The Common Ills

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

BuzzFlash has Judicial Nominations memo and an editorial, Media Matters "Hands Off Public Broadcasting," Louise Jury on looted Iraq artifacts, DC-IMC

Charlie e-mails to note that BuzzFlash has the PDF on the agreement hammered out by centerists/sell outs. It's entitled "Memorandum of Understanding on Judicial Nominations."

I'll note that BuzzFlash has an editorial up entitled "The War for American Constitutional Democracy:"

Make no mistake about it, the radical extremists who would destroy the American Constitution and national governmental system set up in 1776 believe that they are near their endgame. The convergence of the American Christian Taliban and the Republican corporate oligarchy -- combined with de facto control of the mainstream media -- has created the perfect storm for a one-party state. Even without the "nuclear option" showdown on the filibuster, the Reagan and two Bush administrations have already packed the federal courts with enough party hacks to provide them protection from prosecution, the police state authority to intrude into our private lives, and the sanctioning of executive branch secrecy. And that's before the arrival of the new farm team of Bushevik loyalists coming down the pike. For many years, the radical right has defined anyone who is secular or doesn't believe that a few self-appointed religious fanatics should control the government as enemies of the state. That is the message of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robinson, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Rick Santorum, Bill Frist, Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist and their "colleagues."

And let's note that Media Matters has a new campaign "Hands off Public Broadcasting." As noted in members' posted comments as well as in the interview with Ruth, the community is pretty much divided on the issue of PBS and NPR. If you're in favor of action, please visit Media Matters' campaign. The page gives a history of recent events for anyone who's not clear on Ken Tomlinson, et al.

Pru e-mails to note, from The Independent, Louise Jury's "At Least 8,000 Treasures Looted from Iraq Museum Still Untraced:"

Evidence of how quickly and irretrievably a country can be stripped of its cultural heritage came with the Iraq war in 2003.
The latest figures, presented to the art crime conference yesterday by John Curtis of the British Museum, suggested that half of the 40 iconic items from the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad still had not been retrieved. And of at least 15,000 items looted from its storerooms, about 8,000 have yet to be traced.
About 4,000 of the objects taken from the museum had been recovered in Iraq. But illustrating the international demand for such antiquities, Dr Curtis said around 1,000 had been confiscated in the US, 500 pieces had been impounded in France, 250 in Switzerland and 200 or so in Jordan.

Ben e-mails to note DC-IMC's "When Will AIPAC Be Made to Register As an Agent of a Foreign power?" From that article:

Franklin was not the original object of FBI surveillance. They were watching AIPAC meetings with Israeli embassy officials, on suspicion of systematic espionage. They were surprised when Pentagon employee Franklin showed up in the videotapes. When will AIPAC be made to register as an agent of a foreign power?So asks columnist Juan Cole, following the arrest of Pentagon official Larry Franklin for "having shown classified documents to two officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (StevenRosen, AIPAC director of foreign policy issues, and Keith Weissman, high-level Middle East analyst--both of them only recently fired)."Cole goes on to observe that "Franklin was not the original object of FBI surveillance. They were watching AIPAC meetings with Israeli embassy officials, on suspicion of systematic espionage. They were surprised when Pentagon employee Franklin showed up in the videotapes." [ posted by Juan @ 5/5/2005 06:04:00 AM http://www.juancole.com/ ]

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[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Posted at 04:12 am by thecommonills
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NYC Today Victor Navasky at CUNY Graduate Center

From an e-mail sent out to those who sign up for alerts at The Nation:

A Night With NavaskyNation publisher Victor Navasky will be appearing in NYC TOMORROW, May 25 at the CUNY Graduate Center with award-winning author E.L. Doctorow in conversation about his new book, "A Matter of Opinion," and the importance of magazines of dissent.
Wednesday,
May 25,
7:00 to 8:30
With E.L. Doctorow
Proshansky Auditorium,
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street
$5/Free with student ID;
Call 212-817-2005 for reservations
A book-signing will follow the program.
You can get a taste of Navasky's book from a recent Nation magazine excerpt. http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050516&s=navasky
New Books at NationMart!We've recently added books by Nation authors to our online NationMart store. We know you have lots of book-buying options these days in the age of Amazon, but if you purchase your books at NationMart, you'll save anywhere from 20 to 75 percent off the list price AND you'll help support The Nation's independent brand of journalism. Plus, for a limited time only, we're offering a free choice of one book with every order of $35 or more!
http://store.thenationmart.com/books.html

FYI: There are blogger problems. I can't see the blog and others e-mailing are also getting page not found. I've also had problems logging in.

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

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Posted at 04:11 am by thecommonills
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NYT: "American F.B.I. agents repeatedly interrogated two United States citizens who were illegally detained . . . "

American F.B.I. agents repeatedly interrogated two United States citizens who were illegally detained for eight months and did nothing to stop them from being tortured by Pakistani authorities, a human rights group said Tuesday.
The brothers, Zain and Kashan Afzal, ages 23 and 25, respectively, both Americans of Pakistani descent, were arrested at their Karachi home last August and kept in secret Pakistani detention facilities for eight months until their release on April 22. No charges were ever filed, and for many months their family did not know where they were, according to a report by the group, Human Rights Watch.
"What crime did we commit?" a distraught Zain Afzal said in a brief telephone interview from Karachi. "If we did something wrong, would they let us go? It was an illegal detention."
The Afzal brothers' claims suggest a close collaboration of American and Pakistani intelligence officials in vetting terror suspects, and they raise questions about the responsibilities that the United States has for its own citizens abroad.

The above is from Salman Masood and Somini Sengupta's "F.B.I. Is Accused of Ignoring Abuse of 2 Americans in Pakistan" in this morning's New York Times. (And note, it's not written as a tone poem.)

Excerpt from the statement Human Rights Watch issued yesterday:

U.S. FBI agents operating in Pakistan repeatedly interrogated and threatened two U.S. citizens of Pakistani origin who were unlawfully detained and subjected to torture by the Pakistani security services, Human Rights Watch said today.
The brothers Zain Afzal and Kashan Afzal were abducted from their home in Karachi at about 2 a.m. on August 13, 2004. They were released on April 22, 2005 without having been charged. During eight months of illegal detention, Zain Afzal and Kashan Afzal were routinely tortured by Pakistani authorities to extract confessions of involvement in terrorist activities. During this period, FBI agents questioned the brothers on at least six occasions. The FBI agents did not intervene to end the torture, insist that the Pakistani government comply with a court order to produce the men in court, or provide consular facilities normally offered to detained U.S. citizens. Instead, they threatened the men with being sent to the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay if they did not confess to involvement in terrorism. Human Rights Watch's information is based on extensive and separate interviews with the two brothers since their release and other sources. "It is outrageous that Pakistan abducts people from their homes in the middle of the night and tortures them in secret prisons to extract confessions, all the while ignoring court orders to produce their victims in court," said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "The United States should be condemning this, but instead it either directed this activity or turned a blind eye in the hopes of gaining information in the war on terror."
Human Rights Watch pointed out that Pakistan has a long and well-documented history of "disappearances," illegal and arbitrary arrests, and torture of individuals in government custody. According to the 2004 State Department human rights country report on Pakistan:
Police and security forces held prisoners incommunicado and refused to provide information on their whereabouts, particularly in terrorism and national security cases … Security force personnel continued to torture persons in custody throughout the country. Human rights organizations reported that methods used included beating; burning with cigarettes; whipping the soles of the feet; prolonged isolation; electric shock; denial of food or sleep; hanging upside down; and forced spreading of the legs with bar fetters. Officials from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) estimated 5,000 cases of police torture annually. ... Prison conditions were extremely poor, except those for wealthy or influential prisoners. ... Shackling of prisoners was routine. The shackles used were tight, heavy, and painful, and reportedly led to gangrene and amputation in several cases.

Do we care yet? As a country, we averted our eyes when Muslim males here were required to register. We played the "other" and resorted to nonsense about 'fraternity hazing' when issues of torture came up before. We've turned our heads and closed our eyes as we've moved away from everything this country is supposed to stand for. Will we do so now as well?

Maybe we will.

Maybe we'll say, "Oh well they aren't Joe and Tammy down the street. They're not like you and me."

At some point, we're going to have to say "enough." But maybe we'll just push that off for future generations to address?

In the meantime, the noble ideas we used to tell ourselves that we believed in fall by the wayside.

And all the "cute" little headlines ("Was Canada Just Too Good to Be True?" wonders the Times today in an article by Clifford Krauss) and finger pointing won't change the fact that we've abandoned core beliefs and values.

Here's an ACLU press statement released yesterday (in full) that goes to issues of freedom:

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence met today to consider legislation that would reauthorize - and expand - the Patriot Act. The American Civil Liberties Union denounced attempts to expand, rather than critically review and reform, the controversial provisions set to expire at the end of the year. A proposal to make the law’s most controversial provisions permanent, and to expand it by allowing FBI agents issue their own search orders with no advance court approval, will likely be voted on in secret Thursday.
"Now is the time to bring the Patriot Act in line with the Constitution - not expand it," said Lisa Graves, ACLU Senior Counsel for Legislative Strategy. "Concerned citizens from across the political spectrum have spoken out against the Patriot Act’s secrecy: many provisions are implemented secretly, and the government has kept secret key information on how these extraordinary powers are being used. Now, some lawmakers are trying to keep debate and votes on legislation to reauthorize and expand the Patriot Act secret as well."
The bill would grant so-called "administrative subpoena" authority to the FBI, letting the bureau write and approve its own search orders for any tangible thing it deems relevant to an intelligence investigation without approval. This power would let agents seize personal records from medical facilities, libraries, hotels, gun dealers, banks and any other business, without having to appear before a judge, and without any evidence that the people whose records are swept in are involved in any criminal activity.
The proposal would also give the FBI broad new powers to track people’s mail in intelligence inquiries. It would force postal workers to disclose the name, address and other information appearing on envelopes delivered to or from people designated by the FBI, without any meaningful protections.
The bill would permit secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act searches and surveillance for the sole purpose of criminal prosecution for certain crimes, such as terrorism and espionage, allowing searches to proceed without following the requirements of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. FISA searches were designed to be used a tool in intelligence gathering investigations, so they are held to lower evidentiary standards than criminal investigations.
Without limits on how the powers can be used, the proposed legislation creates the very real possibility that FISA will now be used to conduct searches and seizures in criminal investigations without probable cause that a crime has been committed, the ACLU said. In other words, it will let law enforcement do an end run around the Constitution.
The ACLU also noted that the proposed legislation would remove the one safeguard in place against using FISA warrants recklessly. Currently, FISA warrants cannot be issued against Americans when the investigation is "conducted solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution." The proposed legislation would amend that limited protection so that FISA records searches can be conducted solely based on First Amendment activities so long as the investigation as a whole is not based solely on constitutionally protected activity.
"Protecting America also means protecting our Constitution," Graves said. "If adopted, these broad new powers would sidestep time-honored checks and balances. Lawmakers should hold an open process, and reject this reckless disregard for the Fourth Amendment, which protects the liberty and privacy of all Americans."
For more on the ACLU’s concerns with the proposed legislation:
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=18298&c=206

Tomorrow this is addressed. Are we paying attention?

We'll close with a song Susan referenced in an e-mail last night, Carole King and Rick Sorenson's "Chalice Borealis" (from the Carole King album Speeding Time):

Oh whatcha gonna do when time runs out on you
Runs down ghost town
Barren pastures all around
How y' gonna explain it to your grandkids . . .

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

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Posted at 04:10 am by thecommonills
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Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Note on e-mails

Here's an entry composed here. Once again Blogger is a pain in the ass at the other site.

Rebecca, Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, has given up attempting to blog tonight as a result of this nonsense.

And it's nonsense. They need to get their act together.

Enough on that topic.

A number of visitors have come to this site recently. There are questions via e-mail from many.

First off, and the automated e-mail that goes out states this, if you want to be quoted, please note that. If you didn't in your e-mail and then read the automated one, just reply "I want to be quoted" in full or in part.

Between attempting to get the original site to display, I've been going through the e-mails.

Seven people used the function here to e-mail and noted sites that they enjoyed. Information Clearing House, Truth Out, Working for Change, Alternet and Bartcop are great sites.

We link to Bartcop at the original site as a permalink. We also link to Peek, Alternet's blog.

We're a new site and links are added slowly so members can get to know them.

At this site, which is a backup site, there are no permalinks.

I emphasized BuzzFlash because it's one of the sites I started with. Buzz, The Daily Howler, Bartcop and a few others are the ones still around. Others, like Media Whores Online, are no more.

I've learned a great deal from BuzzFlash and continue to learn from them, when I actually have the time to surf online.

Those who visit Rebecca's site or saw The Third Estate Sunday Review's roundtable this week (no links because those sites are down so I'm not doing any links at all in this post) know that the issue of e-mail is one that everyone's exploring.

In the early days (from November until January), everyone who wrote got a personal reply.

I don't have that kind of time now because the volume of e-mail has increased (and continues to increase).

I am still reading all the e-mail but when it tops 1000 a day, that's often difficult and I do fall behind.

My apologies to those who feel they're not being read promptly. I've spent hours trying to get into Blogger and alternating that with reading e-mails. Even with the bulk of the last four to five hours devoted to e-mails, I still have 296 unread e-mails.

It is for this reason that I'm not able to do an e-mail asking, "Do you want to be quoted?"

Members know that they have to say so otherwise their e-mail is considered private.

But 62 e-mails came in from visitors to this site (the mirror site) who may have wanted to be quoted. I don't have time to reply to everyone asking, "Do you want to be quoted? In part or in full?"

So if you didn't express your desire to be quoted, don't expect that you will be.

Rebecca's opinions on e-mails are up on her blog. People can read them there.

However, I believe that members make the site worth visiting. Suggestions, not just quotes, determine the content.

But as the visitors increase, I feel it's important to note (and it's in the automated reply) that I'm not able to reply to every e-mail. There are just too many.

I'm trying to figure out some way to address this issue but am frankly not coming up with anything new.

This isn't much of an entry, my apologies.

I had wanted to carry over posts that are still not up here to this site this evening. But that's not possible because I can't see those entries.

It's honestly pretty depressing.

Even if it's only at this site, there will be a morning post on Wednesday's New York Times.

Posted at 07:59 pm by thecommonills
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NYT: Supereme Court to take abortion rights case, Lawrence Franklin, Syria . . .

The Supreme Court accepted its first abortion case in five years on Monday, an unexpected development that despite the rather technical questions that the case presents is likely to add even more heat to the already superheated atmosphere surrounding the court and its immediate future.
The new case is an appeal by the State of New Hampshire of a federal appeals court ruling that struck down a parental-notification requirement for minors seeking abortions.
[. . .]
The court's answers could be important for its consideration of future abortion cases, including ones challenging the recent federal law that prohibits the procedure that abortion opponents call partial-birth abortion. That law has been declared unconstitutional in federal district courts around the country, and appeals by the Bush administration are now pending in three federal appeals courts.
[. . .]
One question facing the court in the current case is whether parental-notice laws, or by extension, any abortion regulations, must explicitly provide exceptions for those women whose continued pregnancy is a threat to their health. Beginning with Roe v. Wade in 1973, and including the court's most recent decision, which invalidated Nebraska's partial-birth abortion law in 2000, the court has held that the government may not constitutionally ban an abortion necessary to preserve a pregnant woman's health.

The above is from Linda Greenhouse's "Supreme Court to Tackle Abortion Again After 5 Years" in this morning's New York Times.

Ed steers us to Albert Salvato's "Soldier Says Killing of Iraqi Was Self-Defense:"

An American soldier accused of murdering an Iraqi police officer while they were on patrol together in 2003 and then concocting a story about being shot during a gun battle said on Monday that he had made "a split-second decision" to open fire in self-defense.
[. . .]
Army prosecutors contended that Corporal Berg lied about the shootings and altered his story several times before admitting that he killed Mr. Zubeidi and shot himself.
"The accused lied about the incident repeatedly," Capt. Dan Stigall, the prosecutor in the case, told the hearing officer, Maj. Samuel Butzbach. Captain Stigall's accusations came during a continuation of an Article 32 hearing, a military proceeding similar to a grand jury review. Major Butzbach will recommend whether Corporal Berg should face a court-martial on charges of murder and lying to investigators.

Eli e-mails to highlight Louis Uchitelle's "The New Profile of the Long-Term Unemployed:"

The experiences of Mr. Gruenhut and Ms. Ellenwood help to explain why many of the nation's unemployed are still struggling to get back to work. Not since World War II has long-term joblessness - the percentage of the unemployed out of work for six months or more - been so high for so long after a recession has ended.
The current trouble falls most heavily on people trapped by the shifting sands of the economy. Today, the unemployment rate is relatively low at 5.2 percent and overall hiring has started to pick up again, particularly for younger workers coming out of college and professional schools. But the presence of middle-aged women and better educated white-collar workers among the long-term unemployed has increased.
"There are just not new jobs being created in the things these people did before," said Andrew Stettner, a policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project and co-author of a study of long-term unemployment. "We are firing fewer people than we did in 2001 and 2002, but we are not hiring many people either, and that cuts off the exit route out of unemployment."

Brendon e-mails to note Laurie Goodstein's "Inquiry Into Dismissal of an Air Force Chaplain:"

An Air Force spokeswoman said Monday that the service had asked the inspector general to investigate the case of the chaplain, Capt. MeLinda Morton, who went public this month with her criticisms of the religious climate at the academy.
The announcement came on the day a task force was to finish a preliminary report on an inquiry into complaints that some officers permitted harassment and inappropriate proselytizing at the academy. The report will not be released for several weeks, Jennifer Stephens, an Air Force spokeswoman, said.

Margot e-mails regarding Douglas Jehl and Thom Shanker's "Syria Ending Cooperation With U.S., Envoy Says:"

Syria has halted military and intelligence cooperation with the United States, its ambassador to Washington said in an interview, in a sign of growing strains between the two nations over the insurgency in Iraq.
The ambassador, Imad Moustapha, said in the interview on Friday at the Syrian Embassy here that his country had, in the last 10 days, "severed all links" with the United States military and Central Intelligence Agency because of what he called unjust American allegations. The Bush administration has complained bitterly that Syria is not doing enough to halt the flow of men and money to the insurgency in Iraq.
Mr. Moustapha said he believed that the Bush administration had decided "to escalate the situation with Syria" despite steps the Syrians have taken against the insurgents in Iraq, and despite the withdrawal in recent weeks of Syrian troops from Lebanon, in response to international demands.

Noting that Douglas Jehl was absent "on Fluffy Saturday" and that the interview for this story took place on Friday, Margot wonders if the paper has been sitting on this article and, if so, why?

Scott Shane was also absent from Saturday's paper. He has a paragraph in "National Briefing:"

EX-FEDERAL EMPLOYEE INDICTED ON DOCUMENTS CHARGE
A former National Security Agency employee was indicted in Maryland for possession of classified documents. The federal indictment said the employee, Kenneth Wayne Ford Jr. of Waldorf, Md., left the agency in late 2003 and was arrested on Jan. 12, 2004, for illegally possessing secret information "relating to the national defense." The indictment said that Mr. Ford, 34, had reason to believe the classified material "could be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of any foreign nation," but it did not accuse him of trying to sell or pass on the documents. He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted. A spokesman for the agency said he could not discuss the case. Mr. Ford declined to comment.

Lastly, we'll note David Johnston's "Ex-Analyst Is Expected to Face New Charges:"

A former Pentagon analyst, already accused of illegally disclosing military secrets, will be charged as early as Tuesday with illegally keeping classified documents at his home in West Virginia, his lawyer said on Monday.
The former analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, 58, will be charged in a criminal complaint to be brought in a federal court in West Virginia, said his lawyer, Plato Cacheris. Mr. Franklin was arrested May 4 on a criminal complaint filed in Alexandria, Va., accused of illegally disclosing classified information related to potential attacks on American forces in Iraq.

For those wanting commentary on the latest regarding the filibuster, skip the Times and head over to A Winding Road for Folding Star's "You say Compromise, I Say Sell Out:"

So, I was mid way through a post about the impending filibuster confrontation in the Senate when word comes through on CSPAN (in a little New Flash announcement at the bottom of the screen) that a 'compromise' has been reached.
Out goes that post, immediately rendered outdated.
The 'centrists' in both parties, according to the news reports, have reached a compromise whereby the Republicans won't take away the Democrats right to filibuster and the Democrats will only use the filibuster on 'extreme' nominees.
Excuse the hell out of me, but that's what they were doing already!

Also check out Bill Scher's comments at Liberal Oasis:

Now, thanks to the added pressure, enough Dems capitulated for a few more radical right-wing judges to get lifetime appointments (exactly how many is a little unclear at this writing).
So the corporate cons get more lobbyist-drafted legislation and a few more judges to boot.
Some deal.

Scher went into this last night on The Majority Report. (Link takes you to the Air America Place archived broadcast of that episode.)

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

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Posted at 04:33 am by thecommonills
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Monday, May 23, 2005

NYT: "An Iraqi Police Officer's Death, a Soldier's Varying Accounts" . . .

The American soldier and the Iraqi police officer were on patrol together outside a flea market south of Baghdad, chatting from time to time, when one of them suddenly started shooting.
What prompted the gunfire is a matter of dispute, but one thing is not: The soldier, Cpl. Dustin M. Berg, fired three times at his Iraqi partner, Hussein Kamel Hadi Dawood al-Zubeidi, and killed him. As Corporal Berg ran away, he picked up Mr. Zubeidi's AK-47 and shot himself in the side.
In the days that followed, Corporal Berg lied about what happened, saying Mr. Zubeidi was the one who had shot him. And for months he went right on lying, after he recovered from his wound, after he left Iraq, even after he received a Purple Heart he did not deserve with his parents watching at a solemn ceremony back home in Indiana.
Corporal Berg has long acknowledged that he killed Mr. Zubeidi in a rush of moments that day in November 2003, but says he did so only after the officer abruptly raised his gun in a threatening way. Everything Corporal Berg now admits doing wrong after that - shooting himself and lying about the events - grew out of fear for what would happen to him, he says, and the knowledge that other soldiers in his unit had already been investigated for incidents in Iraq.

The above is the opening of Monica Davey's "An Iraqi Police Officer's Death, a Soldier's Varying Accounts" from this morning's New York Times.

Francisco e-mails about the littlest Judy Miller, Juan Forero and his article this morning. He wonders whether, after spinning like crazy re: the Venezuela coup and the US involvement for years, had turned a leaf.

I wondered the same. Then I read "Bolivia Epitomizes Fight for Natural Resources" closely.

We won't belabor everything wrong with the article, as it is I'm having flashbacks of being stuck in a poli sci study group with a right-winger who played fast and loose with the truth and you had to call him on everything to get him to stop. We will note one paragraph:

Such words could not be more troubling to Juan Carlos Iturri, an economist who said that many protesters are driven by slogans and do not take into account Bolivia's economic realities.

Juan Carlos Iturri is "an economist?" Economist? That's how we're going to bill him?
No, I don't think so. Why the Times lets Juan Forero play so loosely with the truth is beyond me. Juan Carlos Iturri? Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't he "the Coordinator of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States?" Interesting the way he's down-graded. But then the Times hasn't been overly concerned with the top of intellectual property rights in other countries.

Let's go to Marc Lacey (whom Krista e-mailed on) and his "U.N. Forces Using Tougher Tactics to Secure Peace:"

The United Nations, burdened by its inability to stave off the mass killings in Rwanda in 1994 and by failed missions in Bosnia and Somalia, is allowing its peacekeepers to mount some of the most aggressive operations in its history.
The change has been evolving over the last decade, as the Security Council has adopted the notion of "robust peacekeeping" and rejected the idea that the mere presence of blue-helmeted soldiers on the ground helps quell combat.
It is most obvious in Congo, which commands by far the largest deployment of United Nations troops in the world. Peacekeepers in armored personnel carriers, facing enemy sniper attacks as they lumber through rugged dirt paths in the eastern Ituri region, are returning fire. Attack helicopters swoop down over the trees in search of tribal fighters. And peacekeepers are surrounding villages in militia strongholds and searching hut by hut for guns.

Brad e-mails to note C.J. Chivers' "Survivors and Toe Tags Offer Clues to Uzbek's Uprising:"

Since May 13, when Uzbek troops used fusillades of gunfire to put down a prison break and demonstration in the eastern city of Andijon, President Islam A. Karimov of Uzbekistan has insisted the troops were fighting Islamic militants, and any civilians struck were felled either by accident or the militants' guns.
But lengthy interviews with more than 30 survivors who fled to Kyrgyzstan, combined with accounts collected by opposition workers and human rights groups, consistently indicate that what happened was not as the official version would have it.
Rather, it appears that a poorly conceived armed revolt to Mr. Karimov's centralized government set off a local popular uprising that ended in horror when the Uzbek authorities suppressed a mixed crowd of escaped prison inmates and demonstrators with machine-gun and rifle fire.

Cedric e-mails to note Kate Zernike and Anne E. Kornblut's "Link to Lobbyist Brings Scrutiny to G.O.P. Figure:"

In Republican Washington, Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist worked all the angles.
One was a $750-an-hour lobbyist, the other an antitax activist, and they helped drive the Republican takeover of the capital and cement the party's power. Both had a close ally in the House majority leader, Tom DeLay. And they shared a conservative ideology and a friendship going back to their days in college.
Now, with widening Congressional and criminal inquiries in the capital into Mr. Abramoff's dealings, they are sharing trouble, too.
While Mr. Abramoff has been under scrutiny for more than a year, Mr. Norquist has attracted unwelcome attention in recent weeks. A Congressional committee investigating whether Mr. Abramoff defrauded Indian tribes has subpoenaed records from Mr. Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform, after he refused for six months to turn them over voluntarily.

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

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Posted at 04:34 am by thecommonills
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Sunday, May 22, 2005

Coverage of Jocelyn Hurndall's reaction to the investigation of her son Tom's death

THE mother of a British peace activist shot dead in the Gaza Strip accused Israel's Government of a cover-up as the trial of the marksman who allegedly killed him ended yesterday.
Jocelyn Hurndall said she had little confidence that her family would achieve real justice, and that they were likely to issue civil proceedings against the Israeli Government.
Tom Hurndall, 22, a photojournalism student from Tufnell Park, North London, died from a single shot to the head as he was moving Palestinian children to safety in Rafah, Gaza, in April 2003.
Mrs Hurndall, who walked out of an earlier hearing when the defence blamed his death on British doctors’ negligence, accused the Israeli military of pushing all the blame on to one "trigger-happy" soldier.
Sergeant Wahid Taysir, 21, an award-winning marksman in the desert patrol (Beduin) battalion, denies six charges of manslaughter, obstructing justice and conduct unbecoming a soldier. Initially he claimed Mr Hurndall was wearing a camouflage jacket and holding a gun, the court was told. He later changed his story to say that he fired a warning shot four inches left of Mr Hurndall’s ear "but he moved his head".

The above was sent in by Kara and it's from The Sunday Times of London -- Stephen Farrell's "Shot activist's mother says trial of sniper is a cover-up."

Same topic, from The Guardian, we'll note Chris McGreal's "Mother of shot activist accuses Israeli army of cover-up:"

As the trial ended, Mrs Hurndall accused senior army officers of creating a "trigger happy" climate and said the deaths of innocent people were covered up.
"The soldier might be convicted but the trial is not concerned with the wider justice to do with the chain of command and the culture of lies," said Mrs Hurndall outside the Kastina military court. The soldier has said himself that he has been used as a scapegoat ... I'm sure that's what happened."
Mrs Hurndall said there had only been a more thorough investigation because of her family's own efforts and pressure from the British government.
Israel also refused to cooperate with a British coroner's inquiry and barred Mr Hurndall's brother, Billy, from travelling to Israel to investigate the shooting.
"From the start it was a tremendous shock that we were not dealing with authorities who were adamant about getting to the truth," she said.
"You can only conclude that the command colluded in the soldier's original lies, and colluded in it for weeks until they couldn't sustain it any more."

Same topic, the UK's Telegraph, Tim Butcher's "Shot student's mother claims cover-up:"

The original military report claimed that her son was in camouflage clothes and brandishing a weapon. It was only after the family interviewed civilian witnesses at the Gaza refugee camp where the shooting occurred that the army accepted another version of events.
The witnesses said Mr Hurndall was wearing a bright orange jacket and helping children to escape tanks.
Mr Hurndall died in a London hospital after spending nine months in a coma.

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

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Posted at 07:11 pm by thecommonills
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"As with the seige of Fallujah six months back, U.S. claims over the seige of the Iraqi town Al Qa'im are being challenged ... by independent sources"

As with the siege of Fallujah six months back, U.S. claims over the siege of the Iraqi town Al Qa'im are being challenged now by independent sources. The U.S. military claims a "successful" end to the weeklong operation earlier this month around Al-Qa'im, a town about 320km west of Baghdad close to the Syrian border.
The operation was launched against what the U.S. military saw as the presence of Al-Qaeda fighters in the town. Iraqi civilians and doctors in the area say no foreign fighters were present in the town. Al Qa'im and surrounding areas have suffered great destruction, and many in the town population of 110,000 were killed, they say.
Abu Ahmed, a resident of Al-Qa'im, told IPS on telephone that "all the fighters here are Iraqis from this area."
He said continuing violations by U.S. soldiers had provoked people into confronting the occupying forces. He said troops had been raiding homes, sending women into the streets without their hijabs and entering areas where women sleep.
"The fighters are just local people who refuse to be treated like dogs," he said. "Nobody wants the Americans here." Abd al-Khaliq al-Rawi, head of communications for the local government in Al-Qa'im said on Al-Jazeera television that the fighters were all local Iraqis. "We have not seen any outsiders. The fighters are from the area. They are resisting the occupation."

The above IPS story is Dahr Jamail's "U.S. Claims Over Siege Challenged."

From an AFP report on Australia's ABC entitled "Iraqi, US forces put squeeze on Baghdad" sent in by Pru:

It is one of the largest post-war military operations in the capital to date.
Battalions generally comprise 300 to 400 troops.
The ongoing operation is focused on the Abu Ghraib neighbourhood in the
capital, from which many of the deadly attacks carried out daily on the perilous
airport road are thought to originate.

Cynthia e-mails (from the BBC) "Top Iraq trade official shot dead:"

A senior Iraqi trade ministry official has been shot dead in Baghdad, the latest in a series of assassinations of government figures, police have said.
Ali Moussa, director-general of the ministry, was killed with his driver as they drove to work on Sunday.
The gunmen have not been identified but attacks blamed on Sunni insurgents have increased since the swearing-in of the country's Shia-dominated government.

From China's Xinhua, Eddie e-mails "2 bomb attacks target US military convoys in Baghdad:"

Two car bomb attacks targeted two US military convoys in north of Baghdad on Sunday, police said.
"A suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden vehicle into a US military convoy parking at Qadesiyah police station in Tikrit, destroying a US Humvee and wounding two policemen," police Col.Ahmed Hassan told Xinhua.

From the BBC, "Attacks 'delay' Iraq rebuilding:"

More than two years since the war, Iraqis still suffer from daily power cuts, and - in some areas - from contamination of drinking water by sewage.
In 2004, a year after the fall of Saddam Hussein, some 22,000 households were questioned by the UN about their lives.
The survey found that only just over a third of households were connected to a sewage network - and that almost a quarter of young children were chronically malnourished.
The report says that while the infrastructure exists to allow access to basic supplies - like electricity and clean running water - it is not reliable.

Where are those Operation Happy Talkers? Hmm? Guess they're going to start bragging about a few schools getting ceiling fans again? (And weren't they supposed to get air conditioning? Wasn't that what US taxpayer monies were supposed to be purchasing?)

In other reality based news, from The Guardian, note Michael Howard's "US military to build four giant new bases in Iraq:"

US military commanders are planning to pull back their troops from Iraq's towns and cities and redeploy them in four giant bases in a strategy they say is a prelude to eventual withdrawal.
The plan, details of which emerged at the weekend, also foresees a transfer to Iraqi command of more than 100 bases that have been occupied by US-led multinational forces since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
However, the decision to in vest in the bases, which will require the construction of more permanent structures such as blast-proof barracks and offices, is seen by some as a sign that the US expects to keep a permanent presence in Iraq.
Politicians opposed to a long-term US presence on Iraqi soil questioned the plan.
"They appear to settling in a for the long run, and that will only give fuel for the terrorists," said a spokesman for the mainstream Sunni Iraqi Islamic party.

Trevor e-mails to request that we highlight this article by Robert Fisk from May 8th. It's an analysis, so no problem. From Robert Fisk.com, "America's shame, two years on from 'Mission Accomplished:'"

Two years after "Mission Accomplished", whatever moral stature the United States could claim at the end of its invasion of Iraq has long ago been squandered in the torture and abuse and deaths at Abu Ghraib. That the symbol of Saddam Hussein’s brutality should have been turned by his own enemies into the symbol of their own brutality is a singularly ironic epitaph for the whole Iraq adventure. We have all been contaminated by the cruelty of the interrogators and the guards and prison commanders.
But this is not only about Abu Ghraib. There are clear and proven connections now between the abuses at Abu Ghraib and the cruelty at the Americans’ Bagram prison in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Curiously, General Janis Karpinski, the only senior US officer facing charges over Abu Ghraib, admitted to me a year earlier when I visited the prison that she had been at Guantanamo Bay, but that at Abu Ghraib she was not permitted to attend interrogations - which seems very odd.
A vast quantity of evidence has now been built up on the system which the Americans have created for mistreating and torturing prisoners. I have interviewed a Palestinian who gave me compelling evidence of anal rape with wooden poles at Bagram - by Americans, not by Afghans.
Many of the stories now coming out of Guantanamo - the sexual humiliation of Muslim prisoners, their shackling to seats in which they defecate and urinate, the use of pornography to make Muslim prisoners feel impure, the female interrogators who wear little clothing (or, in one case, pretended to smear menstrual blood on a prisoner’s face) - are increasingly proved true. Iraqis whom I have questioned at great length over many hours, speak with candour of terrifying beatings from military and civilian interrogators, not just in Abu Ghraib but in US bases elsewhere in Iraq.
At the American camp outside Fallujah, prisoners are beaten with full plastic water bottles which break, cutting the skin. At Abu Ghraib, prison dogs have been used to frighten and to bite prisoners.

(Note, there isn't an individual url for this article. Go to the site and it's currently the first article listed on the right hand sidebar.)

Lastly, for a collection of editorial reactions from around the world on the Saddam photos, see The Guardian's "Another in a long line of abuses."

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

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Posted at 07:10 pm by thecommonills
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Around the world: bombs go of India, Afghanistan, Laura Bush "jeered," America's "great game" aids Karimov . . .

From I.E. Breaking News, two theaters in India have had bombs go off in them, reportedly while "both theaters were showing a controversial Hindi-language film that has been condemned by Sikh religious leaders for denigrating their faith. Police declined to comment on whether any Sikh group was suspected of involvement in the blasts. " At least 20 people are injured and at least one is dead. "The film, titled Jo Bole So Nihal, was released more than a week ago, but it was pulled from most cinemas shortly afterwards in northern India after Sikh groups demanded a ban on it." (That's a summary of four reports at I.E. Breaking News. Click on links to learn more.)

From Australia's ABC (AFP report), "Kyrgyzstan turns back fleeing Uzbeks:"

"From May 13 to 22, following the disorder in Andijan, Kyrgyz border guards have returned to the Uzbek authorities 84 Uzbek citizens who illegally crossed the border," the border guards department said.

Also from Australia's ABC, Pru e-mails Reuters' "UK Govt to go halves with first-home buyers:"

Up to 100,000 people will be given help buying their own home under plans to be announced later this week, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown says.
Under a shared-ownership scheme announced in Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party manifesto before the May 5 election, couples currently unable to afford a home would be able to share the cost with the Government and a mortgage lender.

Seth notes that "The charm offensive isn't working" and sends "Laura Bush Jeered in Jerusalem" from Aljazeera:

Protesters heckled Laura Bush during her visit to religious sites in Jerusalem, part of a Mideast tour meant to defuse growing anti-American sentiment in the region.
As she approached the Dome of the Rock in the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) on Sunday, Muslim worshippers shouted, "How dare you come in here, and why are you hassling Muslims?" As she entered the Noble Sanctuary, one man said, "None of you belongs in here."
Israeli police formed a human chain around Bush, pressing together to push away protesters.

From The Independent, Gareth e-mails, same topic, Eric Silver's "Arab and Jewish hecklers target Laura Bush on visit:"

Laura Bush, America's first lady, was treated to a lesson in the strident realities of Middle Eastern street politics, as both Arab and Jewish protestors heckled her during a visit to Jerusalem's holiest sites.
The White House had hoped a visit by Mrs Bush, whose political stock has never been higher in Washington, would help assuage anti-American sentiment in the region, but the locals are not soothed that easily.
As she was touring Al Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine, and the neighbouring Dome of the Rock, two members of the radical Islamic Liberation Party shouted: "You are not welcome here. How dare you come here? You kill Muslims." Israeli police closed ranks around her, keeping them at bay and forcing back a gang of Palestinian youths trying to reach Mrs Bush, who had been welcomed to the site by Adnan Husseini, its Muslim custodian.

Brenda e-mails Noor Khan's "Six workers on US scheme assassinated" (from Scotland's The Herald):

GUNMEN ambushed and killed six Afghans yesterday on a highway in the country's troubled south in the second fatal attack in two days on employees of a US-funded anti-drug project, officials said.
The company managing the project has said it is withdrawing employees from southern Afghanistan, the US State Department said.
The victims were transporting the body of one of five people killed in the earlier assault to the capital, Kabul, when militants stopped their vehicle and shot everyone in the head, said a doctor in Qalat town, where the bodies were taken.

In other Afghanistan news, from Scotland's The Sunday Herald, Robert Birsel's "Karzai to call for return of prisoners:"

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called for all Afghan prisoners, and control over US military operations, to be passed to his government following a US Army report on abuse of detainees in Afghanistan.
The abuse described in the report, including details of the deaths of two inmates at the US base at Bagram, north of Kabul, happened in 2002 and emerged from a nearly 2000-page file of US Army investigators, the New York Times reported on Friday.
"It has shocked me and we condemn it," Karzai told a news conference. "We want the US government to take very, very strong action, to take away people like that."
Karzai, a staunch ally in the US-led war against terrorism, is due to leave on a trip to America later today. He will meet President George W Bush for talks this week.

On the same topic, Gareth e-mails (from The Independent) Rupert Cowell's "UN joins Karzai in calling for Bagram abuse inquiry:"

On the eve of a tense US-Afghan summit, the United Nations condemned as "utterly unacceptable" the alleged abuse prisoners at the main American base in Afghanistan.
The UN joined Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, in demanding that the Pentagon agree to an independent investigation of conditions at Bagram airbase by local human rights investigators.
In a harshly worded statement, Jean Arnault, the special UN representative in Kabul, insisted those responsible for such "inexcusable crimes" must be punished.
Mr Karzai, who meets President George Bush at the White House today, said in a US television interview that he would demand custody of all detainees in his country, as well as control of US military operations.

Rory e-mails, from The Scotsman, Brian Brady's "Secret UK troops plan for Afghan crisis:"

DEFENCE chiefs are planning to rush thousands of British troops to Afghanistan in a bid to stop the country sliding towards civil war, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.
Ministers have been warned they face a "complete strategic failure" of the effort to rebuild Afghanistan and that 5,500 extra troops will be needed within months if the situation continues to deteriorate.
An explosive cocktail of feuding tribal warlords, insurgents, the remnants of the Taliban, and under-performing Afghan institutions has left the fledgling democracy on the verge of disintegration, according to analysts and senior officers.
The looming crisis in Afghanistan is a serious setback for the US-led 'War on Terror' and its bid to promote western democratic values around the world.
Defence analysts say UK forces are already so over-stretched that any operation to restore order in Afghanistan can only succeed if substantial numbers of troops are redeployed from Iraq, itself in the grip of insurgency.

At Aljazeera, we'll note that they have an interview with former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murrary. Here's the introduction pargraphs and first question and answer from Roshan Muhammed Salih's "The West should wash its hands of Karimov:"

The killing of hundreds of protesters in Uzbekistan by government troops has focused the world's attention on the strategic Central Asian nation.
The violence began on Friday after a pro-democracy protest and a jailbreak involving men accused of "Islamic extremism" in the eastern city of Andijan.
Since then, President Islam Karimov's government and its human rights record have come under the spotlight, and the possibility that he will be the second Central Asian leader to be toppled this year has been raised.
The US, which has a military base in the country, and Russia argue that Karimov is a stabilising force, a bastion against the spread of Islamic extremism, and a valuable ally in the war on terror.
But Craig Murray, who was sacked in October 2004 as UK ambassador to Uzbekistan after he spoke out against rights abuses, says the Uzbek government is beyond the pale and the West should wash its hands of it.
In an interview with Aljazeera.net, London-based Murray predicts that Islam Karimov will maintain his position; but says Uzbekistan will continue to suffer internal violence as long as he is in charge.
Aljazeera.net: The Uzbek government has closed down the towns of Andijan and Korasuv amid reports of popular uprisings. What do you think is happening?
Craig Murray: The regime will be cracking down now as harshly as possible. They will probably just be arresting and shooting people. This is a hideous and ruthless regime, and the fact that they are closing down towns and not letting journalists in is an ominous sign.

From Scotland's Sunday Herald, Lori e-mails Trevor Royle's "Karimov escapes regime change as America pursues the 'great game'" which is also on Uzbekistan:

A GLANCE at the map confirms the strategic importance of Uzbekistan, not just in regional terms but also as it is viewed from Washington.
To the south and southwest are Afghanistan and Iran, a fact which inspired President Islam Karimov to push himself into contention as a useful ally in President Bush’s war on terror.
The US operates an air base with 1000 ground troops at Khanabad outside the Uzbek capital Tashkent. The former Soviet facility is used for operations in Afghanistan, and to date the US has supplied the country with some $800 million in military and humanitarian aid.
More to the point, Uzbekistan has a key role to play in supporting Washington’s wider interests. Khanabad is part of the ring of air force bases, or "lily pads" as defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld calls them, which are used to project US authority over the surrounding countries and keep a close watch on the oil and gas supply lines running through the Caucasus and old Soviet central Asian republics.
The most important of these is the Baku to Ceyhan pipeline, which runs from Azerbaijan through Nagorno-Karabakh and Georgia on to the Black Sea port of Ceyhan.
Small wonder then that the Bush administration has been so loath to criticise Karimov, apart from conceding that the US will be limiting operations from Khanabad during the present period of local unrest.
To re-use a well-worn US diplomatic cliché: Karimov may be a son-of-a-bitch, but at least he is our son-of-a-bitch.
As Craig Murray, formerly Britain’s ambassador to Uzbekistan, put it last week: "That strategic interest explains the recent signature of the US-Afghan strategic partnership agreement, as well as Bush's strong support for Karimov."

From The Economist, Alberto e-mails "The economy booms, the trees vanish:"

IF IT were simply a matter of passing strong laws to protect it, the Amazon rainforest--the world's largest tropical forest, around the size of western Europe--would be safe. Brazil, whose territory includes about two-thirds of the forest, has impressively tough laws that, on paper, set most of it aside as a nature reserve and impose stiff penalties for illegal logging. But the latest annual figures for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, published by the government on Wednesday May 18th, have confirmed a disturbing recent trend: the destruction is accelerating despite all efforts to curb it. In the year to August 2004, more than 26,000 square kilometres (10,000 square miles) of forest were chopped down, an area larger than the American state of New Jersey.
The area deforested in the past year was up 6% on 2003, far worse than the Brazilian government's predictions that it would rise by no more than about 2%. It was the second worst year for the destruction of the rainforest since satellite surveys began (see chart). It is reckoned that almost a fifth of the Brazilian part of the forest has now been wiped out; if it were to continue at this rate, it would all be flattened within the next two centuries. Things are hardly any better in those portions of Amazonia that lie in neighbouring countries: Ecuador has lost about half of its forest, mainly due to illegal logging, in the past 30 years. Worse, tropical forests have been disappearing at an even faster rate elsewhere in the world, such as in Africa. The world’s greatest stores of biodiversity--and some of its main suppliers of the oxygen we breathe--are still being chewed up at an alarming rate, despite decades of talk among world leaders and environmentalists about the need to preserve them.

Lewis e-mails to note Geoffrey Lean's "Revealed: health fears over secret study into GM food"
from The Independent:

Rats fed on a diet rich in genetically modified corn developed abnormalities to internal organs and changes to their blood, raising fears that human health could be affected by eating GM food.
The Independent on Sunday can today reveal details of secret research carried out by Monsanto, the GM food giant, which shows that rats fed the modified corn had smaller kidneys and variations in the composition of their blood.
According to the confidential 1,139-page report, these health problems were absent from another batch of rodents fed non-GM food as part of the research project.
The disclosures come as European countries, including Britain, prepare to vote on whether the GM-modified corn should go on sale to the public. A vote last week by the European Union failed to secure agreement over whether the product should be sold here, after Britain and nine other countries voted in favour.
However, the disclosure of the health effects on the Monsanto rats has intensified the row over whether the corn is safe to eat without further research. Doctors said the changes in the blood of the rodents could indicate that the rat's immune system had been damaged or that a disorder such as a tumour had grown and the system was mobilising to fight it.

From The Independent, we'll also note Ben Russell's "PM has 'lost the authority to persuade voters:'"

Tony Blair has lost the authority to persuade voters to back the European constitution, according to a large-scale study of public opinion.
Labour supporters are less likely to back the constitution if they are told the Prime Minister is endorsing the treaty, according to the research by academics responsible for a study of attitudes in the run-up to the general election.
Pro-Europeans said they feared that the referendum could turn into a vote of confidence in Mr Blair.
The team from Essex University released the findings from the British Election Study, which has charted the public mood in every general election since 1964. They found that 41 per cent of Labour supporters from a sample of voters would back the EU constitution when asked a neutral question about the treaty.

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

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Posted at 07:08 pm by thecommonills
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Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts

For those wanting to check out Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts comic, click here.

Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts focuses on the charm offensive the administration periodically sends Laura Bush out on. Condi: "We are slipping in the polls. Send in the Fem-Bot!" Laura: "Hello, freedom Lovers."

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

Posted at 04:35 am by thecommonills
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