Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
CIA ramps up role in Iraq to 'help' government defend against al-Qaeda elements the CIA actively supports in Syria & Libya
Any takers for "Ambassador to Syria"?
(The West Point report on the Libyan CIA mercenaries who constitute "al-Qaeda in Iraq", and now AQ Syria, here.
Washington: The Central Intelligence Agency is ramping up support to elite Iraqi anti-terrorism units (ie. Death Squads -AI) to better fight Al Qaida affiliates, amid alarm in Washington about spillover from the civil war in neighbouring Syria, according to US officials.
The stepped-up mission expands a covert US presence on the edges of the two-year-old Syrian conflict, at a time of American concerns about the growing power of extremists in the Syrian rebellion.
Al Qaida in Iraq, the terrorist network’s affiliate in the country, has close ties to Syria-based Jabhat Al Nusra, also known as the Al Nusra Front, an opposition militant group that has attacked government installations and controls territory in northern Syria. The US State Department placed Al Nusra on its list of foreign terror organisations in December, calling the group an alias for Al Qaida in Iraq. [In Full]
Tags:
Al Nusra,
al-Qaeda,
CIA,
CIA Mercenaries,
Death Squads,
Destabilization,
Foreign Fighters,
Iraq,
Libya,
LIFG,
Mujahideen,
Syria,
Terrorism,
War On Iraq
Monday, May 31, 2010
Crosspost: Sanitizing War: What would "Memorial Day" Be Without The Memories?
"We don't do body counts,"General Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S. invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, famously remarked, when asked about Iraqi civilian casualties. We do do body counts of our own -- though we don't talk about them much. (source)
In modified form, from Auntie Imperial's News & Blog Review
The war to liberate Southeast Asia from communism resulted in the deaths of 3.5 million Vietnamese, 2 million Laotians & Cambodians, and 58,000 Americans.
Rather than raping and pillaging the lands for its resources, the American military napalmed its jungles, carpet bombed its cities, defoliated the jungles with 20 million gallons of herbicides (including Agent Orange) and slaughtered women and children (My Lai Massacre).
It was easy to rationalize these acts when referring to the inhabitants as gooks, dinks, tunnel rats, and Uncle Ben's boys. Racism makes it easy to treat human beings as objects and dehumanize your acts of horror. ~~Jim Quinn, Charlie Don't Surf, OpEd News, February 2009
Here's a little something Auntie Imperial lashed together for Memorial Day 2010. It's Dedicated to those who have fallen, and Americans still at risk, in our ongoing IMPERIAL wars.
[Pop Out Player]
(Also See: Vietnamistan - PoP dEFECT Radio, Agitational Propaganda For A 'Failed State')
The bulk of the rest of this post is taken from Cabale News Service's Labor Day post last year titled: A 'Labor Day' Message - The Working Class And The Employing Class Have NOTHING In Common. It has been slightly edited for clarity.
Labor Day 2009...
There was a breaking story.
It revolved around an image of a dying soldier, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard.
As we head into Memorial Day 2010... because it's not JUST Memorial Day this weekend, it's also Trillion Dollar Day because that's what the AfPakIraq war has cost us (The direct cost of occupying Iraq and Afghanistan)... so far, with no real end in sight, just troops moved from theatre (Iraq) to theatre (Afghanistan) to theatre (See here for a list of them)I think we should all ruminate on what we're getting for that money.
Yes.
Peace?
No.
Security?
NOT!
Dead soldiers?
Absofuckinglutely!
But the Pentagon, and the other interested parties who want you to just simply play along with their murderous imperial wars like "Good Americans-cum-Germans" don't want you to think about... REALLY think about, those Absofuckinglutely dead soldiers.
Source, PoP dEFECT Radio, Courtesy of Skidmark Bob Freek Radio Santa Cruz |
To Wit, one of the headlines @ Cabale News Service, on Labor Day 2009 read:
"Not Supposed To..." Times Two:
One of the primary rules of Journalism... "The journalist IS "NOT supposed to" become part of the story..." has been broken by Associated Press, apparently not on purpose, but because they 'violated' a 'rule' of American social mores...
Associated Press has published a picture of a dying US Marine, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard.
Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard is tended to by fellow U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.
Photograph: Julie Jacobson/AP
Astonishing! If you thought the pictures of soldier's caskets coming into Dover AFB raised a shitstorm, you ain't seen nuthin'.
It IS notable that it took a FEMALE photojournalist to push this limit.
What's ALSO notable is that Photobucket violated my TOS over this picture, NOT due to AP's copyright or insistence, but due to it's graphic nature, despite MANY pictures of dead and dying Iraqis and other third world folk in my album, including THIS gruesome and heartbreaking photo:
It's nice to know that PhotoBucket.com cares more about American soldiers and their privacy-in-their-dying-moments than an INNOCENT BLOOD-SPATTERED IRAQI CHILD SCREAMING IN GRIEF OVER THE MURDER BY US SOLDIERS OF HER FAMILY WHILE SHE WAS SITTING NEXT TO THEM IN THE FAMILY CAR.
Censorship is NOT Dead in America.
The Guardian UK hints that the flap over it's publication was essentially merit-less :
It is a graphic image of the harsh realities of war: the fatally wounded young marine lying crumpled in the mud, his vulnerable face turned to the camera. And it is one the US defence secretary would rather you did not see.
Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard, pictured being tended by comrades in southern Afghanistan, died of his injuries soon after. Now the release of this record of the 21-year-old's last moments has divided America, prompting furious debate over the sanitisation of war at a critical time for the military offensive. [In Full]
Whereas Tom Ricks, EX-Washington Post War Reporter, now ensconced as a pundit for CNAS (Neo-Liberal Think Tank) affiliated Foreign Policy magazine Headlined it this way:
"The dying marine: What the hell was the AP thinking?"
Yours truly responded to Mr. Ricks, as have others...
I'm just surprised... stunned really, that it made it to copy at all in the current milieu of 'embedded' reporting and "'sanitized' for the discerning media consumer who doesn't want their conscience bothered" war reporting by the majors.
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If the Pentagon, and your peers at CNAS want to continue these worthless wars Tom... Better stop the lying, the dissuasion from the belief that we're not vulnerable to the mayhem and non-culpable for it.. and hiding our deaths (incl the mundane, such as the returning caskets @ Dover AFB) in these wars IS a particularly creepy, Big-Brotherish, semantically corrupt, way to lie to the citizens of the country.
I feel for this soldier and his family, but "War Is Hell", whether one wins OR loses, as a nation, and as an individual human.
Condolences from AP is in order... Maybe they should MAKE SURE that the soldier's family gets every single benefit due them, because the Pentagon sure won't.
But they DO NOT owe an apology.
The last so many presidential administrations INCLUDING the current regime owe his family that.
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([Should we] Publish this picture...) To a nation full of children raised on video game and fantasy movie violence?
Whose parents who often don't let those children out of their sight to the age of majority?
A nation who's media panders them and tells them they NEED the trinkets sold them ('trinkets' often produced by what amounts to 3rd world slave labor) at behaviour controlled shopping malls where they lose the ability to socialize or empathize with anyone besides people just like them (consumers of products we destroy countries like Afghanistan to obtain the extractive resources for..)
([Should we] Publish this picture...) YES! Absolutely.
[Read what Tom Ricks had to say, and other comments, at his Blog, The Best Defense]
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Martin Luther King Jr., Domestic Terrorist: This post is dedicated to Barack Obama
"In 2010 we must all reach the difficult conclusion that the presence of Barack Obama requires the absence of Dr. King and that the former is more a system's protective response to the latter than any kind of continuation."
"...I am in Birmingham because injustice is here."
"Each year we pay tribute to a man who in reality ceased to exist long before he was assassinated.By April of 1968 King had become a national pariah. Moderate civil rights leaders became troubled by his stances against wars of aggression in Vietnam and throughout the continent of Africa and Latin America.
The establishment press depicted him as inspiring 'fear' among White House and Justice Department officials for his continued work against structural inequality which they saw as leanings toward 'communism,' 'Leninism' and as being too friendly to the likes of Stokely Carmichael.
In 2010 we must all reach the difficult conclusion that the presence of Barack Obama requires the absence of Dr. King and that the former is more a system's protective response to the latter than any kind of continuation." --Jared Ball, Professor of communication studies, Morgan State University
If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he wouldn't be talking about 'race', he'd be talking about poverty, and endless war.
Indeed, he was starting to do just that, discussing US IMPERIALISM in places like Vietnam, how it affected ALL Americans, and how the money was being spent on war, not ploughshares.... to the detriment of ALL Americans, and global society, for the benefit of a few.
The "Few" were NOT pleased. Dr. King was "Safe" for the White 'moderates' of America compared to Stokely Carmichael, SNCC, and the Black self defense groups springing up throughout the South threatening to take on the KKK and other racist organizatons. These groups consisted of returned/returning Black veterans of America's Imperial wars of the time (Korea and Vietnam), and they WERE deadly serious (Cf. Simon Wendt's "The Spirit and the Shotgun: Armed Resistance and the Struggle for Civil Rights").
Per Wikipedia:
"Many white southern segregationists vilified King; moreover, this speech ("Beyond Vietnam") soured his relationship with many members of the mainstream media. Life magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi",[80] and The Washington Post declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people."[84]""...his people"... How... RACIST and DIVISIVE.
Then, despite continual FBI surveillance (and harrassment), Reverend King was assassinated by an alleged 'lone gunman', James Earl Ray ("Ray testified that he did not shoot King to the House Select Committee on Assassinations" [src]), who King's family came to believe was NOT responsible for the shooting.
Today Da Buffalo wants to Re-Present an excerpt of a sermon at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 which has come to be called "Beyond Vietnam".
Black Forum records, a subsidiary of Berry Gordy's Motown put it on vinyl, and the Reverend's speech won a Grammy in 1970 for the "Best Spoken Word Recording".
Indeed, all one has to do is replace the references to Vietnam with the words "Iraq" and "Afghanistan" in the speech that follows and you can easily see that, for the most part, we HAVE NOT accomplished, or even (as a nation) attempted to achieve the goals spoken of here by Martin Luther King Jr.
Say AMEN!"Peace and Civil Rights don't mix they say, so this morning I speak to you on this issue because I am determined to take the Gospel seriously..."
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"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar... ...it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."
Think on that while listening to the Reverend's sermon, as the Obama administration "bails out" the mortgage brokers and financial institutions allowing them to continue paying bonuses to their employees larger than most people in America, or on Earth, earn in their lifetimes, while leaving the mortgage holders, in many cases, homeless, and people who have lost their jobs in the current economic depression with no recourse but soup kitchens and poverty... ...or given an appropriate age, a job in the the US military, as the only available employer, for the Pentagon's DIRTY WARS in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places not often mentioned in the US media.
[Pop Out Player]
Text of the entire sermon
Real Audio file (.ram) of the entire sermon (41:50 minutes) :
A BIG H/t to Sam Husseini, from whom I gleaned a number of links for this post.
Sam has the last word:
"There is one minor quibble I have with this sermon -- it ends with the lines"And nations will not rise up against nations, neither shall they study war anymore. And I don't know about you, I ain't gonna study war no more."But I think we do need to study war. We need to study war and all its destructiveness in excruciating detail." [src]
Sunday, December 13, 2009
What 'Winning' In Iraq and Afghanistan Means
H/t: Minstrel Boy
(Click the link for more, and the image for a larger version)
Monday, August 24, 2009
Iraq: The Incredible Shrinking (News) Story... Interactively Charting a 92% Drop In Reporting From 2007-2009
I quote myself, from June 30 2009, Iraq's "Sovereignty Day":
Iraq is KIND OF for Iraqis - Technically US troops are OUT of Iraq's cities (On a more circumspect note, when searched, Google said "Did you mean to search for: US troops are OUT of Iran's cities") today, however US Troops WILL remain in and around the cities of Iraq on 'standby' until 'requested' by Iraqi commanders.More today on that suppression of factual information:
Expect those incidents to be un-reported to the US press, who will most likely NOT be present in any manner where they could physically observe US troop movements themselves, or for that matter be aware of ANY activity by the 132,000 'contractors' (cf. mercenaries) remaining in Iraq. In Da' Buffalo's opinion, the dirtiest part of the Iraq war is just beginning... under the radar, and without press observation, even as the US appears to be withdrawing. [Source]
Man who sold Iraq war now vetting embedded journosRendon Group is the organization that staged the Saddam Hussein statue 'pulldown' in a nearly vacant Firdoz Square during the first days of our occupation of Baghdad, and supplied the flags Kuwaitis waved at us when we 'liberated' their country after Iraq's invasion over a territorial violation later to be found factual, Kuwait's 'slant drilling' into the neutral zone between their land and Iraq.
"A public relations firm that organized the opposition to Saddam Hussein during the 1990s and “coerced” journalists during the run-up to the Iraq war is now vetting at least some embedded journalists in war zones to keep out those who have a history of writing negative stories about the US military, a new report claims."
“Any reporter seeking to embed with US forces is subject to a background profile by The Rendon Group..." H/t: Minstrel Boy
More on Rendon Group HERE
(Click the image for the interactive, customizable version of this graph, courtesy of The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism)The sidebar copy:
92% - Drop in Iraq coverage from the beginning of 2007 to the middle of 2009
June 30 was declared “National Sovereignty Day” in Iraq as U.S. soldiers pulled out from cities there. The date marked a major milestone in the six-year war, and for the week of June 29-July 5, 2009, events inside Iraq filled 5.6% of the newshole, the highest level of media attention to that subject this year. The situation inside Iraq is one aspect of the war that PEJ tracks along with the Iraq policy debate and the impact of the war on the U.S. home front. When all three Iraq threads are combined, the story filled 6.6% of the newshole from June 29-July 5.
Yet last week’s jump in coverage runs counter to a long and clear trend. Media attention to the war has declined dramatically since the News Coverage Index began measuring it back in January 2007. In the first quarter of that year, with Congress and President Bush locked in a battle for control of Iraq policy, the war was the top story, accounting for 22.3% of the newshole. By the second quarter of 2009 (which runs through July 5), it had declined by more than 90%—to only 1.7% of the newshole.
Coverage of the war has steadily dropped as the domestic debate over Iraq policy abated, the violence in that country diminished and the U.S. de-escalated its role in the past few years. For all of 2007, the three Iraq storylines filled 15.5% of the newshole, with the bulk of attention focused on the Washington war debate. (This thread filled 7.8% of the overall newshole). In 2008, Iraq coverage plummeted to only 3.6% of the overall newshole, with the biggest component (2.1%) focused on events within Iraq. In the first half of 2009, attention to Iraq fell even further, to just 2% of the newshole, with slightly more than half of that (1.1%) devoted to the events inside Iraq.
Tricia Sartor and Dana Page of PEJ
Note: *Q2 2009 runs through July 5, 2009 for this report
Date Posted: July 9, 2009 Source, Pew Center
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The 'good war' in Afghanistan?... It isn't a good war... It isn't an Afghan war... "It is about Pakistan" -Tom Ricks (Ex-WaPo now FP Magazine)
But I wonder what the hell we've been doing since then...
In Full @ Foreign Policy
Tags:
Afghanistan,
Al Qaeda,
David Petraeus,
Foreign Policy,
Iraq,
Iraq War,
Pakistan,
Pentagon,
South Asia,
Taliban,
Tom Ricks
Friday, December 19, 2008
Shoes Thrown at Bush Revealed to Have Message on Bottoms
Click The Image For Shoe Size Larger Than 10s
Source
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Tags:
Al-Zeidi,
Bristol Palin,
George W. Bush,
Humor,
Iraq,
Iraq War,
Iraqi Culture,
Sarah Palin,
Satire,
War On Iraq
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Barack Obama: He's not really against the war. Not like you and I are. - William Blum, The Anti-Empire Report
The Anti-Empire Report
December 1st, 2008
by William Blum
www.killinghope.org
Vote First. Ask Questions Later.
Okay, let's get the obvious out of the way. It was historic. I choked up a number of times, tears came to my eyes, even though I didn't vote for him. I voted for Ralph Nader for the fourth time in a row.
During the past eight years when I've listened to news programs on the radio each day I've made sure to be within a few feet of the radio so I could quickly change the station when that preposterous man or one of his disciples came on; I'm not a masochist, I suffer fools very poorly, and I get bored easily.
Sad to say, I'm already turning the radio off sometimes when Obama comes on. He doesn't say anything, or not enough, or not often enough. Platitudes, clichés, promises without substance, "hope and change", almost everything without sufficient substance, "change and hope", without specifics, designed not to offend. What exactly are the man's principles? He never questions the premises of the empire. Never questions the premises of the "War on Terror".
I'm glad he won for two reasons only: John McCain and Sarah Palin, and I deeply resent the fact that the American system forces me to squeeze out a drop of pleasure from something so far removed from my ideals. Obama's votes came at least as much from people desperate for relief from neo-conservative suffocation as from people who genuinely believed in him. It's a form of extortion – Vote for Obama or you get more of the same. Those are your only choices.
Is there reason to be happy that the insufferably religious George W. is soon to be history? "I believe that Christ died for my sins and I am redeemed through him. That is a source of strength and sustenance on a daily basis." That was said by someone named Barack Obama.1 The United States turns out religious fanatics like the Japanese turn out cars. Let's pray for an end to this.
As I've mentioned before, if you're one of those who would like to believe that Obama has to present center-right foreign policy views to be elected, but once he's in the White House we can forget that he misled us repeatedly and the true, progressive man of peace and international law and human rights will emerge ... keep in mind that as a US Senate candidate in 2004 he threatened missile strikes against Iran2, and winning that election apparently did not put him in touch with his inner peacenik. He's been threatening Iran ever since.
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With his popularity Obama could get away with almost anything, but he'll probably continue to play it safe. Or what may be more precise, he'll continue to be himself; which, apparently, is a committed centrist. He's not really against the war. Not like you and I are.
During Obama's first four years in the White House, the United States will not leave Iraq. I doubt that he'd allow a complete withdrawal even in a second term. Has he ever unequivocally called the war illegal and immoral? A crime against humanity? Why is he so close to Colin Powell? Does he not know of Powell's despicable role in the war? And retaining George W Bush's Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, a man against whom it would not be difficult to draw up charges of war crimes?Will he also find a place for Rumsfeld? And Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, a supporter of the war, to run the Homeland Security department? And General James Jones, a former NATO commander (sic), who wants to "win" in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who backed John McCain, as his National Security Adviser? Jones is on the Board of Directors of the Boeing Corporation and Chevron Oil. Out of what dark corner of Obama's soul does all this come?
As Noam Chomsky recently pointed out, the election of an indigenous person (Evo Morales) in Bolivia and a progressive person (Jean-Bertrand Aristide) in Haiti were more historic than the election of Barack Obama.
He's not really against torture either.
Not like you and I are.
No one will be punished for using or ordering torture...
In full @ The Anti-Empire Report
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Because The Wolves Haven't Razed This Cretin Yet... Neocon Richard Perle Considers Investing In Iraq's Oil Industry
H/t to Juan Cole @ Informed Comment
Neoconservative Iraq War architect Richard Perle is seeking to get into the oil business in Iraq.
See also the Iraq Oil Report on this matter.
There Have Been
Thanks For Stopping By
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
As War Crimes Continue, Admiration On Capitol Hill Grows For General Petraeus... Upbeat on Destruction Of Iraqi Society And Culture
Analysis: Petraeus upbeat on Iraq
May 23, 2008 at 10:56 AM
By MELISSA SCHMITT
WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) -- Gen. David Petraeus told an admiring Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday that the improving security situation in Iraq will likely allow him to recommend further U.S. troop reductions this fall, beyond the planned drawdown to about 140,000 in July.
Petraeus, currently the commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and now nominated by President Bush to take over as head of U.S. Central Command, appeared before the senators for a confirmation hearing. But the gathering quickly turned from his job qualifications to a progress report on Iraq.
His comments were markedly more optimistic than his last update to the committee only six weeks ago.
Petraeus reported that recent attempts by Iraqi security forces to secure parts of the nation -- including Basra, Mosul and the sprawling Shiite slum known as Sadr City in Baghdad -- with diminished U.S. military involvement have proven successful.
The general also said the U.S.-backed central government was enjoying more support among the Iraqi people,"
In Full @ UPI
Here's one of the 'Iraqi people' he obviously hasn't asked:
"Those civilians include people like Zahara Fadhil, a 10-year-old girl with a tiny frame and long brown hair. Relatives said she was wounded by a missile on April 20 at approximately 8 p.m. in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City. The U.S. military said it fired a Hellfire missile in Zahara's neighborhood at that time, targeting men who were seen loading rockets into a sedan.How, you ask, did THAT happen to this child?
Her face drained of color and her legs scarred by shrapnel, Zahara spoke haltingly when asked what she thought of U.S. troops.
"They kill people," she said. Lying in bed, she gasped for air before continuing.
"They should leave Iraq now."
Simple.
The reason the Pentagon MIGHT be able to allow a 'drawdown' to 140,000 troops is:
In Iraq, a Surge in U.S. Airstrikes
(Washington Post)
In other words, We can't really carpet bomb Baghdad, Mosul etc like we did to VAST INHABITED AREAS of Vietnam...
We NEED the infrastructure this time...
But we can commit the high tech, tailored-for-urban-warfare equivalent of that war crime.
Military Says Attacks Save Troops' Lives, but Civilian Casualties Elicit Criticism
Footage: Hellfire Airstrikes Over Sadr City
Since clashes broke out in eastern Baghdad in late March the U.S. Army has fired more than 200 hellfire missiles in Baghdad, killing over 251 people. A pilot describes his experiences.
By Ernesto Londoño and Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, May 23, 2008; Page A10
CAMP TAJI, Iraq -- From an Apache helicopter, Capt. Ben Katzenberger's battlefield resembles a vast mosaic of tiny brown boxes.
"The city looks like a bucket of Legos dumped out on the ground," the 26-year-old pilot said. "It's brown Legos, no color. It's really dense and hard to pick things out because everything looks the same."
He uses a powerful lens to zoom in on tiny silhouettes, trying to identify people with "hostile intent" among hundreds of ordinary citizens in Baghdad.
In recent weeks, Katzenberger and other pilots have dramatically increased their use of helicopter-fired missiles against enemy fighters, often in densely populated areas. Since late March, the military has fired more than 200 Hellfire missiles in the capital, compared with just six missiles fired in the previous three months.
The military says the tactic has saved the lives of ground troops and prevented attacks, but the strikes have also killed and wounded civilians, provoking criticism from Iraqis...
In Full (4 Pages) @ The Washington Post
Thanks For Stopping By
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Un-Holy War Chronicles - US sniper in Iraq used Koran for larget practice, writes offensive graffiti
From BBC:
"An American sniper has been sent home from Iraq for using a copy of the Koran for target practice at a shooting range near Baghdad, the US military says."
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He was unnamed, but was reportedly a staff sergeant in a sniper section.
US military spokesman Colonel Bill Buckner said the incident was "both serious and deeply troubling", but stressed it was an "isolated incident and a result of one soldier's actions".
[And then there's this 'isolated incident']
[And this soldier... also 'isolated']
...and a group of soldiers did this "isolated act":
The US army's commander in Baghdad, Major-General Jeffery Hammond, made a personal apology to local Sunni Arab leaders in Radwaniya, CNN reported.
On arrival, he was met by hundreds of protesting tribesmen.
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The military presented the elders with a new copy of the Koran.
(Wasn't that... special...)
Thanks For Stopping By
Tags:
Amoral,
Amorality,
Disinformation,
Genocide,
Haditha,
Holy War,
Iraq,
Iraq War,
Koran,
Moral Turpitude,
Muslim,
Religion,
US Troops In Iraq,
Warmongering
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Disneyland-Style Theme Park Set for Baghdad. Honest to God - MotherJones
But the following snippet from the satirical portion of this presentation about sums it up:
The construction began in November 2003 on a site that had once contained a set of apartment blocks, a school and a public library, but had been conveniently levelled by US bombs.
Thousands of Iraqis showed their support for the project by lining up for jobs. "I need this for my starving wife and children," one man happily told a Fox News crew."I have a doctorate in applied mathematics and was affluent before the war, but now the only chance we have for survival is for Disney to hire me to shovel asphalt."Sadly, this man and twenty-four others were killed by a suicide bomber a few minutes after giving this interview.
[In full @ the bottom of this post]
Disneyland-Style Theme Park Set for Baghdad. Honest to God
MotherJones
Satire becomes reality. In the preview for "War, Inc." that Bruce posted below, private contractor John Cusack executes a war for the American government and then watches bewilderedly as a hip-hop star and her entourage invade the country right behind him.Soon English-language billboards and bumper stickers are everywhere.
That's ridiculous, right? An over-the-top display of how the encroachment of American culture and capitalism works. Leftist Hollywood hysteria.
Guess again, sucker: "[Llewellyn] Werner, chairman of C3, a Los Angeles-based holding company for private equity firms, is pouring millions of dollars into developing the Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience, a massive American-style amusement park that will feature a skateboard park, rides, a concert theatre and a museum.
It is being designed by the firm that developed Disneyland. "The people need this kind of positive influence. It’s going to have a huge psychological impact," Mr Werner said.
The 50-acre (20 hectare) swath of land sits adjacent to the Green Zone and encompasses Baghdad's existing zoo, which was looted, left without power and abandoned after the American-led invasion in 2003...
More @ MoJo
Also, this from September 2005... A Send-Up... I think...
But after reading the MoJo piece one HAS to wonder:
Disney Delays Opening of Baghdad Theme Park
by Nikolai Stephens, Thu. 8 Sep 2005
In a shock move, the Disney Corporation have decided to delay the opening date of their new theme park in Baghdad, Iraq. The opening date, previously set for September 12th, will be postponed indefinitely according to Disney CEO Michael Eisner.
"We regret that many will be inconvenienced by this decision. I know the Iraqi people's deepest wish has been to have an opportunity to partake in the Disney dream, but economic and social practicalities unfortunately mean that it will be some time yet before Baghdad Disney is a reality."
The theme park was set to be the shining light of Iraq's reconstruction and had been one of President George Bush's favourite projects since the American invasion. In May, 2003, immediately after he announced "Mission Accomplished', he outlined his dream of a Baghdad Disney that would be a beacon of American values and ideas throughout the Middle East.
"Baghdad Disney will attract all of the Arab world population to marvel at its glories. It'll be almost like being in Florida, with lots of sand and old people and an enormous theme park with rides and talking, walking animals," he told sailors on the aircraft carrier Missouri.
The construction began in November 2003 on a site that had once contained a set of apartment blocks, a school and a public library, but had been conveniently levelled by US bombs. Thousands of Iraqis showed their support for the project by lining up for jobs. "I need this for my starving wife and children," one man happily told a Fox News crew. "I have a doctorate in applied mathematics and was affluent before the war, but now the only chance we have for survival is for Disney to hire me to shovel asphalt."
Sadly, this man and twenty-four others were killed by a suicide bomber a few minutes after giving this interview. "So many good people have died for this noble cause," George Bush announced in January this year at a New York promotional banquet organised and funded by Disney. "That's why we have to keep with this thing until the end - we owe it to all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of true freedom and the ability to ride the dodge'm cars."
However, in recent months the project has been plagued with problems. Persistent attacks from insurgents, equipment failure and cultural misunderstandings have all hampered the process. Last month Disney, as part of a promotional campaign, hired and trained locals to dress up as Donald Duck, Goofy and Mickey Mouse. They paraded through the streets of Baghdad dancing to a brass band.
Unfortunately, certain fundamentalist Shiite groups consider a dog wearing a hat to be sacrilegious. A riot occurred as the parade passed through the Shiite slum, Sadr City. Thousands of angry men attacked the parade and the participants fled, the band leaving their instruments in the street in their haste. Unfortunately, Goofy and Donald, slowed by their novelty costumes, were caught by the irate mob and beaten to death with brass wind instruments. Mickey has not been seen since and is believed to have fled the country.
However, despite these setbacks and the delay, Michael Eisner is adamant that Baghdad Disney will one day be a reality. "It has to be finished. The White House and the Pentagon will not rest until it is completed and open to the public, and that's not just because Dick Cheney has bought stock in Disney recently. Our government realises the importance of Bagdad Disney for the future economic well being of Iraq. George Bush was saying to me just the other day that, without a Disneyland, what possible reason would there be for anyone to go to a God-forsaken heap of sand and rubble once all the oil has been siphoned off..."
At this moment Eisner's press conference was interrupted by Secret Service agents and he was escorted off the premises. The Pentagon later stated that they believed Islamic extremists were planning to launch a terrorist attack on the building, and it was for this reason that the press conference was ended. Eisner later released a statement declaring that the stress of the possible attack had scrambled his brain and his comments regarding Bush and Cheney were totally inaccurate.
Tags:
C3,
Disney,
Green Zone,
Iraq,
Iraq Reconstruction,
Iraq War,
Iraqi Society,
Llewellyn Werner,
Sarcasm,
Satire
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Proxy War - Iran says U.S. aids rebels at its borders - Los Angeles Times
Iran says U.S. aids rebels at its bordersThe violence may be driving Tehran's efforts to back its own allies in Iraq.
By Borzou Daragahi
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 15, 2008
"Analysts say the anti-Iranian groups are tempting assets for the U.S. They say it would be a surprise if the groups were not receiving U.S. funding, but that the strategy would probably not work.
"It will give more encouragement to Iran's hard-liners to step up their own efforts to assist anti-American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst now at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
Among the most active groups is the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, known by its Kurdish acronym, PEJAK. It has hundreds of well-trained fighters along with camps in northern Iraq.
Iranian soldiers guarding the border are sometimes ambushed by PEJAK fighters. Iran responds with artillery attacks that send Iraqi villagers scurrying for cover. Border skirmishes last summer and fall between Iranian security forces and PEJAK left dozens dead on both sides.
PEJAK emerged this decade as an Iranian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, an armed group formed to fight a separatist war against the Turkish government.
Former members say PEJAK was meant to circumvent Western restrictions on contacts with the PKK, which has been labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department and the European Union."
Tags:
CIA,
Iran,
Iraq,
Kurdistan,
Middle East,
Militarism,
PEJAK,
Persian Gulf,
PKK,
Proxy Army,
Proxy War
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Wanna 'Play'? Know Your Players... al-Maliki Tries To "Kick Out The JAMS" In Iraq: The tangled web of Shia politics
OK Ok... Me Bad... The MC5 Would have most likely been Kickin' it WITH the JAMS, considering they were the 'musical wing' of the vehemently anti-imperialist White Panther Party
Ahem!
First... Sitrep & setup from Juan Cole's Informed Comment
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Najaf under Curfew;
As Sadr Brother-in-Law Killed;
13 Killed in Baghdad Clashes
Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that the Shiite holy city of Najaf is under a strict curfew after a drive by shooting that killed Riyad al-Nuri, the head of the Sadr office in that city. Nuri was Muqtada al-Sadr's brother-in-law, married to one of al-Sadr's sistsers. On of Nuri's sisters is married to Murtada al-Sadr, the younger brother of Muqtada.
Muqtada called on the Iraqi government to conduct an investigation into the death.
Sadrist spokesperson Salah al-Ubaydi called on Sadrists to show restraint.
Al-Zaman says that some have implicated al-Nuri in the murder of Abdul Majid Khoie on April 10, 2003.
Amit Paley at WaPo has more.
McClatchy positions the story with regard to Muqtada al-Sadr's assertion that the US was behind al-Nuri's death. The US denied the charge. McClatchy observes, "The timing of the killing — not even two weeks after more than 120 people died and at least 300 were wounded in fighting between Sadr's militiamen and government forces in the port city of Basra — raises the specter of a wider rebellion that could spread to Sadr's strongholds in Baghdad." In Full
From an ISN Security Watch Paper titled: The tangled web of Shia politics
Badr Corps vs JAM
Aside from the government-JAM conflict, there is another equally important dynamic at work here. The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) and its armed wing, the Badr Corps, are bent on destroying the power of the al-Sadr movement. What has added urgency to this strategy is the crucial provincial elections of October 2008.
In 2005, the Sadrists boycotted the local elections. Consequently, the ISCI won seven out of nine southern Shia governorates (that is, all but Maysan and Basra). Three years of economic mismanagement and graft by ISCI functionaries and their cronies, plus the Sadrists' continuing appeal to the mostly impoverished Shias of the south can easily translate into a huge electoral victory for the al-Sadr movement come this October - a prospect clearly dreaded by both the ISCI and al-Maliki. (Al-Maliki's own Dawa Party has no mass base to speak of.)
From the beginning, in 2003, the two main rival Shia groups - the ISCI and the al-Sadr movement - followed completely different political tracks.
The ISCI, which was formed in Iran in the 1980s, built an institutional alliance with the US to capture strategic positions in the state and security establishments. For example, its control over the Ministries of Treasury and Interior has brought it great political and financial dividends. It also has virtual control over the two holy cities of Karbala and Najaf with all the financial rewards and the prestige that is conferred on the custodians of the shrines.
The ISCI's social base consists of the Shia merchant classes of Karbala, Najaf and Baghdad (they happen to have long-standing links with their Iranian counterparts), Shia nouveau riche developers, and the Shia middle classes, including the secular variety - although the latter's number is dwindling fast thanks to migration.
In contrast, the al-Sadr movement has always oriented itself toward the poor and the disfranchised.
This view is seconded by an anonymous commenter @ Informed comment, and I.
This later round of fighting has clear motives . The populistic ,poor oriented , anti-occupation Mehdi Army is set to win elections by a landslide.
Colaborationist Maliki will try to provoke a civil war he hopes to win with the help of America and the SCIRI militias disguised as iraki soldiers. Maliki's plan is to , instead of elections , give irakis blood and bullets .
Sadr knows democracy will bring him victory , but Mahdi people can not surrender their weapons without been killed or imprisoned in no time . This weapons may be the only hope if America goes for permanent occupation (colonization).
That is why neutral grand ayatollah Sistani is silent about the Mahdi weapons and does not order Sadr to disarm . This weapons are the last hope of freedom for Irak and Sistani knows and remains silent. So Maliki and Bush viciously attack the Mehdi Army hoping Sadr will lift his cease fire and hell will get loose and elections be forgotten .
I pray Sadr will find a peacefull way out , but when the other side is trying to aniquilate (sic) you it is very difficult to find a peacefull outcome . I hope God will give Sadr wisdom for the task. Source
ISN Security Watch - Iraq: The tangled web of Shia politics
Friday, April 4, 2008
...And In Iraq... Remember Iraq? US troops in civilian clothing targeted by unknown gunmen near Baghdad... Call in airstrike.
"So how come they were wearing civilian clothes?"
Friday, April 04, 2008His source... Arabic... [Here]
Clashes Continue in Basra: Badr Militia Strengthened
Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that clashes continued to be fought in Basra on Thursday between Iraqi government troops and the Mahdi Army militia.
It also says that US troops in civilian clothing were targeted in the Shiite city of Hillah south of Baghdad. They were attacked by unknown gunmen and had to call in airstrikes on enemy positions. So how come they were wearing civilian cloths?
..Ya don't suppose they're actually going to say if it was an SOG?
But they HAVE preemptively justified it.
From March 2003
Pentagon Defends Use of Civilian Clothes
The Pentagon on Friday defended the use of some civilian clothes by U.S. special operations forces, a tactic used to help them blend in with the local population.
Alleging war crimes, Bush administration officials complained bitterly last week that Iraqi paramilitary forces dressed as civilians, faked surrenders and used other battlefield ruses to kill American soldiers.
Asked at a Pentagon press conference why it is OK for American commando troops to take off their uniforms, but a crime when the Iraqis did it, Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said she thought American forces wear something that distinguishes them from civilians, but deferred the question for a later answer.
The issue is a subject of disagreement among Pentagon legal advisers and policy makers. Some officials have said for some time that it is a gray area that needs to be settled as a policy, another defense official said on condition of anonymity.
Special operations forces are often allowed what the military calls "relaxed grooming standards." In the fight against Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, for example, special forces wore long hair and beards to blend in with the local Muslim population.
Many wore only parts of their uniform - for instance camouflaged pants with a T-shirt and baseball cap or a camouflaged jacket with an Arab head wrap or scarf.
At the press conference with Clarke, Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the war crime is determined by what the soldier does as well as what he wears.
"I'm not a lawyer, so I might get part of this wrong, but part of it is ... what you do when you're not in uniform," he said. "If a force is going to engage in combat, it's going to fight, it must wear a uniform or some kind of uniform - law of land warfare says arm bands or some distinctive marking that allows combatants to be identified from civilians."
After the press conference, officials said U.S. special forces in Iraq "are wearing uniforms," but declined to say if they are full uniforms or modified.
The discussion came as an Army legal oficial told a House panel that Fedayeen militia members captured in Iraq would likely not be entitled to the protection of prisoner-of-war status. That would mean they could face criminal charges for attacking American soldiers.
W. Hays Parks, special assistant for law of war matters for the Army's Judge Advocate General, said that to get POW protections, fighters must meet certain criteria, such as having a formal association with a government, carrying arms openly and wearing distinctive clothing.
He said that among the examples of Iraqi violations of the Geneva convention have been the oadcast (sic) of videotapes of dead and captured U.S. soldiers, the use of white flags to fake surrenders and then attack Americans, and the dressing of forces as civilians to lure invading troops into ambushes.
Source: Pauline Jelinek,APR,Washington, 04abr03
This document has been published on 22mar03 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
Thanks For Stopping By
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Can You Say 'Military-Industrial Complex'? Former Senator Mike Gravel Can, Even As He Karaokes To The Beatles White Album
H/T to Crooks and Liars, who comment:
In the age of Halliburton and Blackwater, you gotta love the only candidate willing to say the phrase “military-industrial complex.”
Given who is left in the race, is it any surprise that Eisenhower originally wanted to warn against the military-industrial-congressional complex?You can show Gravel some love here.
Thanks For Stopping By
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
You Want To See Our Iraq NIE? ...Ha Ha Ha! We Don't Need To Show You Any Stinkin' NIE!
If you're the police where are your badges?
Badges? We ain't got no badges.
We don't need no badges!
I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!
Source
Badges? We ain't got no badges.
We don't need no badges!
I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!
Source
No Iraq Intelligence Update For You!
By Spencer Ackerman
04/01/2008
"For weeks, analysts within the 16-agency U.S. intelligence community have been toiling to complete an assessment of the situation in Iraq. This morning, it finally went to the Hill: the Senate and House intelligence committees, and the leadership in both chambers, are the proud owners of an update to the August 23, 2007 National Intelligence Estimate. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee received a briefing on it. But you'll never see it.
According to an administration official with knowledge of the intelligence process, this morning's intelligence document isn't itself a National Intelligence Estimate. 'It's not a formal report,' the official said, 'it's more or less an assessment memo, an update to policy makers.'"
In Full @ The Washington Independent
Monday, March 31, 2008
Enquiring Minds: Where are the Iraqis in the Iraq War? - Ramzy Baroud, Atlantic FreePress
from Atlantic Free Press - Hard Truths for Hard Times
by Ramzy Baroud
March 31 2008
Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
Five years after the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, mainstream media is once more making the topic an object of intense scrutiny. The costs and implications of the war are endlessly covered from all possible angles, with one notable exception— the cost to the Iraqi people themselves.
Through all the special coverage and exclusive reports, very little is said about Iraqi casualties, who are either completely overlooked or hastily mentioned and whose numbers can only be guesstimated. Also conveniently ignored are the millions injured, internally and externally displaced, the victims of rape and kidnappings who will carry physical and psychological scars for the rest of their lives.
We find ourselves stuck in a hopeless paradigm, where it feels necessary to empathise with the sensibilities of the aggressor so as not to sound unpatriotic , while remaining blind to the untold anguish of the victims.
Some actually feel the need to go so far as to blame the Iraqis for their own misfortune.
Both Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have expressed their wish for Iraqis to take responsibility for the situation in their country, with the former saying, we cannot win their civil war. There is no military solution.
It would have been helpful if Clinton had reached her astute conclusion before she voted for the Senate's 2002 resolution authorising President Bush to attack Iraq.
For the sake of argument, let's overlook both Clinton's and Obama's repeated assertions that all options, including military ones, are on the table regarding how to deal with Iran's alleged ambition to acquire nuclear weapons.
But to go so far as blaming the ongoing war on the Iraqis' lack of accountability is a new low for these antiwar candidates...
In Full.
.
.
Thanks For Stopping By
Sunday, March 30, 2008
That Old Time Religion - Police arrest anti-war protester, 80, at mall - Feral Scholar
That Old Time Religion
The Catonsville Nine (Daniel and Philip Berrigan, other activists, burn draft records in a parking lot with homemade napalm)
Not THIS kind of 'religion':
H/T to Stan Goff, Feral Scholar
Police arrest anti-war protester, 80, at mall
[Hat tip to Jeri Reed]
An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War.
Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt, which had what they described as “graphic anti-war images.” Zirkel, a deacon at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch, said his shirt had the death tolls of American military personnel and Iraqis - 4,000 and 1 million - and the words “Dead” and “Enough.” The shirt also has three blotches resembling blood splatters.
Police said in a release last night that…
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