Awakening leaders have been squeezed from all sides in recent months, with Iraqi authorities carrying out a series of arrests against them and Al Qaeda in Iraq continuing to target them with bombs. Late last month, Jibouri escaped a suicide attack at a mosque in the town where he was also an imam. The bomber, who detonated an explosives vest, killed five people and wounded 18, including one of Jibouri's now-detained brothers.
In an interview with The Times the day after the explosion, Jibouri blamed the attack on the insurgents he had abandoned when he agreed to join the Awakening, called the Sons of Iraq by the U.S. military.
"There are people who I used to be fighting with who are seeking to settle scores with me," he said. "I left them and now I am fighting them, so it's obvious that they will target me."
The above is from Hameed Rasheed and Liz Sly's "Iraq police arrest high-ranking member of U.S.-allied movement" (Los Angeles Times) about the arrest of Mullah Nadim Jibouri, a Sahwa leader, and the arrest of his two brothers. The three were apparently arrested on an outstanding warrant that was two to three years old. On her own, Sly offers "In Iraq's Anbar province, the Awakening grapples with a new role" which is a glossed over look at mobster
Ahmed abu Risha [apparently applying lip gloss in the photo Khalid Mohammed (AP) which accompanies the article]. Sheiky Risha's all thrilled to have bullied and blackmailed his way into power of Anbar Province. Or maybe he's just happy that that YoYo Glitter Lip Gloss for Girls is available in Anbar?
Saturday the US military announced: "CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, TIKRIT, Iraq -- Two Multi-National Division -- North Soldiers were killed and three wounded during a small arms fire attack at a combat outpost south of Mosul early this evening. According to initial reports, an individual dressed in an Iraqi Army uniform fired on the Coalition forces and was killed in the incident. The incident is currently under investigation. The names of the deceased and wounded are being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense." The Dept of Defense has not released the names yet but one family has spoken to the press and identified one of the two killed. (Click here for DoD releases.) In "Soldier from Inverness killed in Iraq" (Contra Costa Times), Brent Ainsworth notes this of Jake Velloza:
Jake Velloza was a football and baseball standout at Tomales High, where Leon Feliciano served as his football coach. Feliciano remembers Velloza playing wingback, defensive back, kick returner and kicker on a team that won the 2002 North Coast Section Class B championship with an 8-4 record.
"I think he knew from the first day he got into high school that he was going into the military," Feliciano said. "We talked about college, but he said, 'No, Coach, I want to be a Ranger doing special ops.' He was set on his goals. He was one of those young men who knew what he wanted to do and did it. Service to his country is what appealed to him."
Jake Velloza worked briefly reading meters for the North Marin Water District in Novato - for which his grandfather worked for 21 years - before he joined the Army in 2006, Richard Velloza said. He completed his first overseas tour, mostly in Baghdad, and then spent about six months training in Texas. Earlier this year, then re-upped for a second tour after a short break at home in Marin.
Caleb Davis, a neighbor who served three tours in the Army and finished his commitment in February, attended Tomales High with Jake Velloza and they often talked as teens about serving their country.
"Everybody found out within a few hours," Davis said of the Inverness response. "People found out almost immediately because the community is so small. Obviously it's shocking. Everybody wants to believe nothing like this would ever happen, but that's just not reality."
Friday the US military announced: "AL ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq – Two Marines and one sailor were killed while conducting combat operations against enemy forces here April 30. The names of the service members are being withheld pending next-of-kin notification and release by the Department of Defense." Those three have been identified by DoD, Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler J. Trahan, Sergeant James R. McIlvaine and Staff Sergeant Mark A. Wojciechowski. We noted Trahan on Saturday. Cincinnati's WLWT notes Wojciechowski (link has video and text) and he went by Tony Wojciechowski:
His stepgrandmother, Cathy Dillinger, said the 25-year-old was on a mission with a bomb squad. She said Wojciechowski had been a Marine for six years and was on his second deployment to Iraq.
The 2002 Glen Este graduate was assigned to 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
News 5 learned that Wojciechowski was a classmate of Matt Maupin’s at Glen Este High School.
Matt Maupin (Keith Matthew Maupin) was captured outside Baghdad's airport when his convoy was attacked in April of 2004 and his body was found nearly four years later (Mach 2008). James McIlvaine was the third who died last Thursday. Brent Jones (Baltimore Sun) reports on him:
The grandmother of Olney native Sgt. James R. McIlvaine, killed Thursday in Iraq, characterized him as a man who longed to please his father, which is exactly what he did when became a Marine in 2001.Sergeant McIlvaine joined the Marines after attending Sherwood High School and graduating from a military school in Virginia.
"His father was very patriotic, loved the flag and country," said Patty DeSimone, Sergeant McIlvaine's paternal grandmother, who said her grandson died in combat in Al Anbar province. "James felt the same way. His father missed out on serving, so when James joined, he was proud to have a son in the military. He was proud to see him in uniform. I was proud of him, too."
Family members say he loved Washington sports, and when he was in the area, he frequently would take in a Capitals game. Sergeant McIlvaine's uncle said his nephew played hockey, and he was teaching his 7-year-old son the game.
There have been a number of deaths recently. April 19th, the death toll stood at 4274. Last night (May 3rd), it stood at 4284. Tim King (Salem-News) has an overview of some recent deaths; however, there were more US fatalities in Iraq in April than in Afghanistan. As for May, we'll leave predictions for someone else and just stick to reality which is more than ugly enough. Ruben Vives' "Army 1st Lt. Daniel B. Hyde, 24, Modesto; killed in grenade attack in Iraq" covers another death in Iraq but drops back to March:
But after just two months as a platoon leader, Hyde, 24, was killed March 7 when two anti-tank hand grenades struck his mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle in Tikrit, Iraq, north of Baghdad.
In Modesto, Hyde's mother said she was home alone when the three Army representatives knocked on her front door.
"I almost didn't want to open the door," she said, adding that she at first thought the men had posed as military officers to gain access inside her home to rob her. "But then something came over me like 'Oh, this is what happens when something bad happens to your kid.' "
Glenda Hyde said she was shocked to hear that her son had been killed.
"I was confident that it was safe over there," she said. "[Daniel] would say 'It's really quiet' and he would tell me a little bit about what he would do . . . he'd say 'I'm going to meet with people, drink tea and chit-chat,' and I thought: This doesn't sound like a war at all."
Hyde's ambition to become a leader began in the seventh grade, when he was voted class president. At Thomas Downey High School, he was a three-sport athlete, serving on at least one academic honor society while also serving as the first two-term student body president in the school's history.
Bonnie reminds that Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Useless Blogger" went up last night. The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
the los angeles times
liz sly
hameed rasheed
wlwt
brent jones
brent ainsworth
tim king
ruben vives
the world today just nuts
Monday, May 04, 2009
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Useless Blogger"
Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts' "The Useless Blogger." A pig declares, "It's me, Ann BarSow from Kids WB! Aren't I pretty? Look, I'm wearing a diaper. Aren't I pretty? My enemies call me 'weaponized Swine Flu.' I don't care. I have important things to blog about. Not Abeer. Who cares about a 14 year old girl who was gang-raped and murdered. I blog about bleaching pubic hair. A woman of my age and girth has to choose her easy battles." Isaiah archives his comics at The World Today Just Nuts.
the world today just nuts
comic
ann barsow
the useless blogger
the common ills
And the war drags on . . .
Jassim Hussein follows the news. He's well aware that violence in his country is creeping up again, and he's worried.
Not that you'd know it judging by the way he spent Saturday night: out with his wife celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary at a popular open-air creamery and cafe in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood, their three children in tow.
"Yes, we're concerned. We feel it inside," said Hussein, a government administrator. "But that doesn't mean life stops."
The above is the opening to Corinne Reilly's "In Baghdad, Iraqis fear return of sectarian bloodshed" (McClatchy Newspapers) and a McClatchy Iraqi correspondent adds of the violence:
Some Iraqis believe that the main reason of the last violence wave are the detainees who were released by the American forces while others believe that alQaida returned back after almost two years dormancy. Regardless the real reason, the wave brought nothing but more sadness and sorrow to the Iraqis families that lost their members in the explosions. The strange thing is what our government does. The government did nothing but consoling the families of the victims without investigating with any security official about these security violations.
The British are out [Robert Fisk observes, "Alas not. Iraq, begging around Europe now that its oil wealth has run out, is a pitiful figure. But it is a little bit freer than it was. We have destroyed its master and our friend (a certain Saddam) and now, with our own dead clanking around our heels, we are getting out yet again. "] and the violence is back. Barack's Iraq War. It's all on him. Bully Boy Bush left the White House months ago. It's Barack's illegal war now.
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 Sunday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4278 and tonight? 4284. In some of the violence reported over the weekend . . .
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad sticky bombing targeting Sahwa which left three people injured, Iran continued shelling Arbill and Sulaimaniyah, a Mosul roadside bombing which left three people injured and a Mosul car bombing which left five people injured. Reuters notes a Kirkuk roadside bombing which left two police officers injured and a Mosul "suicide car bomber" who took his/her own life and wounded four people.
Along with being targeted in bombings, Sahwa ("Awakenings" and "Sons Of Iraq") saw three of their "leading members" arrested by US and Iraqi forces today, Al Jazeera reports, for actions against US service members before they went on the US payroll. Reuters notes one arrested leader and identifies him as Nadhim al-Jubouri (the other two, according to Reuters, are his two brothers): "Ahmed Karim, the deputy governor of Salahuddin province, said Jubouri was accused in killings that took place in the largely Shi'ite town of Dujail during the height of Iraq's sectarian conflict in 2006-2007."
Meanwhile Alsumaria reports, "Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki stressed that timelines of US Forces withdrawal from Iraq are definite and not subject to any amendments. Thus, Al Maliki contradicted all reports evoking the possibility of extending US military presence in Iraq on account of violence spike in Baghdad streets." al-Maliki's hoping to avoid an ouster before the next round of Parliamentary elections (supposed to take place in December but looking like January or February). What he will or will not say after those elections will certainly be interesting. He's facing more pressure in recent days but we'll note this from CNN before we get to that, "Baghdad still expects its security forces to take responsibility for Iraqi cities after U.S. troops leave, and does not plan to request an extension, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said." The popular position in Iraq has always been US troops out. It's a position that Moqtada al-Sadr has always ridden to popularity. The long hidden al-Sadr surfaced in recent days in Turkey. David Blair (Telegraph of London) notes:
Turkey has a vital interest in bringing stability to neighbouring Iraq and curbing Iranian influence. Mr Sadr met both Recep Tayyip Erodgan, the Turkish prime minister, and President Abdullah Gul in Ankara on Friday.
The talks concentrated on "security in Iraq and the promotion of links between the parties", according to Anatolia, a Turkish news agency.
Still on politics, Ma'ad Fayad (Asharq Alawsat Newspaper) reports Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is stating he will retire when his term ends in December. Yes, this is a reversal. And it comes as Talabani and fellow Kurd Massoud Barzani (Barzani is President of the Kurdistan Regional Government and a political rival of Talabani's) make a joint announcement. Reuters reports they stood side-by-side today and announced that the Constitution will be followed regarding oil rich Kirkuk, that the KRG will not give up their claim even if a 'trade' is offered. They are calling for the Constitution to be followed. (A referendrum was to have been held. It has still not been held in violation of Iraq's Constitution.)
Today's New York Times features two articles filed from Iraq. We'll start with inside the paper, Sam Dagher's "Gunfight Breaks Out as Iraqi Soldiers Try to Arrest Trade Officials" which reports an armed clash Wednesday as al-Maliki's forces attempted to arrest nine people at the country's Ministery of Trade. One person was arrested (Muahmmad Hannoun). Falah al-Sudani is the agency's minister and he was, at that point, in Basra. Where the British recently left. And, like so many the US placed in charge of Iraq, Iraqi al-Sudani holds dual citizenship (British being the second one) and there was fear that he would make it out of the country. Tonight Ahmed Rasheed and Waleed Ibrahim (Reuters) report, "[MP and head of the Integrity Committee, Sabah al-] Saedi said ministry guards prevented forces from entering the building and fired shots in the air to scare them. They responded by also firing in the air, security officials said."
Steven Lee Myers' "Bablyon Ruins Reopen in Iraq, To Controversy" runs on the front page of the Times and it covers the lack of security around the historical site as the government attempts to prove something:
It has done so despite warnings by archaeologists that the reopening threatens to damage further what remains of one of the world's first great cities before the site can be adequately protected.
The fight over ancient Babylon is about more than competing interests of preservation and tourism. It reflects problems that hinder Iraq's new government, including an uncertain division between local and federal authority and political rivalries that consume government ministries.
After it's wrecked and wasted, it may be appreciated. When it's too late. Newspaper's aren't famous for appreciating what they have either. But a number of them have huge resources. Jane Arraf has more knowledge of Iraq than almost any other US reporter. Arraf's "My Iraq: a reporter's 20-year retrospective" (Christian Science Monitor) exhibits some of the the strength and power a journalist drawing on their knowledge and resources can provide:
At the cafe, a TV blares at deafening levels. The call to prayer interrupts the latest action movie. Both are just a backdrop to lives in transit.
I run into an acquaintance I haven't seen since his cousin, someone I worked with, was killed in an ambush six years ago. He has been accepted as a refugee in the US and is about to leave Iraq for good with his wife and son. He doesn't know where they'll live: "They told me Ontario." He seems less worried than I about what will happen to him. But seeing my quizzical look, he adds that he thought Ontario was in Canada.
It's so much safer now that sometimes it seems as if the violence that erupted here was a fevered dream and that the war is over. It isn't.
I sit next to a woman wearing black and an expression that suggests something terrible has recently happened. She lost her brother in a suicide bombing in January at a tribal reconciliation meeting when one of the sheikhs sent in his 14-year-old son to blow himself up.
A visiting Iraqi friend sitting with us in the shiny, modern airport built by Saddam Hussein tells why he left the country he loves: "I lost faith that it would get better."
Long-lost friends here greet each other like survivors of the Titanic -- amazed at their good fortune to have lived through disaster but carrying the memories of who and what was lost; always half-wondering if there's another wave coming.
New content at Third:
Truest statement of the week
Truest statement of the week II
A note to our readers
Editorial: Who do you think you're fooling?
TV: Don't Lie To Me
Evan Bright Puts Big Media To Shame
Iraq War stories
TV roundtable
Congress moves to weaken their own powers
Valerie Jarrett's latest ethical problem
Bitch Pleeze (Keesha)
15th Annual Bike To Work Day
Highlights
Isaiah's latest comic goes up in a minute. I'm having trouble with uploading from the e-mail so it may be a few minutes. A number of e-mails from members are asking about a comment Ava and I made in El Spirito and hoping it would be developed here tonight. I hadn't planned on that. I'll check with Ava and if she wants to do something more on it as a joint-piece, we'll do it for Third. If she doesn't, I may do something on it Thursday night in "I Hate The War." Pru asked if we could end with this from Evan Bright's "Mixed Emotions" on the Steven D. Green trial:
Questioning for the prosecution, James Lesousky brought Paul Cortez to the stand. An unusual occurrence, the court actually forgot to swear in Mr. Cortez, causing the few minutes of completed testimony to have to be redone. Of the crimes, he said he "knew what was goin’ on, we knew we were goin’ down to that house to have sex with that girl, and Barker and Green seemed to know where they were going to get there."
He spoke of throwing the girl to the ground.
"I was trying to…… rape her? [pause] after a few seconds…. I couldn't."
Lesousky asked if he knew Green was going to kill them, he replied "that wasn't…the intention. Sh…stuff just went crazy…" He talked a little bit about getting sick at the crime scene after being called back to investigate, and of telling the other soldiers to keep this quiet. The cross examination of Cortez lasted 90 seconds, therefore, there's not much to tell.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
and the war drags on
donovan
evan bright
the new york times
sam dagher
corinne reilly
mcclatchy newspapers
hussein kadhim
jane arraf
robert fisk
steven lee myers
the world today just nuts
the third estate sunday review
Not that you'd know it judging by the way he spent Saturday night: out with his wife celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary at a popular open-air creamery and cafe in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood, their three children in tow.
"Yes, we're concerned. We feel it inside," said Hussein, a government administrator. "But that doesn't mean life stops."
The above is the opening to Corinne Reilly's "In Baghdad, Iraqis fear return of sectarian bloodshed" (McClatchy Newspapers) and a McClatchy Iraqi correspondent adds of the violence:
Some Iraqis believe that the main reason of the last violence wave are the detainees who were released by the American forces while others believe that alQaida returned back after almost two years dormancy. Regardless the real reason, the wave brought nothing but more sadness and sorrow to the Iraqis families that lost their members in the explosions. The strange thing is what our government does. The government did nothing but consoling the families of the victims without investigating with any security official about these security violations.
The British are out [Robert Fisk observes, "Alas not. Iraq, begging around Europe now that its oil wealth has run out, is a pitiful figure. But it is a little bit freer than it was. We have destroyed its master and our friend (a certain Saddam) and now, with our own dead clanking around our heels, we are getting out yet again. "] and the violence is back. Barack's Iraq War. It's all on him. Bully Boy Bush left the White House months ago. It's Barack's illegal war now.
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 Sunday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4278 and tonight? 4284. In some of the violence reported over the weekend . . .
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad sticky bombing targeting Sahwa which left three people injured, Iran continued shelling Arbill and Sulaimaniyah, a Mosul roadside bombing which left three people injured and a Mosul car bombing which left five people injured. Reuters notes a Kirkuk roadside bombing which left two police officers injured and a Mosul "suicide car bomber" who took his/her own life and wounded four people.
Along with being targeted in bombings, Sahwa ("Awakenings" and "Sons Of Iraq") saw three of their "leading members" arrested by US and Iraqi forces today, Al Jazeera reports, for actions against US service members before they went on the US payroll. Reuters notes one arrested leader and identifies him as Nadhim al-Jubouri (the other two, according to Reuters, are his two brothers): "Ahmed Karim, the deputy governor of Salahuddin province, said Jubouri was accused in killings that took place in the largely Shi'ite town of Dujail during the height of Iraq's sectarian conflict in 2006-2007."
Meanwhile Alsumaria reports, "Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki stressed that timelines of US Forces withdrawal from Iraq are definite and not subject to any amendments. Thus, Al Maliki contradicted all reports evoking the possibility of extending US military presence in Iraq on account of violence spike in Baghdad streets." al-Maliki's hoping to avoid an ouster before the next round of Parliamentary elections (supposed to take place in December but looking like January or February). What he will or will not say after those elections will certainly be interesting. He's facing more pressure in recent days but we'll note this from CNN before we get to that, "Baghdad still expects its security forces to take responsibility for Iraqi cities after U.S. troops leave, and does not plan to request an extension, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said." The popular position in Iraq has always been US troops out. It's a position that Moqtada al-Sadr has always ridden to popularity. The long hidden al-Sadr surfaced in recent days in Turkey. David Blair (Telegraph of London) notes:
Turkey has a vital interest in bringing stability to neighbouring Iraq and curbing Iranian influence. Mr Sadr met both Recep Tayyip Erodgan, the Turkish prime minister, and President Abdullah Gul in Ankara on Friday.
The talks concentrated on "security in Iraq and the promotion of links between the parties", according to Anatolia, a Turkish news agency.
Still on politics, Ma'ad Fayad (Asharq Alawsat Newspaper) reports Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is stating he will retire when his term ends in December. Yes, this is a reversal. And it comes as Talabani and fellow Kurd Massoud Barzani (Barzani is President of the Kurdistan Regional Government and a political rival of Talabani's) make a joint announcement. Reuters reports they stood side-by-side today and announced that the Constitution will be followed regarding oil rich Kirkuk, that the KRG will not give up their claim even if a 'trade' is offered. They are calling for the Constitution to be followed. (A referendrum was to have been held. It has still not been held in violation of Iraq's Constitution.)
Today's New York Times features two articles filed from Iraq. We'll start with inside the paper, Sam Dagher's "Gunfight Breaks Out as Iraqi Soldiers Try to Arrest Trade Officials" which reports an armed clash Wednesday as al-Maliki's forces attempted to arrest nine people at the country's Ministery of Trade. One person was arrested (Muahmmad Hannoun). Falah al-Sudani is the agency's minister and he was, at that point, in Basra. Where the British recently left. And, like so many the US placed in charge of Iraq, Iraqi al-Sudani holds dual citizenship (British being the second one) and there was fear that he would make it out of the country. Tonight Ahmed Rasheed and Waleed Ibrahim (Reuters) report, "[MP and head of the Integrity Committee, Sabah al-] Saedi said ministry guards prevented forces from entering the building and fired shots in the air to scare them. They responded by also firing in the air, security officials said."
Steven Lee Myers' "Bablyon Ruins Reopen in Iraq, To Controversy" runs on the front page of the Times and it covers the lack of security around the historical site as the government attempts to prove something:
It has done so despite warnings by archaeologists that the reopening threatens to damage further what remains of one of the world's first great cities before the site can be adequately protected.
The fight over ancient Babylon is about more than competing interests of preservation and tourism. It reflects problems that hinder Iraq's new government, including an uncertain division between local and federal authority and political rivalries that consume government ministries.
After it's wrecked and wasted, it may be appreciated. When it's too late. Newspaper's aren't famous for appreciating what they have either. But a number of them have huge resources. Jane Arraf has more knowledge of Iraq than almost any other US reporter. Arraf's "My Iraq: a reporter's 20-year retrospective" (Christian Science Monitor) exhibits some of the the strength and power a journalist drawing on their knowledge and resources can provide:
At the cafe, a TV blares at deafening levels. The call to prayer interrupts the latest action movie. Both are just a backdrop to lives in transit.
I run into an acquaintance I haven't seen since his cousin, someone I worked with, was killed in an ambush six years ago. He has been accepted as a refugee in the US and is about to leave Iraq for good with his wife and son. He doesn't know where they'll live: "They told me Ontario." He seems less worried than I about what will happen to him. But seeing my quizzical look, he adds that he thought Ontario was in Canada.
It's so much safer now that sometimes it seems as if the violence that erupted here was a fevered dream and that the war is over. It isn't.
I sit next to a woman wearing black and an expression that suggests something terrible has recently happened. She lost her brother in a suicide bombing in January at a tribal reconciliation meeting when one of the sheikhs sent in his 14-year-old son to blow himself up.
A visiting Iraqi friend sitting with us in the shiny, modern airport built by Saddam Hussein tells why he left the country he loves: "I lost faith that it would get better."
Long-lost friends here greet each other like survivors of the Titanic -- amazed at their good fortune to have lived through disaster but carrying the memories of who and what was lost; always half-wondering if there's another wave coming.
New content at Third:
Truest statement of the week
Truest statement of the week II
A note to our readers
Editorial: Who do you think you're fooling?
TV: Don't Lie To Me
Evan Bright Puts Big Media To Shame
Iraq War stories
TV roundtable
Congress moves to weaken their own powers
Valerie Jarrett's latest ethical problem
Bitch Pleeze (Keesha)
15th Annual Bike To Work Day
Highlights
Isaiah's latest comic goes up in a minute. I'm having trouble with uploading from the e-mail so it may be a few minutes. A number of e-mails from members are asking about a comment Ava and I made in El Spirito and hoping it would be developed here tonight. I hadn't planned on that. I'll check with Ava and if she wants to do something more on it as a joint-piece, we'll do it for Third. If she doesn't, I may do something on it Thursday night in "I Hate The War." Pru asked if we could end with this from Evan Bright's "Mixed Emotions" on the Steven D. Green trial:
Questioning for the prosecution, James Lesousky brought Paul Cortez to the stand. An unusual occurrence, the court actually forgot to swear in Mr. Cortez, causing the few minutes of completed testimony to have to be redone. Of the crimes, he said he "knew what was goin’ on, we knew we were goin’ down to that house to have sex with that girl, and Barker and Green seemed to know where they were going to get there."
He spoke of throwing the girl to the ground.
"I was trying to…… rape her? [pause] after a few seconds…. I couldn't."
Lesousky asked if he knew Green was going to kill them, he replied "that wasn't…the intention. Sh…stuff just went crazy…" He talked a little bit about getting sick at the crime scene after being called back to investigate, and of telling the other soldiers to keep this quiet. The cross examination of Cortez lasted 90 seconds, therefore, there's not much to tell.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
and the war drags on
donovan
evan bright
the new york times
sam dagher
corinne reilly
mcclatchy newspapers
hussein kadhim
jane arraf
robert fisk
steven lee myers
the world today just nuts
the third estate sunday review
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