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July 27, 2005
“Find Opportunities”

Mr. Rumsfeld also said Iraq should "find opportunities" to thank allied countries for their contributions over the past several months.
NYT

—

Who was killed?
– 24,865 civilians were reported killed in the first two years.
– Women and children accounted for almost 20% of all civilian deaths.
– Baghdad alone recorded almost half of all deaths.

When did they die?
– 30% of civilian deaths occurred during the invasion phase before 1 May 2003.
– Post-invasion, the number of civilians killed was almost twice as high in year two (11,351) as in year one (6,215).

Who did the killing?
– US-led forces killed 37% of civilian victims.
– Anti-occupation forces/insurgents killed 9% of civilian victims.
– Post-invasion criminal violence accounted for 36% of all deaths.
– Killings by anti-occupation forces, crime and unknown agents have shown a steady rise over the entire period.
Oxford Research Group

Posted by b on July 27, 2005 at 19:52 UTC | Permalink
Comments

thank you b – for going to the heart of the matter

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jul 27 2005 20:03 utc | 1

They express their gratitude everyday, B.

Posted by: FlashHarry | Jul 27 2005 20:05 utc | 2

http://slate.msn.com/id/2123412/?nav=ais
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
How about instead of GSAVE(TM) for Homeland Defense,
we use GSNAFU, or better, GSNAFUBAR. Ask any GI Joe.

Posted by: lash marks | Jul 27 2005 20:09 utc | 3

Anybody remember Theresienstadt, “the City the Fuhrer gave the Jews?” Complete with film of smiling Jewish children presenting flowers to their noble Aryan protectors.

Posted by: Aigin | Jul 27 2005 20:30 utc | 4

Pat Lang, ex-“Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism,” is blogging:
Sic Semper Tyrannis

Posted by: b | Jul 27 2005 20:34 utc | 5

It’s almost a parody…
Prometheus gives the “gift” of fire to mortal mankind, by hurling it at them in great, destructive bolts from the sky, incinerating the majority of his hapless “benefactees” in the process. Then, as Prometheus is being led away to be eternally punished for his thievery, he grumbles about how ungrateful the mortals were for his gift… which they never asked for in the first place.
In the words of Cool Hand Luke, “I wish you’d stop bein’ so good to me, Captain.”

Posted by: Monolycus | Jul 27 2005 21:11 utc | 6

Donny Rummy obviously parted ways with the ‘reality based community’ a long time ago. He will be prattling on about “purity and essence of our natural fluids” pretty soon.
On the surface it seems that ‘retooling the slogan’ by changing Global War on Terror (GWOT) to Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism (GSAVE) is nothing more than a PR driven exercise to create a more positive acronym (CAMPA) but knowing the administration’s corporate roots and that cliche’s love of ‘synergy’, this is probably also a lame attempt to redefine the ‘struggle’ so that repugs don’t get caught out on obviously hypocritical stances such as letting Luis Posada Carriles avoid trial for blowing up a cuban airliner.
Posada may have used terrorist methods but BushCo can try and confuse the sheeple by arguing getting rid of Castro isn’t extreme it’s strictly middle of the road stuff in the US.
I doubt it will work because the ninnies have been so deeply ‘on message’ about ALL terrorism for 4 years.
The psychologists will have a better idea but when the messages get ‘mixed’ by making a change to a basic precept, doesn’t that just cause anger and frustration in the minds of the sheeple?

Posted by: Debs is dead | Jul 27 2005 22:30 utc | 7

when the principal terrorists of this world unleash a so called war on terror – only a slaughterhouse can be the result
it is the extent of that slaughterhouse that we have to try & limit by any & all means at our disposals as both individuals & communities
the numbers b gives are conservative & would seem to me to fall far lower than the reality. lancets seems to me to be a starting point – they are ipso facto – dispassionate & disinterested commentators
they have no reason – none at all – to exaggerate. but we all know that the damage is not going to be limited to iraq – that it will extend beyond there – far beyond there
we know what we are looking at despite all efforts to the contrary is a state of a continual semi generalised war. it is clear in the west – that all they require is a number of ‘incidents’ – for civil liberties to be greatly curtailed
on this level alone – they have gone farther than that fascist drag queen hoover & his inestimable fbi. he would have been in a state of permanant erection at what is happening today. & in a sense cheney & co are the real ingeritors of that sick form of politics hoover practiced which is known to normal people as persecution
so their attack is & has always been two pronged – to stop in a moment any real effective dissent at home & to extend the battlefield externally as far as is possible
happily their incompetence has been the only means which this has been circuited. their incompetence & the effectivity of the resistance in iraq & of those loyal to the taleban in afghanistan. & these are early days. pakistan is a tinder box that will soon blow up in their faces. so too egypt.
in the ancient republics of the soviet union they will move from simple murders & assassinations to a more intense form of war
& in indonesia i think they are dreaming – all fundamentalist islam requires there is for the ‘war on terror’ to continue & for a viable leadership which they clearly do not have. it is clearer every day that moderate islam is being thrown into the arms of the salafists, of those who would profitably make alliances with all forms of islam
the great french arabist, gilles keppel wrote a book before 2001 which declared the fall of militant islam – i don’t think he could have imagined an american administration with the level of stupidity & venality as this one. i have not hear any recent commentary by keppel & would be surprised if he has not changed his opinion
the hardening of islam seems to me inevitable & it has in four short years accelerated a level of militancy that is completely unexpected. armed militancy. & they clearly do not fear death. it is not just a slogan for them. it is a reality. & in that they have greatest tactical advantages. they can operate everywhere & they can operate minimally
the asymmetrique war is theirs for the having. they cannot win it but they can keep this world in militarised tension – that will make the cold war seem like a dinner party
& the dividends for u s imperialism & militant islam are so high that neither will relent. that much is even clear today. that in the final analysis is why i think the u s will at some further date attack iran & will extend that attack elsewhere directly or bt proxy as they often did in latin america & africa
militant islam also is a beneficiary of a long, long war. each day they show the world the weakness & the sadism of the empire – they recruit. i imagine those numbers are already significant & a significance we will know in the not too distant future
that long war will cause the massacre of innocents. that tide of murder will continue until the number start crunching people’s day to day realities in the countries that support this illegal & immoral war
even when the war comes to the motherlands as it already has – the terrible reality will be masked & sanitised until it represents just another aspect of a malignant culture. & despite profferrings from eleswhere it is a malignant culture
the culture itself is so sick – it cannot understand proportion or scale. it has lost not only its bearing but it has also lost any means of measure & it is that which concerns me for as mad & evil as the dulles brothers were – they were restrained compared to this current gang. they were dealers, in fact who knew when to stop, to pull back, to retreat & attack. this current administration does not know whether it is coming or going. it is a laughing stocj
except for thos who have to do the suffering and dying. those terrible & relentless numbers

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jul 27 2005 23:05 utc | 8

Is Saddam still in US custody?
We may see a US backed return to power under the Sunni option.

Posted by: Friendly Fire | Jul 28 2005 0:26 utc | 9

it’s too late for any option

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jul 28 2005 0:32 utc | 10

@rgiap
The future of islam fundamentalism in Indonesia could be quite complex.
The vast majority of Muslims in Indonesia are Javanese, yet ‘militant Islamism’ first took hold in those islands resisting Javanese imperialism eg Sumatra. The demise of the Soviet Union seems to be connected to the rebranding of anti-javanese forces from ‘communist’ to ‘Islamic’.
At the same time the acts of terrorism against the west conducted in Indonesia are alleged to have been commissioned by Jamaya Islamiya an organisation which purports to be dedicated to creating an Islamic state out of all ethnic Malay states fom Indonesia thru Brunei and Malaysia up to the Philippines.
Somehow I doubt that people already jostling and pushing under rule from Java will fight to become an even smaller fish in a much larger pond.
Just as Filipino Catholicism contains elements of malay animism so does both the philosophies of Islam and Hindu in this area. Although Hinduism is animist the Balinese ties to their original religion may be less obvious.
I just can’t see how any fundamentalist religion can succeed long term in an area whose primary characteristic has always been tolerance of others and respect for life.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Jul 28 2005 0:56 utc | 11

WHEN DO THE IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS START?
And the war criminals trials?

Posted by: hopping madbunny | Jul 28 2005 2:55 utc | 12

A really good Herbert OpEd today Oil and Blood

…
What has so often gotten lost in all the talk about terror and weapons of mass destruction is the fact that for so many of the most influential members of the Bush administration, the obsessive desire to invade Iraq preceded the Sept. 11 attacks. It preceded the Bush administration. The neoconservatives were beating the war drums on Iraq as far back as the late 1990’s.
Iraq was supposed to be a first step. Iran was also in the neoconservatives’ sights. The neocons envisaged U.S. control of the region (and its oil), to be followed inevitably by the realization of their ultimate dream, a global American empire. Of course it sounds like madness, which is why we should have been paying closer attention from the beginning.
The madness took a Dr. Strangelovian turn in the summer of 2002, before the war with Iraq was launched. As The Washington Post first reported, an influential Pentagon advisory board was given a briefing prepared by a Rand Corporation analyst who said the U.S. should consider seizing the oil fields and financial assets of Saudi Arabia if it did not stop its support of terrorism.
Mercifully the briefing went nowhere. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it did not represent the “dominant opinion” within the administration.
The point here is that the invasion of Iraq was part of a much larger, long-term policy that had to do with the U.S. imposing its will, militarily when necessary, throughout the Middle East and beyond. The war has gone badly, and the viciousness of the Iraq insurgency has put the torch to the idea of further pre-emptive adventures by the Bush administration.
But dreams of empire die hard. American G.I.’s are dug into Iraq, and the bases have been built for a long stay. The war may be going badly, but the primary consideration is that there is still a tremendous amount of oil at stake, the second-largest reserves on the planet. And neocon fantasies aside, the global competition for the planet’s finite oil reserves intensifies by the hour.
Lyndon Johnson ignored the unsolicited advice of Senator George Aiken of Vermont – to declare victory in Vietnam in 1966. The war continued for nearly a decade. Many high-level government figures believe that U.S. troops will be in Iraq for a minimum of 5 more years, and perhaps 10.
That should be understood by the people who think that the formation of a permanent Iraqi government will lead to the withdrawal of American troops. There is no real withdrawal plan. The fighting and the dying will continue indefinitely.

Posted by: b | Jul 28 2005 5:45 utc | 13

the hardening of islam seems to me inevitable & it has in four short years accelerated a level of militancy that is completely unexpected. armed militancy. & they clearly do not fear death.
There is a mass movement going on in the Islamic world, an awakening , the beginning of a long period of soul searching as they try and throw off the yolk of imperialism and brutal dictatorships.
Bin Laden is a minor player, really, the theocrats are not the future – they are taking advantage of the confusion of the movement. But behind them something powerful is awakening – anti-Americanism seems to shallow a description; the Arab world has never had a revolution from below and it is ripe for a bunch of them.

Posted by: folkers | Jul 28 2005 6:40 utc | 14

Man Murdered By Bobby’s Because He Was Brown
Why the headline. Because it seems that is exactly what happened.
We now learn from this article, that the police have lied in regards to every claim that they have made about Mr. Menezes, the Brazilian man shot to death in the tube station.
Read the article here
Claims made by police after killing:
(1) “directly linked” to bombings
(2) jumped turnstiles
(3) wore bulky jacket
Truth:
(1) wrong
(2) used his travel pass card to get in the station
(3) was wearing a jeans jacket
So the truth of what happened is that a bunch of cops followed him from his house as he is going to work. He goes into the tube station as usual. As he is in the station, the cops run at him, he runs to the train, they push him down in the train and shoot him in the head 8 times. One shot missed and hit him in the shoulder.
So why did they kill him? Because he was brown.
I think it is interesting to note that police were operating under a “shoot to kill” policy for bombers that they had developed in consultation with the Israelis. Billmon wrote a number of posts years ago about the Israeli connection to interrogation techniques, I mean torture, used at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib.
My only response is that if the Israelis had figured out how to stop terrorism, they would have done it a long time ago. And the last time I looked, their heavy handed tactics have only made the situation worse.
How many innocents have the Israelis killed? If this man was an innocent muslim and was killed, the official lies could have continued, however people that knew him would know the truth and how many of then would want to go out and kill a Bobby or an innocent Anglo-Brit for revenge?
It seems to me that the Brits were lucky that they killed an innocent Brazilian instead of an innocent muslim (even though if he was muslim, they could continue so farce of suspicion). However killing an innocent Muslim could have in fact made the situation worse.
I think it is about time for everyone to stop taking anti-terrorism advice from Israelis. Unless of course your goal create more angry, disenfranchised and angry people that could create more terrorists.

Posted by: Bubb Rubb | Jul 28 2005 8:41 utc | 15

The lie was also circulated about Mr de Menezes that he “ran” because he had overstayed his visa.
The investigation will be interesting because no-one here in London believes it was police who killed him, but rather SAS.
The non-white persons of my acquitance are now shit scared. They not only face being blown to bits on buses like the everyone else, they have the added threat of being shot dead for having the wrong color skin.
If I wasn’t so broke, I’d be out of here tomorrow. As The Fall used to sing:
“Then you know in your heart, you know in your heart, you must leave the capital, exit this Roman shell, leave the capital.”

Posted by: Dismal Science | Jul 28 2005 19:11 utc | 16

hang in there, Dismal. ..but it’s “brain” not “heart”
lyrics
the fall lyrics

Posted by: b real | Jul 28 2005 19:38 utc | 17

Interesting if it was the SAS, DS.
They don’t report to the MOD.
It’s one of the parts of the defence establishment that reports direct to the top.

Posted by: john | Jul 28 2005 20:17 utc | 18

The important point is that they were not uniformed police, whether SAS or not. If you saw a bunch of men running at you and yelling that were not wearing police uniforms, what would you do? Exactly, run.
They had the man pinned down. Let me repeat that, pinned down. They had him covered. And instead of arresting him, they had a public execution.
Dismal, I forgot that lie as well. He was not in the country illegally at all. They keep throwing all of these lies out there to try and confuse the issue and to get sympathy for their tactics. It is outrageous.
The only thing I continue to think of is, what if he was muslim? If he was, they would probably get away with it.

Posted by: Bubb Rubb | Jul 29 2005 2:36 utc | 19

Also, I find it telling that no CCTV footage has been released about this. I think that answer if obvious.

Posted by: Bubb Rubb | Jul 29 2005 2:47 utc | 20

@Bubb Rubb
The police have stated that the leave for permanent residence in his passport was the wrong stamp for the date inscribed on it. They also maintain that he had not applied for settled status.
Very possibly this is true. But it has no bearing whatever on the question of what business, exactly, the police have in pinning a man to the ground and pumping bullets into his head. I can’t imagine what the atmosphere must be like in London today. Words fail. This is a very, very disturbing case.

Posted by: Jassalasca Jape | Jul 29 2005 3:32 utc | 21

I suppose it matters in some ways whether it was the SAS or police hit squad who assassinated Mr de Menezes although probably not to him. There was an interesting item on the BBC today about criticisms Ian Blair (the London chief police constable) made about the use of a taser to disable and arrest a suicide bomber who was actually wearing his bomb in a backpack at the time.
Using a stun gun on a suspected suicide bomber was an “incredible risk”, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has said.
Police said a Taser device was used during the arrest of the 21 July failed Tube bombings suspect Yasin Hassan Omar in Birmingham on Wednesday.
Sir Ian said such action was not “policy” but the officers may have made sure there was no bomb present.
“The Taser itself could have set it off,” he told the BBC.
Since all the other accounts stated the bloke had the backpack on, this was a particularly nasty piece of ass-covering from a police chief whose demeanour is much closer to that of a seedy, spinning hype spreader of a politician than that of a policeman.
Normally the police are happy to see another outfit like the SAS get caught in an error, perhaps even to the point that they may lure the SAS into error. This time the police are defending the killing of Mr de Menezes so it must have either been them who killed him or at the very least created the environment where shooting was regarded as the only option.
Doubtless the Israelis will have something critical of Birmingham Police to blather as well since these coppers have undermined the murder of suspected terrorists.
There are currently reports coming out of Fiji about Israeli Security involvement in a plan to subvert the punishment of traitors to the state of Fiji. So far it has only been on local TV but when if it makes into print I will post. It is a real horror story and it appears these mossad types will go anywhere in the world to further corporate interests.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Jul 29 2005 4:00 utc | 22

Note that the Police Commissioner made this statement at a special question session on the de Menezes shooting. Essentially fear mongering in an effort to deflect responsibility.

Posted by: Jassalasca Jape | Jul 29 2005 4:11 utc | 23

Sky initially said the dead man was not linked to the bombings but later clarified that he was not one of the bombers, leaving open the possibility that he may have been connected to the attacks in some other way.
However the first eyewitness accounts to reach the mainstream media said the man looked more like a scared animal than a suicide bomber. Yet after a couple of hours that changed after another witnesses, Anthony Larkin, told the BBC that the man appeared to have “a bomb belt and wires coming out.”
Thereafter the “suicide bomber” began to change as we recieved word from a reader about the supposed “eyewitness” Anthony Larkin. A quick google of name Anthony Larkin revealed one who happened to work for the Metropolitan Police’s forensics deptartment.
Of course this may be no more than a coincidence, we leave you to decide.
A Google search turned up:
Quote:
——————————————————————————–
Tony Larkin
Lead scientist, MET police. Forensic scientist
Queen Mary, University of London
, Department of Materials
Mile End Road
London E1 4NS
UK
( Work Voice )
( Work Fax )
( Preferred )
Anthony.Larkin@met.police.uk ( Preferred Internet )
http://www.materials.qmul.ac.uk/….police.uk
http://www.libertyforum.org/show…3&vc=1&t=0

Posted by: john | Jul 29 2005 10:51 utc | 24

wow – Fall Fans on MOA – who’d a thunk it
Remember this one?
It’s approaching
600 pounds gas and flesh
Robes in tatters
It’s approaching
Lips and tongue abhorrent
Flickering lexicon
Or a stray dog pack leader
Hide hide, all good people hang out for a result
Hide dive hide, reasonable people in silence do exult
Realm of dusk
The Northerns
Look at the North ones
Their brains are unhinged by the sun
Rare stone
Our faces are rare stone
It comes to take them
Move out the armies

Posted by: drunk as a rule | Jul 29 2005 13:39 utc | 25

Or This – sorry – can’t resist – more here
http://www.freehosting.hostrave.com/p/fall/lyrics.html
Great doomy music with the best lyrics ever from uk rock band. Old lyrics taking on new war on terra connotations.
http://www.freehosting.hostrave.com/p/fall/lyrics.html
And I really think this computer thing is getting out of hand
And I think this tech pilot isn’t going to land
Three quarters of mail destined for beer
Time to put an end, to the extend
All the bump men
Time we cake this
Compute garbage in, garbage out
And time to put a cap on this
With a brain, nice habit
And I’m thinkin of…
(Track is deserted
All securities run forth of the perverted)
Isn’t gonna land
On its purgatory band
Auto tech pilot
Isn’t gonna land
Jet isn’t gonna land
Troll the instant pilot
Auto tech pilot
Isn’t gonna land

Posted by: drunk as a rule | Jul 29 2005 13:44 utc | 26

daar – it was slothrop who started it, quoting who makes the nazis? a while back
i’m not familiar with the songs you quote – although i do remember a line about
i swear up on the screen i saw the holy ghost
where’s the cursor? where’s the cursor?
(they lose something in straight text without the bark and bite of m e smith, don’t they? the guy meant it)

Posted by: Dismal Science | Jul 29 2005 13:56 utc | 27

well the printed lyrics do have the advantage of intelligibility
I can’t tell you how many of their lyrics I had half right half my own ‘brain-farts’ from I was a youngfella.
Saw him in a small club w many original members this year. He looks like a 60 year old gangster crossed with a gnome and he completely monstered the place. I saw him once in London (backstage – I was a little irish roker) with a white suit – pure white on the front – white with tumbling black musical notes all the way down back to his feet. He sneered at me but said hello. Why is he not famous?

Posted by: drunk as a rule | Jul 29 2005 14:40 utc | 28

saw them in feb of this year in a small, small club too. show started @ 1:30 in the morning since they got lost on the way to town. band was tight. but smith didn’t like any mikes in the joint, walked off the stage several times, finally giving up during the middle of mr. pharmacist. band kept playing. manager came out and sang. show lasted maybe 25-30 minutes. fantastic trainwreck. glad i was there.

Posted by: b real | Jul 29 2005 15:08 utc | 29

If he was famous, he’d suck.

Posted by: slothrop | Jul 29 2005 15:10 utc | 30

For those interested in the vagaries of postpunk, the homosexuals catalog has been released in a box. old, faraway sounds like what you’d hear from an old tin can in a dark alleyway. damn.

Posted by: slothrop | Jul 29 2005 15:46 utc | 31

i must be losing my mind. that fall show here was april 2004. man how time flies… the six-disc complete peel sessions set is s’posta be a gem.

Posted by: b real | Jul 29 2005 17:10 utc | 32

Thanks for the links, guys.
Btw I once won tix to see The Fall at Hammersmith Palais in a competition run by John Peel on his radio show – by writing “Liverpool, Liverpool, Champions of Europe” on the envelope of my entry.

Posted by: Dismal Science | Aug 1 2005 15:50 utc | 33

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