Ruth (of Ruth's Report): With Pacifica Radio in pledge drive mode, NPR's three-part series on wounded U.S. service members was something I was especially interested in. Guy Raz reported on the topic, first on Thursday's Morning Edition, second on Thursday's All Things Considered, and the wrap up on Friday's Morning Edition.
The series began promisingly enough with a look at the people who do the rescue and immediate evacuation. This was followed with a report on what then happens on an air force hospital at Balad Air Base. The 'ending' examined a hospital on a base in Germany. In their initial advance for the series, NPR noted that, "Nearly 30,000 U.S. troops have been injured in Iraq -- about half of them with permanent disabilities. In Iraq and Afghanistan, troops who are wounded in an attack have a 95 percent chance of surviving. It's the highest survival rate in the history of warfare." What started as a promising investigative examination ended up nothing but a travelogue.
The series was the equivalent of a child playing hop-scotch and listeners were never made aware of how serious the issue was -- as if the story of the wounded is nothing but a tale of moving along an assembly line. Nothing specific was ever reported on. Aaron Glantz has noted for some time that the signature wound of the Iraq War is head injuries. Even something that basic was not to be found in the multi-part series. I felt as though I was back in school watching a bad film explaining to me how sausage or some other product was being made. I discovered that it was a wonderful training ground for doctors and that new techniques are always discovered in wars, I just did not learn a thing about the wounded which was, after all, the alleged focus of the three-part series.
Those films they shown to U.S. students back in the fifties were usually produced by an interested party. For example, we would learn about the health benefits of milk in a film put out by the dairy industry. NPR's series seemed to be selling or schilling for the "product" of transportation but it never appeared to be a report on the wounded. The various initial stops along the way for the wounded is a story that could have been done in the first month of the illegal war. For a three-part series airing nearly five years after the Iraq War began, this was an embarrassment and there is no other way to evaluate it.
On the heels of The Washington Post's Dana Priest and Anne Hull's reporting on the scandals in veterans' health care here in the United States, NPR's three-part series seemed beyond timid and nothing more than a public relations advance for the U.S. military.
Friday on The Diane Rehm Show's second hour, Iraq was covered. The continued tensions between northern Iraq and Turkey were discussed briefly with NBC News' Andrea Mitchell offering that "the U.S. doesn't have a whole lot of good options" and that "they need Turkey to not invade Iraq and to have another front opened". Diane Rehm's other participants for this roundtable were Doyle McManus of The Los Angeles Times and Michael Hirsh of Newsweek. Mr. McManus also noted that there were "not many options." None of the participants noted that the tensions that are flaring have long been simmering or that the U.S. administration and military have been promising since the start of the illegal war to address the issue of the PKK -- an organization labeled a "terrorist group" by the United States, Iraq, and the European Union among others. Ms. Mitchell was the only participant, in fact, to note the PKK. At the end of a sentence Mr. Hirsh offered what can only be a "shout out," single reference to the PKK while Mr. McManus' remarks would leave listeners with the impression that northern Iraq and Turkey have tensions currently but no one can figure out why. It was a strange discussion as two guests elected to attempt addressing the issue without noting the PKK.
Ms. Rehm then raised the issue of the mercenary group Blackwater USA which has been operating in Iraq with no oversight and no consequences. Mr. Hirsh cited a "report emphasizing a whole new set of procedures" but pointed out one of the recommendations was that Blackwater should aim their guns before firing. Mr. Hirsh appeared to chuckle in disbelief at that and I would guess most listeners shared his disbelief over such recommendations.
The issue of Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security Richard Griffin turning his resignation in, effective November 1, 2007, was raised with Ms. Rehm noting he was "the first high official that's lost his job over this" and Mr. Hirsh adding, "Or almost over anything, any mistake." The fact that Blackwater's actions are not a new development was also addressed and Mr. Hirsh and Ms. Rehm noting that even then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had wanted to bring private contractors under the umbrella of the Defense Department, that the present Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, still wants to and that these issues go back to, as Mr. Hirsh put it, "As far back as late 2003, early 2004. . . . That's one of the most outrageous things about it."
Ms. Mitchell offered that "one of the shocking things about it is that they've discovered these contractors -- and there are now 50,000 hired guns among private contractors in Iraq, only a couple of thousands working for the military and for the State Department, the rest are all private contractors -- working for private companies, but there is no law that governs what they do. They don't answer to military law, they don't answer to Iraqi law, they don't answer to U.S. law."
Mr. McManus felt that the illegal war, he did not call it the "illegal" war, could not continue currently without the likes of Blackwater. Ms. Mitchell sees the likely outcome as "getting rid of Blackwater and rehiring some of these same Blackwater guys under Triple Canopy or one of the other contractors so you will have the same players under a different set of rules."
Throughout the hour, I found Mr. McManus an ineffective guest. He skirted issues and referred to things without ever explaining. A perfect example would be in the midst of the Blackwater discussion when he began refer to a Sadr city attack that killed Iraqi civilians and the dispute between Iraqi officials and the U.S. military over the number of dead. Mr. McManus never explained to listeners that the attack was conducted by the U.S. military and listeners may well have been left with the impression that this was another Blackwater incident. Ms. Mitchell was in better form than I would have thought possible and Mr. Hirsh repeatedly came off as the most straight forward while Mr. McManus seemed to be floating above and beyond the entire discussion. On the issue of Blackwater, Mr. Hirsh probably said it best when he noted that, "But as with so much in Iraq, it's too little too late."
Ms. Rehm raised the issue of Congressional oversight and how Rice was informed this week by Congress "that she has mismanaged diplomatic efforts in Iraq and they accused her of concealing information from Congress. What specifically is Congress saying she has not told them?"
Ms. Mitchell offered this overview, "Well in particular there were memos, internal Iraqi memos, that the State Department was well aware of, that she had not turned over, that she had not turned over memos on Blackwater, corruption in the Iraqi government, which is a growing problem. That she has ignored it, not brought it to their attention. Her worst nightmare is Henry Waxman. Henry Waxman sixteen terms now chairman of the House Oversight Committee and he is going after her and after the State Department and other government agencies. He has a pipeline of investigations and he just keeps one after the other."
iraq
aaron glantz
npr
guy raz
all things considered
morning edition
the diane rehm show
diane rehm
andrea mitchell
michael hirsh
doyle mcmanus
the washington post
dana priest
anne hull
ruths report
the common ills
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Intelligence not a requirement for NYT op-ed pages
Canada's only literary current affairs program returns for its seventh season, its shelves overflowing with tales of horror, desertion, and redemption. The new season of "The Word This Week" begins October 28th on BookTelevision.
Rachel Harry takes on full-time hosting duties and Lars-Peter Bjornson is joined by fellow videographer Elizabeth Mitkos. Tune in for another exciting year full of news, views, and interviews coloured by the word – written, spoken, and wired.
Episode highlights for the first three episodes of "The Word This Week" include:
Sunday, October 28th at 9:00pm ET / 7:00pm MTArmy deserters and bounty hunters headline as "The Word This Week" talks with Joshua Key, author of The Deserter's Tale, the vivid story of Key's experience as a member of the American Army fighting in war-torn Iraq, the events that led to his doubts about the mission, and his decision to seek asylum in Canada.
A8 of the Times contains a Reuters article entitled "State Dept. To Order 250 To Iraq Posts" which tells you that with State Dept employees not volunteering to work in Iraq, the department has decided to order 250 employees that they will be working in Iraq. Sebnem Arsu and Andrew E. Kramer cover what Thomas Grove (Reuters) does but Grove is more up to date. The paper's article is entitled "Iraq Plan to Add U.S. Troops at Kurdish Border Is Rejected by Turkey" (and the quote from a general is only 'newsworthy' if you build it to be -- the reporters do not).
Kendrick was the first this week to note Margaret Kimberley's "Christian/Jewish Fascism Awareness Week" (Freedom Rider, Black Agenda Report):
The biggest perpetrators of terrorist acts are and always have been governments, not individuals of any religion. When the United States refers to "state sponsored" terror, it must be looking in the mirror. War is the very worst act of terror that can be practiced, giving governments permission to kill and commit brutal atrocities that would be loudly condemned if committed by individuals.
If the world's major religions are compared in terms of body count, it is clear that Islam should not be seen as the enemy. The two nations now in the fifth year of a plan to commit wars of aggression in the Middle East are Israel and the United States. If there should be warnings about particular religions and allegations of fascist connections, the perpetrators are Christianity and Judaism, not Islam.
It is manifestly unfair to label entire groups based on the behavior of a few. The Israeli lobby actively promotes war, but it can't be said that all American Jews are themselves pro-war. Around the world Bush is seen as the bogeyman representative of American Christianity. Many Christians may resent the verdict of guilt by association, but they would do well to remember that Muslims are also entitled to make their own pleas of individual innocence.
Instead Muslims are called upon to denounce any act of brutality committed by another Muslim, and to defend their religion from slanderous attacks.
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
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
joshua key
mcclatchy newspapers
the new york times
the diane rehm show
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
Rachel Harry takes on full-time hosting duties and Lars-Peter Bjornson is joined by fellow videographer Elizabeth Mitkos. Tune in for another exciting year full of news, views, and interviews coloured by the word – written, spoken, and wired.
Episode highlights for the first three episodes of "The Word This Week" include:
Sunday, October 28th at 9:00pm ET / 7:00pm MTArmy deserters and bounty hunters headline as "The Word This Week" talks with Joshua Key, author of The Deserter's Tale, the vivid story of Key's experience as a member of the American Army fighting in war-torn Iraq, the events that led to his doubts about the mission, and his decision to seek asylum in Canada.
Vince noted the above, it's from "Call Your Book Club: “The Word This Week” Returns to BookTelevision October 28th" and you can refer to that for more. I did alter the above in that it is "Joshua Key" and not "Joshua Keys." Turning to the topic of Turkey and northern Iraq which, on Friday, seemed to be a holding pattern with Erdogan signaling any potential action would wait until after his November 5th meeting in DC with the Bully Boy. Thomas Groves (Reuters) reports:
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Saturday to order an incursion into northern Iraq against Kurdish guerrillas after the failure of talks with Iraq aimed at averting a cross-border raid.
"The moment an operation is needed, we will take that step," Erdogan told a large flag-waving crowd in Izmit. "We don't need to ask anyone's permission."
The talks collapsed late on Friday after Ankara rejected proposals by Iraqi Defense Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim for tackling guerrillas based in northern Iraq as insufficient and because they would not yield results quickly enough.
Turning to the New York Timid. On the op-ed pages Richard A. Shweder shows up (A31) late to the party and with his fly open. No one wants to see that. Zip up your fly, keep your hands above your waist and welcome to the party, Dumb Ass. David Rohde's "Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones" New York Times ran October 5th. Those learning of it for the first time today from Dumb Ass will need all the luck in the world to track it down since Shweder fails to name the author of the report, the title or when it ran ("a few weeks ago"). The paper's online version contains no link to the article thereby managing to cheat print readers and online users. Shweder mentions The Diane Rehm Show (he leaves out the article "The") and apparently thinks readers don't need to catch that broadcast since he fails to provide the date the show explored the topic. Rohde was a guest on it, there were many guests, but Shweder doesn't appear to have listened since he bills the roundtable as "an interview with" Monty. The broadcast was October 10th. We dealt with all of the above (and included links) in the October 11th snapshot. Along with no link, no author and no date for the Rohde article, along with no link for Rehm's show (USA Today's Susan Page was the guest host that day), Network of Concerned Anthropologists also fails to get a link (or a web address printed in the paper -- though, remember, they were happy to steer readers to the Blackwater website this week). Shweder is a dumb ass, will die a dumb ass and should reconcile himself to writing those bad books on the cultural 'significance' of b-b-quing in the United States. He embarrassed himself and his profession on the op-ed pages of the same paper in November of last year proclaiming "The West is the best" and, no, he wasn't attempting a Jim Morrison imitation, he was just announcing to the world that xenophobia can exist in a field that is supposed to value other cultures. Along with (again) sporting his xenophobia, he provides no indication to the informed that he knows anything he's writing about.
What is happening is that anthropologists are being enlisted (ones foolish and idiotic enough to betray their own profession) by the US military to devise counter-insurgency strategies to be used against Iraqis (and it's also taking place in Afghanistan, but our focus is Iraq). Elaine wrote about this topic last night in "Thoughts for Friday." Dead tired, she managed to say more of value on the topic then the Dumb Ass does today on the pages of the New York Times. No link, we don't link to trash. The title of the garbage is "A True Culture War" and may the trash merchant next bore us with a topic worthy of him, such as the 'deeper meaning' behind the wrappers around Big Macs. While no doubt a stretch for him, it would continue to keep him away from important topics so far beyond his knowledge base though he would (again) disgusise that flaw by attempting to dress up an insignificant topic with allusions to other cultures. Betrayal of a science is not a pretty thing and Dumb Ass is a very, very ugly man -- "karmic consequences" should bite him on his uniformed ass before he decides to be 'helpful' again by justifying female gential mutilation.
For those not getting it, if you want to be published on the op-ed pages of paper, it's not only necessary to applaud the worst of the US government, it also helps to be a misogynist.
In the world of reality, an Iraqi correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers blogs "Definition of Democracy" (Inside Iraq):
Again we return to what called Democracy and its definition in language and on the ground. At least I wonder about its meaning in country like Iraq what it is mean for Iraqi people and for the Iraqi government!
Every day we heard about the tragedy stories that happen here and there in Iraq under the tent of Democracy. Four years passed and Iraqi people suffering all kinds of tragedies that became part of their new Democratic life ... four years and Iraqi people lose their beloved for nothing or sorry for emocracy’s sake.
We got rid of Saddam … yes, but we still live with same kind of tragedy that reminded us of former regime’s crushing forces. The tragedy of today is committed by policemen who killed their brother in cold blood.... May be I use this phrase a lot in my blogs... . Sorry but we are forced to use it because it has good relationship with the tragedies that we are living in Iraq.... ..tragedy of blood.
The excerpt is from a powerful post. There is one other paragraphs and you really need to read those. The above, as important as it is, ends up just being the set up. The equivalent of a stunning close up follows. So if you use links, please read in full. And possibly wonder why McClatchy and only McClatchy has created a blog for their Iraqi correspondents? (Lelia Fadel also blogs at McClatchy's Baghdad Observer but I'm referring to the Iraqis who became correspondents for the paper, not to journalists sent to Iraq.) Judging by the e-mails over the years, the New York Times couldn't do such a thing because they've alienated so many of their stringers; however, it is shocking that no other paper (while repeating the mantra of "NEW CONTENT!") has yet to offer something similar.
On the subject of McClatchy, they have posted the speech given by Sahar Issa accepting for herself and the other five female correspondents (Shatha al Awsy, Zaineb Obeid, Huda Ahmed, Ban Adil Sarhan and Alaa Majeed) the International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award:
Every morning, as I leave my home, I look back with a heavy heart, for I may not see it again – today may be the day that the eyes of an enemy will see me for what I am, a journalist, rather than the appropriately bewildered elderly lady who goes to look after ailing parents, across the river every day. Not for a moment can I let down my guard.
I smile as I give my children hugs and send them off to school; it's only after they turn their backs to me that my eyes fill to overflowing with the knowledge that they are just as much at risk as I am.
So why continue? Why not put down my proverbial pen and sit back?
It's because I'm tired of being branded a terrorist: tired that a human life lost in my country is no loss at all. This is not the future I envision for my children. They are not terrorists, and their lives are not valueless.
I have pledged my life -- and much, much more, in an effort to open a window through which the good people in the international community may look in and see us for what we are, ordinary human beings with ordinary aspirations, and not what we have been portrayed to be.
Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to reach out. Help us to build bridges of understanding and acceptance. Even though the war has cast a dark shadow upon your nation and mine -- it is never too late.
A8 of the Times contains a Reuters article entitled "State Dept. To Order 250 To Iraq Posts" which tells you that with State Dept employees not volunteering to work in Iraq, the department has decided to order 250 employees that they will be working in Iraq. Sebnem Arsu and Andrew E. Kramer cover what Thomas Grove (Reuters) does but Grove is more up to date. The paper's article is entitled "Iraq Plan to Add U.S. Troops at Kurdish Border Is Rejected by Turkey" (and the quote from a general is only 'newsworthy' if you build it to be -- the reporters do not).
Kendrick was the first this week to note Margaret Kimberley's "Christian/Jewish Fascism Awareness Week" (Freedom Rider, Black Agenda Report):
The biggest perpetrators of terrorist acts are and always have been governments, not individuals of any religion. When the United States refers to "state sponsored" terror, it must be looking in the mirror. War is the very worst act of terror that can be practiced, giving governments permission to kill and commit brutal atrocities that would be loudly condemned if committed by individuals.
If the world's major religions are compared in terms of body count, it is clear that Islam should not be seen as the enemy. The two nations now in the fifth year of a plan to commit wars of aggression in the Middle East are Israel and the United States. If there should be warnings about particular religions and allegations of fascist connections, the perpetrators are Christianity and Judaism, not Islam.
It is manifestly unfair to label entire groups based on the behavior of a few. The Israeli lobby actively promotes war, but it can't be said that all American Jews are themselves pro-war. Around the world Bush is seen as the bogeyman representative of American Christianity. Many Christians may resent the verdict of guilt by association, but they would do well to remember that Muslims are also entitled to make their own pleas of individual innocence.
Instead Muslims are called upon to denounce any act of brutality committed by another Muslim, and to defend their religion from slanderous attacks.
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
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
joshua key
mcclatchy newspapers
the new york times
the diane rehm show
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 26, 2007
Iraq snapshot
Friday, October 26, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, Turkey says it will wait for a bit more, the US military announces another death, IVAW gears up for more action, the Center for Constitutional Rights files suit against Donald Rumsfeld and more.
Starting with war resisters. Agustin Aguayo will be taking part in an Impeach Bush and Cheney Meetup with Ann Wright and David Swanson on November 2nd (6:30 pm) at the Veteran's Memorial Building in Santa Barbara (112 West Cabrillo Boulevard). That's next Friday, November 2nd. In other war resister news, Ontario's OPIRG Brock notes that war resister Michael Espinal and his partner Jennifer Harrison spoke at Brock University on Tuesday: "Michael put a very real human face on the horrors that are being committed everyday in Iraq. He spent 14 months as an explosives expert doing house raids, disarming landmines, and other explosives. Michael was reprimanded for breaking military procedure for only placing enough explosives on the doors to open them, rather than blowing the entire door and frame in the houses. If you use the amount of explosives the military states you should in its procedurces, "anyone within 5 feet of the door would be killed instantly." According to Michael most of the intelligence they relied on was from other Iraqi's who told US forces of locations where 'bad' people were. Those informants were paid about $5.00 'In all the raids I found only two grenades, and a few guns . . . if you were a male over 5 feet you were bound and taken away.' Michael said. Bibles were regularly shoved in the pockets of Iraqi's as soldiers would taunt them and tell them their religion was wrong. We constantly hear on the news of deaths and injuries of Coalition Forces in Iraq due to roadside bombs. From Michael's experience 'Most of the IED's (Improvised Explosive Device), I found were unexploded US ordinance,' or US placed landmines. When convoys would drive near the ordinance sometimes the vibration of vehicles passing would be enough to detonate it. Regardless of the source of the explosive, it is always blamed on 'terrorists'."
Meanwhile, Iraq Veterans Against the War is taking part in an event on Saturday, October 27th:
If you are a soldier or veteran who has served on active duty or in the Reserves or National Guard since 9/11, and your are frustrated and angry with the way our military has been used and abused to wage an occupation against the people of Iraq, then know that you are not alone. On October 27th, veterans, soldiers, and citizens will gather in 11 cities around this country in a national expression of the breadth and depth of antiwar sentiment in this nation. One of the biggest gatherings of IVAW members will be in Boston, where IVAW members from across the Northeast will come together for a fundraiser on Friday night, the march on Saturday, and a regional meeting immediately following the march. If you area aveteran or active duty person interested in meeting IVAW members in Boston, please e-mail newengland [at] ivaw.org or boston [at] ivaw.org. The seattle chapter has also been integral in the planning of their regional march, please contact seattle [at] ivaw.org to connect with fellow veterans in the Northwest. For additional information on regions and chapters participating in the October 27 marches and demos, including those in NYC, LA, and Orlando, please contact the regional coordinator or chapter in your area, http://www.ivaw.org/chaptersandregions. Check www.Oct27.org for directions to the events and addtional information.
Also, Wally has discussed how he made his own support IVAW t-shirt to wear on campus. IVAW now has t-shirts that read "I SUPPORT IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR."
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.
From the National Lawyers Guild to the Center for Constitutional Rights. On October 11th, CCR filed suit against Blackwater over the September 16th slaughter of civilians in Baghdad by Blackwater USA on behalf of the families of Himoud Saed Atban, Usama Fadhil Abbas and Oday Ismail Ibraheem (all three killed in the slaughter) and Talib Mutlaq Deewan who was wounded in the attack. Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) broke the news that day and interviewed CCR's Susan Burke who explained, "We were approached by the families of three gentlemen who were shot and killed, as well as a gentleman who was very seriously injured. They came to us because they know of our work representing the torture victims at Abu Ghraib, and they asked us whether it would be possible to try to get some form of justice, some form of accountability, against this rogue corporation." CCR continues to pursue the issue of torture. Today Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) interviewed CCR president Michael Ratner and Jeanne Sulzer of the International Federation of Human Rights about the lawsuit filed by CCR and IFHR
CCR notes that they and IFHR have joined with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and the French League for Human Rights in the filing "charging former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with ordering and authorizing torture. . . . The criminal complaint states that because of the failure of authorities in the United States and Iraq to launch any independent investigation into the responsibility of Rumsfeld and other high-level U.S. officials for torture despite a documented paper trail and government memos implicating them in direct as well as command responsibility for torture -- and because the U.S. has refused to join the International Criminal Court -- it is the legal obligation of states such as France to take up the case. In this case, charges are brought under the 1984 Convention against Torture, ratified by both the United States and France, which has been used in France in previous torture cases. . . . Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, former commander of Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, submitted written testimony to the Paris Prosecutor for the plaintiffs' case on Rumsfeld's responsibility for the abuse of detainees."
Dorren Carvajal (International Herald Tribune) notes Karpinski "contended that the abuses started after the appearance of Major General Geoffrey Miller, who was sent as an emissary by Rumsfeld to assist military intelligence interrogators. Miller crticized the interrogators for 'being too nice to the prisoners,' she said, and promised more resources. In her statement, Karpinski said he summed up the new approach in two sentences: 'Look, you have to treat them like dogs. If they ever felt like anything more than dogs, you have effectively lost control of the interrogation.' Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement that the aim of the latest legal complaint was to demonstrate 'that we will not rest until those U.S. officials involved in the torture program are brought to justice'."
Karpinski (PDF format warning) notes, "MG Miller was working almost exclusively with the military intelligence people and the military intelligence interrogators during the course of his visit. He was not interested in assisting with detention operations; rather he was focusing on interrogation operations and teaching interrogators harsher techniques as a means to obtain more actionable intelligence. MG Miller was spending almost all of his time with the Military Intelligence Officers (J2) BG Barbara Fast and the Commander of the Military Intelligence Brigade, Colonel Pappas. During his in-brief, his introduction when he first arrived there with his team, he responded to a military interrogator's question. . . . Then MG Miller said, 'My first observation is you are not in charge of the interrogations.' He said they were being too nice to the prsioners. MG Miller said they the interrogators were not being aggressive enough. He used an example from Guantanamo Bay." In addition, Karpinski notes the Rumsfeld Memo -- "a memo posted on a column just outside of their small administrative office. The memorandum was signed by the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and it discussed Authorized Interrogation techniques including use of loud music and prolonged standing postions, amongst several other techniques. It was one page. It mentioned stress positions, noise and light discipline, the use of music, disrupting sleep patterns, those types of techniques. There was also a handwritten note out to the side in the same ink and in the same script as the signature of the Secretary of Defense. The notation written in the margin said 'Make sure this happens!' And people understood it to be from Rumsfeld. This memorandum was a copy; a photocopy of the original, I would imagine. I thought it was unusual for an interrogation memorandum to be posted inside of a dtention cell block, because interrogations were not conducted in the cell block, at least to my understanding and knowledge."
Rumsfeld served as Secretary of the Defense under both Gerald Ford and the Bully Boy. On May 7, 2004 Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee then examining the Abu Ghraib torture and declared, "Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, in recent days there has been a good deal of discussion about who bears responsibility for the terrible activities that took place at Abu Ghraib. These events occurred on my watch. As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them and I take full responsibility." Rumsfeld was replaced with Robert Gates on December 18, 2006. There was not and has not been any accountability. [FYI, 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.]
From Rumsfeld to more current violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Kirkuk bombing that left two police officers injured. Reuters notes an Adhaim roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 6 truck drivers and injured five more, a Muqdadiya bombing that claimed 1 life and injured four, a Buhriz roadside bombing claimed 1 life and left three others, a roadside bombing outside Kirkuk that left two police officers injured and a Dagghara roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 2 police officer and injured three more.
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports nurse Fahima Hussein Mohammed was shot at her home in Hawija "and she died while moving her to the hospital."
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses were discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 2 corpses discovered in Latifya.
Today, the US military announced: "A Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier was killed and four others wounded when their unit was attacked with an explosively-formed penetrating device in a southern section of the Iraqi capital Oct. 25."
Turning to the continued tensions between northern Iraq and Turkey which have proved to be very beneficial to some. This morning, the New York Times noted that oil topped $90 a barrel (90.46 ) and may hit $100 a barrel before the end of the year. Reuters tells you it's already gone above ninety and change: "Oil rallied to a fresh record high above $92 a barrel on Friday as the dollar tumbled to a record low, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran and gunmen shut more oil production in Nigeria." From David R. Baker (San Francisco Chronicle) explains, "Crude prices are within easy striking distance of inflation-adjusted records set in 1981 after the start of the Iran-Iraq war. Direct comparisons are impossible, because the market for buying and selling oil has changed radically in the past 26 years. Estimates of the all-time high, however, range from roughly $92 per barrel to $104. . . . Speculators who use oil solely as an investment have been latching onto any news that could drive the price higher - such as Turkey's threats to attack Kurdish rebels inside oil-rich Iraq - and ignoring everything else."
Meanwhile, CBS and AP report that Turkey has decided to put on hold the decision of what to do about or not do "until the prime minister visits Washington in November before deciding on a cross-border offensive into northern Iraq, the country's top military commander said Friday." The decision (or announced 'decision') comes on the same day that Turkey sends even more troops to the border. Thomas Grove (Reuters) notes, "Turkish helicopters ferried more troops to the border with Iraq on Friday . . . Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along the mountainous border before a possible cross-border operation to crush about 3,000 guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who launch deadly attacks into Turkey from northern Iraq." Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London) continues reporting on the PKK and noted early this morning that "PKK leaders do not feel themselves in much danger. The mountains and gorges have been a redoubt for guerrillas for thousands of years." On the situation the US has allowed to rage while repeatedly claiming to address, Vera Beaudin Saeedpour (Institute for Public Accuracy) declares:
"Ironic. The PKK is on the State Department's terrorist list; the U.S. claims it doesn't 'talk with terrorists.' But the U.S. -- and Israel -- aids and abets the PKK through local Iraqi Kurds. And why? The PKK arm, Pejak, attacks Iran. For services rendered, while the PKK attacks Turkey the administration winks and has kept the Turkish military from retaliating. ... For giving safe haven to the PKK/Pejak, for doing Washington's bidding in Baghdad, [Massoud] Barzani and [Jalal] Talabani have been more than amply rewarded. In 2003 the U.S. military facilitated their takeover of 'security' in Kirkuk and even in Mosul. Now, under the pretext of fighting al Qaeda, units of the U.S. military have been joining Kurdish fighting units (veiled as members of the 'Iraqi' military) in ethnically cleansing 'contested areas' of non-Kurds in advance of a referendum that will determine under whose jurisdiction these parts of Diyala and Nineveh provinces will fall. Perhaps it all depends on who's doing the cleansing. In 1992 Armenians in Nagorno Karabagh aided by the Republic of Armenia ethnically cleansed Red Kurdistan, the largest and oldest Kurdish community in the Caucasus -- 160,000 Kurds simply disappeared. With few exceptions, Kurds elsewhere said nothing. Kurdish Life did a detailed report on the issue and distributed it to members of Congress, not least Rep. Tom Lantos, Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. Joe Biden, all still in office. President Bill Clinton did nothing. Instead, Armenians were rewarded with direct U.S. foreign aid."
In addition to the White House meetup next week, US Secretary of State and Anger Condi Rice, CNN notes, is planning to visit Ankara next Thursday to meet with the Turkish president and prime minister. Yesterday, Condi Rice met with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (one of the many committees she stonewalls). When confronted with charges and documents alleging that puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki may be something than a prince, Condi hit the roof. John M. Broder (New York Times) reports she responded, "To assault the prime minister of Iraq or anyone else in Iraq with here-to-date unsubstantiated allegations or lack of corroboration in a setting that it would simply fuel those allegations, I think, would be deeply damaging, and frankly, I think it would be wrong." To address serious charges, to do her job, would be "deeply damaging?" Remember this is the person in charge of national security on 9-11, no-one-could-have-guessed Condi. Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) reports, "Democrats focused on an April 1 memo from Maliki's office forbidding investigation of anyone in the government or cabinet without the prime minister's approval. The memo was turned over to the committee by Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, the former head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, who is seeking U.S. political asylum. Radhi testified to the committee early this month that his investigators had uncovered 'rampant' corruption in Iraqi ministries and that nearly four dozen anti-corruption employees or members of their families had been murdered." Condi's concern for al-Maliki and his potentially hurt feelings is all the more touching as Alexandra Zavis (Los Angeles Times) reports, "Iraqi insurgents and sectarian militias are funding their deadly activities by muscling in on Mafia-style rackets involving everything from real estate and oil to cement and soft drinks, U.S. commanders say." Zavis quotes Lt. Col. Eric Welsh declaring, "If you think that the majority of money is coming from outside the country to fund the insurgency, you'd be wrong." Don't say that around Condi, she might burst into tears despite the fact that "[a]n internal U.S. Embassy assessment leaked to the media in August said endemic corruption was crippling the government and providing a major source of funding to insurgent groups and sectarian militias."
Turning to peace news, Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) noted today, "An American peace activist denied entry into Canada earlier this month has again been detained by Canadian authorities on her first attempt to return. Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel and former diplomat, was scheduled to speak an anti-war news conference Thursday with Canadian lawmakers in the capitol of Ottawa. Wright and the CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin were denied entry earlier this month after their names appeared on an FBI criminal database that the Canadian government is using at its borders. Wright and Benjamin have nine convictions between them -- all involving civil disobedience while protesting the war in Iraq."
iraq
michael espinal
the los angeles times
alexandra zavis
karen deyoung
the washington post
the new york times
john m. broder
cnn
the daily jot
Starting with war resisters. Agustin Aguayo will be taking part in an Impeach Bush and Cheney Meetup with Ann Wright and David Swanson on November 2nd (6:30 pm) at the Veteran's Memorial Building in Santa Barbara (112 West Cabrillo Boulevard). That's next Friday, November 2nd. In other war resister news, Ontario's OPIRG Brock notes that war resister Michael Espinal and his partner Jennifer Harrison spoke at Brock University on Tuesday: "Michael put a very real human face on the horrors that are being committed everyday in Iraq. He spent 14 months as an explosives expert doing house raids, disarming landmines, and other explosives. Michael was reprimanded for breaking military procedure for only placing enough explosives on the doors to open them, rather than blowing the entire door and frame in the houses. If you use the amount of explosives the military states you should in its procedurces, "anyone within 5 feet of the door would be killed instantly." According to Michael most of the intelligence they relied on was from other Iraqi's who told US forces of locations where 'bad' people were. Those informants were paid about $5.00 'In all the raids I found only two grenades, and a few guns . . . if you were a male over 5 feet you were bound and taken away.' Michael said. Bibles were regularly shoved in the pockets of Iraqi's as soldiers would taunt them and tell them their religion was wrong. We constantly hear on the news of deaths and injuries of Coalition Forces in Iraq due to roadside bombs. From Michael's experience 'Most of the IED's (Improvised Explosive Device), I found were unexploded US ordinance,' or US placed landmines. When convoys would drive near the ordinance sometimes the vibration of vehicles passing would be enough to detonate it. Regardless of the source of the explosive, it is always blamed on 'terrorists'."
Meanwhile, Iraq Veterans Against the War is taking part in an event on Saturday, October 27th:
If you are a soldier or veteran who has served on active duty or in the Reserves or National Guard since 9/11, and your are frustrated and angry with the way our military has been used and abused to wage an occupation against the people of Iraq, then know that you are not alone. On October 27th, veterans, soldiers, and citizens will gather in 11 cities around this country in a national expression of the breadth and depth of antiwar sentiment in this nation. One of the biggest gatherings of IVAW members will be in Boston, where IVAW members from across the Northeast will come together for a fundraiser on Friday night, the march on Saturday, and a regional meeting immediately following the march. If you area aveteran or active duty person interested in meeting IVAW members in Boston, please e-mail newengland [at] ivaw.org or boston [at] ivaw.org. The seattle chapter has also been integral in the planning of their regional march, please contact seattle [at] ivaw.org to connect with fellow veterans in the Northwest. For additional information on regions and chapters participating in the October 27 marches and demos, including those in NYC, LA, and Orlando, please contact the regional coordinator or chapter in your area, http://www.ivaw.org/chaptersandregions. Check www.Oct27.org for directions to the events and addtional information.
Also, Wally has discussed how he made his own support IVAW t-shirt to wear on campus. IVAW now has t-shirts that read "I SUPPORT IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Michael Espinal, 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."
From the National Lawyers Guild to the Center for Constitutional Rights. On October 11th, CCR filed suit against Blackwater over the September 16th slaughter of civilians in Baghdad by Blackwater USA on behalf of the families of Himoud Saed Atban, Usama Fadhil Abbas and Oday Ismail Ibraheem (all three killed in the slaughter) and Talib Mutlaq Deewan who was wounded in the attack. Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) broke the news that day and interviewed CCR's Susan Burke who explained, "We were approached by the families of three gentlemen who were shot and killed, as well as a gentleman who was very seriously injured. They came to us because they know of our work representing the torture victims at Abu Ghraib, and they asked us whether it would be possible to try to get some form of justice, some form of accountability, against this rogue corporation." CCR continues to pursue the issue of torture. Today Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) interviewed CCR president Michael Ratner and Jeanne Sulzer of the International Federation of Human Rights about the lawsuit filed by CCR and IFHR
JUAN GONZALEZ: Jeanne, I'd like to ask you, what happened this morning in France?
JEANNE SULZER: Well, the complaint was filed yesterday before the Paris prosecutor around 5:00 p.m. Paris time. This morning, Rumsfeld was present at the conference where he was scheduled. So what we are awaiting now is signs from the prosecutor to know whether an investigation has been opened or not. So what we needed here in France was to make sure that Rumsfeld was actually present on the French territory, which is the case. He's still here in Paris.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And now, was he actually served with any papers there, or what happened when he actually spoke?
JEANNE SULZER: Well, actually, the information we have is that the complaint has not been served on him. He has not been yet asked to account for the accusations in the complaint. So, as of now, again, we are waiting to see whether the prosecutor is still reviewing the complaint, and hopefully he will not wait too long, because our fears are that Rumsfeld will escape as soon as he can. So now the big issue is the pressure on the prosecutor and, of course, the higher-ups of the French authorities to take a decision on the complaint. But France has a very clear obligation to investigate and prosecute into this case under the torture convention, as Rumsfeld is present on the French territory.
Gonzalez noted that this is case number five against Rumsfeld.
MICHAEL RATNER: The big difference with this case and the other cases is Rumsfeld is actually in France. And when an alleged torturer goes into a country, but particularly France, the obligation on the prosecutor to begin an investigation is much stronger than in other cases of so-called universal jurisdiction. We brought two cases in Germany; one of those is still on appeal. There's a case in Argentina, and there's a case in Sweden.
I think the point of all of this is to really give Rumsfeld no place to hide. And the French case, really, because he is there, is extraordinary. I mean, that he was, in my -- in a sense, Juan, dumb enough to go to France, knowing that they have this kind of jurisdiction, is shocking. And, you know, I think one of the things that people can do right now is to put pressure on the French prosecutor to make sure he opens an investigation. We're going to have that fax number, etc., on our website, which the Center has a new website now: ccrjustice.org, ccrjustice.org, which in a couple of hours you can go to to fax materials. So this is a very, very exciting effort, and I think we're going to really pin Rumsfeld in in this.
I have a question, Jeanne: if they somehow don't open the prosecution and he leaves, do they still have an obligation to open the prosecution, even after he's gone?
JEANNE SULZER: In theory, there is, because what you need is, when the complaint is being filed, that the person, the alleged person, is present on the territory, and he was when the complaint was filed. So, yes, but they could, of course, say that now that he is not present on the territory anymore, there is no jurisdiction. But, yes, they should -- actually, the investigation should be opened now. If he escapes today, there is still basis for the French jurisdiction.
CCR notes that they and IFHR have joined with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and the French League for Human Rights in the filing "charging former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with ordering and authorizing torture. . . . The criminal complaint states that because of the failure of authorities in the United States and Iraq to launch any independent investigation into the responsibility of Rumsfeld and other high-level U.S. officials for torture despite a documented paper trail and government memos implicating them in direct as well as command responsibility for torture -- and because the U.S. has refused to join the International Criminal Court -- it is the legal obligation of states such as France to take up the case. In this case, charges are brought under the 1984 Convention against Torture, ratified by both the United States and France, which has been used in France in previous torture cases. . . . Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, former commander of Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, submitted written testimony to the Paris Prosecutor for the plaintiffs' case on Rumsfeld's responsibility for the abuse of detainees."
Dorren Carvajal (International Herald Tribune) notes Karpinski "contended that the abuses started after the appearance of Major General Geoffrey Miller, who was sent as an emissary by Rumsfeld to assist military intelligence interrogators. Miller crticized the interrogators for 'being too nice to the prisoners,' she said, and promised more resources. In her statement, Karpinski said he summed up the new approach in two sentences: 'Look, you have to treat them like dogs. If they ever felt like anything more than dogs, you have effectively lost control of the interrogation.' Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement that the aim of the latest legal complaint was to demonstrate 'that we will not rest until those U.S. officials involved in the torture program are brought to justice'."
Karpinski (PDF format warning) notes, "MG Miller was working almost exclusively with the military intelligence people and the military intelligence interrogators during the course of his visit. He was not interested in assisting with detention operations; rather he was focusing on interrogation operations and teaching interrogators harsher techniques as a means to obtain more actionable intelligence. MG Miller was spending almost all of his time with the Military Intelligence Officers (J2) BG Barbara Fast and the Commander of the Military Intelligence Brigade, Colonel Pappas. During his in-brief, his introduction when he first arrived there with his team, he responded to a military interrogator's question. . . . Then MG Miller said, 'My first observation is you are not in charge of the interrogations.' He said they were being too nice to the prsioners. MG Miller said they the interrogators were not being aggressive enough. He used an example from Guantanamo Bay." In addition, Karpinski notes the Rumsfeld Memo -- "a memo posted on a column just outside of their small administrative office. The memorandum was signed by the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and it discussed Authorized Interrogation techniques including use of loud music and prolonged standing postions, amongst several other techniques. It was one page. It mentioned stress positions, noise and light discipline, the use of music, disrupting sleep patterns, those types of techniques. There was also a handwritten note out to the side in the same ink and in the same script as the signature of the Secretary of Defense. The notation written in the margin said 'Make sure this happens!' And people understood it to be from Rumsfeld. This memorandum was a copy; a photocopy of the original, I would imagine. I thought it was unusual for an interrogation memorandum to be posted inside of a dtention cell block, because interrogations were not conducted in the cell block, at least to my understanding and knowledge."
Rumsfeld served as Secretary of the Defense under both Gerald Ford and the Bully Boy. On May 7, 2004 Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee then examining the Abu Ghraib torture and declared, "Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, in recent days there has been a good deal of discussion about who bears responsibility for the terrible activities that took place at Abu Ghraib. These events occurred on my watch. As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them and I take full responsibility." Rumsfeld was replaced with Robert Gates on December 18, 2006. There was not and has not been any accountability. [FYI, 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.]
From Rumsfeld to more current violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Kirkuk bombing that left two police officers injured. Reuters notes an Adhaim roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 6 truck drivers and injured five more, a Muqdadiya bombing that claimed 1 life and injured four, a Buhriz roadside bombing claimed 1 life and left three others, a roadside bombing outside Kirkuk that left two police officers injured and a Dagghara roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 2 police officer and injured three more.
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports nurse Fahima Hussein Mohammed was shot at her home in Hawija "and she died while moving her to the hospital."
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses were discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 2 corpses discovered in Latifya.
Today, the US military announced: "A Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier was killed and four others wounded when their unit was attacked with an explosively-formed penetrating device in a southern section of the Iraqi capital Oct. 25."
Turning to the continued tensions between northern Iraq and Turkey which have proved to be very beneficial to some. This morning, the New York Times noted that oil topped $90 a barrel (90.46 ) and may hit $100 a barrel before the end of the year. Reuters tells you it's already gone above ninety and change: "Oil rallied to a fresh record high above $92 a barrel on Friday as the dollar tumbled to a record low, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran and gunmen shut more oil production in Nigeria." From David R. Baker (San Francisco Chronicle) explains, "Crude prices are within easy striking distance of inflation-adjusted records set in 1981 after the start of the Iran-Iraq war. Direct comparisons are impossible, because the market for buying and selling oil has changed radically in the past 26 years. Estimates of the all-time high, however, range from roughly $92 per barrel to $104. . . . Speculators who use oil solely as an investment have been latching onto any news that could drive the price higher - such as Turkey's threats to attack Kurdish rebels inside oil-rich Iraq - and ignoring everything else."
Meanwhile, CBS and AP report that Turkey has decided to put on hold the decision of what to do about or not do "until the prime minister visits Washington in November before deciding on a cross-border offensive into northern Iraq, the country's top military commander said Friday." The decision (or announced 'decision') comes on the same day that Turkey sends even more troops to the border. Thomas Grove (Reuters) notes, "Turkish helicopters ferried more troops to the border with Iraq on Friday . . . Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along the mountainous border before a possible cross-border operation to crush about 3,000 guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who launch deadly attacks into Turkey from northern Iraq." Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London) continues reporting on the PKK and noted early this morning that "PKK leaders do not feel themselves in much danger. The mountains and gorges have been a redoubt for guerrillas for thousands of years." On the situation the US has allowed to rage while repeatedly claiming to address, Vera Beaudin Saeedpour (Institute for Public Accuracy) declares:
"Ironic. The PKK is on the State Department's terrorist list; the U.S. claims it doesn't 'talk with terrorists.' But the U.S. -- and Israel -- aids and abets the PKK through local Iraqi Kurds. And why? The PKK arm, Pejak, attacks Iran. For services rendered, while the PKK attacks Turkey the administration winks and has kept the Turkish military from retaliating. ... For giving safe haven to the PKK/Pejak, for doing Washington's bidding in Baghdad, [Massoud] Barzani and [Jalal] Talabani have been more than amply rewarded. In 2003 the U.S. military facilitated their takeover of 'security' in Kirkuk and even in Mosul. Now, under the pretext of fighting al Qaeda, units of the U.S. military have been joining Kurdish fighting units (veiled as members of the 'Iraqi' military) in ethnically cleansing 'contested areas' of non-Kurds in advance of a referendum that will determine under whose jurisdiction these parts of Diyala and Nineveh provinces will fall. Perhaps it all depends on who's doing the cleansing. In 1992 Armenians in Nagorno Karabagh aided by the Republic of Armenia ethnically cleansed Red Kurdistan, the largest and oldest Kurdish community in the Caucasus -- 160,000 Kurds simply disappeared. With few exceptions, Kurds elsewhere said nothing. Kurdish Life did a detailed report on the issue and distributed it to members of Congress, not least Rep. Tom Lantos, Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. Joe Biden, all still in office. President Bill Clinton did nothing. Instead, Armenians were rewarded with direct U.S. foreign aid."
In addition to the White House meetup next week, US Secretary of State and Anger Condi Rice, CNN notes, is planning to visit Ankara next Thursday to meet with the Turkish president and prime minister. Yesterday, Condi Rice met with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (one of the many committees she stonewalls). When confronted with charges and documents alleging that puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki may be something than a prince, Condi hit the roof. John M. Broder (New York Times) reports she responded, "To assault the prime minister of Iraq or anyone else in Iraq with here-to-date unsubstantiated allegations or lack of corroboration in a setting that it would simply fuel those allegations, I think, would be deeply damaging, and frankly, I think it would be wrong." To address serious charges, to do her job, would be "deeply damaging?" Remember this is the person in charge of national security on 9-11, no-one-could-have-guessed Condi. Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) reports, "Democrats focused on an April 1 memo from Maliki's office forbidding investigation of anyone in the government or cabinet without the prime minister's approval. The memo was turned over to the committee by Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, the former head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, who is seeking U.S. political asylum. Radhi testified to the committee early this month that his investigators had uncovered 'rampant' corruption in Iraqi ministries and that nearly four dozen anti-corruption employees or members of their families had been murdered." Condi's concern for al-Maliki and his potentially hurt feelings is all the more touching as Alexandra Zavis (Los Angeles Times) reports, "Iraqi insurgents and sectarian militias are funding their deadly activities by muscling in on Mafia-style rackets involving everything from real estate and oil to cement and soft drinks, U.S. commanders say." Zavis quotes Lt. Col. Eric Welsh declaring, "If you think that the majority of money is coming from outside the country to fund the insurgency, you'd be wrong." Don't say that around Condi, she might burst into tears despite the fact that "[a]n internal U.S. Embassy assessment leaked to the media in August said endemic corruption was crippling the government and providing a major source of funding to insurgent groups and sectarian militias."
Turning to peace news, Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) noted today, "An American peace activist denied entry into Canada earlier this month has again been detained by Canadian authorities on her first attempt to return. Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel and former diplomat, was scheduled to speak an anti-war news conference Thursday with Canadian lawmakers in the capitol of Ottawa. Wright and the CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin were denied entry earlier this month after their names appeared on an FBI criminal database that the Canadian government is using at its borders. Wright and Benjamin have nine convictions between them -- all involving civil disobedience while protesting the war in Iraq."
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michael espinal
juan gonzalez
the center for constitutional rights
patrick cockburn
mcclatchy newspapersthe los angeles times
alexandra zavis
karen deyoung
the washington post
the new york times
john m. broder
cnn
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Iraqi insurgents and sectarian militias are funding their deadly activities by muscling in on Mafia-style rackets involving everything from real estate and oil to cement and soft drinks, U.S. commanders say.
U.S. diplomats and senior Iraqi officials have repeatedly singled out corruption as one of the greatest obstacles to stability in Iraq. But until recently, commanders acknowledge, they knew little about the criminal dealings they say sustain militant groups across the country.
"If you think that the majority of money is coming from outside the country to fund the insurgency, you'd be wrong," said Army Lt. Col. Eric Welsh, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, in the northern city of Mosul.
[. . .]
An internal U.S. Embassy assessment leaked to the media in August said endemic corruption was crippling the government and providing a major source of funding to insurgent groups and sectarian militias.
The above is from Alexandra Zavis' "Iraq militants seen as taking kickbacks" (Los Angeles Times) which you can pair with this from John M. Broder's "Rice Says 'Hole' in U.S. Law Shields Contractors in Iraq" (New York Times) about Rice's show performance before Congress yesterday:
She said some of the money stolen from the Iraqi government was financing insurgent militias, particularly in the Shiite-dominated south. But she added that it would be unfair to confront senior Iraqi leaders with unproven accusations of wrongdoing.
"To assault the prime minister of Iraq or anyone else in Iraq with here-to-date unsubstantiated allegations or lack of corroboration in a setting that it would simply fuel those allegations, I think, would be deeply damaging, and frankly, I think it would be wrong," she said.
A number of Democratic members of the committee pressed the issue, saying they had heard from American Embassy staff and Iraqis that American anticorruption efforts were ineffective or nonexistent and that the problem threatened the mission in Iraq.
Broder also details a Blackwater e-mail but it appears the paper's been operating from it for some time, so it should be of little surprise. Instead, we'll move on. Lloyd notes this from Karen DeYoung's "On Hill, Rice Talks About Blackwater" (Washington Post):
During nearly three hours of contentious exchanges with Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rice parried and often ducked questions on contractors, Iraqi government corruption and problems in the construction of a $600 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. She repeatedly said she needed to review matters more closely or could not answer in an open congressional session.
Several lawmakers questioned whether Rice was even aware of some of the most serious allegations. "You're the secretary of state!" Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said incredulously after Rice responded to a specific charge against Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by saying she is "not personally following every allegation of corruption in Iraq."
[. . .]
Democrats focused on an April 1 memo from Maliki's office forbidding investigation of anyone in the government or cabinet without the prime minister's approval. The memo was turned over to the committee by Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, the former head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, who is seeking U.S. political asylum. Radhi testified to the committee early this month that his investigators had uncovered "rampant" corruption in Iraqi ministries and that nearly four dozen anti-corruption employees or members of their families had been murdered.
Turning to news of attacks on peace efforts, Vic notes Sue Bailey's "Canada turns back retired colonel" (London Free Press):
Canada is complicit in a campaign of political intimidation, says an American peace activist refused entry to the country for convictions linked to anti-war protest in the U.S.
Retired U.S. army Col. Ann Wright, a former diplomat who quit over her opposition to the war in Iraq, was sent back to the U.S. yesterday by Canadian immigration officials who detained her at Ottawa airport.
Her crime? A series of misdemeanour convictions for unlawful or disorderly conduct involving non-violent protests on Capitol Hill. She has never paid a fine higher than $200, she said.
"This is causing a great stir in the peace action community because of the probably 15,000 Americans that have been arrested since this war began. Many of them travel to Canada all the time," Wright said.
Today (on most PBS stations), NOW with David Brancaccio airs:
In August, NOW traveled with an unlikely alliance of Evangelical Christians and leading scientists to witness the breathtaking effects of global warming on Alaska's rapidly-changing environment. Though many in the Evangelical community feel recognition of global warming is in opposition to their mission, the week-long trip inspired new thinking on the relationship between science and religion, and on our moral responsibility to protect the planet.
On Friday, October 26 at 8:30 pm (check local listings), travel with NOW and the expeditionary group on a breathtaking and surprising journey to find common ground between Earthand sky."Despite having some differences on some well known issues, our two communities clearly shared a deep and fundamental reverence for life on Earth and a profound concern about what human activity was doing to it." write Dr. Eric Chivian and Reverend Richard Cizik for NOW.
At NOW Online, read an essay co-authored by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientist and the Evangelical leader, both of whom were on the trip. Also see amazing photographs from their journey.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the los angeles times
alexandra zavis
karen deyoung
the washington post
the new york times
john m. broder
now with david branccacio
pbs
U.S. diplomats and senior Iraqi officials have repeatedly singled out corruption as one of the greatest obstacles to stability in Iraq. But until recently, commanders acknowledge, they knew little about the criminal dealings they say sustain militant groups across the country.
"If you think that the majority of money is coming from outside the country to fund the insurgency, you'd be wrong," said Army Lt. Col. Eric Welsh, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, in the northern city of Mosul.
[. . .]
An internal U.S. Embassy assessment leaked to the media in August said endemic corruption was crippling the government and providing a major source of funding to insurgent groups and sectarian militias.
The above is from Alexandra Zavis' "Iraq militants seen as taking kickbacks" (Los Angeles Times) which you can pair with this from John M. Broder's "Rice Says 'Hole' in U.S. Law Shields Contractors in Iraq" (New York Times) about Rice's show performance before Congress yesterday:
She said some of the money stolen from the Iraqi government was financing insurgent militias, particularly in the Shiite-dominated south. But she added that it would be unfair to confront senior Iraqi leaders with unproven accusations of wrongdoing.
"To assault the prime minister of Iraq or anyone else in Iraq with here-to-date unsubstantiated allegations or lack of corroboration in a setting that it would simply fuel those allegations, I think, would be deeply damaging, and frankly, I think it would be wrong," she said.
A number of Democratic members of the committee pressed the issue, saying they had heard from American Embassy staff and Iraqis that American anticorruption efforts were ineffective or nonexistent and that the problem threatened the mission in Iraq.
Broder also details a Blackwater e-mail but it appears the paper's been operating from it for some time, so it should be of little surprise. Instead, we'll move on. Lloyd notes this from Karen DeYoung's "On Hill, Rice Talks About Blackwater" (Washington Post):
During nearly three hours of contentious exchanges with Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rice parried and often ducked questions on contractors, Iraqi government corruption and problems in the construction of a $600 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. She repeatedly said she needed to review matters more closely or could not answer in an open congressional session.
Several lawmakers questioned whether Rice was even aware of some of the most serious allegations. "You're the secretary of state!" Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said incredulously after Rice responded to a specific charge against Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by saying she is "not personally following every allegation of corruption in Iraq."
[. . .]
Democrats focused on an April 1 memo from Maliki's office forbidding investigation of anyone in the government or cabinet without the prime minister's approval. The memo was turned over to the committee by Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, the former head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, who is seeking U.S. political asylum. Radhi testified to the committee early this month that his investigators had uncovered "rampant" corruption in Iraqi ministries and that nearly four dozen anti-corruption employees or members of their families had been murdered.
Turning to news of attacks on peace efforts, Vic notes Sue Bailey's "Canada turns back retired colonel" (London Free Press):
Canada is complicit in a campaign of political intimidation, says an American peace activist refused entry to the country for convictions linked to anti-war protest in the U.S.
Retired U.S. army Col. Ann Wright, a former diplomat who quit over her opposition to the war in Iraq, was sent back to the U.S. yesterday by Canadian immigration officials who detained her at Ottawa airport.
Her crime? A series of misdemeanour convictions for unlawful or disorderly conduct involving non-violent protests on Capitol Hill. She has never paid a fine higher than $200, she said.
"This is causing a great stir in the peace action community because of the probably 15,000 Americans that have been arrested since this war began. Many of them travel to Canada all the time," Wright said.
Today (on most PBS stations), NOW with David Brancaccio airs:
In August, NOW traveled with an unlikely alliance of Evangelical Christians and leading scientists to witness the breathtaking effects of global warming on Alaska's rapidly-changing environment. Though many in the Evangelical community feel recognition of global warming is in opposition to their mission, the week-long trip inspired new thinking on the relationship between science and religion, and on our moral responsibility to protect the planet.
On Friday, October 26 at 8:30 pm (check local listings), travel with NOW and the expeditionary group on a breathtaking and surprising journey to find common ground between Earthand sky."Despite having some differences on some well known issues, our two communities clearly shared a deep and fundamental reverence for life on Earth and a profound concern about what human activity was doing to it." write Dr. Eric Chivian and Reverend Richard Cizik for NOW.
At NOW Online, read an essay co-authored by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientist and the Evangelical leader, both of whom were on the trip. Also see amazing photographs from their journey.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the los angeles times
alexandra zavis
karen deyoung
the washington post
the new york times
john m. broder
now with david branccacio
pbs
Tensions continue, oil prices soar
"Ironic. The PKK is on the State Department's terrorist list; the U.S. claims it doesn't 'talk with terrorists.' But the U.S. -- and Israel -- aids and abets the PKK through local Iraqi Kurds. And why? The PKK arm, Pejak, attacks Iran. For services rendered, while the PKK attacks Turkey the administration winks and has kept the Turkish military from retaliating. ..."For giving safe haven to the PKK/Pejak, for doing Washington's bidding in Baghdad, [Massoud] Barzani and [Jalal] Talabani have been more than amply rewarded. In 2003 the U.S. military facilitated their takeover of 'security' in Kirkuk and even in Mosul. Now, under the pretext of fighting al Qaeda, units of the U.S. military have been joining Kurdish fighting units (veiled as members of the 'Iraqi' military) in ethnically cleansing 'contested areas' of non-Kurds in advance of a referendum that will determine under whose jurisdiction these parts of Diyala and Nineveh provinces will fall."Perhaps it all depends on who's doing the cleansing. In 1992 Armenians in Nagorno Karabagh aided by the Republic of Armenia ethnically cleansed Red Kurdistan, the largest and oldest Kurdish community in the Caucasus -- 160,000 Kurds simply disappeared. With few exceptions, Kurds elsewhere said nothing. Kurdish Life did a detailed report on the issue and distributed it to members of Congress, not least Rep. Tom Lantos, Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. Joe Biden, all still in office. President Bill Clinton did nothing. Instead, Armenians were rewarded with direct U.S. foreign aid."
The above is Vera Beaudin Saeedpour's statements from an Institute for Public Accuracy (Norman Solomon's group) news release entitled "Perspectives on Iraq, Turkey and Kurds." But of course, it's not bad news for everyone. Citing the tensions, the New York Times notes that oil topped $90 a barrel (90.46 ) and may hit $100 a barrel before the end of the year. Reuters tells you it's already gone above ninety and change: "Oil rallied to a fresh record high above $92 a barrel on Friday as the dollar tumbled to a record low, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran and gunmen shut more oil production in Nigeria." From David R. Baker's "Tight supplies, speculation send oil, gas prices to new highs" (San Francisco Chronicle):
Crude prices are within easy striking distance of inflation-adjusted records set in 1981 after the start of the Iran-Iraq war.
Direct comparisons are impossible, because the market for buying and selling oil has changed radically in the past 26 years. Estimates of the all-time high, however, range from roughly $92 per barrel to $104.
In contrast, gasoline prices aren't in record territory. But they are climbing. In California, they leapt 10 cents in the past week before leveling off on Wednesday and Thursday.
The state's average price for gasoline stands at $3.16 for a gallon of regular, according to the AAA auto club. For that gallon of gas, drivers are paying about $3.29 in San Francisco, $3.20 in San Jose and $3.19 in Oakland.
A year ago, the state's average was $2.47 per gallon.
"The trend of gradually higher gasoline prices with no real end in sight - that AAA has been forecasting since early this decade - seems likely to continue, which may intensify the United States' need to develop a more sustainable energy policy," said Sean Comey, spokesman for AAA of Northern California.
Many analysts blame the recent increase in oil and gasoline prices on a bull market run wild.
Speculators who use oil solely as an investment have been latching onto any news that could drive the price higher - such as Turkey's threats to attack Kurdish rebels inside oil-rich Iraq - and ignoring everything else.
But Kingston said the high prices reflect real problems in the oil market.
Chevron named a tanker after her -- maybe because she moves so slowly? CNN notes:
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be in Ankara Thursday for bilateral meetings with Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. She then will travel to Istanbul for a "ministerial level international meeting on Iraq," scheduled for Nov. 2-3.
No need to rush when there's money to be made. Meanwhile Thomas Grove (Reuters) notes:
Turkish helicopters ferried more troops to the border with Iraq on Friday as diplomatic efforts got underway in Ankara to avert a major offensive against Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq.
State-run Anatolian news agency said Cobra helicopters and fighter jets had also pounded PKK shelters discovered after reconnaissance missions along the border and inside Turkey, which has NATO's second biggest army.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along the mountainous border before a possible cross-border operation to crush about 3,000 guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who launch deadly attacks into Turkey from northern Iraq.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
cnn
The above is Vera Beaudin Saeedpour's statements from an Institute for Public Accuracy (Norman Solomon's group) news release entitled "Perspectives on Iraq, Turkey and Kurds." But of course, it's not bad news for everyone. Citing the tensions, the New York Times notes that oil topped $90 a barrel (90.46 ) and may hit $100 a barrel before the end of the year. Reuters tells you it's already gone above ninety and change: "Oil rallied to a fresh record high above $92 a barrel on Friday as the dollar tumbled to a record low, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran and gunmen shut more oil production in Nigeria." From David R. Baker's "Tight supplies, speculation send oil, gas prices to new highs" (San Francisco Chronicle):
Crude prices are within easy striking distance of inflation-adjusted records set in 1981 after the start of the Iran-Iraq war.
Direct comparisons are impossible, because the market for buying and selling oil has changed radically in the past 26 years. Estimates of the all-time high, however, range from roughly $92 per barrel to $104.
In contrast, gasoline prices aren't in record territory. But they are climbing. In California, they leapt 10 cents in the past week before leveling off on Wednesday and Thursday.
The state's average price for gasoline stands at $3.16 for a gallon of regular, according to the AAA auto club. For that gallon of gas, drivers are paying about $3.29 in San Francisco, $3.20 in San Jose and $3.19 in Oakland.
A year ago, the state's average was $2.47 per gallon.
"The trend of gradually higher gasoline prices with no real end in sight - that AAA has been forecasting since early this decade - seems likely to continue, which may intensify the United States' need to develop a more sustainable energy policy," said Sean Comey, spokesman for AAA of Northern California.
Many analysts blame the recent increase in oil and gasoline prices on a bull market run wild.
Speculators who use oil solely as an investment have been latching onto any news that could drive the price higher - such as Turkey's threats to attack Kurdish rebels inside oil-rich Iraq - and ignoring everything else.
But Kingston said the high prices reflect real problems in the oil market.
Chevron named a tanker after her -- maybe because she moves so slowly? CNN notes:
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be in Ankara Thursday for bilateral meetings with Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. She then will travel to Istanbul for a "ministerial level international meeting on Iraq," scheduled for Nov. 2-3.
No need to rush when there's money to be made. Meanwhile Thomas Grove (Reuters) notes:
Turkish helicopters ferried more troops to the border with Iraq on Friday as diplomatic efforts got underway in Ankara to avert a major offensive against Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq.
State-run Anatolian news agency said Cobra helicopters and fighter jets had also pounded PKK shelters discovered after reconnaissance missions along the border and inside Turkey, which has NATO's second biggest army.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along the mountainous border before a possible cross-border operation to crush about 3,000 guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who launch deadly attacks into Turkey from northern Iraq.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
cnn
Thursday, October 25, 2007
And the war drags on . . .
Soon after midnight last Sunday, a detachment of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) surrounded a 50-strong unit of the Turkish army near the village of Daglica in Hakkari province, three miles from Turkey's border with Iraq.
The operation was well planned. The PKK guerrillas first cut the electricity and telephone lines to the Turkish army post and then isolated it by blowing up a bridge. The besieged soldiers could see the PKK taking up positions through their night-vision equipment and monitored their radio communications.
When the PKK did attack it overran the outpost, killing at least 16 Turkish soldiers, wounding 17 and capturing eight whom the PKK still holds. The PKK claims only three of its men were slightly wounded and later released pictures of the Turkish prisoners.
It was the most effective PKK action for years and the Turkish government's reaction to it has re-launched the PKK as a political player in the region. It is no longer an irrelevant relic of its failed bid to lead the 15 million Turkish Kurds to independence which collapsed after its military defeat in the 1990s and the capture of its leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.
Sunday's attack had an explosive impact on Turkey because the Turkish army and its civilian supporters are eager to persuade Turks that the moderate Islamist government is insufficiently patriotic. For his part, the Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan had been skilfully threatening to send the army across the border but not in fact doing so.
Talking to PKK leaders in their headquarters in the Qandil mountains it is not clear how far they are trying to tempt Turkey into a trap by provoking it into invading northern Iraq. A Turkish invasion would be much in the PKK's interests since the Turkish army would become embroiled with the powerful military forces of the Iraqi Kurds.
The above, noted by Gareth, is from Patrick Cockburn's "PKK tactics may drive Turkey into a reluctant invasion" (Independent of London). You have the delegation of Iraqi diplomats meeting with Turkish officials in Turkey, Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan set to meet with the Bully Boy in DC about the issue . . . next month. When The War Comes Home's Aaron Glantz report on the situation for Pacifica in April of 2004 is repeatdly mentioned, it's to underscore that this is not a new problem. The White House wants to play like it just popped up. It didn't. And they have consistently given promises throughout the illegal war that they were addressing it. They have never addressed it. Not when, in 2004, then US Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Meyers stated, "This is an issue the coalition forces inside Iraq take very seriously. Let me assure you that there is very close collaboration with Turkey and that they [the PKK] will be dealt with appropriately." Asso Ahmed and Yesim Borg (Los Angeles Times) report today that "Prime Minister Nouri Maliki promised on a visit to Turkey in November that he would shut down the PKK offices. However, they were never formally closed, and Maliki renewed the pledge this week, as Turkey threatened to send its military across the border to attack PKK sites in northern Iraq". That would be November 2006. Now al-Maliki's a puppet (of the US) and the Kurdish region of Iraq does what it wants. But the US administration has repeatedly given assurances that the issue was being addressed. That has not been the case. So to treat it, as some in the press are doing, as something that just popped up or something that the US couldn't have anticipated is wrong. It was anticipated. It was forseeable. Nothing was done about it. As if Iraqis and US service members (and other foreign fighters sent to Iraq by their countries) don't have enough to deal with already.
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 3830. Tonight? 3837. Just Foreign Policy's total for the number of Iraqis killed since the start of the illegal war stood at 1,087,731. Tonight? 1,093,978.
The dying's stopped. That's the big talking point in the end of the month wrap ups. The dying hasn't stopped. And if Turkey invades, it will increase. But that's the talking point. It'll be interesting to see if McClatchy publishes their count for civilian deaths in October. If you missed it, they didn't in September. AP is already saying their count shows a big drop. McClatchy and Reuters actually report violence in real time. AFP also keeps a count. And don't forget that Petraeus has another dog and pony show before Congress shortly.
It'll be interesting to see if any members of Congress ask what's been done on his part -- prior to the last few weeks -- to address the PKK situation. Nothing was done, by anyone. But Condi Rice did declare, in her opening remarks on Wednesday to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, "The United States has enduring national interests in the Middle East: economic, geopolitical, security and moral values. For more than six decades, over the course of many administrations, American leaders of both parties have worked for peace and security in the region, not always perfectly, but consistently. The Middle East is now and will remain one of the most strategically important parts of the world for our national interest and for international security. Therefore, the United States will never retreat from our commitments in the Middle East." For more than six decades. But everyone wants to act like that problem just emerged and it will be addressed . . . now. (Yes, the remarks are nonsense from the first word, we're just emphasizing that one section.)
And maybe it will. Maybe if Turkey attacks or, if it doesn't, the press maintains the focus, it will be addressed. Otherwise the story will be allowed to fade the same way past promises by the administration have been allowed to just float away. Of course, the issue of Turkey and northern Iraq didn't even come up in today's State Department press briefing by Sean McCormack. No one in the press even asked.
Staying with the issue of the press but turning to a happier note, Ms. magazine is celebrating 35 years of publishing with the fall issue. "Then & Now" and "Voices Carry" are two selections they've made available online. We noted the first one at The Third Estate Sunday Review. We quoted (Yoko Ono) from the second one. In the print edition (which is on sale), Jeanne K.C. Clark's "Police Beat" covers how the Pittsburg police, under a federal consent decree, improved and then, when the consent decree was trashed, the number of women being hired quickly dropped and domestic violence became viewed as, to quote the deputy chief of officers, "People make mistakes." Caitlin Bevvino-Ring contributes "Freeing the Survivors" about women imprisoned for defending themselves against abuse. Next month NYC will be the location "for an intergenerational conference, Freedom On Our Terms." Along with a write up, it's also included on the calender and we'll note three events on the calender:
November 9-10
Western States Feminist Leadership Conference: "Standing With Our Sisters Here and Worldwide," Los Angeles, Calif.
Student feminist leaders from West Coase colleges gather to take action on sweatshop labor, human trafficking, the global gag rule and family planning.
Click here for more information.
November 10-11
"Freedom on our Terms: From Houston 1977-NY 2007," Hunter Collge, N.Y.
This conference celebrates the first national women's conference in 1977 and aims to "move history forward" by energizing and inspiring future feminist leaders. Rosie O'Donnell will give the keynote address, and participants will formulate five-year action agendas.
Click here for more information.
November 14
"Extraordinary Voices, Extraordinary Change," featuring Alice Walker. International Museum of Women, San Francisco.
Come listen to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and social activist, widely regarded as one of the most important feminist voices of the past half-century.
Click here for more information.
Sushma Joshi contributes "Uneasy Lies the Head . . . Nepal's child goddesses face changing times" about the quest for 'purity' and what happens when the pure turns into an adult? ("But the concept of 'purity,' embodied by a girl with ceremonial powers but no authority continues to rule Nepali women's lives.") I'm tired so I'll just note that Donna Brazile explodes a myth and shares how Ms. came into her life and the feminist sensibility she sees in "The Bra That Never Burned." (Looking at the time reminds I've got 3 and 1/2 hours sleep coming if I can wrap this up quickly.)
Back to Iraq. The abuse of imprisoning children in Iraq doesn't garner a great deal of attention. From the September 27th snapshot:
In prison news, Leila Fadel (Baghdad Observer, McClatchy Newspapers) reports on Tariq al Hashemi, Iraq's Sunni vice-president, visiting a prison for the young: "The camera panned through a narrow hallway where hundreds of young teen-age boys sat. Those Hashemi spoke to all had visible signs of abuse on their body. One showed acid burns on his back, another lifted his sleeves, and his shirt to show the purple and red bruising all over his body.
It aired on Sharqiya, an Iraqi station that has been banned from having an office in Iraq because it is anti-government. To the question, 'Why are you here?' They all answered 'I don't know'."
In the September 19th snapshot, this was noted:
As the numbers grow and families often have no idea that members have been imprisoned, Walter Pincuse (Washington Post) reports on a program entitled "religious entitlement" that the US military is using on the prisoners "some of whom are as young as 11" according Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone who brags that the programs will "bend them back to our will." The age should cause further alarm but the realities don't appear to even be sinking in.
It does get covered in spurts. A new report by IRIN, "IRAQ: Child prisoners abused and tortured, say activists," may allow it to finally garner the attention it deserves (but don't bet money on that):
Iraqi NGOs have raised concerns about the condition of children in local prisons, saying they are abused and tortured during interrogation.
"Children are being treated as adults in Iraqi prisons and our investigations have shown that they are being abused and tortured," said Khalid Rabia'a, a spokesman for the Prisoners' Association for Justice (PAJ).
"Our investigation started after families brought their five sons to our organisation looking for psychological help for their children who were recently released from prison, and what we found out was shocking," Rabia'a added. According to Rabia'a, child prisoners between 13 and 17 are being accused of supporting insurgents and militias. Most were detained during Iraqi army military operations in the Baghdad neighbourhoods of Adhamiya, Latifiya, Alawi, Doura and Hay al-Adel.
"The five children showed signs of torture all over their bodies. Three had marks of cigarettes burns over their legs and one couldn't speak as the shock sessions affected his conversation," Rabia'a said. "It is against international law that protects children and we call for interventions in all Iraqi prisons to save the lives of these children."
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
and the war drags on
donovan
aaron glantz
ms.
ms. magazine
mcclatchy newspapers
leila fadel
alice walker
The operation was well planned. The PKK guerrillas first cut the electricity and telephone lines to the Turkish army post and then isolated it by blowing up a bridge. The besieged soldiers could see the PKK taking up positions through their night-vision equipment and monitored their radio communications.
When the PKK did attack it overran the outpost, killing at least 16 Turkish soldiers, wounding 17 and capturing eight whom the PKK still holds. The PKK claims only three of its men were slightly wounded and later released pictures of the Turkish prisoners.
It was the most effective PKK action for years and the Turkish government's reaction to it has re-launched the PKK as a political player in the region. It is no longer an irrelevant relic of its failed bid to lead the 15 million Turkish Kurds to independence which collapsed after its military defeat in the 1990s and the capture of its leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.
Sunday's attack had an explosive impact on Turkey because the Turkish army and its civilian supporters are eager to persuade Turks that the moderate Islamist government is insufficiently patriotic. For his part, the Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan had been skilfully threatening to send the army across the border but not in fact doing so.
Talking to PKK leaders in their headquarters in the Qandil mountains it is not clear how far they are trying to tempt Turkey into a trap by provoking it into invading northern Iraq. A Turkish invasion would be much in the PKK's interests since the Turkish army would become embroiled with the powerful military forces of the Iraqi Kurds.
The above, noted by Gareth, is from Patrick Cockburn's "PKK tactics may drive Turkey into a reluctant invasion" (Independent of London). You have the delegation of Iraqi diplomats meeting with Turkish officials in Turkey, Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan set to meet with the Bully Boy in DC about the issue . . . next month. When The War Comes Home's Aaron Glantz report on the situation for Pacifica in April of 2004 is repeatdly mentioned, it's to underscore that this is not a new problem. The White House wants to play like it just popped up. It didn't. And they have consistently given promises throughout the illegal war that they were addressing it. They have never addressed it. Not when, in 2004, then US Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Meyers stated, "This is an issue the coalition forces inside Iraq take very seriously. Let me assure you that there is very close collaboration with Turkey and that they [the PKK] will be dealt with appropriately." Asso Ahmed and Yesim Borg (Los Angeles Times) report today that "Prime Minister Nouri Maliki promised on a visit to Turkey in November that he would shut down the PKK offices. However, they were never formally closed, and Maliki renewed the pledge this week, as Turkey threatened to send its military across the border to attack PKK sites in northern Iraq". That would be November 2006. Now al-Maliki's a puppet (of the US) and the Kurdish region of Iraq does what it wants. But the US administration has repeatedly given assurances that the issue was being addressed. That has not been the case. So to treat it, as some in the press are doing, as something that just popped up or something that the US couldn't have anticipated is wrong. It was anticipated. It was forseeable. Nothing was done about it. As if Iraqis and US service members (and other foreign fighters sent to Iraq by their countries) don't have enough to deal with already.
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 3830. Tonight? 3837. Just Foreign Policy's total for the number of Iraqis killed since the start of the illegal war stood at 1,087,731. Tonight? 1,093,978.
The dying's stopped. That's the big talking point in the end of the month wrap ups. The dying hasn't stopped. And if Turkey invades, it will increase. But that's the talking point. It'll be interesting to see if McClatchy publishes their count for civilian deaths in October. If you missed it, they didn't in September. AP is already saying their count shows a big drop. McClatchy and Reuters actually report violence in real time. AFP also keeps a count. And don't forget that Petraeus has another dog and pony show before Congress shortly.
It'll be interesting to see if any members of Congress ask what's been done on his part -- prior to the last few weeks -- to address the PKK situation. Nothing was done, by anyone. But Condi Rice did declare, in her opening remarks on Wednesday to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, "The United States has enduring national interests in the Middle East: economic, geopolitical, security and moral values. For more than six decades, over the course of many administrations, American leaders of both parties have worked for peace and security in the region, not always perfectly, but consistently. The Middle East is now and will remain one of the most strategically important parts of the world for our national interest and for international security. Therefore, the United States will never retreat from our commitments in the Middle East." For more than six decades. But everyone wants to act like that problem just emerged and it will be addressed . . . now. (Yes, the remarks are nonsense from the first word, we're just emphasizing that one section.)
And maybe it will. Maybe if Turkey attacks or, if it doesn't, the press maintains the focus, it will be addressed. Otherwise the story will be allowed to fade the same way past promises by the administration have been allowed to just float away. Of course, the issue of Turkey and northern Iraq didn't even come up in today's State Department press briefing by Sean McCormack. No one in the press even asked.
Staying with the issue of the press but turning to a happier note, Ms. magazine is celebrating 35 years of publishing with the fall issue. "Then & Now" and "Voices Carry" are two selections they've made available online. We noted the first one at The Third Estate Sunday Review. We quoted (Yoko Ono) from the second one. In the print edition (which is on sale), Jeanne K.C. Clark's "Police Beat" covers how the Pittsburg police, under a federal consent decree, improved and then, when the consent decree was trashed, the number of women being hired quickly dropped and domestic violence became viewed as, to quote the deputy chief of officers, "People make mistakes." Caitlin Bevvino-Ring contributes "Freeing the Survivors" about women imprisoned for defending themselves against abuse. Next month NYC will be the location "for an intergenerational conference, Freedom On Our Terms." Along with a write up, it's also included on the calender and we'll note three events on the calender:
November 9-10
Western States Feminist Leadership Conference: "Standing With Our Sisters Here and Worldwide," Los Angeles, Calif.
Student feminist leaders from West Coase colleges gather to take action on sweatshop labor, human trafficking, the global gag rule and family planning.
Click here for more information.
November 10-11
"Freedom on our Terms: From Houston 1977-NY 2007," Hunter Collge, N.Y.
This conference celebrates the first national women's conference in 1977 and aims to "move history forward" by energizing and inspiring future feminist leaders. Rosie O'Donnell will give the keynote address, and participants will formulate five-year action agendas.
Click here for more information.
November 14
"Extraordinary Voices, Extraordinary Change," featuring Alice Walker. International Museum of Women, San Francisco.
Come listen to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and social activist, widely regarded as one of the most important feminist voices of the past half-century.
Click here for more information.
Sushma Joshi contributes "Uneasy Lies the Head . . . Nepal's child goddesses face changing times" about the quest for 'purity' and what happens when the pure turns into an adult? ("But the concept of 'purity,' embodied by a girl with ceremonial powers but no authority continues to rule Nepali women's lives.") I'm tired so I'll just note that Donna Brazile explodes a myth and shares how Ms. came into her life and the feminist sensibility she sees in "The Bra That Never Burned." (Looking at the time reminds I've got 3 and 1/2 hours sleep coming if I can wrap this up quickly.)
Back to Iraq. The abuse of imprisoning children in Iraq doesn't garner a great deal of attention. From the September 27th snapshot:
In prison news, Leila Fadel (Baghdad Observer, McClatchy Newspapers) reports on Tariq al Hashemi, Iraq's Sunni vice-president, visiting a prison for the young: "The camera panned through a narrow hallway where hundreds of young teen-age boys sat. Those Hashemi spoke to all had visible signs of abuse on their body. One showed acid burns on his back, another lifted his sleeves, and his shirt to show the purple and red bruising all over his body.
It aired on Sharqiya, an Iraqi station that has been banned from having an office in Iraq because it is anti-government. To the question, 'Why are you here?' They all answered 'I don't know'."
In the September 19th snapshot, this was noted:
As the numbers grow and families often have no idea that members have been imprisoned, Walter Pincuse (Washington Post) reports on a program entitled "religious entitlement" that the US military is using on the prisoners "some of whom are as young as 11" according Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone who brags that the programs will "bend them back to our will." The age should cause further alarm but the realities don't appear to even be sinking in.
It does get covered in spurts. A new report by IRIN, "IRAQ: Child prisoners abused and tortured, say activists," may allow it to finally garner the attention it deserves (but don't bet money on that):
Iraqi NGOs have raised concerns about the condition of children in local prisons, saying they are abused and tortured during interrogation.
"Children are being treated as adults in Iraqi prisons and our investigations have shown that they are being abused and tortured," said Khalid Rabia'a, a spokesman for the Prisoners' Association for Justice (PAJ).
"Our investigation started after families brought their five sons to our organisation looking for psychological help for their children who were recently released from prison, and what we found out was shocking," Rabia'a added. According to Rabia'a, child prisoners between 13 and 17 are being accused of supporting insurgents and militias. Most were detained during Iraqi army military operations in the Baghdad neighbourhoods of Adhamiya, Latifiya, Alawi, Doura and Hay al-Adel.
"The five children showed signs of torture all over their bodies. Three had marks of cigarettes burns over their legs and one couldn't speak as the shock sessions affected his conversation," Rabia'a said. "It is against international law that protects children and we call for interventions in all Iraqi prisons to save the lives of these children."
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Iraq snapshot
October 25, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the price of oil per barrel skyrockets again, conflict continues between Turkey and northern Iraq, CODEPINK represents the people, and more.
Starting with war resistance. Ted Rall (Rall.com) offers his reflections on resistance during Vietnam and resistance today: "Soldiers who want antiwar Americans to march to demand that they be brought home should take a cue from Vietnam veterans. They marched with peace protesters and threw their medals at the Capitol. Soldiers serving on the front refused orders. Some fragged their officers. Vietnam Veterans Against the War claimed more than 50,000 members by 1971. That year saw numerous dramatic acts of dissent by U.S. troops, including 50 veterans who marched to the Pentagon and demanded that they be arrested as war criminals. Fifteen vets took over and barricaded the Statue of Liberty for two days. These acts swayed opinions and helped convince lawmakers it was time to withdraw. Some soldiers in Iraq have offered resistance. After being denied conscientious objector status, Petty Officer Third Class Pablo Paredes went AWOL in 2004. He was sentenced to two months in the brig and three months hard labor. Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada refused to be sent to Iraq in 2006, telling the media that the war's illegality would make him a party to war crimes. Army Specialist Darrell Anderson, faced with a second tour of duty after being wounded by a roadside bomb deserted and fled to Canada. 'I went to Iraq willingly,' said Anderson. 'I wanted to die for my country. I thought I was going to go there and protect my family back home. All I was doing was killing other families there.' The Army decided not to prosecute him. Several other deserters have applied for political asylum in Canada, but they're only a fraction of the thousands who went there during the 1960s and 1970s."
In the October 18th snapshot, we noted someone considered AWOL (and noted he "may or may not be a war resister"): "Robert Przybyski" -- the last name is missing an "l" (my fault) Przybylski. John Vandiver (Stars and Stripes) provides an update, "Capt. Robert Przbylski, the Baumholder-based officer who has been absent without leave since Oct. 10, remains missing but does not appear to be in any danger, authorities reported Wednesday. . . . Army officials remain tight-lipped about the circumstances involving the captain's disappearance."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Michael Espinal, 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."
Turning to the US where there is an opposition party in Congress: CODEPINK. The only voice of sanity in the halls of Congress attended the House Foreign Relations Committe hearing yesterday as Secretary of State and Anger Condi Rice prepared to deliver her usual non-performance as Congress delivered their own. The Let's All Pretend It's Still A Democracy road show was interrupted by CODEPINK's Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz who, with red pain on her hands, spoke the truth no one elected can or will, "You've got the blood of millions of Iraqis on your hands." (See As Cedric and Wally's joint-post yesterday.) "Stylish" Condi pretended not to notice. White House flack Dana Perino pronounced it "despicable. And unfortunately, it seems that increasingly Congress is being run by CODEPINK." Oh, if only. Instead War Hawk Tom Lantos had all of CODEPINK kicked out of the hearing and Congress returned to its usual ineffective posture. CODEPINK's Desiree Fairooz, Lis Hourican, Lori Purdue, Medea Benjamin and Zool Zulkowitz were arrested but "The Deputy Chief of Staff of the House Foreign Relations Committee contacted the Capitol Police later in the day to again relay that their is a policy of that committee to not arrest Citizen protesters but to instead escort them out of the room." The arrest of Benjamim effected a planned action today.
Staying with CODEPINK, Tuesday Karen Miller (Free Speech Radio News) reported, "The original purpose of the database was to share information about dangerous criminals, sex offenders, fugitives and members of terrorist organizations among different levels of law enforcement. It has since become apparent that peace activists have been added to the watch list. Medea Benjamin of the anti-war group, Code Pink, was recently refused entry into Canada when she was on her way to attend a peace rally. That's why Code Pink members decided to protest today in front of the Canadian embassy in Washington DC. Benjamin has been arrested a number of times for anti-war actions, but she says Canada's decision to bar entrance to some activists is troubling: 'One, the FBI should never be putting non-violent misdemeanor offenses on a criminal database. Second, Canada should not be using a US database to say who can come into a country.' At today's protest, Code Pink delivered over 20,000 petitions from US and Canadian citizens collected over the last 2 weeks urging Canada to change its policy." From the October 4th snapshot:
Yesterday, Wright and CODEPINK's Medea Benjamin attempted to enter Canada "crossing near Buffalo to attend a conference sponsored by a Canadian peace coalition in Toronto." As CODEPINK notes, "At the Buaffalo-Niagara Falls Bridge they were detained, questioned and denied entry. . . . The women were questioned at Canadian customs about their participation in anti-war efforts and informed that they had an FBI file indicating they had been arrested in acts of non-violent civil disobedience." Benjamin explains, "In my case, the border guard pulled up a file showing that I had been arrested at the US Mission to the UN where, on International Women's Day, a group of us had tried to deliver a peace petition signed by 152,000 women around the world. For this, the Canadians labeled me a criminal and refused to allow me in the country." Wright declares, "The FBI's placing of peace activists on an international criminal database is blatant political intimidation of US citizens opposed to Bush administration policies. The Canadian government should certainly not accept this FBI database as the criteria for entering the country."
AP reported yesterday that Ann Wright and Medea Benjamin "plan to fly to Ottowa on Thursday at the invitation of several members of Parliament." Due to the arrest, Medea Benjamin was not able to fly to Ottawa. Ann Wright did. The Canadian Press reports that Wright "is being detained at Ottawa airport" and that "while other passengers passed through Customs, Wright was held back." AP quotes CODEPINK's Dana Balicki stating, "She's being turned away from the border and she's being banned from Canada for the next year."
Turning to some of the reported violence in Iraq . . .
Bombings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports three Baghdad roadside bombings in the afternoon as US troops attempted to defuse them (no reported casualties or fatalities). Reuters notes a Khalis mortar attack that claimed the lives of 2 women and 2 children while a Mahaweel roadside bombing claimed 1 life.
Shootings?
Reuters notes Iraqi police shot dead a child in Kufa. An alleged terrorist, to be sure. Kim Gamel (AP) reports a Sunni school teacher Ahmed al-Janabi was kidnapped today and later discovered "with three gunshots to his eyes."
Corpses?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 5 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 8 corpses in Baquba and 1 was discovered in Mahaweel.
In a press conference yesterday Joint Chiefs of Staff Major and Director of Operational Planning General Richard Sherlock repeatedly stressed the hope of a diplomatic solution to the issue of the continued strain between Turkey and northern Iraq due to the "issue for several decades in that area in that area" and also stated that "there are a number of US forces staioned in the northwest portion of Iraq. As far as where specifically they're stationed or in what strengths, I don't want to go into -- at this point in time, again, this is a bilateral issue that we are working with both nations to try to produce what's an acceptable solution to both." Evren Mesci (Reuters) notes Turkis president Abdullah Gul has stated an attack by the PKK was "repelled . . . near the Iraqi border" today. CBS and AP note Gul declared patience was running thin and that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, declared "that U.S. objections would not stop Turkey from crossing into Iraq to eliminate Kurdish rebels."
Meanwhile the Turkish Daily News reports, "Turkish televsion channels and journalist organizations harshly criticized a broadcasting ban implemented late Tuesday by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) on stories about the recent attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). While the anchorman of popular national channel Kanal D, Mehmet Ali Birand, criticized the blackout during Tuesday evening news, SKYTurk reported only on interesting stories from daily life, with a banner on the bottom of the screen that read "Mandatory reports off the agenda." Vincent Boland (Financial Times of London) notes that Erdogan is set to meet with the Bully Boy in DC November 5th. AFP notes an Iraq delegation has arrived in Turkey "led by Defence Minister Abdel Qader Mohammed Jassim" and including "Iraq's intelligence chief and senior officials from the Iraqi interior and foreign ministries". BBC notes, "The Turkish army said on Thursday that it had killed more than 30 Kurdish rebels while fending off an attack on the Iraqi border two days earlier." Nico Hines (Times of London) quotes the Turkish prime minister declaring, "(The United States) may not want us to carry out a cross-border operation. But it is we who will decide whether to do one or not." Suna Erdem (Times of London) states the meet up between the Iraqi delegation with Turkish officials is being called the "final chance". Desperate to grab a few more minutes of almost-fame, John Howard attempts to insert himself into the conflict. The Herald Sun of Australia reports the bully boy down under has declared that "the tensions on the Turkey-Iraq border will not help the west's battle for democracy in Iraq." That 'battle' was lost long ago but Howard's days in office may be numbered and he needed to play lapdog one more time in public.
Puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki declared earlier this week that the PKK centers in northern Iraq would be closed. Bobby Caina Calvan and Yaseen Taha (McClatchy Newspapers) report that Jamal Abdullah, flack for the Kurdish government in northern Iraq, declared, "We believe that the statements of Mr. Maliki about closing the centers of the PKK don't apply to us because we do not have any centers. If Mr. Maliki knows about any centers of the PKK in areas under the control of the central government, let him close these centers and we will encourage and support him. But in areas under our control, there is not a single center." Asso Ahmed and Yesim Borg (Los Angeles Times) report, "Prime Minister Nouri Maliki promised on a visit to Turkey in November that he would shut down the PKK offices. However, they were never formally closed, and Maliki renewed the pledge this week, as Turkey threatened to send its military across the border to attack PKK sites in northern Iraq". Christine Spolar (Chicago Tribune) reports: "The PKK, known formally as the Kurdistan Workers' Party, is considered a terrorist group by the U.S., but the rebels have not been constricted since U.S. forces entered Iraq in March, 2003." Meanwhile, as did Deborah Haynes (Times of London) earlier this week, Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London) goes looking for the PKK camps, "For a guerrilla movement awaiting assault, the PKK's leaders are surprisingly easy to find. We drove east from Arbil for two-and-a-half hours and hired a four-wheel drive car in the village of Sangassar. Iraqi police wearing camouflage uniform were at work building a new outpost out of cement blocks beside the road leading into the mountains but only took our names. In fact the four-wheel drive was hardly necessary because there is a military road constructed by Saddam Hussein's army in the 1980s which zig-zags along the side of a steep valley until it reaches the first PKK checkpoint. The PKK soldiers with Kalashnikovs and two grenades pinned to the front of their uniform were relaxed and efficient. In case anybody should have any doubt about who was in control there was an enormous picture of the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan picked out in yellow, black, white and red painted stones on a hill half a mile away and visible over a wide area."
Economic factors are also at play. Joshua Partlow and Ellen Knickmeyer (Washington Post) note that "Turkey is a leading trade partner with northern Iraq . . . Turkish construction firms are reponsible for 90 percent of rebuilding projects in Iraq's Kurdish north, officials there estimate, and Turkish companies are taking part in many private projects as well in a post-invasion building boom in the north." Mark Bentley (Bloomberg News) explains that the Turkish National Security Council is calling for "'immediate' ecnomic sanctions against northern Iraq, including closing border crossings and halting exports of electricity." Earlier today, BBC noted that oil prices were again rising and headed towards $90 a barrel. Steve Hargreaves (CNNMoney) reports that they hit ninety dollars and kept going "breaking the previous record" to hit $90.60 a barrel.
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