Friday, April 17, 2009

US military announces another death

Today the US military announced: "AL ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq – A Multi National Force – West Marine died as the result of a non-combat related incident here April 16. The Marine’s name is being withheld pending next-of-kin notification and release by the Department of Defense. The incident is under investigation." This brings the number of US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war to 4274.

Turning to yesterday's attack in Anbar Province on the Tamouz Air Base, Liz Sly and
Usama Redha (Los Angeles Times) observe:


It is common in Iraq to receive contradictory information about casualties in the initial hours after an attack, though such a major discrepancy is unusual. A spokesman for U.S. Marines in Anbar declined to comment.
An Iraqi soldier who said he witnessed the attack said at least 16 of his comrades were killed and many more injured about noon in the packed cafeteria of the Taqaddum base near the town of Habbaniya, 40 miles west of Baghdad.
The soldier, who refused to be named, accused high-level officers of "trying to cover this up in order to avoid giving an image of underachievement."

"Confusion often clouds accounts of attacks here, but rarely have senior officials offered such divergent reports about a death toll," explains Steven Lee Myers in this morning's New York Times. But the key note by Myers is this one: "Journalists were prohibited from entering the base and the hospital, which Iraqi and American officers visited after the wounded arrived." That's what this is, an attack on a free press. A bombing took place. A death toll is known and should not be in dispute. The puppet government (and possibly the US as well) is worried about 'embarrassment' and that apparently trumps facts and the right-to-know. This is appalling and would be similar to the US hiding an attack (example, 9-11) and barring the press from the area and from hospitals. It is an attack on the press and it is an attack on the historical record.

Iraq's puppet government has been staging Operation Happy Talk events for some time. In "Taken for a ride in Baghdad...," Deborah Haynes (Times of London) blew the lid off the attempts to trick reporters into believing Baghdad had a commuter class taking the train:

Sceptical but playing along, I board one of the carriages with my interpreter and start asking the well turned out passengers about their journey.

Me to passenger 1: Hello there. I am a journalist from England, do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?
Passenger 1 (looking a bit flustered): Um, no.
Me: Why are you on this train?
Passenger 1: Because I want to go to Basra.
Me: But this is a commuter train to Dora.
Passenger 1 (turning red): Um, er, sorry yes, I meant Dora…

I move on to another group and try again.

Me to passenger 2: Why are you on this train?
Passenger 2: I catch this service every day. It is much cheaper than a taxi.
Me: But why are you travelling out of the centre to Dora?
Passenger 2: Er because I need to go home.
Me: Come on, admit it. You work for the station.
Passenger 2 (looking embarrassed): Yes.

Adding to the snazzy show, a food and drinks trolley is on display, while a video about the Transport Ministry plays from a brand new television set hanging off one of the walls.

Add the above to a large number of reports the Times of London can be proud of coming out of Iraq and, as noted before, when Haynes leaves Iraq, her skill and talent will be sorely missed.
TV notes. NOW on PBS begins airing Fridays on most PBS stations (check local listings) and this week:

Americans are addicted to coal--it powers half of all our electricity, and is both plentiful and cheap. In fact, some call America the "Saudi Arabia of Coal." But are we paying too high an environmental price for all this cheap energy?
With carbon emissions caps high on the Obama Administration's agenda, coal is in the crosshairs of the energy debate. This week, NOW Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa travels to Wyoming to take a hard look at the coal industry there and its case that it can produce "clean coal"--coal that can be burned without releasing carbon into the atmosphere. President Obama has been outspoken in his support for "clean coal" technology, but some say the whole concept is more of a public relations campaign than an energy solution.
As part of the report, Hinojosa talks with Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal and Jeff Goodell, the author of "Big Coal," who says that carbon dioxide emissions generated from coal contribute to global warming.
Our investigation is part of a PBS-wide series on the country's infrastructure called "Blueprint America."

Washington Week also begins airing tonight on most PBS stations and sitting down with Gwen this week are Tom Gjelten (NPR), Spencer Hsu (Washington Post), Eamon Javers (publication which shall not be named) and Martha Raddatz (ABC News). Also on PBS (and begins airing tonight, check local listings) Bonnie Erbe sits down with Eleanor Holmes Norton, Genevieve Wood, Linda Chavez and Melinda Henneberger to discuss this week's news on To The Contrary. And turning to broadcast TV, Sunday CBS' 60 Minutes offers:

401K Recession
Never created to be a mainstay of workers' retirement funds, 401ks became just that to millions of Americans who are now facing uncertain futures because of the devastating losses in the stock market. Steve Kroft reports.
Cold Fusion Is Hot Again
Presented in 1989 as a revolutionary new source of energy, cold fusion was quickly dismissed as junk science. But today, the buzz among scientists is that these experiments produce a real physical effect that could lead to monumental breakthroughs in energy production. Scott Pelley reports. | Watch Video
Blood Brothers
Matador Cayetano Ordonez nearly dies during this segment when he’s battered by a bull in a Bob Simon report about him and his brother Francisco – Spain's remarkable bullfighting family – who these days are creating just as much drama outside the ring as in it. | Watch Video
60 Minutes, Sunday, April 19, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

One of those topics will also be touched on at Third so we'll try to provide a heads up to 60 Minutes there as well.


And because an NPR friend pointed out this morning that "after you two ripped Diane [Rehm] apart" ("you two" is Ava and I, click here) "she is making an effort." Meaning, mark the calendars, Diane Rehm's six guests on Friday will actually include three women. Usually it's zero. Sometimes it's one. This week Diane allows women to account for half the guests. Anytime I'm notified of that by NPR friends, we will note it here. On her news roundup today, Diane's panel for the first hour will be Tony Blankey (Heritage Foundation), Eleanor Clift (Newsweek), Margaret Talev (McClatchy Newspapers). Diane's panel for the second hour will be Kevin Whitelaw (US News & World Report), Barbara Slavin (Washington Times) and Warren Strobel (McClatchy Newspapers). The Diane Rehm Show begins airing today at 10:00 am EST. In addition to listening to it on NPR stations, you can listen live at The Diane Rehm Show and, shortly after the second hour is broadcast (live, they take calls, e-mails and you can Twitter them), the program is archived and you can stream it at any point after that.

The same NPR friend asks that we note this:

Live Friday: Tre Williams' Revelations In Concert

Listen Online At Noon ET

Tre Williams of The Revelations 300
courtesy of the artist

Tre Williams of The Revelations.

WXPN, April 16, 2009 -- The work of a six-man collective fusing hip-hop, funk and gritty soul, The Revelations' seven-song Deep Soul EP blends the sounds of the bluesy rural South and gritty urban streets. Led by Tre Williams, the group crafts a sound that's timeless and undeniably energetic. Return to this space at noon ET Friday to hear The Revelations perform live in concert from WXPN and World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.

Styled after a modern-day Otis Redding, Williams has used his church-choir and R&B background -- not to mention his four-octave range -- in high-profile contributions to records by the likes of Petey Pablo and Nas. His band's other five members are similarly experienced, with ties to names such as Mary J. Blige, Kanye West and Raphael Saadiq.

Related NPR Stories

Click here for The Reveleations featuring Tre Williams' MySpace page. This should be a very interesting live broadcast (that's noon EST) and I waiver between "Sorry's Not Enough" and "Stay Free" as my favorite track on their debut. Listen to the broadcast to pick your own favorite performance.

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


the los angeles times
caesar ahmed
liz sly

the new york times
steven lee myers
deborah haynes





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Iraq's LGBT community remains targeted, US State Dept has no clue

This morning AFP is reporting that signs are going up around the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad threatening to kill a list of people alleged to be gay. The posters are put out by the Brigades of the Righteous and AFP translates the posters as stating, "We will punish you, perverts" and "We will get you, puppies" has been scrawled on some posters -- "puppies" being slang for gay males in Iraq. The Australian carries the AFP report here. These posters are going up around Sadr City. Where is the United Nations condemnation? Where is the White House, where is the US State Dept?

US Rep Polis

Chris Johnson's "Polis seeks to aid Iraqis: Says gays 'fear for their life and limb' after fact-finding trip to Baghdad" (Washington Blade) notes the only member of the US Congress to condemn the targeting of Iraq's LGBT community, US House Rep Jared Polis (photo above):

Polis, who is gay, told the Blade that he urged action from the U.S. after looking into “a round of crackdowns on the gay population in Baghdad” during a congressional fact-finding trip to the country last week.
During his investigation, Polis said he learned that Iraqi officials in the Ministry of Interior were allegedly involved in human rights violations against LGBT people. He sent a letter to Patricia Butenis, the acting U.S. ambassador to Iraq, requesting “that the State Department follow-up on these allegations and urge the Iraqi government to respect all human rights.”
[. . .]
Noel Clay, a State Department spokesperson, said U.S. officials “condemn the persecution of LGBTs in Iraq,” but he couldn’t confirm whether the violence they’re facing in Iraq is because of their sexual orientation.
Clay noted that while homosexuality is against the law in Iraq, the death penalty is not the punishment for homosexual acts.

First, note that the US State Dept should know Iraqi law. AFP -- like most press outlets -- has been unable to determine whether or not it is illegal to be gay in Iraq. The US State Dept is stating it is which apparently confirms rumors that in 2003 (under US control), Iraq outlawed same-sex relationships.

Second, Noel Clay and the State Dept can issue a statement, they issue statements all the time. They can have remarks made at the daily State Dept press briefings. When they want to do that, they may be seen as "condemning" the attacks, until then it would appear they just want favorable copy from the gay press. (The Washington Blade is considered to be one of the top two gay papers in the US.)

The US State Dept has been far less concerned at other times as Doug Ireland reported at GayCityNews:

Polis is also trying to ascertain the status of the five imprisoned Iraqi LGBT members, but a statement given by a State Department spokesman to Edge.boston.com, a gay news website, raises concerns that the US may not yet be taking the charges seriously, despite the congressman's recent visit. The site quoted John Fleming, public affairs officer for the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, as pooh-poohing the notion that the five gay men facing execution were being targeted for belonging to Iraqi LGBT, saying that homosexuality "is immaterial to Iraqis." Fleming, according to Edge, stated, "Frankly, there are other issues they are concerned about like basic survival, getting food and water. It's a luxury for the average Iraqi to worry about homosexuality." This statement by Fleming, who served a year in Iraq under the Bush administration, is, of course, contradicted by the recent media reports this month by such diverse sources as the Times, Reuters, CNN, and the British dailies The Independent and The Guardian, confirming Gay City News' three years of reporting.
This State Department staffer's statement suggests rather strongly the urgent need to keep up the pressure on the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to thoroughly investigate the dangers facing gay Iraqis and act decisively to save those threatened with death.

The Edge article Ireland's referring to is Kilian Melloy's "State Dept.: Reports of Iraqi Gay Executions Completely Bogus" which ran April 2nd and included this:

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department who works at the Iraqi Desk and spent a year in the war-torn country told EDGE that the story has no merit. "Homosexuality is not a crime in Iraq," said John Fleming, the public affairs officer for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
"The individuals condemned to death in Iraq have been convicted of violent crimes, including murder, terrorism, insurgency and kidnapping."
There have been no executions of criminals since 2007, added Fleming, who also noted that any criminals now awaiting possible execution are there for crimes such as "terrorism, insurgency and kidnapping." Their sexual identity is irrelevant to the charges, he said.
"None were convicted of the ’crime’ of being homosexual," Fleming told EDGE. "In fact, it’s immaterial to Iraqis.
"Frankly, there are other issues they’re concerned about like basic survival, getting food and water. It’s a luxury for the average Iraqi to worry about homosexuality."

So now the US State Dept allegedly 'condemns' the targeting but less than two weeks ago they were denying that targeting was taking place and that it was a crime in Iraq to be gay. So which is it? And it damn well sounds like the US State Dept needs to get its act together and the US press needs to start asking these questions in the State Dept briefings and getting some answers.

In other news, Ernesto London's "Kurds, Arabs Maneuver Ahead of U.N. Report on N. Iraq" (Washington Post) reports:

Kurdish and Arab politicians in northern Iraq are preparing for a potentially long and bruising fight over disputed areas as they await the release of U.N. reports expected to propose joint administration of Kirkuk and make a case for the annexation of some districts to the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Kirkuk is the oil rich disputed area that the KRG states is historically Kurdish and that the central government in Baghdad insists is not. The issue was supposed to have been put to a referendum . . . in 2007. Two years later and still nothing. The United Nations is making a proposal. The proposal is not law or binding and can be rejected by either or both sides.

Londono explains:


The tension over Kirkuk and other disputed areas, which some Iraqi and U.S. officials believe could escalate into armed conflict, prompted the U.S. military in January to increase its troop level in Kirkuk from a battalion, roughly 900 troops, to a combat brigade of about 3,200 soldiers.
"The threat of civil war remains real, and this threat should not be minimized," said W. Andrew Terrill, a national security professor at the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute. "Kirkuk is often compared to Jerusalem, where different groups have exceptionally strong emotional attachments and the claims of rival groups are rarely seen as valid."

In the US, Women's Voices, Women's Votes president Page S. Gardner notes:

I write today to proudly announce the release of WVWV's 2009 report entitled "Access to Democracy: Identifying Obstacles Hindering the Right to Vote." WVWV is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that utilizes groundbreaking direct mail techniques to encourage underrepresented populations in the American electorate, particularly unmarried women, to register and to vote. By pioneering these techniques, WVWV generated more than 900,000 returned mail-in registration applications in the 2008 election cycle and sent approximately one million vote-by-mail applications to unmarried women.

Due in part to "Get Out the Vote" efforts of groups such as WVWV, 133 million Americans cast ballots in the 2008 general election, which represents the largest number of voters to ever participate in a U.S. election. This result is certainly a great accomplishment; however, WVWV strongly believes that it is time for significant reform to ensure that the remaining 79 million Americans who were eligible, but did not cast their votes, are encouraged and able to do so in future elections.

With this aim in mind, WVWV adds its voice to the growing call for election reform with the release of its Access to Democracy report, available online at www.wvwv.org . WVWV has drawn on the substantial research efforts of leading reform groups, but takes a new look at the challenges facing voters, registration groups, and state and local officials by highlighting the disproportionate effect of existing laws on under-represented populations. While young voters, African Americans, Latinos, and unmarried women are now the majority of the population, exit polls from the 2008 general election show that in the aggregate, these groups represented only 46 percent of the 2008 electorate. WVWV strongly believes that a key cause of such underrepresentation can be found in the confusing maze of election laws facing individuals, groups, and state officials in this country. WVWV's report focuses on five key areas where these laws pose the most significant obstacles and reform could yield the greatest positive results: (1) voter registration; (2) absentee voting and early voting; (3) voter identification requirements; (4) provisional ballots; and (5) voter lists.

Through our Access to Democracy report , WVWV identifies the legal roadblocks affecting access to the polls with the aim of advancing reform efforts and ultimately increasing voter participation. WVWV hopes to work with you in furthering this shared goal. If you have any questions, please let me know.


The following community sites updated last night:


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





doug ireland





thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends
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Thursday, April 16, 2009

I Hate The War

The following is an excerpt from Stephen Dohnberg's interview with Matthis Chiroux, "Matthis Chiroux Interviewed: Rise up, People!" (Digital Journal via World Can't Wait):

SD: Your initial court date was changed - why?

Chiroux: My former JAG attorney volunteered for Iraq service and was deployed a number of weeks ago. Thus, I had to get a new lawyer and a new court date. I think the Army may have been hoping I'd already bought tickets for people to be in attendance and it would have wiped out my finances. Lucky for me, I'm a last minute kinda guy. My replacement is a JAG attorney. Thomas M. Roughneen

SD: It's not on a military base - is there a meaning to that?

Chiroux: No. No meaning, I don't think. This is the home of the U.S. Army's Individual Ready Reserve, though, so any other Army IRRers who refuse to deploy and demand hearings will have them in the same place. We're going to try to demonstrate to the military how foolish prosecuting folks and bringing activists to their doorstep over and over again would be.

SD: What is the official charge you face?

Chiroux: "Misconduct." They're trying to throw me out of the Army for it. I'm happy to be discharged from the Army, but will not submit to my refusal to deploy being characterized as misconduct.

SD: Are you confident about your prospects?

Chiroux: I'm pretty confident I won't go to jail, as they'd have to upgrade this hearing from administrative to judicial, but I highly doubt the military will tell me I'm right and send me home to celebrate. That's why GI Resistance is so important to ending U.S. Imperialism. The forces that be refuse to do what's right, so we need to make them do right by leaving them no other choice.

SD: What kind of punishment do you face ? What is the maximum and minimum?

Chiroux: Well, this isn't a court-martial, so the worst thing I face right now is something other than an honorable discharge. That could change though if the Army get's a bug up their ass and decides to Court Martial me.

More information is in "Resistance to an Abhorrent Occupation: Press Release of Matthis Chiroux" (World Can't Wait):

(ST. LOUIS, MO) The U.S. Army will hear the case of Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, an Individual Ready Reservist who last summer publicly refused activation and deployment orders to Iraq, on April 21 at 1 Reserve Way in Overland, St. Louis, MO, at 9 a.m.
Chiroux, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, refused to participate in what he described as "an illegal and immoral occupation" May 15th, 2008, in Washington D.C., after nine other veterans testified to Members of the U.S. Congress about atrocities they experienced during deployments to Iraq. Chiroux also vowed to remain public in the U.S. to defend himself from any charges brought against him by the military. (see matthisresists.us for a record of that speech and others by Chiroux)
"My resistance as a noncommissioned officer to this abhorrent occupation is just as legitimate now as it was last year," said Chiroux, adding, "Soldiers have a duty to adhere to the international laws of war described as supreme in Art. 6 Para. 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which we swear to abide by before the orders of any superior, including our former or current president."
Following Chiroux's refusal to deploy, the military did not contact him until after he and 10 other IVAW members marched on the final presidential debate Oct. 15, 2008, in Hempstead, N.Y. demanding to question then Senators Obama and McCain regarding their war policies and plans to care for returning veterans. After the veterans were brutalized and arrested by police, (one suffered a fractured skull and is currently suing the police for damages) the Army charged Chiroux with "misconduct" for refusing to deploy, announcing their intentions to discharge him from the reserves as a result.
"I go now to St. Louis to honor my promises and convictions," said Chiroux. "Obama or No-Bama, the military must cease prosecuting Soldiers of conscience, and we will demonstrate to them why."
Following the hearing, Chiroux and other IVAW members will testify about their military experiences which led them all to resist in different capacities the U.S.'s Overseas Contingency Operation (formerly the Global War on Terror).
For more information, see matthisresists.us and ivaw.org.

That'll be next week. In England, two call out the Guardian of Manchester's 'reporting:


President, National Gulf War Veterans and Families Association, and chief scientific adviser to UK Gulf war veterans
Iraq did not lose an opportunity to capitalise on high oil prices in 2008 as your reporters claim (Basra's failed oil bonanza, 16 April). Except for the contentious initialisation of a Shell gas deal, the people have so far marshalled enough opposition to ward off multinational oil vultures' attempts to stake out 25-year rights to Iraq's resources on the back of shock and awe.
Your reporters derive some of their wisdom from one Andy Bearpark, who was private secretary to Thatcher, then "diplomat" in charge of the "reconstruction" of Iraq in 2003, and now director general of the British Association of Private Security Companies.
The convergence of gunboat diplomacy, neoliberal debris, mercenaries acting under the mantra of "security companies", and voracious resource-hungry multinationals is the last blend to benefit Iraq.
Iraq's reconstruction will get under way in earnest when the mercenaries and the American troops follow the British out.
Kamil Mahdi Sami Ramadani
Exeter


The letter is paired with garbage. Malcolm Hooper wants to piggy back his pet cause onto the current war. That's really disgusting. In England, an inquiry of some sort has been promised by Gordon Brown's government into the Iraq War and it will not begin prior to the end of July (and Brown and company will probably attempt to delay it even after British troops leave Iraq -- all but approximately 400 are set to leave by the end of July). Hooper wants to hop onto that inquiry and make it all about his pet cause, the first Gulf War. Grow the hell up, you pathetic piece of trash. The inquiry is into the lies that led up to the illegal war. You want to deal with the injuries and other issues from the first Gulf War, you do that, but not at the expense of the current and ongoing illegal war. It really is disgusting when people attempt to utilize an ongoing, illegal war to advance their own pet causes.

In the US we saw the Democratic Party and their mouthpieces (John Nichols, Katrina vanden Heuvel, et al) push Iraq War as if it mattered but really just trying to create a rage that would allow the Democratic Party to notch up some election wins. The Iraq War is an illegal war, it's past time people stopped treating it as a boat for them to cross the river with, dragging their cause a long the way.


It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)

Last Thursday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4266. Tonight? 4273.



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