I just read this book, and it's fan-fucking-tastic. I think I want to read it over again. It explains in a fast-paced, extremely engagingly way how the right-wing spent 50 years building their juggernaut and then used September 11th to accelerate it. An excerpt:

It has taken more than half a century for the right wing to achieve the power that it now enjoys in American politics, and it is unrealistic to imagine that its successes can be quickly reversed. There is no reason, however, to expect that turning the tide will take another half century. Information and events move quickly today, and people possess tools for organizing that did not exist in the past, such as the Internet. Solutions often do not become clear until after the fact, but hopefully some lessons can be drawn from studying how the right has organised itself.

You can start studying with this book. Read an excerpt here and also check out the authors Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber's website PR Watch.org here.

Asked how many American troops have died in Iraq, the Pentagon's No. 2 civilian estimated Thursday the total was about 500 -- more than 200 soldiers short.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was asked about the toll at a hearing of a House Appropriations subcommittee. "It's approximately 500, of which -- I can get the exact numbers -- approximately 350 are combat deaths," he responded [more]

United States soldiers at a prison outside Baghdad have been accused of forcing Iraqi prisoners into acts of sexual humiliation and other abuses.

The charges, first announced by the military in March, were documented by photographs taken by guards in the prison.

...

In another, a prisoner stands on a box, his head covered, wires attached to his body. The news show said that, according to the army, he had been told that if he fell off the box he would be electrocuted. Other photographs show male prisoners positioned to simulate sex with each other.

"The pictures show Americans, men and women, in military uniforms, posing with naked Iraqi prisoners," a transcript said.

"And in most of the pictures, the Americans are laughing, posing, pointing or giving the camera a thumbs-up."

Torture, The American Way

When the US began shipping prisoners to Guantanamo Bay to be held indefinitely away from the prying eyes of the world, talk of torture circulated. A December 26, 2002 Washington Post report pointed out that not only prisoners being forced to stand or kneel in uncomfortable positions for hours at the CIA interrogation centre un Bagram, but were being subjected to such interrogation techniques as sleep deprivation and being kept under bright lights for twenty four hour periods. In the same report the Washington Post also said that prisoners who would not cooperate were sometimes "rendered" to other states for further interrogation.

In other words, if the milder forms of torture being used by the US aren't getting results, they send the person to be interrogated by a country that will not hesitate to use much harsher forms of torture. It is kind of like outsourcing jobs, but more extreme. Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco are some of the places where the US has sent prisoners for further interrogation. These are all countries known to use torture during interrogation and as punishment.

The US uses other countries so it can maintain the appearance of abiding by international laws and agreements. In reality this no different than performing the torture themselves, but they hide behind the distinction. The US seems much less concerned about even bothering to maintain that illusion under the Bush regime.

Alpha Politics

By Madeleine Begun Kane

"A" is for John Ashcroft and the liberties he's mauled.

"B" is for Barb Bush and hub. Dub's birth is all their fault.

"C" is for Ms. Condi Rice, who speaks so many lies.

"D" is for the Dixie Chicks, who dare to Bush despise.

"E" is for our soon to be Ex-Prez George Dubya Bush.

"F" is for Al Franken, and his mean and funny Rush.

"G" is for Gen. Boykin, who believes Bush speaks with God.

"H" is for Ms. Karen Hughes, who's tall of tale and bod.

The rest is posted here and
here.

Maybe there is a God?

I hadn't even noticed that the name of the firm that facilitated the blog monitoring discussion was Open Source Solutions. OSS.

As in OSS.

You know, I really don't know what to think of this story (and it sounds like a story). I mean, what useful and timely information could the intelligence apparatchiks hope to get from a blog? While I certainly think that there are scores of resourceful and evocative writers out there, and hundreds more tireless and info-hungry blogeurs who aggregate and absorb information to present to others, is there any information that comes into the blogosphere that an operative couldn't gain by, you know, doing his or her job in the field?

Do they think that there are hundreds of little-known Raeds posting al-Sadr militia positions, or uploading real-time declarations of fugitive al-Qaeda leaders?


8 Rabi al-Awwal

The neighbor's donkey won't stop braying.

I want to throw a shoe at it, but the trigger-happy
infidel Marines will think I'm tossing a grenade
and level the house.

Spoke to Zarqawi last night about the next truck
bombing. They'll be using 20kg of explosives
from the Kut stockpile (the secret stash that
Saddam so masterfully used to hide the Ames-strain
anthrax spores). I asked who the shaheed would be,
but Z was mum about it... he wants to keep that
out of the street until after the attack. I think
it might be one of the fighters who had just come
in from Kuwait -- wait till the Americans find that out.
But they'll probably lie and blame it on Syria again.

Justice will rain on these invaders, inshallah.
But I wish someone would deal with that donkey first.

posted by Rolyat al-Nomad, 01:55 Makka -- [permalink]

Here's a fair rendering of recent events in Iraq, I think, in my own adjusted-for-effect prose:

The US army insists that its devastating invasion of Fallujah earlier this month was intended to root out the infrastructure of the Iraqi insurgents, particularly the authors of a vicious attack on American contractors. It now says the dead were mostly fighters. And, as always – although its daily behavior in occupied Iraq contradicts this claim – it insists that it did everything possible to protect civilians.

But Al Jazeera has unearthed a different story. It has found that, while the US operation clearly dealt a devastating blow to the resistance – in the short term, at least – more than half of the Iraqi dead who have been identified so far were civilians, including women, children and the elderly. They died amid a ruthless and brutal American operation, in which many individual atrocities occurred, and which the CPA is seeking to hide by launching a massive propaganda drive.

The assault on Fallujah by the US forces began early on 5 April. One week earlier, four US contractors escorting a food convoy into the city were killed and mutilated by a mob of angry residents. This horrific slaughter reverberated in media around the world, making it the most vivid image of the violence facing the occupational authorities in Iraq, a singularly evil moment even by the standards of the bloody insurgency countered by US forces since the fall of Baghdad.

Ok, now compare and contrast with what appeared in the Independent on April 25, 2002:

The Israeli army insists that its devastating invasion of the refugee camp in Jenin earlier this month was intended to root out the infrastructure of the Palestinian militias, particularly the authors of an increasingly vicious series of suicide attacks on Israelis. It now says the dead were mostly fighters. And, as always – although its daily behavior in the occupied territories contradicts this claim – it insists that it did everything possible to protect civilians.

But The lndependent has unearthed a different story. We have found that, while the Israeli operation clearly dealt a devastating blow to the militant organizations – in the short term, at least – nearly half of the Palestinian dead who have been identified so far were civilians, including women, children and the elderly. They died amid a ruthless and brutal Israeli operation, in which many individual atrocities occurred, and which Israel is seeking to hide by launching a massive propaganda drive.

The assault on Jenin refugee camp by Israel's armed forces began early on 3 April. One week earlier, 30 miles to the west in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya, a Hamas suicide bomber had walked into a hotel and blown up a roomful of people as they were sitting down to celebrate the Passover feast. This horrific slaughter on one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar killed 28 people, young and old, making it the worst Palestinian attack of the intifada, a singularly evil moment even by the standards of the long conflict between the two peoples.

Some will think this is an unfair comparison, or a stretch that isn't completely tenable. Obviously, I don't think that's the case. The US announced it would be "exporting Jenin to Iraq," in Nigel Parry's foreboding words, and it looks to be doing precisely that.

Unless, of course, you're really, really afraid of what she might say...

"The Bush administration will today seek to prevent a former FBI translator from providing evidence about 11 September intelligence failures to a group of relatives and survivors who have accused international banks and officials of aiding al-Qa'ida.

"Sibel Edmonds was subpoenaed by a law firm representing more than 500 family members and survivors of the attacks to testify that she had seen information proving there was considerable evidence before September 2001 that al-Qa'ida was planning to strike the US with aircraft. The lawyers made their demand after reading comments Mrs Edmonds had made to The Independent.

"But the US Justice Department is seeking to stop her from testifying, citing the rarely used 'state secrets privilege.' Today in a federal court in Washington, senior government lawyers will try to gag Mrs Edmonds, claiming that disclosure of her evidence 'would cause serious damage to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.'"

I received this from one of my former AmeriCorps supervisors,
in response to my bit about the soldiers' coffins controversy.


"I am sure you have seen the media coverage on Pat Tillman, the young Army Ranger who was killed in Afghanistan last week. He had been a football star and turned down a multimillion dollar contract with the NFL to serve his country. Pat was my cousin and the family has requested that I attend the funeral (whenever and wherever that will be; they still can't get the body out because the fighting is so bad).

"I can only say that the news media covering his death and honoring his convictions (not necessarily my own) has been comforting for me. I can only think that the majority of the families that have suffered this kind of loss would receive more comfort from the honest truth and [fully disclosed] recognition of their loved ones' sacrifices, which have followed in the wake of one of our country's greatest dysfunctional behaviors: DENIAL.

"This insane denial system toward reality, which the current administration has perfected to an art, is what will ultimately be our greatest handicap and failure."

"The official estimate of the US military budget is US$400 billion. When the costs of other defence-related activities are added, such as Homeland Security, the nuclear weapons program of the Department of Energy, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, etc., then the 2004 fiscal year figure reaches the tragic total of $754 billion, twice the GDP of Russia.

"If this amount was poured into poverty programs, al Qaeda would be short of recruits. According to the UN, around 6% of this budget -- a mere $40 billion -- would ensure the essentials of life to everyone in the world."

"Following a contentious six-hour hearing during which the Voting Systems and Procedures Panel grilled Diebold president Bob Urosevich about his company's business practices, the panel voted to recommend decertifying the Diebold AccuVote-TSx machine, which was used for the first time in California during the March primary in Kern, San Joaquin, Solano and San Diego counties.

"The panel also recommended that Shelley ask the state attorney general to examine the possibility of bringing civil and criminal charges against Diebold for violating California election codes, which state that vendors cannot change software without notifying the secretary of state's office. The codes also say that no vendor can install uncertified software on voting systems.

"Last November, the state discovered that Diebold had installed uncertified software on its voting machines in 17 counties without notifying state officials or, in some cases, even county officials who were affected by the changes.

"Diebold said it was not entirely responsible for the installation of uncertified software and systems in California because changes in certification practices at the federal level had caused delays with certification and that state rules about certification were confusing.

"But state undersecretary and panel chairman Mark Kyle said the company's excuses rang "hollow" and that the state's rules were extremely clear. He expressed anger that Diebold had been deceptive about advance knowledge of problems with its smart card encoder before the March primary. He also accused the company of "switch-and-bait" tactics in trying to pass off uncertified software as certified software and suggested that the company might have colluded with the federal testing lab, Wyle Laboratories, to get its system through the California investigation."

US Right's pet Iraqi to be frozen out

"Yesterday the Washington Post reported that [Ahmed] Chalabi is likely to be the most senior of a number of members of the Iraqi Governing Council who will be sidelined when a new interim government is selected to run Iraq after the transfer of sovereignty on 30 June.

"According to the newspaper, Washington is also considering cutting off the $340,000 monthly stipend to Chalabi's INC party, which has been accused of inappropriately using the money to lobby in the US.

"Chalabi and the INC are also accused of being the main source of much of the -- now disproved -- intelligence, fed to the CIA and other agencies, about Saddam's WMD programmes, which formed a large part of the case for invasion.

"The former financier (who is still sought in Jordan for theft from his own bank [whoops]) has presided over a shambolic programme of de- Baathification, say insiders. In an address on Friday designed to promote national reconciliation, Iraq's American administrator, Paul Bremer, said complaints that the programme was 'unevenly and unjustly' administered were 'legitimate' and that the programme had been 'poorly implemented.'"

Right...

A woman, a motorcycle, a geiger counter and the open road- through Chernobyl. Read the photo-journal "Ghost Town".

Truth can leap out to us readily from art, the link I offer you combines mathematics and and a sense of the sublime essence driving our ongoing evolution as humans in our world, timeless wisdom meeting the information age to allow us to see all we are and can be as we navigate our "critterhood", -we need context. For our species and all others to survive a radical return to our earthly roots seems to be required. Our sense of the sacred needs to be reaquainted with our sense of being, of being-in-the-world. Then we have a more powerful, more stable place to act from. Our modern world relies too heavily on the abstract. Our lives as we live them are based on the Earth.

Peter Champoux has done some remarkable work uniting geomancy (gaiamancy) with fractal geometry. Take some time to explore the Geometry of Place. It is eye opening and thought provoking. Refining this work has occupied him for years, and I thank him his continuing efforts.

Enjoy...
_edited

Bugs need love... and we need bugs

Animals getting it on...

"You can have the best sperm in the world, but if you are not interested in inseminating females, it is not going to get delivered," said Anne Perkins, who worked at the sheep station in the early 1990s. She found that 8 to 10 per cent of the rams would shun willing females and try to mount other males.

The gay rams aren't alone. "There is homosexual behaviour throughout the animal kingdom, documented all over the place," ranging from lesbian macaque monkeys in the forests of Japan to gay penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York, noted Prof. Perkins, who is now chairwoman of the psychology department at Carroll College in Montana.

...and getting high:

The bottom line: animals like to get high – hundreds of animal species, from the ant to the elephant, actively seek out hallucinogenic plants. Samorini is careful to distinguish between accidental intoxication – nature’s equivalent of being spiked – and the deliberate, methodical, at times even aggressive search for psychedelic satisfaction. This somewhat startling fact raises vital questions, not least that of animal consciousness.

If even an ant can tell the difference between being straight and high, in this instance by sucking secretions from the abdomen of a lomechusa beetle, what does this tell us about the consciousness of something like a mandrill, which munches the intensely potent iboga root, then waits up to two hours for the effects to kick in before engaging in territorial battle with another mandrill? Equally fascinating is the fact that many animals appear to use psychedelics recreationally – and that not all individuals of a particular species will indulge, just as some humans are more partial to tripping out than others. One in the eye for the stark behaviourists, it would seem.

"Sometimes a guy will go down, and I'll let him scream a bit to destroy the morale of his buddies," a Marine corporal said, "then I'll use a second shot." ("For Marine snipers, war is up close and personal", Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2004)

In nearly two weeks of conflict in Falluja, the unnamed corporal has emerged as the top sniper, with 24 confirmed kills. By comparison, the top Marine Corps sniper in Vietnam killed 103 people in 16 months. "I couldn't have asked to be in a better place," the corporal said. "I just got lucky: to be here at the right time and with the right training."

"Crushing Falluja, Part 2" by David Edwards and MediaLens.
MediaLens is a web resource you should know about. Link reference gleaned at Dissident Voice.

"This is how Nicole Goodwin travels these days:
with her 1-year-old daughter pressed to her chest
in a Snugli, a heavy backpack strapped across her shoulders,
and a baby stroller crammed with as many bags of clothes
and diapers as it can hold. When you are a homeless
young mother, these are the things you carry.

"And tucked away somewhere are the documents
attesting to Ms. Goodwin's recent honorable discharge
from the United States Army, as well as
Baghdad memories that are still fresh."

"An initial review of the images featured on the Internet site www.thememoryhole.org shows that more than 18 rows of images from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware are actually photographs of honors rendered to Columbia's seven astronauts."

"I firmly believe that if the politicians could figure out a way to make abortion illegal
for white women but not women of color, they'd be sending limos to take us to the clinics."

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Our clients include federal law enforcement agencies, the Department of Defense, Department of State, and Department of Transportation, local and state entities from around the country, multi-national corporations, and friendly nations from all over the globe.

We customize and execute solutions for our clients to help keep them at the level of readiness required to meet today's law enforcement, homeland security, and defense challenges.-- Blackwater USA _{emphasis mine}

I'm amazed and discomfitted by the fact that there are more highly paid mercenaries carrying guns for the coalition in Iraq (20,000) than British troops, the largest "nation owned" coalition force. How can the US pay up to 1800 dollars a day for privatized troops when our enlisted folks don't make that in a month? Will our people get so used to the concept that we might one day let these corporate "troops" walk the streets of America as if they were American soldiers?

Now, the Washington Post claims that private security firms, "unable to rely on U.S. and coalition troops for intelligence or help under duress...have begun to band together, organising what may be the largest private army in the world, with its own rescue teams and pooled, sensitive intelligence."

This blurring of civilian and military forces does not bode well for what is supposed to be a democratic effort, a "coalition of the billing" unbeholden to "We the People", killing and dying not for the percieved justice of a cause but for big bucks
seems the antithesis of Patriotism, slurring in my mind the reason our volunteer troops are risking life and limb there.
Volunteer troops underpaid, undersupported and forced to buy their own body armor and other equipment, while mercenaries roll in taxpayer cash.

Many security guards are hired as "independent contractors" by companies that, in turn, are sub-contractors of larger security companies, which are themselves subcontractors of a prime contractor, which may have been hired by a United States agency.

In practical terms, these convoluted relationships often mean that the governmental authorities have no real oversight of security companies on the public payroll.

These guns-for-hire are not considered "lawful combatants" under the 3rd Geneva convention, nor technically can they be called "mercenaries" because to fit that title they would need to fight in a warzone in which their own country is not a participant. They are not subject to the same rules of engagement as our troops.

Government contracting officials and company executives concede that private guards have every right to abandon their posts if they deem the situation too unsafe. They are not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, nor can they be prosecuted under civil laws or declared AWOL.

Neocon darling Ahmed Chalabi has what amounts to a private army paid for by US tax dollars. The company recieving an 80 million dollar contract protecting Iraqs oil infrastructure, Erinys Iraq, has no prior experience in the security field, having started up in May of last year. The company was started by Chalabi stalwarts- and Chalabi himself may have recieved a 2 million dollar "fee" for helping arrange the contract.

Asked how much influence Chalabi had in the decision to award the contract to Erinys Iraq, Sam Kubba, president of the American Iraqi chamber of commerce, a congressional candidate in Virginia and a businessman with extensive connections in Iraq, said, "100 percent ... and you can quote me on that."

Yup, that Chalabi, he of the useless intelligence that the Neocons used to get the US into Iraq, promulgating his BS through the news media to sway public opinion. He was paid 1 million dollars for his "intelligence".

On Wednesday Mr Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, shrugged off charges that he had deliberately misled US intelligence.

"We are heroes in error," he said in Baghdad. "As far as we're concerned we've been entirely successful.

"That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important."

That is about as good as Mr Bush's "What's the difference?"

Indeed.

"Mercenaries in Iraq" by Chris Laughlin (pdf) is very informative.

Some links gleaned at KathrynCramer.com

Dep. Under Secretary of War John Molino "denied the suggestion that restricting access to the photographs was an attempt at damage limitation by the Bush administration, which is under pressure over its policy of invading and occupying Iraq.

"'I don't see that as our motivation. To be very frank with you, we don't want the remains of our service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice to be the subject of any kind of attention that is unwarranted or undignified,' said Mr Molino."

Unwarranted? Documentation of the shipment of coffins that contain soldiers' remains is not unwarranted. Such an event is the inevitable and unfortunate result of warmaking. Someone died. His or her body was put into a box. This is what happens when humans are sent to fight and kill each other.

To prohibit documentation or publication of these events is to deny that there is a negative aspect to this kind of action. The line about "deferring to the bereaved" is a screen. Who will see photos like these and not empathize with or acknowledge the loss that some family will have to endure? That's being human. I think that it is because our humanity, our emotions and our contemplative selves are stirred by this evidence that the government wants to control it. Human concerns and compassion have a tendency not to square with policy. And when policy leads to an invasion that Paul Wolfowitz himself said "was probably illegal," then it becomes all the more important to hide its negative consequences.

When confronted by the evidence of death, people are reminded of their life. They are reminded that they feel and yearn, that they hope and hurt and fear and love... and they are reminded of how all of that is lost to the dead. Perhaps people will wonder if the person in the box was someone they knew. They might wonder if someone they know will end up in such a box.

Confronted by the evidence of death, people are reminded of their life and the fact that they have voices. Perhaps people will ask when the coffins will stop being shipped, when "victory" will be won. They might not so fervently wave those 99-cent flags if they continue to see flag-draped coffins flown home from countries whose inhabitants don't want to be beholden to our mandates and military force.

Of course, many people will see photos like these and harden their resolve. Their commitment to the cause and to the government will strengthen. They will want the soldiers who have died not to be forsaken, forgotten, or to have died in vain. It's relative. Each individual will see things differently.

However, I think that to deny individuals the opportunity to reflect on these events, to see and read about the effects of this war, is to corrupt the idea of democracy for which these soldiers supposedly died.



And in regard to dignity... no one making decisions in this matter
has the right to speak of it, when 10 Iraqis die for each American,
and so many have been civilians.

But then, how often do you see evidence of that?



Just to add a little background: The ban on showing the arrival of soldiers' coffins began in '91 after a live, split-screen broadcast in '89 that showed George I "acting the fool as the bodies of the men he had sent to war (in Panama) were borne from a military transport."

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This comes from the current week's interview at NewScientist.com.

"[In regard to Sell v. United States], we wanted the court to recognise that we have entered an age where freedom of thought will become meaningless if we don't recognise and protect the individual's right to privacy, autonomy and choice with respect to his or her own brain chemistry.

So who should have control?

It's clear that by manipulating the brain you can change thought, and because your thoughts are central to who you are, and because freedom of thought is necessary for all our other freedoms, it ought to be the case that the individual, as opposed to the government, has the ultimate control over matters of the mind. Without freedom of thought, what freedom remains?

Should the US government use what it calls "pharmacotherapy" in its drugs war?

We have a big report coming out soon on pharmacotherapy. The focus is on how the new breed of neuro-drugs are helping to shift the old rhetoric of the "war on drugs" away from drug users as "the enemy" to being "sick people" who need treatment. It will then become a war of "good" new drugs versus the "bad" drugs. The good drugs are drugs that keep the bad, illegal drugs from passing through the blood-brain barrier. So policing the drug war is going to move from the external world of cops and helicopters to the internal world of increasing pressure to use these "neurocops" to reduce or entirely block the effects of illegal drugs.

Are there such drugs?

There is one under development by a French company called Sanofi-Synthelabo called SR141716 that blocks or reduces the effects of marijuana. It is in Food and Drug Administration clinical trials. The National Institute on Drug Abuse published findings in 2002 showing that this "anti-drug" reduces the effects of smoked marijuana by up to 75 per cent. The US government is serious about this effort to make not only the US but also the rest of the world drug-free, supposedly. It is now shifting this metaphor from "war" to "treatment". And in 2002, the Office of National Drug Control Policy even coined the term "compassionate coercion", saying that people who use illegal drugs are often in denial, so the government needs to act in this compassionately coercive way to get them the treatment that the government says they need.

The bottom line is that cognitive liberty is becoming one of the major civil rights issues of this century. Our goal is to rally the folks interested in fighting on the side of freedom of thought."

A military contractor has fired Tami Silicio, a Kuwait-based cargo worker whose photograph of flag-draped coffins of fallen U.S. soldiers was published in Sunday's edition of The Seattle Times.

Silicio was let go yesterday for violating U.S. government and company regulations, said William Silva, president of Maytag Aircraft, the contractor that employed Silicio at Kuwait International Airport.

"I feel like I was hit in the chest with a steel bar and got my wind knocked out. I have to admit I liked my job, and I liked what I did," Silicio said.

Her photograph, taken earlier this month, shows more than 20 flag-draped coffins in a cargo plane about to depart from Kuwait. Since 1991, the Pentagon has banned the media from taking pictures of caskets being returned to the United States.

That policy has been a lightning rod for debate, and Silicio's photograph was quickly posted on numerous Internet sites and became the subject of many Web conversations. Times Executive Editor Michael R. Fancher yesterday appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" news show with U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., who supported the Pentagon policy prohibiting such pictures.

As a result of the broader coverage, The Times received numerous e-mails and phone calls from across the country — most of which supported the newspaper's decision.

Pentagon officials yesterday said the government's policy defers to the sensitivities of bereaved families. "We've made sure that all of the installations who are involved with the transfer of remains were aware that we do not allow any media coverage of any of the stops until (the casket) reaches its final destination," said Cynthia Colin, a Pentagon spokeswoman. [more]

When the Pentagon says that their policy "defers to the senstivities of bereaved families"--they are, of course, completely full of shit. And while the policy was made back in the early nineties, it wasn't enforced until the Bush administration. Why? Because the Bush administration doesn't want you to see how many Americans are dying because of their lies, of course.

Once again then, let's show that pic:

(Hm, this pic doesn't seem to enlarge on the Seattle Times site when you click on it . . . Also, is this from the same series which Benedict gave us here which he got from the great Bartcop?)

At any rate, in honor of the woman and her husband who lost their job--it behooves you all to show this photo and share this story far and wide.

What if al Qaeda were a bureaucracy—you know, like the U.S. government? What would its inter-cave memoranda say about the state of the U.S. war on terrorism from a jihadist perspective? Here is a guess...

Winner gets 3 nights accommodations in New York City during the Republican National Convention later this year . . . sponsored by High Times magazine, who will also throw in VIP access to all High Times events.

I believe that New Yorkers are going to show the Republicans quite a protest during that convention, and if the cop-work down in Miami for the FTAA meetings recently was training for anything, it was certainly this . . . the result is not going to be harmonious, to say the least.

Robert Fisk, in an interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's show Lateline:

The only people who are talking about civil war at the moment in Iraq are the Americans and the British and the Western journalists who suck up their lines and push it back out as their own analysis.

I haven't actually met an Iraqi who wants a civil war or who's talked about a civil war.

There's never been a civil war in Iraq.

I rather suspect that this danger of civil war -- and I'm guilty before the war quite rightly predicting there might be -- is being pushed out by the Americans and the British in order to frighten the Iraqis into obedience.

"If you don't put your guns down, look what might happen, you'll have civil war."

I think the reason why they're wrong and why I was wrong is that they never appreciated that the Iraqi tribal system covers both communities - many Shiite tribes also are Sunnis, they're in the same tribes.

I went out the other day - and this is an interesting example, to go to the funeral of a doctor, of a Sunni, who had been murdered almost certainly by a Shiite gang of gunmen.

When I said, "What does this make you feel about your neighbours?", they said, "Nothing.

"They're our friends and our comrades and our neighbours."

"Because," he said "our tribes include the Shiites."

The brother of the doctor said, "Look, my wife is a Shiite.

"Want do you want me to do?

"Go and kill her?

"Because my brother was killed by a Shiite?

"No, we will not have a civil war."

So I think possibly there will not [be] a civil war and I think it is becoming highly provocative of the occupying power to constantly talk about it in this way as if they almost want a civil war.

If we journalists started talking it about after the occupation we would have called irresponsible by the occupying power.

So why are they suddenly talking about civil war now?

Good question. You can also watch the interview here.

Reuters  is reporting that "Italy Seizes 8,000 Kalashnikovs Headed to U.S." More:

The arms, worth about six million euros, were discovered aboard a ship arriving from Romania that pulled into the southern Italian port of Gioia Tauro on its way to the United States, Italy's customs said in a statement.

According to travel documents, the arms are the property of a large U.S. company headquartered in the U.S. state of Georgia.

I haven't found a report that says which company. Oh, yeah, and "The customs office said the weapons had been described as "common guns" instead of assault rifles and longer-range combat arms in the travel documentation."

If anyone knows which major corporation in Georgia is smuggling assault rifles into the country. . . DON'T CALL ASHCROFT!


. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Be at peace

...after much ballyhoo concerning largely american mercenaries, bush and co. are looking to create foreign legions of darkies to do their dirty work for them.

those bush advisors were evidently deadly serious about the benefits of outsourcing after all.

perhaps after consultation with sharon last week, bush has decided that the only army in the world - IDF apart - worth having would be rwandan....

and if the americans do succeed in creating and deploying hutu legions, i cannot imagine their european allies smiling on the project. even the germans and japanese will have to rearm seriously at that point.

the republican americans will probably have more luck with the robot soldiers that they are preparing for the next decades of the project of the new american century.

what a great incentive for peace...war with no body bags.

and brigades of overweight american teenagers to man the battle stations by remote. life and death and war become just one great LAN party....

"The prosecutor said that if Vanunu were released, the Americans would probably leave Iraq and go after Israel and Israel's nuclear weapons - which I found extremely ridiculous."

Mordechai Vanunu did a courageous thing, an paid for his act by serving 18 years in the Israeli prison system, 12 of those years in solitary confinement. In 1986 Vanuna outed Israel's advanced nuclear weapons program in a London newspaper in an article entitled "Revealed: The Secrets of Israel's Nuclear Arsenal." He offered the world photographs and testimony proving that Israel possessed nuclear bombs and warheads, even neutron bombs.

"I have sacrificed my freedom and risked my life in order to expose the danger of nuclear weapons which threatens this whole region. I acted on behalf of all citizens and all of humanity."

Over 1500 scientists and intellectuals have supported Vanunu in his efforts at release. Among them 23 Nobel Laureates.

This prisoner of conscience will finally be released on April 21- although he will be held in a prison without walls in a state of internal exile, unallowed to renounce his Israeli citizenship or even going near any port, border or foreign embassy.
He is subject to severe penalties should he break any of these restrictions or even have contact with foreigners. He will be treated as one without a passport and although he can choose which Israeli municipality he will live in he will have to clear traveling outside the municiple borders with police. He cannot talk about his work at the nuclear facility all those years ago or about his kidnapping by Mossad.

Vanunu left his nuclear weapons job and traveled before exposing Israel's nuclear weapons program, spending time in Australia where he converted to the Anglican faith and was disowned by his orthodox Jewish parents. After his act of conscience he was lured from London to Rome by an attractive American woman for an outing that would include visiting her sister.The Florida native was a Mossad agent, Mr Vanunu was drugged and kidnapped from Italy and brought to Israel.

The post sentence restrictions on his life will keep him from being able to see or communicate with his adoptive parents, who are citizens of the US.

I'm out of time...

Now that's sayin' somethin'. To follow up:

"'I've heard the sounds of mortars dropping near by, rifle fire in the streets, but this is like occasional background music. The reality is that it's not all that difficult. There are probably scarier places in downtown Washington DC.'"

The reason we got into so much trouble in Vietnam, and why we are in so much trouble in Iraq now, is that we never learned to use the proper language when referring to these military misadventures. While Democrats and Republicans fight over who best to stick with the blame for our Southeast Asian ass-whipping, both sides remain completely blind to the fact that Vietnam was not really Johnson's or Nixon's Vietnam, any more than Iraq is Bush's Iraq. Vietnam was, first and foremost, Vietnam's Vietnam—and the current absurd debate about the comparison between the two wars has proven that the vast majority of Americans still have trouble grasping that fact.

...If anyone needs a hint as to why the rest of the world hates us so much, this is why. Thirty years after the fact, America still insists on looking at Vietnam as "our national tragedy," the tragedy apparently being 58,000 dead, a regrettable loss of public confidence in the institution of the presidency, a brief period of political turmoil on American campuses, an enduring hesitancy to use military force. Just look at our movies about Vietnam: the tragedy is always the poor Vietnam vet who comes home and suffers through a long period of monosyllabic turmoil and intermittent employment, doomed to live out his days limping around his hometown in boots and a shabby field jacket, wondering where his life went so wrong.

Right. That's the tragedy. Not the indiscriminate murder of one-sixth of Laos. Not the saturation bombing of wide swaths of rural Indochina. Not the turning of ancient cultures into moonscapes. Not the napalming of children or the dropping of mines and CBUs into civilian villages for scare value.

This process is starting all over again. With 58,000 looming in the background, we are starting a new count, which is up to about 640 as of this writing. Do we even count the number of Iraqi dead? Maybe in the daily battle reports, but you have to really look for a running total. I've seen numbers ranging from 10,000 to 15,000, but it's never anything like the concrete numbers we grimly and tearfully assign to coalition deaths. As in the past, we're content to let that other figure drift off into an estimate.

When this whole mess is over, I'm sure we can expect more of the same. With half of Mesopotamia turned to glass, we will build a sunken wall to our boys and give an Oscar to the first director with enough balls to do Saving Private Lynch. We have no shame in this country. [more]

Woodward's Plan of Attack

Continuing where Bush At War left off, Bob Woodward is set to release a new book which probes George Bush's handling of the Iraq mess. The major revelation thus far is that Bush charged Rumsfeld with drawing up a war plan as early as November 2001, something done outside the purview of Congress and even some members of Bush's cabinet. The plan also drew on funds that were actually allocated for operations in Afghanistan.

An extended article about Woodward's findings from the Washington Post outlines some of the faultlines in the administration, most of which have been reported (or at least hinted at) elsewhere: Powell hates Cheney; a possessed Cheney and his minions (Wolfowitz, Feith, and Libby) led the march to war; Condi Rice was in the dark for quite a while.

Interestingly, the Post article even reveals Powell felt Cheney and his boys "had established what amounted to a separate government" with Doug Feith's Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group, which eventually mutated into the Office of Special Plans. Powell went as far as to call Feith's setup a "Gestapo" office.

Nonetheless, the Good General decided to throw his hat into the ring by lobbying for the war before the UN in February 2003, armed with "slam dunk" evidence against Hussein's regime provided by Tenet's CIA. And, well, we all know how that turned out.

The book, titled Plan of Attack, is set for release next week. Woodward will do the customary appearance on CBS' 60 Minutes this Sunday, and will likely unveil further details, most of which do not portray the administration in glowing terms and confirm for the umpeenth time that Iraq was in the crosshairs all along.

The funny thing about Woodward is that while he's an establishment journalist who has been given unprecedented access to the Bush administration because he can be frequently relied upon to fawn in the face of power, it looks like there might be enough material in this new book alone to start impeachment proceedings. Of course, that won't happen, but I suppose we can dream.

Alec of la vie viennoise comes up with his own sequel to the LGF Quiz. Thanks, Alec!

This is an interesting essay about how the political pendulum in the United States swung from liberals to conservatives in 40 years or so. And, moreover, how the pendulum will presumably swing back as movement conservatism collapses in on itself.

Paul Farmer reports from the forgotten land of Haiti. Remember when everyone was in an uproar about the US-aided and abetted coup? Seems so long ago...

Truth is staring us all in the face...
watch video (flash)

"In the war against the militias every door American troops crash through, every civilian bystander shot,there will be many,will make matters worse, for a while. Nevertheless, the first task of the occupation remains the first task of government: to establish a monopoly on violence."--George Will

_{George Will, like many of his ilk did not serve his country when called; yet another right-wing chicken hawk.}

I have come across the George Will quote offered above, twice- here and here. Both articles are relatively short and bear reading.

In light of the above links I offer "Frequently Asked Questions on Occupation" linked from Human Rights Watch.

Senior Commanders of the British military in Iraq have cited US Military treatment of Iraqis as "heavy handed and disproportionate", even "tragic".

The officer explained that, under British military rules of war, British troops would never be given clearance to carry out attacks similar to those being conducted by the US military, in which helicopter gunships have been used to fire on targets in urban areas.

British rules of engagement only allow troops to open fire when attacked, using the minimum force necessary and only at identified targets.

The American approach was markedly different: "When US troops are attacked with mortars in Baghdad, they use mortar-locating radar to find the firing point and then attack the general area with artillery, even though the area they are attacking may be in the middle of a densely populated residential area.

Case in Point: The Iraqi Town of Falluja

I am just going to give you links to follow to look into American use of force. I offer no judgement, having no more insight than you into just what is happening there.
"Sarajevo on the Euphrates: An Eyewitness Account From Inside the US siege of Falluja" by Dahr Jamail
"Eyewitness Report from Falluja" by Jo Wilding
The two accounts above seem to be by people who experienced Falluja together.
"Fallujah Refugees Describe Horrors of U.S. Siege" Aaron Glantz
"Report from Fallujah -- Destroying a Town in Order to Save it" by Rahul Mahajan

After reading those accounts you may get the sense that the US military is emulating the brutal tactics used by the Israeli Defense Force in Occupied Palestine. It seems the US is getting training from Israeli advisors in "urban warfare".

Compare the eyewitness accounts of Falluja with the anecdotal evidence from survivors of what Shimon Peres termed a massacre, the Israeli Defense Forces "Operation Defensive Shield" in Jenin which was launched this time two years ago in the Occupied Territories. Much like Falluja it is an example of your tax dollars at work. In fairness I offer the first person account of a bulldozer driver who spent 75 straight hours on a US made bulldozer drinking whisky and knocking down Palestinian houses.

Many people where inside houses we demolish. They would come out of the houses we where working on. I didn't see, with my own eyes, people dying under the blade of the D-9. and I didn't see house falling down on live people. But if there were any, I wouldn't care at all. I am sure people died inside these houses, but it was difficult to see, there was lots of dust everywhere, and we worked a lot at night. I found joy with every house that came down, because I knew they didn't mind dying, but they cared for their homes. If you knocked down a house, you buried 40 or 50 people for generations. If I am sorry for anything, it is for not tearing the whole camp down.

Iraqi folks have seen this style of occupation for years on their tv sets.

"Moreover, the problem no one really seems to want to address is the Iraqi perception that the US uncritically backs Israel and has strong anti-Islamic elements, and that Iraqis see constant images of Israelis attacking Palestinians on Arab satellite TV."

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, as Ghandi put it.

"On Sunday, a Marine tank fired 18 rounds into a house a suspected insurgent was firing from, said Jeremiah Day, a combat engineer from Minnetonka, Minn. 'And afterwards the guy was still standing,' Corporal Day said. 'It was like Scarface or something.'

"That same day, Brent Bourgeois, a 20-year-old lance corporal from Kenner, La., said he had seen an American helicopter fire a missile at a man with a slingshot. 'Crazy, huh?' the corporal said."

These two lines were quoted on Danny Schechter's News Dissector weblog. While I searched for the Times story in which these quotes appeared, I found Jeffrey Gettelman's report from Sunday: "War's Full Fury Is Suddenly Everywhere"

"Insurgents flooded onto the roadway, masks over their faces, machine guns in their hands. They began to fire at approaching Humvees. The neighborhood around us scattered into a mosaic of panic. Women slammed gates behind them. Cars shot gravel from their tires as they raced away. And we were just 20 minutes outside the [Baghdad] city center in a place that up until the last few days was as safe as any.

"In Kufa, a palm-lined town on the Euphrates, bearded Shiite militiamen who swear their allegiance to a rebel cleric are driving around in police cars. American officials had just bought those police cars. American soldiers had just trained the policemen who had been riding in them.

"In the Khadamiya neighborhood, one of the prettiest spots in Baghdad, men passed out grenades where just days ago children sat under umbrellas, licking ice cream. It was stunning how natural it looked, how quickly armed men seemed the norm, how nobody seemed to bat an eye, even though the heart of Baghdad now looked like the heart of Kabul.

"The atmosphere in Iraq has completely changed. In just a week, a fading guerrilla war has exploded into a popular uprising. 'Six months of work is completely gone,' said a State Department official working in southern Iraq. 'There is nothing to show for it.'"

"The bulk of eminent legal opinion in the West has long agreed that the invasion of Iraq was unlawful. One of the architects of the war, Paul Wolfowitz, has admitted 'it was probably illegal.' Former Chief UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix does not 'buy the argument' that Iraq’s violation of previous resolutions makes the war legitimate. Even the British Foreign Office, it now turns out, sent a secret memo to Tony Blair’s Cabinet advising that resolution 1441 failed to justify war. Blair’s attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, also voiced concerns that the war lacked legality without a second UN resolution.

"Last year, more than 40 Australian experts on international law and human rights signed a joint statement that the invasion of Iraq is a “fundamental violation” of international law that could involve war crimes and crimes against humanity. Robert Black QC, Professor of Scots law at Edinburgh University, and a key figure in the Lockerbie trial in The Hague, has written: 'It is perfectly plain that none of the Security Council resolutions relating to Iraq authorised armed intervention. It's possible to cobble together what looks like a legal argument, but the real test of any legal argument is whether a court would accept that argument.' Black weighed up the odds of the International Court of Justice supporting the Blair Government’s case. In his view, 'the odds against it are greater than 10 to one.'"

OK, you ask me a question and I'll pretend I'm Bush:

You: Mr. President, can you ever admit to making any mistakes?

Me as the President: Saddam Hussein was a bad man. A real evildoer. And we're about freedom. Terrorists don't like freedom. Freedom makes terrorists feel all sick inside, like they got the flu and the mumps combined. That's why we need the Patriot Act. For the freedom of all Americans and the world. We don't want to feel like we got the mumps and flu, either. Nobody wants that. Especially the people that Saddam Hussein gassed--his own people. When I wake up in the morning the first thing I think about is freedom. And then I think about Fruit Loops. But freedom, first. Freedom always comes first. Even before Fruit Loops.

We just happened to watch the "press conference" on CBS, so Dan Rather comes on after with his assessment: "The President was steady and confident."

Nice blowjob, Dan. What the President was was forthcoming only on his stupidity and ability to repeat several key phrases, as the last questioner aptly pointed out. Most chilling moment: when Bush mentions the "All-mighty."

But the President is right about one thing: the American people can vote him out this Fall . . . unless, of course, they're using the GOP-controlled Diebold machines to vote. Then they've got no choice at all.

A journalist blogs from Baghad and Fallujah. Via Democracy Now.

The infamous August PDB has been declassified and released and the Bush & Co excuses continue:

Ode to the August PDB
By Madeleine Begun Kane

When Condoleezza Rice speaks out
Does anybody buy her?
It's hard to fathom how she fumbled warnings, oh so dire.

"Historic," Condoleezza shouts
About that August briefing.
I guess that's why that PDB did catch the Bushies sleeping.

The rest of my Ode to the August PDB is here.