Wednesday, July 12, 2006

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Lieberman's desperate move only serves to highlight what went underreported: Bill Clinton saying on Friday that Democrats (username: noreply@huffingtonpost.com/pass: huffpo) "ought to be whipped if we allow our differences over what to do now over Iraq divide us." Is he serious? He makes it sound as if the debate over the war is petty squabbling on the level of whether one should wear white after Labor Day.
There is no way a politician as savvy as Bill Clinton could be this clueless about just how seismic a division Iraq is for Democrats, so I can only assume it was the guilt talking -- the former president trying to make up for the wrong-headed advice he's been giving Hillary about adopting a Bush-lite, "centrist" stance on the war. A stance that means she has to keep assuming, in the face of all evidence, that everything will turn out okay in Iraq -- an assumption that with each passing car bomb explosion and sectarian massacre becomes more and more divorced from reality and puts Hillary, and all those who agree with her, on the wrong side of history.
Just since Monday, we've had the video of our mutilated soldiers posted on the web, and the Iraqi government, responding to the outcry over the Mahmudiya rape-murder case, calling for an end to immunity from local law for U.S. troops. The truth about Iraq couldn't be clearer: our troops are being asked to handle a mission they weren't trained for, leading to horrific acts like those in Haditha and Mahmudiya, followed by horrific acts of revenge and reprisal -- an escalating cycle of violence that makes support for the war all the more indefensible. No wonder Bill Clinton doesn't want Dems making a big deal over their differences on Iraq. He'd rather bury his head in the bloody sands of Baghdad.
I find it amazing that Clinton's comments on Iraq didn't cause more of an uproar. Indeed, they were nowhere to be found in the mainstream press, relegated to a single paragraph in a story in the Aspen Daily News.
If you want a better understanding of the importance of Democratic differences over the war, just look at what happened in 1968. The presidential campaign was all about the battle over how to deal with Vietnam. In the Democratic primaries, first Eugene McCarthy and then Bobby Kennedy took courageous stands against LBJ's prosecution of the war, eventually leading Johnson to announce he would not seek re-election and causing a massive rift in the party. Before RFK was gunned down following his victory in the California primary, the race was shaping up to be a showdown between the anti-war Kennedy and Vice President Humphrey, who was standing behind Johnson's handling of Vietnam.
Can you imagine someone in 1968 telling Bobby Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey that they "ought to be whipped" for fighting over their views on Vietnam?

The above is from Arianna Huffington's "Bill Clinton: Dems Shouldn't Be Divided By Differences Over Iraq" (The Huffington Post). Billie noted the above. (This is a dictated entry. The usual Iraq snapshot entry will go up several hours later than usual. I'm on the road to speak somewhere so just FYI.)

The points made are important to remember not just because Hillary continues to act like a War Hawk (despite internal polling indicating a change would be favorably received) but also because, as Dahr Jamail and Jeremy Scahill -- among others -- have pointed out, we didn't just end up in Iraq this decade.

Brandon notes that Riverbend has a new post, " Atrocities..." (Baghdad Burning):


It promises to be a long summer. We're almost at the mid-way point, but it feels like the days are just crawling by. It's a combination of the heat, the flies, the hours upon hours of no electricity and the corpses which keep appearing everywhere.
The day before yesterday was catastrophic. The day began with news of the killings in Jihad Quarter. According to people who live there, black-clad militiamen drove in mid-morning and opened fire on people in the streets and even in houses. They began pulling people off the street and checking their ID cards to see if they had Sunni names or Shia names and then the Sunnis were driven away and killed. Some were executed right there in the area. The media is playing it down and claiming 37 dead but the people in the area say the number is nearer 60.
The horrific thing about the killings is that the area had been cut off for nearly two weeks by Ministry of Interior security forces and Americans. Last week, a car bomb was set off in front of a 'Sunni' mosque people in the area visit. The night before the massacre, a car bomb exploded in front of a Shia husseiniya in the same area. The next day was full of screaming and shooting and death for the people in the area. No one is quite sure why the Americans and the Ministry of Interior didn't respond immediately. They just sat by, on the outskirts of the area, and let the massacre happen.
At nearly 2 pm, we received some terrible news. We lost a good friend in the killings. T. was a 26-year-old civil engineer who worked with a group of friends in a consultancy bureau in Jadriya. The last time I saw him was a week ago. He had stopped by the house to tell us his sister was engaged and he'd brought along with him pictures of latest project he was working on- a half-collapsed school building outside of Baghdad.
He usually left the house at 7 am to avoid the morning traffic jams and the heat. Yesterday, he decided to stay at home because he'd promised his mother he would bring Abu Kamal by the house to fix the generator which had suddenly died on them the night before. His parents say that T. was making his way out of the area on foot when the attack occurred and he got two bullets to the head. His brother could only identify him by the blood-stained t-shirt he was wearing.
People are staying in their homes in the area and no one dares enter it so the wakes for the people who were massacred haven't begun yet. I haven't seen his family yet and I'm not sure I have the courage or the energy to give condolences. I feel like I've given the traditional words of condolences a thousand times these last few months, "Baqiya ib hayatkum… Akhir il ahzan…" or "May this be the last of your sorrows." Except they are empty words because even as we say them, we know that in today's Iraq any sorrow- no matter how great- will not be the last.


That's reality as opposed to the nonsense William McCoy was peddling yesterday. (For those who've forgotten, McCoy tried to present an Iraq alive with electricity.) Mia notes Raed Jarrar's "Iraq: Raped" (CounterPunch):


A few months ago, Abir Al-Janabi was just another 14-year-old Iraqi girl in a small town called Al-Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad. Both of her parents are from the Al-Janabi tribe, one of the biggest tribes with Sunni and Shia branches.
Omar Al-Janabi, a neighbor and relative, was informed by Abir's mother that the young girl was being harassed by U.S. soldiers stationed in a nearby checkpoint. That is why Abir was sent to spend the night in her neighbor's home. The next day, Omar Al-Janabi was among the first people who found Abir, with her 34-year-old mother Fakhriyah, her 45-year-old father Qasim, and her 7-year-old sister Hadil, murdered in their home. Abir was raped, killed by a bullet in her head, and then burned on March 12, five months before her fifteenth birthday.
Muhammad Al-Janabi, Abir's uncle, reached the house shortly after the attack as well. Iraqi police and army officers informed him and other angry relatives that an "armed terrorist group" was responsible for the horrifying attack. This is exactly what the angry relatives of the 24 Iraqi civilians killed in Haditha four months before this incident had been told as well. In that case, U.S. officials initially claimed that a roadside bomb planted by terrorists had killed the 24 Iraqi civilians and one U.S. soldier in Haditha, but the Iraqi people knew that it was the Americans.
Unlike the case of Haditha, where Iraqi public opinion was furious about the massacre months before it reached to the U.S. mainstream media, the Iraqi press had not even heard of Abir until the U.S. army accidentally found out information about her while investigating another incident. This raises questions about the number of other similar cases that were never investigated and were blamed on non-occupation parties instead.


Here's a New York Times snapshot. David Johnston reports that Robert Novak is saying he identified his three sources (it's now three sources) for his column outing Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. Johnston writes that Karl Rove, Bill Harlow ("then a spokespman for the Central Intelligence Agency") and a third person who Novak is not identifying publicly. Mark Mazzetti and Kate Zernike don't come up with much re: Guantanamo but Congress hasn't been too interested in it anyway. (Kayla points out that there is a good photo with the article, taken by David Scull, where you can see Medea Benjamin holding a sign that reads "CLOSE GUANTANAMO.") Raymond Hernandez goes deeper in "Bush Nominee Tries to Calm Torture Furor" which offers a number of things worth noting including that Harry Reid is unfit to be a Senate leader. How can you read Reid's refusal to say he would support a filibuster of William J. Haynes Jr. to the federal court as anything but proof of that?

Reid digs his own grave further with this quote: "We've approved a lot of judges that were very, very borderline. But unless there's some drastic change, I'm not going to override the views of 20 our finest." "We've approved"? "Very, very borderline"? Right there it says the leadership isn't doing their job. But he's the Vegas party boy so expects pats and shout outs of "He da man!" when he's the failure for Democrats in the Senate and should have been forced out of his leadership post some time ago.

Lastly, the point was to have an entry up here last night. Blogger/Blogspot was done. One was posted at the mirror site but Blogger/Blogspot was still down and I was exhausted. It will be carried over this evening. From the e-mails, most members either saw it on their own or heard about it from one another. As noted there, we're taking a 24 hour breather on one topic/issue/source/outlet.

Again, Iraq snapshot will be up late today. (And since Wally usually phones to run his post by me before he posts, he may be late as well so blame me for that.)

AP is reporting that a bus station in Baghdad was stormed by "gunmen" and at least 24 people were seized with at least 20 of those 24 being killed.

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NYT: "Waves of Violence in Baghdad Puts 3-Day Death Toll Past 100" (Kirk Semple)

We'll start with Kirk Semple's "Wave of Violence in Baghdad Puts 3-Day Death Toll Past 100" in this morning's New York Times and we'll start with that number in the headline. Semple tells us that "more than fifty" died in violence on Tuesday.

How did they get to 100? The US military told Semple (ran Monday) Sunday's fatalities: 11; military told Wong (ran Tuesday) Monday's fatalities: 14. That's 25.

What's the point of this?

Several points. The military lied. On Monday, I noted Semple's article was, within the framework of the Times, a good one. He really couldn't verify what had happened in most of the events and he noted that in his article. Then along comes Wong the next day and again we're treated to numbers reported by the media (which were accurate) and the military's number (which were way off -- again). Only there's no attempt to do as Semple did and explain the difficulties in verification.

So to a visitor who wondered why Wong was "crucified" for doing what Semple did -- he didn't do what Semple did. Semple wrote, in one of the most up front pieces the Times has done, of the difficulities their reporters face in verification. Wong short handed it and treated the numbers in a he-said/she-said kind of way as he hurried from here to there (in print).

The fact that Wong left the a murder victim and alleged rape victim nameless, Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi, already had me ticked off. And that alone is reason for "crucifixication" or whatever someone wants to dub that. But the issue with the body counts was much bigger than the visitor seems to grasp and if he's still confused, he needs to read Semple's article that ran Monday and Wong's that ran Tuesday.

There's a world of difference between the two.

Today Semple notes:

In Tuesday’s most deadly attack, two pedestrians wearing vests made of explosives blew themselves up near a restaurant outside the walls of the Green Zone, within a few hundred yards of three busy entrances, Iraqi and American officials said. Soon after the initial blasts, a hidden bomb was detonated nearby, adding to the carnage, the American military said. Some Iraqi authorities said the third explosion was caused by a car bomb.
At least 15 Iraqi civilians and an Iraqi police officer were killed in the explosions, and 4 people were wounded, according to the American military command.

Considering that there were 19 shooting deaths in Baquba some may take issue with the above. (Semple notes this: "In Baquba, north of Baghdad, the mayor of the Um Al Nawa district was assassinated by gunmen, the ministry official said. " That's it for Baquba.) But let's face it, the embedded reporters seemed to wake up to reality only when the Green Zone was almost breeched a few Fridays ago.

The US military can, and has, reduced blocks to rubble in Ramadi to begin creating a new mini-Green Zone but the reality is that the Green Zone of today isn't the Green Zone of three years ago. Just as the situation in Iraq has gotten worse in the country, it's getting worse for the Green Zone as well. The 'palace' is no longer a safe place by comparison.

So maybe a number of people will soon begin facing the reality they've denied for some time. (In print, in Dexy's case -- yes, he's quite the honesty broker outside the Times -- I don't care. He's paid to write for the Times, that's where he needs to be honest.)

Marring today's article (by Semple) is the continued reliance on SITE. We've covered the problems with SITE before and with Rita Katz (or whatever her name might be today). It may surprise those who only read one newspaper, but SITE's not the vastly quoted and depended upon site the paper of record tries to turn it into. Not even within the mainstream media. Katz herself would have a hard time doing a triple-play on the morning network shows because she's raised enough issues about herself via her false identity earlier and her comments to the foreign press. The paper would do well to move away from their continued reliance on that organization.

Semple notes the discovery of five corpses on Tuesday. (We didn't include a corpse count in the snapshot yesterday, which is why I'm noting it in this entry.) He also ups the mimimum number of deaths Sunday to thirty (they were higher than that, he notes "at least thirty") and does the same with Monday (ditto).

Which brings us to the larger issue, at the end of this month, will there be any effort to get a count from the US government?

Nancy A. Youssef and Aaron Glantz remain two of the few who have bothered to note the news that the despite the oft bandied around claim, the US government is doing body counts. Youssef confirmed that with a general who went on the record for her. Glantz confirmed it with what I'm remembering as a press briefing where it was noted. No one's following up on their reporting.

The US government figures are going to be lower. Anyone who lived through Vietnam is fully aware of that but for those who missed that period you need only look to the coverage in the Times (which Semple put in perspective and Wong just tossed out) to see that will happen. The point isn't those numbers are more reliable. They're not.

The point is a number is being kept, despite the lies otherwise.

When did they start keeping that number? What is it currently? What was it when the Bully Boy used the numbers from that organization that, as Dahr Jamail has pointed out, should pack it in because it's doing more harm than good at this point?

Those are serious questions. We're not seeing them addressed.

Martha notes Joshua Partlow and Saad al-Izzi's "From Baghdad Mosque, a Call to Arms" (Washington Post):

According to witnesses and a Washington Post special correspondent, carloads of men in tracksuits, suspected by residents to be members of the powerful Shiite militia known as the Mahdi Army, pulled up outside the Malouki mosque and fired rocket-propelled grenades at the house of worship. During the firefight, a bullet pierced the shoulder of a mosque guard. Cars were gutted and burned. Residents said they did not know how many people died.
Gunfire clattered through the hot evening air; children bawled at the sound. In one home, a wife locked the front door and pleaded with her husband not to leave the house. A former army officer barked orders to neighbors who assembled to mount a defense: You go up to the rooftops. You guard the street corners.
Saleh Muhammed, an Amiriyah resident, told a Post special correspondent that he dialed 130 into his cellphone, Baghdad's emergency number. "The Mahdi Army has attacked Amiriyah," he told the Interior Ministry dispatcher.
"The Mahdi Army are not terrorists like you," said the dispatcher at the ministry, which is controlled by a Shiite party and operates closely with militias. "They are people doing their duty. And how could you know that they are the Mahdi Army? Is it written on their foreheads?" He hung up the phone.
Violence around Iraq claimed the lives of at least 50 people on Tuesday, as politicians across the country's political spectrum said months of sectarian killing had turned into civil war.

Brady notes Katrina vanden Heuvel's "David Brooks--Just Another Joe Lieberman Fan" (Editor's Cut, The Nation):

David Brooks had a laughable column in Sunday's New York Times.
"What's happening to Lieberman can only be described as a liberal inquisition," Brooks proclaims. What Brooks characterizes as an "inquisition" -- an effort, as he puts it, "to expel Joe Lieberman from modern liberalism"-- is simply a spirited effort to elect a Senator who better represents the values of Connecticut's citizens. That's not ideological purity . It's about organized people holding accountable a legislator who has acted as an unflinching supporter of this disastrous war.
Brooks--who likes to play populist--can't hide his contempt for the ordinary citizen-voters of Connecticut. Apparently, he's forgotten what elections are about. He derides "fundamentalists of both parties who believe that politics should be about party discipline, passion, purity, orthodoxy or clear choices." What's wrong about a politics that gives voters "clear choices"? As Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson put it, "Now, maybe I've had this backward all my life, but I thought that elections were held to enable voters to choose between candidates espousing different points of view on the most important issues." What's wrong with bringing some passion back into our politics, which has been dominated for too long by inside-the-beltway, well-paid consultants and pollsters.

As members should remember, Brady said here in January 2005 that he would not vote for Lieberman under any circumstances. That's noted because there's a visitor with a question about the 'plot' against Lieberman. There's no plot on our part, he's a really bad senator. If there's a 'plot' eslewhere, you'll need to ask elsewhere. In terms of KvH, The Nation's Nov. 2004 editorial laid down the same marker that Brady is using so there's no 'plot' on the part of The Nation either. These markers were laid down and he chose to ignore him. If there are elements that are 'plotting' to bring down Lieberman, he -- though two writers at The Guardian will never believe that because they've been moist in the boxers for Lieberman for years now -- brought it on himself. The winds of change were in the air and noted. He has only himself to blame. On our end, we serve the community and we're anti-war. No 'plot' was needed to turn agaisnt Lieberman.

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







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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Democracy Now: Sara Rich, Stephen Grey

Video Claims Soldier Killings Revenge For Rape, Killings
Meanwhile, an al-Quaida-linked group has released a video claiming last month's abduction and murder of two US soldiers was in revenge for the rape and killings. The video shows the mutilated bodies of two soldiers, believed to be Private Kristian Menchaca and Private Thomas Tucker. The two were from the same unit as the five accused soldiers.
Human Rights Minister: Iraq Seeks Revocation of US Immunity
Meanwhile, in another major development, Iraq's human rights minister said Monday he will ask the United Nations to stop granting U.S. troops immunity from local prosecution. We'll have more on the Iraq rape and murder case later in the broadcast.
White House Releases Controversial Cuba Plan
The Bush administration has unveiled a controversial new plan for intervening in Cuba's political affairs. The Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba has produced a report calling on the US to spend millions of dollars supporting opponents of Fidel Castro.
  • Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice: ''The commission's recommendations include concrete support for democratic change in Cuba. Under a new two-year, $80 million program, we are stepping up our efforts along multiple fronts. We are increasing our determination to break the regime's information blockade, and we are offering support for the efforts of Cubans to prepare for the day when they will recover their sovereignty and can select a government of their choosing through free and fair multi-party elections.''
The promised funding has been billed as "democracy promotion." Critics say it will work to undermine Cuba's government the same way the US democracy funding has destabilized democratically-elected regimes in other countries such as Haiti and Venezuela. Cuba's government has likened the new program to a declaration of war.
Bush Admin Seeks Another NSA Suit Dismissal
In Detroit, the Bush administration has asked a federal court to dismiss another lawsuit challenging the National Security Agency's domestic spying. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of a group including scholars, attorneys, journalists and NGOs that regularly make phone calls or send e-mails to the Middle East. The Bush administration has also asked a federal judge to dismiss a parallel suit filed here in New York.
Widow of Al Jazeera Correspondent Sues Bush Administration
The wife of slain Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Ayoub is bringing a lawsuit against the Bush administration for her husband's death. On April 8 2003, Ayoub was reporting from Al Jazeera's offices when he was killed by a US missile. An attorney for his widow, Dima Tahboub, says the case is being launched in part from the disclosure in London's Daily Mirror President Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair of his desire to bomb Al Jazeera's headquarters in Qatar. The Mirror cited a secret memo leaked from the British government. A recent book from investigative journalist Run Suskind bolstered the accusations based on his interviews with unnamed US intelligence officials.


Ex-Intel Director Links Pinochet To Cocaine Trade
In Chile, a jailed ex-intelligence director has linked former dictator Augusto Pinochet to the country's cocaine trade. The Chilean newspaper La Nacion says Manuel Contreras -- the ex-director of the Intelligence Service -- told a judge Pinochet manufactured and trafficked cocaine during his seventeen year rule. Contreras also implicated several members of Pinochet´s family. Pinochet's family denies the allegations. Pinochet has been indicted for several human rights abuses committed under his regime. He has been able to avoid most of them by convincing judges he is in poor health. He is also facing money laundering charges.



The above six items are from today's Democracy Now! Headlines and were selected by Kara, Brandon, Charlie, Sabina, Marcus and Liang. Democracy Now! ("always informing you," as Marcia says):

Headlines for July 11, 2006

- Report: Pentagon Grants Detainees Minimal Geneva Protections
- US Identifies 4 Soldiers Charged in Iraq Rape Killings
- Video Claims Soldier Killings Revenge For Rape, Killings
- Human Rights Minister: Iraq Seeks Revocation of US Immunity
- Lopez Obrador Releases Video of Apparent Ballot Stuffing
- Chechen Rebel Leader Dies in Accidental Bombing
- Israel Destroys Northern Gaza Bridge, Rejects Prisoner Swap
- Ex-Intel Director Links Pinochet To Cocaine Trade
- White House Releases Controversial Cuba Plan
- Widow of Al Jazeera Correspondent Sues Bush Administration

Italian Probe of CIA Abduction Broadens to Domestic Spying Scandal and "Black Propaganda" Misinformation Campaign by Italy Intel

Two Italian intelligence officers have been arrested on charges they helped CIA agents abduct a Muslim cleric off the streets off Milan three years ago. Italian investigators are now widening their probe into whether Italian intelligence agents were engaged in illegal domestic spying and a "black propaganda campaign of misinformation.
Excerpt:
AMY GOODMAN: Now, can you talk, Stephen Grey, about the part of the story that has come out with investigators coming into this apartment, or this office, that turns out to be a major site of Italian intelligence and how they've discovered this whole illegal surveillance operation?
STEPHEN GREY: That's right. They were listening to these senior Italian intelligence officials talking to each other. They then realized they were talking to an official who seemed to be helping them with their inquiries. And what they were doing was they were actually monitoring the investigations by the prosecutor in Milan against them. And they were getting some information. It appeared to be coming from journalists, who the Italian intelligence were actually recruiting, it's alleged, and sending to the prosecutor, to sort of do a rather bogus interview and find out what he was up to and how he was getting on with his inquiries.
And that operation centered in a flat, an 11-room flat, an attic, actually, apartment in the center of Rome. And last week, last Wednesday, they actually raided this place to find out what was there. And not only did they find evidence of this operation to monitor the Milan inquiry, but also boxes and boxes of files, which, according to investigators, contained information about magistrates, prosecutors, politicians and other journalists. It seems like a whole surveillance network they've uncovered in this way. It all remains to be proved, but that's what they're looking at at the moment.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, they have journalists' names there. Journalists who they investigated? Journalists who apparently were on the payroll? These were conservative journalists from the newspaper, Libero?
STEPHEN GREY: They allege that there's a rightwing newspaper, where they actually recruited journalists from. And they were used to plant -- they planted articles in their newspaper. And they were used to go and find out information. They also were monitoring the activities of other journalists who were perhaps more not so sympathetic, and they were actually putting wiretaps on them and tailing them. That's what they allege, and that's what they're investigating now. It seems like quite a -- the Italian newspapers refer to this as a center of black propaganda, of misinformation. It’s caused quite a scandal in Italy, well beyond the actual investigation into rendition.
AMY GOODMAN: And the investigators have also found what they said were drafts of articles, including one suggesting a smear campaign against Prime Minister Romano Prodi, which was published in Libero?
STEPHEN GREY: That's right. And it accused Romano Prodi of complicity in the CIA rendition program. This article was written after Prodi became prime minister. If that is true, that would amount to a gross disloyalty against the prime minister, because these people were supposedly working for this new prime minister.

Iraqi Journalist Details Family Accounts of Iraq Rape, Killings

The U.S. military has identified the four soldiers charged with raping an Iraqi teenager and murdering her and three family members. We go to Baghdad to speak with an Iraqi journalist with the Los Angeles Times who interviewed the cousin of the family, Abu Firas Janabi - he says he was the first person to enter the house after the attack.

Mother of Sexually Harassed Soldier Recounts Ordeal as Daughter Remains Confined to Base

We speak with Sara Rich, the mother of Army Specialist Suzanne Swift. Swift has been arrested and confined to base for going AWOL after her charges of sexual harassment and assault went un-addressed by the military. She turns 22 years old on Saturday. [includes rush transcript]
Excerpt:
SARA RICH:We did a vigil for her that Monday, because she was taken Sunday night. We did a vigil, and she was watching us. I didn't know she could see us. There was like 70 people outside, and we were all saying how much we love Suzanne. "Suzanne, we support you." She’s like, "I was banging on the window." I couldn’t see her. So -- sorry, I don't know why I'm crying so hard. So, she said that was the first night she had cried really hard for a long time. She said she cried all night in her cell. And she was all by herself. So she --
AMY GOODMAN: She's 21?
SARA RICH: Yeah, she's 21 right now. It's the point where, you know, the frontal lobes connect. This is a real delicate time for people, and by the way she's having to grow up. So they transported her to Fort Lewis, and they returned her to her unit under the supervision of the first -- the sergeant, platoon sergeant, that, you know, said, "Do you want to have sex with me?" in the jeep. And she called me. She said, "Guess who’s supervising me." And I said, "Who?" She said Sergeant -- this sergeant. And I said, "Oh, hell no!"
And I called the attorney. I called the senator's office. I said, "She cannot be under this man's care, because this is one of the perpetrators." So they had to fight to get her out of that unit, but they did and got a no-contact order for this sergeant. And first, they were making a buddy system, where she couldn’t be alone. And then it was confined to barracks, then confined to base. And then, I went up a couple weeks ago and got to see her. And I’ve seen her twice since then. And then, now we're just waiting for charges to be filed against her -- nothing has been filed so far -- and pressing charges against the three sergeants.
AMY GOODMAN: Sara, can you talk about when she was first brought for psychological tests? This is when she's still confined to base.
SARA RICH: Oh, sure. Monday, June 26, I get a call from her at 8:00 in the morning, and she's crying. And I said, “What's going on, babe? What’s going on?” She said, “Mom, they have me at the hospital, and they're trying to give me a psych eval.” And I said, “Wait a minute. They can't do that unless your attorney or I are there. Somebody needs to be there with you.” Because, you know, I didn't want her to be re-traumatized or have her go through this whole psych eval, which she’s already had to go through, you know? Sexual assault victims aren't supposed to be interviewed and dealt with in this way for mental health reasons. I said, "They can't do that if your attorney is not there and I’m not there." And she said, "Well, they're making me do it, and they're telling me I have to be here." So I said, "Well, don't say anything and don't sign anything.” I said, “I’m calling your attorney."
I couldn't get a hold of the attorney, so I called Senator Wyden, Senator Murray and Congressman DeFazio's office and told all three of them that it was an emergency and they needed to intervene on Suzanne's behalf. And they eventually did, and Suzanne was taken back to her barracks.



Iraq snapshot.

Chaos and violence continue . . . to continue.

And are we surprised? The usual Hawsk strut and pander while the violence claims more lives.

Bombings?

As Sandra Lupien noted on today's KPFA's The Morning Show, 2 bombers blew themselves up "outside the so-called Geen Zone." Along with being home to various embedded reporters and their bodygaurds, the Green Zone also houses Iraq's parliament, Defense Ministry, High Criminal Court and the US embassy -- a huge complex, as the AP noted in April, with "21 buildings on 103 acres" which makes it "six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York, and two-thirds the acreage of Washington's National Mall."

The 'grandness' of it all suggests to some that the United States has no intent of handing over power or leaving. On the latter, Robert MacPherson (Mail & Guardian) reports that today, in England, Tony Blair announced England wasn't withdrawing anytime soon and that his wife, Cherie Booth, explained that he wasn't ready to step down. England's prime minister demonstrated what long ago led to him being dubbed the Bully Boy's poodle as he took slams at two nations in a single sentence: "Not for us the malaise of France or the angst of Germany."

In other nonsense, Gulf Times reports the William McCoy (US Army Corps of Engineers, "Major General") believes that, by the end of summer, electricity in Baghdad might be available for eleven hours. That's apparently "eleven hours" on some sort of Operation Happy Talk Clock since McCoy notes that right now electricity is available for six to eight hours -- a claim most media reports dismiss and note the figure is closer to between two and four hours a day.

More nonsense comes from Angel Ortiz (the Army Corps seems to have hacks and flacks all over today issuing press releases) who maintains that by the end of the year Falluja will have "clean water" in 80 percent of all homes as well as "an $8 million wireless telecommunications project". Falluja was reduced to rubble in November 2004 (the article notes the need to more "laborers to haul away seemingly endless piles of rubble) and there's been little done to assist or help with many residents of Falluja who fled as the US forces began their attacks nearly two years ago, still homeless. Expect both inflated predictions to be forgotten as the deadlines draw near.

Meanwhile back in the real word, Sunni parliamentarian Ayad al-Samaraie has asked that the United Nations supply peace keepers immediately due to the fact that: "the occupation forces cannot protect the people." This as the Associated Press estimates the chaos and the violence in Iraq today claimed the lives of "at least 47 people nationwide." (Look for the New York Times to pooh-pah that number as they've done with press reports for the last two days -- today with Edward Wong, yesterday with Kirk Semple. If you thought it was hard work selling an illegal war, step back and watch the paper of no record really get down to the business of selling the illegal occupation.)

Early on, the BBC estimated that the bombings in the Green Zone resulted in five deaths and ten injured. Reuters woud place the fatalities at 15 as the day wore on. Al Jazeera notes that in addition to the two bombers who blew themselves up, there was also a car bomb. The BBC notes that police assume the target was "a restaurant frequented by police" while the AP reports that Gufran al-Saadi (female Shi'ite parliamentarian) states that she believes she was the target. The car bomb went of near the restaurant, according to Al Jazeera, while "[a]n Aljazeera witness" place one of the bombers "in front of the governmental compound in the Green Zone".

The BBC reports the kidnapping of Wissam Jabr in Baghdad "an Iraqi foreign ministry official who had been serving as a diplomat in neighbouring Iran." Reuters reports his name as Wissam Abdulla al-Awadi.

Also in Baghdad, Reuters notes that "eight employees of an Iarqge contracting company" were killed when their office was stormed by "gunmen" while the Associated Press notes two bakery workers were shot dead while on the job. CBS and the AP report two more bombs in Baghdad (one under a fuel tanker, the other a car bomb) that resulted in the death of at least four and and twenty-four wounded).

Outside of Baghdad, CBS and the AP report that "an engineer with Iraq's North Oil Co. and his driver" were ambushed and killed in Kirkuk. Reuters reports the shooting deaths of 19 in Baquba and of nine (Iraq soldiers) in Al-Shirqat. And the AP reports that, in Tikrit, three people were wounded when a bomb went off near a "private clinic." Later the three wounded would become two wounded and one dead. Dr. Amira Qassim al-Rubaie died, "the wife of the governor of the dangerous Salahuddin province".

Reuters notes the end of the Sunni boycott of parliament following the kidnapping of Taiseer Najah al-Mashhadani. (No, al-Mashhadani has not been released.) The Associated Press quotes Adnan al-Dulaimi: "We have decied to attend the meetings as of tomorrow in response to the call Muqtada al-Sadr." Various reports note that those holding al-Mashhadani have stated they are treating her as "a guest" and that she will be released in the next few days. Reuters notes that the Iraqi Accordance Front (the Sunni bloc in parliament with 44 seats) has been in contact with the kidnappers.

In the United States, Amy Goodman interviewed Sara Rich, the mother of Suzanne Swift who went AWOL and was arrested in last month. Rich explained Swift's case, noting the sexual harrassment of her daughter was ongoing: "So this other sergeant started pursuing her and finally coerced her into having a sexual relationship with her. And I’ve learned now what that's called is 'command rape,' when the person that has a direct life-or-death decision over you in a combat zone coerces you into having sex, it's called 'command rape.' And he would sabotage her and do really mean things to her. He would show up in her room, in her bunk, in the middle of the night, drunk. And just horrible, you know. And she would call me, crying."

On July 15th, a rally will be held "at the gates of Ft. Lewis in Tacoma, WA." Courage to Resist is getting the word on that event. Kevin Zeese recently spoke with Max Diorio who explained "resisters need to feel that they are being upheld and supported by people in their communities. To take such a large step into the unknown, it is invaluable for resisters to feel that they'll have people to rely on when they are being persecuted by the US military."


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