Saturday, December 23, 2006

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Condi Rice for LIAR-ALL Bully Products"



Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Condi Rice for LIAR-ALL Bully Products."
Condi says, "Over 655,000 Iraqis dead. Over $11 million U.S. tax dollars spent every hour. 2964 American troops dead. Me and the illegal war are worth it."







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NYT: Continuing to ignore the fatalities

"Shiites Remake Baghdad in Their Image" is the headline, Sabrina Tavernise is the byline, New York Times is the paper. The mood? Mechanical. If weeks, WEEKS, after McClatchy Newspapers have been covering the story, you're suddenly going to take note, you need to do so with something better than this pedistrian I-really-don't-know-what-I'm-writing-but-watch-me-tick-off-a-check-list approach.

Maybe after Shatha al-Awsy's "A Baghdad resident seeks a safe haven" on November 28th, cookie-cutter, paint-by-number doesn't cut it? From al-Awsy's article:

As my family fled the fighting that's engulfed our neighborhood in Baghdad, I gazed out the car window, thinking that I might never again see the fruit stand off our street, the shops where my sisters and I bought soft drinks, the turquoise-domed mosque where we prayed in the holy month of Ramadan.
And to think I'd spent Sunday in my garden, using the forced free time of a curfew to plant geraniums for spring. Later that night, Shiite militiamen encroached on our Sunni enclave; the reverse had happened in so many other neighborhoods, and now it was our turn. Any thoughts of the future were overshadowed by the need to survive the night.
A year ago, I was a newlywed excited about finally having a place of my own. I filled it with what we call baghdadiyat, the artifacts of a bygone time in Iraq's history: an Ottoman trunk, Persian carpets, copper spoons and silver vases finely etched with designs of birds and flowers. Abstract paintings by young Iraqi artists hung on the wall. My garden outside was ringed with stones and filled with climbing vines and seasonal flowers.
When it became too dangerous to dine at restaurants, my husband and I would sometimes set a table in the garden and eat together under a floodlight - if there was electricity. This was my sanctuary from war.


Tavernise's article reads like the sort of survey pieces the Times does on America to test the mood. Considering the topic -- Sunnis being forced from Baghdad -- that's probably not the best journalistic approach for Tavernise's article.

In fairness to Tavernise, today's report is graded not just by myself but by people who made their living and make their living in journalism. It's a tough crowd and she just doesn't measure up. The grading panel is all print except for two from the world of broadcast -- both of whom had early print experience. The consensus on Tavernise's report?

She's shown up at the recital and her piece has only one note which she strikes over and over and over . . . Hopefully, she wore a pretty dress.

Though five US troops were announced dead by the US military on Friday, you can search in vain for that story in the New York Times. Apparently this wave of Operation Happy Talk demands that the Times ignores or buries all US fatalities. And fortunately, when it comes to that, the New York Times is up for the job.

How shameful is that? One day this week, in a five paragraph article (with a byline of "The New York Times") noted deaths. Otherwise? That is really shameful. It's not only bad journalism, it is shameful. There's a debate over what to compare it to -- Good Housekeeping? I honestly don't know if that magazine is still around. Was that the one that was Rosie for awhile? But that's the sort of 'reporting' that leaves out US fatalities -- that 'we must not upset our readers,' fragile flowers all, type 'reporting.' (Which, I'll add, went out the window when it was time to repeat a rumor, in the 90s, that a celebrity marriage was a for-show arrangement.)

It's already the worst December of the illegal war for US troops deaths but you wouldn't know it to read the New York Times. They don't want to spook to the country, or serve the readers. So we get Tavernise at the piano hitting that one note (it's not even a chord) over and over and we get David S. Cloud and John O'Neil yacking it up about Robert Gates. They're the boys fighting over who Daddy loves best. Tall tales from little boys. Then in their final paragraph (ten) of yacking it up, one sentence to cover what should be a story and, barring its own story, should be the opening paragraph.

75 is the number of US troops who have died in Iraq this month. It's the uncomfortable fact the New York Times can't report. If Bully Boy's The Decider, the Times is . . .

Oh yes I'm the great pretender -- oooh oooh
Adrift in a world of my own -- oooh oooh
I play the game but to my real shame
You've left me to dream all alone


The Platters, a bit before my time but this is a group entry.

Here's two grownups with Reuters, Kristin Roberts and Ross Colvin, explaining what the Times can't:

The U.S. military on Friday reported the deaths of five more soldiers in Iraq as Defense Secretary Robert Gates ended a visit aimed at finding a new strategy to curb violence and allow U.S. troops to withdraw.
Four U.S. servicemen were killed in action on Thursday in Anbar province, heartland of the unrelenting Sunni insurgency against U.S. forces and the Iraqi government and the most dangerous place in Iraq for American soldiers.
A fifth was killed and another wounded west of Baghdad on Friday when their patrol came under machinegun and mortar fire, the U.S. military said. At least 71 U.S. soldiers have died so far this month.


Opening paragraphs. And while the Times has ignored reality all week, over at the Washington Post, Nancy Trejos' again covers it, today in "5 U.S. Troops Die in Iraq as Month's Toll Hits 70:"

Five more American service members have been killed in Iraq, the U.S. military reported Friday, in what is shaping up to be one of the deadliest months for U.S. forces this year.
Four of those deaths occurred Thursday in western Iraq's Anbar province, where Sunni insurgents are aggressively fighting U.S. troops. The fatalities included three Marines and a sailor assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7, the military said.


And staying away from the Times' kiddie table, we'll note Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily's "Iraqi Hopes Dim Through Worst Year of Occupation" (IPS):

Despite promises from Iraqi and U.S. leaders that 2006 would bring improvement, Iraqis have suffered through the worst year in living memory, facing violence, fragmentation and a disintegrated economy.
A year back Iraqis were promised that 2006 would be the fresh beginning of a, prosperous, democratic and unified Iraq. Through an elected parliament and a unity government, they would find peace, and start rebuilding a country torn apart by the U.S.-backed UN sanctions and then the U.S.-led invasion and occupation.
But everyone agrees that the situation now is worse than ever. Leaders in Iraq disagree only to the extent they blame one another for the collapse in security that has led to worsened services and living conditions.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, along with many other Shia leaders in the Iraqi government, blames al-Qaeda and "Saddamists" for the degrading situation. Echoing statements by U.S. President George W. Bush, al-Maliki told reporters recently: "Those terrorists hate democracy because that makes them lose power, and all they are doing is killing Iraqi people in order to recapture what they lost after the liberation of Iraq."
Whatever leaders say, people are simply looking back on a hellish year, and fearful of another to come.
"I wish I could flee to any third world country and work in garbage collection rather than stay here and live like a frightened rat," Adel Mohammed Aziz, a teacher from Baghdad told IPS. "We are all living in fear for our lives; death chases us all around.."
The displacement of Iraqis from Iraq is currently the world's fastest-growing refugee crisis, according to the Washington-based group Refugees International which works towards providing humanitarian assistance and protection for displaced people.
The United Nations estimates that at least 2.3 million Iraqis have fled the growing violence in their country. They estimate that 1.8 million Iraqis have fled to surrounding countries, while another half million have vacated their homes for safer areas within Iraq. An estimated 40,000 people are leaving Iraq every month for Syria alone, according to the UN.


Pay attention to what they're reporting. Be sure to note the talk that 2006 would be better. You're hearing the same nonsense from the Bully Boy about 2007 right now. That turned corner that -- despite all the hype -- only leads to more violence and chaos (and always will).


On the topic of things to listen to, Rachel notes that WBAI offers the following next week (tomorrow and Monday):

Sunday, December 24, 11am-noon
THE NEXT HOUR
Satirists Paul Krassner, Michael Elias, David Dozer discuss "Censorship and Creativity." Moderated by Janet Coleman.

CAT RADIO CAFE
A stocking stuffer hosted by Janet Coleman and David Dozer.

And the following community sites have updated since yesterday morning:

Rebecca's Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Cedric's Cedric's Big Mix;
Kat's Kat's Korner;
Betty's Thomas Friedman is a Great Man;
Mike's Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine's Like Maria Said Paz
Wally's The Daily Jot:
and Trina's Trina's Kitchen

And Keesha notes Margaret Kimberley's latest, "Latino New Orleans" (Freedom Rider, Black Agenda Report):

Migration is a constant in human history. In the land that is now the United States those forces were set in motion by Europeans who claimed inhabited land for themselves. They initiated a pattern of invasions across the continent, followed by the forced migration or annihilation of the original inhabitants, and the forced migration of Africans.
All of which brings us to New Orleans. The displacement of that city’s black population began with a natural disaster, hurricane Katrina. Katrina may have emanated from nature, but the damage that followed was caused by human beings.
The government of the United States allowed the levees that protected New Orleans to deteriorate so badly that they failed when they were most needed. The banana republic that is now the United States sees no reason to help human beings, or even to maintain its own infrastructure.
Malfeasance that took place before and after the storm created a displaced population. Residents who asked to be rescued from the flood were instead sent to far flung places. Those wanting to return are stymied because they have neither places to live, nor places to work.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.








the washington post
nancy trejos







Friday, December 22, 2006

Iraq snapshot

Friday, December 22, 2006.  Chaos and violence continue in Iraq; American military fatalities in Iraq hit 2964 -- 36 shy of the 3,000 mark and Condi Rice is pleased with that figure and want to see it go higher, HIGHER, HIGHER; a US war resister will be released from the military brig tomorrow; Carolyn Marshall demonstrates you don't have to serve in the US administration to be useless; and a remedial walk-through for confused visitors from yesterday.
 
Starting with news of US war resister Ricky ClousingJoe Miller (Jacksonville's The Daily News) reports that Clousing "will be released from the Camp Lejeune brig on Saturday."  As Bob Geary (Raleigh-Durham Indpendent Weekly) reported yesterday, there is a rally scheduled in Fayetteville (North Carolina) "midday Saturday to be greeted by human rights supporters at the Raleigh Friends Meeting House, 625 Tower St. (the street behind the Cameron Village Post Office).  His reception is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., before he catches a flight from RDU back to his hometown of Seattle Wash."  Once arriving in Seattle, as Courage to Resist notes, there will be a welcoming at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, 10:15 p.m. Saturday night -- "Concourse B., Baggage Claim 11."
 
Clousing self-checked out of the US military in June 2005 and, on August 11, 2006, announced he would be turning himself in.  Following an attempt at turning himself in at Fort Lewis, Clousing was told to go to Fort Bragg.  On October 12th, Ricky Clousing was court-martialed and has been in the brig since then.  Like Ehren Watada, Kyle Snyder, Darrell Anderson, Mark Wilkerson,  and Agustin Aguayo, Clousin is a part of resistance within the military that includes Joshua Key, Ivan Brobeck, Camilo Meija, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass, Patrick Hart, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Appeal for Redress is collecting signatures of active duty service members calling on Congress to bring the troops home -- the petition will be delivered to Congress next month. Information on past and present war resistance can also be found in David Zeiger's Sir! No Sir! which tells the story of war resistance during the Vietnam era and, in the new director's edition, also includes bonus material on Camilo Mejia's court-martial, interviews with Cindy Sheehan and Jane Fonda about today's war resistance, and more. The director's cut is availabe for $23.95 and the original version is currently available for $12.95.
 
Resistance within the military was the story of 2006 but too few were interested in reporting it or, let's face it, in reporting at all.  Chatting on some charges, don't call it reporting, Carolyn Marshall (New York Times) continued to flaunt ignorance today, as well as what may very well be xenophobia, as she chirped away about 8 US marines charged in the November 2005 Haditha slaughter without ever noting a reaction on the part of Iraqis -- even a previously reported reaction.  (Marshall does have a co-writer.  Her past bylines indicate she grabs all the blame for the latest.) 
 
On today's Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez rebroadcast an interview they did with Time magazine's Aparisim Ghosh about the Haditha massacre explaning (pay attention, Carolyn Marshall), "The more we dug, the more we thought something didn't quite add up."  How so?  The Iraqis "were killed in their homes, in their night clothes.  The night clothes were significant because . . . women and children especially, are unlikely to go out in their night clothes, it is a very conservative society."  "The victims," yes, Carolyn Marshall, Aparism Ghosh spoke with victims and eyewitnesses, "told us that the Marines came in and they killed everyone in sight."  One young girl told of how the Marines killed everyone in her home except for her and her young brother.  Click here for the full report from May 30th's Democracy Now!  and we'll note what Dahr Jamail said in that discussion: "And the other really aspect of that, I think is important to note on this, is the media coverage, again, surrounding what has happened around Haditha simply because Time magazine covered it, and thank heavens that they did, but this has gotten so much media coverage, and in comparison, so many of these types of incidents are happening every single week in Iraq. And I think that's astounding and important for people to remember, as well."
 
If Carolyn Marshall needs futher examples of what real reporters do, she might also check out Majid Hameed (Reuters) who spoke with people in Haditha today.  Khaled Salman declares, "Those soldiers killed 24 people.  They killed women and children, isn't that enough for them to be excuted?  Just so that the family can have peace."  Her sister was killed in the slaughter.  Hameed also notes a local judge, Talal Saed, who states, "They should be tried in Iraq and under the Iraqi law. . . . This is a show trial just to show that the Americans are doing something to be fair with Iraqis but it's nothing more than that."
 
 
Equally oblivious is the US Secretary of State. Yes, Condi Rice continues to flaunt her loose grip on reality.  Her failure as US National Security Advisor (remember, 9-11 was on her watch) trails her as US Secretary of State.  Mark Tran (Guardian of London) reports that Condoleezza Rice "said Iraq was worth the cost in US lives and dollars".  Today, the US military announced: "Three Marines and one Sailor assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died Thursday from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province."  Also today, the US military announced: "An attack against a Multi-National Division - Baghdad patrol killed a Soldier west of the Iraqi capital Dec. 22. The Soldiers came under sporadic small arms and indirect fire during a patrol.  One Soldier was killed and another wounded."  Five deaths and Condi says it's worth it.  The total number of US troops killed in the Iraq war is 2965 and Condi says 'It's worth it.'
 
As for the financial costs, the National Priorities Project has released their summary of the US federal government's budget for 2006 which notes ". . . the total cost of the Iraq War rose to nearly $380 billion. . . .  Broken down another way, on average, the federal government spends about $11 million every hour on the Iraq War, $256 million each day, or around $8 billion per month."
 
Condi's statements about things going swimmingly come as the BBC reports that at least seven Iraqi police officers were arrested by British troops in Basra due to suspicions of "corruption and leading a death squad in Basra."
 
 
While Condi proves she's useless in every position, Bully Boy hopes and prays that Santa Clause will bring him a way out of the illegal war he started so that he can announce some new 'plan' in 2007.  75 US troops, who lost their lives this month so far, won't be able to wait for that news.  It is the deadliest December for US troops since the start of the illegal war and December isn't over.
 
And in Iraq?
 
 
Bombings?
 
AP notes that two people died and four were wounded in a car bombing in Samarra while two police officers were wounded in a roadside bombing in Baghdad.  Reuters identifies the two dead in Samarra from the car bomb as Ahmed al-Yaseen and his wife (name not given) and the four wounded were their children while also noting that two police officers were killed in Samarra from a roadside bomb and, in Suwayra, a bombing left five people wounded. Mohammed al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that an explosion in Baghad "targeting police patrol in Al Saadon street, central Baghdad" left eight citizens wounded.
 
Shootings?
 
Mohammed al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that Hiba Abdullah was shot dead while in her car in Baquba and her two-year-old son Mohammed Ahmed was injured.
 
 
Corpses?
 
Reuters notes that the corpse of a "hospital employee" who was kidnapped Thursday was discovered today in Kut.  Christopher Torchia (AP) reports that 21 corpses were found in Baghdad, Baquba and Kut today.
 
CNN reports that iman Emad al-Shimari was kidnapped "at a Sunni mosque in northern Baghdad after Friday prayers."
 
 
In peace news, Veterans For Peace announces that they, CODEPINK, Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Working Assets were able to purchase 24,000 phone cards which "were distributed to 149 VA hospitals nationwide." 
 
Also in peace news, Guy Smallman (Great Britain's Socialist Worker) reports that England's House of Lords has determined, three years after, that the police response to a March 2003 demonstartion against the war was "illegal and the protesters' human rights were violated.  Lord Bingham has described the police's actions as 'wholly disproportionate' and said that the right to protest is 'an essential foundation of a democratic society'."
 
 
In let's-walk-the-vistors-through-real-slowly news (for visitors lost yesterday), the US government wants to sideline Muqtada al-Sadr.  Iraqis want foreign troops to stop occupying their country.  This week US troops ceded control of Najaf to Iraqis.  As the BBC reported yesterday, an attempted end run around al-Sadr took place yesterday when Shia leaders met with Ayatollah ali al-Sistani in Najaf.  For visitors who got lost in the basic yesterday, note this from Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP): "In Najaf, Shiite delegates were meeting the country's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to ask for his blessing for the new coalition.  The deal would excluse al-Sadr, but participants sought to reassure him that it would not sideline his influence".  Today, Lebanon's The Daily Star reports that following the meeting with al-Sistani, the same group of leaders will meet with al-Sadr and discuss with him the possibility of a one month truce/cease fire.  Already one part of the plan has been enacted, al-Sadr's followers announced yesterday they would return to their cabinet and parliamentary functions.  If it's still too hard to put together, the AFP reports: "US officials have made it clear that they favour a realignment in Iraq's unity government, which would exclude Sadr and his Shiite militia".  Despite that desire and the Pentagon report blaming al-Sadr, Nouri al-Maliki refuses (thus far) to heed the US call.  And, as AFP reports, "this week Iraqi politiicans trampled down to the Shiite holy city of Najaf to talk to Sadr's allies and encourage him back into the coalition."  To review, in an attempt to win the favor of al-Sistani and his followers, US forces handed control of Najaf over to Iraqi forces.  The US government's hope was that al-Sadr would then be shut out in the talks that took place on Thursday, that a new coalition would be formed which would sideline him.  That, however, did not happen.  Another bet Condi made that someone else will have to pay off.  For visitors still confused, Sam Dagher (CNN) reports: "'President Bush is being misled,' senior Shiite parliament member Ali al-Adeeb said in response to Bush's statement Wednesday that an emerging 'moderate coalition' would marginalize those who 'use violence to achieve political objectives'."
 
 

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Other Items

Give Jamez Glanz credit for being the adult in Baghdad today (or at the New York Times) today. "Iraqi Factions Try to Undercut a Plan to Isolate Extremists" is not perfection, it is the only thing the Times can point to with any pride other than Moss' two-part prison series this week. Glanz addresses the potential shifts in parliament, walks you through the boycott and the reasons for it, addresses Robert Gates' for show meet up (and notes "It was not clear how the troops who met with Mr. Gates had been selected, but in a show of hands he requested, about half said they were serving their second tour in Iraq and the rest said they were on their first" -- they were hand picked), covers some of the violence in Baghdad on Thursday . . .

So am I just a tough grader? Actually, this is being graded by myself and two house guests who are already up this morning, one of whom states if he'd turned this in to his editor during Vietnam, he would've heard back, "How many American troops died?"

How many died?

For the record, that number for the month of December is 74. On Thursday, as noted in yesterday's snapshot, the US military announced the deaths of two soldiers and one marine. Where is that in the article?

74 for the month of December (which isn't over yet) makes this December the highest of the illegal war for US troops' fatalities. 40 was 2003's toll, 72 was 2004's toll, 68 was 2005's toll.

Since the deaths of US troops have been repeatedly and consistently ignored by the Times all week, it's debatable how much of it falls on an indivdual reporter and how much of it comes from the top. But it is disgraceful.

Over at the Washington Post, Nancy Trejos' "Three U.S. Troops Killed: 15 Iraqis Die in Blast at Police Academy" addresses what the Times ignores:

The U.S. military announced Thursday that three more American service members have been killed in Iraq, as a suicide bomber detonated himself in a crowd of police recruits in Baghdad, killing 15.
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died in western Anbar province Tuesday, and soldier from the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, died there Wednesday, the military said. The area is considered the heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency.


As the Times once infamously said, it's a matter of emphasis.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


james glanz

Jacksonville's Daily News: Ricky Clousing released from the brig this Saturday

A Fort Bragg paratrooper charged with unauthorized absence for the military after serving in Iraq will be released from the Camp Lejeune brig on Saturday.
Former Army Sgt. Ricky Clousing of Sumner, Wash., was sentenced to three months confinement during an October court-martial. Many people are anxiously awaiting his release, and there will be a special ceremony in Raleigh to mark the occasion.
Clousing, who served with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, was an Army interrogator in Iraq. It was there his supporters say he witnessed the horrors of war.
“He was made aware of a lot of the abuses that were going on to the Iraqis and to the detainees,” said Mia Austin-Scoggins, media director of the Fayetteville Peace Group.


The above is from Joe Miller's "Paratrooper who went AWOL to be released" (Jacksonville's The Daily News). Open with what matters, then wade through the trash . . .

In the New York Times today, Paul von Zielbauer is paired with serial obscurer Carolyn Marshall who most infamously managed to co-write about Abeer without ever naming her and presented the defense argument as fact -- surprising since legal experts would note that the defense argument was unheard of and Marshall managed to co-present it before even the defense had -- not in a "The defense states . . ." but in a "This is what happened" kind of way. The article's crap, the way anything she puts her byline to is. As it goes on and on, search in vain for any indication that Iraqis were spoken to for the piece -- they weren't. Search for any qyotes from other sources (such as Time) where witnesses have been quoted -- you won't find any. Carolyn Marshall is a really lousy reporter and there used to be a term for people like her who hung around military bases but we'll be kind this morning and just note that the term isn't "reporter."

In the real world, or a close approximation, the US military announced today: "Three Marines and one Sailor assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died Thursday from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province."

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

ricky clousing


Thursday, December 21, 2006

And the war drags on . . .

The first day he was deployed in Iraq, in November 2004, Sgt. Ricky Clousing found himself standing guard at the rear of an Army convoy after it stopped on a Baghdad street. His job was to turn back any vehicles that approached. So when a car turned toward them from a side street, he raised his weapon in warning and the car began to turn around. Clousing could see the driver's eyes clearly--just a scared and unthreatening young man. Then, from somewhere in the convoy, Clousing heard a "pop, pop, pop." Another soldier had fired at the car, killing him.
Clousing told that story and more about his appalling Iraq experience in a speech at Guilford College a few weeks before his court martial for desertion from the Army was scheduled to begin at Fort Bragg. That was in October. The trial ended with a plea agreement: Clousing was found guilty of being AWOL and was sentenced to serve three months in a military prison before receiving a bad-conduct discharge from the Army.
With good conduct, Clousing will be released this Friday or Saturday morning, and he'll head for Raleigh at midday Saturday to be greeted by human rights supporters at the Raleigh Friends Meeting House, 625 Tower St. (the street behind the Cameron Village Post Office). His reception is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., before he catches a flight from RDU back to his hometown of Seattle, Wash.
"Any friends of peace and G.I. resistance are welcome to share in the spirit of this courageous voice against injustice," says Chuck Fager, the director of Quaker House in Fayetteville and one of the event's chief organizers.


The above is from Bob Geary's "Sgt. Ricky Clousing went AWOL over atrocities: Soldier tried to report abuses but was rebuffed" (Raleigh-Durham Independent Weekly). Ricky Clousing stood up and he did make a difference. It got some coverage, from All Things Media Big & Small, some not much. But regardless of coverage, it made a difference. And it will continue to do so as Clousing continues speaking out. Like Kyle Snyder and many more.


Eddie notes Matthew Rothschild's "Harry Reid No Majority Leader" (This Just In, The Progressive):

The leadership of the Democratic Party is nowhere--nowhere on the Iraq War.
Look no further than Sunday's "This Week" program, where Harry Reid was asked about the latest crazy idea from Bush and company: the surge --throwing 20,000 or more additional U.S. troops into Baghdad.
Reid is supposed to represent the opposition, but on Iraq, he's providing no real opposition to the Bush course.
Reid, who came to power as Majority Leader in the Senate on the gusts of anti-war sentiment, amazingly is on board with Bush now.
"If the commanders on the ground said this is just for a short period of time, we’ll go along with that," Reid said.
Go along?
Come on, Harry, get with it.
Sending more troops to Baghdad is only going to result in more U.S. soldiers dying.
It’s only prolonging the inevitable, which is that we've got to pull our troops out of there, not keep sending more in.


Rothschild wrote the above on the 18th of December. On the 19th, Harry Reid issued this statement:

Frankly, I don't believe that more troops is the answer for Iraq. It's a civil war and America should not be policing a Sunni-Shia conflict. In addition, we don't have the additional forces to put in there. We obviously want to support what commanders in the field say they need, but apparently even the Joint Chiefs do not support increased combat forces for Baghdad. My position on Iraq is simple:
1. I believe we should start redeploying troops in 4 to 6 months (The Levin-Reed Plan) and complete the withdrawal of combat forces by the first quarter of 2008. (As laid out by the Iraq Study Group)
2. The President must understand that there can only be a political solution in Iraq, and he must end our nation's open-ended military commitment to that country.
3. These priorities need to be coupled with a renewed diplomatic effort and regional strategy.
I do not support an escalation of the conflict. I support finding a way to bring our troops home and would look at any plan that gave a roadmap to this goal.
It's been two weeks since the Iraq Study Group released its plan to change the course and bring our troops home. Since then, the President has been on a fact finding tour of his own administration -- apparently ignoring the facts presented by those in the military who know best. The President needs to put forth a plan as soon as possible, one that reflects the reality on the ground in Iraq and that withdraws our troops from the middle of this deadly civil war.


You can thank organizations like CODEPINK (who sent out an alert to members asking them to contact Reid about his support, Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation, for a 'surge') and you can thank people like Matthew Rothschild who used their platforms to call him out. Harry Reid is going to bend to appease unless his feet are held to the fire. And that's true of the majority of Congressional members.

They're just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country's known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.

-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)

Last Thursday, the number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 2938. Tonight? 2959. That's twenty-one in a week and do you see that reflected in the coverage at all? No. You see gushing reports from the lackeys who got to obeserve officials (they rarely get that they're servants at the party, not guests).

Jim Lobe (IPS) writes about the "Urge to Surge" and you can certainly see that same 'urge' in the mainstream media. Lynda notes this from Lobe's latest report:

As official Washington breaks for the two-week Christmas-New Year's hiatus, it knows that the number one issue it will face on its return in early January is the White House's apparent "urge to surge" as many as 50,000 new troops into Iraq for up to two years in a last-ditch effort to claim what President George W. Bush insists on calling "victory".
The plan, which was presented to Bush last week in a meeting with five national defence specialists, two associates of the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is designed to focus U.S. military efforts on providing "security" for average Iraqi citizens against both the Sunni insurgency and Shia militias that have, in the report's words, made Baghdad the "centre of gravity of this conflict".
Drafted hastily -- it currently exists only as a Power Point presentation -- by its two main authors, AEI fellow Frederick Kagan and the former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army, Gen. Jack Keane, as an alternative to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG) headed by former Secretary of State James Baker, it is called "Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq".
The title apparently chosen deliberately to counter one of the ISG's core messages: that there is "no magic bullet" -- least of all a military one -- that can save what most analysts here believe is the biggest U.S. foreign policy debacle since at least the Vietnam War.
"Alone among proposals for Iraq, the new Keane-Kagan strategy has a chance to succeed," declared this week's Weekly Standard, which, like the AEI fellows involved in the "Victory" project, was a major champion for going to war in Iraq.
Indeed, the provenance of the plan -- aside from Keane and two other senior retired military officers, a majority its 17 contributors are AEI fellows -- has fed suspicions that it represents one final effort by neo-conservatives to persuade the president that, by "doubling down" on his gamble on Iraq, he can still leave the table a winner and "transform" the entire Middle East.

Lynda notes that Baby Cries A Lot has made his "half-assed" program about giving a weekly platform for an AEI scholar and that others on the left and 'left' appear to have joined in. Fortunately, he's in repeats and can do very little damage currently.

A real radio program worth hearing is what Joan steers us to -- Hawaii Public Radio's KIPO (89.3 FM) where Town Square (Thursday December 14th) devoted the hour to Ehren Watada's case (Watada is the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq). The host of the program is Beth-Ann Kozlovich and the guests were Ehren Watada, his father Bob and Ann Wright.

Ehren Watada spoke of how he never saw himself ending his military career with a court-martial but he feels "a crime was committed on the American people" and that to participate would not only condone the illegal war but condone future deceptions as well.

Beth-Ann Kozlovich pointed out that, "Between January and June this really was under the radar of most of us." That was the time period during which Ehren Watada was attempting to explore avenues other than going public.

Bob Watada spoke of his speaking tours to raise awareness on his son's case (he estimated it was 24 states on the mainland), "very, very positive" was how he rated the public response and noted the interest of the international media as well (including Spanish, Swedish and Japanese media).

Ann Wright discussed the realities Watada is facing: "Certainly the military has its own way of looking at things. If you look at what the civilian environment is doing, if you look at the elections, the American people is clearly saying they want a change . . . In the court of public opinion I certainly think that Ehren . . . has effected a lot of people and we see a lot of changes in the American public." Kozlovich asked whether that would have an impact on military justice and Wright responded, "I would certainly hope that they would look at it and take into account that they all are really on trial. The military itself is being forced by the Bush admistration to do things that are very difficult to do."

Ann Wright stated that Ehren was being made an example of out of the fear that if Ehren Watada is found not guilty, others will follow his lead. (Others already are.) Carolyn Ho called in to give a report on how things were going in the United States where she was on a speaking tour and also knocking on the doors of Congress to raise awareness on her son's case. She gave Congress "mixed reviews" and noted that many said there wasn't anything they could do now but some stated possibly "at the time of sentencing" there might be something Congress could do. Others were more supportive. Carolyn Ho is asking for people to contact their Congressional reps and demand that they utilize their legislative oversight duties. Ehren's stance is that the war is illegal and he cannot serve in an illegal war. How can he be court-martialed for his stance when Congress refuses to do their job and determine the status of the war? Contact your Congressional reps and "Ask to have his resignation accepted and the charges dismissed because he is innocent based on Article 6, Clause 2 of the Constitution which states that all international treaties that the United States has entered into are the Supreme Law of the Land . . . so he's committed no crime and, indeed, should be freed."

She noted that as important as the legal defense was for her son, "the power is with the public opinion" as well.

Ann Wright spoke of the need to end the war and to put pressure on Congress. She discussed the 31 days she spent on the Troops Home Fast and how it led to an invitation to Jordan from Iraqi members of parliament to discuss a peace plan.

Ehren Watada spoke of the time before he made his decision when he and others were wondering why someone wasn't speaking out? He said he realized you can't ask anyone to do anything you're not willing to do and his question of "What are you willing to do?" is one everyone should be asking themselves.

We'll close with Kendrick's highlight, Bruce Dixon's "Is Dennis Kucinich the Black Candidate?" (Black Agenda Report):

Kucinich was the lone member of Congress present at the hearing. The imposing row of raised desks, nameplates and microphones against one wall was vacant. Kucinich sat at the same table with Middle East scholar Juan Cole of the University of Michigan, and with two authors of the peer-reviewed Lancet study which fixed the number of excess deaths produced by the US invasion of that unhappy land at about 650,000 to date, more than 200 dead Iraqis for each American. The four men at the table faced a small number of media and spectators.
Not a single one of the 75-strong member
Congressional Progressive Caucus was in attendance. Not one member of the Congressional Black Caucus was present. Three days earlier, Congressman Kucinich had declared himself a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008.
There's not nearly as much polling done of black public opinion as we at Black Agenda Report would like to see, but what there is indicates that a major fault line dividing white from black America is belief in America's right to impose its will by military force on the rest of humanity. Most African Americans don't buy it. Most of our white neighbors do. In 2003, polling on the eve of the Iraq invasion showed that while seven of ten whites endorsed the coming war of choice, the same percentage of African Americans opposed it.
Establishment pundits deal with this in two ways. The Gallup organization explained the 2003 poll results by ascribing African American opposition to the war purely to the overwhelming black antipathy toward President Bush himself, as though the nuances of foreign policy were too deep for black minds to grasp, or perhaps we could only hold one idea at a time in our tiny heads. The Wall Street Journal's online editorial page takes a different, but equally racist tack, simply pronouncing black opinion irrelevant because it disagrees with white opinion.
But the truth is that we do exist, not just as an audience to be marketed to, but as a coherent political and moral force in American life. There is in fact, a black polity and a black consensus in which the discernible breadth of opinion is well to the left of much of white America in many areas. This is the black polity Martin Luther King and the early SCLC belonged to when they chose as their motto "To Save The Soul of America." This is the political reality and moral vision the Congressional Black Caucus of the 1970s and 80s appealed to when they styled themselves "the Conscience of the Congress." And it's the tradition in which Dennis Kucinich was operating when he convened the December hearing on Iraqi civilian casualties. That day, Dennis Kucinich was where the CBC should have been. He was definitely where most black voters have been all along.
Like Cynthia McKinney, and unlike most Democrats in the Congress, Kucinich has acted the part of an opposition legislator. And like McKinney, he often seems to stand alone because Democrats have long ceased to be an opposition party.



The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

iraq
and the war drags on

ricky clousing
ehren watada


Iraq snapshot

Thursday, December 21, 2006. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, one US war resister prepares of his release while another prepares for his court-martial, 8 US troops are charged in slaughter, Bobby Gates meets with an arranged audience who tells him just what he wants to hear, and, as new attempts at a governing coalition are made in Iraq, no one's supposed to pay close attention.
 

Starting with news of peace and resistance, US war resister Ricky Clousing has spent three months in a military jail for his refusal to continue fighting in an illegal war. He is now being released and supporters are encouraged to be at the "Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 10:15PM on Saturday, December 23rd, Concourse B, Baggage Claim 11" to welcome him home.
 

Clousing self-checked out of the US military in June of 2005 after serving in Iraq, on August 11, 2006, announced, during the Veterans for Peace conference in Seattle, that he would be turning himself in at Fort Lewis. David Swanson (AfterDowningStreet.com) reported at the time, "Clousing said he did not apply for conscientious objector status because he is not certain he would oppose every possible war, such as one fought in self-defense. He said he has spent the past year trying to figure out how to turn himself in, that the military has refused to comment on his status and that he is now choosing to force them to deal with it. . . . Clousing said he served in Baghdad and Mosul as an interrogator, and that this meant he spoke to Iraqi civilians every day and learned what they thought about the war. Clousing said he witnessed the routine incarceration of civilians with no basis and no ability to contact their families. He spoke in particular of four brothers, the youngest aged 12, locked up for three to four weeks. Physical abuse of civilians and the killing of one Iraqi civilian were among the crimes Clousing said he witnessed."


Clousing did turn himself in at Fort Lewis but was told that he needed to turn himself at Fort Bragg which he did on August 18th. Bob Geary (Raleigh-Durham Independent Weekly) describes that episode: "The story of what it took for him to finally get arrested at Bragg is almost comical--his calls to Lewis were bucked to Bragg and vice versa; he was told his records were lost, but suddenly were found after he spoke out publicly against the war; and even then, he had to find his own way back to Bragg and knock on a bunch of different doors before a soldier finally did him the service of detaining him." September 1st brought the news that he would face a charge of desertion. On October 12th, Ricky Clousing was court-martialed in Fayetteville, North Carolina and pleaded guilty to being abesent without leave. Bob Geary (Raleigh-Durham Independent Weekly) reports that before Clousing leaves North Carolina Saturday, there is a scheduled rally in Fayetteville "midday Saturday to be greeted by human rights supporters at the Raleigh Friends Meeting House, 625 Tower St. (the street behind the Cameron Village Post Office). His reception is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., before he catches a flight from RDU back to his hometown of Seattle, Wash."
 

Turning to another war resister, Ehren Watada, something curious happens in the New York Times owned International Herald Tribune. Since it's going for an European audience (who doesn't think highly of the Times brand), it has to cover stories that the Times can't or won't. Which explains why the French version carries an AP story on Ehren Watada that the US version (or the Times for that matter) didn't. But who made the call that a hundred people attended Watada's speech? The speech, whose date and location (basic journalism) go unreported, is the same one he gave at Church of the Crossroads and Hawaii outlets that picked up the story illustrate it with a photo from that event. As noted in yesterday's snapshot, "Rod Ohira (The Honolulu Advertiser) reports that a crowd of 350 turned out to hear Watada speak at the Church of the Crossroads where he stated, 'The issue is about the war and people need to educate themselves about everything that's going on about the war. They need to take a position one way or another. If people agree with me or disagree with me, I really don't care. . . . What people need to do is take a stance. And if they truly believe there is something wrong with this war -- that it's immoral and illegal -- they should ask themselves what are they willing to sacrifice in order to stop this war?'"

It's interesting how 350 becomes "more than 100" when the AP article runs. 350 is more than 100, it's also more than 101 and 102 and 103 .
 . .

Leila Fujimori (Honolulu Star-Bulletin) describes the crowd: "A highly sympathetic crowd of a few hundred people gave Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada standing ovations before, during and after a speech at the Church of the Crossroads in Moiliili." AP also manages to miss the standing ovations. Possibly it's difficult to count accurately and to hear from the mainland?
 

The AP does manage to note Eric Seitz, Watada's attorney, wants a larger courtroom this time. During the August Article 32 hearing, one of the biggest obstacles was the fact that there was not enough room for those attempting to attend to be seated. A smaller courtroom may be in keeping with the US military's desire to bury the court-martial (why they feel they need to bother is surprising -- independent media didn't cover the Article 32 in real time) but it's not in keeping with the supposed spirit of justice that's supposed to be on display. The AP article also quotes Ann Wright, who testified at the Article 32 hearing and is retired from the US State Department and US army, stating, "I really do appreciate when these men and women step up and say, 'I will risk going to jail because this war is wrong and I will not participate in it'."


Leila Fujimori (Honolulu Star-Bulletin) quotes two audience members (as well as what Joan, who was present, swears was a "plant"), Kristen Clyne who enjoyed the message that people make changes, not 'legislators':"This war wouldn't really be permitted without the support of the people, and it is really on the people to stop this war"; and Daniel Chong who stated, "It's about time somebody did something. . . . Some people would rather die than admit they're wrong, but he's willing to put his reputation on the line. That's true patriotism," Chung said.
 

Ehren Watada's pre-trial hearing is scheduled for January 4th and the court-martial is scheduled to begin February 5th. His Article 32 hearing lasted one day, Ricky Clousing's court-martial lasted one day. How long this one will last is a question that competes with "Will independent media cover it this time?"


While we await those answers, Watada and Clousing are part of a growing movement of resistance within the military that includes more than just them or more than just them plus one. Among the other war resisters who have gone public during the illegal war of choice are Kyle Snyder, Darrell Anderson, Joshua Key, Ivan Brobeck, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Meija, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass, Patrick Hart, Clifford Cornell, Agustin Aguayo, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, and Kevin Benderman. In addition, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Appeal for Redress is collecting signatures of active duty service members calling on Congress to bring the troops home -- the petition will be delivered to Congress next month. Information on past and present war resistance can also be found in David Zeiger's Sir! No Sir! which tells the story of war resistance during the Vietnam era and, in the new director's edition, also includes bonus material on Camilo Mejia's court-martial, interviews with Cindy Sheehan and Jane Fonda about today's war resistance, and more. The director's cut is availabe for $23.95 and the original version is currently available for $12.95.
 

Far from that reality, mainstream media outlets all over the for-show conference US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had, apparently forgetting how many have been scripted, where all the US soldiers speaking were in favor of more US troops being sent to Iraq. In a real world, in an unscripted event (a friend in the military states it wasn't "scripted," it was choreographed, FYI), might some of them have noted they want to go home? Not in the land of fantasy and propaganda.


Addressing the nonsense, Gabriele Zamparini (Op-EdNews) writes, "No soldier present said U.S. forces should be brought home, and none said current troop levels were adequate, as some commanders have argued. A young US soldier's mother recently wrote: 'Two weeks ago he called by satellite phone, awakening Amy and me in the dead of the night. Machine gun fire was all around him, the sound of war filling our ears and hearts with grief and fear of loss. (...) He says that this war cannot be won! He has no faith in the politicians who sent him there'." For context, earlier this year Leo Shane III (Stars & Stripes) reported on a poll of US military on the ground in Iraq which found "Seventy-two percent of troops on the ground in Iraq think U.S. military forces should get out of the country within a year, according to a Zogby poll released Tuesday."


So busy is the mainstream in selling another wave of Operation Happy Talk that few even make time to note the violence on the ground. (Apparently following the New York Times' lead of proclaiming "I Cover The Canapes.") Which may be why it's CODEPINK, and not the Times, noting US Senator Harry Reid's latest statement (Dec. 19th) re: the so-called "surge:"


Statement by Senator Harry Reid, December 19, 2006
Frankly, I don't believe that more troops is the answer for Iraq. It's a civil war and America should not be policing a Sunni-Shia conflict. In addition, we don't have the additional forces to put in there. We obviously want to support what commanders in the field say they need, but apparently even the Joint Chiefs do not support increased combat forces for Baghdad. My position on Iraq is simple:
1. I believe we should start redeploying troops in 4 to 6 months (The Levin-Reed Plan) and complete the withdrawal of combat forces by the first quarter of 2008. (As laid out by the Iraq Study Group)
2. The President must understand that there can only be a political solution in Iraq, and he must end our nation's open-ended military commitment to that country.
3. These priorities need to be coupled with a renewed diplomatic effort and regional strategy.
I do not support an escalation of the conflict. I support finding a way to bring our troops home and would look at any plan that gave a roadmap to this goal.
It's been two weeks since the Iraq Study Group released its plan to change the course and bring our troops home. Since then, the President has been on a fact finding tour of his own administration -- apparently ignoring the facts presented by those in the military who know best. The President needs to put forth a plan as soon as possible, one that reflects the reality on the ground in Iraq and that withdraws our troops from the middle of this deadly civil war.



Bombings?
 

AFP reports three police officers and twelve police recruits are dead (with fifteen more wounded) after a man wearing an explosive vest detonated it outside a Baghdad police academy. Reuters notes a roadside bomb, in Baghdad, that wounded one person, a car bobm that killed two and wounded two more; while a roadside bomb in Mosul wounded two; a roadside bomb near Kirkuk that wounded two police officers; and a car bomb near Kirkuk that killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded four more.


Shootings?
 

Reuters notes (today) two shootings from yesterday -- in Kirkuk, a wife and husband were shot dead and in Tikrit Lt. Col. Ahmed Saleh was shot dead. AFP reports four were shot dead today "including a pharmacist and his brother killed when gunmen burst into their shop in the flashpoint province of Diyala, said a security source." And Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reports: "Officials also announced the murder of Iraq's Olympic cycling coach, killed after gunmen kidnapped him from his home. Relatives identified the body of 48-year-old Mahoud Ahmed Fulayih on Monday, two days after he was abducted, said Hussein al-Amidi, the acting secretary general of Iraq's National Olympic Committee."

Corpses?

 
In the midst of their laughable coverage about the new 'crackdown' in Baghdad (the first came in June, beefed up in July, put on steroids in August and a failure to this day), CNN slips in that 38 corpses were discovered in the capital today.
 

In addition, the US military announced today: "One Soldier assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died Tuesday and one Marine assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division died yesterday from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province." The US military also announced: "An improvised explosive device detonated near a Multi-National Division - Baghdad patrol, killing one Soldier south of the Iraqi capital Dec. 20. The mounted combat patrol was escorting personnel to their forward operating base when a roadside bomb detonated. Three Soldiers were wounded and one Soldier killed in the blast." (The first release is a correction to this one -- which we've not quoted from in this entry. Two soldiers and one marine were announced deat today.) ICCC places the current total number of US troops who have died in Iraq since the start of the illegal war at 2958.

In legal news, Rick Rogers (San Diego Union-Tribune) reports, "The military announced charges of unpremeditated murder Thursday against four Camp Pendleton Marines in connection with what could be the worst U.S. war crime reported during the Iraq war.
The defendants are rank-and-file members of the Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. They are accused of massacring 24 civilians Nov. 19, 2005, in the Iraqi town of Haditha." Noting the charges as "the biggest US criminal case to emerge from the war in Iraq in terms of Iraqis killed," the BBC reminds: "There was no full US investigation into what happened until three months later when video footage that was taken by a local human rights activist of the aftermath reached Time Magazine. Once their report showed flaws in the initial marine statement, an investigation began." CBS and AP note ". . . five Iraqi men were shot as they approached in a taxi and others -- including women and children -- died as Marines went house to house in the area, clearing homes with grenades and gunfire."
 

On the morning of 19 November 2005, a four vehicle convoy of Marines from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division was moving through Haditha when it was ambushed by insurgents employing an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
One Marine was killed and two were wounded by the explosion. Over the next several hours, 24 Iraqi men, women and children died in the vicinity of the IED explosion.
On 20 November 2005, 2nd Marine Division issued a press release stating that 15 Iraqi civilians were killed in an IED explosion, and Marines and Iraqi Army soldiers killed eight insurgents in a follow-on fire-fight.
We now know with certainty the press release was incorrect, and that none of the civilians were killed by the IED explosion.
As the result of a query by a Time magazine reporter in January 2006, there were several distinct but related investigations into the circumstances of the deaths of the 24 Iraqi civilians, and into how the chain of command reported and investigated those deaths.

[. . .]
It is important to note that the accused are presumed innocent. The charges and specifications are only accusations against the individuals.
 

Finally, Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reports: "Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed to allow supporters to rejoin the Iraqi government after a three-week boycott, officials close to the militia leader said Thursday, as political rivals pushed to form a coalition without him." The boycott was made clear November 24th ahead of puppet Nouri al-Mailiki's meetup with the Bully Boy in Jordan. The stated intent was enough to lead the puppet to snub Bully Boy the first day and then rush through a brief meeting the following day. Abdul-Zahra notes: "Al-Sadr's boycott has undercut al-Maliki's government and prevented the passage of legislation. During that time, other Shiite factions have teamed with Kurds and one Sunni party to negotiate a new governing coalition that would cross sectarian lines." This comes as the BBC reports, "Iraq's Shia Muslim leaders have begun talks in the holy city of Najaf with the country's most prominent Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani." Getting Ali al-Sistani into the process of a new coalition surely has nothing to do with the US military turning Najaf over to Iraq, right? We're not supposed to notice that. Play dumb on that (just like the mainstream press) and pretend not to ponder what a new governing coalition might mean for al-Maliki.
Seventy-two percent of troops on the ground in Iraq think U.S. military forces should get out of the country within a year, according to a Zogby poll released Tuesday.

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War resister Ricky Clousing released from military jail

Ricky Clousing to be released from military jail
Help welcome him home this Saturday at Sea-Tac Airport
US Army Interrogator Sgt. Ricky Clousing will come home to Washington State on Saturday, December 23rd after three months in a military prison. Family, friends and supporters will welcome Sgt. Clousing at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 10:15PM on Saturday, December 23rd, Concourse B, Baggage Claim 11.
On August 11th 2006, after being AWOL from the military for over 14 months, Sgt. Clousing spoke publicly about what he called "the daily devastation of occupation in Iraq" which led to his decision to leave his unit after completion of his tour in Iraq. He then turned himself over to military custody. On October 11th he was found guilty of AWOL and sentenced to three months in prison.
Save the date Come listen to Ricky Speak on January 6th
Time and location to be announced soon (somewhere in the Puget Sound area). If you are interested in having Ricky speak to your group in the near future, please contact Laurel Albina at (206) 419-3811.
Move Over GI Joe and Han Solo: Sgt. Ricky Clousing, Peace Action Hero
By Elizabeth de la Vega, www.TomDispatch.com I look forward to the day when Mattel makes a Sgt. Ricky Clousing action figure.
As the mother of sons born eight years apart, I spent nearly half my adult life surrounded by - and stepping on - action figures. They were everywhere: a phalanx of tiny knights in shining armor on the windowsill; Batman and Robin frozen in an ice tray; and GI Joe guys in camouflage among the hosta. One Christmas, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo even ended up in the manger scene along with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, two cows, three sheep, and several Ewoks. My kids spent hours and hours in a fantasy world populated by villains and heroes of every description except one; there were no peace heroes . . .
Read the entire article online
Contributions still needed to cover legal expenses All contributions are tax-deductible
You can also mail checks to SDMCC at PO Box 25681, Seattle WA 98165-1181
email:
info@sdmcc.org
phone: (206) 789-2751
web:
http://www.sdmcc.org/rickyclousing/

The above was noted by Billie, it's an e-mail sent out to those who signed up for alerts on Ricky Clousing. Starting with what matters. And not afraid to call out crap which is why we move immediately to Erika's heads up: Do not watch, listen or read Democracy Now! today.

Erika: Seymour Hersh, whose most recent contribution was to call the warning about [Robert] Gates by Robert Parry and others "ancient history" is featured which is alright. Hersh was wrong. But a speech by him might be worth noting; however, he's partnered up with He Whose Name Shall Not Be Mentioned. I don't support some pervert getting online and trying to meet up with my underage daughter so he pull it out and whack off in front of her for his own perverted thrills. Not only do I not support it, it's also against the law. He may have been able to get a slap on the wrist and have the court records sealed to protect him from the questions he doesn't want to answer, but I'll be damned if I'm going to contribute in any way to the rehabilitation of a nonrepentant sexual predator.

So Erika's given you the heads up. If you do regularly watch, listen or read, she's asking you not to today. I'll honor that and, in fact won't even listen to KPFA today, until Nora Barrows-Friedman comes on this evening, as a result. (It airs twice each morning on KPFA, the first time in a little less than half-hour.) I'm 100% with Erika on this.

It's interesting because there was a fall out when skin/smut peddler was brought on as a 'respectable' source by Goodman but there's never any fallout for bringing on the sexual predator. The New York Times, rightly, decided his court 'issues' made him unfit for their paper and stopped using him as a source.

Independent media, on the other hand, has given him a platform repeatedly.

He will not unseal his court records (as the one accused, he has the legal right to unseal them) and he will not discuss the crimes that have been reported by CNN and other outlets claiming it's a 'privacy' matter. No, the public record says you are a sexual predator who attacks underage girls. There should be no privacy around that. In fact, many of us (if not all) live in neighborhoods that the sort of actions the public record says He Who Shall Not Be Named committed would lead to mailings were he to attempt to move into our neighborhoods.

It's not a surprise that, as usual, when the safety of women is involved, independent media looks the other way. Many may remember the mother, a Republican, who tried to raise flags about a 'pundit' whom she stated had abused her daughter but was still being provided an outlet by the right and the center. It's a real shame that the left does the same.

I won't support it here.

Shame on anyone who gives that man an outlet.

The public record is well known and it's past time that he was told, unseal the records and prove that you are not a sexual predator or get lost.

Instead, he's interviewed by Laura Flanders, Amy Goodman, printed by The Nation, on and on and on. On the first three, women are the ones making the decisions to involve him. That's really disgusting. Maybe it's just another example of a big f.u. from The Nation?

Middle-aged men do not legally seek sexual encounters with underage girls. When they do, they no longer get to be presented as respectable sources. Presenting him as such makes everyone culpable if he goes online to seek out underage girls again.

Next time, it may not be a sting that catches him. Next time, he may be chatting with an underage girl. Everyone giving him a platform is responsible for that. And Sy Hersh is responsible for taking that loser on a speaking tour.

We heard a lot of psuedo outrage about Mark Foley's actions. Apparently the real outrage was over the fact that it was same-sex directed. Otherwise He Who Shall Not Be Named would have been kicked to the curb a long, long time ago.

Instead, he's allowed a platform where he offers predictions that thus far haven't come to pass. (That's overlooked as well.) He's had more than enough time to offer an explanation -- his refusal to do so suggest that there is no explanation for it, that the public record is correct. Doors should close on him as a result.

Maybe others think it's okay, maybe they think it's 'sexy'? I have no idea. I think it's disgusting and that it needs to stop.

Martha notes Nancy Trejos and Saad Sarhan's "U.S. Transfers Control Of Najaf Province to Iraqi Security Forces" (Washington Post):

Another car bomb exploded in the Sinaa district of Baghdad, killing one civilian and injuring four, Kinani said.
[Early Thursday, a suicide bomber killed at least 10 Iraqis and wounded 10 at a police recruitment center in the capital, Reuters cited police officers as saying.]
Meanwhile Wednesday, the U.S. military reported that a roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded four that day as they were on their way to investigate an explosion southwest of Baghdad. In a southern neighborhood of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded two, the military said.
The U.S. military also reported that a female civilian was killed Tuesday by insurgents who attacked a police station in Ramadi with two rockets. A man, another female and a 12-year-old child were wounded, the military said.
Coalition forces captured a senior al-Qaeda leader and five other suspected insurgents in Mosul last Thursday, the military reported Wednesday.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

ricky clousing




Saad Sarhan

NYT: I Cover The Canapes

As you trudge through this morning's New York Times, searching in vain for something other than what used to be euphemistically termed 'the society page,' you find it, re: Iraq, on page A14, all five paragraphs, no byline (other than "By The New York Times"), entitled "114 Iraqis Dead in Baghdad" and buried in the bottom, right hand corner. [It's tacked on, online, to this article about the ceremonies -- martial arts exhibition! -- for the supposed handover of Najaf.]

114 is their (modest) count. You might think that would qualify as "news" but you'd be wrong.
Instead, it's something to be tucked away. If Claudette Colbert and Ben Lyon had made a film about a reporter for today's New York Times, it would be entitled I Cover The Canapes.

P.S. This [PDF format] report still goes unmentioned. Possibly Chatham House thought cold cuts made for a good spread?

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Iraq snapshot

Wednesday, December 20, 2006. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq; the New York Times which continues to act as though Colin Brown and Andy McSmith (Independent of London) broke no news last week, now plays "I don't see Chatham House" which may make it difficult for them to explain why Britain's Foreign Secretary is fessin' up to her own 'blot'; a large crowd turns out in Honolulu to hear US war resister Ehren Watada; and Bully Boy, who wants to go long with the lives of others, lets slip a bit of truth (naturally, the Times plays dumb),


In England, a [PDF format] report continues to spark debate. Chatham House issued the six-page report yesterday (see yesterday's snapshot) and Tony Blair rushed to deny the conclusions but mainly revealed that six pages are about five too many for him to read and comprehend. Along with the prime minister, also issuing denials was the country's Foreign Secretary who termed the report "utterly ridiculous." "Utterly ridiculous" describes Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, and her performance on BBC Radio 4 yesterday where she attempted to rewrite history. After confessing that the (false) claim that Iraq could attack England with WMDs within 45 minutes, Beckett attempted to make light of it: "That was a statement that was made once and it was thought to be of such little relevance". John Humphrys (host of the BBC program Today) begged to differ and noted that the Blair government never corrected the public record, never came out and stated, "Ooopsy! That was a big fat lie." Beckett snarled back, "Oh, come on -- nobody that it was revelant. Nobody thought it was a big sweeping statement."

This is London adds the perspective Beckett attempts to strip from the public record -- Tony Blair made that claim in the 2002 while advocating war, it "was at the heart of the Downing Street dossier issued in September 2002 where Blair wrote: "The document discloses that his military planning allows for some of the WMD to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them," Blair went on to push the false assertion four times more in the dossier and once in a public speech to the House of Commons, and the lie was at the root of the 2003 inquiry into whether or not intel had been 'sexed up' -- as the BBC reported it had -- during which time Beckett and Blair continued to sit on the truth and David Kelly died. Now Beckett wants to say, "Oh, come on"?

The BBC reports that the Tory party are calling it "appalling" and noting the false claim did not belong "in a government dossier". William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, states, "If it is true that the 45-minute claim had been discounted before the invasion, it is appalling that there seems to have been no effort or coordination between ministers to put the record straight. This is yet another reason to dismantle Tony Blair's sofa policy-making and restore Cabinet government." The BBC notes what the New York Times can't or won't, "The comments come after it was revealed last week that former UK diplomat Carne Ross had told the 2004 Butler review into Iraq intelligence that 'at no time did HMG (Her Majesty's Government) assess that Iraq's WMD (weapons of mass destruction) posed a threat to the UK or its interests'. He also claimed that there was no evidence of 'significant holdings' of chemical or biological weapons in the possession of Saddam prior to the invasion. "

While the Chatham House report goes largely ignored by the US press, Jackie Ashley (Guardian of London) observes, "If it wasn't so serious it would be hilariously funny. 'Mr Tony', as he now apparently likes to be called, has been explaining his theory of leadership: 'The art of leadership is learning to take decisions.' So far, so good. And, he goes on, 'sometimes you are right, sometimes you are wrong. Some of the decisions are very difficult and someone always gets angry.' Well, Mr Tony, certainly lots of people have got angry about the Iraq war, which an ever-growing number of people believe was a wrong decision. Look at the Baker-Hamilton commission in the United States, which gave a devastating critique of the policy, warned of the situation in Iraq deteriorating and of the threat of regional conflagration. Look at yesterday's report from the respected thinktank, Chatham House, which described the war as 'a terrible mistake' which has damaged Britain's global influence. Listen to all those Labour MPs who are saying publicly (a little) and privately (a lot) that the decision to follow George Bush into war with Iraq was a terrible error. Yet Mr Tony still seems to think, as indeed he has implied before, that it doesn't really matter whether the decision was right or wrong - what was important was that he made a decision. It is a truly bizarre theory of government, with extremely frightening consequences."

Mr. Tony? Sounds like he's getting ready to do a rinse and set. Tareq al-Hashemi thinks another kind of washing has gone on. The BBC reports that al-Hashemi, one of Iraq's two vice presidents, spoke to the Council of Relations in NYC and, noting that Mr. Tony had been favorable to the ide of a withdrawal timetable for foreign troops, went on to conclude that possibly Mr. Tony had been "brainwashed" by the Bully Boy since he changed his mind on the subject: "It is quite unfortunate that your president made a sort of blackmail out of Mr Blair."

Brainwashed, blackmailed or strong armed, it's exactly the sort of cow-towing, lackey decision making that the Chatham Report noted and stated needed to stop. In the United States, desperate for something, anything!, to fuel a new wave of Operation Happy Talk, the US government declares (and CNN runs with) that they have captured yet another al Qaeda leader in Iraq! Six days ago is whispered in sotto voice. al Qaeda was not in Iraq prior to the illegal war and, as the US Pentagon underscored yesterday, it's not the force the hyped up talk repeatedly makes it out to be (the Pentagon found militias to be the greater threat to national security in Iraq). But if the US administration pushes it hard enough, maybe the wave of Operation Happy Talk will drown out reality.

Or at least allow people not to note that the same Bully Boy who used Daddy's connections to avoid serving in Vietnam (not due to any opposition to the war, just cowardice of putting his own ass on the line) now tests the waters for sending more US troops to die in Iraq. Speaking to the press today, Bully Boy declared, "They think they can. They think it's just a matter of time before America grows weary and leaves, abandons the people of Iraq, for example. And that's not going to happen." Once again, he demonstrates how he can sleep easy even after all the blood on his hands -- he just doesn't give a damn. Which allows him to lie with claims such as "I also don't believe most Americans want us just to get out now." As polls have repeatedly demonstrated, Americans and Iraqis favor, in strong majorities, US forces doing just that.

AP reports that John Abizaid ("commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East") has submitted his plans to retire. That's surprising only to those who missed Thom Shanker (New York Times) report today that Abizaid "argues that foreign troops are a toxin bound to be rejected by Iraqis, and that expanding the number of American troops merely puts off the day when Iraqis are forced to take responsibility for their own security." That opinion is no longer in favor with the US administration (or War Hawks in the press like Gordo) so it's no surprise that Abizaid is stepping down.

Robert Gates, the newly installed US Secretary of Defense is all for more US troops being sent to Iraq. CBS and AP report that Gates visited the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad where he "discussed a possible infusion of more U.S. troops into Iraq with American commanders on Wednesday but said no decisions have been made. On just his third day in his post, Gates journeyed to Iraq armed with a mandate from President Bush to help forge a new Iraq war strategy." There are no new strategies, just desperation tactics. As Peter Baker (Washington Post) reported today, the Bully Boy has admitted that the US is "not winning" which, Baker observed, "was a striking reversal for a president who, days before the November elections declared, 'Absolutely, we're winning'."

Though some Democrats in the Senate may scratch their heads and wonder what happened to Bobby Gates, the reality is that his lackey qualities were well known long before they confirmed him. As Robert Parry (Consortium News) reports, the thinking was "that Gates was a closet dove who would help guide the United States out of George W. Bush's mess in Iraq. The thinking was that Gates, a former member of the Iraq Study Group, would represent the views of James Baker and other 'realitists' from George H.W. Bush's administration. Hillary Clinton and other Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee praised Gates for his 'candor' when he acknowledged the obvious, that the war in Iraq wasn't being won. Since the Gates confirmation vote on Dec. 6, however, Bush and Gates have signaled that they have no intention of extricating the U.S. military from the Iraq quagmire. They still insist on nothing short of 'victory' or 'success,' no matter how unlikely those ends and no matter how much blood must be spilled over the next two years to avert defeat." As Rebecca (Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude) noted yesterday, there's one conclusion left out of Parry's report -- the statement "I was right." Parry was right and had Senate Dems been more interested in exploring the record and less in a hurry to get rid of Donald the Rumsfled (who was out the door regardless), as Rebecca pointed out, "we wouldn't have the new donald rumsfeld. that's all gates is. actually, he's rumsfeld without 4 years of baggage, 4 years of known lies. he's rumsfeld with a honeymoon period from the press that will probably extend all the way through 2008."

Instead of recognizing the peace mandate of the November elections, as CBS and the AP report, the Pentagon is asking for an additional 99.7 billion for the wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) which "would boost this year's budget for the wars to about $170 billion."

More money and more lives down the drain in an illegal war of choice. In Iraq today . . .

Bombings?

Outside of Baghdad, Reuters notes two dead and three wounded in Baiji from a roadside bomb. Molly Hennessy-Fiske (Los Angeles Times) reports "a massive sucide car bomb" this morning in Baghdad "near the entrance to Baghdad University" which claimed eleven lives (plus the driver of the car) "including six Iraqi police" and left "at least two dozen" injured. Reuters also notes three other car bombs in Baghdad: four dead and eight wounded from one "in the parking lot of an Interior Ministry office," two wounded from one in the Bayaa disctrict and two wounded from one in the Camp Sara district.

Shootings?

Molly Hennesy-Fiske (LA Times) reports that three people were shot dead and at least seven more wounded at the Bab Al Muadhem bus terminal in Baghdad, that Mahmoud Mohammed Rahseed was shot dead in the Baghdad neighborhood "where he taught middle school," that Ali Arnoosi ("deputy dean of the college of law at the University of Baghdad") and law professor Mohammed Hamdani were also shot dead in Baghdad continuing the targeting of educators in Iraq. This comes at a time when, Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki has made attendence mandatory for both professors and students and failure to comply will lead to "dismissal or expulsion" so "the professors have begun hiding their education by donning ratty clothes, pulling on traditional Arab head scarves and driving to campus in beat-up cars." Like the Bully Boy, the puppet's not concerned with safety just with the appearances.

Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports: "A military official in the 5th division of the Iraqi army said that a soldier was killed and 3 others were wounded when a group of more than 30 insurgents attacked early morning today a military checkpoint in Abo Al Nakhal district in Khalis city north of Baqouba city. The source confirmed that 5 insurgents were killed." and "A governmental source in Baladrooz town east of Baqouba city (60 kms north of Baghdad) said that 2 civilians were killed and 8 were injured when an insurgents group from Dainiya neighborhood targeted civilians in Shakori village in the same town early morning today."

Corpses?

Reuters notes that eleven corpses were discovered in Mosul and two in Mahmudiya while 76 corpses were discovered in Baghdad. Repeating, 76.

In addition, the US military announced today: "An improvised explosive device detonated near a Multi-National Division -Baghdad patrol, killing one Soldier in a southern neighborhood of the Iraqi capital Dec. 20. The combat patrol was conducting a route clearance mission in order to free the roads of any possible dangers. As they conducted their mission, a roadside bomb exploded near one of their vehicles, killing one and wounding two other Soldiers." The US military also announced: "An improvised explosive device detonated near a Multi-National Division -Baghdad patrol, killing one Soldier southwest of the Iraqi capital Dec. 20. The dismounted combat patrol was on the way to investigate an explosion that occurred in the area when a roadside bomb detonated. As a result of the explosion, four Soldiers were wounded and one Soldier was killed."

Turning to peace news, in June of this year, Ehren Watada became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. Yesterday, in Honolulu, he spoke out again. Rod Ohira (The Honolulu Advertiser) reports that a crowd of 350 turned out to hear Watada speak at the Church of the Crossroads where he stated, "The issue is about the war and people need to educate themselves about everything that's going on about the war. They need to take a position one way or another. If people agree with me or disagree with me, I really don't care. . . . What people need to do is take a stance. And if they truly believe there is something wrong with this war -- that it's immoral and illegal -- they should ask themselves what are they willing to sacrifice in order to stop this war?"

Watada faces a pre-trial hearing in January and then a court-martial in February. Though the US Congress seems unable or unwilling to excercise their oversight and have largely rebuffed his mother, Carolyn Ho, and her efforts, the reality is that he is one person in a growing movement of resistance within the military that includes Kyle Snyder, Darrell Anderson, Joshua Key, Ivan Brobeck, Ricky Clousing, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Meija, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass, Patrick Hart, Clifford Cornell, Agustin Aguayo, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, and Kevin Benderman. Those are some of the war resisters who have gone public while currently there are thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada attempting to be legally recognized.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Appeal for Redress is collecting signatures of active duty service members calling on Congress to bring the troops home -- the petition will be delivered to Congress next month.

iraq
ehren watada






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