Monday, May 21, 2012

Nouri has Ammar but little else

As the deadline Moqtada al-Sadr announced last week for Nouri al-Maliki to implement the Erbil Agreement and the 18-point plan proposed by Moqtada al-Sadr gets closer, Nouri thought yesterday he could defuse the crisis by calling for a Baghdad meet-up.  Alsumaria reports that today, while attending the International Conference on Human Trafficking in Sulaymaniya, KRG Vice President Kosrat Rasul dismissed Nouri's call for a meet-up with no preconditions.  And Rasul notes that the meetings that have been taking place, which State of Law dismisses and attacks as a 'conspiracy,' are, in fact, part of the democratic process.

Saturday, Moqtada al-Sadr hosted another such meeting at his Najaf home and attendees including Iraqiya, the Kurdistan Alliance and the National Alliance.  Ayad al-Tamimi (Al Mada) reports that Moqtada has told his followers that this was a meeting to preserve democracy and that State of Law elements decided not to attend while Nouri was not invited.  Outside of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq's Ammar al-Hakim remains the closest thing to a public supporter Nouri has. He tells Al Mada that the Sadrist bloc is part of the National Alliance but it cannot speak for the alliance itself.  He also tsk-tsks what he sees as "extortion language" in some of the comments.  The remarks about Moqtada not speaking for the entire National Alliance was already made by Nouri's State of Law.  Al Rafidayn reports that here.  But your underlings defending you in the press cares very little weight or influence.

Ammar al-Hakim, like a prince, was born into his current role.  He became leader of ISCI after his father died.  Dar Addustour notes that he just won re-election to his post of presidency.  That outcome was never in doubt.  And that might be why al-Hakim can repeat the comments urged on him without too much fear of being toppled.  But possibly al-Hakim should worry more about schisms and factions which are growing in the party he presides over? Al Mada has Talabani repeating his call for dialogue.

Among the things Nouri doesn't want on the agenda is the status of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.  Shortly after the bulk of US forces left in December, Nouri swore out an arrest warrant for the vice president who was in the KRG and remained there until April.  He is currently in Turkey.  The 'trial' against him started and with Nouri's Baghdad judges holding a press conference in February to declare Tareq al-Hashemi guilty, no one in their right mind would take what has gone in as fair or impartial.  AFP reports that his attorneys finally had enough yesterday and walked out:


"We decided to withdraw from the case as the appeals commission did not review the appeals we presented to it," Muayad al-Izzi, the head of Hashemi's defence team, told reporters, referring to their attempts to have the case heard in a special tribunal rather than the Central Criminal Court of Iraq.
The CCCI, which held the fourth hearing on the case on Sunday, responded by appointing two new lawyers to replace those who withdrew.

Press TV adds:


Hashemi said in a statement issued on his website on May 17 that he was considering the withdrawal of his lawyers from the case due to “legal violations” including a refusal to transfer his trial to another court and his lawyers not being permitted to meet with the accused members of his staff or witnesses individually.
This weekend, three angry e-mails declaring Tareq al-Hashemi guilty arrived in the inbox of the public account  -- I didn't know Baghdad judges had time for e-mail pranks -- and expressed outrage that I wasn't noting witnesses in the al-Hashemi trial.

That's incorrect.  We noted family members of victims testified.  I'd stated that morning that it was doubtful they were eyewitnesses to any alleged crimes al-Hashemi is accuesed of.  By the afternoon, reports established that my guess was correct.  If they had been, we would have done more than note them, we would have included their testimony.

But, check the archives, we don't offer torture 'confessions.'  Check the archives, I slammed the NPR reporter (married to a CIA operative) who broadcast torture confessions and then tried to minimize her actions.  Iraq is known to torture.  Though many in the US government have embraced torture -- which is an illegal crime -- and though the Democratic Party's embraced since 2009, I haven't and I won't.  We have resisted many 'juicy tidbits' over the years that came from people who were imprisoned and were most likely tortured into making their 'confessions.'  I'm not interested and like the civilized world -- which used to include the United States -- I don't support, endorse or popularize torture.

I will not offer the 'confessions' of those who have been imprisoned, I will not popularize it, I will not give it the appearance of actual evidence or of being even remotely credible.





Radio notes:  Law and Disorder Radio  is  a weekly hour long program that airs Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week, hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Michael S. Smith and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights).  Today they discuss a federal appeal on behalf of two Iraqis, the Palestinian Prisoner Hunger Strike, Azadeh Shahshahani joins them to discuss the ACLU's findings on the immigration detention center in Georgia, Sean Strub joins them for a discussion on HIV-specific criminal laws and labor issues pertaining to retail and food employees are the topic for a discussion with attorney Daniel Gross of Brandworkers.  Yesterday, Michael Ratner was Cindy Sheehan's guest on Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox.  And, on this week's Progressive Radio, Matthew Rothschild speaks with Dr. Helen Caldicott. 


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



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Veterans issues: Parades, hospitals, suicides

John Reid Blackwell (Times-Dispatch -- link is text and video) reports on a veterans parade in Richmond, Virginia Saturday, noting it was a "WELCOME HOME THE HEROES PARADE" for those who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan.  John Reid Blackwell reports, "The veterans were joined in the parade by numerous other organizations that provide support for military personnel and their families.  The parade features 70 entries from all over Virgnia including high school marching bands and Junior ROTC units."  Meanwhile Ruth Moon (Rapid City Journal -- link is text and a photo essay) reports that nearly 70 service members with th 1st Battalion of the 189th Aviation Regiment returned to Sioux City Saturday from their tours of Iraq and Kuwait and that among the hundreds who turned out to greet them were Governor Dennis Daugarrd, Rapid City Mayor Sam Kooiker, US Senator John Thune and US House Rep. Kristi Noem.  Among those returning was Staff Sgt Michael Beck: "This deployment, Michael Beck's second, was especially tough because the couple had just adopted three children.  They finalized the adoption two months before Michael deployed, leaving Emily Beck to handle four children."

In other news, Chris Otts (Louisville Courier-Journal) reports young veterans feel the VA left them out of the loop in a survey -- "young" is defined as those who served in the current wars, regardless of their own actual age.  A hospital will be finished in 2018 and its location was based upon surveys which heavily weighed those who had served in 1980 and before.  And as more details emerge, it's difficult for me to agree with the 'young' veterans on this one.  You may, that's your right and I could be wrong.  But I don't think Iraq War veteran John Galle and others help their own side with details like this featured about them "who don't use the hospital now but probably will in the future."  If you're not currently using a VA hospital, I'm not sure you have a right to complain that the survey featured more 'older' veterans in the survey.  Older veterans already accessing VA care, as a group, are less likely to move (the biggest exception being if they move to a longterm care facility).  Younger veterans not currently accessing VA care are, historically (not just for this conflict), more mobile and more apt to move to different areas.  But, in all honesty, this wasn't something to survey on.

I'd argue this goes again to the problems with VA.  Last week, we heard in a House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee Hearing that major changes were being made in how the VA secured prosthetics for individuals.  The new process would be cumbersome -- even the VA's Norbert Doyle admitted to that though he disagreed that the new steps would amount to "300 additional steps" -- and many people who follow this issue -- including Paralyzed Veterans of America -- argue that the result will be that veterans will not get the prosthetic limbs prescribed but some inferior version that does not do what is required.  Doyle repeatedly stated that this step, set to be implemented in July -- less than two months -- was necessary and needed and, oh, he's sorry no one sought veterans input but he'll be happy to meet with anyone he can that he can squeeze into his schedule between now and then. [If you missed those hearings, you can refer to Wednesday's "Iraq snapshot," Thursday's "Iraq snapshot" and Friday's "Iraq snapshot."]

That issue should have had a survey of veterans before any changes were proposed.  They should have surveyed those who will be affected.  A new VA hospital?  The location for one that will be finished six years from now (but delays being what they are, it might be eight or ten years from now) is not a topic you survey on.  Does the VA and its leadership not know a damn thing about how to its job?  A population model was what was required for that. 


Mark Thompson continues to be one of Time magazine's strongest correspondents.  Today he offers an interview with two peope.



Anna Simon covered the 2004 death in Iraq of Kimberly Hampton for South Carolina’s The Greenville News. She became friendly with Kimberly’s mother, Ann Hampton, after writing a series of articles about Kimberly. The pair chatted with Battleland via email recently about their book, Kimberly’s Flight: The Story of Captain Kimberly Hampton, America’s First Woman Combat Pilot Killed in Battle:
How did Kimberly N. Hampton die?
Ann Hampton, mother: Kimberly was flying an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter above the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq, providing cover for ground troops raiding an illicit weapons marketplace when she was shot down on Jan. 2, 2004.

She chose to lead her troops on a mission she knew would be particularly dangerous. It was a mission others were slated to lead. While her death left her father and me with a hole in our hearts that will never heal, she left a powerful legacy of dedication to her mission, to her troops, and to her country that fills us with pride.
Who was she?
Anna Simon, reporter: An all-American girl from a small Southern mill town, U.S. Army Captain Kimberly N. Hampton was a top student, student body president, ROTC battalion commander, highly ranked college tennis player, and West Point appointee. She overcame demons of doubt after deciding to leave the Academy and found joy on a different path to the life she wanted.
Driven by ambition and determination, Kimberly rapidly rose through the ranks in a typically all-male bastion of military aviation to command Delta Troop, 1/17 Cavalry, 82nd Airborne Division.


To read that and many more of Thompson's reports (we highlight him often but we don't highlight all the content he produces, Time's lucky to have someone who's both that knowledgable and that productive) click here.

With close to 20 veterans taking their own lives every day in the US, you might think this epidemic would get a lot of attention -- from either the press or the government.  That's really not been the case.  The only government exception has been the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and, in fact, it's Patty Murray, Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, that is owed the thanks for repeatedly staying on this problem and for repeatedly insisting that the VA start tracking it.  At The Daily Beast, Anthony Swofford explores the topic:



In 1992 I was in danger of becoming such a statistic, just released from the Marines after four years of service and combat action in Kuwait during the Gulf War. I know the suicidal temptation that can accompany the isolation and loneliness veterans experience after the high of combat and the brotherhood of arms fade in the rearview mirror. I skulked around college campuses with a watch cap pulled tight to my ears, looking for a threat, knowing that when it appeared, I could extinguish it. I took a swing-shift warehouse job that required very little human interaction. I became a writer, which also required very little human interaction. It took nearly two decades to find my way free of the morass.

While there is no one reason for any person's suicide, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the military shy away from placing blame directly on the psychological and social costs of killing during combat.

No one within the VA will use the word "epidemic" when talking about suicide, but it can't be denied that the rate of suicide among current-war veterans is drawing attention and concern. Before these current wars, the rigorous training and intense discipline of military service were considered a defense against suicide.


 Law and Disorder Radio  is  a weekly hour long program that airs Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week, hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Michael S. Smith and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights).  Today they discuss a federal appeal on behalf of two Iraqis, the Palestinian Prisoner Hunger Strike, Azadeh Shahshahani joins them to discuss the ACLU's findings on the immigration detention center in Georgia, Sean Strub joins them for a discussion on HIV-specific criminal laws and labor issues pertaining to retail and food employees are the topic for a discussion with attorney Daniel Gross of Brandworkers.



Finally, David Swanson (War Is A Crime) reports on the actions in Chicago:


A huge crowd gathered for several hours and marched for over two miles in the hot sun to oppose NATO and U.S. wars on Sunday in Chicago. Finishing the march outside the NATO meeting, numerous U.S. veterans of current wars denounced their previous "service" and threw their medals over the fence, a scene not witnessed since the U.S. war on Vietnam.
This event, with massive turnout and tremendous energy, saw the participation of numerous groups from Chicago and the surrounding area, including students, teachers, and activists on a variety of issues, as well as anti-war activists and Occupiers from around the country and the world. No one can have been disappointed with the turnout, but it might have been bigger if not for the fear that was spread prior to Sunday. In the face of that fear, Sunday's action was remarkable.
The fear was the result of a massive militarized police build up, rumors of evacuations, the boarding up of windows, brutal police assaults on activists, preemptive arrests, disappearances, and charges of terrorism. A segment of the activist world plays into these police tactics, wearing bandanas, shouting curses, antagonizing police, and eroding credibility for claims that violence is all police-initiated.
Yet the vast majority of the crowd was disciplined, nonviolent, and effective. It is critical that the people of Afghanistan know the people of the U.S. oppose what NATO is doing to them. Speaking at the end of the march were members of Afghans for Peace, who read a message from Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers.
It is also vital that the people of Russia know that we do not want to make their nation our enemy; only our government and our weapons makers do. And it is important that those who have been actively opposing NATO in Europe for years see that we in the nation that provides the bulk of NATO's forces are waking up to what that entails.
Americans cannot help but know more about NATO this week than they did a week ago. We've even received a small taste of the violence that NATO imposes on others -- courtesy of the Chicago police and various imported state, city, and federal police/soldiers. For NATO to meet in Chicago it was deemed necessary to import a few night raids and a great deal of brutality.

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



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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Hejira

Mary Wisniewski (Reuters) reports, "Nearly 50 U.S. military veterans at an anti-NATO rally in Chicago threw their service medals into the street on Sunday, an action they said symbolized their rejection of the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Francine Knowles and Sandra Guy report on the action for the Chicago Sun-Times.    Knowles and Guy note, "Speaking on behalf of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, which organized the protest, he and others called upon NATO to bring about the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, full benefits for returning service members, including mental health care; and reparations for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan."  China's press managed to cover it.  Mu Xuequan (Xinhua) reports:

Afghanistan and Iraq veterans from across the United States converged in Chicago on Sunday for a historic day of action against NATO, which is expected to culminate with at least 40 Global War on Terror veterans returning their war medals to NATO generals.
The action followed a press conference which began at 9 a.m. local time, marking the first national gathering of veterans protesting NATO, which will open the two-day summit on Sunday afternoon.
"We will march to NATO's front door to return our medals, hand in hand with our Afghan brothers and sisters, to tell the world's military leaders and NATO's generals that our solidarity is stronger than their wars," Aaron Hughes, organizer of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), said at a press conference held in the Grant Park in downtown Chicago. "We will make our message of justice, healing, and solidarity heard around the world."


One of the participants was Iraq War veteran Steven Acheson who told Miranda Leitsinger (MSNBC) before the action, "I feel like this is a really good way for me to kind of, not clear my conscience, but just make a step in the direction of healing and kind of reconciling with the Afghan people and the Iraq people. and let them know that we're standing by their side and we're not standing with NATO anymore. We don't agree with the policies that are driving these wars."  Again, that was before the action. 

In fact, Iraq War Veterans notes that the press before the action includes:

Truth Out: Mobilizing Military Moms Against NATO
ABC: War Vets to Hold Anti-NATO Rally 
Democracy Now: What Have We been Doing?
Democracy Now: Veterans say no to NATO
NPR: War Vets To Protest, Return Medals At NATO Summit
WGN: Iraq and Afghan vets speak out against NATO
MSNBC: US veterans to return war medals in protest
CBS Chicago: Iraq War Veteran To Throw Medals Away During NATO Summit
CBS: Veterans Announce Plans to Give Back Medals During NATO Protest
Chicago Tribune: Iraq War vet talks about why he wants to return his medals during NATO summit
WTAM: US veterans to return war medals in protest
Truthdig: Veterans Say No to NATO
The Real News:Palestinian Hunger Strikers and U.S. Veterans Returning Service Medals Lead Movements for Peace    
USA Today: Iraq, Afghanistan vets to hand back medals at NATO Summit


Now before it happened?  An argument can be made convincingly that it wasn't news then.  News is what happens, what takes place.  Today the action took place.

And the action itself today should have qualified as news.


But if so much of the press was too timid to cover a protest for the sake that protest is news, let's really emphasize a detail: nearly 50 veterans.  It's very likely one might run for public office.  It's not inconceivable that one might one day run for president.

In the 2004 presidential race, one of the media stories was: Did John Kerry throw his Vietnam medals over a fence onto the White House lawn or did he throw ribbons?

So chances are this could become a story thirty or forty years from now. Maybe some outlets intend, in thirty or forty years, to depend upon other outlets, to acknowledge that they slept on the job?

Annie Gowan (Washington Post) notes, "Many of the vets wept and apologized as they took off their medals and threw them down to the sound of cheers." Gowan quotes Jason Hurd stating, "These are lies. I'm giving them back."  John Chase and Lolly Bowean (Chicago Tribune) reports:



Many of the medals the vets threw were for service in Operation Iraqi Freedom and the war on terrorism. Some were for good conduct.
Aaron Hughes, who served in the Illinois National Guard from 2000 to 2006, threw away three medals for three reasons: one for a soldier named Anthony Wagner who died last year, one for female soldiers who were sexually assaulted in the armed forces by their peers and the third "because I'm sorry."

Again, it was news.

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




Last Sunday, the number of US military people killed in the Iraq War since the start of the illegal war was 4488. Tonight? PDF format warning, DoD lists the the number of Americans killed serving in Iraq at 4488.

New content at Third:


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