| |
 |
|
(JavaScript Error)
|
| Archives |
|
|
|
|
Subscribe
|
| Now you
can subscribe to this blog and receive new blogs direct to
your email! |
|
RSS/XML Syndication
| |
|
|
|
|
Video: Alternative
Views
|
|
Censured Casualties
features rare footage
of war crimes against the Iraqi people suffered during
and after the Gulf War. The footage is from former Attorney
General Ramsey
Clark in his attempt to document the injustice
of United States military actions in the region.
|
|
|
Video: Alternative
Views
|
|
Another Unknown
War
features a film on the
struggle of the indigenous people of West Papua to remain
sovereign in the face of an Indonesian invasion backed
by world capital. Footage of Noam
Chomsky on Western involvments in the region and
the relation to East Timor.
|
|
|
Doug's New Books & Related
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TV/Radio
|
|
|
| |
 |
| |
|
|
|
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
|
The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Demonstrations: Hundreds Are Arrested as Protests Escalate
a nasty day in NY as police hit protestors hard and Republicans fill the air with empty blather
The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Demonstrations: Hundreds Are Arrested as Protests Escalate
Over 1000 arrested. Excerpt: "Police repulsed anarchists, gay activists and other protesters across Manhattan on Tuesday, arresting about 1,000 people as they tried to block traffic and many as they simply walked on sidewalks. The action prevented what was to have been a major show of civil disobedience outside Madison Square Garden on the second night of the Republican convention.
A police spokeswoman, Officer Jennara Everleth, said that over 1,000 arrests were made at various protests around the city. That raised to 1,600 the total number of people taken into custody for convention-related protests since August 26, according to Everleth."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51447-2004Sep1?language=printer
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > The Overview: Giuliani Lauds Bush's Leadership on Terror as Convention Opens
Preparing for their opening night activities, the Republicans leaked that former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani will try to assimilate Bush to Churchill, intoning: “Winston Churchill saw the dangers of Hitler, when his opponents and much of the press characterized him as a warmongering gadfly.” While it is easy to see Bush as a warmonger it is hard to view him as Churchillian, or even as a gadfly. Giuliani presented a long, droning speech that constantly evoked 9/11 and Bush, defended Bush’s Iraq policy as part of the war on terror, and generally presented Bush as a great wartime leader a la Churchill. In a lackluster and surprisingly flat speech, John McCain claimed that September 11 had created a new world and that Bush had risen to the occasion as a great leader. Speaker after speaker evoked Bush and 9/11, as if Bush’s mere connection with the moment should qualify him for re-election. While McCain tried to evoke remembrances of American unity after September 11 and tried to convey that Bush had helped unify the country, the protestors outside and the large segment of the country that absolutely hates Bush belied McCain’s banal and dishonest rhetoric.
Macho masculinity also served as an undercurrent of the Republican convention, trying to evoke the image that Republicans are more manly than wimpy and Frenchified cosmopolitan Democrats, as warhero John McCain and tough-guy Rudy Giuliani stood center stage during Day 1 of the convention, while action-hero-turned-California-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stood in the wings ready to swagger into the keynote a following night. Not by accident these macho men are also among the few moderate Republicans with the party keeping its hardright power-cadre out of sight.
The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > The Overview: Giuliani Lauds Bush's Leadership on Terror as Convention Opens
|
|
|
The New York Times > AP > National > After Citing Doubt, Bush Declares 'We Will Win' Terror War
Bush flip flops! After realistically conceding that the War on Terror doesn't have an end-point, he now thumps his chest and says "We Will Win!" to get back on the macho track that Republican convention is promoting. It is interesting that Bush off says impolitic things off the cuff, admitting, for example, the other day that Iraq is a "catastrophic success" and that mistakes were made [only the first part about Iraq as a catastrophe is true]; one hopes that during the campaign Bush will be Bush and the public can see him as he is: a dangerous incompetent and rightwing ideologue
The New York Times > AP > National > After Citing Doubt, Bush Declares 'We Will Win' Terror War
|
|
|
The New York Times > AP > International > Video Claims to Show Execution of 12 Nepalese Hostages in Iraq
Although the US media have been ignoring Iraq and the Republicans gloss it over at the convention it continues to be a mess
The New York Times > AP > International > Video Claims to Show Execution of 12 Nepalese Hostages in Iraq
Although Bush and his allies continued to tout his alleged successes in the “war on terrorism” in fact his efforts had been a miserable failure, with chaos in Afghanistan and Iraq, growing numbers of Al Qaeda and other terrorist forces, and continuous alienation from the closest US allies who have distanced themselves from US policy under Bush. An article in the Los Angeles Times by Patrick J. McDonnell, “sovereignty Iraq Just as Deadly to US Forces (September 1, 2004), indicated that two months after the US handed over sovereignty to Iraq, “more than 110 US troops have been killed and much of the country remains hostile territory.” Moreover, nationwide “US forces are being attacked 60 times per day on average, up 20% from the three-month period before the handover.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-military31aug31,1,7236884.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Iraqi insurgent strategy seemed to oscillate between attacking US forces, fighting them intermitted, disrupting oil installations and the economy, and hitting soft targets. On September 11, there were reports that 12 Nepalese workers had been reportedly kidnapped and executed in Iraq and there were conflicting stories whether sabotage of Iraq oil installations had brought exports completely to a halt or merely disrupted supplies.
There were also reports of how the US occupation forces had destroyed the ancient archaeological site of Babylon, as well as allowing other sites and national treasures to be looted.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1294027,00.html
|
|
Monday, August 30, 2004
|
Ray McGovern: 'Swift intelligent smokescreen'
a good analysis by exCIA official Ray McGovern on Bush's attempts to throw a smokescreen over his intelligence 9/11 and Iraq failures. In fact, the Swift Boat BigTime Liar ads can also be seen as a smokescreen shot up by a Bush Sleeper Cell to deflect attention from real issues while smearing Kerry: this weekend Bush seems to have called for a truce concerning Kerry's and his Vietnam record but in fact Bush's Guard Service and possible AWOL should be an issue
The Smirking Chimp
|
|
|
Ruy Teixeira: 'What that 'awful' LA Times poll really means'
here's a good analysis of the alarming LA Times polls that seemed to have indicated Bush has pulled ahead of Kerry and that the Swift Boat Liar and Smear ads were working; in fact, closer analysis indicates that the episode may have harmed a desperate Bush and helped Kerry
The Smirking Chimp: "Ruy Teixeira: 'What that 'awful' LA Times poll really means'"
|
|
|
washingtonpost.com: The Republican Convention:Bush's Flip-Flopping and Extremism
here's a good analysis of Bush's flip-flopping in Wash Post editorial: "In looking back to four years ago, we are struck by the ways in which the Bush presidency has been different from the way it was originally sold to the country. Mr. Bush promoted himself to voters in the 2000 campaign as a bipartisan uniter, not a divider, but in office he has too often embraced a my-way-or-the-highway style of governing that has served to polarize voters. Mr. Bush the candidate promised a "humble" foreign policy; Mr. Bush the president has too often adopted a highhanded approach to the world that alienated allies. As the convention opens, Mr. Bush seems interested in presenting his, and his party's, kinder, gentler side -- GOP moderates dominate the list of prime-time speakers -- but this image promises to be a tougher sell than it was four years ago.
washingtonpost.com: The Republican Convention
Also in the Post, a good critique of Bush's extremism:
"People remember embarrassing phrases from the last Bush campaign: The promise to be "a uniter, not a divider," which presaged the most polarizing presidency of recent times; the promise to conduct a "humble" foreign policy. But if you read George W. Bush's convention speech of four years ago, it's amazing how honestly it heralds the hair-raising radicalism that followed. It's full of macho lines about bold action and seizing the moment and appointments with greatness. And the central rhetorical device in the first part of the speech is a refrain:
"This administration had its moment; they had their chance; they have not led. We will," Bush declared repeatedly.
He wasn't kidding. Even before Sept. 11, 2001, Bush signaled his future impatience with Europe's diplomats by tearing up both the Kyoto environment treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. He delivered the most radical tax cut since 1981 and transformed federal education policy, and the early signs were that he really meant to privatize Social Security. It isn't true, as some now suppose, that Bush's radicalism is merely the product of 9/11 -- that extraordinary times drove an otherwise temperate man to extraordinary measures. Bush behaved extraordinarily in ordinary times too. As he promised in his convention speech four years ago, "We will write not footnotes but chapters in the American story."
Part of me quite likes this. There's plenty of stuff that's wrong with the world, and presidents ought to be activists. Bush's radicalism -- his willingness to see problems and embrace bold solutions despite urgings of caution from all sides -- can be glorious when applied to a good cause: Think of his huge expansion of international AIDS funding, which goes way beyond anything the Clinton administration ever contemplated. But Bush's radicalism has a scary side as well, and it goes to the heart of his fitness for a second term. In his zeal to be a strong leader, and in his disdain for policy detail, Bush sometimes defends positions that have no intellectual basis.
This weakness is most commonly associated with his war in Iraq -- a radical policy that has backfired on him. Even if you accept the case for war, the way Bush has argued it raises fundamental character issues. Why did he claim links between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein despite the lack of evidence? Had he failed to absorb the facts, or was he being plain dishonest? Why did he allow the postwar planning to be so scandalously poor? Could he not be bothered to cross-examine the officials who were drawing up plans that would determine his standing in history? Bush appears to have been deaf to the chorus of outside experts who warned that nation-building would be difficult. Doesn't this illustrate a lazy lack of curiosity about how bold ideas will play out in the real world? Doesn't this raise doubts about Bush's fitness to be president?
The same goes, until a few days ago at least, for the more recent handling of the Iraq question. Bush has been so caught up on his strong-leader kick that he has found it difficult to pause, adjust his policies and admit error -- even when error became obvious. Confronted with the prisoner abuse scandal, he has sought to scapegoat a few junior officials and move on rather than admit that his lawyers' dismissal of the usual rules of war has been proved disastrous. Confronted with the absence of weapons of mass destruction, Bush has failed to acknowledge a mistake -- even though he could explain at the same time that statesmen make decisions on the basis of imperfect information and that the best information was that Iraq had such weapons. This sort of honest but subtle argument is alien to the strong leader's style. As Bush reportedly once said, "I don't do nuance."
The clearest illustration of this inflexibility is not Iraq. It is the central plank of the economic agenda: the tax cuts. These were conceived when the economy was booming and huge budget surpluses were expected, but when the boom turned into bust, Bush showed no ability to course-correct. Almost unbelievably, Bush not only rammed through the huge tax cut he had promised in the campaign: He cut taxes again in 2002 and a third time in 2003. Even now he seems ready to sign an appalling pork-ridden corporate tax reduction. In the past, ambitious tax cuts have tended to happen only once every two decades or so. Before Reagan's in 1981, you have to go back to 1964 to find anything comparable. Bush's tax radicalism is breathtaking.
Again, this is not just a policy issue; it goes to Bush's character. How can he push such a dramatic shift in economic policy without grappling with the basic point that his cuts are unaffordable? He chants that he will halve the deficit within five years, but this is beside the point: The cost of the tax cuts falls mainly beyond the five-year window, as does the cost of the baby-boomers' retirement. Perhaps Bush fails to understand that his policies are unsustainable, or perhaps he understands but refuses to say so. In other words he is either ignorant or dishonest: Neither suggests that he deserves the trust of the electorate."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45418-2004Aug29.html?nav=hcmodule
|
|
|
Vast Anti-Bush Rally Greets Republicans in New York
Here's my overview of the protests against Bush in NY: The buzz on protests against the Republicans in NY during their convention began in earnest with reports in the alternative media presenting a detailed description of what to expect from marches, art projects, bicyclists, anarchists, and mass demonstrations. The Bush administration had been making clear for weeks that they were going to blame any excessive disruption or violence on the Democrats, leading to a rash of charges that excessive violence might help Bush. A coalition of environmental groups began holding daily vigils at the World Trade Center site to inform the nation that the area was still contaminated with toxins and to denounce the Bush administration EPA, which soon after September 11 proclaimed the area safe. The Bush administration claim was disproved by later studies that documented serious illness among workers in the area and dangerous contamination still in the area.
A variety of protests unfolded on the eve of the convention with a group of more than 100 women in a “Axis of Eve” coalition exposing themselves to “expose and depose” President Bush panties, containing slogans “Lick Bush," "Give Bush the Finger" and "Drill Bush Not Oil." On Friday, August 27, a Brooklyn group “Mothers Opposing Bush” assembled their “Kids for Kerry” and marched across the Brooklyn Bridge strollers in hand. A protest in NY by bike riders on Saturday yielded 5000 cyclers against Bush, 100 arrests, and blocked streets causing “massive disruptions” to traffic according to NY police. In Central Park, Quakers and the families of soldiers killed in the Iraq war laid out 972 pairs of combat boots to symbolize those who have lost their lives. On the Long Island beaches, antiwar activists flew an airplane trailed by a large banner reading "Give Bush a Pink Slip." At Ground Zero, another group opposed to the policies of President Bush sounded 2,749 bells -- one for each victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. And 25,000 activists for abortion rights crossed the Brooklyn Bridge to protest Bush administration policies.
On the weekend before the convention, New York was eerily deserted in Times Square and other popular locations as many New Yorkers fled the city in fear of disruption from terrorism and protesters. But on Sunday hundreds of thousands of Bush administration opponents poured into Manhattan's streets Sunday on the eve of the Republican National Convention, angrily denouncing Bush and the war in Iraq and demanding the United States withdraw its forces. Wearing badges that read “Re-Defeat Bush!” and banners proclaiming “Bush lied, thousands died.” “Save a Tree - Plant a Bush Back in Texas,” read one placard, while another stated “Bush - You're Fired!”, referring to a motto that has infused popular culture borrowed from the reality television show “The Apprentice,” set in New York City.
An estimated 500,000 peaceful protestors marched in good spirit through Manhattan, placards proclaiming “Drop Bush, Not Bombs” and “Eradicate Mad Cowboy Disease” they shouted out antiBush slogans decrying his tax cuts for the rich, oil, repressive domestic policies, failed environmental policies, and incompetence as president. Decked out in brightly colored T-shirts with slogans like “No More Years” or that denounced Bush as a liar and warmonger, there were also fly swatters with Bush’s face, pallbearers carrying a thousand mock coffins draped in black representing the US soldiers killed in Iraq, and a paper-mache tank moved along the march with Bush’s head decked out in cowboy hat peeking out.
As the marchers pasted Madison Square Garden, chants of “LIAR! LIAR!” filled the air. When confronted with Republican groups chanting “four more years!” the crowd responded with “Four more months!” NBC News showed joyous marchers streaming by a belligerent Republican yelling “Four more years!” and a middle-aged Jewish woman stopped and looked him in the eye and said “For what?” reducing the shouter to silence.
At 7th Avenue and 34th street, proBush supporters confronted demonstrators with a sign “Support President Bush—Trust Jesus” while one self-described “rightwing conservative Christian” shouted “Trust Jesus!”Tthe crowd chanted back “Who would Jesus bomb!” When confronted by a Kerry is Unfit” sign the group shouted “Shame! Shame!” at the woman advancing righting antiKerry smears.
Flanked by police in riot gear and led by a line of celebrities including Jesse Jackson, actor Danny Glover, and filmmaker Michael Moore, the protesters moved through the fortified city on a circular route that took them through midtown and past Madison Square Garden, where the convention opens Monday The marchers, chanting slogans like "No more years" and carrying anti-Bush signs, filled nearly 20 city blocks on a sunny, steamy day and took six hours to complete, forming a raucous but peaceful spectacle providing excellent footage for TV. After the march, some protestors went up to Times Square where they confronted Republicans in midtown hotels and restaurants, leading to the arrest of more than 50 for blocking the entrances to the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square and the Milford Plaza on 8th avenue. A group Queer Fist tried to disrupt traffic in the Theater District where Republicans were planning to go to Broadway shows. Others wandered to Central Park, where they had been denied a permit, congregating in groups of less than 20 to avoid arrest. A man in an oversized Dick Cheney mask danced, dangling a tiny puppet of George W. Bush in front of him. A group calling themselves “Raging Grannies” sang songs that parodied familiar melodies to spoof Bush and Cheney such as one to the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” that rang: “No more lies from Dick and Georgie/We deplore their wartime orgy!”
Meanwhile, the Republicans kicked off their convention festivities with Dick Cheney making a speech on Ellis Island, in a controlled zone far from protestors, where he could celebrate George W. Bush as a great “war president” (failing to note that the wars are a result of his failing to shut down Al Qaeda and the terrorism in Afghanistan and then moving to Iraq to creating another war that is a breeding zone for terrorism and anti- Americanism that will make the US the most hated country in the world for years to come). Campaigning in West Virginia, George W. Bush deemed “Iraq” a “catastrophic success,” leading Vice-Presidential candidate John Edwards to retort that Bush was only half-right, that “it was catastrophropic to rush to war without a plan to win the peace.”
Preparing for their opening night activities, the Republicans leaked that former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani will try to assimilate Bush to Churchhill, intoning: “Winston Churchhill saw the dangers of Hitler, when his opponents and much of the press characterized him as a warmongering gadfly.” While it is easy to see Bush as a warmonger it is hard to view him as Churchhillian, or even as a gadfly.
The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Vast Anti-Bush Rally Greets Republicans in New York
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sunday, August 29, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The New York Times > AP > National > Up to 250, 000 Expected at NYC Protests
big protests are getting underway in NY on eve of Republican convention as Bushites infest Sunday talk television, spewing their empty generalities
The New York Times > AP > National > Up to 250, 000 Expected at NYC Protests
The march is underway. Excerpt: "Tens of thousands of Bush administration opponents poured into Manhattan's streets Sunday on the eve of the Republican National Convention, angrily denouncing the war in Iraq and demanding the United States withdraw its forces.
Flanked by police in riot gear and led by a line of celebrities including actor Danny Glover and filmmaker Michael Moore, the protesters moved through the fortified city on a circular route that took them through midtown and past Madison Square Garden, where the convention opens Monday.
The marchers, chanting slogans like "No more years" and carrying anti-Bush signs, filled nearly 20 city blocks on a sunny, steamy day with temperatures in the upper 80s. Supporters leaned from windows to cheer them on. Organizers claimed up to 250,000 people would participate in what was expected to be the largest march of the week."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A44003-2004Aug29?language=printer
Update on NY demo
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/politics/campaign/29CND-PORT.html?hp
|
|
|
A Failure of Accountability (washingtonpost.com)
Accountability has disappeared for the Bush administration and Pentagon: "ONLY A FEW years ago, it seemed the slightest suggestion of malfea- sance by a presidential administration -- allegations of tampering with a minor administrative office, say, or indications that a cabinet secretary might have understated the amount of money given to a former girlfriend -- could trigger a formidable response from the other two branches of government: grand juries, special prosecutors, endless congressional hearings, even impeachment proceedings. Some of that auditing, especially during the Clinton administration, went too far. Yet now the country faces a frightening inversion of the problem. Though there is strong evidence of faulty and even criminal behavior by senior military commanders and members of President Bush's cabinet in the handling of foreign detainees, neither Congress nor the justice system is taking adequate steps to hold those officials accountable.
Investigations by the Army, including one completed last week, could result in prosecution or disciplinary action for up to 50 persons involved in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. But almost all are low-ranking soldiers; the most senior officer to be targeted is a female reserve brigadier general, who plausibly argues she has been scapegoated by higher-ranking officers. The military investigations and a separate probe by a panel picked by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have issued reports making it clear that senior commanders in Iraq and the civilian leadership at the Pentagon also bear specific responsibility for an affair that has gravely damaged the U.S. mission in Iraq and American prestige around the world. But no court, prosecutor or disciplinary panel is even considering action against these top officials. Only one more congressional hearing, by the Senate Armed Services Committee, is planned."
In particular, Rumsfeld is beyond accountability, refusing to admit any mistakes and escaping all responsibility: " What's particularly troubling about this breakdown of checks and balances is that some of the most disturbing behavior by senior officials has yet to be thoroughly investigated. For example, Mr. Rumsfeld is now known to have approved, in December 2002, the use of dogs to frighten detainees under interrogation. That technique, which was immediately adopted in Afghanistan and later in Iraq, was described by Army Maj. Gen. George R. Fay as "a clear violation of applicable laws and regulations." Mr. Rumsfeld has also publicly acknowledged that he ordered that some prisoners in Iraq not be registered with the International Red Cross, an unambiguous violation of Army regulations and the Geneva Conventions. Yet Mr. Rumsfeld has never been called upon to explain these actions to legal investigators or to Congress.
The former commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, also issued an interrogation policy allowing the illegal use of dogs. Subsequently, he testified under oath to Congress that he had never approved this or other illegal measures listed above his signature. No formal criminal or administrative action against him is under consideration. Former CIA director George J. Tenet, according to Mr. Rumsfeld, requested that detainees in Iraq be concealed from the Red Cross. According to Gen. Fay's investigation, CIA operatives abused detainees, introduced improper interrogation methods to the theater and contributed substantially to the breakdown of discipline at Abu Ghraib. Yet the only investigation of the agency and its leaders is being conducted by its own inspector general."
A Failure of Accountability (washingtonpost.com)
|
|
Saturday, August 28, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
National Post-- Montreal man downed U.S. Plane, CSIS told
From Canada, comes a report that the Nov 2001 downing of an American Airlines plane over NY was an al Qaeda hit; I watched this event unfold over the day and was astonished that Bush administration officials from the beginning ruled out a terrorist attack and continue to take this line to this day; I have no way of knowing whether the report cited here is al Qaeda disinformation but it makes it clear that the 2001 AA disaster should be further looked into
National Post
|
|
|
The New York Times > International > Middle East > INSURGENCY: In Western Iraq, Fundamentalists Hold U.S. Forces at Bay
more evidence that the US is losing big in Iraq: "While American troops have been battling Islamic militants to an uncertain outcome in Najaf, the Shiite holy city, events in two Sunni Muslim cities that stand astride the crucial western approaches to Baghdad have moved significantly against American plans to build a secular democracy in Iraq.
Both of the cities, Falluja and Ramadi, and much of Anbar Province, are now controlled by fundamentalist militias, with American troops confined mainly to heavily protected forts on the desert's edge. What little influence the Americans have is asserted through wary forays in armored vehicles, and by laser-guided bombs that obliterate enemy safe houses identified by scouts who penetrate militant ranks. Even bombing raids appear to strengthen the fundamentalists, who blame the Americans for scores of civilian deaths....The militants' principal power center is a mosque in Falluja led by an Iraqi cleric, Abdullah al-Janabi, who has instituted a Taliban-like rule in the city, rounding up people suspected of theft and rape and sentencing them to publicly administered lashes, and, in some cases, beheading. But Mr. Janabi appears to have been working in alliance with an Islamic militant group, Unity and Holy War, that American intelligence has identified as the vehicle of Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist with links to Al Qaeda whom the Americans have blamed for many of the suicide bombings in Baghdad, which is just 35 miles from Falluja, and in other Iraqi cities.
The videotapes showing the killing of the guard commander, the humiliation of the governor, and the beheading of the Egyptian all display the black-and-yellow flag of the Zarqawi group as a backdrop, and the passages of the Koran chanted as an accompaniment to the killings are drawn from passages of the Muslim holy book that have accompanied some of the videotaped pronouncements by Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden. Iraqis who have watched the Falluja tapes say the Egyptian's executioner speaks in a cultured Arabic that is foreign, possibly Jordanian or Palestinian."
The New York Times > International > Middle East > INSURGENCY: In Western Iraq, Fundamentalists Hold U.S. Forces at Bay
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
washingtonpost.com: Najaf Militiamen Surrender Shrine
As Iraqis contemplate the destruction of old Najaf, many blame the US and Iraqi government. Excerpt: "Anger at the Americans and the interim government was easy to find among civilians who stepped gingerly into the streets Friday to inspect horrendous damage in sections of the city of 600,000. Millions of Muslims worldwide know Najaf from pilgrimages to the Imam Ali shrine and the seminaries that long made the city the world's leading center of study for Shiites.
"We blame Ayad Allawi and the government for this damage," said Jasim Aziz, 31, referring to the Iraqi interim prime minister. Aziz had traveled from Balad, 140 miles to the north, to visit the shrine. "They could have waited until Sistani arrived and solved the problems without destroying the city and killing all the civilians and the Iraqis."
"They asked the Americans to destroy the city," said Hussein Mailu, 55, referring to government leaders. "If they did not ask them, they wouldn't do it. Is this the democracy of Allawi? Saddam was so bad but he didn't do this thing," he said, referring to former president Saddam Hussein. "It was beautiful, but not any more."
washingtonpost.com: Najaf Militiamen Surrender Shrine
In another attack on oil installations, an oilpipeline burned east of Baghdad
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41478-2004Aug28?language=printer
As the fighting in Najaf appears to be over, the question arises: who won? Obviously, Sistani has shown himself to have more political authority and power than the Iraqi government, al-Sadr, or the US. Al-Sadr got away with amnesty and his troops and militia to fight another day and the US once again, like Fallajuh, is withdrawing after fighting to a draw, killing many, and destroying sectors of an important Iraqi city.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/weekinreview/29FILK.html?hp
|
|
Friday, August 27, 2004
|
The New York Times > Washington > Prisoners: Rumsfeld Denies Abuses Occurred at Interrogations
Rumsfeld's lost his mind {probably long ago}. Here's a journalistic way of saying the dude's insane: "In his first comments on the two major investigative reports issued this week at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Thursday mischaracterized one of their central findings about the American military's treatment of Iraqi prisoners by saying there was no evidence that prisoners had been abused during interrogations."
The New York Times > Washington > Prisoners: Rumsfeld Denies Abuses Occurred at Interrogations
|
|
|
The New York Times > International > Middle East > Militants Leave Shrine as Cease-Fire Deal Appears to Hold
As quiet sets over Najaf there was astonishment at the degree of devastion. Excerpt: "The end of the fighting here revealed a city center utterly devastated. Hotels crumbled into the street. Cars lay blackened and twisted where they had been hit. Goats and dogs lay dead on the sidewalks. Pilgrims from out of town and locals coming home walked the streets agape, shaking their heads, stunned by the devastation before them.
"Look at all the damage," an Iraqi man said to a friend as he walked down a street whose every building had been broken and crushed. "Let God take revenge on the Americans for this."
While the wreckage inspired anger in many Iraqis here, for others it prompted mainly despair. At an intersection here, Fadel Hejab spent much of the day trying to reassemble his livelihood: a small metal cart from which he sold light bulbs, electrical fixtures and parts.
Somehow, the fighting had tossed Mr. Hejab's stand out into the street, blown it over and smashed it flat. Crouched over the mess, he paused to consider his future.
"I will try to fix it and start again," Mr. Hejab said. "What else shall I do?"
The New York Times > International > Middle East > Militants Leave Shrine as Cease-Fire Deal Appears to Hold
|
|
|
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Al-Sadr tells fighters to disarm
while the Najaf wars seemed to have quieted down, violence continues in the rest of Iraq which will probably disappear from US media radar for a while: "Elsewhere in Iraq, the violence continued today as a car bomb exploded in the northern city of Mosul, wounding at least 10 Iraqi civilians. The US military said the blast, at 11am local time (0800 BST), appeared to be aimed at a US military convoy.
In Baghdad, insurgents launched a series of grenade attacks on a US patrol, wounding 12 soldiers. Four suspects were detained in connection with the attacks, the US military said.
US marines and Iraqi national guardsmen seized a large cache of weapons and bomb-making equipment in a raid on a house in al-Haswa, 25 miles south of Baghdad.
Five suspects were arrested in the operation. Iraqi insurgents have repeatedly used al-Haswa as a base to launch attacks and detonate roadside bombs against US military convoys"
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Al-Sadr tells fighters to disarm
|
|
|
Kerry-Loathing Swift Boaters Sinking Facts
Here's one of the more detailed critiques of Swift Boat Thug Lies. Excerpt: "By now, you doubtless know the backstory of how events 9000 miles and three and a half decades distant have come to dominate the 2004 election. A book called Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry kicked off the fuss. The television commercials that followed it were created by the same outfit who produced the doofus-in-a-tank-helmet ad that helped doom Michael Dukakis when he was running against Dubya’s dad. The most effective publicity, however, derives from SBVfT members (they number roughly 250, 0.0001 percent of those who served in Vietnam) working the radio and television talk-show circuit and, lately, the major network news programs as well.
Financing for the organization derives in large part from a Texas fat cat who’s an old, close pal of Karl Rove. The White House, needless to say, disavows any connection, stating that Mr. Bush never has and never will say anything to dishonor Mr. Kerry’s service.
You’re doubtless also aware that since waking up to the knife at his jugular, Mr. Kerry has called on the publisher of Unfit for Command (Regnery, home to Laura Ingraham and William F. Buckley Jr.) to pull the book from the shelves, and on the F.E.C. to look into Bush links to the TV commercials—chances of which are as likely as Ho Chi Minh City changing its name back to Saigon. Mr. Kerry has also accused Mr. Bush of having the SBVfT "do his dirty work for him," and demanded that the President denounce the group’s activities. Mr. Bush predictably has declined to cooperate, artfully saying that he wants all soft-money "527 Committee" ads off the air, not just those of SBVfT—a prescription that would hurt Democrats far more than Republicans. So that’s not going to happen, either. A spokesman for Mr. Bush, meanwhile, has suggested that Mr. Kerry’s unpunctual lather may be a sign of mental unbalance—precisely what another spokesman hinted about John McCain when he exploded over Bush-supporting ads questioning his patriotism during the 2000 South Carolina primary. In between hugging Commander-in-Chief Bush and being bussed on the forehead by him, Mr. McCain himself has likened the SBVfT’s campaign to what was done to him when he ran for President (so has Vietnam triple-amputee Max Cleland, who was defeated for re-election to the Senate from Georgia under similar circumstances). Mr. McCain branded the SBVfT charges "dishonest and dishonorable" and echoed Mr. Kerry’s recommendation to Mr. Bush—to zero effect.
Finally, if you read The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe or the Los Angeles Times (unlike, oh, 99 percent or so of the voting public), you’re cognizant, too, that exhaustive investigation of official U.S. Naval records fails to substantiate a single one of the SBVfT’s major charges. Instead, the commendations and "after-action reports" in Pentagon archives contradict them—sometimes in words written by those presently doing the accusing. Ten of the 11 men who sailed in the two boats Mr. Kerry commanded also back their former skipper. The eleventh, a laid-off "home inspection field manager" named Steven Michael Gardner, is an SBVfT member who accuses Mr. Kerry of repeatedly shying from engaging the enemy. "He wouldn’t go in there and search," Mr. Gardner told The Boston Globe in March. "That is why I have a negative viewpoint of John Kerry."
What amounts to cowardice in wartime is a damning charge. But there’s one little catch. By Mr. Gardner’s own admission, then-Lt. Kerry threatened to court-martial him for machine-gunning a sampan from which he thought fire was coming. When the shooting stopped, Mr. Kerry—who’d been in the wheel house when Mr. Gardner, then others opened up without order—personally inspected the flimsy native craft. No weapons were found, just a woman and the body of a little boy. "[Mr. Kerry was] screaming at the top of his lungs," Mr. Gardner told The Globe. "‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’"
Green Beret Lt. Jim Rassman didn’t think he was being fired at when a mine explosion blew him off Mr. Kerry’s Swift boat; he knew the splashes all around him were being made by real ammo. "I was sure I was going to die," he said. Then, above him, a long right arm reached out to pull him to safety; it belonged to John Kerry, who’d been thrown against the wheel house by the blast, which wounded Mr. Kerry’s left arm, according to the citation that accompanied his Bronze Star. Said Mr. Rassmann: "He saved my life."
Not according to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. They say no one was firing anywhere near Lts. Rassmann and Kerry that day.
SBVfT has also been challenging Mr. Kerry’s Silver Star, claiming, among other things, that a Viet Cong guerrilla he leapt out of the boat to pursue and kill during the encounter that led to the award of the second-highest decoration for gallantry the Navy bestows, was unarmed, clad in a loincloth, only a boy and—to top it off—shot in the back. Mr. Kerry’s crewmates that day have repeatedly said otherwise, stating that the V.C. was gunned down only after he’d come close to blowing up the boat and all aboard with a B-40 rocket, and appeared set to fire another. Despite their testimony, and Naval records backing Mr. Kerry, the SBVfT’s tale was gaining traction.
Then last weekend an officer of unassailable reputation stepped forward. Breaking a 35-year silence, Chicago Tribune editor William Rood—the only other surviving commander of the three-boat engagement (Lt. j.g. Donald Droz, the third and Mr. Kerry’s best friend in Vietnam, was later killed in action)—wrote a front-page, 1,700-word account that left SBVfT’s claims dead in the water. For starters, Mr. Rood reported that there was not just a single Viet Cong but two (both fully clothed); that one was armed with a rocket-launcher; and that when he returned from dispatching him, Mr. Kerry had the weapon in tow. To prove it, The Trib published a snap of a grinning Mr. Rood and a somber John Kerry, a loaded rocket-launcher slung over his shoulder.
Mr. Rood’s story also demolished Mr. Gardner’s claims of Mr. Kerry’s timidity in the face of the enemy.
Before the boats set out, Mr. Kerry—in operational command that day—took Droz and Mr. Rood aside and laid out a plan "about not responding the way boats usually did in an ambush." Instead of gunning it for safety, they’d head directly at their attackers, beach the boats and fight them toe-to-toe. Said Mr. Rood: "It worked."
But Mr. Rood was at his most powerful explaining his motives. "Many of us wanted to put it all behind us—the rivers, the ambushes, the killings," he wrote. "But Kerry’s critics, armed with stories I know to be untrue, have charged that the accounts of what happened were overblown …. Their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us. It’s gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there …. My intent is to tell the story here and to never again talk publicly about it."
And the vets private detectives ferreted out to destroy Mr. Kerry? This much is clear: None come remotely close to being as decorated as the man they vilify; some appear to lead postwar lives that haven’t quite worked out; and the highest-ranking SBVfTer—retired Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann—has trouble keeping his story straight. In May, he told a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter that he didn’t know Mr. Kerry personally (though Mr. Kerry served under his command) and had "no first-hand knowledge to discredit Kerry’s claims to valor." Earlier this month, he was telling Sean Hannity the opposite. Not only did he now know Mr. Kerry "well," but had "operated very closely with him"—newfound intimacy that led him to conclude that Mr. Kerry was, as the admiral puts it on SBVfT’s Web site, "vain and prone to impulsive judgment ... a ‘loose cannon.’"
http://www.observer.com/pages/frontpage3.asp
and here's an account of how two more Vets came to Kerry's defense
http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-318270.php
And one of the Swift Vets loses his job over for lying
http://www2.kval.com/x30530.xml?ParentPageID=x2649&ContentID=x46673&Layout=kval.xsl&AdGroupID=x30530
|
|
|
Thatcher family had bags packed ready to flee to US, police say
One of the more bizarre stories of recent times has Maggie Thatcher's son Mark implicated in a plot to overthrow with mercenaries an African country and caught just before fleeing to US. Excerpt: "Sir Mark Thatcher was preparing to flee South Africa when he was arrested over his alleged involvement in a botched coup attempt, police in Cape Town alleged yesterday.
As the apparent plot to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea continued to unravel, the elite Scorpions police unit said it had arrested Sir Mark after learning that he had put his house on the market, arranged to sell four of his cars, found boarding school places in the US for his two children and bought his family plane tickets to the US.
When officers arrived at his home in the upmarket Constantia suburb of Cape Town at 7am on Wednesday, they found the Thatc | |
