Saturday, February 06, 2010

US citizen kidnapped in Baghdad

There are two possible scenarios when talking about the specter of a coup in Iraq in the aftermath of the U.S. occupation of the country.
The chaos, which some described as "creative", was in their eyes a means to put the house in order. They believed partial or total destruction leads to reconstruction.
This is what armed groups fighting under the umbrella of resistance might resort to do as part of a coup to change the status quo.
The other likelihood is a bid by an army general or armed factional groups to barge into the presidential palace as a final resort to gain power. Of course the possibility for this to happen is almost impossible so long as U.S. troops are in the country.
In the second instance there is no need for the plotters to bring radio and television under their control. Media are no longer pivotal for a coup. Every faction have their own media today.
Who will be storming the presidential palace? Certainly the armed forces. And if Iraqi political factions and their armed militias contemplate such a step, they will have to do it through their stooges in the army.

The above is from Fatih Abdulsalam's "Will there be a coup d'etat in Iraq?" (Azzaman) and for those who think the possibility is impossible, they should remember that England's current ambassador to Iraq testified to the Iraq Inquiry last month and raised the possibility of a military coup all on his own. (According to US Ambassador to Iraq Chris Hill, John Jenkins was misquoted -- he wasn't misquoted, he testified in public and his remarks can be viewed via online streaming or found in the transcript of his testimony at the Iraq Inquiry website -- and we covered Jenkins' testimony in the Jan. 8th snapshot and Hill's claims of misquoting in the Jan. 27th snapshot.)

No one knows what's coming but tensions are high with the non-stop bombings of this week as well as the attempts to ban candidates from elections currently scheduled for March 7th. James Cogan (WSWS) reports:

An Iraqi appeals court on Wednesday overturned a ruling that had banned hundreds of candidates from standing in the March 7 election on the grounds they had links with or held the views of Saddam Hussein’s now illegal Baath Party. The decision immediately heightened already sharp sectarian tensions, with competing factions of the Iraqi ruling elite vying for dominance in Washington’s puppet regime.
The candidate ban was imposed by the Justice and Accountability Board, an anti-Baathist judicial body headed by Ali Faysal al-Lami, a prominent Shiite fundamentalist. Lami is aligned with the major Shiite parties that dominate the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and is suspected by the US military of having close relations with the Iranian regime.
The Justice and Accountability Board’s decisions were blatantly political. In effect, Lami ruled that opposing the domination of parliament by Shiite religious parties was equivalent to promoting the return to power of the Baath Party, which, representing the interests of a Sunni ruling stratum, espoused an Arab nationalist and secular ideology. In total, he excluded 458 candidates from Sunni-based and secular coalitions. Among those banned were Saleh al-Mutlaq, one of the most prominent Sunni politicians, Abdul Kader al-Obeidi, the current defence minister, and a number of serving Sunni members of parliament.


Li Laifang (Xinhua) observes, "Tolerance is much needed on the road leading Iraq into a democratic and prosperous nation. Among the blocs competing the March election are many secular and cross-sectarian ones, reflecting a good step toward the reconciliation. To solve the impasse caused by the ban, law should be respected and tolerance is also needed. After all, the development of Iraq cannot do without a legally and fairly elected government, and the unity of the Iraqi people." Gabriel Gatehouse (BBC News) provides this context:

The dispute reflects both the sectarian fault-lines within Iraq and geopolitical tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Amid the multitude of different Arab parties and coalitions competing for seats in this election, it is possible to discern two more or less distinct political directions.
One draws its support broadly from Iraq's majority Shia population and is to a greater or lesser extent sympathetic to the government in Tehran.
The other relies largely on Sunni Arabs and secularists whose policies range from Iraqi and pan-Arab nationalism to open nostalgia for the relative stability of the Saddam-era.


Nada Bakri (New York Times) reports that some politicians (Sadrists, Speaker of Parliament Ayad al-Samarrai) are already campaigning despite the supposed postponement of campaigning. No word on whether the 'banned' candidates are campaigning.

Meanwhile Suadad al-Salhy, Ahmed Rasheed and Michael Christie (Reuters) report that the Shi'ite milita group League of Righteous (Asaib al-Haq) has kidnapped a US contractor. Ernesto Londono and Leila Fadel (Washington Post) report the man is Issa T. Salomi and that he was working for the US military who "has been missing since Jan. 23". BBC News posts video of Issa speaking while flanked by his kidnappers.

Let's talk truth and let's talk accountability because no one seems to want to. If Issa dies? That's blood on Barack's hands. The League of Righteous? Their leader and top lieutenants were in US custody, in US prisons in Iraq. Barack made the call to release them. Despite the fact that they had killed 5 American soldiers. Barack decided that since 5 British citizens were kidnapped by the League, the ring leader and his flunkies would be released. And how did that work out? Only one has been returned alive (Peter Moore), 3 corpses have been handed over and 1 remains status unknown (though the British government has considered him dead for months). American lives didn't matter to Barack. He's the World President, apparently, not the American one. Didn't feel his first duty was to protect the five fallen. Felt his first duty was to secure release for British hostages -- releases their own inept prime minister was unable to secure.

The only one who should be more worried than Barack right now is a so-called 'man of the cloth' whose work with 'insurgents' in Baghdad is well known by both the US and UK military and who took to claiming that the British hostage whose status is still unknown would be released in a matter of days . . . claiming that weeks ago. The attention getter isn't speaking to the press these days, is he? He's crawled back under his rock.

For those late to the party we'll drop back to the June 9th snapshot:

This morning the New York Times' Alissa J. Rubin and Michael Gordon offered "U.S. Frees Suspect in Killing of 5 G.I.'s." Martin Chulov (Guardian) covered the same story, Kim Gamel (AP) reported on it, BBC offered "Kidnap hope after Shia's handover" and Deborah Haynes contributed "Hope for British hostages in Iraq after release of Shia militant" (Times of London). The basics of the story are this. 5 British citizens have been hostages since May 29, 2007. The US military had in their custody Laith al-Khazali. He is a member of Asa'ib al-Haq. He is also accused of murdering five US troops. The US military released him and allegedly did so because his organization was not going to release any of the five British hostages until he was released. This is a big story and the US military is attempting to state this is just diplomacy, has nothing to do with the British hostages and, besides, they just released him to Iraq. Sami al-askari told the New York Times, "This is a very sensitive topic because you know the position that the Iraqi government, the U.S. and British governments, and all the governments do not accept the idea of exchanging hostages for prisoners. So we put it in another format, and we told them that if they want to participate in the political process they cannot do so while they are holding hostages. And we mentioned to the American side that they cannot join the political process and release their hostages while their leaders are behind bars or imprisoned." In other words, a prisoner was traded for hostages and they attempted to not only make the trade but to lie to people about it. At the US State Dept, the tired and bored reporters were unable to even broach the subject. Poor declawed tabbies. Pentagon reporters did press the issue and got the standard line from the department's spokesperson, Bryan Whitman, that the US handed the prisoner to Iraq, the US didn't hand him over to any organization -- terrorist or otherwise. What Iraq did, Whitman wanted the press to know, was what Iraq did. A complete lie that really insults the intelligence of the American people. CNN reminds the five US soldiers killed "were: Capt. Brian S. Freeman, 31, of Temecula, California; 1st Lt. Jacob N. Fritz, 25, of Verdon, Nebraska; Spc. Johnathan B. Chism, 22, of Gonzales, Louisiana; Pfc. Shawn P. Falter, 25, of Cortland, New York; and Pfc. Johnathon M. Millican, 20, of Trafford, Alabama." Those are the five from January 2007 that al-Khazali and his brother Qais al-Khazali are supposed to be responsible for the deaths of. Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Robert H. Reid (AP) states that Jonathan B. Chism's father Danny Chism is outraged over the release and has declared, "They freed them? The American military did? Somebody needs to answer for it."

Somebody needs to answer for it and that person is Barack Obama. A working press would have long demanded to know what took place and why. But you don't have a working press, you have a bunch of lap dogs yapping at White House press feedings.

We'll note this from Debra Sweet's "CBS, the National Prayer Breakfast - and the New Poster Boy for Theocracy?" (World Can't Wait):

Our lunch-time protest against CBS was very spirited – CBS freaked out and called the police on our relatively small gathering, but 6 of us managed to get in the doors and tried to deliver some of the messages that have been collected demanding the Super Bowl not feature Focus on the Family’s anti-abortion ad.
Shelby Knox was there: especially moving was her story about the 14 year old girl living in Lubbock, TX who ends up in a Crisis Pregnancy Center and is lied to, manipulated and told she just has to give birth. Sunsara Taylor was there too, her usual fiery self. Some NYU students as well as others came out; and a few people stopped on the street and joined on the spot.

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The inquiry into the illegal war

One such case concerns the breaches of the Geneva Conventions which were reported by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the 26th February 2004. The ICRC representatives presented a twenty-four page dossier on serial breaches of the Conventions by coalition forces in Iraq, to Ambassador Paul Bremer, and the UK representative in Iraq, Sir Jeremy Greenstock. Widespread abuse of prisoners held by the US and UK over the preceding year involved the breach of a number of the articles of the Geneva Conventions which were itemised in the dossier, which also spelt out the actions that coalition governments would need to take in order to come back into compliance.
It seems clear that the British government took no notice of this report. Sir Jeremy Greenstock told the BBC that his legal adviser made sure that the pages about British actions were sent straight back to the Ministry of Defence, although he claimed to be unaware of the allegations concerning the Americans. But wherever the allegations were sent, they did not penetrate to members of the Government.
Armed forces minister Adam Ingram told the House of Commons on the 4th May 2004:
"To date I have received no such reports, but some may be in the process of being compiled".

The above is from Ken Coates' "Ignoring the Red Cross" (Iraq Inquiry Digest) and those paying attention to the Iraq Inquiry in London realize there's a need for a push back with the truth after
Tony Blair's ridiculous testimony two Fridays ago. Clare Short's Tuesday testimony went a long way towards correcting the multitude of lies Blair told but more is needed. Ayo Obe's "SECTION 39: An act of aggression" (Next) tackles realities:

One of the problems for the British establishment with regard to the war in Iraq is its insistence that everybody honestly believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD), even if this was not in itself sufficient to make the invasion of Iraq legal.
But the truth is that everybody did not believe that Saddam had such weapons at all, let alone then United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair’s preposterous claim that these could be launched within forty-five minutes.
However many charts and maps the then United States Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Colin Powell, displayed to the United Nations in support of claims that Iraq had WMD, outside the charmed circles in Western countries, only those who really wanted to believe could have been truly convinced.
Before the invasion, years of sanctions and UN weapons inspection had not unearthed any WMD, while the failure of Saddam to use such weapons during the invasion was as eloquent as the failure of today’s puppet-masters in Abuja to produce a single photograph of our allegedly recovering President Umaru Yar’Adua. Saddam couldn’t use WMD because he didn’t have any, and our rulers can’t produce such pictures because they don’t have any either. QED! The governments of the invading forces and a few other countries might have deceived themselves into believing that there were WMD in Iraq, but most of the rest of the world entertained no such conviction, and watched the search for the elusive WMD after the invasion was completed, with derision. Declarations in Britain and the US that the fabled WMD would soon be discovered were received in much the same way as we in today’s Nigeria receive repeated assurances that President Umaru Yar’Adua “will soon return” after two and a half months’ absence: with an extremely large grain of salt.

Monday the Inquiry resumes public hearings with two witnesses -- one of which is Jack Straw who is being called to testify for the second time. Brian Brady and Jane Merrick (Independent of London) report:

A furious Jack Straw will attempt to "set the record straight" when he returns to the Chilcot inquiry tomorrow, days after his former legal advisers claimed the Justice Secretary had ignored warnings that the invasion of Iraq would be illegal.
Mr Straw has been recalled to the inquiry to further explain his actions, amid criticism of his conduct in the run-up to the war.
Mr Straw, who was foreign secretary in 2003, is believed to have been particularly upset by the evidence of his former chief legal adviser, Sir Michael Wood. The former civil servant told the Chilcot panel that Mr Straw had rejected his advice that invading Iraq without UN backing would break international law.

In other Iraq War crime news, AP reports that the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has found the lower courts were correct in convicting Sabrina Harman and Michael Smith in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal.

The following community sites updated since yesterday evening:



Lastly, Iraq Veterans Against the War notes:

FT. STEWART, GA - February 5 - The US military plans to extradite a stop-lossed Iraq war veteran to Iraq "within a few days" to face a court martial for allegedly threatening military officers in a protest rap song he made.
Spc. Marc Hall has been jailed in the Liberty County Jail near Fort Stewart, Ga., since Dec. 11 because he wrote a song called "Stop Loss" about the practice of involuntarily extending military members’ contracts.
"It is our belief that the Army would violate its own regulations by deploying Marc and it would certainly violate his right to due process by making it far more difficult to get witnesses. It appears the Army doesn't believe it can get a conviction in a fair and public trial. We will do whatever we can to insure he remain in the United States," said Hall’s civilian attorney, David Gespass.
Gespass claims the Army's attempts to deploy Hall violate Army Regulations 600-8-105 and the Army's conscientious objector regulations. Hall applied for a conscientious objector discharge Monday. The military’s move would also separate Hall from both his civilian legal team and military defender.
"The Army seeks to disappear Marc and the politically charged issues involved here, including: the unfair stop-loss policy, the boundary of free speech and art by soldiers, and the continuing Iraq occupation. The actual charges are overblown if not frivolous, so I'm not surprised the Army wants to avoid having a public trial," explained Jeff Paterson, executive director of Courage to Resist.
An Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) member, Hall served 14 months in Iraq. He was scheduled to end his military contract on Feb. 27 but received a stop loss order that he would have to stay on active-duty to re-deploy to Iraq with his unit.
"Marc served his tour of duty to Iraq honorably," said Brenda McElveen, Hall's mother. "To his dismay, he was told that he would be deployed again. When Marc voiced his concerns over this matter, his concerns fell on deaf ears. To let his frustration be known, Marc wrote and released the song. Marc is not now nor has he ever been violent."
Using stop loss orders, the US military has stopped about 185,000 soldiers from leaving the military since 2001. An additional 13,000 troops are now serving under stop-loss orders. President Obama said he thinks the practice should be stopped.
Hall, 34, was charged Dec. 17 with five specifications in violation of Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Conduct, including “wrongfully threatening acts of violence against members of his unit." His arrest came about a month after 13 people were killed in a shooting incident at Fort Hood, Texas. Hall, whose hiphop name is Marc Watercus, mailed a copy of his "Stop Loss" song to the Pentagon.
Based at Fort Stewart, Hall said the song was a "free expression of how people feel about the Army and its stop-loss policy" not a threat. "My first sergeant said he actually liked the song and that he did not take it as a threat," Hall added.
A South Carolina native, Hall wanted to leave the military to spend more time with his wife and child.
Hall's song: http://marcwatercus.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/stoploss.mp3
A copy of the US Army’s press release about transferring Hall to Iraq is available on request.

And Veterans Today adds:

The Obama administration should be more ashamed of itself than the Bush administration. Don’t care if you are Green Party, Constitutional Party, Tea Bag Party, Independent Party, Libertarian Party, what was once the Democratic party or Republican party, heck even Communist and Socialist parties – this is not about political ideology it is about JUSTICE.

Here is what YOU can do to stop this madness, and seriously support and protect our troops. JUST SAY NO to the Army. Follow the link below and JUST SAY BULLSHIT. Well not quite in those words, it is the Pentagon we are talking about here, we need to be polite or might end up in Gitmo.

Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Veterans Today News

Stop the Extradition of Marc Hall!This is time sensitive meaning YOU need to do this yesterday, PLEASE go to this link at Veterans for Peace (VFP) of course that is unless you are a hardcore warmonger, and just fill out the form letter to Army Public Affairs, expressing how outraged you are as an American citizen that any of our troops is being treated this way regardless what they’ve done.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/826/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2217




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Friday, February 05, 2010

Iraq snapshot

Friday, February 5, 2010. Chaos and violence continue, Iraq is slammed again with bombings resulting in mass fatalities, election chaos continues, was Tuesday all a Democratic photo op, and more.
 
Today, Iraq is again slammed with bombings resulting in mass fatalities. Fang Yang (Xinhua) reports, "Two car bombs went off at the same time on a bridge named Wadil- Salam which is located east of Karbala, 80 km south of Baghdad, an Iraqi interior ministry source told Xinhua. The two cars loaded with heavy explosives were parked at the two ends of the bridge respectively, said the source who refused to give his name." AFP states it was a mortar bomb. Chelsea J. Carter (AP) reports it was a suicide car bombing immediately followed by the mortar attack. CNN goes with two car bombings. The Washington Post's Ernesto Londono (at the Financial Times of London) explains, "Investigators were trying to determine whether there had been one or two explosions." Skipping the specifics of the bombing types, Al Jazeera notes, "Al Jazeera has learned that three Iraqi army vehicles were also destroyed in the attack."  This morning AP counted 27 dead thus far and at least sixty injured. Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) also counted 27 dead but 131 injured while noting that the numbers would likely rise throughout the day -- which they did.  Muhanad Mohammed, Sami al-Jumaili, Michael Christie and Jon Boyle (Reuters) report  the death toll has now reached "at least 40 people [dead] and wounded 145 others" according to "health officials". The US State Dept released the following statement from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:
 
 
The United States condemns the series of bombing attacks against Shi'a pilgrims in Iraq over the past week. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Attacking men, women and children engaged in religious pilgrimage is reprehensible and exposes the cynical immorality of the terrorists who seek to replace Iraq's hard-won progress with violence and intimidation. They will not succeed in breaking the will of the Iraqi people. Iraqis are committed to realizing the promise of their democracy. There is no better rebuke to those who traffic in terror.
 
BBC News (link has text and a clip of the aftermath of the bombings) offers, "The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Baghdad says that the stakes are high; a peaceful and credible election would allow the country to draw a line underneath the bloodshed and turbulence of recent years, he says. But, he adds, these recent bombings have raised fears of a return to sectarian violence, just as American forces prepare to withdraw." Jane Arraf (Christian Science Monitor) and Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) explain, "The bombings play to the worst fears of Iraqi and US officials that attacks could re-ignite the kind of sectarian violence that plunged this country into civil war three years ago. They sparked anger even among security officers." Anthony Shadid (New York Times) observes, "There was a sense of fatalism to the attacks, one of dozens this week on pilgrims that the Shiite-led government had girmly predicted but was powerless to stop.  The killings have underlined the very meaning of the pilgrimage: a religious ritual to commemorate Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Mohammed whose death in the battlefield in Karbala in A.D. 680 gave Shiite Muslims an ethos of suffering, martyrdom and resistance."  Sayed Mahdi al-Modaressi (The New Statesman) explains:
 
For Shias, Hussein is the ultimate moral exemplar: a man who refused to bow in the face of tyranny and despotism. Shias see his martyrdom as the greatest victory of good over evil, right over wrong, truth over falsehood. In the words of the Urdu poet Muhammad Iqbal: "Imam Hussein uprooted despotism for ever till the Day of Resurrection. He watered the dry garden of freedom with the surging wave of his blood, and indeed he awakened the sleeping Muslim nation . . . Hussein weltered in blood and dust for the sake of truth."
But why would all these people walk for hundreds of miles to remember a painful event that took place over 13 centuries ago? Visitors to the shrine of Hussein and his brother Abbas in Karbala are not driven by emotion alone. They cry because they make a conscious decision to be reminded of the atrocious nature of the loss and, in doing so, they reaffirm their pledge to everything that is virtuous and holy.          
The first thing that pilgrims do on facing his shrine is recite the Ziyara, a sacred text addressing Hussein with due respect for his status, position and lineage. In it, the Shia imams who followed him after the massacre in Karbala instruct their followers to begin the address by calling Hussein the "inheritor" and "heir" of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus.
There is something profound in making this proclamation. It shows that Hussein's message of truth and freedom is viewed as an inseparable extension of that list of divinely appointed prophets.                       
Pilgrims go to Karbala not to admire its physical beauty, or to shop, or to be entertained, or to visit ancient historical sites. They go there to cry. They go to mourn. They go to join the angels in their grief. They enter the sacred shrine weeping and lamenting.

Liz Sly and Caesar Ahmed (Los Angeles Times) provide this context, "Overall, there have been eight suicide bombings in Iraq the past 11 days, targeting hotels and government buildings as well as pilgrims, in a sign that the Sunni extremist insurgency appears to be regrouping in an attempt to destabilize the country ahead of the March 7 election." In other reported violence . . .
 
Bombings?
 
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports  a Baghdad roadise bombing which claimed the life of 1 pilgrim and left fifteen more injured.
 
Shootings?
 
Reuters notes 1 pilgrim was injured by a Baghdad sniper shooting and that 2 police officers were shot dead in Mosul.
 
Kidnappings?
 
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports  Interior Ministry employee Brig Gen Ali Ghalib was kidnapped last night in Baghdad.
 
Corpses?
 
Reuters notes 1 corpse was discovered in Mosul ("kidnapping victim riddled with bullets").
 
The war that never ends. Jake Armstrong (Pasadena Weekly) notes that Tuesday, February 2nd was the 2,405 day of the Iraq War and, using DoD figures, notes 4,378 deaths of US service members in Iraq since the start of the Iraq War. The elections and violence were discussed today on the second hour of The Diane Rehm Show (NPR -- which is archived and you can also podcast) when Diane spoke with Bryan Bender (Boston Globe), Youchi Dreazen (Wall St. Journal) and Elise Labott (CNN).
 
 
Diane Rehm: And now let's talk about Iraq and it's election commison which has delayed start of campaigning for Parliamentary elections.  How come, Elise?
 
Elise Labott: Well an Iraqi appeals court this week overturned an effort to bar hundreds of candidates from upcoming elections. Many of these were aligned with Saddam Hussein's former Ba'ath Party. Many of them were members of Parliament to begin with, in previous elections [post-invasion, previous elections] and they had already been vetted. But the ban, you know, really threatened to disenfranchise Sunnis once again and open up possible sectarian tensions that we've seen over the last few years. The court overturned this ban. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had said, you know, no, that's fine, it's a Constitutional -- it's unconstitutional to overturn the ban. And so now they've postponed the elections [she means the start of campaigning for the elections].
 
Diane Rehm: So what's that going to mean for the whole government, Youchi?
 
Youchi Dreazen: There's that wonderful line in [Francis Ford Coppola's] The Godfather III where Al Pacino says, "Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in."  And the US, we've thought that the war is over, that the violence has stopped, the sectarian tensions are gone, Maliki's a strong leader, we can focus on something else and pull our troops out. And what's been made clear over the last few weeks -- both politically as Elise talked about but much more horrifically in terms of suicide bombings, one of which destroyed our office -- the [Wall St.] Journal offices and, of course, much worse, many human lives at the Hamra hotel in Baghdad where I lived myself for close to two years.
 
Diane Rehm: Really.
 
Youchi Dreazen: The violence is back in force and what you're seeing is the kind of syncronized attacks throughout Baghdad that you saw in the worst days of '06, '07.  So this belief that we won was resting, basically, on two pillars.  One, violence was gone. Two, sectarian tensions are gone. What we're seeing now is that both are still back.
 
Bryan Bender: I think the seriousness with which these recent developments are viewed in Washington was evident by the fact that Vice President Joe Biden was sent to Iraq a couple of weeks ago in the wake of this decision to bar these candidates because there's some real concern that the longer the elections are delayed, the more this friction is there -- and the violence increase, that you could see things unravel there.  
 
On the elections, Leila Fadel and Aziz Alwan (Washington Post) report that the ruling -- which didn't clear the 500-plus candidates of charges, only stated the charges would be evaluated after the election -- is questioned by the electoral commission, will result in Little Nouri meeting with "the Presidency Council, the parliamentary speaker and the top judge on the supreme court" and, if needed, with Parliament Sunday. As Nada Bakri (New York Times) points out, already the conflicting back and forth means that election campaigning is now scheduled to start February 12th  and Bakri observes: "The latest escalation in the dispute over who is permitted to run in the elections has unsettled the political landscape. Iraqi law remains untested and perhaps bereft of mechanisms to reach a solution just a month before the vote."  Anne Barker (Australia's ABC) covers the issue here. Mu Xuequan (Xinhua) reports that the potential Parliament meeting on Sunday is "an extra-ordinary session" Little Nouri is calling and that, meanwhile, other avenues are being stopped such as yesterday when "the seven-judge appeals panel postponed the review of the demands submitted by some of the banned politicians to check their charges till after the March 7 elections, giving a green light to the banned politicians to run in the elections." Should Little Nouri succeed with the supreme court or the Saturday meeting of the Sunday meeting, the banned candidates will once again have to scramble in an attempt to run for office via appeals -- appeals which have currently been stopped. Pakistan's The News reports Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi stated in DC yesterday, "The decision taken by the appeal committee should be espected by all parties. Hopefully, it will be debated in the parliament but at the end of the day I think nobody (has) the right to block the decision taken by the committee."   Alsumaria TV breaks the news that Nouri's decrying the decision as foreign interference and "State of Law Coalition political committee held on Thursday an urgent meeting attended by head of Party Nuri Al Maliki. The meeting discussed the appeals panel decision and political pressure and interference in this regard."  The New York Times editorial board offers the suggestion that Iraq 'get on' with the March 7th election:


Right now, Mr. Maliki and the Parliament should get on with the campaign. Instead of trying to keep competitors off the ballot, Iraq's leaders should be debating their country's many serious problems and telling voters how they will fix them. For Iraq to be stable and to thrive -- and for American troops to safely go home -- the candidate list, and the next Iraqi government, must represent all of Iraq's people.
 
 
Following a request by the Iraqi Election Commission (IHEC), UNHCR stands ready to facilitate the participation of Iraqi refugees living in the countries neighbouring Iraq in the forthcoming elections. The 7 March elections are considered to be a major opportunity to consolidate national reconciliation.         
As of December 2009, UNHCR had on its records some 300,000 Iraqis who are believed to still be present in the region (including over 210,000 in Syria), of whom close to 190,000 are of voting age. Based on host government sources, the total number of Iraqis in the region is much higher, as hundreds of thousands of Iraqis do not register with UNHCR for a variety of reasons.                    
In close cooperation with the competent Iraqi authorities and the host governments, UNHCR's assistance will be limited to providing demographic data on the registered Iraqis, informing them of their rights to participate in the elections, and providing logistical support that may be needed for a smooth and orderly election process.          
 
 
Lachlan Carmichael (AFP): Just a quick reaction on the charges against the 10 Americans in Haiti. And also if I may add, is the United States studying the idea of withholding recognition of the Iraqi elections in March if the 500 Sunni candidates are excluded?  The reason I ask is Vice President Hashimi told a few of us State Department reporters last night that that was the case. He raised it with you and he heard that you're stdying it.
 
US Secreaty of State Hillary Clinton: Well, first, Lachlan, on the 10 American citizens detained and now charged in Haiti, we are providing consular services. We have full access to them. The American ambassador is speaking with his counterparts in the Haitian Government. Obviously, this is a matter for the Haitian judicial system. We're going to continue to provide support, as we do in every instance like this, to American citizens who have been charged, and hope that this matter can be resolved in an expeditious way. But it is something that a sovereign nation is pursuing, based on the evidence that it presented when charges were announced. With respect to Iraq, we were heartened by the decision earlier this week to reverse the deletion of the 500 names from the election lists for the upcoming election. We care very deeply that this election be free and fair and viewed by -- legitimate by all of the communities within Iraq and by the neighbors. This is an extraordinary opportunity for Iraqis to consolidate their democracy. We have not made any decision about reacting to events that might occur within the context of the elections, but we certainly were heartened by the court decision earlier.
 
In a follow up, Clinton refused to speculate on what the position would be if the 500-plus candidates were again banned and reiterated the support for the appeals court decision  allowing all the candidates to run.  James Hider (Times of London) offers this in terms of the mood and prospects:
 
 
The stand-off does not bode well for a country where the security gains of recent years are seen by a deeply traumatised population as fragile and reversible. The streets are filled with heavily armed security forces but suicide bombers manage to negotiate multiple checkpoints with ease.                
Many analysts are unsure as to who will emerge victorious from the elections, some touting the pro-Western former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, others believing that Mr al-Maliki may be able to pull together enough backing for a second term.
Waiting in the wings are the Shia Islamist blocs the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and the Sadrists, with the former hoping that they can clinch the prime minister's office.
 
 
Meanwhile Josh Rogin (Foreign Policy) speaks to the State Dept's Deputy Secretary Jack Lew who tells him the Dept will be increasing their role in Iraq and a FY2010 supplemental request for $2.1 billion has been made to raise the level of State Dept positions in that country to 664 by September 2010.  Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday (this is me, not Rogin) and the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates repeated that State Dept was beefing up their role in Iraq and, asked in the House why the Defense costs in Iraq have not come down, he stated that the hand-over with the State Dept as well as handing things over to Iraqis has resulted in the still large expenditures but that (for the Defense Dept) they would decrease in FY2011.
 
Yesterday's snapshot noted the US House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing.    Wally, filling in for Rebecca, noted Chair Bob Filner's joke to the Ranking Member ("A hearing, a joke, a non-starting election") and Trina provided an overview and critique of the hearing ("The budget, our dollars"). Kat ("Collen Murphy wants the truth about daughter's death") noted Staff Sgt Amy Seyboth Tirador died November 4th while serving in Iraq. Jessica M. Pasko (Troy Record) reports that Colleen Murphy believes "the military is covering up the real cause" of her daughter's death and that the military is in the midst of 'creating' and 'amplifying' minor issues in order to make the death appear a suicide. Collen Murphy stated, "No one that knew Amy would believe that she'd ever commit suicide. In my opinion, it was a set-up. It was premeditated, and it was the perfect set-up."
 
Also in the news this week has been Don't Ask, Don't Tell which garnered a great deal of media attention following Tuesday's Senate Armed Services hearing.  For coverage, see Tuesday's "Iraq snapshot," Trina's "Senate Armed Services Committee DADT," Wally's
"Armed Services Committee, Heroes," Kat's "Barack pretends to care about Don't Ask Don't Tell," Marica's "Not doing cartwheels right now," Betty's "Barack tries to trick big donors" and Marcia's "And they wonder why American voters are cyncial."  Yesterday,  James Hohmann (Politico) reported that US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is saying that actual voting on repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell probably won't take place until November 2010 at the earliest -- doing little to dispell the critique that the whole thing was a song and dance effort by Democrats to trick Big Donors who have decided to Just Say No while the policy is Don't Ask, Don't Tell into donating again -- just in time for the mid-term fundraising.  While Nancy and others may have time for fun and games, there are people's lives at stake here -- people who've put their lives on hold, people who dream of getting back into the military and people who fear being outed and kicked out of the military.  NPR's Ina Jaffee (Morning Edition, link has audio and text) tells the stories of veterans like Julianne Sohn who was a ramine until she was kicked out under the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy and she says, "Serving my country was a huge honor, and I was willing to sacrifice my personal life to go into the Marine Corps. [. . .] I was out to some of my close friends . . . these are lieutenants and captains . . . but a lot of them didn't care. All that really matters is getting the job done."
 
 
In London, the Iraq Inquiry resumes public hearings Monday when they are scheduled to hear from Gen John McColl followed by (in a return appearance) Jack Straw. Hearings concluded for the week on Wednesday but might as well have stopped on Tuesday after Clare Short's testimony to judge by the media's focus (that would be non-US media since US media has largely ignored the hearings).  Last Friday, Tony Blair testified and those not talking about just Clare Short were often also talking about Tony Blair. Peter Biles (BBC News) covers Short's Tuesday testimony today, "She swept into the QEII Centre on the arm of one of the officials, but the former international development secretary needed no help. She had come, not for her day in court exactly, but to place on record an outpouring of anger that has been festering for the past seven years."  Alan Cowell (New York Times) offers a column on Blair's testimony. Unlike Cowell, Dan Milmo (Guardian) notes today how Blair was heckled last week. Blair's inane testimony was called out by Short (called out and corrected by Short) and there's been other developments this week. As noted in Wednesday's snapshot: ". . . Elfyn Llwyd on Clare Short's assertion that Blair was frantic to support the US.  Tomas Livingstone (Wales News) reports MP Elfyn Llwyd has stated that the the 2002 Crawford ranch meeting  is where Blair and Bush agreed to go to war -- no hesistations, no  ifs, just to go to war.  He tells Livingstone that a memo exists noting this agreement and that he will gladly testify before the Inquiry eitehr in private or in person." Today BBC News reports:
 

The leader of Plaid Cymru's MPs has said he has a memo showing Tony Blair and George Bush struck a secret deal to invade Iraq a year before the 2003 war. 

Elfyn Llwyd told the BBC's Straight Talk he had written to Iraq Inquiry chair Sir John Chilcot to say he would be prepared to hand the document over.  
He said the memo, which is marked "Top Secret and Confidential" contradicted statements made by Mr Blair.  
 
TV notes. NOW on PBS begins airing Friday on most PBS stations (check local listings):

Has the Democratic Party abandoned support of reproductive rights? Next on NOW.        
To gain their historic control of Congress, Democrats fielded moderate candidates who didn't always follow the party line, especially when it came to abortion. Now that the Democratic Party has the legislative upper hand, are they willing to negotiate away reproductive rights for other political gains? On Friday, February 5 at 8:30 pm (check local listings), NOW goes to Allentown, Pennsylvania to ask: Are abortion rights now in jeopardy at the very hands of the party that has historically protected them? Among those interviewed are pro-life Democratic U.S. Representative Bart Stupak and former DNC Chairman Howard Dean.
"If there was a bill on the floor to reverse Roe vs Wade, and says 'life begins at conception,' I would vote for it." Congressman Stupak tells NOW.            
Jen Boulanger, director of the often-protested Allentown Women's Center, says, "I would expect more from the Democratic Party, to stick to their ideals, not just throw us to the curb." 
Has the Democratic Party traded principles for power? Next on NOW.  

Staying with TV notes, Washington Week begins airing on many PBS stations tonight (and throughout the weekend, check local listings) and joining Gwen are Jackie Calmes (New York Times), Michael Duffy (Time magazine), Martha Raddatz (ABC News) and Pete Williams (NBC News) . Meanwhile Bonnie Erbe will sit down with Andrea Pennington, Tara Setmayer and Patricia Sosa to discuss the week's events on PBS' To The Contrary. Check local listings, on many stations, it begins airing tonight. And turning to broadcast TV, Sunday CBS' 60 Minutes doesn't air this Sunday but returns February 14th.
 
 
 
 

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At least 27 dead as Iraq slammed with bombings

Today, Iraq is again slammed with bombings resulting in mass fatalities. Fang Yang (Xinhua) reports, "Two car bombs went off at the same time on a bridge named Wadil- Salam which is located east of Karbala, 80 km south of Baghdad, an Iraqi interior ministry source told Xinhua. The two cars loaded with heavy explosives were parked at the two ends of the bridge respectively, said the source who refused to give his name." AFP states it was a mortar bomb. Chelsea J. Carter (AP) reports it was a suicide car bombing immediately followed by the mortar attack. CNN goes with two car bombings. Skipping the specifics of the bombing types, Al Jazeera notes, "Al Jazeera has learned that three Iraqi army vehicles were also destroyed in the attack." AP counts 27 dead thus far and at least sixty injured. Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) also says 27 dead but 131 injured. Anthony Shadid (New York Times) offers:

There was a sense of fatalism to the attacks, one of dozens this week on pilgrims that the Shiite-led government had grimly predicted but was powerless to stop. The killings have underlined the very meaning of the pilgrimage: a religious ritual to commemorate Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Mohammed whose death in the battlefield in Karbala in A.D. 680 gave Shiite Muslims an ethos of suffering, martyrdom and resistance.

Liz Sly and Caesar Ahmed (Los Angeles Times) observe, "Overall, there have been eight suicide bombings in Iraq the past 11 days, targeting hotels and government buildings as well as pilgrims, in a sign that the Sunni extremist insurgency appears to be regrouping in an attempt to destabilize the country ahead of the March 7 election." Issa also reports a Baghdad roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 pilgrim and left fifteen more wounded and that Brig Gen Ali Ghalib was kidnapped last night.

Staff Sgt Amy Seyboth Tirador died November 4th while serving in Iraq. Last night, Kat wrote about Amy's mother, Colleen Murphy's pursuit of the truth of how her daughter died. Jessica M. Pasko (Troy Record) reports that Colleen Murphy believes "the military is covering up the real cause" of her daughter's death and that the military is in the midst of 'creating' and 'amplifying' minor issues in order to make the death appear a suicide. Collen Murphy stated, "No one that knew Amy would believe that she'd ever commit suicide. In my opinion, it was a set-up. It was premeditated, and it was the perfect set-up."

Last Friday the US military announced: "A United States Division-South Soldier died Jan. 28 of noncombat related injuries. The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense. The names of service members are announced through the U.S. Department of Defense official website [. . .] The announcements are made on the Web site no earlier than 24 hours after notification of the service member's primary next of kin. The incident is under investigation." Scott Barnett was the soldier who died. John Simerman (Contra Costa Times) reports "Barnett's body arrived by plane at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware over the weekend. Weather permitting, it will reach Buchanan Field in Concord on Friday. A memorial service is tentatively planned for 11 a.m. Monday at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church, 5562 Clayton Road, Concord, with a private burial to follow at Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon." And Simerman quotes Nikki Barnett, his wife, stating, "We loved each other so insanely much, we thought we were soul mates until the end of time. [. . .] There were days where he was really proud and days where he was really depressed. He had his ups and downs, but he was proud to be fighting for his country. We always told each other it was temporary. You'll be home soon. You'll be back." We'll note this release from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's office:


Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement regarding the death of Pfc. Scott G. Barnett of Concord:
"Maria and I were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Private First Class Scott Barnett. Scott was a brave soldier who dedicated his life to protecting his fellow citizens. He served our nation proudly and on behalf of all Californians, we honor his sacrifice. Our hearts are with Scott's family, friends and fellow soldiers during this difficult time."
Barnett, 24, died January 28 in Tallil, Iraq, of injuries sustained while supporting combat operations. Barnett was assigned to the 412th Aviation Support Battalion, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, U.S. Army, Katterbach, Germany.
In honor of Pfc. Barnett, Capitol flags will be flown at half-staff.

ABC's KGO-TV notes, "A viewing is scheduled Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Ouimet Brothers Concord Funeral Chapel at 4125 Clayton Road. A funeral will be held Monday at St. Bonaventure Church."

Mia notes Carl Herman's "Government Propagandists in Corporate Media" (Information Clearing House):

The US Senate Church Committee disclosed in 1975 that more than over 400 government propagandists had infiltrated American corporate media to manipulate public opinion on key policies, including war. CIA Director William Colby testified that Operation Mockingbird had been operational since the late 1940s to control what was reported through American television, newspapers, and magazines. President Ford fired Colby after his testimony and replaced him with George H. W. Bush. Bush Sr. ended the CIA’s testimony, stating that there were no other programs of concern to disclose and promised that the CIA would no longer influence the media (for Bush Sr.’s lies to initiate the first war with Iraq, click here).
We know in the present that government propagandists appeared over 4,500 times as “experts” in the PR run-up to the current war in Iraq, corporate media refuses to clearly communicate the essential news that ALL the claims for war were known to be false at the time they were told and US wars are “emperor has no clothes” obviously unlawful. The American public is recognizing the propaganda in corporate media by deserting them to embrace alternative sources.
Therefore, since we know that government-sponsored Operation Mockingbird propaganda is active today, and we know that people are abandoning corporate propaganda sources in favor of articles such as this one, put yourself in the shoes of Operation Mockingbird management and imagine your strategic responses to this type of article.
Well?
I imagine the first responses include paying propagandists to raid and pollute the comments sections with a full variety of their rhetorical fallacies. While I have no easy way to prove this is happening, I’d like to share with you a thread with one of the more sophisticated detractors from the factual topics of the article.
This is from my article: All 27 UK Foreign Affairs lawyers: Iraq war unlawful. Obama, politicians, US media: no response. Let's consider professional propagandist strategy. The article discloses stunning testimony that all the international law lawyers in the UK understood the Iraq war as unlawful.
To shill for continued war, propagandists would have to deflect this news by distraction or undermine the news' significance. One tactic is to obfuscate the meaning of the UN Charter law to prevent law; to essentially communicate that a law against war cannot actually stop a war because it's so vague to shift easily under interpretation. Another tactic is to argue that law has no meaning; that laws are not laws. Both Orwellian tactics are evident below. I invite you to see them for what they are: criminal complicity for unlawful war that has killed over a million, caused horrible suffering for multiples more, and done under our flag with trillions of our long-term tax dollars.



TV notes. NOW on PBS begins airing Friday on most PBS stations (check local listings):

Has the Democratic Party abandoned support of reproductive rights? Next on NOW.
To gain their historic control of Congress, Democrats fielded moderate candidates who didn't always follow the party line, especially when it came to abortion. Now that the Democratic Party has the legislative upper hand, are they willing to negotiate away reproductive rights for other political gains? On Friday, February 5 at 8:30 pm (check local listings), NOW goes to Allentown, Pennsylvania to ask: Are abortion rights now in jeopardy at the very hands of the party that has historically protected them? Among those interviewed are pro-life Democratic U.S. Representative Bart Stupak and former DNC Chairman Howard Dean.
"If there was a bill on the floor to reverse Roe vs Wade, and says 'life begins at conception,' I would vote for it." Congressman Stupak tells NOW.
Jen Boulanger, director of the often-protested Allentown Women's Center, says, "I would expect more from the Democratic Party, to stick to their ideals, not just throw us to the curb."
Has the Democratic Party traded principles for power? Next on NOW.

Staying with TV notes, Washington Week begins airing on many PBS stations tonight (and throughout the weekend, check local listings) and joining Gwen are Jackie Calmes (New York Times), Michael Duffy (Time magazine), Martha Raddatz (ABC News) and Pete Williams (NBC News) . Meanwhile Bonnie Erbe will sit down with Andrea Pennington, Tara Setmayer and Patricia Sosa to discuss the week's events on PBS' To The Contrary. Check local listings, on many stations, it begins airing tonight. And turning to broadcast TV, Sunday CBS' 60 Minutes doesn't air this Sunday but returns February 14th.

Radio notes, The Diane Rehm Show begins airing live at 10:00 a.m. EST on most NPR stations and streaming live online. For the first hour (domestic hour), Diane's guests include Chris Hayes (The Nation), Mattehw Continetti (The Weekly Standard) and Sheryl Gay Stolberg (New York Times). The second hour is the international news round up and Diane's panelists will be Bryan Bender (Boston Globe), Youchi Dreazen (Wall St. Journal) and Elise Labott (CNN). Remember that the show is archived online (you can listen for free) and you can also subscribe to the podcast.

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The election confusion continues in Iraq

Yesterday, the planned March 7th elections in Iraq became even more confusion and in doubt when the appeals court ruling that would allow the over 500 banned candidates was attacked by Nouri al-Maliki -- US installed thug of the occupation. In launching the attacks, Little Nouri not only threatened the scheduled elections, he also exposed non-reporters. Again, reporting what happens is reporting. Declaring that the future holds this or that? Not really reporting. How about reporters -- as opposed to columnists -- learn to stick to the facts and not try to 'see' the future?

Leila Fadel and Aziz Alwan (Washington Post) report that the ruling -- which didn't clear the 500-plus candidates of charges, only stated the charges would be evaluated after the election -- is questioned by the electoral commission, will result in Little Nouri meeting with "the Presidency Council, the parliamentary speaker and the top judge on the supreme court" and, if needed, with Parliament Sunday. As Nada Bakri (New York Times) points out, already the conflicting back and forth means that election campaigning is now scheduled to start February 12th (for March 7th elections, remember that)and Bakri observes:

The latest escalation in the dispute over who is permitted to run in the elections has unsettled the political landscape. Iraqi law remains untested and perhaps bereft of mechanisms to reach a solution just a month before the vote.
"I know what is happening today, but no one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow," said Omar al-Mashhadani, a spokesman for Parliament's speaker, Ayad al-Samarrai.

Anne Barker (Australia's ABC) covers the issue here. Mu Xuequan (Xinhua) reports that the potential Parliament meeting on Sunday is "an extra-ordinary session" Little Nouri is calling and that, meanwhile, other avenues are being stopped such as yesterday when "the seven-judge appeals panel postponed the review of the demands submitted by some of the banned politicians to check their charges till after the March 7 elections, giving a green light to the banned politicians to run in the elections." Should Little Nouri succeed with the supreme court or the Saturday meeting of the Sunday meeting, the banned candidates will once again have to scramble in an attempt to run for office via appeals -- appeals which have currently been stopped. Pakistan's The News reports Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi stated in DC yesterday, "The decision taken by the appeal committee should be espected by all parties. Hopefully, it will be debated in the parliament but at the end of the day I think nobody (has) the right to block the decision taken by the committee." The New York Times editorial board offers the suggestion that Iraq 'get on' with the March 7th election:


Right now, Mr. Maliki and the Parliament should get on with the campaign. Instead of trying to keep competitors off the ballot, Iraq's leaders should be debating their country's many serious problems and telling voters how they will fix them. For Iraq to be stable and to thrive -- and for American troops to safely go home -- the candidate list, and the next Iraqi government, must represent all of Iraq's people.

Alsumaria TV breaks the news that Nouri's decrying the decision as foreign interference and "State of Law Coalition political committee held on Thursday an urgent meeting attended by head of Party Nuri Al Maliki. The meeting discussed the appeals panel decision and political pressure and interference in this regard."

Turning to Australia where Paul Toohey (Herald Sun) reports on PTSD among Australian troops:

ANGUS Sim draws deep breaths. He warns, as he tells his story, that he is becoming worked up.
He looks like most modern young warriors, built strongly and emblazoned with heavy ink. He shifts between tears and rage.
For Sim, the quiet streets of Sunbury, in Melbourne's northern outskirts, may as well be filled with hidden home-made bombs, snipers and trucks being prepared for suicide bomb missions.
Sim, 24, returned from Iraq in June 2005 after serving with the Brisbane-based infantry battalion, 6RAR.

In the US, NPR's Ina Jaffee (Morning Edition, link has audio and text) tells the stories of veterans like Julianne Sohn who was a ramine until she was kicked out under the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy and she says, "Serving my country was a huge honor, and I was willing to sacrifice my personal life to go into the Marine Corps. [. . .] I was out to some of my close friends . . . these are lieutenants and captains . . . but a lot of them didn't care. All that really matters is getting the job done." WHile some are being kicked out of the military, other service members are being shipped to Iraq. Clint Confehr (Marshall County Tribune) reports:


More than 3,000 Tennessee National Guardsmen, including about 50 who left Lewisburg a few days after Christmas, are being deployed to Iraq today, according to Gov. Phil Bredesen.
They include: Marshall County Commissioner Larry McKnight's son, Sgt. Maj. Jared McKnight; their family friend, Sgt. Maj. Tracy McDow of Culleoka; and a Lewisburg father of three who's been celebrating a daughter's third birthday with his wife in a motel near Camp Shelby at Hattiesburg, Miss.
Those parents of three young children preferred to remain anonymous, but the soldier's wife is like many other relatives of guardsmen in the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment who were, according to a guard spokesman, permitted to see their loved ones march in a military parade today, perhaps the last time they'll see each other for nearly a year.


The following community sites updated last night:




Meanwhile Caro (MakeThemAccountable) says hands off Social Security. And Make Wars History notes:

Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, U.S.A. has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) in The Hague against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings. This term is really their euphemism for the enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture. This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitute Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the I.C.C.
The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless the Accused have ordered and been responsible for the commission of I.C.C. statutory crimes within the respective territories of many I.C.C. member states, including several in Europe. Consequently, the I.C.C. has jurisdiction to prosecute the Accused for their I.C.C.. statutory crimes under Rome Statute article 12(2)(a) that affords the I.C..C. jurisdiction to prosecute for I.C.C. statutory crimes committed in I.C.C. member states.
The Complaint requests (1) that the I.C..C. Prosecutor open an investigation of the Accused on his own accord under Rome Statute article 15(1); and (2) that the I.C.C. Prosecutor also formally “submit to the [I.C.C.] Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of an investigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute article 15(3).
For similar reasons, the Highest Level Officials of the Obama administration risk the filing of a follow-up Complaint with the I.C.C. if they do not immediately terminate the Accused's criminal policy and practice of "extraordinary rendition," which the Obama administration has continued to implement.
The Complaint concludes with a request that the I.C.C. Prosecutor obtain International Arrest Warrants for the Accused from the I.C.C. in accordance with Rome Statute articles 58(1)(a), 58(1)(b)(i), 58(1)(b)(ii), and 58(1)(b)(iii).


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