Post American: 200511

Post American

20051130

Bush is a prisoner of his own demons, and we, in this era of the imperial presidency, are his prisoners, as he steers the country on a reckless road to ruin. The idea that there is something very wrong with that man in the White House, that he is wreathed in a darkness of potentially apocalyptic deadliness – that he is, in short, a deeply disturbed and dangerous individual – is chilling. From the image of the president as benevolent father-figure, we have come, in the historical blink of an eye that marks the time since the days of Dwight Eisenhower, to the chief executive as a reckless and wanton destroyer – not Zeus, but Loki. Blind to evidence, and rendered half-mad by a toxic mix of religious and ideological fervor, the most powerful man in the world is on a death-dealing rampage. No different, really, than one of those crazed gunmen you read about in the news, who go on a spectacular crime spree, kidnapping and murdering their way across several state lines, holding hostages and threatening to kill them the whole way.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8185
We are, all of us, George W. Bush's hostages, and, what's especially scary is that we don't know what he's going to do next. He seems capable of anything. Hersh reports the creation of a special squadron detailed to crossing over the border and pursuing the insurgents into Syria, and certainly we have every reason to expect this war to spread. The reversion to air power perhaps augurs the dawning of new "shock and awe" campaigns, this time over Damascus and points west. This is what the War Party is gunning for, and unless popular opposition to the war forces an American withdrawal along lines suggested by Rep. Murtha – out in six months – that is exactly the prospect we face. We must escalate, or get out – we cannot "stay the course." The president and his advisers are beginning to realize this, and, given Bush's views – after all, I didn't entitle a column "George W. Bush, Trotskyite" for nothing – I leave it to the imagination of my readers which option he will choose.

We aren't cutting and running, according to Hersh: we're cutting and bombing. The idea is to substitute air power for boots on the ground and cut down our losses. It'll be just like in the Kosovo war, when the "Kosovo Liberation Army" acted as spotters for our fighter jets, who would rain down death on targets scouted out by the KLA. That this will greatly increase Iraqi casualties, civilian as well as military, seems not to be a consideration: the assumption is that we'll be killing the bad guys, with the Iraqis doing most of the grunt work. Not everyone, however, is happy with this new strategic turn. The Air Force, says Hersh, is balking, and he quotes a senior Pentagon consultant who defines the problem inherent in such a strategy: "A lot of Iraqis want to settle old scores," but "who is going to have authority to call in air strikes?" As Chris Matthews pointed out on Hardball Tuesday, you're going to have the Air Force at the beck and call of Ahmed Chalabi, a prospect that ought to transfix American policymakers with the sheer horror of it.
We aren't withdrawing from Iraq: instead, the war is being intensified, with the so-called El Salvador option unleashed, as predicted here some months ago. Iraqi death squads are even now roaming the streets of our "liberated" province, murdering Sunnis and ravaging other centers of opposition to the consolidation of Shi'ite rule. The party militias – the Badr Brigade, the Da'wa Party, the Mahdi Army of Moqtada Sadr, and others – have taken over the Iraqi "police," and the fastening on of a new tyranny is taking place in Kurdistan, where the authorities are preparing an all-out attack on the Arab population. With the full authority and backing of the two major Kurdish parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), Arabs are being systematically forced out of their homes. Meanwhile, the ultra-nationalist Kurdish parties subsidize "settlements" for "repatriated" Kurds from all over the Middle East, in a conscious imitation of the Israelis.
Israel by the way, is the Kurds' major ally and regional sponsor, as Hersh reported in a previous New Yorker piece. Their agents, said Hersh, are crawling all over Kurdistan, even as they recognize that the American attempt to pacify the rest of Iraq is failing. This is their "Plan B," as Hersh calls it: if Iraq is being split apart at the seams, their best option is to grab a piece of it as it decomposes. That Kirkuk-to-Israel pipeline Chalabi promised his neocon backers may not be a pipe dream after all, especially if the Kurds succeed in their plan to shift the ethnic balance of oil-rich Kirkuk and seize control of the city they hail as their Jerusalem. This has American officers worried, and it contradicts the much-touted "pro-American" reputation of the Kurds as our trusted friends and allies: American commanders fear the Kurdish militias are about to precipitate a civil war, with our troops caught in the crossfire.
Once we make this an air war, the Kurdish parties will wield American jet fighters as a whip to be used against their sectarian enemies, lashing out at the Arabs, the Assyrians, and anyone else who gets in their way. While Shi'ite and Kurdish death squads comb the streets, carrying out search and destroy missions against alleged "terrorists," the Americans will patrol the skies, zapping entire villages as directed by our proxies on the ground.
There's just one problem with this strategy: "It's not going to work," says the former director of air power studies at the Royal Air Force's advanced staff college, Andrew Brookes, now an analyst with the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. Hersh cites him as asking a very pertinent question, one that conjures up the same ghosts of interventions past channeled by van Creveld.
"'Can you put a lid on the insurgency with bombing? No. You can concentrate in one area, but the guys will spring up in another town.' The inevitable reliance on Iraqi ground troops' targeting would also create conflicts. 'I don't see your guys dancing to the tune of someone else,' Brookes said. He added that he and many other experts 'don't believe that airpower is a solution to the problems inside Iraq at all. Replacing boots on the ground with airpower didn't work in Vietnam, did it?'

"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."

This isn't some poster over at DailyKos.com or Democratic Underground talking: van Creveld is the author of some 15 books on military history and strategy, including Supplying War (1977), Command in War (1985), and The Sword and the Olive (1998), and has been on the faculty of Hebrew University in Israel since 1971.

Yes, says van Creveld, we must withdraw, and it will be a long and very painful retreat, likely to incur many casualties, but it is nevertheless "inevitable." Yet, in his view: "A complete American withdrawal is not an option; the region, with its vast oil reserves, is simply too important for that. A continued military presence, made up of air, sea and a moderate number of ground forces, will be needed."

¶ 30.11.05 1 Comments

The world is spinning on a tenuous thread attached to the murky forces of the underground. In the caves beneath the soil, the rats are scurrying around trying to find exits that won’t let them out in the bright daylight.
The State coffers are emptied of all contents, the blood of the enemy is seeping into the cracks of the walls and slowly covering the ground in the caves, the rats are roaring like wounded tigers. The age of darkness has arrived and nothing can be seen, no light is getting through to the interior of the cave from the outside world.
From far off, a faint beating of a drum can be heard, a beat that’s getting more and more distinct, a drum beat of life amidst all the sordid darkness and blood and the shrill squeaking of the rats. The beat is getting stronger every second. It seems as if several drums have joined the one lone drum that was heard from far away at the beginning.
And now the entrance to the cave is broken down by a hoard of people armed with nothing but their fists and their drum beat. The daylight is coming back, it’s seeping through the door and the rats are getting blinded. They are scurrying around like doomed beasts, trying desperately to find an exit in some dark corner.
Outside in the light of the rising sun a procession of marching people has formed and they are moving unstoppably across hills and valleys, across rivers and through forests. The procession is growing in size every minute and the drum beat is steadily getting louder. The masses of people sweep up everything in their way.
They are singing now, singing first hesitantly, then more and more assured. Old people and children have joined them in their march. The procession is moving forward and it’s growing and growing. It’s getting wider and longer and it is finally covering the country. The people build bridges over the waters, they walk across mountains and through deserts. They are leaving behind the rats in the cave who are quivering in fear and they keep marching, keep gathering strength and numbers, keep marching, keep marching. And the drummers keep drumming louder and louder. The people come from the mountains and they come from the flatlands, they come from the forests and they come from far away valleys.
They are in the hundreds, they are in the thousands, they are in the millions. Finally they are in the hundreds of millions. They are covering the ground, the mountains, the valleys, the horizons. They are pushing ahead, ahead, towards the light that’s freedom, to stop the furious spinning of the world.
The rats have nowhere to go. They are deafened by the drum beat, hypnotized by the masses of people. They cower, they get blinded by the light, they shrivel to foul pieces of crumpled flesh and the people march over them, not even seeing the squalid lumps of dirt that get kicked into the ditches.
They are at last getting hold of the thread that’s holding the world, the world that is spinning and spinning in a desperate attempt to make us believe that it’s the normal way of life. The world is spinning at a crazed rhythm and the masses of people are finally seeing that it didn’t have to be like this. The world can slow down. The world can wait for us, the people. The world can count us all in. It can take us all in under its huge roof. The bleeding can stop. We don’t need any more slaughter.
We don’t need the rats any more, the rats who made us feel so desperately scared. The rats who kept telling us “There is not enough food, there is not enough water. There is not enough room for everyone. We have to go on plundering, conquering, destroying mountains to find the gold that’s buried underneath. We have to go on accumulating. We have to go on, go on, go on.”
The rats couldn’t see that life is just living. That’s all there is to life. It’s living for us and for all those who are coming to replace us when we are gone. What life is all about is just living.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_20073.shtml

GeoWBush is at it again, going around saying that we can’t leave Iraq because we haven’t won yet. There’s no telling when we will ever kill the last terrorist, and judging by the experience of Israel, it will be never.
But that’s the “truth” of the lie. Al Kady can never surrender, and never will, because they don’t really exist. Of course, we must continue to fight the terrorists, says Gee Bee, because they kicked sand in our faces back a few Septembers ago. Never mind and never say that buildings don’t fall down like that.
But that’s always how we get into it. Somebody “attacks” us. We must have revenge, and stop them from doing it again. But, there’s no telling who “they” really are this time, and stomping into sovereign nations wrecking shit like an ATF/DEA/SWAT team was not exactly the way a smart person would have run such an endeavor. This crap costs a ton of money, and now that we are seeing that we are broke financially, we are also discovering that our leaders are morally bankrupt as well. It’s not just the magnitude of the lie, but the magnitude of the continuing deception, and the magnitude of the continuing damage.
Nearly every member of Congress is still in line with the big lie, the one that says we were attacked by terrorists on 9/11/2001. BYU administrators suddenly know more about physics than their own professors do. The incredible stupidity of the media-controlled general populace worldwide shines bright in the seemingly easy way in which they let themselves believe that buildings fall straight down after a bit of impact and fire. It’s no wonder they believe the lie of Muslim/Arab terrorism, because they are incredibly stupid by design, and I’m not talking about any “God”, I’m talking about the indoctrination traditions of cultures everywhere that encourage acceptance of easily falsifiable dogma.
Outraged persons across the planet are wondering when the common American man will join them in their outrage. If it happens, it will happen after the economic fall, and if the truth about 9/11 is ever accepted it will be after the upheaval, because the current establishment is too invested in the lie. But, as an American myself, I have to wonder if the good ol’ American sense of justice has engaged again, this time upon America itself, as the collective guilt becomes realized and acknowledged. America done fucked up big time…again…and must now be punished.
Americans still have their innate sense of what’s right, and are at this moment awaiting their just desserts. When they receive it, the “truth” of it will have to align with the lie. Let’s hope the common people will understand this concept by then, and see the lie for what it is..."evil"...then perhaps we can vow to never be fooled again.

Here is a tacttic that George Bush could use to save his royal ass and make it profitable for everyone.
Pull the troops home? No . . . in this scenario the world-wide companies that thrive on war profits wouldn't be too happy. They won't send trained assassins to kill him like they did JFK in 1963. With Georgie boy the son of American royalty wannabes, the CIA will make sure he gets to exit stage right with an excuse ready-made to draw public sympathy. "Bush Decides to Resign, Cites Pressures From Anti-War Movement". That will start a civil war, just as it would have in 1963 if we all knew what group was really behind JFK's assassination.
This scenario gives Bush an almost heroic exit to many Americans, who when sentimentally-challenged will do what many Germans did in the 1930's, embrace Adolf Hitler. The "popular" outcry for the president's return will boost ratings tremendously, like Caeser's march into Rome. Meanwhile, there will be "popular" outcry against those who challenged this "great" president's very sanity and doubted his word. How dare they hurt our legendary hero, George Bush? Persecution and arrest of the liberal "conspiracy" to overthrow our government will start in earnest.
Even if this tactic doesn't work and the public tell's George "good riddance and I'm glad that you're mentally destroyed!", it will serve as a major distraction and divisive tactic of the American people, allowing those in the shadows to operate with less scrutiny to slow them down. So what I am saying bascially is this- George Bush can run down the streets of DC tonight bare naked and it wouldn't make a bit of difference to those who see him as some sort of savior. Remember Jesus could walk on water . . . well this president actually has the balls to run naked in DC. If people have their minds made up and it would hurt their itty-bitty American pride to admit they are wrong about George Bush, President Bush can run naked with Jennifer Anniston on his shoulders and it wouldn't matter to "good, God-fearing, Bible-thumping, apple-pie-eating, win-at-any cost" Americans.
That would be a Karl-Rove-on-acid scneario probably, and it might actually work. Here is my plan for Mr. Bush-
Announce a phased withdrawal from Iraq, telling the public that he is now that confident that the war in Iraq is under firm control of the new American-trained Iraqi army. This is a lie, of course, but many Americans will be blinded with the pride that we trained the Iraqis just like John Wayne trained those poor little Viet Namese in "The Green Berets". Bush's continued stubbornness in the face of facts is purely political. He knows that he could announce a withdrawal and the American public would never really be able to get a fair accounting of just how many troops there still are in Iraq. He would Enron Iraq. This would also make Bush an instant "people's president", but I'm quite sure Bush doesn't want to go to his grave in his high society graveyard having been labelled a man who actually helped the dirty stupid common man! That's like cavorting with the enemy.
Bush could be elected life-time president by the American people if he brought the troops home, fired all of his advisers, told Ariel Sharon to stick his requests where the sun don't shine, admit to the American public what his family is being blackmailed on and who is doing the blackmailing, legalized marijuana(I bet he he is funny guy when he is stoned!), gave free health care to everyone, jobs to everyone, dismantled the federal reserve system, prosecuted those who have abused this government, including his own dad . . . in other words, if Bush just does a 180 degree turn over-night and becomes a one-man American Revolution 2. This won't happen, of course, because Bush either doesn't have the courage or the concern to do it. I remember a brave president who did have this courage and at least the semblance of real concern, but he was murdered in 1963.

¶ 30.11.05 0 Comments

Limits easing for sharp objects on planes?
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/11/30/tsa.rules/index.html
The change in rules, expected to go into effect December 20, will allow for some scissors less than 4 inches long and some tools less than 7 inches long.

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.
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/iraq-media-offensive.html
Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. . The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents, and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country. The Bush administration has come under criticism for distributing video and news stories in the United States without identifying the federal government as their source and for paying American journalists to promote administration policies, practices the Government Accountability Office has labeled "covert propaganda." U.S. law forbids the military from carrying out psychological operations or planting propaganda with American media outlets. Yet several officials said that given the globalization of media driven by the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle, the Pentagon's efforts are carried out with the knowledge that coverage in the foreign press inevitably "bleeds" into the Western media and influences coverage in U.S. news outlets.

The Abuse of 'Democracy'
http://www.lewrockwell.com/wittner/wittner16.html
When, in the aftermath of World War II, Stalin had the Soviet Union gobble up the nations of Eastern Europe, he christened them People’s Democracies – although they were neither democratic nor meant to be. This debasement of “democracy” and other noble terms such as “freedom” and “peace” to crude propaganda was undoubtedly what George Orwell had in mind when he wrote his powerful novel, 1984, which portrayed a nightmarish society in which words were turned inside out to justify the policies of cynical and unscrupulous rulers.

Did we defeat the world communist revolution only to launch our own world democratic revolution? Did we bury the Comintern of Stalin only to create our own? What happened to the America that minded her own business?
http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=8176
Why is Bush outsourcing foreign policy to neocons who are the source of most of his headaches today?

Bush's Deadly Dance with Islamic Theocrats
http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=8181
For well over a year now, Human Rights Watch has been cataloguing Interior Ministry abuses and warning about a human rights catastrophe unraveling in "our" Iraq. Last July, Peter Beaumont of the British Observer revealed that the Shi'ite religious/political powers-that-be had set up not one detention-and-torture center but a whole "ghost network" of them – in some cases, he gave locations – in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, partly financed by British and American funds originally intended for the rebuilding of the police force. In these centers, torture methods "resurrected from the time of Saddam" were being used; and the centers, in turn, were connected to paramilitary commando units (and police units) – basically kidnapping and death squads – being run by the Interior Ministry as well as by the Shi'ite religious parties. Such units are increasingly engaged in a war of revenge with Sunni insurgents and in an ever growing campaign of assassinations, summary executions, and disappearances in Sunni neighborhoods which months ago reached "epidemic levels." Human rights organizations in the country have hundreds of cases of disappearances on their lists – as well as assassinations, torture of every sort, and an endless raft of human rights violations.

¶ 30.11.05 0 Comments

20051129

Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/11/20051128-9.html
"And the biggest problem we got is we're still at war. I wish I could report to you we weren't at war, but there's an enemy that still lurks that wants to do harm to the United States of America. And they want to do us harm because we stand squarely for freedom and democracy and we're not going to change. You see, they can't stand the fact -- (applause) -- they can't stand the fact that we allow people to worship freely, or to speak their mind in the public square, or to print articles the way they want to print them in America. They have a different view of the world. They've got this vision of darkness that stifles dissent and stifles the freedoms that many of us take for granted...The enemy has made Iraq a central front in this war on terror, so we must take it seriously...Jon Kyl understands that in this war on terror it's important to have members of the United States Senate who understand mixed messages...You know, I just recently came off a trip to the Far East...And it struck me that I was in a region of the world where there -- where wars had started."

The Iraq war is a perfect opportunity for the American people to take action which will result in all war profiteering being treated as treason--and the people involved put to death in public.

Here's a primer on the "unique threats" that have faced this country in the past.
1. In 1776 we rebelled against the most powerful nation on earth. Our forefathers didn't see the threat posed by Britain sufficient to justify the abandonment of human rights. Just the opposite, they used their experience to justify the bill of rights.
Now, more "unique threats" from the past.
2. War of 1812. Britain invades and burns Washington DC.
3. Civil War. Nation's survival at stake in the War between the States.
4. 1870's to 1890's. Labor unrest due to exploitation of industrial workers reaches such crisis proportions, that the national government fears a revolution. Armories are built in cities throughout the nation to be used to put down revolts if necessary.
5. World War I erupts. Pax Britannica is broken with the war to end all wars. The US faces the most powerful nations on earth in a struggle for life and death.
6. The Great Depression. Again threats of revolution by a destitute population.
7. World War II. The United States goes to war against the two most powerful military nations on earth.
8. The Cold War. Russia develops the capacity to vaporize American cities with hydrogen bombs.
And so on.
Now, let's take a look at the current "terrorist" threat. According to the FBI, in 2001 there were 100 Al-Queda members world wide. There's probably a lot more now but their power is nothing compared to the threat posed by the former Soviet Union.
The point I am making is this. There has never been a time in American history when some "unique threat" could not be used as an excuse to trample on civil rights or violate international law.
Never.
Until now, America has generally been able to resist the call of those who supported "gutter tactics" in the fight to preserve this nation.
Of course, that was before George Bush came along.

¶ 29.11.05 0 Comments

Just a few bad apples blowing off steam. Right?

The worst stuff I saw was from the detaining units who would torture people in their homes. They were using things like burns. They would smash people's feet with the back of an axe-head. They would break bones, ribs, you know. That was serious stuff. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/interviews/lagouranis.html
I remember one guy who was forced to sit on an exhaust pipe on a humvee, and he had a pretty huge blister on his leg. Another guy, I don't know what they used to burn him, his legs. He was blindfolded so he didn't know either, but it looked like it might have been a lighter. He had some pretty big, [some] smaller blisters, but a lot of them.

A Leader Like This Doesn't Come Around Every Millenium
http://www.forward.com/articles/6936
"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."

Bush ally faces 10 years' jail for $2.4 million in bribes
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1895459,00.html
After the hearing, Cunningham was led away to be fingerprinted and released until a sentencing hearing on February 27. He had already announced in July that he would not seek re-election next year. Cunningham’s guilty pleas came amid a series of Republican scandals, most notably the indictment of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff of Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, over his role in the CIA leak affair. Tom DeLay had to step down as House leader on being indicted for money-laundering, and Bill Frist, the Senate leader, is being investigated over a stock sale. All deny wrongdoing.

After September 11, 2001, we made a decision to play offense in fighting the war on terror, to track down enemies who would kill Americans and give them no place to hide. Our troops are doing a fantastic job, and terrorists know they have no hope of defeating our troops in the field. They know that the center of gravity in their fight is to undermine the will of the American people.
http://wilson.house.gov/NewsAction.asp?FormMode=Releases&ID=1127
I would rather have American soldiers hunting down terrorists over there, than have American firefighters and police officers responding to attacks here at home."

About 100,000 Iraqi civilians - half of them women and children - have died in Iraq since the invasion, mostly as a result of airstrikes by coalition forces!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1338749,00.html
"US General Tommy Franks is widely quoted as saying 'we don't do body counts'!"

Growing bored of the carnage … as crime of the century unfolds
It has also now been confirmed that the Americans have been using chemical weapons in Iraq. White phosphorus (WP) shells were used against insurgents in the siege of Fallujah last year in defiance of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. The shells were used for “shake and bake” operations, in conjunction with high explosives.
There’s no evidence that WP was used against civilians. But since some 50,000 Iraqis remained in Fallujah last November, it seems only a matter of time before we discover that it was. WP works by entering the body though soft exposed tissue and burns down to the bone. The use of WP by the Saddam Hussein against the Kurds in 1991 was cited by the US Defence Department in 1995 as an example of the dictator’s own infamy, and was one of the justifications for regime change. The US have also used thermobaric or “fuel air” weapons and depleted uranium shells. Really, if they wanted to turn public opinion against them, the occupying forces could not have done better if they tried.

¶ 29.11.05 0 Comments

Heather Wilson can burn in hell

New Mexico Rep. Heather Wilson says that A House investigation into intelligence failures leading up to the war in Iraq would be a distraction? How much money has Heather Wilson recieved from Tom Delay, Jack Abramoff, and AIPAC (The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee)? Why were AIPAC Israeli Spies who are currently on trial, working in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans fixing intelligence about Iraq's WMD and ties to the September 11, 2001 attacks? Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, George Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks.But, in the 2003 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030319-1.html...it states, "including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."Then George Bush flip flopped again in 2004 saying, "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11 attacks!" Our leaders took and oath to protect and defend the US Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic. They didn't take an oath to protect and defend George Bush or Israeli spies. The dishonorable Heather Wilson should step down and resign.

¶ 29.11.05 1 Comments

20051128

Troops Involved In Naked Ritual Abuse
http://infowars.net/articles/november2005/281105troops_rituals.htm
So why are we surprised that they believe "abuse" of Iraqis to be perfectly normal?

The Ministry Of Defence has described these events captured on film last May as "a bit of fun that got out of hand".
Where have we heard that before? Were they "just letting off steam" as Rush Limbaugh would say?
The Royal Marines in this footage were stripped naked and forced to beat each other as part of an "initiation ritual". The top left picture reveals that ALL the troops are made to take part in this appalling activity, and it's not just two guys having a bit of fun. All are naked except for one man who is dressed in a surgeon's scrubs and another who is wearing a schoolgirl uniform.
The bottom left and right Pictures show what happens as one of the men is kicked hard in the face by "the Surgeon" and is apparently knocked unconscious.
In the 1980s a number of soldiers claimed they had been abused during initiation ceremonies. One 20-year-old man said his genitals were burned, and he was indecently assaulted with a broomstick.
New rules banning such ceremonies were introduced but they have continued.
A Court Marshall in February of this year further revealed some of the humiliating "rituals" that the troops are subjected to. A "Japping" was described whereby a soldier is tied to an ironing bored and has ball bearings fired at him from a gun. The victim involved in this case was also alleged to have been sodomized with a broom handle. According to the London Guardian, Timothy Lyons, of the 29 Commando Regiment, who admitted taking part in the ritual, said it was seen as "fun" and an accepted part of military life.
Another ritual is said to be called "babooning" where new soldiers are beaten severely on the backside until their bottoms become as red as those of Baboons.
It has also been claimed that in another ritual for mounted regiment recruits, soldiers are stripped naked and covered with food which a horse then eats off their bodies.
Since the early nineties their have been a number of reports of severe bullying at British Army Barracks. Most Notably at Deepcut in Surrey where four recruits died, all under mysterious circumstances between 1995 and 2002. There have been 23 deaths of recruits at Catterick in Yorkshire since 1994, where a similar video of bullying emerged earlier in the year. Most Notably it has been regiments from these barracks that have faced serious allegations, some proven, of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. The Most famous case hit the headlines when the Daily Mirror published photographs of the alleged abuse. The Government had a field day when it turned out that the photos were fake. However they later admitted that the actual incident HAD occurred and the photos were a reconstruction of REAL events.
An independent inquiry by the adult learning inspectorate earlier this year found that recruits to the British army are still subjected to a culture of bullying and racism despite repeated promises by senior officers to root it out.
It is no surprise that when the soldiers get to Iraq, they initiate the same kind of ritual abuse on Iraqi prisoners. They have become so tuned into it, it is an everyday part of their lives. Furthermore, ritual abuse and torture is now the norm in military circles, not just among the troops, but all the way through the command structure..
Last Month Alex Jones interviewed Janis Karpinski, the former General who commanded troops at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. Karpinski's career was ruined in the torture scandal, and she is now determined to reveal that the orders for torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib came all the way from the top. Karpinski revealed that the incidents were not isolated but were "the result of conflicting orders and confused standards extending from the military commanders in Iraq all the way to the summit of civilian leadership in Washington."
A recent PBS documentary highlighted the case of Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus, a former Commander at Guantanamo Bay, who was fired for refusing to torture detainees.
IPS News reported recently that human rights organizations are deeply concerned about dozens of secret gulag detention centers that are operating completely without oversight and hold an undetermined amount of prisoners.
The Washington Post reported that the government had set up secret gulag compounds throughout Eastern Europe to house prisoners without trial or legal representation, largely something we already knew.
Specially designated torture planes transport nameless victims of the faux 'war on terror' between different third world dictatorships for their security services to work the cattle prod magic on poor bewildered goat herders and shoemakers.
And now torture seems to be becoming ingrained in everyday life, not just in military circles but in life in general. Popular TV shows, 24, Threat Matrix and the British drama Spooks have all recently featured plots where the "good guys", our intelligence services, torture detainees.
Our Nightly news shows are debating whether or not we should torture children of suspected Al Qaeda members.
And of Course the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, just loves torture.
Scott McClellan tells us that the Bush administration is unequivocally against torture under any circumstances and yet it is Bush and his handler Dick Cheney publicly blocking the legislation that would outlaw torture.

¶ 28.11.05 0 Comments

Use of Chemical WMD in Iraq Ignites Debate?

OCCUPIED BAGHDAD — Omar Ibrahim Abdullah went for a walk to get away from the heavy fighting in Fallouja a little over a year ago and, by his account, came across such a grotesque sight that he's been unable to banish it from his memory.The United States had mounted a full-scale offensive to pacify the rebel-controlled Iraqi city, and Abdullah said he was eager to escape the Askari district, where he lived. He walked south toward the Euphrates River and stumbled on dozens of burned bodies that he said were colored black and red.

"They must have been affected by chemicals," he said, "because I had never seen anything like that before."The corpses, he said, had suffered burns from the U.S. military's use of an incendiary chemical known as white phosphorus.The Pentagon and other U.S. officials at first denied, and later admitted, that troops had used white phosphorus as a weapon against insurgents in Fallouja during that fiercely fought campaign. Its use became public because of questions raised by an Italian television documentary Nov. 8, which alleged that civilians had been targeted "indiscriminately" and that hundreds had died.But even though U.S. officials have admitted using the substance against enemy fighters, they have denied the allegations of Fallouja residents such as Abdullah that its use was widespread and civilians were among those killed."We don't use munitions of any kind against innocent civilians," Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said during a news conference. "In accordance with all established conventions, [white phosphorus] can be used against enemy combatants."Nicknamed "Willie Pete" by troops, white phosphorus is a dangerous chemical that combusts on contact with oxygen. The military employs it mainly to illuminate battlefields and provide smoke screens. But its use is highly controversial because the only way it can be extinguished is by shutting off its air supply. When it comes in contact with humans, the chemical will burn through to the bone.Incendiaries are considered particularly inhumane weapons under international treaty, and a 1980 United Nations convention limits their use. The U.S. has not signed the part of the convention that deals with incendiary weapons. Nevertheless, it largely has avoided using incendiary weapons since the Vietnam War and destroyed the last of its napalm arsenal four years ago.In the 1990s, in fact, the U.S. condemned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for allegedly using "white phosphorus chemical weapons" against Kurdish rebels and residents of Irbil and Dohuk.In regard to a war the U.S. said it fought partly because of fears that Hussein would employ chemical or other nonconventional weapons, some critics say the use of white phosphorus is contrary to the spirit of American aims."An incendiary weapon cannot be thought of just like any conventional weapon," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Assn. in Washington. "There are rules that apply, and we have to make sure that they are being followed for various reasons." He went on to explain that for the last century and a half, the U.S. has led international efforts to establish humane conduct standards in war, in part because American troops or civilians could be harmed."There is an important principle at stake here. The United States should be very interested in making sure that we are following the rules and other people understand we are following the rules," Kimball said. But Pentagon officials say the use of white phosphorus, even as an incendiary weapon, is not proscribed by any treaty as long as it is directed solely against military targets.The question is whether its use in November 2004 against insurgents fighting in a city that most, but not all, civilian inhabitants had fled violates the Inhumane Weapons Convention, to which the United States is a party. Another issue is whether the United States is obliged to follow the convention's rules on incendiary weapons, given that the U.S. Senate has not ratified that protocol.The rule bans the use of incendiary weapons against civilian targets or military targets not clearly separated from "concentrations" of civilians.On the streets of Fallouja, the common allegation is that the U.S. used incendiary bombs against civilians. Iraqi doctors and the local human rights organization have pointed to scores of burned corpses as evidence.But there's been no independent verification. U.S. officials have accused doctors in Fallouja of lying about such issues because, the officials say, the physicians are loyal to or intimidated by insurgents. The blackened corpses seen in the Italian documentary, for instance, may have been burned by conventional explosives or resulted from decomposition, some viewers have argued.Abdul Qadir Sadi, an Iraqi from Fallouja in his 30s, said doctors had told him that two of his family members were killed by white phosphorus. "They had a lot of serious skin burns," Sadi said. "The doctor at the hospital told us that they must have been hit by these chemicals. They were being treated by the doctor, but after a while, these burned places started to dissolve.""We have registered the documents and exhibits of everything that happened," said Mohammed Tariq, a human rights worker in Fallouja. "We informed the Iraqi Red Crescent, the International Red Cross and [other] international organizations, but our efforts were in vain." Pentagon officials say troops used white phosphorus in the Fallouja offensive for several reasons."It was used to mask and obscure U.S. troop movements and to flush out dug-in insurgents from spider holes and trenches," said Maj. Todd Vician, a Pentagon spokesman. "It was lawfully used against legitimate military targets."When stories surfaced last year that the U.S. had used white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon in Fallouja, the State Department flatly denied the allegations. Such denials from Pentagon and diplomatic officials continued until only weeks ago.According to talking points issued by the State Department in December, "U.S. forces have used [white phosphorus rounds] very sparingly in Fallouja, for illumination purposes. They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters." Vician said he could not explain the denials.Elsewhere, soldiers and Marines had publicly praised the weapon's effectiveness against insurgents during the battle. A group of artillery officers who fought in Fallouja wrote in a military journal this year that white phosphorus, typically referred to as WP, "proved to be an effective and versatile weapon.""We used it for screening missions … and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents … when we could not get effects on them with [high explosives]," the officers wrote in the March-April issue of Field Artillery magazine."We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and [high explosives] to take them out."The U.S. began using white phosphorus extensively during World War II, when soldiers found the chemical useful for smoke screens, marking enemy positions and attacking military targets. For more than half a century, white phosphorus has been a staple of the U.S. arsenal.John E. Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based military affairs think tank, doubts the claims made in the Italian television report that the U.S. military was aiming such munitions at civilians."What purpose could possibly be served by targeting civilians in Iraq?" he asked. "It would accomplish nothing, it would be counterproductive, and it would be a waste of ammo."To journalists who saw white phosphorus used during the campaign, it appeared that it was meant for illuminating, not killing, insurgents.Los Angeles Times reporter Patrick J. McDonnell, who accompanied Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, as it fought its way into Fallouja, recalls seeing night virtually turn to day as white phosphorus shells burst in the air."We only saw 'Willie Pete' being used for illumination purposes," McDonnell said. But he also remembers how the proximity of the fiery blasts concerned the Marines."The guys in my company were somewhat annoyed for two reasons: It illuminated our positions at night, not a nice thing, and occasionally the bursts came quite close to us. There didn't seem to be a lot of coordination," he said by e-mail.At the time, most civilians had fled town, and U.S. troops seemed to be fighting in a city devoid of almost everyone but insurgents, McDonnell noted."We had rounds of white phosphorus burst in the air quite close to us, and the Marines were quite concerned, since they knew of its impact — that it burns through flesh and is impossible to extinguish," he said."Many Marines on the ground cursed the 'Willie Pete' every time it went off."*
Daniszewski reported from Baghdad and Mazzetti from Washington. Special correspondent Asmaa Waguih contributed to this report.*(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)White heatWhite phosphorus, a highly flammable substance that ignites on contact with oxygen, is a longtime staple of the U.S. military arsenal. Some uses: {bull} Can be loaded into a mortar shell, howitzer round or other projectile and fired at a target. {bull} When delivered by an exploding shell, white phosphorus in contact with oxygen produces a smoke screen on the ground that can last up to 15 minutes. It can also illuminate battlefield targets.{bull} Can be used as a weapon. Human contact with white phosphorus results in severe burns. The fire can only be extinguished by eliminating the oxygen supply.Sources: Integrated Publishing, fas.org

¶ 28.11.05 0 Comments

The Bush "administration" has shot their wad. With very few exceptions, there is NO credibility left on either side of the aisle, Republican or Democrat. Invoke the 25th amendment for starters, and go on from there....install a caretaker government until we find some "honest" people....

"Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them. There is almost no kind of outrage - - - -torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians - - - - which does not change its moral color when it is committed by our side. The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."-George Orwell

Anticipating a Terrorist Attack on Congress
If the entire Congress gets blown up, Bush would "have no choice" but to assume dictatorial powers to deal with the "emergency".

Our Unconscious Minds Know the Truth
The war is lost. We must get out!

White House lays foundation for US troop withdrawal
Even though Bush has never publicly issued his own withdrawal plan and criticized calls for an early exit, the White House said many of the ideas expressed by the senator were its own?

US May Use Air Strikes as Substitute for Troops

Video of Brits Shooting Iraqis Prompts Probe

NETWORKS PLAN 'END OF AMERICA' SHOWS
ABC alone has at least two would-be shows set in post-apocalyptic America ("Resistance" and "Red & Blue") while Gavin Polone and Bruce Wagner are teaming for the comfy-sounding plague drama "Four Horsemen" at CBS (which also is developing "Jericho," about life in a small town after America is destroyed).

Piece of Supreme Court Facade Falls
A basketball-sized piece of marble moulding fell from the facade over the entrance to the Supreme Court, landing on the steps near visitors waiting to enter the building.

CNN OPERATOR FIRED AFTER SUGGESTING 'X' OVER CHENEY WAS 'FREE SPEECH'
"We did it just to make a point. Tell them to stop lying, Bush and Cheney," the CNN operator said to a caller. "Bring our soldiers home."

50 cent calls Bush 'a gangsta'
"I wanna meet George Bush, just shake his hand and tell him how much of me I see in him," 50 told GQ. If the rapper's felony conviction didn't prevent him from voting, 50 said he would have voted for Bush. Meanwhile, Kanye basically called Bush a racist on national television, and has since rethought his strategy for speaking out. "When NBC edited it out on the West Coast, that was a wakeup call," West told the magazine. "It let people know how censored we still are. This is supposed to be America, but you can't get your opinion out. There's all kinds of things I want to say, but I need to pace myself, to make sure my opportunities to say these things aren't taken away too abruptly."

Letter: Mass media not covering positive changes in Iraq
Forty-seven countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq.In Iraq, 3,100 schools have been renovated, and 263 new schools are under construction.The Iraqi police force now has over 55,000 active officers, with five academies that produce 3,500 officers every 12 weeks.Ninety-six percent of children under 5 years old have received the first two rounds of their polio vaccine.4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by October.The Baghdad stock exchange opened June 2004.Those are just a few of the positive changes, as reported on the Department of Defense Web site, that have gone relatively uncovered in the news.

Editor
Ben Mills 2 year old DOD talking points still don't excuse the lies the US Government and its Corporate Media are still telling us about the New Iraq. Iraq is a T-H-E-O-C-R-A-C-Y, not a D-E-M-O-C-R-A-C-Y. This so called War on Terror seems a lot more like a War on Freedom. The naive Peace movement should realize that the exit strategy out of Iraq is through Syria and Iran ending in Russia and China. The DOD has announced it's withdrawl plan from Iraq that consists of using airstikes instead of Troops. We have been bombing Iraq with airstrikes for 15 years, between both of George Bush's Iraq Wars killing over a million Iraqis. With very few exceptions, there is NO credibility left on either side of the aisle, Republican or Democrat. The time has come to invoke the 25th amendment, install a caretaker government, put the former US Government and Corporate Media on trial for War Crimes, get some rope, until we find some honest people who don't want to swing from lamposts for lying to the American People. It's called Freedom!

¶ 28.11.05 0 Comments

20051127

Americans’ anger at an all-time high!
"In the case of Iraq, the American public has failed its soldiers,” “we did not prevent the Bush administration from spending their blood in an unnecessary war based on contrived concerns about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. President Bush and those around him lied, and the rest of us let him. Harsh? Yes. True? Also yes.”

Bush may signal Iraq drawdown
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051126-18565500-bc-iraq-bush.xml
Bush caves to terrorists!

Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/26/AR2005112600857_pf.html
BOOM!

¶ 27.11.05 0 Comments

20051126

US Soldiers 'enhanced' by battle
...there can be feelings of spiritual development, improved relationships, a sense of personal strength, a better appreciation of life and new interests and priorities?

The “war on terror” rallied the country behind Bush, and dozens of neoconservative keyboards gushed forth analogies with Roosevelt and Churchill fighting Hitler, the Saddam Hussein of yesteryear. “Pre-emptive” war quickly effected “regime change” in Afghanistan and Iraq, where “democracy” put down its roots, women enjoyed rights for the first time, and “weapons of mass destruction” would soon be found. The invincible Bush basked in triumph.

Tactics, Not Strategy, in the Antiwar Movement

¶ 26.11.05 0 Comments

"The Price of Freedom is Never Free"

Iraq War protesters arrested for defying new protest ban

The White House had no comment on the return of the protesters.

George Bush's supporters were expected to arrive in his adopted hometown for a PRO WAR RALLY!
Bush supporters will hold a rally because war protesters are being disrespectful to soldiers and hurting troop morale?

Even Bush Supporters Doubt President as Issues Pile Up

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/26/politics/26voices.html?th&emc=th

She never considered President Bush a great leader, but she voted for him a year ago because she admired how he handled the terrorist attacks of 2001?

The Secret Service did nothing. The dog did not bark.
Quod Erat Demonstradum, the Bush Administration was part of the 9-11 plot.

Middle America asks: 'Did we give up our young so cheaply?'

'Mothers know when it's time to stop. It's time to stop. It's time to bring them home.'

Not only did the Bush administration deceive the American people about the reasons for invading Iraq, it is now deceiving them about the deceptions.

Now we realize that even before Sept. 11, the powerful people in the administration (Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz) wanted a war with Iraq. The day of the attack some of them tried to find evidence that Iraq had attacked us. Now there was certainly going to be a war, and the challenge was to present a case to the American people to win their support for the war.

US Forces Face Discipline for Burning Muslims

Islam bans cremation, and the video images were compared here to photographs of U.S. troops abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Sometimes it seems futile to oppose the powerful interests which appear to control every aspect of our existence lately. But why make it easy for the bastards. Our voices, as insignificant as they may seem, can influence many, especially when our words are put into print for all to see. It is the sacred duty of the true patriot, the revolutionary, to resist the evil men who have stolen the Government of the People. Without our voices the enemy of the people will triumph and Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness will be gone forever. I say fuck these godamned political whores and their greedy corporate pimps! I say fuck the mainstream news propaganda shows, and particularly the right wing radio talk shows which poison the minds of the people. We do not have to put up with these traitors starting wars, sending our jobs out of the country, and destabilizing our workforce with a flood of illegal immigrants, all for corporate profit.

¶ 26.11.05 0 Comments

20051125

JUST WATCH ME BURN

Who doesn't like a good imperial ruin? Millions flock to Pompeii, so why not Sunny Fallujah, once the "city of mosques" with a quarter-million inhabitants, but massively destroyed in November 2004 by American planes, artillery, tanks, and mortars and now being picturesquely rebuilt as a giant Orwellian prison-camp city. Don't miss the retinal ID scans on your way in, but be careful to stay in your Humvee. Despite the best efforts of the American military, dangers abound.

Who built the seven gates of Thebes? The books are filled with names of kings. Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone? And Babylon, so many times destroyed. Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima's houses,That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it? In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished. Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song. Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend. The night the seas rushed in,The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves. Young Alexander conquered India. He alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Was there not even a cook in his army?Phillip of Spain wept as his fleetwas sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears?Frederick the Greek triumphed in the Seven Years War. Who triumphed with him? Each page a victoryAt whose expense the victory ball? Every ten years a great man, Who paid the piper? So many particulars. So many questions. Bertolt Brecht

If US Forces in Iraq are fighting for our freedom, why have protests been banned outside of the President's farm?

If the Pentagon says that White Phosphorous isn't a chemical WMD, why did they say White Phosphorous was a Chemical WMD when Saddam used it?

If the White House says that allegations that George Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazeera are absurd and outlandish, why has the British Government warned news organizations against publishing details of yet another top secret Downing Street Memo?

Iraq says troop pullout will lead to violence

More deadly blasts shatter Iraqi cities

OCCUPIED BAGHDAD, The New Iraq - A suicide bomber blew up his car outside a hospital south of Baghdad on Thursday while U.S. troops handed out candy and food to children, killing 30 people and wounding about 40, including four Americans.

The controversy over the American use of white phosphorus as a weapon of war in Fallujah deepened yesterday when it was revealed that a US intelligence assessment had characterised WP as a "chemical weapon".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10356665
"When Saddam used WP it was a chemical weapon but when the Americans use it, it's a conventional weapon. The injuries it inflicts, however, are just as terrible, however you describe it".

A torrent of bad news — rising soldier death tolls, suicide bombers, torture allegations — is riling America right now with the hard realities of Iraq.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-11-23-iraq-reality_x.htm
It's not that the situation in Iraq has necessarily gotten worse — it may be just that America's understanding of Iraq has gotten better.

1) Your nation is attacked on lies. 2) Your family and friends are murdered, imprisoned, raped, robbed, tortured. 3) Your nation is contaminated with depleted uranium munitions, which will cause death and suffering for years to come. 4) Your government is replaced with a puppet regime doing the bidding of the occupiers. 5) Death squads roam the country rounding up and torturing and murdering innocent civilians who want nothing more than to be left alone. 6) Your infrastructure is destroyed, your museums looted, your intellectuals assassinated, your culture mercilessly degraded. 7) You are not allowed to write anything critical of the occupation. 8) The so-called "free" elections are nothing more than a repeat of the US electoral farce. 9) Your military is disbanded, unemployment hovers at tragic numbers. 10) The occupying nation builds military bases on your soil so that they can better steal your natural resources. I can go on and on with reasons why Iraqis are fighting back.

Bush: Congress Shouldn't Have Trusted Rice?
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,176308,00.html
The Bush administration is in the process of establishing a dangerous new precedent in relations between the president and Congress on issues of national security and intelligence -- one that could seriously hamper future presidents of either party. It’s called caveat emptor (buyer beware). It goes something like this: If I (the executive branch) provide you (the Congress) with intelligence that proves to be completely wrong and I (the executive branch) exaggerate and hype the meaning of this intelligence and you (the Congress) are gullible enough to vote with me on the basis of this false intelligence and my spin, you are as guilty as sin for your vote and shouldn’t complain to anyone.

Bush faces dual challenges on Iraq
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10198172/page/2/
Most worrisome to the administration, given overall disapproval of the war, is that a slight majority of Americans now say they believe Bush deliberately misled the country in making the case for war in 2002 and 2003!

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/lies.mp3

Does President Bush believe that by his announcing that critics of the Iraq war dampen our troops' morale he will prevent such criticism? Does he believe his words will silence critics and raise troop morale?
This is America, and if Americans share a common trait, it's rebellion at those who wield power. Well, they used to, anyway - most of them. Remember, this country was born in revolution.

The fallen soldier's mother whose August vigil near President Bush's ranch reinvigorated the anti-war movement returned to Texas to resume her protest Thursday as the president celebrated Thanksgiving a few miles away.
A few miles away, a Bush supporter set up camp with a tent and signs saying "A Noble Cause" showing pictures of smiling Iraqi children.

U.S. troops mistakenly open fire on civilians
U.S. forces mistakenly fired on a civilian vehicle outside an American base in a city north of Baghdad on Monday, killing three people, including a child.

75 US Soldiers Killed in Iraq Since Nov. 1

A total of 2,104 US troops have died in Iraq since the invasion.

Qaeda (NUDGE NUDGE WINK WINK) posts video of Baghdad hotel blasts
"See the flames which have engulfed Iraq ... and with God's will, the fire will also burn the crusader army," a voice which sounded like al Zarqawi's said, who also urged more resistance until the "crusaders" left Iraq."

Thanksgiving in the CIA's Secret Prisons
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Thanksgiving/story?id=1342154
A can of Ensure is the highlight of Thanksgiving for the dozen or so top al Qaeda terrorists in the CIA's secret overseas prisons. Besides the repetitive playing of rap music, they have been made to talk by harsh treatment that includes water boarding, in which water is poured over the face to make them think they are drowning. "The person believes they are being killed, and as such it really amounts to a mock execution," said John Sifton, the Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. The inmates rarely see daylight, and the CIA gives them the bare minimum to make sure they do not die in U.S. custody. That includes the cans of Ensure and shots of vitamin B12. Yet, U.S. officials have little sympathy for the prisoners. Collectively, they have admitted responsibility for the deaths of several thousand innocent civilians.

¶ 25.11.05 0 Comments

20051124

¶ 24.11.05 0 Comments

The British government has warned news organizations against publishing details of a secret memo which one London tabloid newspaper said recounted discussions between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush about bombing the headquarters of the Arabic news network Al-Jazeera.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/11/23/britain.jazeera/index.html
A White House official told CNN, "We are not going to dignify something so outlandish with a response." And a Pentagon official called the Daily Mirror report "absolutely absurd."

If it is so "absurd" and "outlandish" why has the British Government warned news organizations against publishing details of another secret Downing Street Memo?

Ah yes, it is that time again. The smell of roasting turkey and cigar smoke and Polo cologne, perfume like florid gasoline. Copious forced laughter that sounds like geese mating in a broom closet. It is Thanksgiving dinner at the Bush White House, where the guests mingle as though their genitals were being squeezed by manic elves, as if they were all coated in vanilla pudding being licked off by Pat Robertson. Which, truth be told, some of them seem to enjoy. A lot.
They await the appearance of the bird in the cozy, heavily paneled White House drawing room with the grand chandelier sparkling there since the Truman administration, the rest of the space engorged with stuffy furniture Laura chose herself and which she thinks is manly and presidential but which actually looks like it was bought at a Jersey consignment store run by Ethan Allen's stoned brother.
Barbara rules. Owns the house, despite how she hasn't lived here in over 13 years. Laura can only look at her in numb awe, her own stiff skirt pleats appearing humble and small in comparison to Barb's massive teal dress ensemble, so epic and balloon-like it would seem to envelope all it comes near, like a giant ocean algae bloom, a massive amoeba, a cloud of righteous know-it-allness that makes easy mockery of Laura's little beige blouse of meek sexless humility. Barb is a force of nature, commanding the staff and chatting up the various heads of state and smiling at everyone with that glassy omnivorous stare. They all hate her.
George Sr. notices this, of course, from his usual place back beside the old bookcase that hasn't been perused in five years, sips his gin fizz and chuckles softly at the scene, thinkin' about golf, thinkin' about how long ago it all seems since his reign of tepid ineptitude, but thinkin', also, about how history will be much kinder to him now that his son has run the country into a blood-drenched wall. He-he-he. He'll drink to that.
It's the thing no one mentions, but which hangs over the room like a pall. Junior's current miserable poll numbers now mean that he and his father share the honor of being two of the four most unpopular presidents in modern history, right alongside Carter and Nixon. But Bush 41 does not care. He gets to hang with Clinton now. He is grandfatherly and forgettable and almost invisible. In other words, his stature has improved considerably, in relation to his son. Damn this gin is good. Too bad Junior can't have some. Looks like he could use it.
George Jr. is perturbed. He is sulky and pouty and has to force a smirky grin at the guests as they enter the banquet room, pretending as if he really wanted them all there, all these betrayers and backstabbers and people he thought he knew but who turn out, instead, to be involved in whole big bunches of illegal and traitorous stuff he has no clue about. They are all a bunch of goddamn boogerheads, he thinks.
He forces a smile. No one is willing to hold his blinky little gaze for more than three seconds. He wants to scream. He wants to run away. He wants a beer. He wants 10 beers. He grabs a fistful of baseball-shaped hors d'oeuvres (Gul-dang, I love baseball, he thinks). Barb shoots him a look: Sit up straight, stop pouting or else, use a napkin. He sips his mineral water, sullenly, chats with McClellan while scanning the room for Condi, though his eyes first find Rove, slithering around as usual.
Rove works the room, shakes hands, squeezing a little too hard to remind everyone who "the architect" really is. Everyone understands, even as they furtively wipe their hands on their pants after he touches them. Rove grabs fistfuls of baby shrimp and shoves them into his mouth when he thinks no one's looking, swallows without chewing. He smells like baby aspirin and old bacon.
Karl sneaks furtive glances at Barb. He is awed by her natural power, her girth, her effortless cunning. That teal makes her look so ... so ... seaworthy. He wants her. Badly. She knows it. They have a secret thing -- it is matronly and sweaty and creepy as hell and takes place every other Sunday in a Ritz-Carlton just off the Beltway.
Rummy knows all about it. He and Dick stand near the bar and take huge swigs of scotch and puffs from thick Cuban cigars and speak in low, mean tones out the sides of their mouths, occasionally bursting into dark laughter that sounds like a brick being dragged over a cheese grater. Rummy says something about the Karl/Barb flesh-fest and wonders, a little too loudly, if Oedipus would have felt differently about his mother if she had spanked him. Cheney grunts, retorts with a joke about how pleasurable it must be to hold a lit cigarette near the open eyeball of a terrified prisoner in Guantanamo and demand Osama's cell phone number. Ha.
Dick glances over at Lynne, who is, of course, eyeing one of the Latina servants with open-mouthed hunger. Dick hasn't seen Lynne naked in years. He realizes this is a very good thing. Something to be thankful for, certainly. But Lynne is happy. Her life is full of joyous bridge tournaments and bashing of gay rights and copious lesbian fantasies. She is nothing like poor, lost Condi.
Condi is lonely. So, so lonely, sitting over in the far corner, all by herself, nursing her one glass of white wine. No one really talks to her anymore except Dubya and a maybe few brusque words from Rummy, who she suspects is always imagining her cleaning his guns and polishing his boots and calling him "master." Suddenly, her heart jumps. She sees Dubya looking at her from across the room. She smiles that demonic, dominatrix-y smile that always creeps out the Asian press. He does that thing with his thin little lips, that little gesture only she understands. Her body is instantly warmed. Oh their special bond, a dark secret. It is her breath, her raison d'être. It keeps her alive.
Sam Alito stops by, darts in and out, stealing bites, patting everyone on the back, runs up and gives Dubya a big hug, which embarrasses Dubya and makes Cheney look at him even more disdainfully. Sam is laughing too loudly. He smells of tequila and bad ideas. Laura, however, giggles and looks at him coyly. Her legs quiver. She is wearing way too much White Diamonds and her hair hasn't moved since 2003. No one cares.
Meanwhile, Jenna and Barbara Jr. sneak tequila shots in the Rose Garden and flirt with the Secret Service for, like, the millionth time, to no effect. Jenna is so, like, buzzed. She adjusts her bra strap, again. Then her thong. Damn but she hates these formal things. That Alito guy keeps coming out, begging for shots. They don't want to go back into that miserable, dank banquet room. Barbara Jr. stares vacantly into the near distance. Why couldn't life be more like it is on "The West Wing"? That show, like, totally ruled.
The banquet room reeks and coils and sighs. It is full of bleak energy and missed opportunities, spiritual paranoia and repressed desire and dishonest laughter. The turkey comes out dry. There is not enough pie for Dubya. Rumsfeld slurps his scotch, drunkenly. Dick eyes the dark thigh meat. Condi has to pee. There is little to be thankful for, inside this room.
Outside, however, among the nation's awakening throngs, gratitude and hope are beginning to swell and grow anew. Only three years left. It's long but not that long. Every person in that gloomy room will be gone. History. Nothing left but an ugly stain, oily residue, scar tissue. The room will be refreshed. The turkey will be moist. There will be more cranberry sauce. This dark, warmongering chapter will finally end. Pie all around.
It is not, the world realizes, too early to be thankful for that.

¶ 24.11.05 0 Comments

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