports a bombing "near the house of a Shiite family" which claimed the lives of a wife and husband and left their child injured.



Shootings?



Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 Iraqi soldiers wounded by gunfire. Reuters notes a man shot dead in Najaf.



Corpses?



Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 9 corpses discovered in Baghdad.



Yesterday, the UK Ministry of Defence announced the death of one British soldier in Basra. Today, they identified him, 20-year-old Martin Beard. And they announced two more deaths: "It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the deaths of two British soldiers from 1st Battalion The Irish Guards in Basra, southern Iraq in the early hours of this morning, Thursday 9 August 2007. The soldiers were killed, and another two seriously injured, when an Improvised Explosive Device detonated next to their patrol just after midnight local time." This announcement brought the total number of British soldiers killed in the illegal war to 168. David Byers (Times of London) notes, "Britain has now lost four soldiers in Basra in one week, as the Shia Mahdi Army increases its attacks in the southern city."

Today, the US military announced: "A Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West died Aug. 7 in a non-combat related incident in Al Anbar Province." And they announced: "A Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West died Aug. 7 in a non-combat related incident in Al Anbar Province." And they announced: "A Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier died from a non-combat related cause Aug. 8." ICCC's total for US service members killed in the illegal war thus far this month is 25 and is 3684 since the start of the illegal war.



In the Joke for the Day news, Matt Spetalnick (Reuters) reports the Bully Boy of the United States has stated "Iran is a destabilizing force in Iraq". Not since Bully Boy joked about WMD in public has he made a bigger fool of himself. As The Toledo Blade editorialized yesterday, "the United States has essentially destroyed Iraq as a country".



Meanwhile Damien McElroy (Telgraph of London) reports that NYU's Michael Oppenheimer is arguing that the answer for Iraq is a dictator. Oppenheimer is an associate professor has been arguing that since at least mid-July when he declared following a workshop, "The best idea we were able to generate -- a National Unity Dictatorship -- is the only plausible route to stability in both Iraq and the region, and one we can make more likely if we choose to. This would, of course, represent the failure of democratization in Iraq, at least in the short term." McElroy notes that Oppenheimer believes the US could 'create' "a viable dictatorship in Iraq." So now the US is going to explore imposing a dictatorship?



In activism news, members of Military Families Speak Out were among those arrested at the Garden Grove office of US House Rep. Loretta Sanchez yesterday, Jennifer Delson (Los Angeles Times) reports, after Sanchez refused to agree not to vote for the $145 billion funding bill for the Iraq war noting that "$2.1 billion for C-17 production" -- pork she steered her own way via her spot on the House Armed Services committee -- was too important to her, more important than any deaths in Iraq. "Funding the war is killing the troops!" cry Iraq Veterans Against the War and Tina Richards and Military Families Speak Out while Sanchez plays Gimmie! Gimmie! Gimmie! How proud she must be and how untroubled her sleep.



In news of other cowardice, St. John Conyers, burned at the stake of his own words, is the Congress member who could start impeachment. He refuses to. He refuses a great deal. Ken Silverstein (Harper's magazine) reports that he was supposed to interview Conyers back in May and, as requested, he did it via e-mailed questions. Despite following up repeatedly, Conyers still hasn't replied. Possibly questions about whether "leading the country into the war in Iraq" constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors and why impeachment isn't "on the table" are questions St. Conyers prefers to avoid? The topic of impeachment wasn't avoided on PBS where Bill Moyers examined it seriously last month. That one hour look (including guests such as John Nichols) at impeachment on Bill Moyers Journal is repeating and can also be viewed, listened to or read online currently.
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