Sunday, October 28, 2012

Hejira

Saturday saw at least 40 dead in violence across Iraq.  Today?


Xinhua reports, "A car bomb was detonated in Baghdad's northern district of Kadimiya" leaving 13 people dead and another twenty-eight injured.  AFP adds, "Earlier in the day, two bombings in the town of Madain, just southeast of the capital, killed two people and wounded 10."  In addition, Alsumaria notes 2 police officers were killed and three more injured in Diyala Province, two people were injured in an Abu Vine mortar attack, and 2 people were killed and four left injured in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad. That's 19 people dead and 47 left injured.   Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) notes, "Baghdad's Shiite-dominated government has blamed the attacks on Sunni insurgents with ties to al Qaeda."




Today was the third day of the Eid observation.  Monday concludes the four-day religious holiday.  Yesterday,  Adam Schreck (AP) explained, "Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice, is a major Muslim holiday that commemorates what Muslims believe was the Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail, the Biblical Ishmael, as a test of his faith from God. Christians and Jews believe another of Abraham's sons, Isaac, was the one almost sacrificed.  The holiday, which began Friday, marks the end of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims worldwide typically slaughter lambs and other animals to commemorate the holiday, sharing some of the meat with the poor."


Last week, there was a time when it appeared that the death toll -- real, not talking about Iraqi government figures -- might be less than half of last month (September was the worst month in two years when it came to the death toll).  However, through yesterday, Iraq Body Count notes that 222 people have died in violence in Iraq.

While Nouri can't provide security, Press TV takes delight in pointing out that Barack can't provide democracy and offers up that the "USA has degenerated into a totalitarian state."  They're covering political prisoner Bradley Manning:
Imprisoning Manning for the better part of three years violates the statute requiring the military to arraign a soldier and bring him to trial within 120 days. Manning’s lawyer has called the delay -- during which his client has been tortured -- an “absolute mockery” of justice. 
 So how would one characterize a nation that starts a war with Iraq based on lies, refuses to prosecute its soldiers who kill civilians there, arrests the one courageous man who exposes such crimes, and then illegally delays bringing him to trial for years while torturing him in prison and then tries to black out the legal proceedings? 
 Yes, America, too, will go on trial whenever it attempts to make its case against Bradley Manning.




Monday April 5, 2010, WikiLeaks released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Monday June 7, 2010, the US military announced that they had arrested Bradley Manning and he stood accused of being the leaker of the video. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) reported in August 2010 that Manning had been charged -- "two charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The first encompasses four counts of violating Army regulations by transferring classified information to his personal computer between November and May and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system. The second comprises eight counts of violating federal laws governing the handling of classified information." In March, 2011, David S. Cloud (Los Angeles Times) reported that the military has added 22 additional counts to the charges including one that could be seen as "aiding the enemy" which could result in the death penalty if convicted. The Article 32 hearing took place in December.  At the start of this year, there was an Article 32 hearing and, February 3rd, it was announced that the government would be moving forward with a court-martial.  Bradley has yet to enter a plea and has neither affirmed that he is the leaker nor denied it.  The court-martial was supposed to begin this month has been postponed until after the election. Press TV notes it may not happen early next year and may get pushed back yet again.





I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

 The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.



New content at Third:



Isaiah's latest goes up after this.   The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.






Posted by at