Letter From The Editor
THE DEBATE about Iraq has moved past the question of whether it was a mistake (everybody knows it was) to the more depressing question of whether it is possible to avert total disaster. Every self-respecting foreign policy analyst has his own plan for Iraq. The trouble is that these tracts are inevitably unconvincing, except when they argue why all the other plans would fail. It's all terribly grim.
So allow me to propose the unthinkable: Maybe, just maybe, our best option is to restore Saddam Hussein to power.
Yes, I know. Hussein is a psychotic mass murderer. Under his rule, Iraqis were shot, tortured and lived in constant fear. Bringing the dictator back would sound cruel if it weren't for the fact that all those things are also happening now, probably on a wider scale.
At the outset of the war, I had no high hopes for Iraqi democracy, but I paid no attention to the possibility that the Iraqis would end up with a worse government than the one they had. It turns out, however, that there is something more awful than totalitarianism, and that is endless chaos and civil war.
Nobody seems to foresee the possibility of restoring order to Iraq. Here is the basic dilemma: The government is run by Shiites, and the security agencies have been overrun by militias and death squads. The government is strong enough to terrorize the Sunnis into rebellion but not strong enough to crush this rebellion.
Meanwhile, we have admirably directed our efforts into training a professional and nonsectarian Iraqi police force and encouraging reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites. But we haven't succeeded. We may be strong enough to stop large-scale warfare or genocide, but we're not strong enough to stop pervasive chaos.
Hussein, however, has a proven record in that department. It may well be possible to reconstitute the Iraqi army and state bureaucracy we disbanded, and if so, that may be the only force capable of imposing order in Iraq. Chaos and order each have a powerful self-sustaining logic. When people perceive a lack of order, they act in ways that further the disorder. If a Sunni believes that he is in danger of being killed by Shiites, he will throw his support to Sunni insurgents who he sees as the only force that can protect him. The Sunni insurgents, in turn, will scare Shiites into supporting their own anti-Sunni militias.
And it's not just Iraqis who act this way. You could find a smaller-scale version of this dynamic in an urban riot here in the United States. But when there's an expectation of social order, people will act in a civilized fashion. Restoring the expectation of order in Iraq will take some kind of large-scale psychological shock. The Iraqi elections were expected to offer that shock, but they didn't. The return of Saddam Hussein � a man every Iraqi knows, and whom many of them fear � would do the trick.
The disadvantages of reinstalling Hussein are obvious, but consider some of the upside. He would not allow the country to be dominated by Iran, which is the United States' major regional enemy, a sponsor of terrorism and an instigator of warfare between Lebanon and Israel. Hussein was extremely difficult to deal with before the war, in large part because he apparently believed that he could defeat any U.S. invasion if it came to that. Now he knows he can't. And he'd probably be amenable because his alternative is death by hanging. I know why restoring a brutal tyrant to power is a bad idea. Somebody explain to me why it's worse than all the others.
Chicago resident Malachi Ritscher passed away last (day of week), a (tragic, baffling, mundane) death at the age of (subtract 1954 from current year). He was the modern day version of a 'renaissance man', except instead of attaining success in several fields, he consistently failed, and didn't really worry too much about it. For example, his boxing record in Golden Gloves. The eldest son of Richard C. Ritscher, a music educator, he collected and played many exotic instruments, without mastering any. Most recently, he had been playing a vintage Conn C-Melody saxophone that once belonged to free-spirit Hal Russell. Malachi was best known for his live concert recordings, mostly of local jazz groups who couldn't afford expensive studios. His license plates said AKG C 414, after his favorite microphones. Upwards of fifty recordings were eventually released commercially, with some acclaim for their natural sound. His archive of live recordings he had documented exceeded 2000 shows. Mostly he was just a big fan.
Also he was a film photographer, with a picture of a peregrine falcon chick published in a local Audubon magazine, and related video footage shown on local television news. He wrote poetry that was not published, painted watercolors in a quirky naive style, and participated passionately in the anti-war and free speech movement. He was arrested at a protest on March 20, 2003 and spent the night in jail, then became a member of the pending class-action suit against the City of Chicago. Arrested again two years later, he successfully sued the City of Chicago for false arrest on 1st Amendment/free speech grounds. One of his proudest achievements was an ultra-searing hot sauce recipe, which he registered under the name 'Undead Sauce - re-animate yourself!' It was a blend of tropical peppers, which he grew indoors in 5-gallon buckets, and a few secret ingredients that gave it a unique flavor (pomegranate, pistachio, and cinnamon).
Born Mark David Ritscher in Dickinsen, North Dakota on January 13, 1954, he lived most of his life in the mid-west, ranging from small-town Madison, South Dakota to Chicago, where he moved in 1981, changing his first name to Malachi. As a child, he was intensely afraid of many things, especially heights; he spent the rest of his life trying to face his fears, without ever coming to terms with his fear of people. He dropped out of high school and married at the age of 17, a union that lasted almost 10 years. He became an ordained minister with the Missionaries of the New Truth in 1972, and had performed several weddings. He provided for his family with a variety of trade positions, eventually reaching Journeyman High-Voltage Technician status with the electric utility in Lincoln, Nebraska. He became a Licensed Stationary Engineer in 1987. He was a member of several unions throughout his career, including IBEW, IUOE, and SEIU. He was proud to be a dues-paying proletariat intellectual.
After getting divorced, he relocated to Chicago to work with friends in an art-rock band, which inevitably led to forming a trio called 'wantnot', recording and releasing a CD in 1990, with Malachi on bass and vocals, Mike Mansfield on guitar, and Janna Brooks on drums. The cover design received an award from the American Center for Design, which didn't increase sales. He also designed skateboard decks, flyers, and t-shirts, with similar commercial results.
He was a collector of several things: books, records, meteorites, butterfly knives, keris, glass eyes, fossil tully monsters, microphones, medium-base lightbulbs, and instruments, especially snare drums. He was a man of strong contrasts, and fierce loyalties. There was a joy of life, which balanced a suspicious misanthropy. Endless pondering of existential gray areas could be interrupted by a totally spontaneous act: jumping in his car to drive downtown and participate in the Sears Tower stair-climb (2003). When he read Goethe's words "Nowhere but in his own Montserrat will a man find happiness and peace", his first thought was to find out where it is, and then book a flight there. He had memorized Pi to the 1101 decimal place, and would recite it at will. He could shave with a straight razor. He loved cinnamon rolls. He loved the smell of turpentine. He also loved motorcycles, which he wisely avoided. In the words of Stephen Wright, he was a 'peripheral visionary'. His sense of humor was droll - he theorized that surprise and not tragedy was the most important element of comedy. His favorite joke was to walk into a room, sniff the air, and observe "it smells like snot in here". His favorite word was 'ominous'. His favorite two words were 'Tahitian hiatus'. He always carried his passport with him.
He owned and maintained several web-sites: www.savagesound.com, www.unwinnablewar.net, www.killthepresident.net, www.warwhores.us; in addition he was preparing www.publicparkingparty.org, to promote protection of residents' rights in Chicago. A lover of literature, even more than music, he had always dreamed of being a writer. The handwritten manuscript of his 'fictional autobiography', titled "Farewell Tour", was under consideration by publishers. It had a general theme of shared universal aloneness, and was controversial for seeming to endorse suicide after the age of fifty. His favorite classic authors were Proust and Shakespeare.
The metaphor for his life was winning the lottery, but losing the ticket. In the end, the loneliness was overwhelming. He was deeply appreciative for everything that had been given to him, but acutely aware that the greater the present, the higher the price. He was a member of Mensa, and Alcoholics Anonymous since 1990. For him, sobriety was virtually getting a second chance at life. He practiced a personal and private spirituality, seeking to connect across the illusion that separates us from each other. Reportedly, his last words were "rosebud... oops".
Near his end, he was purchasing real estate in Vancouver with the intention of eventual emigration, unable to reconcile his conscience with his tax dollars financing an unjust war. He frequently took short trips to New York City and New Orleans, where he made more recordings of concerts. Europe seemed more civilized to him, and he experienced Paris and Amsterdam, Germany and Switzerland, as well as Madrid and Barcelona.
His family was far-flung, surviving parents Richard and Betty Ann, older sisters Carol and Susan, younger siblings Paul, Jon, and Ellen; nieces Laurel, Carol, Julia, Jessica, Marissa, and nephew Aaron. He had a son, from whom he was estranged (at the son's request), and two grandchildren. He had many acquaintances, but few friends; and wrote his own obituary, because no one else really knew him. He has a plot at Calvary Cemetery in Evanston, Illinois; and the epithet he chose is "I Dreamt That I Was Dreaming". Bruno Johnson of Okkadisk will have the dubious honor of maintaining archives and dispersing collections. "We're talking about rape and murder...videos, there are women...passing letters, communications out to their men ... 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened'...women were arrested with young boys...children in cases...the boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out."
By Greg Mitchell, NEW YORK A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image. Last year a Republican senator conceded that they contained scenes of "rape and murder" and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said they included acts that were "blatantly sadistic." U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the release of certain pictures in a 50-page decision that said terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven they "do not need pretexts for their barbarism."The ACLU has sought the release of 87 photographs and four videotapes taken at the prison as part of an October 2003 lawsuit demanding information on the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, said Thursday that releasing the photos would hinder his work against terrorism. "When we continue to pick at the wound and show the pictures over and over again it just creates the image--a false image--like this is the sort of stuff that is happening anew, and it's not," Abizaid said. The judge said, however, that "the freedoms that we champion are as important to our success in Iraq and Afghanistan as the guns and missiles with which our troops are armed."
An ACLU release this afternoon said it was getting 70 photos and three video tapes. It also said that the government is being given 20 days to appeal. What is shown on the photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison that the Pentagon has blocked from release? One clue: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress last year, after viewing a large cache of unreleased images, "I mean, I looked at them last night, and they're hard to believe." They show acts "that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane," he added. A Republican Senator suggested the same day they contained scenes of "rape and murder." Rumsfeld then commented, "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse."
The photos were among thousands turned over by the key "whistleblower" in the scandal, Specialist Joseph M. Darby. Just a few that were released to the press sparked the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal last year, and the video images are said to be even more shocking. �Today's historic ruling is a step toward ensuring that our government's leaders are held accountable for the abuse and torture that happened on their watch,� said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. �The American public has a right to know what happened in American detention centers, and how our leaders let it occur."
One Pentagon lawyer has argued that they should not be released because they would only add to the humiliation of the prisoners. But the ACLU has said the faces of the victims can easily be "redacted." To get a sense of what may be shown in these images, one has to go back to press reports from when the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal was still front page news. This is how CNN reported it on May 8, 2004, in a typical account that day: "U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld revealed Friday that videos and 'a lot more pictures' exist of the abuse of Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib prison. "'If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse,' Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. 'I mean, I looked at them last night, and they're hard to believe.' "The embattled defense secretary fielded sharp and skeptical questions from lawmakers as he testified about the growing prisoner abuse scandal. A military report about that abuse describes detainees being threatened, sodomized with a chemical light and forced into sexually humiliating poses.
"Charges have been brought against seven service members, and investigations into events at the prison continue. "Military investigators have looked into -- or are continuing to investigate -- 35 cases of alleged abuse or deaths of prisoners in detention facilities in the Central Command theater, according to Army Secretary Les Brownlee. Two of those cases were deemed homicides, he said. "'The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience,' Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters after Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. 'We're talking about rape and murder -- and some very serious charges.'
"A report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba on the abuse at the prison outside Baghdad says videotapes and photographs show naked detainees, and that groups of men were forced to masturbate while being photographed and videotaped. Taguba also found evidence of a 'male MP guard having sex with a female detainee.'"Rumsfeld told Congress the unrevealed photos and videos contain acts 'that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman.'"
The military later screened some of the images for lawmakers, who said they showed, among other things, attack dogs snarling at cowed prisoners, Iraqi women forced to expose their breasts, and naked prisoners forced to have sex with each other.
In the same period, reporter Seymour Hersh, who helped uncover the scandal, said in a speech before an ACLU convention: "Some of the worse that happened that you don't know about, ok? Videos, there are women there. Some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men ... . The women were passing messages saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened.' "Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out."
Judge Hellerstein said today that publication of the photographs will help to answer questions not only about the unlawful conduct of American soldiers, but about �the command structure that failed to exercise discipline over the troops, and the persons in that command structure whose failures in exercising supervision may make them culpable along with the soldiers who were court-martialed for perpetrating the wrongs.�
10/13/08
It's getting so deep for Dennis Hastert he's pulling a Ronald Reagan. While George W. ridiculously and dangerously praises the embattled Speaker of the House, Kirk Fordham sticks to his testimony and rakes him over the coals.Fordham again gave sworn testimony reiterating that he turned to Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, in 2003 in order to shed some light on Foley's behavior towards teenage pages. According to Fordham, Palmer later assured him that he had met privately with Foley and then briefed Hastert of the situation. Palmer has denied Fordham's claims and Hastert insists he had no idea that Foley was sending sexually suggestive texts to pages until September 29th when the story broke.
This is where things get ugly and the wheels begin to come off of the GOP lie machine. Two REPUBLICAN congressman, John Boerner and Tom Reynolds, claim that they told Hastert about the dirty emails. So, what does a crooked, corrupt, wouldn't-know-the-truth-if-it-bit-him-in-the-ass republican politician do when he's been cornered by others cut from the very same cloth? They take a page from the Ronald Reagan playbook: 'I do not recall'.
9/21/06
By Molly IvinsOh dear. I�m sure he didn�t mean it. In Illinois� Sixth Congressional District, long represented by Henry Hyde, Republican candidate Peter Roskam accused his Democratic opponent, Tammy Duckworth, of planning to �cut and run� on Iraq. Duckworth is a former Army major and chopper pilot who lost both legs in Iraq after her helicopter got hit by an RPG. �I just could not believe he would say that to me,� said Duckworth, who walks on artificial legs and uses a cane. Every election cycle produces some wincers, but how do you apologize for that one?
The legislative equivalent of that remark is the detainee bill now being passed by Congress. Beloveds, this is so much worse than even that pathetic deal reached last Thursday between the White House and Republican Sens. John Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham. The White House has since reinserted a number of �technical fixes� that were the point of the putative �compromise.� It leaves the president with the power to decide who is an enemy combatant.
This bill is not a national security issue�this is about torturing helpless human beings without any proof they are our enemies. Perhaps this could be considered if we knew the administration would use the power with enormous care and thoughtfulness. But of the over 700 prisoners sent to Gitmo, only 10 have ever been formally charged with anything. Among other things, this bill is a CYA for torture of the innocent that has already taken place.
Death by torture by Americans was first reported in 2003 in a New York Times article by Carlotta Gall. The military had announced the prisoner died of a heart attack, but when Gall saw the death certificate, written in English and issued by the military, it said the cause of death was homicide. The �heart attack� came after he had been beaten so often on this legs that they had �basically been pulpified,� according to the coroner.
The story of why and how it took the Times so long to print this information is in the current edition of the Columbia Journalism Review. The press in general has been late and slow in reporting torture, so very few Americans have any idea how far it has spread. As is often true in hierarchical, top-down institutions, the orders get passed on in what I call the downward communications exaggeration spiral.
For example, on a newspaper, a top editor may remark casually, �Let�s give the new mayor a chance to see what he can do before we start attacking him.� This gets passed on as �Don�t touch the mayor unless he really screws up.� And it ultimately arrives at the reporter level as �We can�t say anything negative about the mayor.� The version of the detainee bill now in the Senate not only undoes much of the McCain-Warner-Graham work, but it is actually much worse than the administration�s first proposal. In one change, the original compromise language said a suspect had the right to �examine and respond to� all evidence used against him. The three senators said the clause was necessary to avoid secret trials. The bill has now dropped the word �examine� and left only �respond to.�
In another change, a clause said that evidence obtained outside the United States could be admitted in court even if it had been gathered without a search warrant. But the bill now drops the words �outside the United States,� which means prosecutors can ignore American legal standards on warrants. The bill also expands the definition of an unlawful enemy combatant to cover anyone who has �has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States.� Quick, define �purposefully and materially.� One person has already been charged with aiding terrorists because he sold a satellite TV package that includes the Hezbollah network.
The bill simply removes a suspect�s right to challenge his detention in court. This is a rule of law that goes back to the Magna Carta in 1215. That pretty much leaves the barn door open. As Vladimir Bukovsky, the Soviet dissident, wrote, an intelligence service free to torture soon �degenerates into a playground for sadists.� But not unbridled sadism�you will be relieved that the compromise took out the words permitting interrogation involving �severe pain� and substituted �serious pain,� which is defined as �bodily injury that involves extreme physical pain.�
In July 2003, George Bush said in a speech: �The United States is committed to worldwide elimination of torture, and we are leading this fight by example. Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right. Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes, whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit.�
Fellow citizens, this bill throws out legal and moral restraints as the president deems it necessary�these are fundamental principles of basic decency, as well as law. I�d like those supporting this evil bill to spare me one affliction: Do not, please, pretend to be shocked by the consequences of this legislation. And do not pretend to be shocked when the world begins comparing us to the Nazis.
8/2/06
By Greg Sargent I just got off the phone with Hildi Halley, a woman from Maine whose husband is a fallen soldier. Yesterday President Bush met with her privately, and news of their meeting was reported in a local Maine paper, the Kennebec Journal The paper shared few details of the meeting, saying simply that Halley objected to Bush's policies and that she said Bush responded that there was no point in them having a "philosophical discussion about the pros and cons of the war." But Halley has just given me a much more detailed account of her meeting with Bush. She told me that she went much farther in her criticism of the President, telling him directly that he was "responsible" for the deaths of American soldiers and that as a "Christian man," he should recognize that he's "made a mistake" and that it was his "responsibility to end this." She recounted to me that she was "very direct," telling Bush: "As President, you're here to serve the people. And the people are not being served with this war." I reached Halley at her home in Falmouth, Maine. She told me that her husband, Patrick Damon, who's long been active in Democratic politics, had been in Afghanistan as an engineer building roads when he died in June. She said she was first told that it was of a heart attack, but that subsequently she was told there was no sign that a heart attack had killed him. An invesigation into his death is continuing. Halley, who's also been politically active for Democrats, said she told GOP Senator Olympia Snowe that she'd like a phone call from Bush. Subsequently Halley got a call from White House staffers looking to set up a private meeting. Bush came yesterday. Halley tells me that she told the President that she's been opposed since "day one" to both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I talked to him about how important this person was to me," Halley recounted, speaking of her husband. "It's not just a soldier who died. Lives are changed forever...I said, `This doesn't make sense to me.' He said, `Terrorists killed three thousand people, we had to go to war.'" Halley continued to me. "I said, `Well, who put the Taliban into power? The United States did.' He said, `I'm not going to have a philosphical debate over politics.' The whole conversation was very gentle." Halley says that while Bush was personable and receptive to her, she was very direct and critical of Bush's policies and insisted that the right thing to do was to end the war. "We literally sat knee to knee...I looked deep into his eyes and talked to him about love and losing people and that he was responsible for this. I said, `I didn't vote for you, but you are my President. And you're not serving me.' I said I believed it was time to put an end to this. His job is to find solutions. I said, `You yourself have said you had erroneous information going into this.'" She continued: "I said, `As a Christian man, you realize that when you've made a mistake it's your responsiblity to end this. And it's time to end the bleeding and it's time to end the war.' I said, `what would truly bring healing is to start working on changing your policy towards the Middle East...as President, you're here to serve the people. And the people are not being served with this war.'" She added: "I told him, `It's time as a Christian to put our pride behind us." Halley said that the President appeared moved by what she'd said, but that she doubted it would bring about any real change. "He cried with me," she recounted. "I feel he responded to me emotionally. I don't know if that's going to change policy. It probably won't. But I hope it makes him think a little bit further." After 28 days of fasting, anti-war hunger strikers received a breakthrough victory for their sacrifice: Leading members of the Iraqi Parliament invited fasters to join them to discuss their plans for peace in Iraq. On Wednesday, August 2, hunger strikers will travel to Amman, Jordan to meet with these Iraqi MPs and break their fast. The group includes: Peace mom Cindy Sheehan, Retired Colonel Ann Wright, Iraq war veteran Geoffrey Millard, Politician/Writer Tom Hayden, CODEPINK co-founders Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans, Gael Murphy and Diane Wilson. The trip is being sponsored by CODEPINK: Women for Peace and the human rights group Global Exchange. This invitation comes after fasters were rebuffed in numerous attempts to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during his visit to Washington last week, including setting up "Camp Al-Maliki" across from the Iraqi Embassy and publishing an open letter to him in one of the largest Iraqi newspapers. Faster and CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin was arrested for disrupting al-Maliki�s address to Congress last Wednesday, saying loudly and repeatedly, �Iraqis want the troops to leave, bring them home now!� The parliamentarians, who expressed concern for fasters� health and dismay at the Prime Minister�s dismissal of their repeated requests for a meeting, will travel to meet with the US delegation in Jordan on August 3. The Iraqi elected officials will brief the Americans on the Reconciliation Plan they have been working on at the Reconciliation Conference held in Cairo last week. CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin said, �It is a breakthrough for the US peace movement to meet directly with Iraqi parliamentarians working on a peace plan. We hope to return to the US to build support for their plan.� With the increased violence between Israel and Lebanon, a part of the U.S. delegation will go on to Syria and Lebanon to bear witness to the suffering of innocent victims of war in the region. 7/27/06 As George Bush pushes for court trials and for the right to use evidence obtained through the barbaric use of torture, let's remember John Walker Lindh The Nation 1/27/05 'Chertoff and Torture' In June 2002, the Defense Department had a big problem: Its new policy on torture of captives in the "war on terror" was about to be exposed. John Walker Lindh, the young Californian captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 and touted by John Ashcroft as an "American Taliban," was scheduled to take the stand the following Monday in an evidence suppression hearing regarding a confession he had signed. There he would tell, under oath, about how he signed the document only after being tortured for days by US soldiers. Federal District Judge T.S. Ellis had already said he was likely to allow Lindh, at trial, to put on the stand military officers and even Guantánamo detainees who were witnesses to or participants in his alleged abuse.The Defense Department, which we now know had in late 2001 begun a secret, presidentially approved program of torture of Afghan and Al Qaeda captives at Bagram Air Base and other locations, had made it clear to the Justice Department that it wanted the suppression hearing blocked. American torture at that point was still just a troubling rumor, and the Bush Administration clearly wanted to keep it that way. Accordingly, Michael Chertoff, who as head of the Justice Department's criminal division was overseeing all the department's terrorism prosecutions, had his prosecution team offer a deal. All the serious charges against Lindh--terrorism, attempted murder, conspiracy to kill Americans, etc.--would be dropped and he could plead guilty just to the technical charges of "providing assistance" to an "enemy of the U.S." and of "carrying a weapon." Lindh, whose attorneys dreaded his facing trial in one of the most conservative court districts in the country on the first anniversary of 9/11, had to accept a stiff twenty-year sentence, but that was half what he faced if convicted on those two minor charges alone.
But Chertoff went further, according to one of Lindh's attorneys, George Harris. Chertoff (now an appeals court judge in New Jersey) demanded--reportedly at Defense Department insistence, according to what defense attorneys were told--that Lindh sign a statement swearing he had "not been intentionally mistreated" by his US captors and waiving any future right to claim mistreatment or torture. Further, Chertoff attached a "special administrative measure," essentially a gag order, barring Lindh from talking about his experience for the duration of his sentence.
7/14/06�Out of Iraq� Congressional Caucus To Join National �Troops Home Fast� Hunger Strike
WASHINGTON, D.C. U.S. Representative Maxine Waters (CA-35) Representative Lynn Woolsey (CA-6), Representative Barbara Lee (CA-9) and members of the "Out of Iraq" Congressional Caucus, upon hearing of the �Troops Home Fast� initiative launched on July 4 to bring the troops home from Iraq, will announce their support and participation in a press conference on Thursday July 13th at 11am EST.
They will be joining over 3,700 people throughout the country who are showing support for the long-term fasters by fasting for at least one day. Participants include Representative Lynn Woolsey, musicians Willie Nelson and Bonnie Raitt, actors Danny Glover, Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon, Gulf War vet Michael McPherson, writer Alice Walker, and labor leader Dolores Huerta.
Also speaking at the press conference Colonel and former US Diplomat Ann Wright; Iraqi Analyst Raed Jarrar; Co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace, Medea Benjamin and Geoffrey Millard of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
CODEPINK: Women for Peace, a national women�s peace organization, launched the �Troops Home Fast� initiative on July 3, 2006. Over 3,700 supporters, celebrities, veterans, mothers, and concerned citizens across the country are participating.
Hunger strikers will continue to stand outside of the White House until September 21, International Peace Day, when activists around the country will initiate a week of nonviolent actions against the war in Iraq as part of the Declaration of Peace.
The "Out of Iraq" Caucus was established on June 16, 2005 to bring to the House of Representatives an on-going debate about the war in Iraq and the Administration's justification for the decision to go to war, to urge the return of US service members to their families as soon as possible, and to provide a voice in Congress for the individuals and groups who support these efforts.
To accomplish its goals, the "Out of Iraq" Caucus works with other Congressional Caucuses and national organizations to hold hearings, press conferences and town hall meetings to educate the American people and pressure the Administration to conclude the war in Iraq.
6/26/06Today's Pentagon press conference with Don Rumsfeld and General Casey leaves no question that the U.S. is gunning for a military showdown with Iran. The question is; Do they believe their own fighting words?
"We are quite confident that the Iranians through their covert special ops forces are providing weapons, IED technology and training to Shia extremist groups in Iraq," Said Casey who accused the Iranian government of coordinating the attacks.
"Now you would assume they're not doing that independently, that there is some central direction from somebody in Tehran....I have no evidence that there are Iranians in Iraq...I think it's continuing... I think it is a noticeable increase since January...We think they're supporting all of the -- not all of the groups, but a wide variety of groups across southern Iraq..."
Hardly convincing, but the drums of war are pounding nonetheless.
Regardless of what Washington says about Iran being a nuclear threat, the oilmen who currently inhabit the White House clearly have their eye on Iran's crucial export.
According to Michael Klare Iran sits athwart the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which, daily, 40% of the world's oil exports pass. In addition, Iran is becoming a major supplier of oil and natural gas to China, India, and Japan, thereby giving Tehran additional clout in world affairs. It is these geopolitical dimensions of energy, as much as Iran's potential to export significant quantities of oil to the United States, that undoubtedly govern the administration's strategic calculations.
Its beginning to once again look as if WMD will be the smokescreen to a pre-emptive war against an oil rich Arab country.
6/20/06
First the U.S. Kicks Laywers and Reporters Out of Guantanamo and Now This
Mofleh Al-Qahtani, vice chairman of the National Human Rights Society is demanding an independent investigation after what has happened to the bodies of the three men who reportedly committed suicide at Guantanamo.
According to the Yemeni Observer, Dr. Najib Ghanem, the chairman of the Health Committee in the Parliament said the corpse of Salahu al-Din was handed over to Yemen but was missing major bodily organs such as the heart, the kidneys, livers and the blood vessels. This makes it difficult to know the main cause of death. He called for the participation of international autopsy experts in trying to identify the cause of death.
Kateb Fahad Al-Shammari, a lawyer representing Saudi detainees, said that the US authorities were responsible for the deaths of the two Saudi prisoners. �This is another violation of the Geneva Convention in relation to prisoners,� he said. �The deaths are just further crimes added to the crimes and violations that happen on a daily basis against the detainees. We have great doubts over the American version stating that the three detainees died as a result of suicide.�
The father of the Yemini found hanged in Guantanamo Bay detention centre has called for an international investigation into the death of his son. The Unites States says Al Aslami, 28, and two other Saudi inmates were found hanged using clothing and bed sheets on June 10.
"The United States should have sent the autopsy report with the body, which didn't happen," Mohammed Abdullah Al Aslami, father of Salah Al Aslami, told reporters on Sunday. "This reinforces the doubts that my son Salah committed suicide. My son died under torture." He goes on to say 'My son was a strong believer and suicide is against the teachings of Islam. He had memorized the Holy Koran and the letters we received from him while he was in Guantanamo indicate that his faith was strong. In fact, he was looking forward to a reunion with his family,"
6/19/06
Al Qaeda Called Off Plot To Attack New York Subway With Poison Gas
Was anyone else blown away at today's Good Morning America? ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, who is the former chief of White House counterterrorism and the man who warned Rice and Bush about Al Qaeda back in 2001, appeared with Charles Gibson and had his own take on the so called plot.
"There's reason to be skeptical, just because something is labeled in an intelligence report does not mean every word it is true."
Clarke says the information describing the plot would have been just one of the hundreds of threats that would have been collected in 2003. Furthermore, the specificity of the report is suspect, he said.
"Whenever you get reports that are this specific, they are usually made up," he said.
Clarke noted the report detailed a particular time period for the attack, and that Osama bin Laden's top deputy himself weighed in. Clarke said that Osama Bin Laden and his Lieutenant Zawihiri are too isolated to have that kind of direct control over a plot inside the United States. He also thinks the terrorists would have carried out the attack if the plot was as advanced as reported.
"Frankly if there was a team in the United States that was ready to do this, they would have done it."
6/8/06
Zarqawi's Death A Bad Sign For Coalition Forces
The U.S. government�s celebration of the assassination of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi should give US troops fighting in Iraq little reason to celebrate. Zarqawi�s history of aggression against the U.S. stretches back to August 2003 when he orchestrated the suicide bombing of the UN Headquarters that killed 22 people. But he will mainly be remembered as both George Bush's poster boy in his attempt to link Al Qaeda to Iraq and as the motivating force behind the outbreak of civil war in Iraq between Sunni and Shia factions. The New York Times refers to him as 'Al Qaeda's Leader In Iraq', but there is some doubt at to if he represented Al Qaeda In Iraq. In the waning years of his life his verbal attacks on Arab leaders alienated him from Al Qaeda and much of the Arab world.
Zarqawi's deadly suicide bombings targeting Shiite civilians and mosques has successfully ignited a brutal civil war in Iraq prompting Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to decared a state of emergency in Basra, where battles are raging between Shiite and Sunni militias. Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the assassination of the Shia cleric, Ayatollah al-Hakin at a shrine in Najaf, which also killed 50 Shia worshippers. He has railed against the Shiites, calling them �rafida� (rejectors of Islam) and charged them with treason.
He dared to call out Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for failing to follow through on his call to �wipe Israel from the map". In a tape released earlier this week he referred to Iraq's highest-ranking Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, as an "atheist". The Jordanian-born Zarqawi quickly wore out his welcome in Iraq.
Al Qaeda's #2 man in al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahri, chastised al-Zarqawi last September for attacking Shiites. Zarqawi, in a classic display of his poor judgement, thumbed his nose at Al Qaeda and he paid ultimate the price. Al Qaeda has everything to gain from Zarqawi�s death. The man that split the resistance into opposing factions is gone and the insurgency can now refocus on their target: coalition forces. While there may be good reason to celebrate the death of a ruthless man that has killed so many innocents, coalition forces and Iraqi civilians are not out of the woods.
5/30/06
The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. George Orwell
The bad news from Iraq just keeps rolling in. The latest is that coalition forces unloaded into a car carrying two women, one of them pregnant, killing them both as they drove to a maternity hospital in Samarra where the woman was due to give birth. TV News footage showed the women's bodies wrapped in sheets and lying on stretchers outside the Samarra General Hospital, while residents pointed to bullet holes on the windshield of a car and a pool of blood on the seat.
The military has issued the following statement:
"The loss of life is regrettable and coalition forces go to great lengths to prevent them."
This on the heels of Haditha where American Marines, enraged at the death of one of their own, opened fire on civilians, cutting down women and children as they prayed in their homes. When the smoke finally cleared over 2 dozen were dead, shot at close range execution style.
An investigation has uncovered that the Marines tried to cover up the incident. The initially blamed the deaths on a roadside bomb, until death certificates showed that all the Iraqi victims had gunshot wounds, mostly to the head and chest. The Marines then paid the families of the deceased $38,000 of tax payer money. 2 children wounded in the attack received $250 each
"I didn't say we had made a mistake," said Major Hyatt, describing what he had told the city council member who was representing the victims. "I said I'm being told I can make payments for these 15 because they were deemed not to be involved in combat."
Friday, May 26th
Talk about eating crow. There he was on national television, our fearless leader, crawling like a worm. Doing his best to look apolagetic, regreting he'd ever used the 'Bring Em On' and 'Dead or Alive' analogy. Sorry Governor, but you don't get points for eating humble pie.
The most pathetic comments of his latest PR fiasco came when he spoke on Abu Ghraib. "We've been paying for that for a long time" he said, head bowed. Is that so? Not nearly as long as those being tortured there TO THIS VERY DAY due to the executive order that Bush signed. Bush never apologized for or even acknowledged authorizing torture at Abu Ghraib. His only regret is that he's been caught. Sociopathic behavior of the worst kind.
Blair was equally embarrassing. "It should have been very obvious to us from the beginning", lied Blair when commenting on the fact that the allies seriously underestimated the strength and determination of the insurgency. Every intelligence agency in London and Washington told them that the resistence would be fierce. But fools rush in and our men and women in uniform and hundreds of thousands of civilians have paid the price.
The 71% that disapproved of Bush before this, his latest meltdown, will not change their minds after witnessing the groveling. The 29% that did stand by them through their disasterous tenures must be hopping mad and disillusioned as hell to hear him backtrack on his latest shoot-em-up Texas Sheriff talk.
Please guys, the next time we want to see you standing side by side defending yourselves is in a courtroom in The Hague.