The Common Ills: 2007-10-14

Saturday, October 20, 2007

NYT headline writer is lost

A7 of this morning's New York Times provides a groaner in their only story filed from Iraq. The article is by Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Qais Mizher. The headline writer goes unbilled but what an ambitious piece of writing -- even if it doesn't reflect truth or the article -- has been turned in: "Militans Aim Attacks at Kirku Region: Chased Out of Central Iraq, Insurgents Hit Tense Northern Area." Oppel and Mizher tell you that, "The violence on Friday underscored the continued instability of the area surrounding Kirkuk, where some Sunni insurgents fled earlier this year from strongholds in Baghdad and Baquba . . ." Some. But the headline writing was ambitious.

A liar? Probably not. The headline writer probably reads the same New York Times everyone else does and one benefit in their repeated, nearly daily silence on the continued violence (round ups of daily violence rarely even make the paper these days) is that they can continue to sell the illegal war without lying -- these days they're too underinformed to be accused of lying.

And only an idiot could ignore the daily pile up of corpses (which, idiot that it is, the paper does) and proclaim "Chased Out of Central Iraq".

So what was the violence in Kirkuk? They "blew up an oil pipeline, battled a convoy carrying bodyguards of a deputy prime minister, and ambushed a police chief" -- now, they're interested in pipelines? In the summer of 2006 when a pipeline was attacked and burned for days, the Times never reported a single word of it. Possibly the sky rocketing price of oil captured their interest now?

Barham Salih is the deputy prime minister and his convoy was attacked but he wasn't in the convoy. Read on in vain for anythng about the attacks on officials which have been a significant trend since last month (and, after it started, Alissa J. Rubin did file one report on the trend)

Mewnwhile Zachary Coile (San Francisco Chronicle) reports on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's latest backdown:

The 18-term lawmaker stirred the pot again Thursday when he attacked President Bush and congressional Republicans for backing hundreds of billions of dollars for the Iraq war, but blocking a $35 billion expansion of a children's health insurance program.
"You're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement," Stark told Republicans on the floor of the House.
The remarks during the debate over Bush's veto of the children's health bill drew howls of outrage from House Republicans and conservative commentators. His words were replayed endlessly on cable news and talk radio. By Friday, even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- who praised Stark for his leadership on the children's health bill a day earlier -- was distancing herself from his comments.
"While members of Congress are passionate about their views, what Congressman Stark said during the debate was inappropriate and distracted from the seriousness of the subject at hand -- providing health care for America's children," Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said.

Pelosi does the cower dance quite well (never grasping that it only fuels GOP attacks), it's courage she continues to have a problem with. With Bully Boy having long ago announced that the illegal war would continue after he left office and Congressional Dems buying into the illegal war, with the three media favorites in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination -- Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama -- refusing to pledge that, if elected president, they would end the illegal war by 2013, obviously many more people will die in Iraq. That five years now and the deaths -- if the illegal war continues to drag on -- will include some who are not yet 18 now. That's reality. But leave it Fancy Nancy to backdown. Had Pelosi stated, "I have no problem with the remarks," there wouldn't be a story today. Instead she does what so much Democratic leadership does today, provide the opening for each attempted attack from the GOP to get a leg to stand on and then the GOP hits on them again and again. Pelosi is not fit to be Speaker of the House. She may be fit to be leader of the Democrats in the House but, if so, that's only due to the fact that the bulk of them are weaklings.

In yesterday's snapshot and in "Kyle Knight explores the draft, Michael Espinal goes public"
we noted Denis St. Pierre's "'I decided I wasn't going to jail'; U.S. Army deserter comes to Sudbury as conscientious objector" (The Sudbury Star). Espinal is the first known war resister of the hundreds going to Canada to make Sudbury home and the story has gotten a great deal of attention hence the pushback. Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star) reports on the statements issued by John Nay, United States Counsul General to Canada, who insists that there's nothing any war resister needs to fear about America. He also attempts to weigh in on CO's noting, "Nobody is in the US military who didn't sign up voluntarily to join. To sign up for the military and take the benefits, take the salaries, is a little hard to then say 'I'm a conscientious objector'."
Nay is correct in that it is hard to say you're a CO and it is even harder to be granted CO status; however, the CO status officially (if not in practice) recognizes that beliefs can be deepened or gained through experience so Nay's actual meaning of "hard" -- that you can't sign up and then rightly claim CO status -- actually demonstrates how the US government refuses to grasp the policies in the place.

That a graduate of the National War College can be so uninformed on the US' official CO policies and regulations goes a long way towards explaining why war resisters go to Canada. Nay moved to his current post after serving in the State Department and, there, he served as Senior Inspector of the departments Office of the Inspector General. Considering all the shame that Office of the Inspector General has brought to State Department (and continues to), that's hardly a slug line you want on the resume. Nay-Nay should stick to writing his belabored "if . . ." articles ("Canada and the United States are a bit like fraternal twins . . .") for journals no one reads -- he lacks the facts, wit and looks to be a pundit -- and considering the teeth on Robert Novak, that's really saying something.

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;

Trina's Trina's Kitchen;

and Ruth's Ruth's Report

Yes, Ruth's Report. Ruth has started her own site. She'll still be doing her reports here and plans a brief one this weekend. Ruth's Report is where she'll note a program. She expects to do that two to three times a week but would like to be able to do it five times a week. It'll be a heads up to something she caught that she thinks is of interest. She's written an introduction post and also a post that's more typical of what she plans to do. Many sites last night were guest posts due to a number of us going to Tori Amos' concert. Tracey (Ruth's granddaughter) wanted it noted that the entire concert was "great but my favorite was either 'A Sort of Fairytale' or 'Cornflake Girl'."

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

tori amos
the new york times
richard a. oppel jr.
zachary coile
denis st. pierre
michael espinal
like maria said paz
kats korner
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
trinas kitchen
the daily jot
cedrics big mix
mikey likes it
thomas friedman is a great man
ruths report

Friday, October 19, 2007

Iraq snapshot

Friday, October 19, 2007, Iraq Moratorium Day. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces two more deaths, Amy Goodman shines a light on the Iraqi wounded, and more.

Starting with war resistance. War resister Camilo Mejia speaks Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin. Janet Parker (The Capital Times) notes, "This weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, energy is building among student activists who are hosting a national event, Students Rising: The 5th Anniversary Summit of the Campus Antiwar Network. Their featured speaker will be brave conscientious objector to war, Camilo Mejia. In 2004 Staff Sgt. Mejia applied for a discharge from the Army. He was the first known Iraq veteran to refuse to fight, citing moral concerns about the war and occupation. His public talk will be in the Humanities Building, Room 3650, at 8 p.m. Saturday." Pablo Paredes is another war resister. On Wednesday, he was in Berkeley with CODEPINK and other activists to protest the recruiting center on Shattuck Ave. Henry K. Lee (San Francisco Chronicle) reports on the right wing activists descending upon the area to demonstrate their support for recruiting centers to send more people off to die in an illegal war and points out one right winger made a fool out of himself. The right-winger's son died in Iraq (this isn't in the article) and -- the then under-age son was able to join the military only because he signed a waiver. Instead of addressing that, he elected to scream at Pablo Paredes, "Are you a soldier? They wouldn't let you looking like that!" A soldier? Paredes was in the navy and was a Petty Officer Third Class. Lee writes, "Paredes said later that he had served five years in the Navy and that people of color like himself bore the brunt of military service. 'I think the color of my skin shouldn't make me be on the front line,' Paredes said, adding that he left the Navy because he refused orders and opposed the war in Iraq." Along with Mejia, Stephen Funk and Aiden Delgado, Paredes is one of the early faces of war resistance and they -- and many others including Carl Webb -- demonstrated from the start that the movement was not "White" -- despite the mistaken claims of many.

Demonstrating further the diversity is the fact that one Iraq War resister is the first officer to publicy refuse to serve in the illegal war. That officer is Ehren Watada. Today is Iraq Moratorium day and many participants will be showing their solidarity with Watada whose legal status is on hold as federal judge Benjamin Settle reviews issues arising from the first court-martial of Watada (in February) when Judge Toilet (aka John Head) declared a mistrial over defense objection which should have prevented any further court-martials due to the double-jeopardy clause in the US Constitution. In a letter to People's Weekly World entitled "Watada's Leadership," T. Kyoshi Nagano explains how Watada's refusal to engage in an illegal war was upholding the highest of military standards by juxtaposing Watada's statements with those of US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Watada: "I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our agression. My oath of office is to protect and defend America's laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today."

Gates: "For a real leader, the elements of personal virtue -- self-reliance, self-control, honor, truthfulness, morality -- are absolute. They are absolute even when doing what is right may bring embarrassment or bad publicy to your unit or the service or to you. Those are the moements that will truly test the leader withing you -- test whether you will take the hard parth or the easy path, the wrong path or the right path. The willingness always to take the right path, even if it is the hard path, is called character. In every aspect of your life, whether personal or professional, you must always maintain the courage of your convictions -- your personal integrity."

T, Kyoshi Nagano observes, "There is a tradition in the Japanese American community to act on personal belief from volunteer 442/Nisei Linguist (while their family and friends were in camps), the NoNo Boys and the Vietnam War resisters. There are words, yet actions speak loudly." While the federal court examines the issue of double-jeopardy, a stay has been issued through at least October 26th.

New war resisters pop up daily and some go public and some don't. One who has decided to go public is Michael Espinal who self-checked out and went to Canada after serving in Iraq. Denis St. Pierre (The Sudbury Star) reports that Espinal "witnessed -- and participated in -- authorized missions that saw hundreds -- perhaps thousands of innocent Iraqis killed, injured, imprisoned and humiliated, their homes destroyed, their families ripped apart. In Espinal's view, he and his colleagues committed numerous human rights abuses and criminal acts. When his first tour of duy in Iraq ended, he resolved not to return. . . . Espinal and his partner, Jennifer Harrison, who are expecting their first child in April, have been living in Sudbury for the last few weeks. They are the first Americans to attempt to settle in the city with the help from the War Resisters Support Campaign. War Resisters is a country-wide coalition of community, faith, labour and other organizations and individuals helping U.S. soldiers who seek asylum in Canada rather than fight in Iraq." [Note: They are posting video to go with the text. If you click on the link try later. There's also an excerpt of the article in this entry.]

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.

The National Lawyers Guild's convention begins shortly: The Military Law Task Force and the Center on Conscience & War are sponsoring a Continuing Legal Education seminar -- Representing Conscientious Objectors in Habeas Corpus Proceedings -- as part of the National Lawyers Guild National Convention in Washington, D.C. The half-day seminar will be held on Thursday, November 1st, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the convention site, the Holiday Inn on the Hill in D.C. This is a must-attend seminar, with excelent speakers and a wealth of information. The seminar will be moderated by the Military Law Task Force's co-chair Kathleen Gilberd and scheduled speakers are NYC Bar Association's Committee on Military Affairs and Justice's Deborah Karpatkin, the Center on Conscience & War's J.E. McNeil, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee's Peter Goldberger, Louis Font who has represented Camilo Mejia, Dr. Mary Hanna and others, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objector's James Feldman. The fee is $60 for attorneys; $25 for non-profit attorneys, students and legal workers; and you can also enquire about scholarships or reduced fees. The convention itself will run from October 31st through November 4th and it's full circle on the 70th anniversary of NLG since they "began in Washington, D.C." where "the founding convention took place in the District at the height of the New Deal in 1937, Activist, progressive lawyers, tired of butting heads with the reactionary white male lawyers then comprising the American Bar Association, formed the nucleus of the Guild."

Each Wednesday, CODEPINK protests at the military recruiting center in Berkeley. As Medea Benjamin explained to Kristin Bender (Alameda Times-Star), "Our message is very clear. We are peaceful people. We don't want to send our sons and daughters into this war. I think the sentiment of Berkeley is on this side of the street." Bender notes, "The Golden State in 2001 was the nation's largest source of new enlistees, with 23,503 residents joining the military in 2001. But in 2006, 2,400 fewer residents heeded the call, and today California ranks second behind Texas in recruitment." Aimee Allison and David Solnit address counter-recruiting in their book Army Of None: Strategies to Counter Military Recruitment, End War, and Build a Better World (published by Seven Stories Press and available at Courage to Resist). Speaking with Matthew Rothschild last week on The Progressive Radio, Allison noted, "One of the things that I think the military recruiters on the ground rely on are sustained access, regular access to high school kids in particular so they can develop relationships. For the recruiter, they become father or friend or guide and take students out to Burger King and, you know. But of all of the messages that they learn, that recruiters learn, through their hard sell and sustained selling techniques, they never mention the word 'kill.' And the reason why is because it's very deeply ingrained in human beings not to kill. And we've all had these kind of, someone makes us mad and there's a reason we don't act on that because our church, and our family and our society condition us against that kind of violence. So it's the center of the recruiters' message to tell them all the things they can do with their life without letting them know about what the military really is and that is an institution designed to train someone to kill on command and that was the most surprising thing for me in my own experiences." CODEPINK's actions (and the actions of many others throughout the US) are an attempt to break the myths and silence.

A backdoor draft currently exists and is more popularly known as "stop loss." In addition, the US government has set up the framework that would be utilized should the draft be reinstated -- including Selective Service boards. Kyle Knight (University of Southern Indiana's The Shield) explores what would quickly happen if the draft were reinstated, "First, all 20 year-olds must report to their local draft board then 21, 22, and so on. Other aspects of the draft also differ from Vietnam. The S.S.S. states that no one can cite school as a possible deferment. At most, the student could postpone until the end of the semester and not until they finish their degree. The S.S.S. states 'beliefs which qualify a registrant for C.O. status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be. Beliefs may be moral or ethical; however, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest.' To claim conscientious objector you must appear before your local draft board and present a written statement on the influence of your beliefs on your life and how you arrived at them. You can even include someone to speak on your behalf, then the Selective Service Appeal Board will either reject or accept your claim. If accepted you must engage in one of two alternative service choices."

From yesterday's snapshot: "Reuters notes that 'three tribesmen, members of a local "Awakenings Council" aligned to U.S. forces' were whot dead in Dhuluiya. On Tuesday, Sheikh Saleh Fezea Shneitar, his son and nephew were killed outside of Falluja -- the sheikh was a member of "Anbar Awakenings Council," a group that works closely with the US military and whose members have been increasingly targeted for their collaboration. In a White House press conference today Nouri al-Maliki's spokesperson denied that the resistance was 'getting more sophisticated in who they go after'." Today, Ali al-Fadhily (IPS) explores the issue of collaborators zooming in on Abdul Sattar Abu Risha who was killed on September 13th, "It is no secret in Anbar province that Abu Risha's activities were not legal either before or after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. When the U.S. government began to support the 'Awakening of Anbar' led by Sattar Abu Risha, which operated under the flag of fighting al-Qaeda [in Iraq], some people did begin to think differently. 'Americans always choose the worst of their collaborators to be leaders of their campaigns,' Sheikh Ahmed Ali of the Muslim Scholars Association told IPS in Baghdad. 'Look at the governments and councils they choose to lead Iraq. This Sattar Abu Risha only provoked a division among the people of Anbar, and that was exactly what the Americans wanted'."

In some of today's reported violence . . .

Bombings?

Reuters notes a Baghdad mortar attack that left three wounded.

Shootings?

Reuters notes an attack on a Riyadh police chief that left two guards injured.

Corpses?

Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 6 corpses were discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes two corpses were discovered in Muwailha.

Today the US military announced: "A Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier was killed and one other wounded when their unit was attacked by an improvised explosive device and small arms fire in a southern section of the Iraqi capital Oct. 18." And they announced: "A Task Force Lightning Soldier based in Salah ad Din province died as a result of a non-combat-related illness Wednesday after being evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany." ICCC's total for the month of October thus far is 26 dead with 3832 US service members killed in the illegal war since it started.

Turning to the topic of wounded US service members, yesterday on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, Rehm spoke with the Washington Post's Anne V. Hull and Dana Priest about the issue of medical care provided by the Veterans Affairs Dept. (for Hull and Priest's prior reporting at the Post on this issue click here).

Diane Rehm: What's extraordinary is that you say, Dana, the current Veterans Administration is pulled at the seams with some 800,000 cases of backlog.

Dana Priest: Yep. And it seems like it was just a surprise to them that this was going to happen. I don't know if anybody's tried to explain it away but certainly they haven't done a good job if they have. And not only do they have the case backlog, but they also are trying to merge the two disability systems. This is one of the recommendations -- the main recommendation -- of the Donna Shalala and Bob Dole panel that has just given the president their recommendations. They want to merge these two systems and, and -uh, give the burden to the VA to rate, to determine the level of disability that each soldier has and what will be their benefit, their pension, their disability payment from then on. So it's probably a good idea -- a lot of people do think it is a good idea because the army is having such trouble doing it. But it will add a lot of people onto the VA -- into the VA system -- that is already overcrowded and one assumes that they will be getting a lot more funding and some other personnel to do that.

[. . .]

Anne Hull: . . . And the heart of what Bush sent to Congress is, as Dana said, and to let the military determine whether or not a soldier is fit for duty let the VA rate for disability. And that's a huge culture shift and that is going to require legislation. There's already a lot of pushback from veterans' organizations who do not want the disability compensation system tinkered with in any way, it's known as "the third rail." They're afraid that older veterans might lose out and the younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are obviously concerned about their generation. Secondly, it expands family leave. The spouse of a soldier can get up to six months of unpaid leave --

Diane Rehm: Unpaid leave.

Anne Hull: Unpaid leave, that's right. In a two year period. So this is basically to safe guard their job but not to provide them money while they're caring for the wounded.

Diane Rehm: But how do they -- how do they manage while they're taking the six-month unpaid leave?

Anne Hull: This is the big story. This is . . . You know, we had a story on Sunday, one soldier's one year war becomes a wife's endless war. It is put upon the families to carry the burden of having a wounded soldier or marine in their life.

Dana Priest: And it's going to be awfully hard to monitor the getting the job back. I mean, it's already difficult for people who go away in the Guard and Reserve to make sure that they get the job that they had back as required by law and this is virtually unenforceable. The other recommendation they made had to do with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD]. And that would -- it opens up the door to say, "You don't have to prove to us when you got it or why you got it. Come on in and get an evaluation if you think you need it."

On Monday, Anne Hull participated in an online exchange at the Washington Post and it needs to be noted that the Turners (the subjects of the Sunday story) have received an outpouring of support from people (donations can be made care of the Washington Post, address at link) but where is the government, where is the VA? On the reporting she and Priest have been doing, Hull responds in the exchange as to how she and Priest have found their stories, "People have asked us this question over and over on the Walter Reed stories and the answer is quite simple: wounded soldiers and their families are frustrated and many feel abandoned by the country that they fought for. They don't feel heard. Many feel out of sight and forgotten, a long way from the bright parades of deployment. So they are okay about opening up and talking and letting us witness the small details of their lives, and almost to a person, the response is always this: 'As long as this will help other soldiers'." And, speaking to Rehm on Thursday, she noted that "we probably still get five calls, ten calls a day".

Staying on the topic of veterans, The War Comes Home's Aaron Glantz (IPS) covers the case of James Eggemeyer, a 25-year-old homeless veteran, "By December 2006, when James Eggemeyer filed a disability claim with the Veterans administration, he had already joined the ranks of the United State's burgeoning population of homeless veterans, and was living out of his girlfriend's Ford Explorer. So when the VA responded with a letter to his old address requesting that he come in for a physical examination, he missed the appointment. It's a vicious cycle so familiar to homeless people across the country. They need help from the government because they don't have a home, but can't receive mail because they don't have an address. . . . Since the start of the Iraq war, the backlog of unanswered disability claims has grown from 325,000 to more than 600,000. On average, a veteran must wait almost six months to have a claim heard. If a veteran loses and appeals a case, it usually takes at about three years. Veterans groups maintain that the backlog amounts to official negligence. Since the launch of the Iraq war more than four years ago, the number of people charged with reviewing and approving veteran's disability claims has actually dropped. According to the American Federation of Government Employees, the VA employed 1,392 Veterans Service Representatives in June 2007 compared to 1,516 in January 2003." An earlier, audio report Glantz did on homeless veterans can be found here.

Turning to US politics, Margaret Kimberley (Black Agenda Reports) weighs in on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "Activists must keep protesting at her house and working for her defeat in the 2008 congressional elections. They must also cease cooperating with her. The farce must end before it is too late. Pelosi, like Bush, has no loyalty to her constitutionally based responsibilities. She must no longer be treated as though she is a friend when she has proven herself to to be an enemy. Civil liberties groups and antiwar groups must stop meeting with Pelosi or her staff. They must finally realize that they can only play a role in movement politics. It is said that insanity is defined as repeating the same action over and over yet expecting a different result. Progressives have waged many righteous battles in the last seven years, but they are about to go down in history as insane actors in a badly written play."

Today, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) spoke with Cole Miller (No More Victims) about his organizations work in raising awareness on the Iraqi wounded who noted "what was shocking was so many people in South Carolina seemed to be simply unaware that children were being hurt in Iraq. And that's, of course, a pretty profound criticism of the mainstream media." Amy Goodman then interviewed Salee Allawee a ten-year-old victim of a US air strike (precision, no doubt -- that is sarcasm) in which she lost both of her legs and Salee's father Hussein Allawee Feras:

AMY GOODMAN: Salee, you're wearing lots of jewelry. Can you talk about where you got it from?

SALEE ALLAWEE: [translated] This is from Georgia, and this is from South Carolina. So they are both from South Carolina and Georgia.

AMY GOODMAN: So these are all from friends you have made here in the United States?

SALEE ALLAWEE: [translated] These are her best friends, Ann and Cole.

AMY GOODMAN: From here. You have come here to America and have gotten new legs?

SALEE ALLAWEE: [translated] Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: How does it feel?

SALEE ALLAWEE: [translated] It feels good. One of my legs just hurts so much, and so I think it's just infected. It hurts when I wear it.

AMY GOODMAN: Hussein, how has it been for you to come to the United States? Can you -- we just watched the video where you describe what happened to Salee. Can you describe what you felt when you were invited to America?

HUSSEIN ALLAWEE FERAS: [translated] Honestly, I want to start with -- I thank very much the good American people. It is a very late information that we learned that the American people are good people. Because the US military is so harsh, they didn't leave us any time to feel that there are still good people in the US, that we just felt that everyone in the US is like the American army. But honestly, when I came to the US, I just saw a lot of people who were very interested to help Salee and other than Salee. I couldn't believe it. A big difference. Alas, we had a very bad impression on the people in the US. The American soldiers, alas, are really harsh on us.

AMY GOODMAN: You lost -- well, your daughter lost her legs, her best friend. You lost your son?

HUSSEIN ALLAWEE FERAS: [translated] Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: In that attack?

HUSSEIN ALLAWEE FERAS: [translated] Yes, the same incident.

AMY GOODMAN: And your other daughter?

HUSSEIN ALLAWEE FERAS: [translated] Yes. One of her legs has to be cut off.

AMY GOODMAN: Salee, what do you tell American children about what happened to you?

SALEE ALLAWEE: [translated] I want to tell them thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Are you going back to Iraq, Salee? Are you afraid to go back?

SALEE ALLAWEE: [translated] No, I'm not afraid.

AMY GOODMAN: How do you feel about going back, Hussein?

HUSSEIN ALLAWEE FERAS: [translated] As you know, my body is here, but my soul is over there. And I don't think worse things are going to happen in Iraq.

AMY GOODMAN: What was your experience with the US military before the air attack?

HUSSEIN ALLAWEE FERAS: [translated] There is nothing good to tell. Two months after the incident where Salee was injured, again random shooting started to happen in the neighborhood. At 3:00 in the morning one night, a tank was firing at a house while people were sleeping inside, and I saw the roof of that house collapsing on the people inside. We spent eleven hours to dig through the wreckage, trying to find someone who's alive, because we heard someone's voice who was still alive. Seven people out of eight were killed in that attack. Only one baby, who was four months old, was alive, and we were able to get him outside. And he's still alive. And now he's in Fallujah. This is one of the hundreds of thousands of the incidents and miseries Iraqis face every day.

Closing with TV. Sunday on CBS' 60 Minutes, Valerie Plame shares her story with Katie Couric. On Friday, PBS's NOW with David Brancaccio looks at immigration in America and "catches up with two New Jersey mayors who have sharply different -- and politically surprising -- approaches to dealing with undocumented immigrants in their communities" -- Democrat Don Cresitello (Morristown) wants to use federal enforcement powers, Republican Bob Patten has created "Sanctuary City". (Friday on most PBS stations, check local listings).

iraq

ehren watada

iraq veterans against the war
camilo mejia

the national lawyers guild

army of none
aimeee allison
david solnit

matthew rothschild

margaret kimberley

the washington post
dana priest
anne hull

the diane rehm show

pbs
now with david branccacio

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Kyle Knight explores the draft, Michael Espinal goes public

First, all 20 year-olds must report to their local draft board then 21, 22, and so on. Other aspects of the draft also differ from Vietnam. The S.S.S. states that no one can cite school as a possible deferment.
At most, the student could postpone until the end of the semester and not until they finish their degree. Also, the S.S.S. no longer men to carry the draft card with them.
The Vietnam War marked the last introduction of a draft.
Some, including, instructor of Rhetoric and Composition, Kenneth Johnson, who teaches "Impact of the 60's" at USI, believes parallels between Vietnam and today exist.
"During the time of the Vietnam War, we saw powerful, corporate, conservative groups and people overtake the political agendas both by claiming the moral high ground and seeking to stifle conversation. We see those same tactics employed today."
Although eligible himself, Johnson did not have to fight in Vietnam. Often to avoid the draft, men chose to cite conscientious objector, which the S.S.S. constitutes anyone that expresses beliefs that conflict with war.
The S.S.S. states "beliefs which qualify a registrant for C.O. status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be.
Beliefs may be moral or ethical; however, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest."
To claim conscientious objector you must appear before your local draft board and present a written statement on the influence of your beliefs on your life and how you arrived at them.
You can even include someone to speak on your behalf, then the Selective Service Appeal Board will either reject or accept your claim. If accepted you must engage in one of two alternative service choices. You might receive a job with a local employer judged "to make a meaningful contribution to the maintenance of the national health, safety and interest." If your beliefs allow you to serve in the military, then the military will place you in an area of the Armed Forces without weapons.
During Vietnam, Johnson said, "many who opposed the war believed the government's decision to press the war breached the laws of the United State, and they believed that claim deserved a public hearing."

The above is from Kyle Knight's "If there were a draft. . ." (University of Southern Indiana's The Shield) in which Knight looks at the laws and policies already in place to determine what would happen should the US government reinstate the draft. File it under just another apathetic student today. That was sarcasm. Students are not apathetic and were not apathetic when all the desk jockeys dusted off the decades old columns to push that lie. Of course, the obvious apathy of the desk jockeys was never examined. Just another issue not to be raised. The same way the desk jockeys refuse to raise the issue of war resisters. But without coverage from our alleged independent media, the number of war resisters continues to grow. Despite The Nation's continued silence on the topic, the word get outs. Another war resister goes public to the press today. From Denis St. Pierre's "'I decided I wasn't going to jail'; U.S. Army deserter comes to Sudbury as conscientious objector" (The Sudbury Star):

Four years ago, living in poverty and trying to work his way through university, Michael Espinal took the gamble of his life. And lost.
"I knew there was a 50-50 chance," Espinal says of his perceived odds of being sent to Iraq once he joined the United States Army in late 2003.
But the benefits of enlisting proved too tempting to resist, says Espinal, at the time a 23-year-old resident of Miami, Fla., struggling to pay for college while bouncing from one low-wage job to another. The army offered not only a steady paycheque, but two veritable luxuries for low-income American youth - paid university tuition and medical insurance, he says.
"I didn't care for the army, but what caught my eye was that they pay for your school and they give you (health) insurance," says Espinal, now 27.
"They were offering what nobody else was offering at the time and I jumped on it."
It wasn't long after Espinal completed basic training that his hopes of avoiding combat faded. Within a few months of enlisting, he was stationed in Kuwait and bracing for the inevitable. By fall 2004, he found himself in the middle of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
For the next several months, Espinal says, he was involved in some of the U.S. Army's most-destructive and deadliest activity in Iraq - in Baghdad, Ramadi and Fallujah. He says he witnessed - and participated in - authorized missions that saw hundreds - perhaps thousands - of innocent Iraqis killed, injured, imprisoned and humiliated, their homes destroyed, their families ripped apart.
In Espinal's view, he and his colleagues committed numerous human rights abuses and criminal acts. When his first tour of duty in Iraq ended, he resolved not to return.
As a result, Espinal now is taking another life-altering gamble. Having deserted the military rather than return to Iraq, he is again testing the odds by seeking refugee status in Canada. If his claim fails, he faces deportation and imprisonment in the U.S.
Espinal and his partner, Jennifer Harrison, who are expecting their first child in April, have been living in Sudbury for the last few weeks. They are the first Americans to attempt to settle in the city with help from the War Resisters Support Campaign.
War Resisters is a country-wide coalition of community, faith, labour and other organizations and individuals helping U.S. soldiers who seek asylum in Canada rather than fight in Iraq.

Meanwhile, despite all the talk of the price of oil a barrel about to drop -- in hours, they claimed daily -- AP notes, "Wall Street tipped toward a lower open Friday as crude oil crossed $90 a barrel for the first time and heightened concerns that more expensive fuel will hurt both businesses and consumers." Other people's misery is big business. While some may worry about the fatalities from a battle in northern Iraq, others see it as time to make a few more blood dollars.

In grading the failed escalation,James Glanz "Head of Reconstruction Teams in Iraq Reports Little Progress Throughout Country" (New York Times) covers the report issued by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction which has found: "Attempts by American-led reconstruction teams to forge political reconciliation, foster economic growth and build an effective police force and court system in Iraq have failed to show significant progress in nearly every one of the nation's provincial regions and in the capital, a federal oversight agency reported on Thursday." That's Glanz' summary of the report. David Wood's "Report says buildup in Iraq gained little" (Baltimore Sun) also addresses the report:

The study, based on the assessments of dozens of U.S. military and civilian officials working at local levels across Iraq, runs counter to the optimistic forecasts by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. It said that with the exception of Anbar province, there has been "little progress" toward political reconciliation, a key U.S. goal in Iraq.

On the same topic, Lloyd notes Karen DeYoung's "Reconstruction In Iraq at a Crawl, Auditor Reports" (Washington Post):

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has described the teams as the front line in the administration's "bottom up" strategy of developing local governance even as sectarian divides have stymied political reconciliation on the national level. As the number of U.S. military forces in Iraq increased earlier this year, Rice doubled the number of reconstruction teams, boosting their overall cost through this fiscal year to $2 billion.
The need to work on the local level -- as opposed to the massive and largely unsuccessful infrastructure projects that characterized initial U.S. reconstruction efforts -- has been described by Rice as an important "lesson learned" during four years in Iraq.
Bowen agreed, telling the oversight subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee that "if the story of Iraq reconstruction tells anything, teaches any lesson, it is that the U.S. government was not well structured . . . in 2003 to engage in the kind of post-conflict relief and reconstruction operations we have faced."

Which the report issued yesterday says was unsuccessful. Translation, the 'answer' pushed has not yieleded results. The escalation produced nothing. (The escalation was supposed to provide the time and space for the US controlled puppet government to make strides. That didn't happen.)

Meanwhile, what's it like to be attacked in your own neighborhood, to ask your local sheik for help, to see your children slaughtered as you attempt to visit the sheik and, when you make it to the sheik, you discover "some of the same people who had kidnapped their sons a few hours earlier and realized that they had been betrayed." Alissa J. Rubin's "Shiite Refugees Feel Forsake in Their Holy City" (New York Times) which tells the story of one family making up the internally displaced in Iraq. The focus is on Najaf which may have seen a population increase as high as 400,000 as a result of displacement.

A10 of the article refers to "More than 1.1 million Iraqis have been internally displaced" and that is, hopefully, a typo. The United Nations estimates the number of internally displaced is 2.2 million and the same amount is estimated to be displaced externally -- with 60,000 more added each month.

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

Continued violence in Iraq

Iraq's largely Shiite Muslim south was jolted by more unrest Thursday when an explosion ripped through a high school, killing two students and wounding 15, while authorities announced the arrest of two Shiite members of a provincial council on charges of terrorism. Tensions also flared over the role of private security contractors after three civilians were wounded when foreign guards contracted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened fire on a taxi in northern Iraq.
The explosion ripped the Faraheedi secondary school in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, police said. The blast was caused either by a bomb or a grenade, police said. Some of the city's wealthiest families send their children to the private school, which has conducted coed classes, a rarity in Iraq.
Omar Khalaf, 17, said he was heading to pick up paperwork so he could transfer to another school when the blast occurred outside the building. "Before we arrived, we heard a very loud boom," Khalaf recalled Thursday night. "I saw my schoolmates' blood on the street and panicked."
His parents had worried that the school might be attacked because of its mixed-gender classes and its reputation as a leading Basra institution.

The above is from Ned Parker's "Blast kills 2 at high school in Basra" (Los Angeles Times) and staying with the contractor violence, we'll note this from Andrew E. Kramer's "Security Contractors Shoot at Taxi, Wounding 3 Iraqis" (New York Times):

The shootings on Thursday took place when security guards working for the British company Erinys International were escorting employees of the United States Army Corps of Engineers on a highway east of Kirkuk. The guards said that a car approached "at a high rate of speed," according to a statement issued by the Corps of Engineers. When efforts to warn it off failed, the contractors fired into the vehicle, the statement said.
One of the occupants of the car, who was interviewed from a hospital bed in Kirkuk, said that after they fired, the security contractors pointed their guns at the car to discourage those inside from climbing out. The guards then drove away without offering medical help, said the man, Zairak Nori Qadir, whose right eye was hit by a bullet.
"They fired on us, and we never threatened them," Mr. Qadir said. "They shot us and didn't let us release ourselves from the car until they escaped and left us covered in blood."
"Those are savages and criminals and killers," he said.

Douglas Birch's "Contractors Fire on Vehicle in Iraq" (AP) covers the cover story, the confusion and hopefully the reality:

An employee of Erinys' Middle East office in Dubai also said only one civilian was "slightly injured" in the shooting. The employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said an Erinys security guard stopped to help the wounded civilian.
A U.S. military spokesman in northern Iraq said later that four people were wounded and evacuated by American troops. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Iraqi officials said three civilians were wounded in the incident. It was not immediately possible to explain the discrepancies in the casualty toll.
An Associated Press photograph showed a white and orange car that appeared to be a taxi with at least six bullet holes in the windshield. Another photograph showed doctors treating a man with a bandaged head and a pool of blood spilling from a table in the emergency room.
Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir, a police spokesman in Kirkuk, located about 180 miles north of Baghdad, and witnesses said the contractors were in black SUVs.
Saman Khalid, a 23-year-old selling black market gasoline on the side of the road, said the SUVs were speeding and men opened fire on the car when it tried to pass them. He said three people in the car, including one woman, "seemed to be in critical condition and bloody."
Erinys has provided security for the Army Corps of Engineers, which employs both civilians and members of the military, for the past four years, the company's employee in Dubai said.

As for the organizational status (don't call it legal, the US government's engaged in turf wars, not addressing legality), Martha notes Ann Scott Tyson's "Gates Seeks Changes On Iraq Contractors" (Washington Post):

Gates plans to meet soon with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss changes in how private guards working for the State Department operate in Iraq to insure that they do not undermine U.S. military goals of winning support from Iraqi citizens, said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell. "Private security contractors will likely have to assume greater risk. They are going to have to pay greater consideration to the larger mission" of gaining the trust of Iraqis, Morrell said. That may require "changing their MO, the way in which they operate, how they drive, how they handle busy traffic circles" as well as how they use force, he said.
The upshot, Morrell said, is that private security contractors would have to change their tactics to take into account the safety of Iraqi citizens -- in essence adopting procedures more similar to those of U.S. soldiers. That could mean driving less aggressively, escalating force more gradually, or taking time to better identify targets.
In meeting with Rice, Gates plans to raise the idea of placing all private security contractors working for the U.S. government in Iraq under a central entity to strengthen oversight. "It is important that we have the means and the mechanisms to ensure that we know what's going on and that these activities are coordinated," Gates said. "But I'll sit down with Secretary Rice and we'll see how we can work this out to achieve the objectives that I described," he said.

Today, Democracy Now! takes a look at the way the media (news and entertainment -- is there really a difference anymore?) portrays Arabs. The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

the new york times

andrew e. kramer

the los angeles times

Thursday, October 18, 2007

And the war drags on . . .

"I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression. My oath of office is to protect and defend America's laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today," U.S. Army First Lt. Ehren Watada said.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said to the graduating Air Force Academy Class of 2007: "For a real leader, the elements of personal virtue -- self-reliance, self-control, honor, truthfulness, morality -- are absolute. They are absolute even when doing what is right may bring embarrassment or bad publicity to your unit or the service or to you.
"Those are the moments that will truly test the leader within you -- test whether you will take the hard path or the easy path, the wrong path or the right path. The willingness always to take the right path, even if it is the hard path, is called character. In every aspect of your life, whether personal or professional, you must always maintain the courage of your convictions -- your personal integrity."
At a pre-trial press conference Watada remarked that he believed it his "duty to refuse to fight in the [Iraq] war," and that he was "prepared to face prison time for my beliefs."
There is a tradition in the Japanese American community to act on personal belief from volunteer 442/Nisei Linguist (while their family and friends were in camps), the NoNo Boys and the Vietnam War resisters. There are words, yet actions speak loudly. "Mission accomplished." T. Kyoshi Nagano Los Angeles CA

The above, noted by Marica, is T. Kyoshi Nagano's "Watada's Leadership" from "Letters" in People's Weekly World. Tomorrow is Iraq Moratorium day -- the third Friday every month and many will be showing their support for Watada. In June 2006, he became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. Before going public, he attempted to work out an alternative with the US military that told him they wanted that. He offered to resign, he offered to go to Afghanistan. He could not go to Iraq because it is an illegal war and not only would that open him up to potential charges of war crimes, it could also mean that for those serving under him. Watada took a very brave stand. But this wasn't a stand that was just for him. He was standing up for those who would be serving under him, he was standing up against the illegal war and all the victims of it. His thanks for that was to be put before Judge Toilet (aka John Head) in a February court-martial where Toilet refused to allow Watada to explain the reasons why he took the stand he did. The term for that is "kangaroo court." Even with that, even with eliminating the defense argument and many witnesses willing to testify about international law, the prosecution was still losing it before the military jury (Watada had elected to go with a jury). After the opening statements on Monday, after the prosecution presented their entire case on Tuesday, just when the defense was about to present their case, Judge Toilet was suddenly interested in a stipulation that the prosecution and the defense had agreed to -- with Toilet's oversight. This was the same stipulation that Toilet had explained to the jury. Suddenly, on Wednesday, the stipulation was a 'problem' for Toilet. The reality was Toilet saw that case against Watada was going into the toilet. He floated the mistrial option and, at first, the prosecution didn't pick up on the gift they were being offered. They wanted to go foward. He offered it again and they grasped they were being handed a do-over by the judge. Over the objections of the defense, Judge Toilet ruled a mistrial.

But the Constitution forbids do-overs. The Constitution does not allow double-jeopardy. Because the prosecution was losing the case doesn't mean Toilet can call the court-martial off. He apparently didn't understand what double-jeopardy was. Toilet set a date weeks ahead for the court-martial. It didn't take place. It was supposed to have started this month. That didn't happen either because a civilian court issued a stay (through at least October 26th) and is reviewing the issue of double-jeopardy.

In February, Judge Toilet got away with refusing to allow Watada to present a defense. That's happened repeatedly. Camilo Mejia is only one example of another war resister who was not allowed to to explain why he was resisting. But though Judge Toilet could and did get away with a great deal, he may not get away with trashing the Constitution.

Just as Watada stood up for himself and others, tomorrow many will be standing up for Watada.

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, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 3821. Tonight? 3830. Just Foreign Policy's total for the number of Iraqis killed since the start of the illegal war stood at 1,084,379. Tonight? 1,087,731.

Today the US military announced: "A Task Force Lightning Soldier was killed in Salah ad Din province Wednesday when an explosion occurred near the vehicle."

From reality to fantasy. Mother Jones magazine decided it was time to get silly about the illegal war. They introduce a feature with "U.S. Out Now! How?: Introduction :"

"You break it, you own it." So goes the "Pottery Barn rule" that Colin Powell invoked in his last-ditch attempts to dissuade President Bush from invading Iraq. "You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people. You will own all their hopes, aspirations, and problems. You'll own it all."
In the end, of course, Powell caved to Bush's geopolitical whims, played the good soldier, and did as much as anyone to lie to the world and sell the case for invasion—an invasion driven by blind ideology, wishful thinking, and a feckless refusal to consider the consequences. Stupefyingly, the administration maintains that attitude to this day—refusing, for example, to address the plight of 2 million refugees because, you see, they'll all go home soon to a pacified Iraq.
Yet it's not just the administration

To make sure no one misses their (misguided) point, the webpage includes the headline "Bush broke it. We own it. A hard look at what it really means to pull out of Iraq."

The US does not "own" Iraq. We covered this point in today's snapshot but some visitors seem confused. Iraq was not for sale. Iraq was not an empty land. Iraq is the seat of modern civilization and despite over one million Iraqis dying as a result of the illegal war, there are still millions of Iraqis in Iraq. Iraqis own Iraq.

No member had a question about the statements in the snapshot because we've covered this terrain repeatedly. It's just those late to the party who are confused. Iraqis are not children. Iraqis do not need the Almighty United States to rush in rescue them. It was turning Iraqis into the "other" and "children" that allowed some in the US to get behind Bully Boy's illegal war to begin with. We were 'helping' War Supporters would say. As if we were invited in? (Exiles who left the country years ago were not Iraqis. They were on the US payroll, however.)

If you speak to Iraqis, they will often voice the hope that in a decade or two decades (or longer) that their country can clean up the mess and the destruction the US has imposed upon it. They do not believe the US can fix it. It isn't the United States' to fix. Iraqis have the right to self-determination. The illegal war includes the illegal occupation where the US has imposed a number of things (mainly privatization and theft of resources -- the oil would be the crown jewel and it hasn't been stolen yet though the US continues to attemp to to push through the privatization law). But that's not the US' right.

Iraqis will still be in Iraq (even with the huge refugee crisis) long after the US has left. Just as Vietnamese were still in their country long after the US left. Iraqis will steer their country, not the US and not puppets installed by the US to do the bidding of a foreign government.

Iraq is owed. The US owes Iraq and it goes back before the start of the illegal war -- the debt includes the destruction from sanctions and from bombings under Clinton. But a debt is not a deed of ownership and it is the same ego-centric, xenophobic attitude that allowed the illegal war to start that is evident in Mother Jones' nonsense that the US "owns" Iraq. (And, again, Pottery Barn does not have a "you broke it, you bought it" rule.) It is a sanctamonious attitude that says, "We know best." It leads to wars, it does not lead to democracies and that Mother Jones -- in all it's centrist non-wisdom -- wants to get on the board the "Iraq is our's" bandwagon really calls into question their belief systems.

As does offering interviews on the issue -- interviews where military brass makes up over a fourth of the total. Where's Jeremy Scahill, Amy Goodman, Marjorie Cohn, Francis Boyle, Howard Zinn, Anthony Arnove, Antonia Juhasz, etc? No where to be found. We can't have independence and we can't have legal experts. But we can get officials and right-wingers from right wing think tanks. The interviews are packed with people who applauded the illegal war and a few stray voices (Medea Benjamin, Leslie Cagan, Michael Lerner, etc.). They manage to include the 'academic' that Steve Rendall rightly pointed out (though the academic denied it) was against withdrawal. The wind blows a little differently today and the academic insists that never happened. It did happen, Steve Rendall was correct.

The military brass is all male (of course, Janice Karpinski and Ann Wright are apparently unreachable by Mother Jones) and when you start to notice how 'tokenized' they've made women (count up the numbers), you grasp how it's not only xenophobic, it's sexist. They include current members of Congress but -- surprise, surprise -- they don't think to include Barbara Lee. Congress is apparently all male in the eyes of Mother Jones, or at least the Congress that they feel matters. That a magazine entitled Mother Jones wants to be so damn sexist is offensive.

There's nothing 'good' about the nonsense they've offered. They've written the sort of pieces that would have been considered 'brave' in 2004. It's 2007. They're not standing still, they've been left on the side of the road. How many Iraqis were invited to the discsussion? That's even worse.

As a conversation between males -- largely White -- who were for the illegal war, it may meet someone's thrill factor. As a honest discussion about the illegal war, it's a riches of embarrassment.

Our allegedly independent Mother Jones comes along to prove how center-right and offensive they can be and on that and only that can it be hailed as a 'success.'

Though the brass saw very little (the brass isn't out in the 'field'), there were apparently no slots left over for members of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

This alleged open discussion has so many closed doors before it even starts that it manages to triangulate better than the Clinton White House.

In 2004 "Should This Marriage Be Saved?" raised more issues than Mother Jones is willing to all this time later. Though not "Colin Powell endorsed," the abusive relationship is a far better metaphor than a non-existant Pottery Barn policy. The US did not go into a store to browse or purchase. The US went into an inhabited country. There are two parties involved, the US and Iraq. Reducing one to the status of invisible or a child is no breakthrough and Mother Jones should be embarrassed.

This nonsense doesn't help end an illegal war because it doesn't address true responsibilities. That would be debts. Instead, their series glorifies "ownership" -- slavery still alive in the minds of some 'do-gooders,' apparently.

Iraq was an independent nation and nothing will move forward until it is again recognized as an independent nation. The same 'ownership' that Mother Jones' pushes allows Bully Boy to impose an illegal occupation on Iraq. Had they included legal scholars or historians in the dialogue, that point might have been made. Instead it's the usual "We were all wrong" set rounded out with a few (very few) voices that should have been invited to the table (the chat & chews) long ago but at this late date just read like sop thrown out to appease.

Another voice uninvited (there are many) worth noting is Ralph Nader. Apparently, Mother Jones is so rushing to be embraced by the mainstream that they don't care about xenophobia, they don't care about sexism and they don't care about betraying their historical roots.

From Nader to the Green Party. This is a press release and Kimberly Wilder's site is On the Wilder Side.

PRESS RELEASE. For immediate release.

Press Contact:

Roger Snyder, Chair, Green Party of Suffolk
(631) 351-5763 rogersnyder@pobox.com

Kimberly Wilder, Press Secretary, Green Party of Suffolk
(631) 422-4702 votewilder@yahoo.com

Ahmad Ali Mitchel-El, Green Party member, and write-in candidate for Suffolk County Executive, has released his vision for addressing immigration issues in Suffolk County.
"Both President Bush's guest worker program, and Governor Spitzer's driver's license issue, show more progressive leadership than the current attitude of our county administration," notes Mitchel-El.
Mitchel-El states, "Hiring Centers should be part of an overall plan to make the immigration process work. You don't have to maintain a hostile, illegal status for undocumented people. We can work towards a naturalization process that can really make sense, by registering day laborers, paying them fair wages, and letting them pay taxes, in order to pay for all this."
Mitchel-El is a lifelong resident of Suffolk County, a professional musician, and a producer on progressive radio station WBAI 99.5 FM. Mitchel-El is also a peace and justice activist, who has performed at the PeaceSmiths Coffeehouse in Amityville. Mitchel-El's campaign has already received coverage in the media, including: the opinion page of Newsday; "Noticias" newspaper; "Wake Up Call with Jim Krivo" and "In The Moment" on WBAI radio; and "'Tis Treason" on WUSB radio.
The Green Party is an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans. The Green Party has 10 key values, which include "social and economic justice" and "diversity." Greens at the local, state and national level have supported tolerance and justice for undocumented people.
Election day is Tuesday, November 6, 2007. In order to show support for Ahmad Mitchel-El and the Green Party, you may write Mitchel-El's name in the slot at the top of the voting machine. A pencil should be provided, and a poll worker can help direct you.
Background:
Green Party of Suffolk - www.gpsuffolk.org
Ahmad Mitchel-El's reflections on immigration and race:
I find it so hypocritical that the people who control politics and thus government are predominantly descendants of Europeans who did not have to face the racist bureaucracy that Latinos face today. We do not hear complaints about the Canadian border or about Russian and Irish undocumented immigrants--only these Latinos, who can't seem to physically just assimilate and disappear into the work force.
When is America going to wake up and recognize its own evil history? Here on Long Island, we can't even allow the Shinnecock the sovereignty over their own land. Can we still be in denial about crimes committed against the native population? As an African American, I believe that we are fools to continue supporting political parties that are only interested in power not progress. How can it be that we still face nooses in 2007?
All of us need to stop and fight the policies of exclusion and preservation of privilege, level the playing field, make it fair for all humans.
When a company sponsors an immigrant, he actually becomes indentured to that company for the term of his process at a rate of pay inferior to his domestic equivalent. He can't leave to compete for a higher paying job. And, the companies get away with hiring employees off of the street, who are non-union workers, who they can pay less than scale, give no benefits and no fair compensation. Yet, the company is not penalized.

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

iraq
and the war drags on
donovan
kimberly wilder
ehren watada
iraq moratorium

Iraq snapshot

Thursday, October 18, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, tensions continue between Turkey and Iraq, Mother Jones tries 'humor,' and more.

Starting with war resistance. Tomorrow is Iraq Moratorium day and many participating will be supporting a war resister. As Bill Simpich (East Bay Indymedia) notes, "A signature event for the Iraq Moratorium nationally this month is solidarity with Lt. Ehren Watada, who is facing a second trial in Tacoma, Washington for refusing to fight in the Iraq war. On October 19, federal judge Benjamin Settle will be determining if Lt. Watada must endure a second trial in the next few weeks, or whether double jeopardy may bar his case from going any further. Between 5-6 pm [in the Bay area, see the calendar of iraqmoratorium-sfbay.org.], Jack Hirschman, poet laureate of San Francisco, will be reading poetry in front of Sen. Feinstein's office at Post and Market (right near Montgomery BART). Members of the Watada Support Committee will also be addressing Lt. Watada's latest battle for freedom and to stop this illegal war." Iraq Moratorium is tomorrow and every third Friday of the month; in addition, they have also had a presidential candidate sign on, former US Senator and 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Gravel.

Again, that is tomorrow. Today Vietnam war resister Gerry Condon (Project Safe Haven) will be speaking in Newport, Oregon. The Newport News reports "a potluck dinner" starts at 5;30 this evening, then a showing of Michelle Mason's documentary Breaking Ranks and a presentation by Condon at the Newport Visual Arts Center, 777 NW Beach Dr. Condon is quoted declaring, "It's really tragic that our nation has been dragged into another unjust, unnecessary and unwinnable war. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed for no good reason. This war violates the Nuremberg Principles, the Geneva Conventions on War, the UN Charter, and U.S. law. Those who refuse to be part of this illegal war should not be punished for obeying international law and following their own consciences. U.S. soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen are seeking to remain in Canada as political refugees. The Supreme Court of Canada is expected to make a landmark ruling on their status in November. . . . Iraq War resisters are getting a lot of love and support from the Canadian people. Now it's time for people in the U.S. to step up to the plate."

Today Gerry Condon's speaking, tomorrow show support for Watada and on Saturday, war resister Camilo Mejia addresses the national conference of the Campus Antiwar Network being held at the University of Wisconsin Madison. IVAW member, co-founder of the Madison Chapter of IVAW and CAN member Todd Dennis (The Badger Herald) writes about Mejia's brave stand and how the mood has changed since then, "While Mr. Mejia was in jail, eight Iraq veterans formed Iraq Veterans Against the War in August 2004. Mr. Mejia was elected to become the chair of the board at IVAW's annual convention this past August. This weekend, CAN will be having its national conference, and Mr. Mejia will be the headling speaker. Everyone is invited to hear him talk about his experiences in Iraq and about being a member of both IVAW and CAN this Saturday at 8 p.m. in 3650 Humanities."

Meanwhile Robert Parry (Consortium News) notes the difference in reception when service members speak out against the war as opposed to non-think tankers, "Last summer when two pro-Iraq War pundits returned from a Pentagon-guided tour of Iraq, the New York Times gave them prime op-ed space to re-invent themselves as harsh war critics who had been won over by George W. Bush's 'surge.' . . . By contrast, a few weeks later, the Times editors buried a report by seven U.S. non-commissioned officers who were on 15-month tours in Iraq and offered a more negative assessment. The Times' editors stuck their account, entitled 'The War as We Saw It,' at the back of the Aug. 19 'Week in Review' section. . . . Now, senior Washington Post editors, who have been major Iraq War enthusiasts from the beginning, have given even more dismissive treatment to an anti-war op-ed written by 12 former Army captains who served in Iraq. On Oct. 16, the fifth anniversary of Bush's authorization to use force in Iraq, the Post's editors accepted the article from the captains but did not deign to publish it on the newspaper's influential op-ed page. The article, entitled 'The Real Iraq We Knew,' was consigned to the Post's Web site." Parry reprints the column in full and, just to be clear, "The War as We Saw It" did get attention from the paper -- after they discovered two of seven had just died that week. At which point, Times' management was suddenly available to the press to give quotes about . . . Well, not about people they knew. But about an op-ed they ran. Prior to that, the Times gave it no build up and running it on Sunday is not build up before someone decides to disagree with Parry. Yes, the Sunday edition of the paper has the largest circulation. People buy it for various sections and do not read all of them. For those interested in news, Sunday is the weakest day because they put the paper to bed early (strange that newspapers don't want to address that while addressing every over imagained techonological breakthrough). The 12 who wrote the column that the Washington Post didn't print are Jason Blindauer, Elizabeth Bostwick, Jeffrey Bouldin, Jason Bugajski, Anton Kemps, Kristy (Luken) McCormick, Luis Carlos Montalvan, William Murphy, Josh Rizzo, William "Jamie" Ruehl, Gregg Tharp and Gary Williams.

Robert Przybyski may or may not be a war resister. But, as John Vandiver (Stars and Stripes) notes, it is known that he has been missing from his base in Germany "for more than a week" and that he "was recently named a company commander within the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division. The 2-6 is deploying to Iraq along with the rest of the 2nd Brigade next March." Vandiver notes that the military released his name to the media but has refused to release a photo and has not "said whether there are any leads in the case or if it is thought that foul play could be a factor."

What also is known is that there is a military recruiting center in Berkeley and Jessica Kwong (The Daily Californian) reports, "The City Council plans to voice its disapproval of the center's mission through its Peace and Justice Commission, which is spearheading a proposal to make Berkeley a sanctuary for officers who choose not to serve in the Iraq conflict, meaning the city would not assist in locating or prosecuting war resisters." Commission chair Steve Freedkin explains, "There's a growing number of the military and members of the armed forces who are seeing that the Iraq war is immoral. As we saw in Vietnam, when there starts to be a strong opposition in the military, it has a huge impact on public policy."

Turning now to some of today's violence . . .

Bombings?

Reuters notes a Baghdad roadside bombing that claimed the life of 1 Iraqi soldier (three more injured), a Hawija car bombing left eight people wounded, a Mosul roadside bombing claimed the lives of 3 people (two police officers, 1 civilian) and a grenade thrown into a Basra high school left five students injured. CBS and AP note the school is "a private middle- and high-school complex in the Kut al-Hajaj are of Basra" and that the number wounded s six. Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing that injured one police officer "and two civilians" and an Al Sibaghiyah roadside bombing that claimed the life of Muayad Abdullah.

Shootings?

Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports: "Iraqi police accused U.S. military of shooting randomly in an intersection in Al Bunouk area in Baghdad. Iraqi police said five civilians were injured" "Iraqi police said American military shot and killed 3 men and one woman and injured one woman in their car on a road near Beiji city north of Baghdad"

Reuters notes that "three tribesmen, members of a local 'Awakenings Council' aligned to U.S. forces" were whot dead in Dhuluiya. On Tuesday, Sheikh Saleh Fezea Shneitar, his son and nephew were killed outside of Falluja -- the sheikh was a member of "Anbar Awakenings Council," a group that works closely with the US military and whose members have been increasingly targeted for their collaboration. In a White House press conference today Nouri al-Maliki's spokesperson denied that the resistance was "getting more sophisticated in who they go after". And in another incident of mercenaries killing civilians, AFP reports, "Guards from a British security firm fired on a taxi in Iraq on Thursday wounding three civilians, police said, in a shooting that will put new pressure on the government to rein in private contractors. A woman journalist was among the casualties when the guards opened fire after the taxi approached their convoy near the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police said."

Corpses?

Reuters reports 5 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 corpse found in Dour and "a chopped head" was discovered in Al Hawija.

Turning to the continued tensions between Turkey and Iraq. Yesim Borg (Los Angeles Times) reminds that the Turkish parliament passed the measure approving sending forces into Iraq on a vote of "507 to 19, with most of the opposing votes coming from Kurdish members of the parliament. Lwasmakers broke into applause when the results were announced. . . . The government is hoping the threat will pressure Iraqi and U.S. forces to act against guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who have been attacking Turkish targets from bases in northern Iraq's Kurdistan autonomous region." The reaction in the northern region of Iraq was far from jubilant. Yahya Barzanji (AP) reports that over 5,000 people turned out to march and wave "the sunshine flag of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region and shouted slogans and songs praising Kurdish nationality". Kurdish nationality is what the PKK supports as well. They believe a region of what is currently Turkey should be a Kurdistan region, governed by Kurds. This is why the northern region has been tolerant of the PKK being in Iraq. This isn't a minor or new development. The PKK goes back to the early seventies and has been battling within Turkey since at least 1984. Whether someone agrees with the aims of the PKK or not, the point here is that the US (which as designated the PKK a terrorist group) knew about the long standing tensions long before Bully Boy declared his illegal war of choice. Having set the Kurds up on a higher level than the Sunni or Shia, the US made a decision to ignore many things including Turkey's pre-war warnings and Turkey's repeated warnings over the last few years. That's an important point. Deborah Haynes (Times of London) reports on the rallies and notes Renas Jano ("President of the Kurdistan Students' Union) "like many others was prepared to fight for his freedom alongside the Kurdish region's Peshmerga security force if Turkey did cross the border" and Nasser Ali (a teacher) who declares, "We are ready to defend our land." The Turkish Daily News explains, "Observers in Ankara say that an operation is not likely to be conducted before late November. Turkey will host an international summit on Iraq with the participation of the United States, G-8 countries and Iraq's neighbors early in November. Erdogan plans to visit the President of the United States George W. Bush in Washington mid November."

Sebnem Arsu and Sabrina Tavernise (New York Times) report Bully Boy's remarks: "We are making it very clear to Turkey that we don't think it is in their interests to send troops into Iraq. There's a better way to deal with the issue than having the Turks send massive troops into the country." Of course, it wasn't in the US interest to send troops into Iraq and, of course, there were better ways to deal with 'the issue' than the US sending massive troops into Iraq. But as Bully Boy makes his repeated pleas for patience and peace, it needs to be noted that the tensions didn't just emerge and that the White House was fully aware of the tensions before the start of the Iraq War.

AFP reports that throughout Iraq the reaction was "mixed" and "revealed the conflicting agendas of the central government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish administration in the north." AFP notes puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki's reaction ("a flurry of conciliatory statements") and contrasts it with the responses in the north: "Compare this with the reaction of Iraqi Kurd leaders who have warned against making any concessions in the face of Ankara's threats." AFP provides the back story, "For all Maliki's talk of action, the situation on the ground means his options are limited: the Iraqi army is not deployed on the Turkish border, nor even in the region, which is controlled by Iraqi Kurdish fighters or peshmergas. Since it was placed under the protection of the United States in 1991, after the Gulf War, the province of Kurdistan has distanced itself more and more from Iraq's central government. After the fall of Saddam in 2003 and the passage of a constitution guaranteeing its autonomy in 2005, it has followed its own course of economic, social and political develpment." In a later report, AFP notes, "The Kurdish adminstration of northern Iraq, accused by Ankara of tolerating and even aiding the PKK, called for direct negotiations with Turkey as thousands of Iraqi Kurds took to the streets to protest against the Turkish threats." BBC notes that Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's Foreign Minister, has issued a request that the PKK "leave the north of the country as soon as possible." If that sounds weak, it is. The BBC forgets to note that Zebari is a Kurd. On Tuesday, Iraq's Sunni vice-president, Tariq al-Hashimi, visited Turkey. Today CNN reports that Iraqi president Jalal Talbani hails that visit as successful and doesn't "believe that there is an imminent Turkish attack into northern Iraq and I hope that it will not happen." Talbani is a Kurd and he has done nothing to avert the tensions. He is now in Paris and prior to that was spotted browsing bookstores in the US (no, that's not a joke, he was here to visit the Mayo Clinic). As Talbani continues his travels, the reality of what has Bully Boy worried comes via the foreign press. Alex Spillius (Telegraph of London) informs that the US government is worried that Turkey might deny the US "access to Incirclik air base" that act as a route for the US to both Iraq and Afghanistan and that, "The United States is looking for alternative ways to supply its troops in Iraq in case Turkey closes its borders in protest at a perceived snub by Washington. A Pentagon official said: 'There is planning going on,' adding that there would be 'serious operational impacts' if the Turks chose to obstruct US equipment." And today at the White House, al-Maliki's spokesperson was asked, "Iraqi Kurdistan is very much autonomous and there is in the Iraqi Kurdistan a lot of support for the PKK. So how do you intend to make good on your promises to ban all PKK activities?" al-Dabbagh replied at length but summed up with this on the Kurds in northern Iraq, "They had declared that they don't provide any support for them, but the natural feeling, which is that they are at the end, Kurds, and it is one race, so naturally they do feel sympathy with their brothers in Turkey."

Turning to the mercenaries. As noted earlier a British group of mercenaries has now fired on Iraqi civilians. Al Jazeera notes, "Blackwater USA, whose security forces were involved in the fatal shooting of civilians in Iraq last month, will leave the country once its contract to escort US diplomats expires in May, US officials say. But the company will not be fired, the officials said following a state department review of private firms providing such services in Iraq." Today Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) addressed the issue of Blackwater with the Center for Constitutional Rights president Michael Ratner who explained, "You see what you said in the earlier part of the program that the State Department is considering not renewing the contract. I think Blackwater is considering not even applying, because they know they're not going to get it. And then, of course, when he says they're doing their job, yeah, if their job is to terrorize the Iraqi population, they're doing their job." Thursday last week, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) broke the news that the Center for Constitutional Rights was filing a lawsuit against Blackwater over their slaughter of civilians in Baghdad September 16th (see "EXCLUSIVE - Family Members of Slain Iraqis Sue Blackwater USA for Deadly Baghdad Shooting"). Goodman asked Ratner today about Erik Prince (mainstream press darling) taking to the airwaves Sunday in an attempt to smear CCR and Ratner responded, "Well, obviously, I mean, this is like a transparent attempt to try and divert attention from Blackwater's actions, particularly in the September killings, where there's many, many witnesses and much evidence that basically says no one fired on Blackwater, Blackwater just fired and killed seventeen people. So that's an obvious attempt. It's barely worthy of a response, because that's all that's going on. Although the killing of the two FBI agents is important to bring out, because what he's speaking of there is the man who's in prison right now, Leonard Peltier, for those two killings at the reservation in South Dakota, and that man is unjustly -- that Indian man is unjustly in that prison. And so, that's a case that particularly is galling, because you have this Indian leader who's been unjustly imprisoned for twenty-five years." Ratner is also a co-host -- along with Heidi Boghosian, Dalia Hashad and Michael Smith -- of WBAI's Law and Disorder -- which also airs online and on other radio stations across the US. Mike covered the live special on WBAI Monday which included Naomi Wolf who rightly noted, "History also shows that bullies are cowards." IVAW's Jen Hogg, a war resister who left the military due to the illegal war, reveals the spin mercenaries recruit with such as "starting at $80,000 or more per year. We offer FULLY PAID benefits including 401K, life insurance, paid housing, paid meals, health, dental, and more. . . . All of our jobs are on civilian bases guarded by the military and are in the safe environments in Iraq." The reality of mercenaries, as Hogg notes, is: "If there is an unpopular war there is no need to worry, we can just hire a shadow army to pick up the slack and keep it out of the public's eyes." At the White House today, a press briefing was held by White House spokesperson Dana Perino and Nouri al-Maliki's spokesperson Dr. Ali Al-Dabbagh. Perino explained she had to "scoot" but hung around long enough to attempt to draw a line between "permanent bases" built in Iraq and "facilities" (when pressed on the difference, Perino begged off with, "Well they're working on all those details"). On the issue of Blackwater, Dr. al-Dabbagh declared, "We would like that the Blackwater to leave Iraq. This is at the end, is their position, is the State Department position. But there is anger, there is great anger among the Iraqis against the Blackwater. They should be held accountable. This is what Iraqi government needs. It's a crime, what they did in Baghdad. We have declared it. It's a crime and they should be kept to justice whether in Baghdad or United States. . . . We do need all the security companies to be liable and questionable and subject to accountability. No country in the world allows security companies to work in the way which they are working here in Iraq. Definitely that we do understand that they are -- they did good job for protection -- diplomat and immune from any questiong of -- from any accountability. That is what Iraqi government is working in order to keep them accountable."

Accountability for the Bully Boy still hasn't arrived. But one he claimed to have peered into the soul of is now taking potshots at the Bully Boy. AP reports, "President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the U.S. war in Iraq was a 'pointless' battle against the Iraqi people, the latest jab at Washington from the increasingly confrontational Russian leader." And Reuters reports Putin also declared there should be an announced withdrawal date of US forces from Iraq. This comes as James Glanz (New York Times) reports that Iraq is closer to the country that the US government continues to whisper is funding the resistance (but the US has no proof), "Iraq has agreed to award $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and Chinese companies to build a pair of enormous power plants, the Iraqi electricity minister said Tuesday. Word of the project prompted serious concerns among American military officials, who fear that Iranian commercial investments can mask military activities at a time of heightened tension with Iran." And in other bad news for the US, the p.r. blitz by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is falling apart. Despite the realities of the large rift between the US and the United Kingdom's governments over the decision to begin pulling British soldiers out of Basra -- the well reported realities -- Gates attempted to push the notion that the US government was for it all along. Kim Sengupta and Anne Penketh (Independent of London) report, "British forces were prevented from pulling out of their last base in Basra City for five months because the Americans refused to move their consulate, according to senior military sources."

In other reality news, Mark Seibel (McClatchy Newspapers) reports on the (US) Office of Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction which "said that poor security prevents U.S. and coalition civilian officials from meeting with many of their Iraqi counterparts, yet Iranians can travel unmolested in the region." AP notes on the report, "Teaching local officials in Iraq to govern themselves and provide their citizens with basic services will take 'years of steady engagement'." Meanwhile Mother Jones wonders "U.S. Out How? Introduction" which wrongly claims the Pottery Barn has a you-break-it-you-buy-it policy (they do not, Colin Powell was wrong) and argues, "Bush broke it. We own it." Which is so filled with xenophobia you'd expect it from The National Review and not Mother Jones. No American "owns" Iraq. If you come over to my home and burn it down, accidentally or intentionally, you do not "own" my home or the land it was on. You do "owe" me. The idea that a nation inhabited by millions could be "owned" by a foreign country (that would be the US) is insulting and it's appalling that Mother Jones wants to be so glib. (Hopefully, they were being glib. If not, they are being xenophobic.)

In the real world (where it's not 2004 and such crap doesn't fly), Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) interviews Molly Bingham and Steve Connors about their documentary Meeting Resistance:

AMY GOODMAN: Our guests are Molly Bingham and Steve Connors -- Molly, a US journalist; Steve Connors, a British journalist. They co-directed this new film that's opening in Washington, D.C. and in New York this weekend called Meeting Resistance. When you were interviewing these people, the resistance fighters, Molly, did they tell you when they were about to attack something? I mean, you had footage of actual explosions.

MOLLY BINGHAM: Actually, that footage of explosions came from us working as journalists the way everyone else was in Baghdad. We responded to bombings that we heard around the city in a way everyone else did. When we were interviewing the Iraqis and the one Syrian who were engaged in the insurgency, we actually specifically didn't ask about tomorrow or this afternoon. We didn't go out on bombing attacks with them for quite a few reasons, but the most important of which, I think, is that the film is really about who they are and what their backgrounds are and what their motivation is. You can see the consequences of their actions every day on the news. And we just thought, given how complicated it was ethically in this particular conflict, I think quite unfairly, to be seen to be talking with the other side, we thought that having -- if we had gone out with them on attacks, it would have overridden the entire understanding that we had come to by interviewing them and understanding who they are.

STEVE CONNORS: Could I just add to that? We were invited to go out with them. You know, they said, "Do you want to come out with us while we're attacking Americans?" And, you know, I don't have the same ethical problems, in many ways, as Molly does, you know, because she's an American and I'm not. But, ultimately, the decision came down to one thing, which was there was some important information in this film, and we didn't want to lose that to this criticism of us going out on attacks, which I've done in ten conflicts, gone out on attacks with both sides. It's not, you know -- for most journalists, it's not a big deal.

In the interview, Goodman brings up "Home from Iraq," a speech Bingham gave that was turned into a column in May of 2005. Common Dreams has it archived.

iraq

ehren watada

iraq veterans against the war
camilo mejia

the center for constitutional rights

the national lawyers guild

yesim borg

the los angeles times

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now with david branccacio

blackwater usa

mikey likes it

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Saturday, October 20, 2007

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Continued violence in Iraq

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And the war drags on . . .

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