Monday, April 13, 2009.  Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces deaths, the 5 US soldiers killed in Iraq Friday return to the US, Nouri goes after the press, Iraq's LGBT community remains targeted, Barack's half-brother makes the news, and more.     Today the US military announced: "A Coalition forces Soldier died of injuries sustained during an explosively formed projectile attack on a convoy five kilomenters south of Karbalah, Iraq April 13 at approximately 7:40 a.m.  The Soldier's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the department of Defense.  The incident is currently under investigtion."  Yesterday the US military announced: "One U.S. Coalition Soldier died of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated in Salah-ad Din Province, April 12. The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense." The total number of US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war is 4273. Friday 5 US soldiers were announced dead.  Cindy Sheehan (Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox) observed, "Today five US soldiers were killed in Iraq and we won't ever know for sure how many Iraqis were killed.  The families of the US soldiers will never have a 'normal' Easter again.  All of their days will be filled with pain and longing, but holidays, birthdays and other anniversaries will be especially hard.  My heart is breaking for the awful and pointless spiral of grief that these families are just embarking upon.  Some may not yet know that it was their son, father, brother, uncle, or friend that was murdered today.  I saw the report of Casey's death on the news at least five hours before the Army notified us."  (Cindy's guest on the audio Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox this week are James Martinez discussing the finacial crisis, housing and more and Annie Garrison on the Blue Angels use of San Francisco to boost recruitment.  That episode is posted online already.)  It was Good Friday in 2004 when Cindy and her family met her son Casey Sheehan at the airport for the last time.  Sunday the 5 US soldiers killed on Friday arrived at Dover Air Force Base.  Jeff Montgomery (Delaware's News Journal) observes, "It was the heaviest loss of American lives in Iraq in 13 months, and the largest number of casualties returned to America in full sight of the public since the Defense Department opened the process to news coverage last week, after a 18-year blackout."   The Defense Dept identified the five as: "Staff Sgt. Gary L. Woods Jr., 24, of Lebanon Junction, Ky., Staff Sgt. Bryan E. Hall, 32, of Elk Grove, Calif., Sgt. Edward W. Forrest Jr., 25, of St. Louis, Mo., Cpl. Jason G. Pautsch, 20, of Davenport, Iowa, and PV2 Bryce E. Gautier, 22, of Cypress, Calif."  Sheryl Edelen (Courier-Journal) reports on Gary L. Woods Jr., "Woods' father, Gary Woods St., said that his son, who went by his middle name, Lee, was a talented musician who sang and played the trombone, drums, piano and guitar while a student at Bullitt Central High School.  He was also a member of the school's football team.  But after finding satisifation in ROTC classes, his son entered the military after high school, he said."  Bob White (Lebanon Junction News Enterprise) adds, "Woods is surived by his parents, siblings and a wife, Christie, his father said."  Tony Bizjak (Sacramento Bee) reports on Bryan Edward Hall, "Hall, 32, had served in the military for 14 years and had been deployed in Iraq since September. . . . Hall had received three Army commendation medals, according to military records, as well as several Army achievement, good conduct and war on terrorism medals."  Dave Marquis (Sacramento's News10.net) quotes Debbie Lords, who is a neighbor of the Bryan Edward Hall's parents, stating, "I don't know what I'm thinking.  I just really feel for John and Betty right now.  It was their oldest son, their oldest child." Paul Hampel (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) reports on Edward Forrest Jr., "Forrest was based at Fort Carson in Colorado and lived near the base with his wife and two sons, ages 2 and one month.  Forrest was a 2003 graduate of Rockwood Summit High School.  He was on his third tour of duty in Iraq."  His sister Melissa Forrest-Pliner tells Hampel, "I asked him not to re-enlist.  I told him I didn't want him to be a hero.  I just wanted him to be my brother."  South County Times adds, "In high school, Sgt. Forrest, known as 'Eddie,' was a long distance runner on the track team, and was also on the wrestling team" and quotes his coach Rolland Garrison stating, "He was a very enthusiastic member of the track and field program here at Rockwood Summit.  He was a very good kid with a great smile."  Molly Hottle (Des Monies Register) reports on Jason Graham Pautsch, "David Pautsch was informed of his son's death Friday night, just 12 hours after the two had spoken on the phone. 'He believed n what he was doing,' David Pautsch said. 'This is what he wanted to do'." Nicole Murphy (WAQD, link has text and video) spoke with David Pautsch who explained the call he received, "'On behalf of the Secretary of the Army I just want to let you know, give our condolences and notify you that your son was killed in Mosul."  Pautsch continues, "You're stunned and you're shocked and you find it hard to believe that it could actually be happening but then it seeps and that's when the emotions hit."  Pautsch goes on to explain that he believes his son was protecting the US from the "terrorists" in Iraq and he also shares, "I'm thrilled for Jason that he's in heaven."  Eugene W. Fields (Orange County Register) reports on Bryce E. Gautier, "Gauier, a medic, joined the Army in January of 2008 and had been in Iraq since January of this year, according to Army documents.  He received the National Defense Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.  Gautier graduated in 2005 from Rancho Alamitos High in Garden Grove, according to school district spokesman Alan Trudell." Tom Roeder and Maria St. Louis-Sanchez (Colorado Springs Gazette) note Gauier's MySpace page and add, "His sense of humor is evident from a posting on the site, which Gautier last updated three days before his death. 'Winners make the rules, losers just follow them,' Gautier wrote. 'In the Army now.' Gautier's brother, Even, left a simple eulogy on his Web page: 'My brother Bryce was one of the American soldiers killed in the suicide bombing in Iraq this morning.  I love you bro. I will miss you'."   In 'liberated' Iraq, gays and lesbians continue to be targeted for death.  The Denver Post editorialized on the topic yesterday and opened with:   The U.S. State Department must not stand idly by if the Iraqi government fails to protect basic human rights, even if the persecution stems from traditional cultural or religious beliefs.         We applaud Colorado Congressman Jared Polis for his efforts last week to shine the spotlight on the killings of homosexuals in Iraq, and to press the State Department to demand accountability from the Iraqi government.            The first openly gay man to be elected to the House, Polis has been investigating the treatment of gays in Iraq for several months, according to The Post's Michael Riley. His research led to the discovery of a transgender Iraqi man who told the congressman he had been arrested, beaten and raped by security forces with Iraq's Ministry of Interior.            Human-rights groups have passed information to Polis that claims another man was beaten into confessing he belonged to a gay-rights group and that the man had been sentenced to execution by an Iraqi court.            US House Rep Polis has made his letter to Patricia A. Butenis (Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the US State Dept) [PDF formart warning] here:   Dear Ms. Butenis: Over the past week, I have become aware of egregious human rights violations against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Iraqis being carried out by Iraqi government officials from the Ministry of the Interior called "Magaweer al-Dakhilya."    The information I received was derived from two separate testimonials of gay and transgender Iraqi men that were detained, tortured and sentenced to death for being members of an allegedly forbidden organization in Iraq called Iraqi LGBT.  One of these invidividuals was able to escape, while the other was subsequently executed by Iraqi Ministry of Interior Security Forces.    While I do not know if these executions are being sanctioned at the highest levels of the Iraqi government, it is nonetheless distrubing that government officials and state-funded security forces are involved in the torturing and execution of LGBT Iraqis.  Even more disturbing was that the United States government appears to be largely unaware that the executions of gay and transgender Iraqis have been able to occur in Iraq given the enormous American presence.  After reaching out to State Department officials in Washington, I was disappointed by their unwillingness to seriously consider these allegations and examine the evidence given to our office by international human rights watchdog organizations.   I urge you to use every channel at your disposal to properly and promptly invetigate these grave human rights violations.  Please know that I will continue to monitor this situation and hope to be of assistance in this investigation."   At his Congressional website, Polis is quoted stating, "The United States should not tolerate human rights violations of nay kind, especially by a government that Americans spend billions of taxpayer dollars each year supporting.  Hopefully my trip and letters to US and Iraqi officials will help bring international attention and investigation to this terrible situation and bring an end to any such offenses."     Last week, we noted the US State Dept and the United Nations have been silent on these and other attacks on the LGBT community in Iraq. The issue gets some attention today. BBC News explains Amnesty International states Nouri al-Maliki's government "must do more to protect" the LGBT community 'in the wak of a reported spate of killings of gay young men" and that they are pressing for "urgent and concerted action."  Nigel Morris  (Independent of London) explains that no arrests have been made in the recent murders -- he says six, it was seven -- and quotes Ali Hili stating, "Since mid-December we've been getting lots of reports about mass arrests and raids on houses, cafes, barbers shops."  Mass arrests?  It sounds like round-ups and those were common in Hilter's Germany where the LGBT community was targeted along with the Jewish community.  (Iraq's Jewish community has been so targeted and so under assault that it barely exists at present.)  Hili continues, "Most of the people who are arrested are found dead, with signs of torture and burns.  We believe a war has been launched by the Iraqi Government and its establishment against gay people."  As noted in the April 8th snapshot, the United Nations Secretary General issues statements all the time, condemning attacks in Iraq, but there has never been a statement from him on condemning the assaults on Iraq's LGBT community. And since the number reported continues to be in error, we'll drop back to the April 6th snapshot to again note:   In other violence noted over the weekend, Wisam Mohammed and Khalid al-Ansary (Reuters) reported Saturday that gays are being targeted in Baghdad, with four corpses discovered March 25th and 2 gay men murdered Thursday 'after clerics urged a crackdown'." Sunday Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) reported the two were first "disowned" (by their homophobic and hateful families) and "The shootings came after a tribal meeting was held and the members decided to go after the victims." Tawfeeq reports the other were also disowned (and gives the date of their deaths as March 26th) and states a cafe in Sadr City was torched when it was said to be an LGBT hangout in Baghdad. The Dallas Morning News wrote a brief on the topic and UPI summarized Tawfeeq's report. AFP reported Sunday that the two corpses discovered Thursday "had pieces of paper attached on which was written the word 'Pervert" and that the two men were aged sixteen and eighteen and had also had "their arms and legs broken". In addition, AFP reports another man presumed to be gay was found on Friday -- which would bring the toll to seven -- and this follows Sheikh Jassem al-Muatairi's 'inspiring' sermon denouncing "new private practices by some men who dress like women, who are effeminate. I call on families to prevent their children from following such a lifestyle."   Seven.  Not six. Tomorrow the San Francisco Board of Supervisors meets and among the items on the agenda are a motion "Condemning the persecution and murders of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Iraqi Citizens": "Resolution calling on the US Department of State to use all diplomatic channels to work with the Iraqi Government to stop the persecution of Iraqi Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) citizens and immediately stop the murders of Iraqi LGBT citizens." If that takes place (and it should), the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will be the first governing body elected by any group of people to condemn the killings and assaults.   Lee Woodruff is the author of Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress.  wowOwow has an excerpt of the book which is out next week:   When my husband was blown up by a roadside bomb in Iraq, shattering my world, it was my sisters who stepped into the void, along with some of my dearest girlfriends. They began the business of filling my shoes while I sat by an ICU bed, praying for signs of life. They lined up food deliveries, kept the curious from the door, organized rides for our kids and paid our bills. They understood the business of ministering.    "This sucks," my one sister said. "You guys don't deserve this." She knew she could tell it like it was. There was no room for sugarcoating, and I didn't want any sunshine blowing up my backside. The reality was grim.   Months later, it was my turn in the hospital, when doctors found a potentially cancerous tumor lurking in my abdomen. I turned to my other sister. "I want to be you," I said simply as I lay in my bed with the catheter, too weak to move.     Lee Woodruff's husband is ABC News' Bob Woodruff who was reporting from Iraq when he and Doug Vogt were injured in a roadside bombing January 29, 2006.  The Bob Woodruff Foundation focuses on the physical and psychological wounds of war.  While Bob Woodruff survived, Reporters Without Borders counts 223 journalists as having died in the Iraq War.  (They actually break that does to media assistants -- we don't.  The 'assistants' have long been doing reporting -- as would happen in any war zone but is especially true of the Iraq War.)  The two most recent journalists known to have been killed in Iraq are Haidar Hashim Suhail and Suhaib Adnan of Al-Baghdadia TV who were killed March 10th in an Anbar Province bombing.  So many reporters, Iraq and foreign, have been wounded and given their lives attempting to report from that country and it's not at all appreciated by thug-meister Nouri al-Maliki.   Alsumaria reports: The Iraqi Government decision to detain back prisoners released by US Forces is subject to a political and security hassle. Baghdad Operations spokesman Brigadier Qassem Ata affirmed that the Command has ordered checkpoints to arrest all freed detainees recently released by US Forces.     Ata told Al Hayat Newspaper that the operations command has distributed names and photos of released detainees on all checkpoints to detain them after they were involved in recent bombings in Baghdad.        He noted that keeping those detainees out of prison will deteriorate the security situation and will threaten stability after US Forces withdraw from the cities to their bases at the end of June.        Asked about the possibility of delaying US withdrawal after latest security incidents, Ata said the US military did not notify us about such intentions. "The Times" British Newspaper expected yesterday to delay US Forces withdrawal from Iraqi volatile cities. The Newspaper quoted a US Army General as saying that insecurities in Mosul and Baaquba might force US Military to extend their military operations in those cities beyond June 30.           This topic is one that upsets Nouri al-Maliki's thug government. Robert H. Reid (AP) reports the thug government is attempting to close a TV station (Al-Sharqiya) and a newspaper (Al-Hayat) over reports that al-Maliki's thugs are arresting the prisoners as the US releases them.  Reid explains Nouri's government is bothered by the press explaining that arrests of Sahwa ("Awakening" Council members, "Sons of Iraq") might have been politically motivated.  Yesterday Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) reported on the 12 killed Saturday in the suicide bombing attack in Iskandariyah as they attempted to collect their long overdue pay checks. Rubin explores the continued attacks on the Sahwa and the tensions in the Sunni community as a result. Rubin observes that for all the speculation over the very visible attacks (including arrests), the tensions were always there between the Sahwa movement (Sunni) and the US installed government in Baghdad which is dominated by Shi'ites (and by Iraqis who willingly went into exile and only returned to Iraq after the US invaded). Rubin notes the 27-day imprisonment of Sheik Maher Sarhan Abbas who was arrested "in secret and came to light when The New York Times by chance contacted someone who had seen him in jail." While the US continues to see Abbas as someone to be trusted and while his "Shiite neighbors trusted him" as well, Nouri's foces burst into his home on March 15th, "just after midnight, heavily armed men flung deafening smoke grenades into his home in Hawr Jab, a small village on Baghdad's southern outskirts, his family said. They burst into the bedroom where Sheik Maher and his wife were watching television as their 3-year-old daughter slept in a small bed next to them." Along with Nouri's goons, US forces were present and it's suspceted that they "were probably from a Special Operations unit". The latest hypothesis among "Awakenings" is that their Sunni enemies are telling lies to the Shi'ite government which, loathing the "Awakenings," uses any excuse to arrest them. Rubin includes this: A senior American official in Iraq was also skeptical of the motives for the arrests. "Why is the government doing this?" said the official, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the news media.         "Every time we said to the government, 'You have to let this guy go,' they do it, which they wouldn't if they thought he was really dangerous," the American said. "I think they have their hand in the sectarian cookie jar."          Sudarsan Raghavan (Washington Post) reports on the continued tensions as well as the tensions regardding the Kurds.  Of Baghdad, he notes:   Today, the city of oatmeal-colored minarets that straddles the Tigris River feels like a military base, with streets tangled by blast walls and checkpoints.   Backed by U.S. troops and advisers, Iraq's mostly Shiite national police and army control the city. They coexist uneasily with the local Sunni police force and the Sons of Iraq -- former Sunni insurgents who turned against the militant group al-Qaeda in Iraq and allied with the U.S. military.   Neither the local police nor the Sons of Iraq are allowed to protect the shrine, which is guarded by an array of mostly Shiite units sent by the central government.   "I don't believe that any people or city feel comfortable when they have an army from outside. The traditions from their areas are different than ours," said Sheik Mudher al-Naisani, a Sunni tribal leader. "That's right, this is one country. But it is better for Iraq that each serve in their own areas."   While most Iraqis believe that al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgents planted the bombs, many Sunni leaders here place the blame on the national police and U.S. troops who were guarding the shrine. Members of Iraq's national police force have committed some of the most horrendous sectarian crimes since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion; to this day there are widespread suspicions of infiltration by Shiite militias.   "It was a conspiracy," said Hussen, the Sunni council leader.   Are Sunnis who believe that right or wrong?  It doesn't matter because they believe it.  And that's a 2006 event and nothing was ever done to ease the tensions.  These tensions do not go away, they do not vanish.  They may get worked through by the parties involved but an outside power (the US in this case) can never impose anything because it doesn't last.  The US has backed, armed and supported the Shi'ites thereby setting the stage for any bloodbaths that follow a US withdrawal.  If those bloodbaths come (and they are likely), the withdrawal will not be responsible for them.  The culprit will be all the years the US spent propping up a puppet government.  Without the propping up, Nouri (or whomever) would have had to have made peace with the Sunnis long ago.  They're too big of a population group for a leader to blow off and expect to remain in power unless the only reason the leader remains in power (as is the case with Nouri) is because a foreign government that installed him continued to prop him up.  Barack's not promising withdrawal, he's promising a draw down.  But at some point in the future the US will withdraw from Iraq.  When that happens, any violence that follows is not because of the withdrawal, it is because of everything that came before. And, sidebar, Sudarsan Raghavan's done a wonderful job reporting in the above story; however, he's also done a wonderful job writing it -- so much so that it recalls the best of Rajiv Chandrasekaran.     In the summer of 2006, al-Maliki listed his 'plan' amidst the crackdown on Baghdad and it included attacks on the press. When the January 31st provincial elections took place in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces, al-Maliki attempted to strong arm the press and force them into signing agreements which would allow them to be punished and penalized if al-Maliki was displeased. His latest attacks on the press and freedoms are nothing news and part of a thug pattern which includes yesterday's news: In Iraq today, a committee in Parliament offered a rebuke of the police. Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) reports the committee was offended that the police raided an art show and seized an illustration "lampooning Iraq's prime minister." No word on whether or not he was in 'Muslim garb' and doing a fist bump. (For those who didn't catch that, it was a reference to the faux outrage over a New Yorker cartoon cover that demonstrated there's more than a little bit of Denmark in the US.)   On the topic of art, US Foreign Service Officer Aaron Snip (US State Dept's DIPNOTE) writes of rushing to pull off preparation for an important 2006 visit:   Part of my job as Public Diplomacy Officer is to share U.S. culture and values with Iraqis, but it's also to support Iraqi efforts to preserve their own culture. We asked the women to bring in examples of their work, and we hung their paintings along the walls of the meeting hall. Very few of the women had had formal art training. Painting was a hobby for all, a creative outlet for some, and an escape for others. Their artwork spanned the spectrum of their life's experiences. Some paintings were colorful and bright, while others were dark and depressing. All documented the lives of women in Muthanna.  We chatted with the women about doing a larger gallery showing. Would they be interested in holding a multi-city art exhibition if I could get the funding? They were thrilled with the idea. What began as a meeting with a stoic group of Iraqi women with canvases in hand, ended in a beehive of excitement with ideas flowing freely. Here was a demographic that seldom had the chance to speak out. Their art resonated with me deeply, and I was committed to finding a way to help these women tell their stories.  I went back to my office that evening and immediately began to work on a proposal. In no time at all, my proposal was approved (who says the Federal Government moves at a glacial pace?), and I was busy working with an NGO to purchase art supplies and canvases for each of the exhibit participants. The artists would paint submissions for an exhibit that would show in Muthanna's three largest cities, Samawa, Rumaytha, and Khider, sometime in the spring. For the artists, it would be the first time most of them had ever displayed their art publicly. One woman told us that she had painted for years, but feared no one would ever see her work. Another woman, considerably older and pointing to a young woman next to her, proclaimed, "I am here for my daughter-in-law! I told my son, 'he must support her dreams!' So I am here to make sure she has a chance!"   For more, you can refer to Aaron Snipe's second blog post.  Meanwhile, Iraq was once a book lover's paradise.  Corinne Reilly (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "The widespread looting that followed the invasion destroyed library collections across Iraq. Booksellers and publishing housing closed as violence spread, and the priorities of many Iraqis shifted from reading and learning to staying alive and finding ways out of the country. In 2007, a series of explosions ripped through Baghdad's Mutanabi Street, shutting down the book market known for decades as Iraq's most popular gathering place for intellectuals and bibliophiles. Many of its shops and cafes have only recently reopened."  By the way, returning to the topic of the press, Russell Crowe is outstanding in State of Play and, while discussing the film, Mary Riddell (Telegraph of London) addresses the global problems newspapers are facing -- as opposed to the fairy tales the New York Times served up this morning. (Ben Affleck is also amazing in the film as is Robin Wright Penn.  And Helen Mirren is in State of Play. Translation, Helen Mirren is wonderful as always.)   Turning to some of today's other reported violence (we started with some of today's violence) . . .   Bombings?   Sahar Issa and Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) report a Baghdad grenade attack which wounded four people and they drop back to Saturday night to note a Balad sticky bombing which claimed the lives of 2 Sahwa members     Shootings?   Sahar Issa and Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) report Turkoman Abdulraham Aziz was shot dead outside his home Sunday while another person was shot dead in Mosul last night. Reuters notes 1 person shot dead in Kirkuk today and, dropping back to Sunday, a Mosul home invasion in which 1 person was shot dead.   Corpses?   Sahar Issa and Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) report a police captatin was kidnapped in Anbar Province Saturday and his corpse was discovered yesterday.   Yesterday the top US commander in Iraq, Gen Ray Odierno, appeared on CNN and was interviewed by John King (link has text and video). He discussed the treaty masquerading as a Status Of Forces Agreement which supposedly binds the US to leave all Iraqi cities by the end of this June and to leave the country by the end of 2011. Despite that alleged 'binding' agreement, Odierno stated US troops might not leave Iraqi cities at the end of June ("If we believe that we'll need troops to maintain a presence in some of the cities, we'll recommend that, but, ultimately, it will the decision of Prime Minister Maliki"), however , "As you ask me today, I believe it's a 10 -- that we will be gone by 2011." He believes. Not "It's a 10, we will be gone in 2011." Believes. Odierno's not staking his reputation on anyone else's promise and he has always worded very carefully on this topic. Jonathan D. Salant (Bloomberg News) puts it this way, "Odierno said he expects to meet the 2011 deadline. There are 142,000 U.S. troops in Iraq." Deborah Solomon (Wall St. Journal) summarizes it as follows, "The top U.S. general in Iraq said the U.S. is on track to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by August 2010 but could adjust the pace over the next 18 months depending on the stability of the country." In other news, Abo Obama -- aka Samson Obama -- is in the news and, strangely, while everyone else with a criminal arrest record gets stuck with their birth name, reports continue to call him "Samson Obama."  Considering that he gave a phony name at his arrest, maybe they should all stick to his birth name: Abo Obama.  He is the half-brother of Barack and they have been photographed together and Barack has written of him.  wowOwow reports, "Various news outlets report that British officials denied the U.S. president's half-brother Samson Obama a visa because he was accused of sexual assault last November. And, during that incident, Mr. Obama gave police a false name. He was not arrested or charged for that crime. His fingerprints and other data were stored in a national database and the president's estranged half-brother -- the men have not spoken in 20 years, according to the White House -- went back home to Kenya."  Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Brotherly Embarrassment" covered this last night.  For the record, it was sexual assault at underage girls with the youngest being a 13-year-old.  He is over 40 himself.  Strangely, all the reports -- and they're linked in Isaiah's comic -- somehow avoid mentioning his age.  I can't remember a time when someone with an arrest record made the news and the press refused to list his age or, for that matter, his birth name.  The arrest took place in November, either in the last stages of Barack's campaign or after the election -- the press won't tell us that either.  In January, he was enroute to the US -- for the inauguration -- and the UK refused to let him in.  No word on whether he made it into the US or not. And let me plub Kat's "Kat's Korner: The LOtUSFLOW3R Blooms ... and rocks" which is her review of Prince's new album LOtUSFLOW3R.   iraq cindy sheehan the denver post michael riley bbc news nigel morris alsumaria the new york times alissa j. rubin the washington post sudarsan raghavan cnn john king bloomberg news the wall street journal jonathan d. salnat deborah solomon

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Brotherly Embarrassment." Michelle Obama grins, applauds and declares, "And people thought my brother would be the embarrassment." Abo Obama waves and declares, "Hey everybody, it's me, Abo Obama, also called Samson. I'm 41 years old and last November while my brother was running for US president, I was busted trying to assault a 13 year old girl in England. Now the UK won't let me back in but good news, American girls, I can still get into the US."

the world today just nutscomic
abo obama
samson obama
michelle obama
brotherly embarrassment
the common ills

In today's New York Times, Alissa J. Rubin offers "Arrests of a Council's Members Deepens the Bitterness of Sunnis in Iraq" about the "Awakening" Councils, Sahwa or "Sons of Iraq." Using the 13 killed yesterday (the death toll rose to 13) in the suicide bombing attack in Iskandariyah
as the starting point, Rubin explores the continued attacks on the Sahwa and the tensions in the Sunni community as a result. Rubin observes that for all the speculation over the very visible attacks (including arrests), the tensions were always there between the Sahwa movement (Sunni) and the US installed government in Baghdad which is dominated by Shi'ites (and by Iraqis who willingly went into exile and only returned to Iraq after the US invaded). Rubin notes the 27-day imprisonment of Sheik Maher Sarhan Abbas who was arrested "in secret and came to light when The New York Times by chance contacted someone who had seen him in jail." While the US continues to see Abbas as someone to be trusted and while his "Shiite neighbors trusted him" as well, Nouri's foces burst into his home on March 15th, "just after midnight, heavily armed men flung deafening smoke grenades into his home in Hawr Jab, a small village on Baghdad’s southern outskirts, his family said. They burst into the bedroom where Sheik Maher and his wife were watching television as their 3-year-old daughter slept in a small bed next to them." Along with Nouri's goons, US forces were present and it's suspceted that they "were probably from a Special Operations unit". The latest hypothesis among "Awakenings" is that their Sunni enemies are telling lies to the Shi'ite government which, loathing the "Awakenings," uses any excuse to arrest them. Rubin includes this:


A senior American official in Iraq was also skeptical of the motives for the arrests. "Why is the government doing this?" said the official, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the news media.
"Every time we said to the government, 'You have to let this guy go,' they do it, which they wouldn't if they thought he was really dangerous," the American said. "I think they have their hand in the sectarian cookie jar."

Corinne Reilly and Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) report on yesterdya's bombing and note that it followed a week of violence, "On Monday a series of seven explosions killed dozens in Baghdad. Back-to-back bombings Tuesday and Wednesday in the capital’s Kadhemiyah district killed at least 15. And on Friday at least seven people, including five American soldiers, died in a massive suicide attack in the northern city of Mosul."

They're just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country's known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.
-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)

Last Sunday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4266 and tonight? 4272. Today the US military announced: "One U.S. Coalition Soldier died of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated in Salah-ad Din Province, April 12. The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense." As we noted last Sunday of the US death toll, "Sort of a slap upside the face to all the 'reporters' writing their 'deaths have trended down' stories on April 1st and April 2nd. They know who they are and, thing is, so do we." Today UPI notes that 9 US service members have died in Iraq already this month.

In some of today's reported violence . . .


Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing which left seven people wounded, a Baghdad roadside bombing which wounded four US soldiers, a Mosul roadside bombing which injured "two police officers" and, dropping back to Saturday, a Baghdad roadside bombing which wounded two police officers.


Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 police officer shot dead in Mosul last night.

In Iraq today, a committee in Parliament offered a rebuke of the police. Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) reports the committee was offended that the police raided an art show and seized an illustration "lampooning Iraq's prime minister." No word on whether or not he was in 'Muslim garb' and doing a fist bump. (For those who didn't catch that, it was a reference to the faux outrage over a New Yorker cartoon cover that demonstrated there's more than a little bit of Denmark in the US.) Meanwhile the top US commander in Iraq, Gen Ray Odierno, appeared on CNN today and was interviewed by John King (link has text and video). He discussed the treaty masquerading as a Status Of Forces Agreement which supposedly binds the US to leave all Iraqi cities by the end of this June and to leave the country by the end of 2011. Despite that alleged 'binding' agreement, Odierno stated US troops might not leave Iraqi cities at the end of June ("If we believe that we'll need troops to maintain a presence in some of the cities, we'll recommend that, but, ultimately, it will the decision of Prime Minister Maliki"), however , "As you ask me today, I believe it's a 10 -- that we will be gone by 2011." He believes. Not "It's a 10, we will be gone in 2011." Believes. Odierno's not staking his reputation on anyone else's promise and he has always worded very carefully on this topic. Jonathan D. Salant (Bloomberg News) puts it this way, "Odierno said he expects to meet the 2011 deadline. There are 142,000 U.S. troops in Iraq." Deborah Solomon (Wall St. Journal) summarizes it as follows, "The top U.S. general in Iraq said the U.S. is on track to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by August 2010 but could adjust the pace over the next 18 months depending on the stability of the country." Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) interviews Baghdad Christians about their security. Andrew Wolfson (Journal-Courier) does the roll out for Steven D. Green's defense ("I got problems!") and we'll skip that and instead note the War Crimes:

Three months later, according to court records, Green and three comrades, buzzed on black-market Iraqi, slipped away from their post near Yusufiyah, cut through a security fence and marched through a field a few hundred yards to a home they knew from patrols.
There, as Pfc. Jesse Spielman stood guard, Spcs. Paul Cortez and James Barker took turns raping 14-year-old Abeer Kassem Al-Janabi, while Green, in a bedroom next door, allegedly executed the girl's mother, father and 6-year-old sister.
Abeer screamed in terror. as she was sexually assaulted and heard her family members being shot one by one, according to Army and court records. Then Green allegedly raped Abeer and shot her in the head, those same records show.
To destroy evidence of the rape, Spielman and the other soldiers burned Abeer's body, reducing its upper half to ashes. Then they tossed one of the murder weapons -- an AK-47 the family owned -- into a canal and returned to their checkpoint, where they burned their own bloody clothes and threw some chicken wings on the grill for dinner.
The slayings triggered international outrage after the U.S. soldiers' involvement was made known.


New content at Third:

Truest statement of the week
Truest statement of the week II
A note to our readers
Editorial: No time and no interest is the message
TV: Women and sitcoms
White House caught in another lie
"Take it up with Barack"
Ty's Corner
Lt. Muthana Shaad's Gay Boy Chronicles
Movie roundtable
And the Katrina goes to . . .
Acceptance
ETAN
Highlights

Kat's "Kat's Korner: The LOtUSFLOW3R Blooms ... and rocks" went up this morning and Isaiah's latest goes up after this. Pru notes Simon Assaf's "US plans in danger as Iraq deal falls apart" (Great Britain's Socialist Worker):

One of the central planks of the US strategy to pacify Iraq has begun to unravel – just as it prepares to draw down its troops from the country.
The US and its allies in the Iraqi government have turned on the "Awakening Councils" – around 90,000 former resistance fighters who switched sides at the height of the insurgency.
These militias, also known as the "Sons of Iraq", had turned their guns on other resistance groups in return for a US promise to pull out of Sunni Muslim areas.
The deal marked the end of the insurgency in western Iraq and parts of the capital of Baghdad. Those fighters who refused to accept the deal were labelled as "Al Qaida" and killed.
In return, the councils were given effective control over Sunni neighbourhoods and paid a monthly wage.
They were also given a pledge that they could hold onto their weapons to keep a check on Shia Muslim death squads that had been attacking the resistance.
The US was then able to declare a victory of sorts and set a date for transferring its troops to Afghanistan.
Stopped
But late last year the US stopped its payments of wages and promised the Iraqi government – run by parties linked to the death squads – would pay the bill.
Further promises were made offering to incorporate the council fighters into Iraq’s security forces.
But the Iraqi government has reneged on the deal and began arresting or killing off key council leaders.
This sparked a brief uprising in March after Iraqi security forces seized the head of the Awakening Council in the Fadhil neighbourhood of Baghdad.
In a sign of frustration, the US commander for Baghdad said, "These men had broken faith with their fellow Sons of Iraq, the Iraqi people and us."
The growing discontent among the Awakening Councils has been marked by a return of roadside bombs targeting US troops and a string of bomb attacks against Shia areas.
© Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.
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kats korner

Kat: "Kat! Kat!" Betty's oldest son was calling to me as we got back from the airport Saturday. "You've got to review an album! You've got to!"

Okay, okay, I will. Seriously, I didn't care if it was a Disney Kid's album, when someone's that excited about an album, it probably needs to be reviewed. It wasn't a Disney Kid, it was Prince. Yeah, I panned Prince's last album, but I was eager to hear this one, mainly because of the excitement factor.



"Can I play you my favorite song?" he was asking but already cueing up the CD player so no answer was needed. "This is a great song, it's probably the best thing he's ever written. It's about clovers." As the chords came on, I recognized it. You probably will immediately as well:

I don't hardly know her
But I think I could love her
I hope she walks over
Cause I've been waiting to show her
Crimson and clover
Over and over . . .

Tommy James and the Shondells hit with it back in the sixties, Joan Jett in the eighties. Prince has woven in "Wild Thing" and a bit of "Foxy Lady." But, thing is, it really does sound like one of the best thing Prince's ever written. "4Ever" is the track that's immediately after and it finds Prince doing some of best guitar work and best songwriting work. That's lyrically and musically but a caveat: On the chorus, you'll note Prince's jazz chords. This may be the beginning of his jazz phase, the one Joni ran through in the late seventies.

The album opens with an instrumental entitled "From The Lotus" which owes a lot to jazz and closes with ". . . Back 2 The Lotus" which is basically an instrumental (Prince talks over it) that sounds like someone attempting to inject Jimi Hendrix into jazz and then, at two-minutes and twenty-seconds, a bit of Thin Lizzy with a return of Jimi about twenty seconds later. Of the two, I prefer the album closer.

If you're not grasping my caveat, not only did you not live through Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and Mingus, you haven't heard "Love Like Jazz" which sounds like the Burt Bacharach and Hal David classic "You'll Never Get To Heaven (if You Break My Heart)" as smoothed over by a band whom things "elevator music" is the ultimate compliment. It ends with a throb sound which goes into "77 Beverly Park" for several measures before your apparently supposed to picture yourself at your favorite Mexican food eatery with Prince going table to table as he strums on his guitar. "Wall of Berlin" finds Prince remembering most people purchase a Prince album because of his vocals. What's he singing about? I have no idea. If you can figure it out, good for you.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. For the bulk of the new album, LOtUSFLOW3R, he appears to be either attempt to reconsider Donovan (I'm a huge Donovan fan) or on who knows what but get me some pronto because it's got to be good. "$" is an example there and it's one of the best tracks on the album. "How many times do you look for happy and never see the rich folks there? But if the dee jay really dropped the needle all the truth players just don't care?" No idea. "Everybody's dancing" he snaps throughout and they should be.

"Dreamer" finds him rocking out as does the second track "Boom" and they are probably the ones that will make longterm fans happiest. Prince hasn't rocked out like this on an album in sometime. Of the two, I prefer the guitar work on "Dreamer" but, overall, find "Boom" to be stronger. ("Dreamer" finds him lyrically attempting something similar to the Temptations classic "Ball of Confusion"). Betty's son prefers "Dreamer" and was rocking out on an electric guitar while it played. As he and Prince wound down, I said I'd review it and he started telling me it was one of three discs. I'm sure he saw my grimace, the involuntary shudder. Three discs?

Prince managed to serve up a disc worth listening to and now I was about to tempt fate by expecting he had the goods for another or two more? Fortunately the third disc is is Bria Valente's Elixer and I could rule it out as not being Prince's disc. That left MPLSOUND.

"(There'll Never B) Another Like Me" is Prince in a boastful mood and with enough energy to back it up. That's not always the case and boasts from a lethargic pose convince no one, but Prince's got enough fire on this track that you believe him and believe that's a bad thing. It's strong enough to make you wish it was 1985 all over again and every radio station your turned to was playing either Prince or, more likely, the latest Prince wanna be. "Chocolate Box" follows up and I'm starting to wonder if this might actually be the better of the two discs?

By the time "Dance 4 Me" (and it's musical allusions to his "Erotic City") starts blasting, it's obvious this is the stronger disc. And, remember, LOtUSFLOW3R was no piker. But this one leaves out the jazz flirtations and the instrumentals to just rock out. It's like Prince's done wandering the desert and has returned to the world. He tosses out "U're Gonna C Me" next and it's been so very, very long since Prince has done a ballad worth listening to. For me, you probably have to drop back to "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold" (1999's RAVE un2 the joy fantastic) but it's quickly followed by "Here" which not only contains some of Prince's most passionate singing, it also comes closer to carrying off the syncopation "Love Like Jazz" can't. The ballads are so strong, it's as if Prince's returning to the studio after a smoke break during the recording of Sign of the Times.

"Valentina" works as a rock song and paean to Salma Hayeck and has some wonderful syncopation going on. It's over so quickly and it's so good that it really doesn't feel like it last 3:57. "Better With Time" follows and reminds that no one can croon like Prince when he wants to. "Ol' School Company" has a bedrock groove on which Prince offers some of his most pointed lyrics including: "Everybody talking bout hard time like they just started yesterday, People I know they been struggling -- at least it seems that way, Fat cats on Wall St. they got a bailout while somebody else got to wait, 700 billion but my old neighborhood nothing changed but the date." This gives way to the album closer "No More Candy 4 U" which finds Prince in a hard driving move that recalls Fats Domino. All in all, an amazing disc.

The three disc package is currently available only at Target where its price is $11.98. I have no time to listen to Bria Valente and write a review that's going up on Sunday so I'll point out the obvious: Prince has called the shots for a lot of women. Some, like Sheila E., had talent on their own. But listen to The Glamorous Life with headphones and you'll notice Prince singing every note as though he had laid down a guide track that someone accidentally mixed in. Then there were the ones who had no real talent such as Apollonia 6 and Prince took over completely in the studio. I have no idea whether Bria Valente has talent or not but even if she's Apollonia 6, they still managed to produce "Blue Limousine" and "Sex Shooter" under Prince's guidance. You've got 21 tracks by Prince for $11.98, Bria could be as untalented as Keith's girlfriend in that episode of The Partridge Family and it wouldn't matter, you've already gotten your money's worth. And then some. If you're interested in downloading the album, you can check this Prince site and if you'd like to get the album on disc(s) and do not have a Target in your area (or don't feel like visiting one), click here for Target's webpage for the three-disc set (note, the page says 28 tracks on the three discs, I count 31 tracks on the discs in my hands).


prince
tommy james and the shondells
joan jett
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joni mitchell

thomas friedman is a great man
kats korner

the common ills

In "Is Gates channeling Cheney on Iraq with 'last gasp' remark?" (McClatchy Newspapers), Nancy A. Youssef notes US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' Tuesday interview by Judy Woodruff on The NewsHour (PBS) and his "last gasp" assertion ("I think what we're seeing is al Qaeda trying sort of as a last gasp to try and reverse the progress that's been made through these attacks"). Youssef notes how similar it is to Dick Cheney's 2005 assertion that "recent resurgence of violence in Baghdad was 'a last gasp' of Islamic extremists." Despite Gates' claim, Youssef reveals, many "top U.S. military and intelligence officals worry that escalating tensions could threaten the administration's plans to draw down American forces in Iraq." Youssef notes an unnamded "top administration official:"

The official, who insisted on anonymity because of the consequences of publicly criticizing a cabinet officer, said that contrary to what Gates said, most U.S. intelligence and military officials are afraid that ethnic and sectarian violence in Iraq could explode again because, the official said: "All sides are just waiting for us to leave to finish settling scores."

Youssef's source is backed by today's events. Al Jazeera reports that as Turkey's Foreign Minister, Besir Atalya, visited Baghdad in the never ending discussions on how Turkey and Iraq will address the group they've both identified as a terrroist group, the PKK, 2 Turkish troops and 7 PKK fighters were killed in an armed clash on the border of Iraq and Turkey.


Laith Hammoudi and Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) report a bomber killed himself as well as 9 other people with thirty-one left wounded in Iskandariyah in what is seen as an attack on either the Iraqi military or Sahwa or both. Habib al-Zubaidy, Sami al-Jumaily, Ahmed Rasheed, Michael Christie and Richard Meares (Reuters) report the death toll has risen to 12 (and that hospitals are reporting the death toll is 13) and that Sahwa had been lined up "to collect overdue pay cheques at an Iraqi army post" and they note:


Delays in paying the Sahwas, known as "Awakening Councils," have also contributed to tensions.
"The death toll from the suicide attack has risen to 12 killed and 32 wounded," said police colonel Ali al-Zahawi, head of Iskandariya police.
"The Sahwa men were preparing to enter the military post to receive their salaries when a suicide bomber managed to blow himself up among them...," Zahawi had told Reuters earlier.


The following community sites updated last night with a roundtable:



Cedric's Big Mix
Iraq roundtabling
23 hours ago

The Daily Jot
ROUNDTABLE
23 hours ago

Thomas Friedman is a Great Man
Roundtable on Iraq
23 hours ago

Mikey Likes It!
Roundtabling Iraq
23 hours ago

Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude
the roundtable
23 hours ago

SICKOFITRADLZ
Iraq
23 hours ago

Trina's Kitchen
Iraq in the Kitchen
23 hours ago

Ruth's Report
Roundtable on Iraq
23 hours ago

Oh Boy It Never Ends
Talking Iraq
23 hours ago

Like Maria Said Paz
Iraq
23 hours ago

Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)
Talking Iraq roundtable
23 hours ago

The Common Ills
Iraq roundtable
23 hours ago

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

mcclatchy newspapers
nancy a. youssef
hussein kadhim
laith hammoudi
judy woodruff
pbs
the newshour
like maria said paz
kats korner
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
thomas friedman is a great man
trinas kitchen
the daily jot
cedrics big mix
mikey likes it
ruths report
sickofitradlz
oh boy it never ends

The amount of U.S. money spent on the Iraq war will surpass the cost of Vietnam by the end of the year, making it the second most expensive military conflict in American history, behind World War II, according to Pentagon figures provided Friday.
If Congress approves the supplemental funding request submitted this week by the Obama administration, the cost of the war will rise by $87 billion for 2009, including a previous supplement approved during the Bush administration.
Added to the amount spent through 2008, it would mean the Iraq war will have cost taxpayers a total of about $694 billion. By comparison, the Vietnam War cost $686 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars and World War II cost $4.1 trillion, according to a Congressional Research Service study completed last year.

So opens Julian E. Barnes' "Cost of Iraq war will surpass Vietnam's by year's end" (Los Angeles Times) and with all that money spent on the Iraq War, you might think it would get a little coverage. You'd be thinking wrong. In today's New York Times, "Suicide Truck Bombing Kills 5 U.S. Soldiers and 2 Iraqis at Northern Base" runs on A4. The article is by Sam Dagher. It is the smallest story on the page -- anti-choice protests in Spain and the let's-sob-one-more-time over the earthquake in Italy get more coverage on A4 including photos.

The Washington Post doesn't do much better with A11 for Ernesto Londono and Dlovan Brwari's "5 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq Bombing" though it's article is a bit longer. On the plane, a man asked if he could borrow the papers. No problem. When he passed them back, he stated that he supports the Iraq War, he's a "die-hard Republican" (it was already known that I oppose the Iraq War) and that the media's efforts to "cover up for Barack" by burying incidents in Iraq "like these" are proof of their "liberal bias." The media's not conservative or liberal, it's corporate and, as Lily Tomlin noted years ago, "Big business protects itself." But I thought for a moment how wonderful it would be if the right-wing did start accusing the media of burying the Iraq War (they are burying the Iraq War) in order to aid and assist Barack Obama. The media's response to the right-wing might mean they actually do a better job.

But the fact of the matter is the media sold this illegal war and did so for a reason. People like Judith Miller (who was far from alone -- and, in fairness to Miller, she foolishly believed what she reported many others, especially prominent columnists, can't say the same) were allowed to run free because the owners wanted them to. This illegal war was wanted and the same ones who wanted are the same ones who are thrilled that the pressure is now off to end it and that so few bother to pay attention to it. If the Iraq War were front and center, the push for more war (specifically in Africa) might be stopped. There's money to be made off war and it's not just from the people building the weapons.

The Post has the stronger article and we'll note this section:

Some Mosul residents say they have come to loathe the National Police officers assigned to the city. A video that appears to show Shiite National Police officers taunting a blindfolded and handcuffed Sunni inmate in Mosul has sparked outrage among residents. It is on YouTube, and residents say it has appeared on insurgent Web sites.
The elderly, bearded detainee is shown sitting on the floor as National Police officers chant pro-Shiite slogans while they clap. A smiling lieutenant colonel is seen waving a handgun in the air to the beat of the chant. One officer standing behind the detainee can be seen shaking the man's head forcefully. The officers make reference to a military operation in the spring of 2008 in Basra, where they fought before being deployed to Mosul.
"The edges of the earth might rattle, but Imam Ali will protect it!" the officers chant, referring to a revered Shiite figure. "Your beard will never scare us, Abu Sufyan," the officers continue, referring to a historic enemy of Imam Ali.
Residents of the city say many people have seen the video. "It shows the National Police mistreating civilians," Mosul resident Jabar al-Obaidi said. "It's sectarianism, racism. This is the reason they're being targeted."


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

the los angeles times
julian e. barnes
the washington post
ernesto londono
sam dagher
the new york times

Rebecca: We hadn't planned on a roundtable tonight but Trina asked and we all agreed.  She'll tell you why in a minute and this is an Iraq roundtable.  Participating tonight are The Third Estate Sunday Review's Ava, Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man, C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review, Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Trina of Trina's Kitchen, Wally of The Daily Jot, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Ruth of Ruth's Report and me, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude.  Betty and Cedric join us by phone.  Trina, how about you kick things off?   Trina: Today 5 US soldiers died in Iraq.  As the snapshot notes the world wide web has other things to talk about.  Not much of it important or useful.  How many times did we all watch as they mounted their high horses and acted like they gave a damn about the Iraq War from 2003 through 2007?  Maybe some extended it a little further.  But apparently for them the Iraq War was actually nothing but a political football to toss around in the hopes of advancing a few yards for Team Democrat.  It's disgusting, it's appalling and it needs to be called out.   Cedric: I agree and that piece of trash, rip-off site Corrente?  They used to pretend to care about the Iraq War.  They never did a thing on the deaths of the five.  But tonight that loony Sarah did find time to write, with no irony, "Style over Substance" -- about Michelle Fashion Plate.  Yeah, that was the most imporant thing in the world today.  I'm counting 23 blog posts they posted today and not one of them mentioned the death of the five US soldiers.  If you ask me, 23 posts in one day and not one of you damn hypocrites mentions that 5 soldiers died in Iraq, you can go rot in hell but truth of the matter is you're pathetic ass is already there.   Elaine: It really is amazing how the blogs, like the media, ran from Iraq as soon as Barack got into office.  It doesn't matter if they're pro-Barry blogs, anti-Barry blogs, or in the middle from the center posing as left all the way to the left, they don't give a damn about Iraq and I am mentioning Kimberly Wilder so she can take any problems she has with my remarks up with me by e-mailing me although I probably won't even read it and I won't reply because I don't like having my e-mails passed on.  You slammed Hillary and trashed her and did so over her 2002 vote on the Iraq resolution.  If that mattered at all to you, you would have found time to note the deaths.  You want to self-present as "social justice"?  Then cover the damn war.  You're disgusting and you're little blog posts about Barry and how Barry's going to do this and do that, spare us all.  As Kathy Kelly said on KPFA's Flashpoints Wednesday, "Well I think that Barack Obama is the world's chief exporter of weapons. I mean that goes with the job.  And I think that you can't look at attacks on civilian populations using conventional military force and not discuss War Crimes."  The peace movement's goals have not changed just because the White House flipped and it's been appalling to watch people like Kimberly Wilder -- an alleged Green Party member until her recent break -- go out of her way to praise a War Hawk named Barack Obama.   Mike: The Iraq War has not ended and you have to be a stupid idiot like Phyllis Bennis to say, "Well I'm happy that Barack's said he's going to end it and the time doesn't really matter."  The time doesn't matter to you Phyllis?  In 2007, he was promising the Iraq War would be over by now.   Rebecca: Stopping you for a minute, Mike.  C.I.?   C.I.: Right.  They can click here for Jake Tapper's 2007 story about Barack having just launched his presidential campaign and I quote, "Obama, often criticized for his lack of foreign policy experience, had his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq by March 2008 attacked by an unlikely source -- the Australian Prime Minister John Howard, an ally of President Bush."   Rebecca: Thank you.  I know someone's going to question Mike's statement and I knew C.I. would be able to pull it up.  Mike?   Mike: Well, he's promised everything and he's never delivered a damn thing and we can see that even more this week with his 'state secrets' excuse to cover up for the illegal spying on Americans that the government did.  He lied on the campaign trail non-stop and you've got idiots like Phyllis Bennis saying it doesn't matter when Barack pulls the troops out and that is what she said when he went to 18 or 19 months for a withdrawal and she said it didn't matter if it was longer than what was promised.  That's pathetic Phyllis Bennis.  It does matter.  And if he'd stuck to what he was saying in 2007, the US would have been out of Iraq already and those 5 dead soldiers wouldn't be dead.   Marcia: It just seems to me that there is a detachment about the Iraq War, a distance from it, as if it were a game.  I'd honestly appreciate sell outs a lot more if they'd just say, "I'm a sell out, I didn't give a damn about the Iraq War, I just wanted to elect Democrats."  If they'd say that, I wouldn't expect a thing from them.  I wouldn't be outraged and angry.  But they're liars.  They want to pretend like they still care about ending the Iraq War and they can't even write about it.  They can't cover it, they can't talk about it, they're just a huge disgrace because they're all wanting to act like they're still trying to end the Iraq War.  And they're not doing a damn thing.   Ruth: Well actually, what Marcia's discussing is sort of what Stan and I were talking about earlier this evening.  We had both read Norman Solomon's embarrassing "Getting a Death Grip on Memory" at CounterPunch and he and I had strong opinions on it.  Stan?   Stan: Okay, So Norman Solomon's riding his high horse about how Real Media wants to forget their crimes.  That would be Norman Solomon, pledged delegate for Barack Obama.  That would be Norman Solomon who lied for Barry and who did everything he could to get Barry elected.  He cut off people when he was a guest on the radio and tried to rip their character apart when they questioned Barack.  He cut them off and launched personal attacks on them, the sort of thing he maintains he never does, he maintains he debates the issues, but that's not what he did on KPFA.  And he's a liar because he'd go on KPFA to 'analyze' the race and 'forget' to tell listeners that he was a pledged delegate for Barck.  For that reason alone, he shouldn't have been on.  And he knows that.  He knows all about media ethics.  He just doesn't practice any.  He's a disgusting whore and for him to talk about Real Media's memory lapses, what he needs to do is write a column on how someone betrays every thing they supposedly believe in to whore out for a candidate.  He's a whore, a cheap, trashy, disease ridden whore.    Rebecca: And Ruth, you say what?   Ruth: I would have to agree with Stan.  We were talking about this and how Norman Solomon must wake up every morning convinced that he has really put one over on everybody.    Ava: Or maybe doubting it?  Maybe that's why he lays it on so thick.   Ruth: Good point.  And, as Stan said, he broke every ethic regarding media in 2008.  He knows those ethics, he lectures on those ethics.  He might try getting honest about that.    Rebecca: Because confession is good for the soul? Ruth: Because a blistering confession might allow someone tempted in the future to avoid the path he went down.  It would be like a drug addict sharing with people how low he sunk while active in his disease.   Rebecca: Okay.  Kat and Wally haven't spoken.  Betty hasn't but she and I talked ahead of time and she has a topic she's bringing in.  But I'm letting Wally and Kat know they need to speak if they're planning to.  Ava and C.I. are taking notes and will type up this rush transcript.  They can speak whenever they want but we all doubt they'll speak much.  Betty?   Betty: I wanted to talk about Iraq's LGBT population.  In the April 2nd snapshot, C.I. noted the reports that they were being executed.  No one followed that story this week until we found out, see yesterday's snapshot, that US House Rep Jared Polis went to Iraq and was given information about a gay man sentenced to death for being gay.  Why isn't anyone writing about this?  Michael Riley (Denver Post) was covering it but I'm not even sure if he grasped all of what he was reporting and, if he did grasp it, I think he intentionally downplayed it.  Maybe because he thought if he didn't downplay it, it might be seen as too explosive for print.  But read his article.  A member of the US Congress has been given information that states a gay man is going to be put to execution because he is gay.  The Congress member finds the information and documentation so convincing that he raises the issue on his Iraq trip.  I'd say this is pretty big news.   Cedric: I'd agree with you Betty and I'd argue that if all the people writing last week about the executions hadn't been doing that. and that includes C.I. doing the why-are-we-silent writing, we wouldn't have gotten Timothy Williams and Tareq Maher's "Iraq's Newly Open Gays Face Scorn and Murder" in the New York Times this week.  That's really the strongest article on this subject that paper has published.  And, speculating, I'm wondering is it that the paper previously didn't care about the issue, thought readers didn't care about the issue, thought it wasn't among the important issues or what?   Mike: Well when they can write that stupid article on the Humvee dealership in Iraq then if it's that the paper didn't think LGBT was an "important issue," that's saying a lot.  And none of it good about the paper.    Ruth: I honestly think that there is a 'queasy' aspect to it -- I am talking about among the press.  It happens far too often, an issue involving an attack on the LGBT community in any country, even our own, never gets the kind of attention it deserves.  Never.  I think a large portion of the press, especially above the reporters' level, are uncomfortable with LGBT issues and the LGBT community.    Ava: Well, in terms of the New York Times, they have a shameful history on AIDS in the eighties and I would argue that's because of the "queasy" aspect Ruth's talking about.  They didn't see gays and lesbians as 'real human beings' so when a disease that wasknown as the "gay cancer" struck, they didn't want to devote the kind of attention they would have if the same disease had targeted red-headed-four-year-old boys, for example.    Mike: I don't want to dominate the roundtable but if I can make another point, and I'll try to be quick, homophobia is out there and it's not going away.  It might get reduced, but it's not going away any time soon.  And if we're not willing to combat it, then I don't know what's going to happen.  I am eager about one thing that's coming up.   Marcia: I agree with you, Mike, but I want to also say how important it is that someone like Mike says that and not just me.  I'm a lesbian.  It's important that I speak out.  But Mike's a straight man and it's really important that he speak out as well.  I think the gay community is something like one in ten.  The LGBT community needs to speak up but we also need support from the straight community.  In terms of what Mike's talking about coming up, I agree.  And I'm excited about it as well.  It's something we're going to be doing at Third.  A regular feature.  But I would agree there's a silence and, like Ruth, I would have to say it's because it makes some straight people uncomfortable.   Betty: If I can say one more thing on this topic, I'd just like to point out that gays are being targeted in Iraq.  By the clergy, by the police and apparently by their state government.  And the fact that so many -- including Liar Barack -- have taken to tossing around terms like "democracy" at a time when homophobia is expressed with criminal intent is appalling.  And it's disgusting to see US leaders hail a country where homophobia and homophobic murders are condoned by the governemtn.  It's disgusting.   Wally: Well the silence goes beyond the press and it also includes our own State Dept which has never condemened the murders.  It didn't condemn under the homophobe Colin Powell, it didn't condemn then under Condi Rice and it's not condemning them under Hillary Clinton.  Now I happen to like Hillary and, as most people reading this will know, from something like January through the primary in Puerto Rico, I was on the road campaigning for her.  I ended up taking off the semester to do that.  I believed in her campaign that much.  She's being silent.  Now I could be an Obot and say, "She needs more time to speak! She needs to get comfortable!"  I could offer a million excuses but the reality is she has not spoken out against it and that's not right, and there's no excuse for it, and I'm embarrassed and ashamed for Hillary.  And I'll tell you one more thing, I'd be talking about that like her if she was president.  Because I don't believe in hero worship.  Unlike the Cult of St. Barack, I don't offer excuses.  And I believe Hillary would make a great president.  But I believe that because I think she's smart.  So when someone that smart and that wise doesn't speak out against the murders, it is appalling and I will call out.  I will repeat, Hillary Clinton, I am ashamed and embarrassed by your silence.  I am fully aware that there are issues that are policy and that come above Hillary.  That would include the Israel situtation, for example.  There she's merely executing policy.  However, in terms of this issue, in terms of condemning any murders in any country -- I'm talking warfare, supposed or otherwise -- she has the power, due to the office she holds, to issue a state condemning the murders.  She hasn't done it.  I'm appalled. Shame on you, Hillary, you know better.  And Kat I knew Betty's topic, Rebecca, which is why we were holding off on talking.   Kat: Right.  And it is an important topic but just to back up a second, I agree with Wally and if Hillary had gotten the nomination, she would be president, we all know that, we all know she got more votes than Barack in the primaries and we all know she would have done better than he did in the general.  But if she was president, we wouldn't be playing fan club to Hillary.  We'd be doing what Wally just did right now.  And Wally gave his all to getting the word out on Hillary.  He dropped out of college because he took some weeks off and ended up deciding that it was more important that he campaign for her.  The original plan was just to campaign for her for a few weeks, he ended up dropping out to campaign for her.  And he still believes she would make a wonderful president but that didn't prevent him from calling her out on her silence and doing so strongly.  And if she were president and going back on her word to withdraw one brigade a month from Iraq, we'd all be calling her out.  The Obots aren't politically educated or smart.  They needed a crush, an empty vessel upon which they could impose their dreams of love and romance.  It and they are disgusting.  Now in terms of the LGBT community in Iraq, I don't want to hear any garbage about Muslim religion or any of that other s**t.  We don't use "Muslim religion" or "Muslim culture" to hide behind murdering Jews or Christians.  Murder's wrong.  That's not open to debate.  That the US has installed a regime in Iraq which thinks it's okay to murder gays and lesbians -- and even if the government is not executing them, they are turning a blind eye to their murders -- explains how sick and perverted this illegal war really was.  And to be clear "Muslim religion" or "Muslim culture," gays and lesbians still were in Iraq.  They are Iraqis.  And they had acceptance before the illegal war.  They are a part of Muslim culture whether fundamentalists want to accept it or not.  And they are a part of Iraq and they should have been protected.   Rebecca: I did not know that Kat and Wally were waiting for Betty's topic.  And thank you to Betty for introducing it because that was a very lively discussion.  We need to wind down and I want to let Trina have the last word since she grabbed the first.  Trina, a lot's been said since you explained why you wanted this roundtable.  Closing thoughts?   Trina: I think we have shown that there is so much still to discuss about the Iraq War and there's so much that we didn't even get to.  We didn't talk about how the violence this week has been so great that even the press has a hard time pretending it's not happening, for example.  We didn't talk about the targeting of Sahwa.  There are so many topics that we didn't have time for, all Iraq related, and that's going to be true every day because it is an ongoing war and it is a real shame that the people who supposedly wanted to end it have moved on to other things while over 130,000 US troops remain on the ground in Iraq.  The illegal war has not ended and it's appalling to grasp how little that matters to so many who used to pretend they gave a damn.   Rebecca: And on that note, we'll wrap up.  As stated before, this is a rush transcript.  This roundtable will be posted at the sites of all participating.  And, in closing, C.I. asked me to note the Center for Media and Democracy's "Common Purpose: Another Cog in Obama's PR Machine" on the sell out of our so-called left.  It's a very important piece and I'm sure will be addressing it at Third on Sunday.     iraq michael riley the new york times timothy williams tareq maher