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November 30, 2005
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U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press
WASHINGTON — As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.
The articles, written by U.S. military “information operations” troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
…
The operation is designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military. The Pentagon has a contract with a small Washington-based firm called Lincoln Group, which helps translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group’s Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets.
…
Besides its contract with the military in Iraq, Lincoln Group this year won a major contract with U.S. Special Operations Command, based in Tampa, to develop a strategic communications campaign in concert with special operations troops stationed around the globe. The contract is worth up to $100 million over five years, although U.S. military officials said they doubted the Pentagon would spend the full amount of the contract.
Dana Milbank has another funny Washington Sketch:
Rumsfeld’s War On ‘Insurgents’
Last weekend, while other Americans were watching football and eating leftover turkey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ended the Iraqi insurgency.
It was easy, really: He declared that the insurgents would, henceforth, no longer be called insurgents.
…
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, standing at Rumsfeld’s side, evidently didn’t get the memo about the wording change. Describing combat in Iraq, he paused and said, “I have to use the word ‘insurgent’ because I can’t think of a better word right now.”
” ‘Enemies of the legitimate Iraqi government’ — how’s that?” Rumsfeld proposed.
…
Rumsfeld was defense secretary in 2003 when the United States invaded Iraq, and he has remained in that job for the occupation of the past 32 months. But in his briefing yesterday, he at times sounded as if he were merely observing the Iraq war on television.
On a question about banning white phosphorous on the battlefield, Rumsfeld turned to his briefing partner and asked, “General Pace?”
Asked how widespread the abuse in Iraq was, he replied: “I am not going to be judging it from 4,000 miles away.” Asked about the “uneven performance” of Iraqi police, Rumsfeld pointed out that the police until recently “had been reporting up through the Department of State.”
…
“The strategy is working, and we should stick to it,” Rumsfeld judged.
Particularly now that the insurgents have become ELIGs.
thanks b. !! no more insurgents, rad. and why hassle with al-jazeera . soldiers can now do their own reporting!
Posted by: annie | Nov 30 2005 9:06 utc | 3
Recently from Martin van Creveld respected (I assume)military historian.
……Maintaining an American security presence in the region, not to mention withdrawing forces from Iraq, will involve many complicated problems, military as well as political. Such an endeavor, one would hope, will be handled by a team different from — and more competent than — the one presently in charge of the White House and Pentagon.
For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president’s men. If convicted, they’ll have plenty of time to mull over their sins.
……………………………………………………………
Martin van Creveld, a professor of military history at the Hebrew University, is author of “Transformation of War” (Free Press, 1991). He is the only non-American author on the U.S. Army’s required reading list for officers.
Posted by: Anonymous | Nov 30 2005 9:30 utc | 5
Whatever you may think of her, for churning BushCo into white hot American vernacular mockery, few top MoDo.
Snips from behind the paywall:
Vice is fed up with the whining of squirrelly surrogates like Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Wilkerson on behalf of peaceniks like George Senior and Colin Powell. If Poppy’s upset about his kid’s mentor, he should be man enough to come slug it out.
Poppy isn’t getting Junior back, Vice vowed, muttering: “He’s my son. It’s my war. It’s my country.”
…
Things had been going so smoothly. The global torture franchise was up and running. Halliburton contracts were flowing. Tax cuts were sailing through. Oil companies were raking it in. Alaska drilling was thrillingly close. The courts were defending his executive privilege on energy policy, and people were still buying all that smoke about Saddam’s being responsible for 9/11, and that drivel about how we’re fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here. Everything was groovy.
But not anymore. Cheney could not believe that Karl had made him go out and call that loudmouth Jack Murtha a patriot. He was sure the Pentagon generals had put the congressman up to calling for a withdrawal from Iraq. Is the military brass getting in touch with its pacifist side? In Wyoming, Vice shoots doves.
How dare Murtha suggest that Cheney dodged and dodged and dodged and dodged and dodged the draft? Murtha thinks he knows about war just because he served in one and was a marine for 37 years? Vice started his own war. Now that’s a credential!
…
Vice likes the smell of white phosphorus in the morning.
…
Why do Harry Reid and his Democratic turncoats think they can call the White House on the carpet? Do they think Vice would fear to lie about lying about the rationale for going to war? A real liar never stops lying.
…
Posted by: Hamburger | Nov 30 2005 11:38 utc | 8
According to B’s link to the LA Times the name of the corporation organising the planting of articles in Iraqi newspapers is The Lincoln Group.
For those who weren’t here or may have forgotten we had a good old MoA exchange of ideas about The Lincoln Group. It was kicked off by a Billmon article called BlowBack
A classic example of BushCo cronyism.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 30 2005 12:55 utc | 9
Legal threat over ‘torture flights’
Scotsman
The [British] Government and senior police officers are being threatened with legal action if they fail to investigate allegations that US “torture” flights have landed in Britain. Human rights campaign group Liberty …
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 30 2005 13:35 utc | 10
Lieberman confesses 1/3 of Iraq is FUBAR, and continues to describe how blood curdlingy overjoyed he is to witness Shiva dancing on Iraq.
“About two-thirds of the country is in really pretty good shape,” he said, noting most attacks are in the so-called “Sunni Triangle” region. “Overall, I came back encouraged.”
Posted by: citizen | Nov 30 2005 16:17 utc | 11
Plan for Crushing Colonialism
If you watched Der Bush this morning speaking
to the Navy and Marine plebs about victory, then
you saw him read the note from a now-dead soldier,
anonymously pushing up daisies, who said he ‘knew
why he was in Iraq’, (with standard memes from the
mil playbook, so probably another CIA/NSA fake),
and suddenly Der Bush choked up! True story!
This is doubly ironic, coming from a guy who
dodged his own military service in Viet Nam,
and a guy whose own family investment in the
Carlyle Group is making them fabulously rich
the longer this (bleep) in Iraq is dragged out.
A timetable to end the BushCo profit spiral?
Not bloody likely, mate!
If it wasn’t compassion of croesus, then why?
Hey, maybe Bush got choked up the way Reagan
got choked up playing the part of the Gipper.
That old-world white-master colonial theme,
when the slave dies defending the plantation
against fiery abolitionists, whispering with
his last breath, ‘I done tried, massuh’.
It kinda chokes you up, you know man? (sniff)
Let’s give ’em three more years for the Gipper!
(Now drink your Kool-Aid, there’s a good lad.)
Hoo-ahh!
Posted by: Polly Anna | Nov 30 2005 16:32 utc | 12
What is Victory in Iraq? The White House states the goal is the Defeat the Terrorists and Build an Inclusive Democratic State with an integrated strategy along three broad tracks:
The Political Track
(Isolate, Engage, Build)
The Security Track
(Clear, Hold, Build)
The Economic Track
(Restore, Reform, Build)
Billmon’s bullet points. Except the White House placed them out of order. First is Security, then Political and finally Economic.
What is clear is that search and destroy is out. Now the strategy is Iraqification. There has been no effective criticism of the plan except in the crevices of the internet. Joe Lieberman (D, CT) just come back from Iraq and sees real progress there. Sure Senator. Too bad the Senator never drove around Saigon post 1968, a paradise compared to Bagdad. He could then make some valid comparisons about progress of clear and hold.
I think Juan Cole’s comments about the Sunni’s are valid. They will never stop trying to regain the power they once held before the Americans invaded Iraq. The insurrection will continue for generations.
The majority of American casualties are from resupply convoys, hardly a sign of a cleared Iraq. Army and Marine grunts are either in Iraq and Afghanistan or are going there. The continued occupation of Muslim countries with inadequate forces will destroy the US ground forces before the decade is over.
There are three choices to end the war earlier, exterminate the Sunni (a bit of a problem with a billion Sunni Arabs spread across North Africa), partition Iraq or withdraw out of Iraq to the Gulf States.
If the realists regain control of the American government, US troops will withdraw over the horizon into the fourteen permanent bases and air power will support Iraqi groups that don’t threaten to overrun their bases. In effect, Iraq will be partitioned by 500 pound bombs.
The true believers will destroy the US Army on their way to Armageddon. The realists will create a bloody partitioned Iraq and call it Victory. The Democrats, if they regain control of Congress in 2006, will withdrawn US troops to the Gulf States, and the GOP will call them cowards and defeatists.
Posted by: Jim S | Nov 30 2005 18:10 utc | 13
The Rumsfeld/Pace press conference yesterday is full of it:
Q [to Pace] Sir, taking on Charlie’s question a bit — and I can give you actual examples from coalition forces who talked to me when I was over there — about excesses of the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Defense, and that is in dealing with prisoners or in arresting people and how they’re treated after they’re arrested. What are the obligations and what are the rights of the U.S. military over there in dealing with that? Obviously, Iraq is a sovereign country now, but the United States is responsible for training and expects to turn over the security mission to them. So what is the U.S. obligation in addressing that, preventing that? And what can we do? And what are we doing?
SEC. RUMSFELD: That’s a fair question.
…
Now, you know, I can’t go any farther in talking about it. Obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility when a sovereign country engages in something that they disapprove of;
Now why not the follow up question here: “They why are we in Iraq?”
[Rumsfeld continued]
however, we do have a responsibility to say so and to make sure that the training is proper and to work with the sovereign officials so that they understand the damage that can be done to them in the event some of these allegations prove to be true.
Q And General Pace, what guidance do you have for your military commanders over there as to what to do if — like when General Horst found this Interior Ministry jail?
GEN. PACE: It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene to stop it. As an example of how to do it if you don’t see it happening but you’re told about it is exactly what happened a couple weeks ago. There’s a report from an Iraqi to a U.S. commander that there was possibility of inhumane treatment in a particular facility. That U.S. commander got together with his Iraqi counterparts. They went together to the facility, found what they found, reported it to the Iraqi government, and the Iraqi government has taken ownership of that problem and is investigating it. So they did exactly what they should have done.
SEC. RUMSFELD: But I don’t think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it’s to report it.
GEN. PACE: If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it.
Pace just punched his early retirement ticket there and Rumsfeld is unbelievable in how little he understands the military.
@b
I hope your right but we shouldn’t forget how this ‘double messaging’ to the troops plays out in Iraq. The unlawful combatants, Geneva conventions thing had a similar set of conflicting memes at the start of the war.
Consequently the ‘rules’ were there are no rules people just made it up as they went along, and that isn’t a strategy that normally leads to disciplined or honorable behaviour.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 30 2005 18:59 utc | 16
Debs- The military is behind the Murtha remarks that so infuriated the Bush junta that they sent one of their junior house reps to crow about cowards on the floor of the house…and then have to call “take back.”
I think there are factions in the military, just as in the intel services. And from what I hear, lots and lots of ppl in the military detest Rummy…I could very well see Pace speaking here to put the military back on the side of the Geneva conventions. it’s to the military’s advantage to honor them for the sake of its own soldiers.
Posted by: fauxreal | Nov 30 2005 19:06 utc | 17
Anybody know where I can get a print/poster of this ?
Also, just got the following in e-mail, it may interest some:
Please contact Rep. Shay’s office and encourage him to follow the recommendations put forward by the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition and Sibel Edmonds. Encourage him to hold hearings regarding the 9/11 Commission’s omissions including Able Danger. Capitol Hill switchboard: 202-224-3121 or Shay’s office: 202-225-5541
National security whistleblowers boycott upcoming hearing
By Chris Strohm – Govexec.com – Nov 30, 2005
Groups representing national security whistleblowers urged a boycott Monday of an upcoming congressional hearing, saying their concerns and experiences will not be adequately represented by the witnesses who are scheduled to testify.
The House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations was planning a hearing Dec. 6 to examine whether agencies are unjustly revoking or suspending security clearances in retaliation against employees who speak out against wrongdoing.
Advocacy groups such as the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition and Concerned Foreign Service Officers, however, said the hearing should be postponed because the witness list lacks whistleblowers with firsthand knowledge of problems.
9/11 CitizensWatch
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 30 2005 20:17 utc | 18
$cam, I see that the copyright for that poster is held by the International Publishing Company in Cleveland, USA.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Nov 30 2005 20:45 utc | 19
Policy makers on torture take note — remember Pinochet, by Phillipe Sands
“Before embarking on international travels, David Addington and others who are said to be closely associated with the crafting of the Bush administration’s policy on the interrogation of detainees would do well to reflect on the fate of Augusto Pinochet.”
Sand’s is the author of Lawless World: America and the making and breaking of Global Rules from FDR’s Atlantic Charter to George Bush’s Illegal War.
Kind of an outspoken, “no man is above the law [international law]” version of Patrick Fitzgerald.
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 30 2005 21:21 utc | 20
$cam & cloned poster
it is a poster by the wobblies – the international workers of the world – & that is confirmd by a iww tampon at the centre of the bottom of that poster
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 30 2005 21:46 utc | 21
@fauxreal
It is impossible to tell from whether the words these guys spout are from the head, the heart or the hip pocket. What we do know is that abuse of Iraqi citizens by both the Iraqi puppet government and the US military continues unabated. On the few occasions that it is investigated and the perpetrators queried on their motivation, numerous human abusers have said that the conflicting messages coming from above have meant that the perpetrators have felt that this abuse is something their country ‘wants’ them to do even if they can’t request it in writing.
If General Pace is sincere he will ensure that the message that troops are to forcefully intervene when they see such abuse occuring is sent out in writing to everyone in the military.
Maybe he will but somehow I feel that he will continue to leave the grunts scratching their head about what to do when the interior ministry hooks one of their captive’s genitallia up to a generator.
On the current state of play the soldier will be in no doubt that if he does intervene he is going to get caught up in a shitstorm.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 30 2005 22:00 utc | 22
I found this devastating critique of Hitchens–can’t believe I supported him for so long…
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/seymour261105.html
Posted by: theodor | Nov 30 2005 23:26 utc | 23
my dear theodor
by what wittgensteinian wonder hav we merited to have donald rumsfield work his way around language
his press conference today is like the old pressman for saddam hussein whom i have a fondness for – i think we was nicknamed comical ali – as the want of modern journalism
but rumsfield he is sadistic alley i think
welcome back
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 30 2005 23:31 utc | 24
link to theodor’s ‘monthly review’s devastating demolition of hitchens
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 30 2005 23:43 utc | 25
The COINTELPRO Papers
Declassified documents from the FBI’s secret wars against dissent in the United States – The American Indian Movement (AIM)(& Leonard Peltier)
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 1 2005 3:34 utc | 27
@Anna missed, the Essential point about the link you posted, is that it is in a most influential Am. Jewish newspaper, and was penned by an Israeli Military Historian.
Posted by: jj | Dec 1 2005 4:21 utc | 28
jj,
Last year (Nov.04)I posted this piece from van Creveld recounting Moshe Dayans analysis and criticism of the US efforts in Vietnam and the likely outcome in Iraq:
In other words, he who fights against the weak – and the rag-tag Iraqi militias are very weak indeed – and loses, loses. He who fights against the weak and wins also loses. To kill an opponent who is much weaker than yourself is unnecessary and therefore cruel; to let that opponent kill you is unnecessary and therefore foolish. As Vietnam and countless other cases prove, no armed force however rich, however powerful, however, advanced, and however well motivated is immune to this dilemma. The end result is always disintegration and defeat; if U.S troops in Iraq have not yet started fragging their officers, the suicide rate among them is already exceptionally high. That is why the present adventure will almost certainly end as the previous one did. Namely, with the last US troops fleeing the country while hanging on to their helicopters’ skids.
…………….
i dont follow the jewishAm/Israeli press, but dont see why this kind of opinion would’nt be there in op-ed form. & dont know what % American Jews would endorse neo-con /Sharon axis, but would guess way less than half, if that.
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 1 2005 5:19 utc | 29
Right, A-M-, but that’s not the point. AIPAC intimidates all politicians & represents a small fraction of Jewish Opinion. I’d be fascinated to read a book on how there is no permissable spectrum of Jewish Opinion when it comes to wielding power in DC. And it’s not about money – rich jews are right-wing; poorer ones more liberal. Hell, the Bronfman’s don’t support AIPAC/JINSA politics. So, given that, it’s significant that the Forward chose to publish that. And hopeful. Perhaps it’s possible for Jews to openly oppose the NeoCons. Will this allow more politicians to speak out w/out fear of political reprisal? Sure as hell hope so, as I think that NeoNuts want to overthrown Syrian govt, at least for starters – Israel wants to run a pipeline through Syria….
Posted by: jj | Dec 1 2005 5:30 utc | 30
TRUTH FROM U.S. SOLDIERS ABOUT IRAQ: Letters from redeploying soldiers
A few months ago I put out a request for letters from soldiers being redeployed to Iraq for a second or third tour. I received about ten letters so far and will be publishing them over the next several weeks.
I am also in the middle of a series of articles about OIF/OEF vets who are suffering from PTSD or have had traumatic injuries and ongoing problems with getting treatment or having claims denied or delayed. The response on that has been absolutely overwhelming.
I expect to be able to release over 20 full-length interviews, and about 30 letters and stories from soldiers who are going through hell after coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan.
Posted by: b real | Dec 1 2005 5:56 utc | 31
@Uncle $cam
You can buy that poster at the IWW website here. Scroll down to Classic IWW Graphics. It´s $9.50.
Don’t forget the role of the Red Sox in rendition.
Posted by: Dismal Science | Dec 1 2005 13:24 utc | 33
Cunningham Stripped $700 Mil from U.S.Defense
The MadCowMorningNews has learned that California Republican Congressman Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham steered $500 million in defense contracts in less than a decade, according to the company’s own website, to a start-up San Diego software firm which—and here’s the beauty part—doubled as a lobbying firm.
His coded goddamn crying(speech) language of refering to “material” things is not lost on me. His moral-centrism is not lost on me at all. Jesus might forgive him, I sure the fuck wont.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 1 2005 14:26 utc | 34
Per my comments above, on moral- centrism: hahahahahahah! fucking zealots…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 1 2005 15:40 utc | 35
Came across this Iraqi electionnaire – which party is yours? and found it interesting. There are 25 questions that determine which party best represents your interests.
Posted by: Havenite | Dec 1 2005 20:13 utc | 36
Unkka- you might also be interested in this book called Wobblies!…it’s a graphic novel in the same style of woodcuts/posters as those as the bottom of b’s link.
Posted by: fauxreal | Dec 1 2005 21:40 utc | 37
Look at this Tidbit I just came across…And Who Exactly is Running the Country Anyway???
The role of Vice President Dick Cheney as the administration’s point man in security policy appears over, according to administration sources.
Over the last two months Mr. Cheney has been granted decreasing access to the Oval Office, the sources said on the condition of anonymity. The two men still meet, but the close staff work between the president and vice president has ended.
“Cheney’s influence has waned not only because of bad chemistry, but because the White House no longer formulates policy,” another source said.
Ok, so georgie boy is covering his ass, as daddy told him to, and Cheney is fed up w/covering for his Idiocy, but who the hell is formulating policy, if the White House isn’t???
Posted by: jj | Dec 2 2005 0:12 utc | 38
Sorry, here’s the link link
I prob. should have quoted the following bit: “There’s nothing to input into. Cheney is smart and knowledgeable, but he as well as Bush are ducking all the time to avoid the bullets.”
So, is Congress on its own…
Posted by: jj | Dec 2 2005 0:14 utc | 39
fauxreal
yes, that book on the wobblies is fabulous
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 2 2005 1:45 utc | 40
& outraged
tho you have spoken before it is necessary to speak again & again of the
‘night & fog decree’ – in realtion to ‘enemy combatants’, abu ghraib, renditions & ‘ghost detainees’
it is a question of the utmost importance
in jurisprudential terms & in human terms, also
& you are completely correct that for the nazi the night & fog decree much like the ‘commissar order’ – were not only reflection but were deeply important in revealing the scope & depth of action & immorality
& i think in a way that was why the ‘trophy video’ was deeply, deeply upsetting – because we are watching intent & randomness combined
night & fog is both that intent & randomness
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 2 2005 2:02 utc | 41
@remembereringgiap
The ‘reasons’ quoted for the ‘night and fog’ decree on the Shoah site on the ‘Victory’ thread … are the exact same reasons used to justify current actions in the GWOT … the same crimes, almost exactly, using the same justifications as the then Nazi leadership … the only difference is in scope and scale … are numbers a mitigating factor in War Crimes ? I think not.
To self decree to be above and beyond any law ? … meet the current ‘Commander in Chief’ during war (undeclared, yet perpetual) our preznit GW Bush. Yet this aspect of these times is at best merely a passing commentary amongst the media stream …
These frequent repetitive speeches before the assembled arms of the uniformed military, where no press questions are taken, is truly the reliving of Nuremberg rallies … today … the message is more subtle, but the message is the same …
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 2 2005 2:25 utc | 42
TARGETS
What kind of impact is the killing and kidnapping of journalists having on reporting in Iraq?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 2 2005 3:18 utc | 45
The descent into barbarism
The suspension of many of the rules of war on the Eastern Front(Russian) during World War II coupled with an escalation in criminal actions caused human misery on a scale never seen before. Many actions which ignored the rules of war were initiated or at least condoned by the authorities on both sides. They argued that in such a clash of ideology any methods which achieved victory over the enemy were justified.
Sound familiar ?
The suspension of many of the rules of war in the Pacific and Asian Theatres of World War II particularly in the Sino-Japanese conflict, caused wide scale human misery. Many actions which ignored the rules of war were initiated or at least condoned by the Japanese authorities.
Again, sound familiar ?
War crimes … appear to only be enforceable against the losers, never the victors … and least of all the supposed champions of righteousness, democracies, the ‘West’ …
For remembereringgiap.
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 2 2005 3:33 utc | 46
what is happenning every day in this immoral war is obscene
but outraged has been the first, the most relentless & implacable of us on the points i mentioned above of the ghost detainees, renditions etc – not because they are any more uglier than the quotidian facts of the war but because their very concious & deliberate illegality is being rubbed into our noses
they are murdering the people of ira & they are laughing at the opponents of the war elsewhere – they are cackling as they break every international law in relation to treatment, transportation, procedure etc etc etc & they are doing it all over europe
taking their prisoners in private jets as if some kind of cruel joke told by a mad king
it is an opera imagined in delirium, a torturers delirium
tonight i witnessed a concert by the cousins of nusat fata ali khan – & their ecstatic singing – spoke to me of the sacred that should rest in us all
& i thought that dominant culture has destroyed that ancient ecstatic feeling in people because it implicity leads to a kind of liberation – an understanding of world(s) outside ourselves & speaks to our own innate power
no murdoch & his friends have replaced the ecstatic with the basest pornography of which the trophy video is not exceptional – it is reality tv ‘at its best’ – revealing how some ‘get their kicks’ – the ecstatic is no longer within – but an obscene adornment to the worlds of non feeling
& all commentary that does not see & try to feel inside the skin as the great jose marti tried to teach us is by its very nature, immoral & criminal in intent
but i am thankful that outraged helps us not to let go – of these things – we need to be driven mad by these things that are being ‘done in our name’
when they started taking people willy nilly into guantanamo as if in some sordid scen from dragnet – we should have torn the house down – or torn out our eyes at what we have become
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 2 2005 4:07 utc | 48
In Britain …
MPs dismiss torture flight denial
MPs expressed astonishment yesterday at statements by ministers that they are unaware of CIA “torture flights” or the presence of detention centres in Britain …
Blair faces allegations of complicity in torture
By Colin Brown and Andrew Buncombe in Washington. Pressure is mounting on the White House to answer claims that the CIA is using …
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 2 2005 4:15 utc | 49
& i thought that dominant culture has destroyed that ancient ecstatic feeling in people because it implicity leads to a kind of liberation – an understanding of world(s) outside ourselves & speaks to our own innate power
so true. in industrial culture, (the illusion of) liberation can only be achieved individually through consumption.
Posted by: b real | Dec 2 2005 5:10 utc | 50
latest chris floyd:
Death Mask: The Deliberate Disintegration of Iraq
which points to this investigative piece that i don’t recall seeing anyone link to from here yet:
Crying Wolf: Media Disinformation and Death Squads in Occupied Iraq
Abstract
The phenomenon of death squads operating in Iraq has become generally accepted over recent months. However, in its treatment of the issue, the mainstream media has zealously followed a line of attributing extrajudicial killings to unaccountable Shia militias who have risen to prominence with the electoral victory of Ibramhim Jafaari’s Shia-led government in January. The following article examines both the way in which the information has been widely presented and whether that presentation has any actual basis in fact. Concluding that the attribution to Shia militias is unsustainable, the article considers who the intellectual authors of these crimes against humanity are and what purpose they serve in the context of the ongoing occupation of the country.
. . .
I tentatively suggest that the intelligence apparatus at the Interior Ministry is contriving attacks on Sunnis and that British and US special forces in conjunction with the intelligence apparatus at the Iraqi Defence Ministry are fabricating insurgent bombings of Shias. Overseeing the entire operation is the ‘cream’ of CMAD under the direction of top-level US intelligence asset Mowaffak Rubaie, a man already experienced at participating in bombing campaigns, undoubtedly working hand in glove with the CIA and the National Security Council in the US.
Posted by: b real | Dec 2 2005 5:19 utc | 51
one more –
stan goff:
My son is being redeployed to Iraq in just over three weeks. It is his third time. This is encroaching on us at a time when I have many reasons to feel foolish and irresponsible… sometimes on the verge of devastation. All those mistakes, starting with my own military career, which led directly to his military service. It’s sometimes hard to know what to do. Sometimes we act out without thinking. Sometimes, we just cry. At loss, and the thought of loss, and the fear of loss.
Sometimes, we bite back the rage.
Here is a message from me to the Congress of the United States. There is no particular reason they will read it, but I need to say it. I am thinking about this; and others are too, especially those who wait and wish for the best.
On Power – Open letter to the US Congress
Posted by: b real | Dec 2 2005 5:43 utc | 52
Human Rights Watch has released a list of 26 Ghost prisoners possibly in CIA custody. The NYTimes didn’t see fit to publish the entire list (at least not at its on line site), although it did carry the story of the HRW press release. I’d be interested in further information on the ghost prisoners, or, more precisely, in counter-information. How many of these could have been dupes or pre-destined scapegoats for the crimes of which they are accused?
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 2 2005 7:21 utc | 53
Oops. Last post was mine. (On HRW list of ghost prisoners.)
I take the occasion (albeit in the wrong thread) to signal William Arkin’s ironic critique of Bush’s “victory
strategy”:
Look, it is the President who insists on labeling Iraq as “the central front in the global war on terror,” as “an essential element in the long war against the ideology that breeds international terrorism.” He says that “the fate of the greater Middle East — which will have a profound and lasting impact on American security — hangs in the balance.” I don’t buy either of these assumptions, but if the administration is serious in its rhetoric, isn’t it strange that they are now saying that they are willing to leave Iraq before the insurgency is “defeated,” that they are willing to entrust the security of THE UNITED STATES to a brand new, unknown, unproven, untested Iraqi military and police force?
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Dec 2 2005 7:33 utc | 54
Rove trying to escape Fitzgerald: In C.I.A. Leak, More Talks With Journalists
A conversation between Karl Rove’s lawyer and a journalist for Time magazine led Mr. Rove to change his testimony last year to the grand jury in the C.I.A. leak case, people knowledgeable about the sequence of events said Thursday.
Mr. Rove’s lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, spoke in the summer or early fall of 2004 with Viveca Novak, a reporter for Time. In that conversation, Mr. Luskin heard from Ms. Novak that a colleague at the magazine, Matthew Cooper, might have interviewed Mr. Rove about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the case, the people said.
…
Sounds a bit lame to me.
At Jerome’s European Tribune site DeGondi provides
an English translation of this new article on the Niger-Yellowcake story from Italy’s La Repubblica . To my mind the main upshot of the detailed story seen from the point of view of the French Dgse is that the CIA was already making inquiries
in this regard as early as summer 2001 , i.e. well-before 9/11, but just in time to plant the Iraq-as-threat meme in the minds of suggestionable U.S. officials before “everything changed”. To my (tin-foil) mind, one more small piece of circumstantial evidence that 9/11 took place precisely so that the war in Iraq could be “sold” to the U.S. public.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Dec 2 2005 8:27 utc | 56
The NSA has released many Golf of Tonkin dokuments here. This 2001 article (pdf) is by an NSA historian writen in 2001.
NYT about the piece
In his 2001 article, an elaborate piece of detective work, Mr. Hanyok wrote that 90 percent of the intercepts of North Vietnamese communications relevant to the supposed Aug. 4, 1964, attack were omitted from the major agency documents going to policy makers.
“The overwhelming body of reports, if used, would have told the story that no attack had happened,” he wrote. “So a conscious effort ensued to demonstrate that an attack occurred.”
Re Crying Wolf, last night on nightline, Terry Moran reporting from under Saddams crossed swords (no shit) in Iraq said the wolf brigade was the most popular thing in Baghdad — like rock stars. He then said that almost to the man, the US troops in Iraq are positive about their mission and moral is very high. And while watching this all out of the corner of my eye, I was reading the (from here) link that posted the letters from soldiers that have PTS and were going back for their 2ed and 3d tours,who were obviously very burnt out. And while there is probably some baghdad bob or crying wolf joke in order, mostly, it reminds me of that guy who immigrated to the US from the USSR, and was suprised to see that there really were ghettos in america — having come to dis-believe everything he saw on the soviet news.
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 2 2005 8:50 utc | 58
If America Left IraqThe case for cutting and running – by Nir Rosen
Iraq is a destroyed and fissiparous country. Iranians and Saudis I’ve spoken to worry that it might be impossible to keep Iraq from disintegrating. But they agree that the best hope of avoiding this scenario is if the United States leaves; perhaps then Iraqi nationalism will keep at least the Arabs united. The sooner America withdraws and allows Iraqis to assume control of their own country, the better the chances that Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari won’t face sahil. It may be decades before Iraq recovers from the current maelstrom. By then its borders may be different, its vaunted secularism a distant relic. But a continued U.S. occupation can only get in the way.
Speaking of wolves :
The Beasts’ Confession
To the Priest, on Observing how most Men mistake their own Talents
Jonathan Swift
When beasts could speak, (the learned say They still can do so every day,) It seems, they had religion then, As much as now we find in men.It happen’d, when a plague broke out, (Which therefore made them more devout,)The king of brutes (to make it plain,Of quadrupeds I only mean)By proclamation gave command, That every subject in the land Should to the priest confess their sins; And thus the pious Wolf begins:
More ?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 2 2005 14:42 utc | 61
anna missed- was watching a dvd the other night, travellers & magicians, a recent film from bhutan by a buddhist monk. one of the characters, also a monk (who bears an uncanny resemblance to a younger, thinner tom sizemore), warns the film’s protagonist, desperately trying to get to the u.s. & live the american dream, ‘you have to be careful w/ dreamlands. when you wake up you might not like what you see’. nice little film w/ some wise messages.
Posted by: b real | Dec 2 2005 15:47 utc | 62
US skewed evidence of 1964 Tonkin ‘attack’ that wasn’t: document
The New York Times reported Friday that some intelligence officials believe the NSA delayed the release of the Hanyok article to avoid comparisons between skewed Vietnam intelligence and flawed prewar intelligence on Iraq.
False premise, lies, manipulated intelligence, pliant lying media, propaganda, rows at home while people bitch about who’s being patriotic and who isn’t, poor natives dying every day and Americans seemingly incabable of calling a stop to it, gee Iraq is JUST like Vietnam.
Posted by: American ethics 101 | Dec 2 2005 21:55 utc | 63
Betcha didn’t know whose being lined up for a regime change next. Myanmar the country formerly known as Burma is the next nation due to have it’s resources gobbled up by the corporates . The theft as per usual will be funded by the US taxpayer.
John Bolton that well-known champion of ordinary people is concerned.
He regards “Burma as a source of regional instability because of its poor record on drug trafficking, widespread human rights abuses and stalled transition to democracy.”
Of course the fact that Burma (remember Burma Oil) is awash with resources is irrelevant. Apart from being one of the original suppliers of oil to the world, Myanmar (the native thieves call it Myanmar and the foreign thieves still call it Burma probably to make the proposed larceny sound more romantic), has large mineral resources of precious and semiprecious stones, such as jade, ruby, and sapphire. The country also has considerable mineral resources of antimony, barite, coal, copper, gold, iron, lead, monazite, natural gas, nickel, petroleum, silver, tin, tungsten, and zinc. Its identified mineral resources of bauxite, bentonite, beryllium, clays, chromium, diamond, feldspar, fluorspar, gypsum, kaolin, manganese, mercury, mica, platinum, and sulfur are small (Ko Ko Myint, 1994).
There is no doubt the current military government are a bad lot. There are many repressive regimes throughout the world whose sovereignty is left undisturbed. The ones that are always left alone are the ones like Egypt whose mineral wealth was plundered thousands of years ago or like Saudi Arabia who have been ‘encouraged’ to give whatever money the corporations pay them, paid back by having huge white elephants of infrastructure commissioned for them by allied or subservient corporations. Bechtel is the Saudi money laundry.
The Burmese haven’t been playing the game. The Brits superficially pulled out after WW2 following their humiliation by the Japanese. The wealth was spread around too much to just create a nation a little larger than the oilfield or minerals deposits so they did the next best thing. The ethnic group who the Brits had anointed to be ‘the Army’ were also handed the reins of government. This was a task the clans took to with alacrity and brutality. The country is made up of many tribes and ethnic groups and a pipeline to India is proposed “Many people fear that the experience of an earlier gas pipeline project to Thailand will be repeated. The construction of that pipeline was accompanied by the forced relocation of villages, forced labour, rape and summary executions committed by Burmese troops. Recently, one of the pipeline’s US corporate partners, Unocal, settled out of court in a case brought in the US by Burmese villagers seeking damages for the abuses they suffered.”
OK there’s a problem right there blowback going to cost more than the projected budget. Obviously a government that doesn’t so publicly brutalize the masses is needed. But it wouldn’t be a good idea to have to pay off every clan and tribe especially without a track record so Aung San Suu Kyi fits the bill nicely. Her father was a loyal follower of the Brits and her family would still be running the place if other families hadn’t gotten jealous. He was a general so is from the ‘correct’ ethnic group, meaning that every man and his dog won’t have to be paid. She is popular amongst Leftists because she is attractive and can be admired without all the women thinking you’re a sex tourist. And has been indoctrinated by the Brits at Oxford.
And she will also be pragmatic about the other major issue which is that this bunch of commies in control are happy to repress but they seem to think it’s a good idea to leave stuff for other generations of their clan. They are just too slow getting the stuff out. Those damn lefties lusting after her are trouble too. They managed to get some sanctions up which have slowed down the plunder. “For god’s sake the future? What’s that? We’ll all be dead”.
The CIA factbook says it all “Burma is a resource-rich country that suffers from government controls, inefficient economic policies, and abject rural poverty. The junta took steps in the early 1990s to liberalize the economy after decades of failure under the “Burmese Way to Socialism”, but those efforts have since stalled and some of the liberalization measures have been rescinded. Burma has been unable to achieve monetary or fiscal stability, resulting in an economy that suffers from serious macroeconomic imbalances – including inflation and multiple official exchange rates that overvalue the Burmese kyat. In addition, most overseas development assistance ceased after the junta began to suppress the democracy movement in 1988 and subsequently ignored the results of the 1990 legislative elections. Economic sanctions against Burma by the United States – including a ban on imports of Burmese products and a ban on provision of financial services by US persons in response to the government of Burma’s attack in May 2003 on AUNG SAN SUU KYI and her convoy – further slowed the inflow of foreign exchange. Official statistics are inaccurate. Published statistics on foreign trade are greatly understated because of the size of the black market and unofficial border trade – often estimated to be one to two times the size of the official economy. Though the Burmese government has good economic relations with its neighbors, a better investment climate and an improved political situation are needed to promote foreign investment, exports, and tourism.”
The plan must be to create a sort of a privatized OPEC. Of course all monopolies are bad news but privately owned ones are feudal, tyrannical, and without any redeeming characteristics.
The most outlying prospects are being secured first then as each is brought under control the enforcers formerly known as the marine corps will be brought a bit closer to home to secure the next one.
Poor old Venezuela. Doesn’t matter how much oil they give away to the poor when their time comes that will be used against them not in their favor.
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 3 2005 2:04 utc | 64
The Niger documents:
LA Times FBI Is Taking Another Look at Forged Prewar Intelligence
The FBI has reopened an inquiry into one of the most intriguing aspects of the pre-Iraq war intelligence fiasco: how the Bush administration came to rely on forged documents linking Iraq to nuclear weapons materials as part of its justification for the invasion.
…
The FBI’s decision to reopen the investigation reverses the agency’s announcement last month that it had finished a two-year inquiry and concluded that the forgeries were part of a moneymaking scheme — and not an effort to manipulate U.S. foreign policy.
Those findings concerned some members of the Senate Intelligence Committee after published reports that the FBI had not interviewed a former Italian spy named Rocco Martino, who was identified as the original source of the documents. The committee had requested the initial investigation.
The rest of the article is a bit confused and in part a whitewash.
For a definite account on what is none about the Niger forgeries see eriposte at The Leftcoaster