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July 3, 2006
OT 06-58
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Israel’s second reason for striking at Gaza is political. It is seeking to destroy the Hamas government by all possible means – including physical liquidation – because it knows that Hamas’s terms for a settlement would be stiffer than it could possibly accept.
It abhors the recent Hamas-Fatah accord, which implicitly recognises Israel, because it threatens to produce a Palestinian partner ready to negotiate the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. Israel has no intention of ever returning to those borders. It is no accident that its assault followed immediately on the Palestinian accord.
Israel will do everything to avoid a negotiation. Hence, it deliberately inflicts inhumane hardships on the Palestinians in order to radicalise them and drive the moderates from the scene. Moderates, who are prepared to talk, are Israel’s real enemies.
Air Force Puts $450,000 Into Three-Year Study Of Blogs… <--Note some may not wanna click this link as it goes to the .mil
ARLINGTON, Va., June 29, 2006 – The Air Force Office of Scientific Research recently began funding a new research area that includes a study of blogs. Blog research may provide information analysts and warfighters with invaluable help in fighting the war on terrorism.
Dr. Brian E. Ulicny, senior scientist, and Dr. Mieczyslaw M. Kokar, president, Versatile Information Systems Inc., Framingham, Mass., will receive approximately $450,000 in funding for the 3-year project entitled “Automated Ontologically-Based Link Analysis of International Web Logs for the Timely Discovery of Relevant and Credible Information.”
“It can be challenging for information analysts to tell what’s important in blogs unless you analyze patterns.”
Dr. Brian E. Ulicny, senior scientist
” …the information battlespace”
You gotta love that… in a sick, twisted Oilwellian kinda way…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 3 2006 6:23 utc | 3
Uncle,
Hey, these guys can’t get enough. Do the people at Kos and Firedoglake actually think that electing a Democrat President is going to change things? Doesn’t look that way to me.
Probably doesn’t matter where on the web I go, I’m sure they got me already from this site!
I often worry about saturating the board w/ to many links, I often argue w/myself in the fear that to many posts will make people numb to the goings on of the mad world the system has locked us all into. I guess from past feed back that doesn’t seem to be a problem with most MOA’s however, if it does please feel free to speak up…
Watch Us, Wiretap Us, Search Us, Jail Us ..
The High Price of American Gullibility
Paul Craig Roberts
Katrina, 10 Months Later
Gutting New Orleans
Bill Quigley
______________________________________
America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves…. It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters.
– Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
Is the US Already Using Brainscan-Based Lie Detection? But the ACLU suspects that the technology is already being used in interrogations abroad and has filed a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to find out. Hasn’t the ACLU learned yet that the Bush administration, to protect us from the world terrorist conspiracy out there, also has to protect us from freedom of information?
Of course, and a zillion other nefarious technology we may never know about…
Interview with Chalmers Johnson
Impeachment Movement
Stan Goff
The ruling class is recongizing that the Bush administration has become an albatross, and this is a clear signal from the judiciary that appointed then in the first place that they have become a political liability.(…)
The combination of anti-war forces generally and progressive Democrats, as well as women’s groups, African-American groups, and Hispano-Latina groups, have immense potential to break through this fissure and exploit it. Success in this would create the kind of oxygen bolus that was created for the period during and immediately after the Watergate hearings in 1973.
If we can make this happen, there is no doubt that the Democratic Leadership Council and others will try to conceal the systemic roots of our isues, but that is the next phase of this struggle… overcoming that. First, we need an impeachment movement. Be assured that the ruling class will not let this get to the point of an actual impeachment and conviction.
Canadian troops knock down doors, interrogate civilians in Afghanistan: New footage
The Dominion
French-language Montreal newspaper La Presse reported on June 22 that Canadian military forces in Afghanistan are ransacking villages, knocking down doors, and interrogating civilians in their search for Taliban militants. It is, wrote reporter Hugo de Grandpré, the end of innocence for Canadian troops.
The report was based on new, “unedited” footage broadcast by the television station France 2 on June 21.
Also, see
Les soldats canadiens en Afghanistan pour tuer
Hugo de Grandpré
La Presse
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 3 2006 7:20 utc | 5
Spy Agency Sought U.S. Call Records Before 9/11, Lawyers Say
June 30 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court.
The allegation is part of a court filing adding AT&T, the nation’s largest telephone company, as a defendant in a breach of privacy case filed earlier this month on behalf of Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. customers. The suit alleges that the three carriers, the NSA and President George W. Bush violated the Telecommunications Act of 1934 and the U.S. Constitution, and seeks money damages.
“The Bush Administration asserted this became necessary after 9/11,” plaintiff’s lawyer Carl Mayer said in a telephone interview. “This undermines that assertion.”
The lawsuit is related to an alleged NSA program to record and store data on calls placed by subscribers. More than 30 suits have been filed over claims that the carriers, the three biggest U.S. telephone companies, violated the privacy rights of their customers by cooperating with the NSA in an effort to track alleged terrorists.
Posted by: Fran | Jul 3 2006 8:08 utc | 6
” …the information battlespace”
What next, the “self loathing battlespace of doubt in the face of presumed failure”? I dont know about you, but are’nt you sick to death of this persistant military speak, in what usually amounts to nothing more than the military’s version of political double talk, bleeding the flesh out of langusge to the extent it becomes metallic. When the CO of Gitmo describes the suicide of one of his prisoners as an act of assymetrical warfare against the U.S. — the well has run dry and hard.
Posted by: anna missed | Jul 3 2006 8:23 utc | 7
@ Uncle $cam:
I, for one, find your links to be useful. In general they give a
basis for discussion which is down-to-earth and “reality based”.
Theoretical discussion of maximal systems and general principles has
its pleasures, but I prefer to have my out-rage battery recharged
frequently.
In a small bit of countercurrent, I was pleasantly surprised to see that after decades of military presence in Iceland, the U.S. is moving out
lock, stock, and barrel. One may be permitted to hope that this “redeployment” will prove so successful that it will be extended to such
places as South Korea, Okinawa, and the dozens of other countries currently enjoying the advantages of protection by the shield of the U.S. military.
Is anyone (i.e. any politician) in the U.S. ready to take up an
equivocally isolationist position? I suspect that if marketed with sufficient panache and conducted with appropriate cynicism, isolationism
could again spread like a prairie fire. It also has the virtue of not
being “against” anyone (or, equivalently, of being equally against
everybody outside the U.S.). It seems to me that a shrewd pol would gladly accept the condemnation of “isolationist thinking”, given the disrepute which the U.S. brand of internationalism (i.e. interventionism)
has fallen.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jul 3 2006 10:25 utc | 8
Those communities were the military move from will probably at first miss them (or rather their money), then adjust to different sources of income (Iceland has really high employment rates, so that should go fast) and finally come to realise they are better of without foreign troops around. And the media will report step one.
Anyway, that is my guess.
Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Jul 3 2006 12:34 utc | 9
Finally got to read Hersh`s new piece. Some essence from LAST STAND – The military’s problem with the President’s Iran policy.
U.S. Strategic Command, supported by the Air Force, has been drawing up plans, at the President’s direction, for a major bombing campaign in Iran.
Inside the Pentagon, senior commanders have increasingly challenged the President’s plans, according to active-duty and retired officers and officials. The generals and admirals have told the Administration that the bombing campaign will probably not succeed in destroying Iran’s nuclear program. They have also warned that an attack could lead to serious economic, political, and military consequences for the United States.
A crucial issue in the military’s dissent, the officers said, is the fact that American and European intelligence agencies have not found specific evidence of clandestine activities or hidden facilities; the war planners are not sure what to hit.
…
A former senior intelligence official told me that people in the Pentagon were asking, “What’s the evidence? We’ve got a million tentacles out there, overt and covert, and these guys”—the Iranians—“have been working on this for eighteen years, and we have nothing? We’re coming up with jack shit.”
…
I was told, the current chairman, Marine General Peter Pace, has gone further in his advice to the White House by addressing the consequences of an attack on Iran. “Here’s the military telling the President what he can’t do politically”—raising concerns about rising oil prices, for example—the former senior intelligence official said. “The J.C.S. chairman going to the President with an economic argument—what’s going on here?”
…
A retired four-star general, who ran a major command, said, “The system is starting to sense the end of the road, and they don’t want to be condemned by history. They want to be able to say, ‘We stood up.’ ”
…
In contrast, some conservatives are arguing that America’s position in Iraq would improve if Iran chose to retaliate there, according to a government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon’s civilian leaders, because Iranian interference would divide the Shiites into pro- and anti-Iranian camps, and unify the Kurds and the Sunnis. The Iran hawks in the White House and the State Department, including Elliott Abrams and Michael Doran, both of whom are National Security Council advisers on the Middle East, also have an answer for those who believe that the bombing of Iran would put American soldiers in Iraq at risk, the consultant said. He described the counterargument this way: “Yes, there will be Americans under attack, but they are under attack now.”
…
“Iran can do a lot of things—all asymmetrical,” a Pentagon adviser on counter-insurgency told me. “They have agents all over the Gulf, and the ability to strike at will.” In May, according to a well-informed oil-industry expert, the Emir of Qatar made a private visit to Tehran to discuss security in the Gulf after the Iraq war. He sought some words of non-aggression from the Iranian leadership. Instead, the Iranians suggested that Qatar, which is the site of the regional headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, would be its first target in the event of an American attack.
…
A retired American diplomat, who has experience in the Gulf, confirmed that the Qatari government is “very scared of what America will do” in Iran, and “scared to death” about what Iran would do in response. Iran’s message to the oil-producing Gulf states, the retired diplomat said, has been that it will respond, and “you are on the wrong side of history.”
…
In late April, the military leadership, headed by General Pace, achieved a major victory when the White House dropped its insistence that the plan for a bombing campaign include the possible use of a nuclear device to destroy Iran’s uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz, nearly two hundred miles south of Tehran.
…
“An event like this doesn’t get papered over very quickly,” the former official added. “The bad feelings over the nuclear option are still felt. The civilian hierarchy feels extraordinarily betrayed by the brass, and the brass feel they were tricked into it”—the nuclear planning—“by being asked to provide all options in the planning papers.”
…
The new bombing concept has provoked controversy among Pentagon planners and outside experts. .. “The Air Force is hawking it to the other services,” the former senior intelligence official said. “They’re all excited by it, but they’re being terribly criticized for it.” The main problem, he said, is that the other services do not believe the tactic will work. “The Navy says, ‘It’s not our plan.’ The Marines are against it—they know they’re going to be the guys on the ground if things go south.”
…
“It’s the bomber mentality,” the Pentagon consultant said. “The Air Force is saying, ‘We’ve got it covered, we can hit all the distributed targets.’” … “The Chiefs all know that ‘shock and awe’ is dead on arrival,” the Pentagon consultant said. “All except the Air Force.
“Rumsfeld and Cheney are the pushers on this—they don’t want to repeat the mistake of doing too little,”
…
The Iranian regime’s calculations about its survival also depend on internal political factors. The nuclear program is popular with the Iranian people, including those—the young and the secular—who are most hostile to the religious leadership. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, has effectively used the program to rally the nation behind him, and against Washington. Ahmadinejad and the ruling clerics have said that they believe Bush’s goal is not to prevent them from building a bomb but to drive them out of office.
Several current and former officials I spoke to expressed doubt that President Bush would settle for a negotiated resolution of the nuclear crisis. A former high-level Pentagon civilian official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the government, said that Bush remains confident in his military decisions. The President and others in the Administration often invoke Winston Churchill, both privately and in public, as an example of a politician who, in his own time, was punished in the polls but was rewarded by history for rejecting appeasement.
…
The Israelis have insisted for years that Iran has a clandestine program to build a bomb, and will do so as soon as it can. … Israeli intelligence, however, has also failed to provide specific evidence about secret sites in Iran, according to current and former military and intelligence officials. … at a secret intelligence exchange that took place at the Pentagon during the visit, the Pentagon consultant said, “what the Israelis provided fell way short” of what would be needed to publicly justify preventive action.
…
If the talks do break down, and the Administration decides on military action, the generals will, of course, follow their orders; the American military remains loyal to the concept of civilian control. But some officers have been pushing for what they call the “middle way,” which the Pentagon consultant described as “a mix of options that require a number of Special Forces teams and air cover to protect them to send into Iran to grab the evidence so the world will know what Iran is doing.”
…
Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the I.A.E.A., said in a speech this spring .. “When you push a country into a corner, you are always giving the driver’s seat to the hard-liners. . . . If Iran were to move out of the nonproliferation regime altogether, if Iran were to develop a nuclear weapon program, we clearly will have a much, much more serious problem.”
Some notes:
– The nuke option is off the table (for now)
– The negotiations are fake
– The military ex Air Force (the evangelicals!) is against any attack on Iran, but will follow its orders.
– Nobody, not even Mossad, has any hint of a clandestine nuke program in Iran. No wonder, there is none.
In contrast, some conservatives are arguing that America’s position in Iraq would improve if Iran chose to retaliate there, according to a government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon’s civilian leaders, because Iranian interference would divide the Shiites into pro- and anti-Iranian camps, and unify the Kurds and the Sunnis. The Iran hawks in the White House and the State Department, including Elliott Abrams and Michael Doran, both of whom are National Security Council advisers on the Middle East, also have an answer for those who believe that the bombing of Iran would put American soldiers in Iraq at risk, the consultant said. He described the counterargument this way: “Yes, there will be Americans under attack, but they are under attack now.”
One thing that has not changed in over 5 years, USuk neocons are not looking for a win, just a scarier enemy. Prudence forbid that we give any benefit of the doubt to such bloody minded traitors.
Posted by: citizen | Jul 3 2006 15:56 utc | 11
Sad story – I for sometime have three vouchers for sightseeing flights over Hamburg. I tried twice to get on a flight with my brother, but both times the flights were canceled for bad weather. We planed to finally get on sometime in August. Now this:
Four killed as sight-seeing plane crashes in Hamburg
Hamburg – A sight-seeing float-plane that had been used over the years by thousands of tourists crashed Sunday on a rail-yard in the German port-city of Hamburg, killing four of the six persons aboard.
Police said the pilot had attempted an emergency landing after the engined failed, but collided with a goods wagon in the yard.
@ Hannah, they (US) are overstretched and dropping everything possible. They now have Germany on board, that counts in a big way. France if Sakorzy is elected.
No, Isolationism can no longer spread, except superficially, like in a 7 day TV wonder, dying a slurpy gargled death. The US is dependent, for energy, from abroad (Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, but down the road, the ME) for cheap goodie-goodies from China, and for its income in the global world. Isolationism in not an option. Extravagant farm subsidies in the heartland for Bush supporters depend on Metro types who coordinate with Germany, Switzerland, India, and many more, in banks and industry abroad, etc. to keep ‘growth’ pumping. Every American finds an advantage in it, and they know it. Internal ‘growth’ depends on the availability of cheap labor, be it Mexican immigrants or textile workers in Bangladesh. The US still exports a lot by the way, despite the image bashing going on. To export, it needs links, ties, agreements, mututality. The non-free market takes care of some kind of invisible redistribution, keeps people quiet.
Posted by: Noisette | Jul 3 2006 18:48 utc | 14
n/a many Iraqi blogs are suddenly hacked since July 2, 2006. What is going on? Truth about Iraqis is the latest to be hit. It’s now an odd shell…an IP trap. Am I being too paranoid?
Posted by: Amurra | Jul 3 2006 21:44 utc | 15
Now when were those elections going to be held in Mushie-ville ?
Cant help but think they’re a while off yet. It took a couple of decades of ‘getting everything in order’ in Argentina yet despite best efforts and many years of legerdemain Leo was only saved by the bell, in Chile old ‘Gus’ may still go to jail. Judging by this story things are proceeding on the same sort of keel but much slower in Pakistan.
BBC in ‘missing Pakistani’ debate
The BBC Urdu service has held a special debate to discuss the issue of missing people in Pakistan.
The information minister and families of Pakistani nationals who have disappeared all took part.
Using its reporters across Pakistan, the BBC’s Urdu on-line service complied a list of about 40 such people.
Correspondents say hundreds of people have gone missing in Pakistan, but authenticating the numbers remains a difficult task.
Emotions
The BBC’s Mazhar Zaidi, who produced Monday’s hour-long discussion in Islamabad, said the programme was highly charged.
“Families of disappeared people who took part were crying and hugging each other,” he said.
“They were able to quiz the information minister as to why their dear ones had never been produced in courts or formally charged.”
The sentiments of the mother of Muneer Maingal – who was reportedly detained at Karachi airport in April and has not been seen since – typified the emotions of many relatives.
“I want to smell the fragrance of my son again,” she said.
The issue of disappearances in Pakistan came to the fore after the body of journalist Hayatullah Khan was found last month in a tribal region near the Afghan border.
He went missing in December. Most other disappearances have involved people active in politics.
Journalists in Pakistan believe Mr Khan was taken by Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, and so do his family.
The authorities insist they had nothing to do with Mr Khan’s death and say they are launching a judicial inquiry.
Another one of the 40 cases examined by the BBC Urdu service was that of Muzaffar Bhutto, a political activist arrested by the authorities in Karachi in 2005.
His brother said he had not been seen since then, despite repeated pleas for information.
“Our programme was a huge success,” said BBC Urdu.com Editor Waheed Mirza.
“In addition to the 40 cases we selected for examination before the programme, we also learnt of several other cases provided by individuals and organisations who phoned in.”
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 3 2006 21:46 utc | 16
amurra, there is no such thing as too paranoid.
the blogger you mentioned had a relative killed recently,in front of his brothers, excecution style. prior to that he mentioned in a comment section a relative who worked w/the media was scarred to leave the house. i don’t know if it was the same relative. i have had some email correspondence w/him and will try to contact him.
something is strange w/some of those other bloggers lately i agree. what can they do to you here if you blog things they don’t like? drag you out of your house and lock you up because you are conspiring w/the enemy? 2 of them recently commented they didn’t think the occupation should leave just yet. something is amiss. that’s probably an understatement.
Posted by: annie | Jul 3 2006 23:35 utc | 17
Ufff, meant to say:
Words feel small. Again: Thank you for getting it.
Posted by: Amurra | Jul 4 2006 0:13 utc | 19
Iraqi Government Freezes Union Bank Accounts
bye bye unions
bad news in iraq
The southern preliterate in the south suffered decades of oppression and tyranny during the dictator regime of Saddam Hussein. The new bright age the Iraqis dreamed of to compensate them the years of oppression, deprivation and hunger didn’t materialize in spite of the sacrifices they made, noting that your brothers in this important sector and all its companies took the responsibility of rebuilding and reviving the all production aspects of these destroyed companies. After the flagrant intervention of the foreign companies in the production process under the political and legal vacuum in Iraq, the sons of this sector confronted under the leadership of their unions these conspiracies and united to oust these foreign companies. At the same time, many of the officials in the Ministry and the companies used to connive at the economical occupation of our oil resources and wealth. Today, under a legitimate elected government, there are those who want to reopen the doors for these companies and their policies which entered with the occupier and under its protection. After the oil sector affiliates felt the danger of these companies dominance over the Iraqis wealth and resources under long-term agreements leading to a new economical occupation, they had no other choice but to democratically re-establish the Oil Union under by free documented elections. This Union played a very important role, locally and internationally where it took the responsibility of taking care of its member concerns and aspirations, to safeguard the oil wealth which is of the Iraqi people property, and to prevent the dominance of the foreign monopoly companies. The union held its first privatization conference during the period 25-26/5/2005 where it established the rules and basics that should be respected by the decision-makers and by all honest patriots. Such rules and basics state that the oil should remain under the control of the Iraqis because it means sovereignty. The rights and the demands of the sector affiliates represented the second priority for the union as the county witnesses a very difficult situations with no elected government. Now, after the elected government took over and after Dr. Hussein Al-Shahrastani took the responsibilities of running the Ministry of Oil, the union sent him a congratulation letter along with two letters to appoint a meeting with him. A third letter was handed to him by a union representative, but unfortunately, no reply received from him, while the union had fruitful meetings with the former ministries in increasing the production, solving all problems, overcoming obstacles and finding out and fixing the bugs an defects. Therefore, we would like to put before the Iraqi government officials, Ministry of Oil and our affiliates and members the hereunder demands that will not be bargained on:
1. We reject any agreement to invest in the oil with having a legal regulation on that and with having the union part of the agreement to avoid being trapped by the conspiracies in the World Bank Fund and the World Bank, otherwise, we will make any agreement a failure no matter what the cost be.
2. To get back the Iraqi National Oil Company which was cancelled for reasons known to all.
3. To activate the Iraqi Excavation and Tankers Company as it represents the national unity being one of the national economy support.
royal screw over.
Posted by: annie | Jul 4 2006 0:51 utc | 20
A lot more facts about the Hadji Girl incident at Mahmudiya have surfaced. Given that releasing this now, fits the standard ‘news managing’ way of dealing with ‘black eyes’ such as rape and murder by the US military, it is even more important people keep themselves informed of exactly what did happen.
The news management model runs like this.
Let the bare bones of the story out then wait while speculation tries to fill in the gaps. The speculation will eventually include some wildly off the mark and despicable guesses. Then step in and deny the most despicable under oath if need be, or even better, with a ton of witnesses. Make no elaboration apart from denial and disproving. At this stage it is still vital not to let the true story out.
Then about a week or so later when the ’embarassment’ has been discussed to death with the rebuttals ‘beaten up’ by speculation as much as the reality has been, most will be ‘sick’ of it, and many will have concluded that the whole affair either didn’t happen, wasn’t as bad as ‘everyone said’, or is just too hard to know the truth of, then release the facts.
This Reuters story entitled
US soldier charged with rape, murder in Iraq does contain the facts. There are a number of somewhat ‘glossed over’ facts here too. Important because they demonstrate that not only are the public going to be treated to the ‘one bad apple’ bullshit when there were at least three other members of the 101st Assholes n Rapists with the accused when these sex crimes were perpetrated.
“Discharged soldier Steven Green, 21, appeared in court in Charlotte, North Carolina, on a charge from a federal prosecutor in Kentucky that he went with three others to a house near Mahmudiya, just south of Baghdad, to rape a woman there.”
But and even bigger indication that there was a complicity in these crimes and their cover-up is hinted at with the word ‘discharged’.
Further on in this article we learn:
“Court documents said he had since been discharged from the army due to a “personality disorder”.
Now I don’t know how senior you have to be in the US military to get a soldier discharged due to a ‘personality disorder’, but I would imagine that a sergeant can’t pull that one off as if he could you’d have to think that there wouldn’t be too many soldiers left in Iraq apart from some very rich sergeants.
THe same likely applies for the junior officers as well. In fact I’d reckon that it would probably take quite a lot of effort by a colonel to get a bloke sent home with the sort of no harm, no foul pass that Green got.
You’d think a colonel; or whatever rank of senior officer that did circumvent “Catch-22” by giving an insane person the discharge that any sane person would request, would only do so if he were reasonably cognizant of the facts.
Once the senior officer did become ‘cognizant of the facts’, he behaved just like a good little western bureaucrat. He did as he was trained and swept the facts under the carpet by discharging the miscreant. Make the asshole someone else’s problem. Not only avoiding responsibility but also endangering his own men.
There is little doubt that the ‘payback’ in the form of the torture and mutilation of two fellow members of the 101st and Green’s subsequent arrest are connected:
“The inquiry was launched after two soldiers from the 502nd Infantry Regiment came forward late last month, just after two men from the unit were kidnapped and killed near Mahmudiya.”
A small digression. Does the Amerikan Empire employ no anthropologists or other experts in the mores of cultures other than egocentric consumerism?
The reason I say that is because the ‘payback’ tradition is entrenched in a great many cultures. Despite the bad press it gets from fans of centralised law enforcement models, it is an effective way of maintaining order. While it is true that it can lead to feuding, that usually only happens when the society is already under other pressures. For as suicide bombers or any properly trained soldier demonstrates many people can be persuaded to sacrifice themselves for something be it material or an ideal.
Even so not that many would favour sacrificing their family. This is why the Israelis bulldoze the family home of Palestinian freedom fighters, and why the Palestinian soldier’s unit provides a gift to his family.
Customary law was re-introduced to parts of Australia at the request of the families of perpetrators, not the victims family.
If an asshole murders someone in a drunken rage or whatever in an Aboriginal community, then the police come in and arrest the perp, that leaves the murderer’s family very exposed. This because family of the victim are duty bound to extract payback. If the murderer isn’t there, they will claim payback from the closest relative. So nowadays the NT police send the perp back to his community upon conviction. Following a usually quite ceremonial meeting, the victims family spear him, most often in the leg. He is patched up then taken to prison, sometimes over the protests of even the victim’s family who want him back in the community to which he now belongs once more. Spearing in the leg was could be fatal without antibiotics, or if the spear hit the femoral artery, which was less common.
So Iraqi payback is far milder and more in keeping with a community comprised of intermingled clans than Australian Aboriginal culture where the laws are based on nomadic lifestyles and communities of a single clan or sub-tribe.
The fact that the US just ignores it though is mind boggling. They think they can fix the world with a ballot box and a civics lesson?
That sort of stuff goes out the window when confronted with the horror of four members of your family being raped, murdered, possibly burned to death and two of them are children!
Something else which should have given the colonel or whoever pause is that payback isn’t a right, it is a duty and the bigger and more powerful your clan is the important it is that the duty is seen to be fulfilled. Now the young girl’s full name was Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi.
al-Janabi or ‘of the Janabi clan’. The Reuters article says “. . . the family were Sunni Muslims from the powerful Janabi tribe.”
Anyone interested in exactly how connected the victims of this massacre were should do a google on Janabi. As well as being a substantial sunni family who have achieved in most sectora of 20th and 21st century arabic society, the al-Janabi’s appear to be intelligent and humane which is why the continual bleating by the US that the dismemberment of two members of the 101st tribe is totally unconnected with this massacre hasn’t provoked further attacks on members of the 101st.
Because if the mutilation was tribal justice yet is denounced as not being such, denounced so much that people believe that it wasn’t, then in many cultures that would mean further justice would have to be exacted; until it became accepted by all that messing with al-Janabis carries a heavy price.
The media along with the occupation authorities has reserved a special shame for the primary victim. This bullshit is a piece of amerikan elite repression that is normally only conferred on young criminals in the US.
Abeer Qasim Hamza, the 15 year old girl who had been subjected to persistant sexual bullying and harassment by ‘her deliverers of freedom’ at the 101st checkpoint up the road from her house, is constantly described as an adult. I guess to some that may make the crime that was committed upon this child somehow less reprehensible.
The amazingly mature and sensible 15 year old girl that I’m lucky enough to have as a daughter baulks if I describe her as a child, but she is.
She is still capable of the missteps that any child who hasn’t yet grasped sufficient skills and knowledge to survive outside the protection of her family unit can make.
Where I come from, such a person is called a child.
There is no doubt she is less of a child than her 13 year old brother, however she still deserves the consideration and understanding that a caring society should give any child.
The same applies for Abeer Qasim Hamza. The US media describes Ms Hamza as being 20, the local mayor says 16, but her uncle Omar Janabi, who the late Mrs Hamza el-Janabi had told of the harassment of Abeer at the checkpoint, tells us she was only 15.
I think her uncle is more likely to be correct than her murderers’ apologists, or the local politician, don’t you?
Her age makes no difference to the foulness of the crime, but it does provide a sickening insight into the twisted and unabashed attitudes that the empire’s functionaries hold.
I suppose we could be relieved that the apologists didn’t try to place the mantle of adulthood upon little Hadeel Hamza who was only 7 when she and her family were massacred. SEVEN gettit! What were the other three 101st assholes doing when their ‘personality disordered’ comrade was killing her? Why didn’t “three of our finest’ or whatever mendacious superlatives the exceptionalists confer upon the mercenary force of oppressed herds of repressed cannonfodder stop this slaughter or die trying?
Of course adulthood is frequently conferred on the little children murdered by empire.
For example the three little girls blown apart by 500lb bombs when Zarqawi had been adjudged to have outlived his usefulness are stilled called adults even though at least one was still in diapers.
The next time any pontificating prat starts in on the global war on terror, or the necessity of ‘the sunni’ or ‘the iraqi’, ‘the iranian’, or worst of all ‘the arab in the street’ to learn whatever, remember who it is this asshole is really talking about.
It’s not some rough jowled, turban wearing, gun toting fanatic. It’s Abeer Hamza aged 15, daughter of the el-Janabi clan, walking down a dusty road holding the hand of her sister Haleel aged 7. Too young to have an inkling of the terrble evil that lies behind the eyes of the strange men at the top of her street, Haleel is giggling at their stupid banter.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 4 2006 3:17 utc | 21
one source puts the janabi tribe at about 1 million, historically one of the largest in iraq
Posted by: b real | Jul 4 2006 4:37 utc | 22
Preteen mag accused of military pitching
Cobblestone magazine, which is put out by Carus Publishing in Peterborough, is aimed at children ages 9-14 and is distributed nationwide to schools and libraries. Its latest issue features a cover photo of a soldier in Iraq clutching a machine gun and articles on what it’s like to go through boot camp, a rundown of the Army’s “awesome arsenal” and a detailed description of Army career opportunities.
Most controversial has been a set of classroom guides that accompany the magazine, which suggest teachers invite a soldier, Army recruiter or veteran to speak to their classes and ask students whether they might want to join the Army someday.
Investigators believe the U.S. soldiers suspected of raping an Iraqi woman, then killing her and members of her family plotted the attack for nearly a week, a U.S. military official said Saturday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said it appeared the attack was “totally premeditated” and that the soldiers “studied them for about a week.”
Mahmoudiya police Capt. Ihsan Abdul-Rahman said Iraqi officials received a report March 13 alleging that American soldiers had killed the family. The incident occurred in the Khasir Abyad area, about 6 miles north of Mahmoudiya, he said.
There were some discrepancies over how many soldiers were being investigated. The U.S. official said it was at least four. Two other U.S. officials said Friday that five were under investigation
my guess is the US military knew about it, they only became aggresive w/the investigation once the hunt was on for the kidnapped soldiers which they knew was retaliation. the story about someone coming forward out of guilt is probably spin, just a story. makes me wonder how many other crimes reported by the citizens of iraq against the military that have been swept under the rug. seems like quite a coincidence only the ones that get ‘outted’ we hear about. i’m sure someday the atrocities will be recorded.
Posted by: annie | Jul 4 2006 6:37 utc | 24
Switzerland: Israel Violating Law in Gaza
Switzerland accused Israel of violating international law in its Gaza offensive by inflicting heavy destruction and endangering civilians in acts of collective punishment banned under the Geneva Conventions.
Switzerland said Monday that Israel’s destruction last week of the main Gaza electricity power station and its attack on the office of the Palestinian prime minister were unjustified.
It also urged Israel to free dozens of arrested officials of the ruling Hamas group, including Cabinet ministers and lawmakers.
Israel has used tanks, troops, gunboats and aircraft to attack the Gaza area over the past week to press militants to free a captured Israeli soldier.
“A number of actions by the Israeli defense forces in their offensive against the Gaza Strip have violated the principle of proportionality and are to be seen as forms of collective punishment, which is forbidden,” the Swiss Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The arbitrary arrests of a large number of democratically elected representatives of the people and ministers … cannot be justified,” the ministry added.
Switzerland also called for the “rapid release” of the captive Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit. But it said Israel had an obligation “to respect international humanitarian law in the measures it undertakes to liberate the captured soldier.”
cnn interviews hersh on iran
crooks and liars w/the video, i recommend
Posted by: annie | Jul 4 2006 15:44 utc | 26
Soccore, or better football time here. Semifinal Italy – Germany. The roads are as empty as on a Sunday morning at 6am. That is REALLY empty.
This afternoon I walked by a Turkish youth club. The had a German flag out (never had before) and several of the youngsters did wear German team cloth. Integration at work …
Tried to go the public vieweing site at the Reeperbahn. It fits some 50,000 but as of 2 hours ago it was full and some 20,000 folks were hanging around outside. (In Berlin they have public vieweing for 300,000 people and its filled up.)
The Italian restaurant I planed to go to watch the game had every place booked as of 3 days ago. So I will slip down to the greek restaurant, next door to watch. (The owners son also wears German team cloth.)
The major car manufacturers, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Porsche stopped the assembly lines tonight to let the workers watch the game. I guess otherwise everbody would have called in “ill” anyhow.
Crazy, but fun. Good luck to both teams.
heh heh finally some good football to watch here’s hoping it doesn’t come down to a penalty shoot out.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 4 2006 20:54 utc | 29
Yeah,
that would be a hell of a way to lose.
Posted by: The Generic Pimpernell | Jul 4 2006 21:01 utc | 30
Sometimes it rains B.
But it was one helluva game.
Posted by: The Generic Pimpernell | Jul 4 2006 21:31 utc | 31
Congrats to Italy – it took them quite a while, 1:0 in the 118th minute, 2:0 in the 120th, but the better team did win.
The Italians did play better throughout the game, though the Germans did put up a decent fight. Italy had more chances but didn´t succeed to use them until the very last minutes. At the end, the Germans seemed more tired – and lost.
General conclusion: – This was again a game where no goal happened during the regular time. The players are much too fit and fast these days to leave any open space for a decent tactical manouver. It would really help the attractivity of football to change the rules a bit to get more goals.
The easiest and fairest way would be to reduce the number of field players from 10 to 9 and maybe even 8. Those would not be able to cover all space and the game would be back to its roots where it wasn´t only about room coverage and how to break through that, but on using the free space. Lots of goals was the norm some decades ago and 0:0 nearly never happened.
The current play is like a siege against a bullwark and/or defending that bullwark, not an open game.
Now who will win the second semi-final?
b
i have a terrifying feeling that portugal will even tho there is precedent
Posted by: r’giap | Jul 4 2006 23:00 utc | 33
& b
on saturday night not far from where i am – there were young french of algerian origin holding up the french flag proudly & saying allah akbah
the composition of the french team ought to make french people proud
have alway wondered what le pen & bruno megret do during the world cup
Posted by: r’giap | Jul 4 2006 23:06 utc | 34
& i wanted to say to debs – yr last post on the death of a family & u s forces, solid & heartbreaking
Posted by: r’giap | Jul 4 2006 23:08 utc | 35
Some great juxtapositions of news from Harpers Weekly:
President Bush said that it was “disgraceful” for newspapers to report on a secret intelligence program to trace bank records, and China announced that media outlets would be fined up to $12,500 if they reported on any “sudden events” without prior authorization.
Bruno the bear was shot and killed by German authorities, ending his seven-week rampage through Germany and Austria; Bruno, officially tagged Rampant Brown Bear JJ 1, had killed sheep and rabbits, stolen honey, eluded Finnish bear trackers and elkhounds, and squashed a guinea pig. “Sexual frustration,” said a German official, “may be a reason for the random killings.” Rush Limbaugh was detained at an airport when authorities found illicit Viagra in his luggage.
It was revealed that Hillary Clinton’s ancestors were English coal miners, and scientists in Borneo found a snake that can spontaneously change color from reddish-brown to white.
Posted by: PeeDee | Jul 4 2006 23:25 utc | 36
Commiserations Bernhard, I saw all of the ordinary time game but real life called just as they went into extra time and I missed the end. On the basis of that yeah I would have to say the better team won but the German team did put up a good fight.
I defer to your superior knowledge of the game and certainly something has to be done to make the world cfup more watchable. I stand by my comment at the end of the first half that we were finally seeing some decent football. That said the second half wasn’t nearly as exciting to watch as the first although Deutsche supporters would have been happier.
The way I saw it wasn’t that the sides had become tired, as much as they had decided to play defensively lest the other side get a goal so close to full time. They would rather wait for extra time.
I saw the problem as being attitudinal. Most sides in this world cup were playing english style. that is don’t take any chances because a player has more to lose making a mistake than he could possibly gain by contributing to or getting a goal.
Tabloid media are ruining the game, Not too many players, IMO.
Look at the way the English media are treating Cristiano Ronaldo.
Yet it was the english moron Rooney that stamped on Ricardo Carvalho’s groin and got the red card which left england without capable penalty taker’s.
We got the english feed in NZ and the way they set Ronaldo up was a disgrace. the infamous ‘wink’ popped up a little out of time and could have been made at any stage in the game. Even if it was made when the journalists claim it was , for all we know he may wink the bench frequently about anything.
So, better to behave like a thug and get sent off than play good football.
The other issue about if you sign for a english club you arent allowed to play well against england will come back and bite english ass’s for sure. The Sun still drags up Maradona’s ‘hand of god’ from 82 or 86 I forget which.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 4 2006 23:29 utc | 37
“watchable”? I’m no expert, but many matches have been thrilling. mex v arg weas astopunding as was the french dismantling of spain and brazil. and ghana’s play was exciting. and the energy of the italians in ot was just amazing.
but please, get rid of the pks. that’s like missing the last 20 pages of moby dick.
and now we have the tour blown completely apart by drugs and valverde sadly going down. but really exciting 1st week. what could be a better summer of sport? oh, arena football, baby.
Posted by: slothrop | Jul 4 2006 23:43 utc | 38
Now it seems BushCo have even given up pretending to look for Bin Laden.
From the Guardian:
CIA disbands Bin Laden unit
Nearly five years after George Bush vowed to bring Osama bin Laden to justice “dead or alive”, it’s the end of the line for the CIA’s Alec Station, the unit dedicated to the hunt for the al-Qaida leader.
The unit, named after the son of a counter-terror official, was disbanded last year, it emerged this week, and its agents reassigned in what intelligence officials described as a recognition of the changing nature of al-Qaida.
“The reorganisation just reflects the understanding that the Islamic jihadist movement continues to diversify,” an intelligence official said.
Alec Station was founded in 1996, taking its name from the son of Michael Scheuer, the unit’s former director. Its two dozen members worked in rented premises outside the CIA headquarters.
Since 9/11, the original al-Qaida has spawned dozens of regional affiliates from Indonesia to Iraq. Terrorism experts believe that Bin Laden and his Egyptian lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, no longer exercise centralised control over international jihad, although they continue to offer inspiration with audio tape messages and other more secret communications.
“Al-Qaida used to be a large hierarchical organisation, and five years out from 9/11 you have an organisation where many senior leaders, facilitators, and planners have been captured and killed, but you have a growing number of groups and individuals who have been inspired by al-Qaida and act independently of al-Qaida,” the intelligence official said.
CIA officials insisted yesterday that the hunt for al-Qaida’s founder continued. “Tracking and gathering intelligence about Bin Laden, Zawahiri … remains a high priority for the CIA and the intelligence community,” one official said.
Other reasons eh! Hmmmmm
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 5 2006 1:10 utc | 39
What do Martha Stewart and enemy combatant Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri have in common? They were both indicted, under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001, for lying to federal government agents.
Scary article at FindLaw:How to Avoid Going to Jail under 18 U.S.C. Section 1001 for Lying to Government Agents
“Did you know that it is a crime to tell a lie to the federal government? Even if your lie is oral and not under oath? Even if you have received no warnings of any kind? Even if you are not trying to cheat the government out of money? Even if the government is not actually misled by your falsehood? Well it is.”
Punchline – there is a right and a wrong way to decline to talk:
“Simply state that you will not discuss the matter at all without first consulting counsel and that counsel will be in touch with him. If the agent asks for a commitment from you to speak with him after you have consulted or retained counsel, do not oblige him. Just respond that you will consult with your attorney (or “an” attorney) and that the attorney will be in touch. And by all means do not get bullied or panicked into making up a phony reason for refusing to talk. [snip] Your invocation of counsel cannot be used against you at trial.”
Posted by: PeeDee | Jul 5 2006 1:46 utc | 40
Destroying a city to save it:
In Ramadi, Fetid Quarters and Unrelenting Battles
Now American commanders are trying something new.
Instead of continuing to fight for the downtown, or rebuild it, they are going to get rid of it, or at least a very large part of it.
They say they are planning to bulldoze about three blocks in the middle of the city, part of which has been reduced to ruins by the fighting, and convert them into a Green Zone, a version of the fortified and largely stable area that houses the Iraqi and American leadership in Baghdad.
The idea is to break the bloody stalemate in the city by ending the struggle over the battle-scarred provincial headquarters that the insurgents assault nearly every day. The Government Center will remain, but the empty space around it will deny the guerrillas cover to attack. “We’ll turn it into a park,” said Col. Sean MacFarland.
b,
As you know probably better than I, not such a new tactic:
Good summary from Global Research
“The city of Fallujah was subjected to a genocide war by the American forces. The military machinery destroyed almost 70 per cent of the city, from civilian houses to medical center and general services facilities especially water, electricity. This war resulted in killing thousands of innocent civilians and sending almost a half million refugee. It is well known that the American forces and their puppet government prevented any medical or humanitarian relief agency to enter the city throughout its siege to the city.”