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Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wednesday,
July 22, 2009. Chaos and violence continue, Barry O calls it
'progress,' 15% less Americans believe Barack's going to bring US
troops home from Iraq, during a House VA Subcommittee hearing US House
Rep John Adler tells a witness, " I'm thinking you're in a dream world
right now," and more. We'll start in the US for VA news. Brachytherapy is one treatment for prostate cancer. Walt Bogdanich (New York Times) explained
the treatment last month as: "a doctor implants dozens of radioactive
seeds to attack the disease." But at the VA Medical Center in
Pennsylvania, Bogdanich reported, Dr. Gary D. Kao's treatment resulted
in nearly all of the forty seeds ending up "in the patient's healthy
bladder, not the prosate." Instead of addressing it or Dr. Kao's other
problems, regulators who are supposed to oversea the VA allowed
creative records to be kept and Kao was allowed to rewrite what
happened, to hide his errors. The paper's investigation discovered "92
implant errors resulted from a systemwide failure in which none of the
safeguards that were supposed to protect veterans from poor medical
work worked". Josh Goldstein (Philadelphia Inquirer) reported
last month, "It took officials more than six years to catch the
mistakes, investigators said. When they were discovered last year, all
brachytherapy treatments at the hospital were halted and remain so."
That's some of the backstory. Today the House Veterans' Subcommittee
on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by US House Rep Harry
Mitchell, held a hearing entitled Enforcement of US Department of
Veterans Affair Bracytherapy Safety Standards. In his opening remarks,
Chair Mitchell observed: Brachytherapy
is a form of radio therapy, often used to treat prostate cancer, in
which radioactive seeds are placed inside or next to a patient's
malignancy. Failure to accurately place the radioactive seeds can
cause serious harm. To say that it is disturbing to learn that
veterans received bungled procedures and that safety protocols failed
to safeguard against such mistreatment would be an understatement. As
a result, we are hear today to examine system-wide safety standards for
these procedures to ensure that our veterans are receiving the best and
safest care available. Mitchell
explained that there were four VA brachytherapy programs which were
suspended (Cincinatti, Washington and Jackson, Mississippi) and that
"we know that Philadelphia was by far the worst." The hearing was
composed of three panels and the first panel had the witness of
greatest interest, Dr. Gary Kao who no longer works for the VA after
his repeated errors. In his opening statement, he decried "some very
serious false allegations that have appeared in the media about me" (in
his written statement he decries the reports on himself "in recent
publications, most notably the New York Times"). He sneared
at the term "92 botched cases" -- insisting this was a
mischaracterization and that reported incidents to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, the VA's radiation safety program, did not mean
"botched cases" or even that anything was wrong. Apparently, Dr. Kao
believes, it's just a little candy heart that says "BE MY VALENTINE" on
it. Kao apparently slid one over to the Ranking Member, US House Rep
Phil Roe (Republican), who decried the New York Times efforts
to "sensationalize" the issue. Roe apparently doesn't read, we've
cited two papers above, those were not the only ones reporting on the
problems. The first panel was Kao, Dr. Steven M
Hahn, Dr. Michael R. Bieda -- all of the University of Pennsylvania's
School of Medicine. Kao is offended that the "botched" incidents are
associated with him because he has never, ever had a medical
malpractice law suit against him. Damn lucky. Most doctors plant a
treatment in a liver by mistake (and botch the follow up procedure as
well), they'd be sued. When his colleague, Hahn, was offering his
opening remarks and got to wanting "to express my deppest regret that
prostate cancer patients receiving brachytherapy at the Philadelphia
Veterans Affairs Medical Center," Kao nearly dropped the pitcher he was
holding to pour himself a glass of water. For any wondering,
Kao expressed no such regret in his opening statements which were all
about (a) how great he was and (b) how wronged he'd been by the press.
He expressed no sadness or regret for any of the veterans harmed by the
'treatment' they received (eighty of the 92 botched cases were his,
according to statements made in the hearing by subcommittee members). Chair
Harry Mitchell: First can you please explain the quality of care
provided at the VA compared to the quality of care at other facilities
you've worked at? Dr.
Gary Kao: The-the brachytherapy procedure that we adopted at the VA
was, um, identical to the system that was used at uh-uh other -- at the
University of Pennsylvania and also, um, one of its satellites. Um,
and in my training, in fact, um, I went to observe, uh, brachytherapy
procedures performed in, um, our satellite in, um, in Trenton, New
Jersey. And, uh, as a resident, I-I was trained, um, in brachytherapy
by senior physicians at, uh, the University of Pennsylvania Chair Harry Mitchell: Uh, what quality of care matrix do other facilites follow? Dr.
Gary Kao: My-my understanding is that, um, the quality [long pause]
control -- the quality assurance procedures are similar in that a CT is
performed after the procedure and, uh, the symetry calculated, uh, from
that CT. Chair
Harry Mitchell: And the last one I have, what markers are red flags
when conducting the brachytherapy procedures indicated a problem? Dr.
Gary Kao: I-I now understand that, uh, [long pause] one-one of my
regrets is that, um, I could have been, um, much more assertive in
engaging the NRC in what it defines as a reportable medical event. Um,
at -- as a result of their investigation in 2003 and 2005, we-we were,
uh, under the understanding that the definition of a reportable medical
event was based on the number of seeds laying outside the prostate. Um,
subsequently, I-I-I, I wuh -- I was, um, I found out that that, uh, was
not the case, that the NRC, um, uh, apparently is now relying on a D90
metric and that is something that, um, to my regret, I-I could have
been much more, uh, much more [long pause] focused on using that
metric. It would take repeated
questioning and intense pressing of the issue for Kao to express any
regret at all for the patients he was supposed to be caring for. We'll
note US House the questioning from US House Rep John Adler (New Jersey). US
House Rep John Adler: I guess my first question is for Dr. Kao. We've
heard about, um, the closure of this program in June of 2008. We've
heard about possibly 92 cases out of 116 with some concern. Some of us
use the word "botched," you don't like that word. We've heard that the
National Health Physics program reported to the NRC at least 35 medical
events later in 2008. We heard Dr. Hahn just now acknowledge on behalf
of U Penn that not every -- not in every instance did every patient get
the best possible care. This program is still closed. You were running
this program. You were the principle operative of this program at the
VA in Philadelphia. How do you reconicle your view in your own
testimony here today that patients received appropriate medical care
with the VA's view that it made mistakes during this period of years,
with U Penn's recognition that not every patient got the best possible
care, um, with NHP and NRC saying there are medical events even in a
context where we probably don't define medical event suffientilly to
trigger reporting to the extent that we would want reporting? So let's
assume there's some under-reporting going on. Even with
under-reporting, we've got at least 35 instances from 2008, um,
reported about, over a period of time, a program you ran. I'm thinking
you're in a dream world right now. I'm thinking everybody else, all
the other experts, are looking at this and saying, he didn't go well
enough, that whether the number is 92 or less than 92, we want the
number to be zero botched cases. How do you reconcile your view that
every patient received appropriate medical care with the view of every
other expert, of every potential supervisor, every contracting body,
every regulatory body. Um, I kind of want to hear you acknowledge you
did things less well than you would have wanted to have done. Dr.
Gary Kao: Sir, I, um, I don't disagree with, um, many of the other
comments that-that were made. Uh, um, medicine is both an art and a
science and the art of it is that, uh, even though the treatment may be
effective it may be made to be even more optirmal essential, uh, theme
here is [long pause] uh, what -- what is defined as a reportable
medical event. An even -- a case that is a reportable medical event
does not mean that the patient was harmed or did not receive effective
treatment. Um, when the program was closed in 2008, we did not have
any confirmed cases of tumor recurrence. Um, the NRC itself recognizes
that a reportable medical event does not mean, uh, that -- does not
address the ethicacy of the treatment. So-so, uh, in summary, there
are -- I recognize there are many things -- several things that I could
have done better, uh, but I still believe that the patients received
the standard of care that was, um, in place at the time. US
House Rep John Adler: I'm just seeing it differently than you are, I
guess. I understand from some news reports that it was at least a
period of a year where you were not getting, um, post-implant
dosimetry information to guage whether the patients had the seeds
placed properly and that the seeds had stayed where you'd want them to
be. Is it true that there was a year where you did not have that
post-implant dosimetry information? Dr.
Gary Kao: It-it is true that [short pause] for a period of about 14
months there was a computer interface problem, uh, at the VA that, um,
although the CTs that could be performed after the brachytherapy but
that data could not be transmitted to the VariSeed work station used to
calculate the doses. During that time, I followed the chain of
command. I complained to radiation safety, to the chair of the
department, uh, and, uh, other members of the program did the same but
this problem was never fixed. I was then faced with the very difficult
choice of either stopping the program -- but if I had done so, then the
patients would not have received any care. As I mentioned earlier,
many of the patients who came to us, uh, did not have re- surgery or
other forms of radiation as a choice. So given the choice between
delivering no care and having their cancers progress or to p -- go
ahead and perform the procedure, I made that decision. I could still
see from the CT that the seeds were in the prostate and I could judge
that the seeds were concentrated around, uh, part of the prostate where
the cancer was located. So the -- these gave me a measure of
confidence that the patients were-were being appropriately treated but
it is -- you're correct, sir, that is one of my regrets that I should
have broken the chain of command, I should have been more assertive, I
should have stopped the program at that point. US
House Rep John Adler: What number would you say was the number of
patients who didn't get adequate care? The total you did was 116. Of
that number what would you say? I've heard numbers 57, 35 and 92.
What number would you say was the number? Dr.
Gary Kao: Sir, since 2008, I have not had access to the patient records
but I believe based on the calculations that our team performed before
it was shut down that the cases were far fewer, uh, and, um, probably
closer to, uh, 20 or uh-uh cases that were reported -- that were [short
pause] defined as medical-medical events. But-but-but again, what a
case that is defined as a medical event does not mean that the
treatment was not effective, sir. Throughout
the hearing, Kao repeatedly shot daggers at Hahn who, sincere or not,
stated what Kao refused to. Such as following the above when Hahn
interjected, "And let me just say that even if it were just one human
being who did not receive the best possible care, Congressman Adler,
that would be unacceptable." US House Rep Timothy Walz found Hahn
sincere and noted that in his remarks. The
second panel was composed of Dr. Paul Schyve of The Joint Commission,
Dr. Robert Lee (American Society for Radiation Oncology) and Steven A.
Reynolds (Nuclear Regulatory Commission). From that panel, we'll note
NRC's Steven Reynolds on the issue of medical event. Kao wanted to
repeatedly argue what the meaning was. The NRC is the one defining.
Reynolds explained that the term "misadministration" had been in use
prior to 2002 and was then replaced with "medical event." What does
that mean? He defined it as meaning "that the radioactive material or
the radiation from the material, was not delivered as directed by the
physician." That definition easily translates as "botched." When
something is "not delivered as directed by the physicians," it was
botched. The third panel was composed of
Joseph Williams Jr. (VA), Dr. Michael Hagan (VA), E. Lynn McGuire (VA),
Michael Moreland (VA), Richard Whittington (VA) and Kent Wallner
(VA). We're not noting titles. Reading off the non-medical titles of
one panelist, Chair Mitchell asked, "Can they put that all in a name
tag? Woo." Mr. Williams would lament that the Philadelphia VA "did not
deliver the intended dose". Today Petyon M. Craighill (ABC News) reports
on a new ABC News-Washington Post poll in which sixty-one percent of
respondents "say the United States is making significant progress
restoring civil order in Iraq". 'Progress' was Barack's key word at an
afternnon press conference, but we'll get to it. In the real world the
Chattanooga Times Free Press reports,
"The Cleveland, Tenn.-based 252nd Military Police Company of the
Tennessee National Guard is scheduled to depart on the first leg of an
upcoming Iraq deployment on Wednesday, July 29." A new AP-GfK Roper
poll finds a decrease in the number of respondents who believe Barack
will remove troops from Iraq -- 15% lower than the last poll. [PDF
format warning, click here
for the data breakdown.] 62% of respondents ranked "The Situation in
Iraq" as either "Extremely important" or "Very important." The poll
found an increase of five percent on the number of respondents who
disapprove of Barack's handling of the Iraq War. Is this increase a
result of angry right-wingers upset over Barack's so-called plan?
Maybe. But the respondents were asked if they believed Barack would
"remove most troops from Iraq?" In January, 83% of respondents said it
was likely and 15% said it was unlikely. The 83% who thought it was
coming has fallen to 68%. The number who believe it is not happening
has risen to 26%.
Bama
said there'd be days like this, Bama said, Bama said? Today puppet of
the occupation Nouri al-Maliki met with US celebrity in chief Barack
Obama at the White House today and the two took a few questions at the
Rose Garden. Barack declared the transition was going well for Iraqi
control of their own country -- "substantial progress" was his talking
point. He also said the resistance to the US occupation was winding
down: Violence continues to be down,
and Iraqis are taking responsibility for their future. This progress
has been made possible by the resilence of the Iraqi people and
security forces and also because of the extraordinary service of
American troops and civilians in Iraq. Now we're in the midst of a
full transition to Iraqi responsibility and to a comprehensive
partnership between the United States and Iraq based on mutual
interests and mutual respect. Yeah,
we've heard it all before. One thing we hadn't was Nouri saying "sons
and daughers." In Iraq, he just says "sons." (Which is why the Sons
Of Iraq program is so well known as opposed to the Daughters Of Iraq.)
In the US, desperate for more money and security, Nouri remembered
Iraqi women. For a moment. Violence is not
trending down in Iraq. Barack didn't know what the hell he was talking
about or he deliberatly lied. Starting in February, there was an
increase in violence and that has continued. Now you can lie like the
brass in the US military and point to the first two weeks of June --
and only those two weeks -- and say, "See, June's down." Two weeks is
not a month but CNN and assorted other news outlets forgot that and let
the claim be made repeatedly. In Februrary the increase begins and it
has continued to increase. That's reality. And when Iraq's Alsumaria
has the guts to report it, it's a real shame that US outlets --
supposedly publishing in a democracy with a free press that puts all
others to shame -- can't reveal that reality. Al Jazeera notes today,
"An estimated 437 Iraqis were killed in June, the highest death toll in
11 months, and the near daily attacks have continued in July." No
things are not smooth or progressing. (Barry wants the hydrocarbon law
-- no surprise, he's the third term of Bully Boy Bush.) In some of
today's reported violence . . . Bombings? Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports
a Baghdad roadside bombing which left nine people injured, a Baghdad
roadside bombing which left six people injured and a Baquba roadside
bombing which wounded a truck driver and claimed the life of "his
assistant." Shootings? Wait. Pilgrims shot dead? Let's drop back to Seinfeld, the episode entitled "The Alternate Side." Jerry: I don't understand, I made a reservation. Do you have my reservation? Clerk: Yes, we do. Unfortunately, we ran out of cars. Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation. Clerk: I know why we have reservations. Jerry:
I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how
to take the reservation, you just don't know how to hold the
reservation and that's really the most important part of the
reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them. The
pilgrimage wasn't over and there were more holy sites to visit. And
going further, a pilgrimage is what? Well, let's see. We leave our
homes to travel to a holy site. Do we then live at the holy site? No.
That would make us movers, not pilgrims. We return to our homes. So,
therefore, those in the press who were splashing in the waves of
Operation Happy Talk on Saturday and (falsely) claiming no one had died
and it was a huge success -- the pilgrimage wasn't over. Do they get
that now? Do you think they get it? With the shame facial of egg
dripping down their brows, do you think they get it? Really? Like
Jerry, I don't think they do. I really don't think that Mike Tharp or
Timothy Williams gets it. They were so eager to cry success. Dropping
back to yesterday, the US miltiary has announced an American convoy was
attacked and the the US military killed the attackers (two) as well as
one civilian. Chelsea J. Carter (AP) reports,
"An Iraqi police official gave a conflicting account, however, saying
four civilians -- a boy and three bus drivers -- were killed when U.S.
forces opened fire on the attackers near a bus station. He requested
anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media." Realities neither Nouri nor Barack dealt with at today's Rose Garden happening. Gina Chon (Wall St. Journal) observes
of Nouri, "Mostly unknown in Iraq, he returned after the U.S.
invasion." Yes, the cowardly exile, part of the group pushing for the
US to go to war with Iraq, was installed by the US. He does not
represent Iraqis and none of the leaders do. Even the ambassador to
Washington is one of those cowardly exiles who wouldn't fight for their
own country but were happy to do anything (including lying) to force
the Iraq War. Chon notes:
When
he returns to Baghdad, Mr. Maliki will face some of the biggest
challenges in his premiership. After months of relative calm, Iraq
suffered high-profile attacks as U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraqi
cities in June; on Tuesday, attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere killed at
least 18 people. Sharply lower oil prices, meanwhile, have imperiled
Iraq's ability to fund its security services and rebuilding efforts.
Even
some traditional allies are skeptical. Sheik Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer, a
senior member of the Shiite alliance that includes Mr. Maliki's party,
says the prime minister has improved security but hasn't attracted
needed investment.
"There's a man for each era," says Mr. Sagheer.
"For the next chapter, the focus needs to be on economic development.
And I think we need a different man for this job."The BBC cites
their correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse who "says that, behind the
optimistic talk about withdrawal, reduced violence and the increased
capabilities of Iraqi security forces, lie two facts - there are still
around 130,000 American troops inside Iraq, and fatal attacks remain an
everyday occurrence. He says the question is how to get American forces
out of Iraq by the end of 2011 without the security situation getting
any worse. Our correspondent says Iraqi reconciliation is key." Barack
claims he and Nouri discussed the issue of territorial boundaries
today. The biggest dispute there is oil-rich Kirkuk which is claimed
both by the KRG and by the central government in Baghdad. Saturday the
Kurdistan Regional Government holds their provincial and presidential
elections. In the backdrop is increased tensions between the KRG and
the central government in Baghdad over issues such as oil and disputed
territories. Andrew Lee Butters explores " Why Kurds vs. Arabs Could Be Iraq's Next Civil War" ( Time magazine): With
a projected capacity of about 40,000 barrels a day, the new oil
refinery inaugurated Saturday by the Kurdish regional government of
northern Iraq on Saturday is modest even by the standards of Iraq's
dilapidated oil industry. But its significance shouldn't be
underestimated: In Kurdish minds, the region's ability to refine the
oil it pumps is a vital step towards deepening its autonomy from the
Arab-majority remainder of Iraq. (Read "The Reasons Behind Big Oil Declining Iraq's Riches.")
Until
recently, Iraqi Kurdistan had no refineries of its own, and though the
area is sitting on a huge pool of oil, it had to rely on gasoline
supplies from elsewhere in Iraq, Turkey or Iran. Fearful of giving
Iraq's ethnic Kurdish minority any control over the country's most
precious resource, Saddam Hussein had not only declined to build
refineries in the region; he made sure Iraq's oil pipelines bypassed
Kurdish areas, and his army forcibly removed much of the Kurdish
population of from Kirkuk -- the most important oil producing area in
the north -- and repopulated the city with Arabs moved from the south. (Watch a video about the gas shortage in Iraq.) Since
Saddam's demise, however, the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG) is steadily developing an independent oil industry in northern
Iraq. It has discovered and begun to develop new oil fields inside its
boundaries, and entered production-sharing deals with foreign oil
companies made without the consent of the federal government in
Baghdad. Those deals have raised suspicions among Iraq's Arab-dominated
government that KRG is not simply taking on more of the prerogatives of
sovereign statehood, but is actually laying the economic infrastructure
for independence.
Meghan L. O'Sullivan, of the Bush administration, offers an angry rant against US Vice President Joe Biden at the Washington Post.
O'Sullivan grasps little of what she's writing on but, then again, she
worked in the Bush administration. (Biden's not pushing federalism in
Iraq at present. It is not the White House policy. If it becomes it, he
will gladly push it. Biden noted publicly that the Senate did not
support his plan. At which point, he dropped it. That was before he
dropped out of the race for the Democratic Party's presidential
nomination. But facts is hard and it's so much easier to distort.
Meghan learned all about that working for Bully Boy Bush.) Dan Senor
also worked for the Bush administration. He's Campbell Brown's husband.
They met in Baghdad. I'll join Elaine in noting this from his column at the Wall St. Journal: Providing
the Kurds with a protected region made perfect moral and geopolitical
sense. Saddam had repeatedly attempted genocidal campaigns against
them: the Anfal depopulation campaign in 1987-88, in which the Baathist
regime killed or expelled hundreds of thousands of Kurds; the expulsion
of thousands of Fayli (Shiite) Kurds from northern Iraq into Iran; and
the 1988 slaughter of 5,000 Kurds with chemical weapons in
Halabja. In
April 2003, the peshmerga helped the U.S. fight Saddam -- not just in
the Kurdish area but also south of the Green Line. When it came to
Kirkuk, however, the Kurds moved in during the war and never left. With
Saddam gone, the Kurds quickly set up Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)
offices in the city and began to establish facts on the
ground. From
the Kurdish point of view, all this was natural and just. Before
Saddam's brutal expulsions during his Arabization campaign, Kirkuk had
a Kurdish majority.Iraq's
post-Saddam interim constitution -- which we in the Coalition
Provisional Authority helped the Iraqis draft -- recognized Kurdish
authority only over the territories that the Kurds controlled before
the fall of the regime. The permanent Iraqi Constitution went a step
further in requiring a referendum to determine the future status of
Kirkuk. While both articles clearly left Kirkuk outside the
jurisdiction of the KRG in the near term, the language also conceded
that Kirkuk and other nearby areas were "disputed territories." In the
eyes of the Kurds, this ambiguity left the door open. Please
note that neither former Bush devotee found time to address the
previous administration's refusal to address the issue which is why it
is now even worse than it was before. The
Times asked how , in light of the withdrawal of American forces from
cities, the U.S. Embassy would be able to promote reconciliation with
the Sunni Awakening movement and armed groups that had stopped fighting
the Iraqi government and the U.S. military since 2007.
Hill:
I think the role of the United States is very much respected in this
country. That doesn't mean it is universally liked, but it is very much
respected. Having been an American diplomat for 32 years, I have tended
to or usually found a willingness on the part of political groups to
listen to what I or my colleagues have to offer. I don't think you have
to be in the U.S. military to have people listen to you, because I
think they correctly understand that we are also representing the
United States. You ask what I assume to be an almost logistical
question. Are we out there, are we in touch with people? The U.S.
civilian authorities here . . . have something called provincial
reconstruction teams [PRTs] which are located throughout the country.
We have some 28 PRTs. Obviously we will be looking at how we configure
PRTs in light of the eventual drawdown of U.S. troops, even outside of
the cities and to determine how that will affect PRT operations. But
certainly in the meantime, we have an unprecedented number of U.S.
diplomats who are out among the people throughout the country. I don't
think we'll have a problem reaching people. I think the issue will be
whether some of these rejectionist groups, who probably consider us
part of the problem in the first place, whether they will listen to a
plea to join in the political process.
The
Times asked whether the ambassador thinks U.S. officials in Iraq will
be listened to by the Iraqi government on issues of freedom of speech,
human rights and power-sharing in government, now that the United
States has begun to withdraw troops from Iraq.
Hill:
I don't think you need to have necessarily 130,000 troops in a country
to remind a politician of the need to observe human rights and respect
the rule of law. . . . A country like Iraq that wants to join the
international community and reverse several decades of recent history
understands that the price of admission into that international
community is quite often respect for international norms of human
rights. I don't think it's necessarily for American diplomats to sell
some kind of American form of human rights, but rather to be helpful to
the government, in this case in Iraq, to be helpful in seeing if they
can implement some international norms that will make them an equal
member of the international community. What you need there is not so
much troops as experience and a certain amount of patience, and
certainly an understanding of how these issues need to be addressed in
the world. Monday, US Secretary Robert
Gates was running from reality as well. He held a press conference
with Adm Mike Mullen to announce the expansion of the US Army and to
refute Ernesto Londono report " U.S. Troops in Iraq Find Little Leeway" ( Washington Post)
from earlier in the morning. Not only was Londono's report correct,
other reporters are covering the issue -- more press conferences
needed, Gates! Oliver August (Times of London) addresses the issue: When
American troops pulled out of Iraqi cities this month they did not
realise quite how final their departure would be. The Iraqi military
has since barred them from re-entering areas they previously controlled
and all but locked them out of towns and cities. US
convoys can no longer pass through checkpoints in Baghdad without prior
approval and an Iraqi escort. American night-time raids in pursuit of
insurgents have also been curtailed by Iraqi officials who gained the
right to veto all such missions on July 1. In several cases, the Iraqis took action themselves; in others the suspected insurgents slipped away.
In legal news, Gina Cavallaro (Army Times) reports
that US Sgt Joseph Bozeicevich did not enter a plea at his Fort Smith
arraignment yesterday: "Bozicevich, 39, is accused of killing his squad
leader, Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson, and his fellow team leader Sgt.
Wesley Durbin on a patrol base sout of Baghdad on Sept. 14." Russ Bynum (AP) notes that a trial date was set, March 29th. Military propaganda makes it on air in the US and is disguised as news. At
least two Wisconsin TV stations have aired military propaganda with one
putting their own reporter over it (Jeff Alexander) to read the
military's copy. Madison Wisconsin's WKOWTV offers a pure propangada look (video report)
at the US run Iraqi prision Camp Cropper. It tells you that terrorists
and criminals are in the prison. It forgets to tell you that no one's
been tried. It forgets to tell you that at least six prisoners have
died or that the Red Cross has documented abuses at the prison. But it
does run it as is. Meaning the report ends with the announcer of the
footage declaring, "Army Sgt. Frank Morello, Joint Area Support Group, Public Affairs." An
ABC affiliate wanted to air the propaganda but they wanted to present
it as a news report created within the station. What to do, what to do?
Oh, I know! Let's take Morello's exact words and let's have our own
Jeff Alexander read them. Let's have him step before the camera in the
studio and then go to the military's footage while Jeff narrates, then
we'll cut to him at the end and he'll do a wrap up and we'll let
viewers think that Jeff actually reported this. As opposed to letting
them know that the footage and every word spoken was from the US
military. Which is how Green Bay's WBAY promotes
the propagndad insisting, as they toss to Jeff, that this is "a rare
behind the scenes look at their mission is our top story on Action Two
News at Four." Their top story is one they didn't even film? Their top
story is one they didn't even write? How pathetic is WBAY and where do
they get off lying to viewers?
They've put Jeff Alexander's
voice over on top of Morello's and presented this as their own report.
That's outrageous. That's shameful and it violates every rule of
journalism. Jeff Alexander, as the on air, should be fired as should
every one responsible for that segment making it on air and an on-air
apology should be made to viewers.
These aren't the only two
stations airing this. You should look for it if you're in Wisconsin,
this 'inside look' at Camp Cropper. Fox 11 at least had the good sense to state before airing the footage that it was produced by the US military, "Tuesday the military released video of the Camp Cropper, along with interviews from some Wisconsin soldiers working there. "
They should have noted, however, that their own Becky DeVries was
reading the copy that the US military wrote with just a few variations. AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS FOR US On Monday morning, I was pleased to be a guest on Democracy Now talking about Walter Cronkite's support for MediaChannel.org and playing clips of his criticism of the demise of journalism. It was great that Amy Goodman
plugged MediaChannel and showed the website. Unfortunately, if you have
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We have, in effect, vanished.
It
appears that a hacker was able to get into our database and temporarily
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Reply to: Dissector@mediachannel.org
Until Media Channel is back online, Danny Schechter has an essay on the economy at ZNet and also this commentary.
Posted at 03:38 pm by thecommonills
Permalink
Wednesday,
July 22, 2009. Chaos and violence continue, Barry O calls it
'progress,' 15% less Americans believe Barack's going to bring US
troops home from Iraq, during a House VA Subcommittee hearing US House
Rep John Adler tells a witness, " I'm thinking you're in a dream world
right now," and more. We'll start in the US for VA news. Brachytherapy is one treatment for prostate cancer. Walt Bogdanich (New York Times) explained
the treatment last month as: "a doctor implants dozens of radioactive
seeds to attack the disease." But at the VA Medical Center in
Pennsylvania, Bogdanich reported, Dr. Gary D. Kao's treatment resulted
in nearly all of the forty seeds ending up "in the patient's healthy
bladder, not the prosate." Instead of addressing it or Dr. Kao's other
problems, regulators who are supposed to oversea the VA allowed
creative records to be kept and Kao was allowed to rewrite what
happened, to hide his errors. The paper's investigation discovered "92
implant errors resulted from a systemwide failure in which none of the
safeguards that were supposed to protect veterans from poor medical
work worked". Josh Goldstein (Philadelphia Inquirer) reported
last month, "It took officials more than six years to catch the
mistakes, investigators said. When they were discovered last year, all
brachytherapy treatments at the hospital were halted and remain so."
That's some of the backstory. Today the House Veterans' Subcommittee
on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by US House Rep Harry
Mitchell, held a hearing entitled Enforcement of US Department of
Veterans Affair Bracytherapy Safety Standards. In his opening remarks,
Chair Mitchell observed: Brachytherapy
is a form of radio therapy, often used to treat prostate cancer, in
which radioactive seeds are placed inside or next to a patient's
malignancy. Failure to accurately place the radioactive seeds can
cause serious harm. To say that it is disturbing to learn that
veterans received bungled procedures and that safety protocols failed
to safeguard against such mistreatment would be an understatement. As
a result, we are hear today to examine system-wide safety standards for
these procedures to ensure that our veterans are receiving the best and
safest care available. Mitchell
explained that there were four VA brachytherapy programs which were
suspended (Cincinatti, Washington and Jackson, Mississippi) and that
"we know that Philadelphia was by far the worst." The hearing was
composed of three panels and the first panel had the witness of
greatest interest, Dr. Gary Kao who no longer works for the VA after
his repeated errors. In his opening statement, he decried "some very
serious false allegations that have appeared in the media about me" (in
his written statement he decries the reports on himself "in recent
publications, most notably the New York Times"). He sneared
at the term "92 botched cases" -- insisting this was a
mischaracterization and that reported incidents to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, the VA's radiation safety program, did not mean
"botched cases" or even that anything was wrong. Apparently, Dr. Kao
believes, it's just a little candy heart that says "BE MY VALENTINE" on
it. Kao apparently slid one over to the Ranking Member, US House Rep
Phil Roe (Republican), who decried the New York Times efforts
to "sensationalize" the issue. Roe apparently doesn't read, we've
cited two papers above, those were not the only ones reporting on the
problems. The first panel was Kao, Dr. Steven M
Hahn, Dr. Michael R. Bieda -- all of the University of Pennsylvania's
School of Medicine. Kao is offended that the "botched" incidents are
associated with him because he has never, ever had a medical
malpractice law suit against him. Damn lucky. Most doctors plant a
treatment in a liver by mistake (and botch the follow up procedure as
well), they'd be sued. When his colleague, Hahn, was offering his
opening remarks and got to wanting "to express my deppest regret that
prostate cancer patients receiving brachytherapy at the Philadelphia
Veterans Affairs Medical Center," Kao nearly dropped the pitcher he was
holding to pour himself a glass of water. For any wondering,
Kao expressed no such regret in his opening statements which were all
about (a) how great he was and (b) how wronged he'd been by the press.
He expressed no sadness or regret for any of the veterans harmed by the
'treatment' they received (eighty of the 92 botched cases were his,
according to statements made in the hearing by subcommittee members). Chair
Harry Mitchell: First can you please explain the quality of care
provided at the VA compared to the quality of care at other facilities
you've worked at? Dr.
Gary Kao: The-the brachytherapy procedure that we adopted at the VA
was, um, identical to the system that was used at uh-uh other -- at the
University of Pennsylvania and also, um, one of its satellites. Um,
and in my training, in fact, um, I went to observe, uh, brachytherapy
procedures performed in, um, our satellite in, um, in Trenton, New
Jersey. And, uh, as a resident, I-I was trained, um, in brachytherapy
by senior physicians at, uh, the University of Pennsylvania Chair Harry Mitchell: Uh, what quality of care matrix do other facilites follow? Dr.
Gary Kao: My-my understanding is that, um, the quality [long pause]
control -- the quality assurance procedures are similar in that a CT is
performed after the procedure and, uh, the symetry calculated, uh, from
that CT. Chair
Harry Mitchell: And the last one I have, what markers are red flags
when conducting the brachytherapy procedures indicated a problem? Dr.
Gary Kao: I-I now understand that, uh, [long pause] one-one of my
regrets is that, um, I could have been, um, much more assertive in
engaging the NRC in what it defines as a reportable medical event. Um,
at -- as a result of their investigation in 2003 and 2005, we-we were,
uh, under the understanding that the definition of a reportable medical
event was based on the number of seeds laying outside the prostate. Um,
subsequently, I-I-I, I wuh -- I was, um, I found out that that, uh, was
not the case, that the NRC, um, uh, apparently is now relying on a D90
metric and that is something that, um, to my regret, I-I could have
been much more, uh, much more [long pause] focused on using that
metric. It would take repeated
questioning and intense pressing of the issue for Kao to express any
regret at all for the patients he was supposed to be caring for. We'll
note US House the questioning from US House Rep John Adler (New Jersey). US
House Rep John Adler: I guess my first question is for Dr. Kao. We've
heard about, um, the closure of this program in June of 2008. We've
heard about possibly 92 cases out of 116 with some concern. Some of us
use the word "botched," you don't like that word. We've heard that the
National Health Physics program reported to the NRC at least 35 medical
events later in 2008. We heard Dr. Hahn just now acknowledge on behalf
of U Penn that not every -- not in every instance did every patient get
the best possible care. This program is still closed. You were running
this program. You were the principle operative of this program at the
VA in Philadelphia. How do you reconicle your view in your own
testimony here today that patients received appropriate medical care
with the VA's view that it made mistakes during this period of years,
with U Penn's recognition that not every patient got the best possible
care, um, with NHP and NRC saying there are medical events even in a
context where we probably don't define medical event suffientilly to
trigger reporting to the extent that we would want reporting? So let's
assume there's some under-reporting going on. Even with
under-reporting, we've got at least 35 instances from 2008, um,
reported about, over a period of time, a program you ran. I'm thinking
you're in a dream world right now. I'm thinking everybody else, all
the other experts, are looking at this and saying, he didn't go well
enough, that whether the number is 92 or less than 92, we want the
number to be zero botched cases. How do you reconcile your view that
every patient received appropriate medical care with the view of every
other expert, of every potential supervisor, every contracting body,
every regulatory body. Um, I kind of want to hear you acknowledge you
did things less well than you would have wanted to have done. Dr.
Gary Kao: Sir, I, um, I don't disagree with, um, many of the other
comments that-that were made. Uh, um, medicine is both an art and a
science and the art of it is that, uh, even though the treatment may be
effective it may be made to be even more optirmal essential, uh, theme
here is [long pause] uh, what -- what is defined as a reportable
medical event. An even -- a case that is a reportable medical event
does not mean that the patient was harmed or did not receive effective
treatment. Um, when the program was closed in 2008, we did not have
any confirmed cases of tumor recurrence. Um, the NRC itself recognizes
that a reportable medical event does not mean, uh, that -- does not
address the ethicacy of the treatment. So-so, uh, in summary, there
are -- I recognize there are many things -- several things that I could
have done better, uh, but I still believe that the patients received
the standard of care that was, um, in place at the time. US
House Rep John Adler: I'm just seeing it differently than you are, I
guess. I understand from some news reports that it was at least a
period of a year where you were not getting, um, post-implant
dosimetry information to guage whether the patients had the seeds
placed properly and that the seeds had stayed where you'd want them to
be. Is it true that there was a year where you did not have that
post-implant dosimetry information? Dr.
Gary Kao: It-it is true that [short pause] for a period of about 14
months there was a computer interface problem, uh, at the VA that, um,
although the CTs that could be performed after the brachytherapy but
that data could not be transmitted to the VariSeed work station used to
calculate the doses. During that time, I followed the chain of
command. I complained to radiation safety, to the chair of the
department, uh, and, uh, other members of the program did the same but
this problem was never fixed. I was then faced with the very difficult
choice of either stopping the program -- but if I had done so, then the
patients would not have received any care. As I mentioned earlier,
many of the patients who came to us, uh, did not have re- surgery or
other forms of radiation as a choice. So given the choice between
delivering no care and having their cancers progress or to p -- go
ahead and perform the procedure, I made that decision. I could still
see from the CT that the seeds were in the prostate and I could judge
that the seeds were concentrated around, uh, part of the prostate where
the cancer was located. So the -- these gave me a measure of
confidence that the patients were-were being appropriately treated but
it is -- you're correct, sir, that is one of my regrets that I should
have broken the chain of command, I should have been more assertive, I
should have stopped the program at that point. US
House Rep John Adler: What number would you say was the number of
patients who didn't get adequate care? The total you did was 116. Of
that number what would you say? I've heard numbers 57, 35 and 92.
What number would you say was the number? Dr.
Gary Kao: Sir, since 2008, I have not had access to the patient records
but I believe based on the calculations that our team performed before
it was shut down that the cases were far fewer, uh, and, um, probably
closer to, uh, 20 or uh-uh cases that were reported -- that were [short
pause] defined as medical-medical events. But-but-but again, what a
case that is defined as a medical event does not mean that the
treatment was not effective, sir. Throughout
the hearing, Kao repeatedly shot daggers at Hahn who, sincere or not,
stated what Kao refused to. Such as following the above when Hahn
interjected, "And let me just say that even if it were just one human
being who did not receive the best possible care, Congressman Adler,
that would be unacceptable." US House Rep Timothy Walz found Hahn
sincere and noted that in his remarks. The
second panel was composed of Dr. Paul Schyve of The Joint Commission,
Dr. Robert Lee (American Society for Radiation Oncology) and Steven A.
Reynolds (Nuclear Regulatory Commission). From that panel, we'll note
NRC's Steven Reynolds on the issue of medical event. Kao wanted to
repeatedly argue what the meaning was. The NRC is the one defining.
Reynolds explained that the term "misadministration" had been in use
prior to 2002 and was then replaced with "medical event." What does
that mean? He defined it as meaning "that the radioactive material or
the radiation from the material, was not delivered as directed by the
physician." That definition easily translates as "botched." When
something is "not delivered as directed by the physicians," it was
botched. The third panel was composed of
Joseph Williams Jr. (VA), Dr. Michael Hagan (VA), E. Lynn McGuire (VA),
Michael Moreland (VA), Richard Whittington (VA) and Kent Wallner
(VA). We're not noting titles. Reading off the non-medical titles of
one panelist, Chair Mitchell asked, "Can they put that all in a name
tag? Woo." Mr. Williams would lament that the Philadelphia VA "did not
deliver the intended dose". Today Petyon M. Craighill (ABC News) reports
on a new ABC News-Washington Post poll in which sixty-one percent of
respondents "say the United States is making significant progress
restoring civil order in Iraq". 'Progress' was Barack's key word at an
afternnon press conference, but we'll get to it. In the real world the
Chattanooga Times Free Press reports,
"The Cleveland, Tenn.-based 252nd Military Police Company of the
Tennessee National Guard is scheduled to depart on the first leg of an
upcoming Iraq deployment on Wednesday, July 29." A new AP-GfK Roper
poll finds a decrease in the number of respondents who believe Barack
will remove troops from Iraq -- 15% lower than the last poll. [PDF
format warning, click here
for the data breakdown.] 62% of respondents ranked "The Situation in
Iraq" as either "Extremely important" or "Very important." The poll
found an increase of five percent on the number of respondents who
disapprove of Barack's handling of the Iraq War. Is this increase a
result of angry right-wingers upset over Barack's so-called plan?
Maybe. But the respondents were asked if they believed Barack would
"remove most troops from Iraq?" In January, 83% of respondents said it
was likely and 15% said it was unlikely. The 83% who thought it was
coming has fallen to 68%. The number who believe it is not happening
has risen to 26%.
Bama
said there'd be days like this, Bama said, Bama said? Today puppet of
the occupation Nouri al-Maliki met with US celebrity in chief Barack
Obama at the White House today and the two took a few questions at the
Rose Garden. Barack declared the transition was going well for Iraqi
control of their own country -- "substantial progress" was his talking
point. He also said the resistance to the US occupation was winding
down: Violence continues to be down,
and Iraqis are taking responsibility for their future. This progress
has been made possible by the resilence of the Iraqi people and
security forces and also because of the extraordinary service of
American troops and civilians in Iraq. Now we're in the midst of a
full transition to Iraqi responsibility and to a comprehensive
partnership between the United States and Iraq based on mutual
interests and mutual respect. Yeah,
we've heard it all before. One thing we hadn't was Nouri saying "sons
and daughers." In Iraq, he just says "sons." (Which is why the Sons
Of Iraq program is so well known as opposed to the Daughters Of Iraq.)
In the US, desperate for more money and security, Nouri remembered
Iraqi women. For a moment. Violence is not
trending down in Iraq. Barack didn't know what the hell he was talking
about or he deliberatly lied. Starting in February, there was an
increase in violence and that has continued. Now you can lie like the
brass in the US military and point to the first two weeks of June --
and only those two weeks -- and say, "See, June's down." Two weeks is
not a month but CNN and assorted other news outlets forgot that and let
the claim be made repeatedly. In Februrary the increase begins and it
has continued to increase. That's reality. And when Iraq's Alsumaria
has the guts to report it, it's a real shame that US outlets --
supposedly publishing in a democracy with a free press that puts all
others to shame -- can't reveal that reality. Al Jazeera notes today,
"An estimated 437 Iraqis were killed in June, the highest death toll in
11 months, and the near daily attacks have continued in July." No
things are not smooth or progressing. (Barry wants the hydrocarbon law
-- no surprise, he's the third term of Bully Boy Bush.) In some of
today's reported violence . . . Bombings? Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports
a Baghdad roadside bombing which left nine people injured, a Baghdad
roadside bombing which left six people injured and a Baquba roadside
bombing which wounded a truck driver and claimed the life of "his
assistant." Shootings? Wait. Pilgrims shot dead? Let's drop back to Seinfeld, the episode entitled "The Alternate Side." Jerry: I don't understand, I made a reservation. Do you have my reservation? Clerk: Yes, we do. Unfortunately, we ran out of cars. Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation. Clerk: I know why we have reservations. Jerry:
I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how
to take the reservation, you just don't know how to hold the
reservation and that's really the most important part of the
reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them. The
pilgrimage wasn't over and there were more holy sites to visit. And
going further, a pilgrimage is what? Well, let's see. We leave our
homes to travel to a holy site. Do we then live at the holy site? No.
That would make us movers, not pilgrims. We return to our homes. So,
therefore, those in the press who were splashing in the waves of
Operation Happy Talk on Saturday and (falsely) claiming no one had died
and it was a huge success -- the pilgrimage wasn't over. Do they get
that now? Do you think they get it? With the shame facial of egg
dripping down their brows, do you think they get it? Really? Like
Jerry, I don't think they do. I really don't think that Mike Tharp or
Timothy Williams gets it. They were so eager to cry success. Dropping
back to yesterday, the US miltiary has announced an American convoy was
attacked and the the US military killed the attackers (two) as well as
one civilian. Chelsea J. Carter (AP) reports,
"An Iraqi police official gave a conflicting account, however, saying
four civilians -- a boy and three bus drivers -- were killed when U.S.
forces opened fire on the attackers near a bus station. He requested
anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media." Realities neither Nouri nor Barack dealt with at today's Rose Garden happening. Gina Chon (Wall St. Journal) observes
of Nouri, "Mostly unknown in Iraq, he returned after the U.S.
invasion." Yes, the cowardly exile, part of the group pushing for the
US to go to war with Iraq, was installed by the US. He does not
represent Iraqis and none of the leaders do. Even the ambassador to
Washington is one of those cowardly exiles who wouldn't fight for their
own country but were happy to do anything (including lying) to force
the Iraq War. Chon notes:
When
he returns to Baghdad, Mr. Maliki will face some of the biggest
challenges in his premiership. After months of relative calm, Iraq
suffered high-profile attacks as U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraqi
cities in June; on Tuesday, attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere killed at
least 18 people. Sharply lower oil prices, meanwhile, have imperiled
Iraq's ability to fund its security services and rebuilding efforts.
Even
some traditional allies are skeptical. Sheik Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer, a
senior member of the Shiite alliance that includes Mr. Maliki's party,
says the prime minister has improved security but hasn't attracted
needed investment.
"There's a man for each era," says Mr. Sagheer.
"For the next chapter, the focus needs to be on economic development.
And I think we need a different man for this job."The BBC cites
their correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse who "says that, behind the
optimistic talk about withdrawal, reduced violence and the increased
capabilities of Iraqi security forces, lie two facts - there are still
around 130,000 American troops inside Iraq, and fatal attacks remain an
everyday occurrence. He says the question is how to get American forces
out of Iraq by the end of 2011 without the security situation getting
any worse. Our correspondent says Iraqi reconciliation is key." Barack
claims he and Nouri discussed the issue of territorial boundaries
today. The biggest dispute there is oil-rich Kirkuk which is claimed
both by the KRG and by the central government in Baghdad. Saturday the
Kurdistan Regional Government holds their provincial and presidential
elections. In the backdrop is increased tensions between the KRG and
the central government in Baghdad over issues such as oil and disputed
territories. Andrew Lee Butters explores " Why Kurds vs. Arabs Could Be Iraq's Next Civil War" ( Time magazine): With
a projected capacity of about 40,000 barrels a day, the new oil
refinery inaugurated Saturday by the Kurdish regional government of
northern Iraq on Saturday is modest even by the standards of Iraq's
dilapidated oil industry. But its significance shouldn't be
underestimated: In Kurdish minds, the region's ability to refine the
oil it pumps is a vital step towards deepening its autonomy from the
Arab-majority remainder of Iraq. (Read "The Reasons Behind Big Oil Declining Iraq's Riches.")
Until
recently, Iraqi Kurdistan had no refineries of its own, and though the
area is sitting on a huge pool of oil, it had to rely on gasoline
supplies from elsewhere in Iraq, Turkey or Iran. Fearful of giving
Iraq's ethnic Kurdish minority any control over the country's most
precious resource, Saddam Hussein had not only declined to build
refineries in the region; he made sure Iraq's oil pipelines bypassed
Kurdish areas, and his army forcibly removed much of the Kurdish
population of from Kirkuk -- the most important oil producing area in
the north -- and repopulated the city with Arabs moved from the south. (Watch a video about the gas shortage in Iraq.) Since
Saddam's demise, however, the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG) is steadily developing an independent oil industry in northern
Iraq. It has discovered and begun to develop new oil fields inside its
boundaries, and entered production-sharing deals with foreign oil
companies made without the consent of the federal government in
Baghdad. Those deals have raised suspicions among Iraq's Arab-dominated
government that KRG is not simply taking on more of the prerogatives of
sovereign statehood, but is actually laying the economic infrastructure
for independence.
Meghan L. O'Sullivan, of the Bush administration, offers an angry rant against US Vice President Joe Biden at the Washington Post.
O'Sullivan grasps little of what she's writing on but, then again, she
worked in the Bush administration. (Biden's not pushing federalism in
Iraq at present. It is not the White House policy. If it becomes it, he
will gladly push it. Biden noted publicly that the Senate did not
support his plan. At which point, he dropped it. That was before he
dropped out of the race for the Democratic Party's presidential
nomination. But facts is hard and it's so much easier to distort.
Meghan learned all about that working for Bully Boy Bush.) Dan Senor
also worked for the Bush administration. He's Campbell Brown's husband.
They met in Baghdad. I'll join Elaine in noting this from his column at the Wall St. Journal: Providing
the Kurds with a protected region made perfect moral and geopolitical
sense. Saddam had repeatedly attempted genocidal campaigns against
them: the Anfal depopulation campaign in 1987-88, in which the Baathist
regime killed or expelled hundreds of thousands of Kurds; the expulsion
of thousands of Fayli (Shiite) Kurds from northern Iraq into Iran; and
the 1988 slaughter of 5,000 Kurds with chemical weapons in
Halabja. In
April 2003, the peshmerga helped the U.S. fight Saddam -- not just in
the Kurdish area but also south of the Green Line. When it came to
Kirkuk, however, the Kurds moved in during the war and never left. With
Saddam gone, the Kurds quickly set up Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)
offices in the city and began to establish facts on the
ground. From
the Kurdish point of view, all this was natural and just. Before
Saddam's brutal expulsions during his Arabization campaign, Kirkuk had
a Kurdish majority.Iraq's
post-Saddam interim constitution -- which we in the Coalition
Provisional Authority helped the Iraqis draft -- recognized Kurdish
authority only over the territories that the Kurds controlled before
the fall of the regime. The permanent Iraqi Constitution went a step
further in requiring a referendum to determine the future status of
Kirkuk. While both articles clearly left Kirkuk outside the
jurisdiction of the KRG in the near term, the language also conceded
that Kirkuk and other nearby areas were "disputed territories." In the
eyes of the Kurds, this ambiguity left the door open. Please
note that neither former Bush devotee found time to address the
previous administration's refusal to address the issue which is why it
is now even worse than it was before. The
Times asked how , in light of the withdrawal of American forces from
cities, the U.S. Embassy would be able to promote reconciliation with
the Sunni Awakening movement and armed groups that had stopped fighting
the Iraqi government and the U.S. military since 2007.
Hill:
I think the role of the United States is very much respected in this
country. That doesn't mean it is universally liked, but it is very much
respected. Having been an American diplomat for 32 years, I have tended
to or usually found a willingness on the part of political groups to
listen to what I or my colleagues have to offer. I don't think you have
to be in the U.S. military to have people listen to you, because I
think they correctly understand that we are also representing the
United States. You ask what I assume to be an almost logistical
question. Are we out there, are we in touch with people? The U.S.
civilian authorities here . . . have something called provincial
reconstruction teams [PRTs] which are located throughout the country.
We have some 28 PRTs. Obviously we will be looking at how we configure
PRTs in light of the eventual drawdown of U.S. troops, even outside of
the cities and to determine how that will affect PRT operations. But
certainly in the meantime, we have an unprecedented number of U.S.
diplomats who are out among the people throughout the country. I don't
think we'll have a problem reaching people. I think the issue will be
whether some of these rejectionist groups, who probably consider us
part of the problem in the first place, whether they will listen to a
plea to join in the political process.
The
Times asked whether the ambassador thinks U.S. officials in Iraq will
be listened to by the Iraqi government on issues of freedom of speech,
human rights and power-sharing in government, now that the United
States has begun to withdraw troops from Iraq.
Hill:
I don't think you need to have necessarily 130,000 troops in a country
to remind a politician of the need to observe human rights and respect
the rule of law. . . . A country like Iraq that wants to join the
international community and reverse several decades of recent history
understands that the price of admission into that international
community is quite often respect for international norms of human
rights. I don't think it's necessarily for American diplomats to sell
some kind of American form of human rights, but rather to be helpful to
the government, in this case in Iraq, to be helpful in seeing if they
can implement some international norms that will make them an equal
member of the international community. What you need there is not so
much troops as experience and a certain amount of patience, and
certainly an understanding of how these issues need to be addressed in
the world. Monday, US Secretary Robert
Gates was running from reality as well. He held a press conference
with Adm Mike Mullen to announce the expansion of the US Army and to
refute Ernesto Londono report " U.S. Troops in Iraq Find Little Leeway" ( Washington Post)
from earlier in the morning. Not only was Londono's report correct,
other reporters are covering the issue -- more press conferences
needed, Gates! Oliver August (Times of London) addresses the issue: When
American troops pulled out of Iraqi cities this month they did not
realise quite how final their departure would be. The Iraqi military
has since barred them from re-entering areas they previously controlled
and all but locked them out of towns and cities. US
convoys can no longer pass through checkpoints in Baghdad without prior
approval and an Iraqi escort. American night-time raids in pursuit of
insurgents have also been curtailed by Iraqi officials who gained the
right to veto all such missions on July 1. In several cases, the Iraqis took action themselves; in others the suspected insurgents slipped away.
In legal news, Gina Cavallaro (Army Times) reports
that US Sgt Joseph Bozeicevich did not enter a plea at his Fort Smith
arraignment yesterday: "Bozicevich, 39, is accused of killing his squad
leader, Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson, and his fellow team leader Sgt.
Wesley Durbin on a patrol base sout of Baghdad on Sept. 14." Russ Bynum (AP) notes that a trial date was set, March 29th. AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS FOR US On Monday morning, I was pleased to be a guest on Democracy Now talking about Walter Cronkite's support for MediaChannel.org and playing clips of his criticism of the demise of journalism. It was great that Amy Goodman
plugged MediaChannel and showed the website. Unfortunately, if you have
been trying to visit the site since then, you have found that our
server is down.
We have, in effect, vanished.
It
appears that a hacker was able to get into our database and temporarily
shut us down. We are in the process of restoring our sites, upgrading
security and server software, but at a cost we cannot afford. Will you
help us offset some of these costs by making a tax deductible donation
to keep MediaChannel going and growing, and help us improve our
technical capabilities to fight off hostile hackers - before we are
permanently shut down! SOS (Save Our Site) Please donate via paypal or make your donation with a check made out to:
The Global Center (write "for Mediachannel" on the memo line of your check)
575 8th Avenue, #2200
NY, NY 10018
P.S.
Please
look out for a MediaChannel 2.0 survey that we will be sending out
soon. The first 50 people to respond will get a free copy of the
soundtrack to my film IN DEBT WE TRUST.
Thank you for your continued support!
Sincerely,
Your News Dissector Danny Schechter
Editor, MediaChannel.org
Reply to: Dissector@mediachannel.org
Until Media Channel is back online, Danny Schechter has an essay on the economy at ZNet and also this commentary.
Posted at 03:37 pm by thecommonills
Permalink
From Media Channel: 
AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS FOR US On Monday morning, I was pleased to be a guest on Democracy Now talking about Walter Cronkite's support for MediaChannel.org and playing clips of his criticism of the demise of journalism. It was great that Amy Goodman
plugged MediaChannel and showed the website. Unfortunately, if you have
been trying to visit the site since then, you have found that our
server is down.
We have, in effect, vanished.
It
appears that a hacker was able to get into our database and temporarily
shut us down. We are in the process of restoring our sites, upgrading
security and server software, but at a cost we cannot afford. Will you
help us offset some of these costs by making a tax deductible donation
to keep MediaChannel going and growing, and help us improve our
technical capabilities to fight off hostile hackers - before we are
permanently shut down! SOS (Save Our Site) Please donate via paypal or make your donation with a check made out to:
The Global Center (write "for Mediachannel" on the memo line of your check)
575 8th Avenue, #2200
NY, NY 10018
P.S.
Please
look out for a MediaChannel 2.0 survey that we will be sending out
soon. The first 50 people to respond will get a free copy of the
soundtrack to my film IN DEBT WE TRUST.
Thank you for your continued support!
Sincerely,
Your News Dissector Danny Schechter
Editor, MediaChannel.org
Reply to: Dissector@mediachannel.org
Until Media Channel is back online, Danny Schechter has an essay on the economy at ZNet and also this commentary. media channeldanny schechterznet
Posted at 09:40 am by thecommonills
Permalink
5 pilgrims shot dead in Iraq
BBC Radio World Service
reports that 5 pilgrims have been shot dead in Iraq as they traveled by
bus. The smell in the air would be the egg on the face of many
reporters who wrote 'success' too soon. Saturday the Kurdistan
Regional Government holds their provincial and presidential elections.
In the backdrop is increased tensions between the KRG and the central
government in Baghdad over issues such as oil and disputed territories.
Andrew Lee Butters explores " Why Kurds vs. Arabs Could Be Iraq's Next Civil War" ( Time magazine): With
a projected capacity of about 40,000 barrels a day, the new oil
refinery inaugurated Saturday by the Kurdish regional government of
northern Iraq on Saturday is modest even by the standards of Iraq's
dilapidated oil industry. But its significance shouldn't be
underestimated: In Kurdish minds, the region's ability to refine the
oil it pumps is a vital step towards deepening its autonomy from the
Arab-majority remainder of Iraq. (Read "The Reasons Behind Big Oil Declining Iraq's Riches.")
Until recently, Iraqi Kurdistan had no refineries of its own, and
though the area is sitting on a huge pool of oil, it had to rely on
gasoline supplies from elsewhere in Iraq, Turkey or Iran. Fearful of
giving Iraq's ethnic Kurdish minority any control over the country's
most precious resource, Saddam Hussein had not only declined to build
refineries in the region; he made sure Iraq's oil pipelines bypassed
Kurdish areas, and his army forcibly removed much of the Kurdish
population of from Kirkuk -- the most important oil producing area in
the north -- and repopulated the city with Arabs moved from the south. (Watch a video about the gas shortage in Iraq.) Since
Saddam's demise, however, the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG) is steadily developing an independent oil industry in northern
Iraq. It has discovered and begun to develop new oil fields inside its
boundaries, and entered production-sharing deals with foreign oil
companies made without the consent of the federal government in
Baghdad. Those deals have raised suspicions among Iraq's Arab-dominated
government that KRG is not simply taking on more of the prerogatives of
sovereign statehood, but is actually laying the economic infrastructure
for independence.
Meghan L. O'Sullivan, of the Bush administration, offers an angry rant against US Vice President Joe Biden at the Washington Post.
O'Sullivan grasps little of what she's writing on but, then again, she
worked in the Bush administration. (Biden's not pushing federalism in
Iraq at present. It is not the White House policy. If it becomes it, he
will gladly push it. Biden noted publicly that the Senate did not
support his plan. At which point, he dropped it. That was before he
dropped out of the race for the Democratic Party's presidential
nomination. But facts is hard and it's so much easier to distort.
Meghan learned all about that working for Bully Boy Bush.) Dan Senor
also worked for the Bush administration. He's Campbell Brown's husband.
They met in Baghdad. I'll join Elaine in noting this from his column at the Wall St. Journal: Providing
the Kurds with a protected region made perfect moral and geopolitical
sense. Saddam had repeatedly attempted genocidal campaigns against
them: the Anfal depopulation campaign in 1987-88, in which the Baathist
regime killed or expelled hundreds of thousands of Kurds; the expulsion
of thousands of Fayli (Shiite) Kurds from northern Iraq into Iran; and
the 1988 slaughter of 5,000 Kurds with chemical weapons in Halabja.In
April 2003, the peshmerga helped the U.S. fight Saddam -- not just in
the Kurdish area but also south of the Green Line. When it came to
Kirkuk, however, the Kurds moved in during the war and never left. With
Saddam gone, the Kurds quickly set up Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)
offices in the city and began to establish facts on the ground.From
the Kurdish point of view, all this was natural and just. Before
Saddam’s brutal expulsions during his Arabization campaign, Kirkuk had
a Kurdish majority.Iraq's
post-Saddam interim constitution -- which we in the Coalition
Provisional Authority helped the Iraqis draft -- recognized Kurdish
authority only over the territories that the Kurds controlled before
the fall of the regime. The permanent Iraqi Constitution went a step
further in requiring a referendum to determine the future status of
Kirkuk. While both articles clearly left Kirkuk outside the
jurisdiction of the KRG in the near term, the language also conceded
that Kirkuk and other nearby areas were "disputed territories." In the
eyes of the Kurds, this ambiguity left the door open. It
sure would be nice if one of the two from the former administration
weighing in today could have noted the previous administration's
refusal to address the issue which is why it is now even worse than it
was before. Monday, US Secretary Robert Gates held a press
conference with Adm Mike Mullen to announce the expansion of the US
Army and to refute Ernesto Londono report " U.S. Troops in Iraq Find Little Leeway" ( Washington Post)
from earlier in the morning. Not only was Londono's report correct,
other reporters are covering the issue -- more press conferences
needed, Gates! Oliver August (Times of London) addresses the issue: When
American troops pulled out of Iraqi cities this month they did not
realise quite how final their departure would be. The Iraqi military
has since barred them from re-entering areas they previously controlled
and all but locked them out of towns and cities.US
convoys can no longer pass through checkpoints in Baghdad without prior
approval and an Iraqi escort. American night-time raids in pursuit of
insurgents have also been curtailed by Iraqi officials who gained the
right to veto all such missions on July 1.In several cases, the Iraqis took action themselves; in others the suspected insurgents slipped away. Gina Cavallaro (Army Times) reports
that Sgt Joseph Bozeicevich did not enter a plea at his Fort Smith
arraignment yesterday: "Bozicevich, 39, is accused of killing his squad
leader, Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson, and his fellow team leader Sgt.
Wesley Durbin on a patrol base sout of Baghdad on Sept. 14." Russ Bynum (AP) notes that a trial date was set, March 29th. The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. iraqtime magazineandrew lee buttersdan senortimes of londonoliver augustgina cavallaroruss bynum
Posted at 08:00 am by thecommonills
Permalink
Military propaganda airs in Wisconsin
Military propaganda makes it on air in the US and is disguised as news. At
least two Wisconsin TV stations have aired military propaganda with one
putting their own reporter over it (Jeff Alexander) to read the
military's copy. Madison Wisconsin's WKOWTV offers a pure propangada look (video report)
at the US run Iraqi prision Camp Cropper. It tells you that terrorists
and criminals are in the prison. It forgets to tell you that no one's
been tried. It forgets to tell you that at least six prisoners have
died or that the Red Cross has documented abuses at the prison. But it
does run it as is. Meaning the report ends with the announcer of the
footage declaring, "Army Sgt. Frank Morello, Joint Area Support Group, Public Affairs." An
ABC affeliate wanted to air the propaganda but they wanted to present
it as a news report created within the station. What to do, what to do?
Oh, I know! Let's take Morello's exact words and let's have our own
Jeff Alexander read them. Let's have him step before the camera in the
studio and then go to the military's footage while Jeff narrates, then
we'll cut to him at the end and he'll do a wrap up and we'll let
viewers think that Jeff actually reported this. As opposed to letting
them know that the footage and every word spoken was from the US
military. Which is how Green Bay's WBAY promotes
the propagndad insisting, as they toss to Jeff, that this is "a rare
behind the scenes look at their mission is our top story on Action Two
News at Four." Their top story is one they didn't even film? Their top
story is one they didn't even write? How pathetic is WBAY and where do
they get off lying to viewers?
They've put Jeff Alexander's
voice over on top of Morello's and presented this as their own report.
That's outrageous. That's shameful and it violates every rule of
journalism. Jeff Alexander, as the on air, should be fired as should
every one responsible for that segment making it on air and an on-air
apology should be made to viewers.
These aren't the only two
stations airing this. You should look for it if you're in Wisconsin,
this 'inside look' at Camp Cropper. Fox 11 at least had the good sense to state before airing the footage that it was produced by the US military, "Tuesday the military released video of the Camp Cropper, along with interviews from some Wisconsin soldiers working there. "
They should have noted, however, that their own Becky DeVries was
reading the copy that the US military wrote with just a few variations.
Meanwhile, Ned Parker and Saif Hameed (Los Angeles Times) report
on yesterday's violence in Iraq which claimed the lives of "19 people
and wounded 80" and they not the confusion over who is responsible for
the attacks with a popular target for blame being Moqtada al-Sadr's
supporters. The reporters quote al-Sadr stating in Syria yesterday,
"The resistance will remain open to all directions: military,
political, peaceful and popular resistance. All those options are open
to confront the occupation." Timothy Williams (New York Times) offers
this (with an apparent straight face), "Iraqi military and police
officials have said they expected an increase in violence as armed
groups aligned with political parties seek to gain influence before the
parliamentary elections scheduled for January." Six months from now.
Six months. It must be great for Nouri to fall back on that whenever
anything goes wrong. Jeremy Schwartz (Austin American-Statesman) reports
on Brandon Lara who was killed while serving in Iraq on his second
tour. His stepmother, Gloria Lara, states, "Ever since I can remember,
he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He's always wanted to be
military. Since he was little, he was into guns and swords and knives."
Yesterday morning,
I typed, "That was one of two deaths, from the same region, the other
wasn't noted by the US military and it was of an Afghanistan War
veteran. Sig Christenson (San Antonio Express-News) reports
on the two deaths, noting that both were from New Braunfels: [. . .]"
That was incorrect. Trejo Rivas was an Afghanistan War veteran but he
was also an Iraq War veteran and it was in Iraq that he was injured. My
mistake, my apologies. Christenson reports
today his injury was from "a mortar blast in Iraq" and "Rivas had
trouble with speech, balance and memory after a mortar exploded about
25 feet from him on Oct. 12, 2006. The injury was a profound blow to an
engineer and veteran soldier who had served in Bosnia, Kosovo, Africa
and Afghanistan, as well as Iraq. It forced his retirement." Rivas held
multiple degrees (bachelor's and master's) and his survivors include
his wife Colleen. Meanwhile Petyon M. Craighill (ABC News) reports
on a new ABC News-Washington Post poll in which sixty-one percent of
respondents "say the United States is making significant progress
restoring civil order in Iraq" -- which is a fault of a media that
refuses to report on Iraq (all US broadcast networks pulled out at the
start of the year) and also the fault of a lazy minded public because
violence has been on the rise for weeks now -- and steadily increasing
since February. 'Progress'? In the real world the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports,
"The Cleveland, Tenn.-based 252nd Military Police Company of the
Tennessee National Guard is scheduled to depart on the first leg of an
upcoming Iraq deployment on Wednesday, July 29."
Nouri al-Maliki is gearing up for an attempt to steal all the limited Iraq media attention away from Saturday's KRG elections. Ross Colvin (Reuters) offers an analysis on What Nouri Wants. Gina Chon (Wall St. Journal) observes
of Nouri, "Mostly unknown in Iraq, he returned after the U.S.
invasion." Yes, the cowardly exile, part of the group pushing for the
US to go to war with Iraq, was installed by the US. He does not
represent Iraqis and none of the leaders do. Even the ambassador to
Washington is one of those cowardly exiles who wouldn't fight for their
own country but were happy to do anything (including lying) to force
the Iraq War. Chon notes:
When
he returns to Baghdad, Mr. Maliki will face some of the biggest
challenges in his premiership. After months of relative calm, Iraq
suffered high-profile attacks as U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraqi
cities in June; on Tuesday, attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere killed at
least 18 people. Sharply lower oil prices, meanwhile, have imperiled
Iraq's ability to fund its security services and rebuilding efforts.
Even
some traditional allies are skeptical. Sheik Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer, a
senior member of the Shiite alliance that includes Mr. Maliki's party,
says the prime minister has improved security but hasn't attracted
needed investment.
"There's a man for each era," says Mr. Sagheer.
"For the next chapter, the focus needs to be on economic development.
And I think we need a different man for this job."The BBC cites
their correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse who "says that, behind the
optimistic talk about withdrawal, reduced violence and the increased
capabilities of Iraqi security forces, lie two facts - there are still
around 130,000 American troops inside Iraq, and fatal attacks remain an
everyday occurrence. He says the question is how to get American forces
out of Iraq by the end of 2011 without the security situation getting
any worse. Our correspondent says Iraqi reconciliation is key." The following community sites updated last night: The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. iraqthe los angeles timesned parkersaif hameedthe new york timesjeremy schwartzsig christensonabc newspeyton m. craighillthe chattanooga times free pressjeff alexandermilitary propagandawbaygina chonthe wall street journalbbc newsgabriel gatehouseiraqanns mega dublike maria said pazkats kornersex and politics and screeds and attitudethomas friedman is a great mantrinas kitchenthe daily jotcedrics big mixmikey likes itruths reportsickofitradlzoh boy it never ends
Posted at 06:59 am by thecommonills
Permalink
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Tuesday,
July 21, 2009. Chaos and violence continue, reporters remain
imprisoned in the 'free' Iraq, the UN whines about the Kurds, Robert
Gates explains the US army will be expanded, and more. Quil
Lawrence: Ibrahim Jassam was 29-years-old when he began filming news
for Reuters wire service. That was 2006 and the towns southwest of
Baghdad had earned the name Triangle of Death because of the violence
between Shi'ite militias and Sunni insurgents. His brother Waleed says
Jassam took his work very seriously. Waleed
Jassam: When there was an explosion Ibrahim was always the first one to
be in the location filming. He felt whatever was happening on the
ground, he wanted to be seen on the television. Quil
Lawrence: But, as with many cases in the past, the US military
apparently thought Jassam's photos looked a little too close to the
action suggesting a connection to insurgents. One morning last
September, a combined US and Iraqi force cordoned off Jasam's
neighborhood hours before dawn. They broke down the door of the house
where he lived with his parents and siblings and dragged Jassam away in
his underwear, handcuffed. They brought dogs inside the house said his
sister Iman as she points out Jassam's room. Iman says she tried to
tell the soldiers her brother had done nothing wrong. Iman
Jassam: One of the Iraqi soldiers said, "Why are you still talking? If
you only knew what we are going to do to your brother, you would be
crying." These words are still echoing in my ears. Quil
Lawrence: It took months before the family got word that Jassim was in
a US military prison and they eventually visited him. What they're
still waiting for is any kind of criminal charge against him. Capt Brad Kimberly: Ibrahim Jassam is still in detention because he's classified as a high security threat Quil
Lawrence: Capt Brad Kimberly is a US military spokesman. He says
starting this year with the new US-Iraqi security agreement, all
American arrests require an Iraqi warrant but, since Jassam was
arrested last year, no warrant was needed. Kimberly said the only
obligation is to transfer him sometime after December. But Kimberly
offers no evidence. Capt
Brad Kimberly: Prior to the first of January, all detainees were held
as wartime security threats, no legal charges were assigned. Quil
Lawrence: In fact, an Iraqi court document from last November says
that, since the Americans provided no evidence or confession, Jassam
should be released. Michael Christie is the Reuters bureau chief in
Baghdad. He says Jassam did a good job in a dangerous city. Michael
Christie: We have to assume he has been detained because of the work he
was doing as a journalist. Until we see otherwise, until the evidence
is declassified, he deserves the presumption of innocence. Quil
Lawrence: Iraqi journalists have been regularly detained by US forces
through the course of the American occupation. Several have been
killed when mistaken for insurgents. According to Mohamed Abdel Dayem
of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Jassam is the
only one still in US custody. Mohammed
Abdel Dayem: No charges have been brough against any of the
journalists. Journalists, if and when they are detained, their cases
should be reviewed in a quick and timely way and they should either be
charged with a recognized crime or be released. Quil
Lawrence: After a few months in a prison near Baghdad, Jassam was
transferred to Camp Bucca, a massive US prison camp near the border
with Kuwait. It's an eight or nine hour drive south from his home but
the family was able to visit him last month. Ibrahim Jassam's sister
Iman says he isn't eating enough and looks thing. She says her brother
knows the Iraqi court cleared him in November and he can't understand
why the Americans keep holding him for ten months now and counting.
Quil Lawrence, NPR News, Baghdad. In other news, Reuters
photographer Ibrahim Jassam has been a prisoner in Iraq since Sept. 1,
2008 when US and Iraqi military forces drug him from his Mahmudiyah
home. He has been held a prisoner since then at Camp Cropper. Reporters Without Borders and Journalistic Freedom Observatory have been calling for his release. Reuters reported
yesterday that Iraq's Central Criminal Court has ordered that Ibrahim
be released because "there was no evidence against" him; however,
"There was no immediate response from the U.S. military to the ruling."
Daryl Lang (Photo District News) adds,
"Jassam's case resembles those of several other Iraqi photographers and
cameramen working for Western news organizations, all of whom were
eventually freed. And the decision comes as the U.S. is releasing
thousands of security detainees and preparing to turn its much-maligned
detainee system over to the Iraqi government." December 9, 2009, Reuters reported
that US Maj Neal Fisher stated all the Iraqi court order meant was that
when he is released Ibrahim "will be able to out-process without having
to go through the courts as other detainees in his threat
classification will have to do." Why is that? Because the court has
found no reason to hold Ibrahim. So while others will go on to have
their day in court, Fisher is admitting that Ibrahim's had his but the
US military just doesn't want to release him. In June of this year,
the Committee to Protect Journalists sent a letter
to Nouri al-Maliki and they noted Ibrahim and requested, "Press the
U.S. military to respect the decision of the Iraqi courts and
immediately release Ibrahim Jassam." Last September, Reporters Without Borders pointed out
that over "20 journalists have been arrested in Iraq in similar
circumstances since 1st January 2008, all of whom have been released
after spending days or even months in custody without any charges being
made against them." CPJ notes him here (note that Adel Hussein, whose profile follows, has been released and shouldn't even be on the current list of journalists imprisoned). Reporters Without Borders notes
that three journalists are currently detained in Iraq, there's Ibrahim
starting September 1, 2008; Mountazer al-Zaidi starting December 14,
2008 (he's the one who threw his shoes at Bully Boy Bush and Nouri's
joint-press conference in December) and Jassem Mohamed who has been
imprisoned since February 2009. Meanwhile, last week Reporters Without Borders declared,
"Iraqi security forces working with Sahwa militias seem to be taking
advantage of the withdrawal of the US forces to physically target
journalists. The Iraqi authorities must do what is necessary to put a
stop to this and to ensure that there are independent investigations
into these two recent incidents." The first incident involved Ali
Al-Juburi (Ifaq) Ahmad Omad (Biladi TV) and Karim Al-Qasimi ( Al Fiha) outside
Ramadi, traveling in a car clearly marked as press being pulled over by
Sahwa and Iraqi police and physically attacked. The second is Haydar
al_Qotbi (Radio Sawa) attacked in Baghdad by Sahwa after he displayed
his press credentials ("dragged from the car and badly beated by six
men"). Reuters notes
"an Iraqi journalist working for a Kudrish magazine" was shot dead in
Kirkuk Monday and 5 people wounded in shootings in Haswa while Tirkit
was the site of an attack today "on the convoy of Khalid Burhan, head
of health office of Salahudding province" that left his guards
wounded. The journalist was Soran Mamhama. He was 23-years-old and AP states he worked for the "magazine Leven and often covered government corruption." Reporters Without Borders issued a statement
condeming the murder and stated, "We call on the Kudristan authorities
to carry out a thorough investigation into the circumstances of Hama's
murder. He wrote hard-hitting articles about local politicians and
security officials and had received threats from people telling him to
stop his investigative reporting. The authorities should therefore
give priority to the theory that he was killed because of his work." Xinhua notes
Soran was shot dead outside his home and quotes Journalist Freedoms
Observatory's Ziyad al-Ajili stating, "The first step to halt the
assassinations against journalists is to capture those culprits." Iran's Press TV quotes
Latif Satih Faraj (Kurdish Journalists Union in Kirkuk) stating, "If
the government can't protect Kurdish journalists in Kirkuk, we might
adviste them to withdraw from this city." Iraq's The Window reports Leveen is calling for an investigation and that "Leveen,
which is an independent Kurdish magazine founded 6 years ago in
Sulaimani, is known as a muckraking journal in Kurdistan and Iraq." The Committee To Protect Journalists is calling for his murder(s) to be brought to justice,
"Authorities in Kirkuk province must bring to justice those responsible
for the 2008 murder of journalist Soran Mama Hama . . . the Committee
to Protect Journalists said on the eve of the anniversary of the
reporter's slaying. . . . Mama Hama published an article in Livin
before his death about the alleged complicity of the police and
security officials in prostitution rings in Kirkuk. He claimed in the
article that his sources had provided him with names of 'police
brigadiers, many lieutenants, colonels, and many police and security
officers,' who were clients. The shooting occurred at around 9 p.m. in
the dominantly Kurdish neighborhood of Shorija, a relatively safe area
in Kirkuk." They note that Soran was one of 139 journalists killed in
Iraq since the start of the illegal war. A year
ago today, Nouri was gearing up for his trip to Berlin where he'd meet
with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This as thug and puppet of the
occupation Nouri al-Maliki gears up for his media stop in the US,
just in time for Barry O's prime time address Wednesday night. July
25th, three provinces in Iraq hold their provincial elections and to
steal attention (what little's been given) for the KRG, Nouri plans to
announce an education plan that would put 10,000 Iraqis in Australia,
Canada, the UK and the US for college study. Of course, that 10,000
wouldn't come anytime soon. He plans to do 500. He'll make his
announcement of the program in DC Saturday morning. Ned Parker's " Maliki remakes himself ahead of elections" ( Los Angeles Times) covers the region's Madonna as he prepares to embark on his Blonde Ambition tour and notes of self-promoter Nouri: Iran
has played a king-making role in Iraqi Shiite politics since 2003
because of its ties to many Shiite lawmakers, who spent years in exile
across the border."In the
period of 2006 and 2007, there were moves to remove Maliki. It was Iran
who stopped it. Maliki has to remember this. They can make his life
harder," said Sami Askari, a Shiite legislator and confidant of the
prime minister.Still, Askari warned that Maliki would not be hemmed in; he would set the conditions for any list of candidates he might join."Maliki
will not accept to be marginalized. . . . Some may have ambitions to
surround Maliki. I doubt they will succeed," Askari said. "Everyone
understands Maliki is an asset."Noting the visit is Jake Kurtzer (Refugees International) who stresses the ongoing Iraqi refugee crisis -- internal and external displaced persons -- and offers: President Obama can convey this message by urging Al-Maliki to take a few basic steps.
First and foremost, the Iraqi government must continue to improve its
own response to the displacement crisis. Reports that the Iraqi
government plans to close the IDP file at the end of this year indicate
a desire on their part to gloss over this humanitarian emergency. This
is unacceptable. The Iraqi government, with U.S. support, must continue
to improve its legal framework for supporting returnees and must ensure
that all returns are voluntary, and conducted with dignity to areas
that are safe and suitable for return. In
urging Al-Maliki to take these steps, President Obama should reiterate
America's commitment to meeting the basic needs of Iraq's displaced,
through financial support for humanitarian agencies and through
diplomatic engagement with host countries. The announcement of a
potential return of an Ambassador to Syria is a welcome and overdue
step that RI has been calling for since 2007. This will ensure that the
U.S. can engage with the Syrian government on issues relating to the
basic needs of Iraqi refugees. Finally, the President can continue to
affirm the U.S.'s commitment to resettle those most vulnerable Iraqi's
who will never be able to return home. Refugees International's latest report is [PDF format warning] entitled " IRAQI REFUGEES: WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND SECURITY CRITICAL TO RETURNS" and it's covered in yesterday's snapshot. Nouri's
first stop will be the United Nations. No surprise, the UN is suddenly
interested in Iraq again. The same UN that's shutting down offices and
websites. (Didn't you notice? Try to visit UNHCR's Iraq page. It's gone.) Tim Cocks (Reuters) reports
that an unnamed UN diplomat is swearing that the KRG needs to stop
their demands on Kirkuk and just wait because, "We (all) believe that
would lead to war and the U.N. has . . . told the Kurds that." And the
response of the Kurds should be: Who the hell cares? The referendum on
oil-rich Kirkuk was supposed to have taken place no later than December
2007. It's 2009 and they're still being told to wait? The UN claimed
in the summer of 2008 they'd work on a solution. It's a year later and
the solution is: Wait? No. If you were a Kurd
you wouldn't support waiting one more moment. They've waited. They've
listened. It's really past time for something to be done about the
situation. Iraq's Constitution has not been followed and if the United
Nations wants to help, they might try actually helping instead of being
the joke to every NGO and charity in Iraq right now. They made
themselves that joke. They did it when they let a man WHORE out the
good name of the UN to appease al-Maliki. Yeah, back when they said
that host countries shouldn't consider Iraqi citizens refugees from a
dangerous country. Under huge protests internally, the UN issued a
statement saying that, of course, the situation in Iraq was still too
dangerous for a return. But they'd already made a joke of themselves
and they'd yet again proven that they will LIE for Nouri. They did
last fall when they allowed their spokeswoman to lash out at Iraqi
women in a press conference, to blame Iraqi women for the cholera
outbreak. That's wasn't public health, it wasn't anything but take the
heat off Nouri. The United Nations has played the fool for Nouri one
time too damn many and their reputation is in tatters in Iraq. It's
their own fault and it will require real work to build it back up.
Until they do, the Kurds should tell them to butt the hell out of an
issue in a supposedly soveriegn country. What's the United Nations
doing butting in yet again anyway? The Kurds didn't invite them into
the conversation. Oh, Nouri invited them in.
Well it's not all about Nouri and the KRG doesn't have to listen to the
UN and shouldn't at this point in time. Read Tim Cocks' report and
grasp that the unnamed diplomat is WHORING for Nouri. (Cocks has
written an excellent report, the embarrassment is the UN diplomat.)
It's all, "Bad Barzani!" from the diplomat. First off, July 25th is
when the KRG holds provincial elections and presidential. It's funny
how many times I've heard friends at the UN excuse Nouri's alarmist
rhetoric with, "He's just trying to drum up support for the
elections." Yet, Barzani faces an election on Saturday and he's not
given the same benefit of the doubt? The UN has embarrassed themselves
and the problem has been from day one that no one person is in charge.
This group (usually on the ground in Iraq) goes off and does what it
wants. The UN attempts to fix it by using an agency spokesperson from
outside Iraq. But they never punish their staff in Iraq that
continually causes these problems. Instead of fretting over Kirkuk,
the UN should work on getting their own damn house in order. The
United Nations needs to be seen as an honest broker. It gave that up
due to on the ground staff repeatedly distorting to benefit Nouri
al-Maliki. Those people were not disciplined (and it took forever just
to get two of them removed from Iraq). Now the UN wants to tell the
Kurds to wait? After it gave up the right to be seen as an honest
broker? If I were Baghdad, I'd wait. I'd wait
happily. If I were the Kurds, I'd grasp that maybe a little violence
will come in the already violent Iraq if I move but if I don't move the
issue will continue to be postponed while the US government gets closer
and closer to Nouri. I'd grasp that Nouri's violence usually leads to
the US Embassy appeasing him. I'd grasp that maybe setting off my own
violence might get me some of Kirkuk or Nineveh. I'd grasp that the
United Nation's diplomat is trashing me to the press when Nouri is the
one who has held up the Kirkuk issue. When the Iraq Constitution
mandated that he commission a census and schedule a referendum before
the end of 2007, when the White House benchmarks included that he
resolve the issue of Kirkuk. Nouri didn't do that. But the one
causing the problem is the Kurds? I'd grasp that any UN staff that
turned around and trashed me to the press wasn't worth working with and
I'd decide what I wanted to do and when I wanted to do it. Two and a
half years after the Iraq Constitution mandated this issue be settled,
it's still not and the United Nations wants to say "WAIT!" and blame
the Kurds? And they want to be seen like they are being fair to both
sides? It's nonsense. And that's demonstrated by the fact that Iran's
Press TV provides perspective the UN diplomat seems not to grasp: The
Kurds say that parts of the majority Arab Nineveh belong to their
ancient homeland and want them included in Iraq's semi-autonomous
region of Kurdistan. Kurds represent 16 of Nineveh's 37 seats in the
parliament. They
complain that Arab Governor, Atheel al-Nujaifi has marginalized them in
the provincial council since he was elected on January 31, restoring
Arabs to power.Should the
problem fail to be resolved, the Kurds will be forced to split the
province into two, forming their own splinter council to run the 16
administrative units, Kurdish councilor Derrman Khitari said on
Sunday. A year ago Nouri was traveling to
Berlin. Once there, he'd declare, "Iraq is able to take the security
situtation into its own hands. We have achived great success." Does
great success mean "large bodycount"? While various US outlets couch
their statements or outright deny the increase violence in Iraq, Alsumaria notes that "Iraq security is replapsing with violence" and that it's leading to crackdowns and curfews. Falluja now has a truck curfew. Reuters notes
that "Ramadi has declared a state of emergency and imposed a vehicle
ban after two bomb attacks on Tuesday". Today's violence? Bombings? Reuters notes
a Baghdad roadside bombing which left 4 dead and thrity-nine injured, a
Baghdad roadside bombing which claimed 2 lives and left thirteen
injured, a Baghdad roadside bombing which claimed 3 lives and left
fifteen injured, a Baghdad car bombing which claimed 2 lives and left
six injured, a Baghdad roadside bombing "targeting the convoy of Water
Resources Minister Abdul Latif Rasheed" which left three police
officers and nine bystanders injured, a Ramadi suicide bomber and a car
bombing -- one after the other, which claimed 3 lives and left thirteen
injured and a Mussayab roadside bombing which injured five Sahwa. Shootings? Meanwhile Steve Levy (Wired) reports on the tech meet up in Iraq: As the CEO of MeetUp, Scott Heiferman
usually spends his days meeting with staff and brainstorming product
strategy. But today the 37-year-old New Yorker, wearing a combat helmet
and armored vest over a black business suit, is crammed into a battered
C-130 transport plane headed for Iraq. Military and diplomatic
personnel aboard are warily eyeing him and the others in his party, all
similarly attired, as the C-130 begins its steep, corkscrew descent
into the Baghdad airport. And Heiferman is thinking, "What am I doing
here?"
It's only been a few weeks since he got an email from a State Department policy planner named Jared Cohen
inviting him to join the first tech delegation to post-invasion Iraq.
Now he's strapped in with eight other Silicon Valley executives, mostly
in their thirties, from Google, Twitter, YouTube, Blue State Digital,
WordPress, Howcast, and AT&T. When Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey got his invitation, "I just said yes," he recalls. YouTube's director of product management, Hunter Walk,
had to go down to his basement to find a suit to wear, because Cohen
insisted that the group dress like diplomats to show respect for their
hosts. Others worked their spouses for approval, repeating Cohen's
assurances that the security situation in Baghdad was much improved.
Howcast CEO Jason Liebman's mother thinks he's on a trip to LA. No
word on whether they'll be staying at the Baghdad Convention Center
("All your business in one place"), but then this isn't one of the big
conferences as evidenced by the fact that Iraq's Chamber of Commerce
and Ministry of Labor are not promoting it. What they are promoting is
the Baghdad Buusiness Expo from October 1st through 3rd, Iraq
Construction Expo from October 22nd to October 24th, the Iraq Health
Expo November 22 through November 24th and the Iraq Energy Expo from
Decmeber 5th through December 7th. On the topic of foreign investments
and business, Susan Webb (People's Weekly World) notes Iraq's Communist Party has come out against the recent oil auction (a second auction is currently planned):
*
Oil is an especially strategic commodity, especially for Iraq, with oil
revenues being the main source for funding the state's budget and
providing for the enormous needs for reconstruction and reviving Iraq's
economy. As a result, the Communist Party said, it is essential that
any formula for using this national resource must ensure Iraq's
national interests and its control over oil and its
revenues.
* The government should give priority to
its own direct national investment, re-establishing the country's
National Oil Company, and utilizing Iraqi expertise. The Communist
Party, whose leader Hameed Majid Mousa is himself trained as an oil
economist, emphasizes that Iraq has a large pool of knowledgeable and
trained oil experts who can play a big role in if their efforts are
well organized and if they are provided with suitable working
conditions.
* Iraq's oil sector is in desperate need of
developed technologies to rehabilitate its infrastructure and oil
wells, to raise production in line with Iraq's increasing needs as well
as to develop its unexploited huge oil reserves with technical and
economic efficiency. Considering these circumstances, Iraq may seek the
help of international companies and institutions in order to make use
of their experience and capabilities, but but this should be done based
on conditions and controls that ensure Iraqi national interests and
preserve the people's right to own the oil wealth and control its
destiny.
* Iraq can use limited-term technical support and
service contracts with foreign firms, but the party warns against
long-term "partnership sharing agreements" (known as PSAs) that
mortgage Iraq's oil and its revenues to foreign interests.
Turning to the United States. Jill Dougherty (CNN) reports
Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, still in DC (he met with US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last Wednesday), is stating that
Iraq can "not regain full sovereignty and independence without getting
rid of" the United Nations sanctions put in place after Iraq invaded
Kuwait in 1990. Meanwhile US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
announced yesterday: On
the recommendation of Secretary of the Army Pete Geren and Chief of
Staff of the Army General George Casey, and with President Obama's
strong support, today I am announcing a decision to temporarily
increase the active-duty end strength of the Army by up to 22,000. That
is a temporary increase from the current authorized end -- permanent
end strength of 547,000 to an authorized temporary end strength of
569,000 active-duty soldiers.
I
came into this job in 2006 with the belief that we did not have enough
forces to properly support the extended pace of combat operations in
Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world. Shortly after taking office,
and mindful of the decision to surge additional forces into Iraq, I
recommended and the president and the Congress approved a permanent
increase in the size of the Army of 65,000 and the Marine Corps of
27,000. At the time, it was judged that these increases would sustain
the projected level of deployments and lower the stress on the force.
At the same time, I directed that the Army continue to reduce the size
of the nondeployable or institutional part of the force. Elizabeth Bumiller (New York Times) reports
that approximately 130,000 US troops are in Iraq and that Afghanistan
is expected to have 60,000. Though the expansion was the stated reason
for the press conference, it quickly became clear another reason was to
refute Ernesto Londono's Monday morning report " U.S. Troops in Iraq Find Little Leeway" ( Washington Post).
Robert Gates prattled on about no problems, no problems at all, "I
received a report from General [Ray] Odierno just today that addressed
this issue. And he said that the level of cooperation and
collaboration with the Iraqi security forces is going much better than
is being portrayed publicly and in the media. So my impression from
his reporting, and just this week but over the last couple of weeks,
has been that it's actually, in his view, going quite well." Gates
than called on Adm Mike Mullen to back him up. He didn't have to
ask twice. Insisted Mullen, "All discussions I've had with General
Odierno, including one midweek last week, about this issue have been
very positive." Imagine that, a Secretary of Defense insisting media
reports were wrong. No, it's not uncommon but what they didn't seem to
grasp is that you don't want to say that in public about Odierno. He's
very hard to corral and actually feels he has to tell his truth to the
press. Gates knows that. Gates really knows that. By attaching the
opinions to Odierno, they make him the issue and, specifically, they
make the issue: If this is true, why haven't we heard it from him?
Thereby forcing them to allow Odierno access to the media at a time
when they were attempting to limit that. A
private first class in a support battalion, scheduled to go to Iraq,
asked whether, if troops don't complete their 12-month tour in that
country, they will be transferred to Afghanistan before coming home.
Gates said he didn't know for sure but he hopes such soldiers would be
brought home "because there is a different kind of training that goes
on for Afghanistan compared to Iraq." He said the units that will go to
Afghanistan to bring the total to 68,000, as authorized by President
Obama, had already been identified, and thus would not include those on
their way to Iraq.
Gates
said he hedged his answer because "there may be some specific
specialties or specialized units that might be transferred" from Iraq
to Afghanistan but any increase before the end of this year would not
be "a lot."
An
artillery sergeant asked about the likelihood that Army deployments to
Iraq or Afghanistan would be shortened to nine months or even six
months. Gates said that Casey, the chief of staff, "would really like
to do that," noting that Marines are spending seven months deployed and
seven at home, Navy personnel are alternating six-month stints, and Air
Force tours are even shorter.
Rotating
the Army's much larger number of troops in Iraq with a
less-than-one-year deployment would create an unacceptable logistics
problem, he said. He said a question he had with shorter rotations amid
a counterinsurgency is "Do we cut our capability -- because we cut our
experience level by the shorter tours?" "The
president relies on a list of handpicked reporters to call on at his
formal news conferences -- and the fortunate few are not necessarily
accredited reporters but include new age self-appointed journalists or
anyone with a laptop," veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas (The Boston Channel) wrote
a while back. A while back? During the Bush Administration? No,
earlier this month. When Helen covered the previous administration
like that, she was applauded and it seemed like Amy Goodman couldn't
stop singing her praises. These days Amy sings the praises of Liar
Rachel Maddow -- a TV host so stupid that, Bob Somerby explains,
she has to make up things Pat Buchanan supposedly said. Grasp that.
Rachel Maddow wants to do a take down on Pat Buchanan but she's so
inept that she can't choose from the many, many offensive things he
says on any given day, she has to make to things up. That's how stupid
Rachel Maddow is, how stupid and how dishonest. It's Liar's Poker
passed off as 'progressive politics' and it's why the left is in such a
deep funk that it can't even rally to call out Barry O's latest cave on
health care. Liar's Poker, not information you need, not news you can
use, is what they're trying to shove down your throats. Finally, at World Can't Wait, Debra Sweet posts
audio of her conversation with Candace Gorman about "the lives of her
two clients, still in Guantanamo, one of whom is seriously ill" and the
lack of change for the prisoners at Guantanamo.
Posted at 03:15 pm by thecommonills
Permalink
10 dead, fifty-five injured as violence rocks Iraq
While various US outlets couch their statements or outright deny the increase violence in Iraq, Alsumaria notes that "Iraq sucirty is replapsing with violence" and that it's leading to crackdowns and curfews. Falluja now has a truck curfew. Reuters notes
that "Ramadi has declared a state of emergency and imposed a vehicle
ban after two bomb attacks on Tuesday" with one being a car bombing and
the other a suicide bombing ("in a moving car"), one after the other,
resulting in at least 3 deaths and thirteen injuries according to one
unnamed source from the local police. Meanwhile Muhanad Mohammed, Tim Cocks, Ali al-Mashhadani and Jon Hemming (Reuters) report Baghdad's Sadr City has been rocked by two roadside bombings this morning with an estimated 7 dead and forty-five left injured. Ramadi was one of yesterday's hot spots. Sam Dagher (New York Times) reports on the 11 dead and sixty-one injured in Baghdad and Ramadi yesterday and notes of Ramadi: The
attack occurred at the same spot where Anbar's police chief was wounded
last month in a suicide car-bombing. It also came less than two days
after the former commander and the deputy police chief in Falluja, the
other major city in Anbar, were detained for questioning by a security
force sent from Baghdad, according to the current deputy police chief,
Col. Daoud Salman. It was not clear why they were detained.This as thug and puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki gears up for his media stop in the US,
just in time for Barry O's prime time address Wednesday night. July
25th, three provinces in Iraq hold their provincial elections and to
steal attention (what little's been given) for the KRG, Nouri plans to
announce an education plan that would put 10,000 Iraqis in Australia,
Canada, the UK and the US for college study. Of course, that 10,000
wouldn't come anytime soon. He plans to do 500. He'll make his
announcement of the program in DC Saturday morning. Ned Parker's " Maliki remakes himself ahead of elections" ( Los Angeles Times) covers the region's Madonna as he prepares to embark on his Blonde Ambition tour and notes of self-promoter Nouri: Iran
has played a king-making role in Iraqi Shiite politics since 2003
because of its ties to many Shiite lawmakers, who spent years in exile
across the border."In the
period of 2006 and 2007, there were moves to remove Maliki. It was Iran
who stopped it. Maliki has to remember this. They can make his life
harder," said Sami Askari, a Shiite legislator and confidant of the
prime minister.Still, Askari warned that Maliki would not be hemmed in; he would set the conditions for any list of candidates he might join."Maliki
will not accept to be marginalized. . . . Some may have ambitions to
surround Maliki. I doubt they will succeed," Askari said. "Everyone
understands Maliki is an asset."Noting the visit is Jake Kurtzer (Refugees International) who stresses the ongoing Iraqi refugee crisis -- internal and external displaced persons -- and offers: President Obama can convey this message by urging Al-Maliki to take a few basic steps.
First and foremost, the Iraqi government must continue to improve its
own response to the displacement crisis. Reports that the Iraqi
government plans to close the IDP file at the end of this year indicate
a desire on their part to gloss over this humanitarian emergency. This
is unacceptable. The Iraqi government, with U.S. support, must continue
to improve its legal framework for supporting returnees and must ensure
that all returns are voluntary, and conducted with dignity to areas
that are safe and suitable for return. In
urging Al-Maliki to take these steps, President Obama should reiterate
America's commitment to meeting the basic needs of Iraq's displaced,
through financial support for humanitarian agencies and through
diplomatic engagement with host countries. The announcement of a
potential return of an Ambassador to Syria is a welcome and overdue
step that RI has been calling for since 2007. This will ensure that the
U.S. can engage with the Syrian government on issues relating to the
basic needs of Iraqi refugees. Finally, the President can continue to
affirm the U.S.'s commitment to resettle those most vulnerable Iraqi’s
who will never be able to return home. Refugees International's latest report is [PDF format warning] entitled " IRAQI REFUGEES: WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND SECURITY CRITICAL TO RETURNS" and it's covered in yesterday's snapshot. In
the US, there is a 'fast-track' (by comparison) for Iraqis who were
media workers for US outlets, worked for NGOs or worked with the US
embassy or military in Iraq. Deborah Haynes ( Times of London) has long covered the issue of those Iraqis who worked with British forces and, in fact, has won an award for that reporting. Last week, she offered " Iraqi interpreters employed by British to sue over lack of protection:" About
25 Iraqis, mainly interpreters, employed by British Forces in Iraq are
to take legal action against the Government for allegedly failing to
protect them from militias that regarded the men as traitors.The
group members, who failed to benefit from an assistance scheme offered
by Britain, said that they were owed a duty of care. Some still fear
for their life despite a big drop in the influence of the
Iranian-backed militants who once controlled Basra, southern Iraq. They
say the tense relationship between Iran and Britain makes anyone
associated with the British military more of a target.One former interpreter, who is in hiding in Basra, told The Times: "I am worthless. I have lost my life." Meanwhile Jill Dougherty (CNN) reports
on Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, still in DC (he met with US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last Wednesday), is stating that
Iraq can "not regain full sovereignty and independence without getting
rid of" the United Nations sanctions put in place after Iraq invaded
Kuwait in 1990. Meanwhile Steve Levy (Wired) reports: As the CEO of MeetUp, Scott Heiferman
usually spends his days meeting with staff and brainstorming product
strategy. But today the 37-year-old New Yorker, wearing a combat helmet
and armored vest over a black business suit, is crammed into a battered
C-130 transport plane headed for Iraq. Military and diplomatic
personnel aboard are warily eyeing him and the others in his party, all
similarly attired, as the C-130 begins its steep, corkscrew descent
into the Baghdad airport. And Heiferman is thinking, "What am I doing
here?"
It's only been a few weeks since he got an email from a State Department policy planner named Jared Cohen
inviting him to join the first tech delegation to post-invasion Iraq.
Now he's strapped in with eight other Silicon Valley executives, mostly
in their thirties, from Google, Twitter, YouTube, Blue State Digital,
WordPress, Howcast, and AT&T. When Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey got his invitation, "I just said yes," he recalls. YouTube's director of product management, Hunter Walk,
had to go down to his basement to find a suit to wear, because Cohen
insisted that the group dress like diplomats to show respect for their
hosts. Others worked their spouses for approval, repeating Cohen's
assurances that the security situation in Baghdad was much improved.
Howcast CEO Jason Liebman's mother thinks he's on a trip to LA. While a tag sale tries to pass as a tech boom, Alsumaria observes,
"Blazing Conflict between Arabs and Kurds in province threatens to
arouse tensions and split the province in two. Kurdish local councilors
in disputed region of Nineveh who boycotted all contacts with its Arab
governor Atheel al-Nujaifi vowed on Sunday to form their own splinter
council if disagreement with him fail to be resolved." UPI adds,
"The governor of the northern Iraqi province of Ninawa threatened to
dissolve municipal councils that he says run counter to the Iraqi
Constitution." Iran's Press TV provides this perspective: The
Kurds say that parts of the majority Arab Nineveh belong to their
ancient homeland and want them included in Iraq's semi-autonomous
region of Kurdistan. Kurds represent 16 of Nineveh's 37 seats in the
parliament.They complain
that Arab Governor, Atheel al-Nujaifi has marginalized them in the
provincial council since he was elected on January 31, restoring Arabs
to power.Should the problem
fail to be resolved, the Kurds will be forced to split the province
into two, forming their own splinter council to run the 16
administrative units, Kurdish councilor Derrman Khitari said on Sunday.
In addition to the rising tensions in Iraq over the
territorial boundaries, there is the issue of the water with many
neighbors of Iraq accused of building damns which divert the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers at a time when Iraq is facing massive drought. Alsumaria reports: Iraq's
Water Resources Ministry called on Monday for talks with Turkey and
Syria after the water flow in Euphrates River declined. The Ministry
declared in a statement that it urges to meet urgently with the three
countries’ Ministers and experts this coming August to tackle water
sharing.The statement also
confirmed that Euphrates' flow to Iraq "in the Hassaiba region near the
Iraq-Syria border is very low. Moreover, for the last 10 days flow
rates have not exceeded 250 cubic meters per second (m3/s) and these
quantities are not sufficient for agriculture and other needs", the
statement said.And we'll close with the opening of Debra Sweet's " "There has been no change in the Department of Justice": A Talk With Candace Gorman" (World Can't Wait): "There
has been no change in the Department of Justice" under the Obama
administration as far as the rights of the Guantanamo detainees. This
is one of the things Candace Gorman said on a special World Can't Wait
conference call on July 9th. The call brought activists closer to the
lives of front-line defenders of the torture detainees. Candace told us
in detail about the lives of her two clients, still in Guantanamo, one
of whom is seriously ill. Candace, who is an advisor to War Criminals
Watch, also talked about why she's put aside her other civil rights
work to concentrate on stopping war crimes. it was a privilege to share
an hour with her. I only thought we were closing. Amy Goodman's 'creative' this morning. Marcia's texting to say she's grabbing that tonight at her site and Betty
called to ask that I note she's covering the Sunday sewer that people
are e-mailing her about. Covering it tonight. We heard that and
couldn't believe it Sunday morning. Betty was planning then to make it
her Friday night post because Fridays can be slow (due to the news
cycle) but, with all the e-mails coming in, she's grabbing it tonight.
I'll also toss out that Elaine and Mike are back from their vacations and blogging at their sites and that Ann has started her own site. The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. iraqmuhanad mohammedtim cocksali al-mashhadanijon hemmingthe new york timessam dagherthe los angeles timesned parkeralsumariacnnjill doughertypress tvjake kurtzerrefugees internationaldeborah haynesthe times of londondebra sweetworld cant waitanns mega dublike maria said pazthomas friedman is a great manmikey likes itsickofitradlz
Posted at 06:39 am by thecommonills
Permalink
Size of the military continues to increase under Obama
In today's New York Times, Elizabeth Bumiller covers
Monday's announcement by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that the
US army will expand by an additional 22,000 soldiers due to what Gates
called the "persistent pace" of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. This is
Gates in his opening remarks: On
the recommendation of Secretary of the Army Pete Geren and Chief of
Staff of the Army General George Casey, and with President Obama's
strong support, today I am announcing a decision to temporarily
increase the active-duty end strength of the Army by up to 22,000. That
is a temporary increase from the current authorized end -- permanent
end strength of 547,000 to an authorized temporary end strength of
569,000 active-duty soldiers. I
came into this job in 2006 with the belief that we did not have enough
forces to properly support the extended pace of combat operations in
Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world. Shortly after taking office,
and mindful of the decision to surge additional forces into Iraq, I
recommended and the president and the Congress approved a permanent
increase in the size of the Army of 65,000 and the Marine Corps of
27,000. At the time, it was judged that these increases would sustain
the projected level of deployments and lower the stress on the force.
At the same time, I directed that the Army continue to reduce the size
of the nondeployable or institutional part of the force. Bumiller
notes the numbers in Iraq as approximately 130,000 and the numbers
"expected in Afghanistan" as 60,000. Walter Pincus' " Soldiers Question the Defense Secretary About Long Deployments" ( Washington Post -- be sure to check out AP's Heather Ainsworth's photo) covers a Fort Drum townhall Gates held on Friday: A
private first class in a support battalion, scheduled to go to Iraq,
asked whether, if troops don't complete their 12-month tour in that
country, they will be transferred to Afghanistan before coming home.
Gates said he didn't know for sure but he hopes such soldiers would be
brought home "because there is a different kind of training that goes
on for Afghanistan compared to Iraq." He said the units that will go to
Afghanistan to bring the total to 68,000, as authorized by President
Obama, had already been identified, and thus would not include those on
their way to Iraq.Gates
said he hedged his answer because "there may be some specific
specialties or specialized units that might be transferred" from Iraq
to Afghanistan but any increase before the end of this year would not
be "a lot."An artillery
sergeant asked about the likelihood that Army deployments to Iraq or
Afghanistan would be shortened to nine months or even six months. Gates
said that Casey, the chief of staff, "would really like to do that,"
noting that Marines are spending seven months deployed and seven at
home, Navy personnel are alternating six-month stints, and Air Force
tours are even shorter.Rotating
the Army's much larger number of troops in Iraq with a
less-than-one-year deployment would create an unacceptable logistics
problem, he said. He said a question he had with shorter rotations amid
a counterinsurgency is "Do we cut our capability -- because we cut our
experience level by the shorter tours?" Last Thursday,
a US base in Basra was attacked with mortars. On Friday, the US
military announced the deaths of three soldiers. KARE 11 (link has text and video) covers
the Basra memorial service for Daniel Drevnick (Woodbury, Minnesota),
James Wertish (Olivia, Minnesota) and Carlos Wlicox (Cottage Grove,
Minnesota). Military Families Speak Out
Annie McCabe raises the issue of sending the national guard overseas,
"I think it's a misuse of the national guard." She also notes,
"Obviously, it's too late for those three families -- it's too late for
a number of families. And we're going to lose more before this is
over." The report notes: Each
of the soldiers was serving his first tour of duty in Iraq. Of the
1,000 members of the 34th "Red Bull" Infantry Division currently
serving in Basra, 310 are on their second or third deployment, and 20
are taking their fourth tour of duty.And that fifteen
members of the Minnesota National Guard have died in Iraq since the
start of the Iraq War. The US military announced another death on
Sunday in Anbar Province. That was one of two deaths, from the same
region, the other wasn't noted by the US military and it was of an
Afghanistan War veteran. Sig Christenson (San Antonio Express-News) reports on the two deaths, noting that both were from New Braunfels: Lance Cpl. Brandon T. Lara, 20, was killed over the weekend in an attack in Anbar province.Retired
Army Reserve Lt. Col. Raymond Trejo Rivas died Wednesday in San Antonio
after battling to recover from head injuries suffered nearly three
years ago. He was 53.Their
deaths bring to 49 the number of troops from Bexar County killed in
Iraq and Afghanistan. They are the area's first war deaths this year."It really came as a shock," Rivas' wife, Colleen, said Monday. "It was not expected."Teri Figueroa (North County Times) notes
Brandon T. Lara's death and, "In the six years since the invasion of
Iraq, Camp Pendleton has lost 345 troops, second only to the 484 from
the Army's Fort Hood in Texas, according to icasualities.org, and
Twentynine Palms has lost 115 troops." The following community sites updated last night: The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. iraqthe new york timeselisabeth bumillerthe washington postwalter pincussig christensonsan antionio express-newsteri figueroathe north county timesanns mega dublike maria said pazkats kornersex and politics and screeds and attitudethomas friedman is a great mantrinas kitchenthe daily jotcedrics big mixmikey likes itruths reportsickofitradlzoh boy it never ends
Posted at 06:37 am by thecommonills
Permalink
Monday, July 20, 2009
Monday,
July 20, 2009. Chaos and violence continue, waves of violence claim the
lives of at least 6 Iraqi police officers, the refugee crisis
continues, tensions between the KRG and the centeral government in
Baghdad mount, and more. Starting with Iraqi refugees. Today the International Committee of the Red Cross explains
they "issued travel documents to 96 Palestinian refugees from Al-Waleed
Camp (Anbar Governorate) to enable them to travel to Europe and the
United States, where they will be resettled with the help of the office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the
International ORganization for Migration." Last week, Miriam Jordan (Wall St. Journal) reports
that the US has agreed to take in 1,350 Palestinian refugees from Iraq
--from among the over 3,000 refugees stuck in the 'camps' between Iraq
and Syria. Jordan quoted University of California Hastings College of
Law's professor George Bisharat stating, "These particular Palestinians
are a fallout from the Iraq War. The Obama administration had to take
some responsibility for the consequneces of the invasion." Patrik Jonsson (Christian Science Monitor -- link has text and video) had earlier reported that the refugees would "be resetteled in the US". However, Stephen Kaufman, writing at and for the US government at America.gov,
doesn't say these refugees have been accepted, he states (on July 13th)
that they "are being considered" for admittance to the US and sites the
US State Dept as the source for that: "A State Department spokesman
told America.gov July 13 that the resettlement process for the group
actually began in 2008, and so far 24 Palestinians from Iraq have
arrived in the United States." While the
refugees need to be offered asylum in the US, what sort of life awaits
them? Not a good one if most reports are any indication. Fields Moseley (Utah's KUTV) reports
on Raida Jarjes and Taofiq Rasheed, husband and wife Iraqi refugees
living in Utah after being granted asylum following many years of
waiting in Syria. In Iraq, she was a journalist, he was an attorney
but here in the US they are among "50 refugee families [who] might be
in the homeless shelter next month." Moseley explains, "The Rasheeds
are foreign professionals without jobs, a common story among Iraqi
refugees. They were delivered to this apartment complex and told a job
should be their first priority. They received $920 each from the state
department and a couple hundred bucks follows each week. But it won't
last." The State Coordinator for Refguee Resettlement, Gerald Brwon,
tells Moseley, "We are not able to find people jobs at the rate we have
to if they have to pay rent." Saundra Amrhein (St. Petersburg Times) reports
on Hayder Abudlwahab and his family (Iman, his wife, and their two
sons) who escaped Iraq, made it to Syria and finally were accepted into
the US, settling in Tampa in August 2008. They left Iraq after
Hayder was injured in a bombing and "awoke on a pile of bodies in a
Baghdad morgue. [. . .] Paralyzed, blinded, unable to scream, Hayder
lay in a jumble of bodies. Knobby bones poked him from underneath, a
still-warm arm lay across his side. The smell of rot was
overwhelming." Now they live in Tampa trying very hard to make ends
meet and just to make rent each month. Earlier this month, Aamer Madhani (USA Today) explained there
was a 3.1% increase this year in "no-shows" for Iraqi refugees granted
asylum to the US who do not take make the "U.S. government-paid flights
out of Iraq" and that "the reluctance is a reflection of the
difficulties faced by thousands of Iraqis who have arrived in the U.S.
since 2006." Not all Iraqi refugees are struggling to those extremes. Maureen Sieh (Syracuse Post-Standard) noted,
In the last year, 130 Iraqi refugees have been settled in Syracuse by
refugee programs run by Catholic Charities and Interfaith Works Center
for New Americans." Most charity programs have dried up in the US due
to the economy and/or disinterest. Mosques and churches are among the
few that remain. What of the US government's obligation? Last week
the Boston Globe offered the editorial What are they doing for refugees? In it's most recent [PDF format warning] report on Iraq,
the US State Dept notes that "as many as 2 million Iraqi refugees" are
being housed by "regional governments," an estimated 2.8 million are
currently displaced within Iraq and then they offer a dollar figure . .
. for Fiscal Year 2008. FY2008 ended months before Barack Obama was
sworn in. Fiscal Year 2009, the current year, is nearly over. It ends
at the end of September. March 20, 2009, much was made of the
announcement of pledges by the US in excess of $141 million which was
added to the stingy sum of $9 million that had already been
'committed.' Have those pledges been honored, has the money -- $90
million to UNHCR, $15.5 million to UNICEF, for example -- been paid
out? Were the pledges honored? Yvonne Abraham (Boston Globe) pointed out
another area of concern yesterday, "The federal government desperately
needs Arabic speakers, particularly ones who know the Middle East.
Hundreds of the Iraqis who worked with US forces are now here, and
desperately need jobs. Yet nobody seems to have come up with a way to
match our needs with theirs. Kirk Johnson, whose List Project brings
Iraqis who helped American forces to the United States, said only a few
have found work as government translators here. The rest are shut out
because the security hurdles are too high, or because they're not
citizens." The
consequences of the upstream damming of Iraq's rivers, when compounded
with a general trend towards the reduction in rainfall entering the two
river basins, is having a severe impact on the Iraqi breadbasket's
ability to feed its population. The World Food Programme estimates that
some 930,000 people are currently food-insecure in Iraq, with a further
6.4 million at risk of becoming food-insecure in the event of the
failure of the Public Distribution System (PDS). Resettlement of
internally displaced refugees and the potential return of the millions
of Iraqis from Jordan and Syria all have the potential to place a
further burden on this fragile system. Adam L Silverman, who worked as
a social science adviser for the US army human terrain teams in 2008, noted that lack of river discharge
leads to "ongoing soil erosion that leads to further desertification
and increased heat and dust storms, which has a measurable negative
impact on the quality of life of the Iraqis". Reuters reported that the sandstorms
that delayed Biden's trip led to several deaths and "hundreds of Iraqis
seeking medical help after one of the worst sandstorms in living memory
stretched beyond a week, choking throats, clogging eyes and afflicting
asthma sufferers in particular". "The Iraqi refugee crisis is far from over and recent violence is creating further displacement," notes Refugees International,
"Iraqi women will resist returning home, even if conditions improve in
Iraq, if there is no focus on securing their rights as women and
assuring their personal security and their families' well being."
Refugees International's latest report is [PDF format warning] entitled
" IRAQI REFUGEES: WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND SECURITY CRITICAL TO RETURNS."
It finds that not only are large scale returns not coming in the
immediate future but that "[n]ot one woman interviewed by RI indicated
her intention to return. Some women said they won't return because
they are members of targeted minority groups, or because of injuries
they suffered. . . . Some fear rising conservatism would restrict their
ability to participate in civic and professional life. . . . Others
feared they were at risk of so called 'honor killings' by family
members because they refused marriages, had divorced, or were accused
of prostitution." The field report found reoprts of forced marriages
in Syria and the KRG. In Syria, "an Iraqi women working as a singer in
a restaurant . . . was attacked by three men and raped. When she
reported the crime to the police and asked for assistance, she was
arrested, detained for six days, and threatened with deportation for
working illegally. UNHCR finally obtained her release, but her
assailants were never arrested." The report notes: In
northern Iraq, the KRG has taken some welcome steps to respond to the
disturbingly high levels of reported gender-based violence (GBV),
particularly so-called "honor killings," burnings and other attacks on
women, often disguised as accidents or suicides. Recent higher GBV
statistics in KRG may indicate a greater willingness to report such
crimes, but further visible government support for women's rights is
sorely need throughout Iraq. The KRG,
unlike the Government of Iraq, has supsended laws providing for
"mitigating circumstances" to reduce the punishments for so-called
"honor" crimes and has increased the penalties. Its Prime Minster set
up a Cabinet-level Committee on Violence against Women and set up and
staffed in each KRG governorate a "Directorate to Follw up Violence
against Women." The offices conduct outreach and public education and
investigate cases to turn over to the prosecutor. To protect women at
risk of serious violence, the KRG and nongovernmental organizations
operate small residential shelters. However, staff has little training
or experience on security, confidentiality, or the counseling skills
needed to assist clients. RI learned of recent incidents of women
being trafficked from shelters. The
KRG could enhance these institutions' effectiveness and credibility by
appointing experienced women to senior leadership posts in the Cabinet
Committee and the Directorates, by regulating the shelters, and by
ensuring shelter staff receive training and oversight. Donors should
provide technical assistance through deploying specialist in
investigations, witness protection, counseling, and helping to create
standard operating procedures for temporary shelters. Donors should
increase support to local NGOs experienced in GBV prevention and
response services. Help is also needed in ensuring the wider
distribution of public education materials in both Kurdish and Arabic,
since higher levels of domestic violence are reported in the displaced
population, which has not benefitted from any government outreach. Moving to the Kurdistan region of Iraq. July 25th, they hold their provincial elections as well as elect a president. Nada Bakri (Washington Post) notes
the region is "simultaneously considered the most democratic in Iraq
and not all that democratic. Two main parties -- [KRG President
Masoud] Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani -- have for years
exercised a stranglehold on the region, dividing between them politics,
patronage, investments and business deals." Pakistan's The National observes
that a vote was also supposed to be held "to approve the new
constitution, but a hurried intervention by the US vice president Joe
Biden and warnings from Baghdad have persuaded Kurdish leaders to
postpone that referendum. Kurdish anxiety is understandable. . . .
The Kurds now appear to feel that the goodwill they displayed when they
were strong brought few benefits." All weekend the tensions between
the KRG and the centeral government in Baghdad continued to increase. Mehid Lebouachera (Kuwait Times) explained
the roots of the tensions as follows: "Six years after the US-led
invasion in which Kurdish rebel groups were key allies, their
decades-old claims to historically Kurdish-inhabited areas remain
unresolved by the new Iraqi government in which they hold both the
presidency and a deputy premiership. And opposition to the Kurdish
demands remains as strong as ever, not only among the Sunni Arab
minority that dominated Saddam Hussein's ousted regime but also among
the Shiite majority community that leads the new government and among
ethnice minorities such as Turkemn. As time drags on, Kurdish leaders
have voiced mounting frustration at the impasse in their talks with
Baghdad, sparking an increasingly heated war of words with Arab
politicians." Lebouachera explains the tensions
over unresolved borders. There are a number of disputed territories
but let's zoom in on oil-rich Kirkuk. Nouri al-Maliki was installed by
the US over three years ago. That's important. The 2005 Constitution,
which went into effect in the final third of 2005 -- mere months before
Nouri was installed -- promised an independent census of Kirkuk and a
2007 referendum. Nouri came to power and didn't get on that issue.
Following the 2006 mid-term elections in the US, when both houses of
Congress were handed over to Democrats (November, 2006), the White
House, under pressure on the never-ending illegal war, began talking
benchmarks for 'success.' The White House defined those benchmarks and
Nouri signed off on them. The benchmarks included resolving the issue
of Kirkuk. 2007. Two years later and still nothing.
Not only
throughout the illegal war, but also before it began, it was always
known that Kirkuk was a divisive issue. (Hence the September 1998 White
House meeting with Jalal Talabani, Kurd and current president of Iraq,
and Masoud Barzani, Kurd and current president of the KRG; as well as
the passage of in October 2002 of legislation by the Kurdish parliament
preparing for the Iraq War.) Saddam Hussein ran Kurds out of the area
and installed Arabs. The Kurds see Kirkuk as their land. The land is
oil-rich and the Arabs aren't eager to hand it over to Kurdish control.
So
despite the fact that Nouri came into office mere months after the
Constitution went into effect (calling for resolution of the Kirkuk
issue) and despite the fact that, in 2007, he signed off on benchmarks
which included resolving the Kirkuk issue, he's done nothing. There has
been no referendum, there hasn't even been a census.
Last
summer, lands the Kurds consider their own were nearly invaded by Iraqi
forces in what some saw as an attempted take over and others saw as a
'crackdown' or assault similar to what Nouri staged on Basra in March
of last year. It was a very tense situation and war could have erupted
right then. Unlike the Shi'ite - Sunni conflict which was more ethnic
cleansing due to the fact that the Sunnis are not in power and do not
have the numbers that the Shi'ites, the KRG has its own army, has its
own forces and the tensions do not cease, if these issues aren't
resolved, it's not unlikely that real civil war will break out in Iraq.
A real one. Not ethnic cleansing being 'prettied up' with the phrase
'civil war.' Not a bunch of powerless minorities being killed and run
out of the country, but a full on war. But that doesn't seem to be a concern to the US installed government. Jamal al-Badrani (Reuters) reports
that, as nothing is done regarding disputed territories, Kurds in
Nineveh Province have issued statements threatening to secede but
that's apparently not cause for concern either. And all the statements
being made by KRG officials? Apparently not a concern either. AFP reports
that Massud Barzani, president of the KRG, stated yesterday, "We are
committed to the application of Article 140 (of the Iraqi constitution)
and we rpomise that we will absolutely not compromise on this issue or
on the rights of the people of Kurdistan." Article 140 requires an
independent census in Kirkuk and a referendum to take place no later
than . . . December 2007. This is not a minor detail nor is it something once touched on and then forgotten. Saturday, the KRG's Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani gave a speech and it included the following:In
formulating policy for our government, we have always been committed to
the Iraqi Constitution and protection of the interests of the Kurdistan
Region and all of Iraq.
As you are all aware, recent tensions have
occasionally surfaced with the federal, central government over pending
issues.
It is clear that, as long as those issues
remain unresolved; this will threaten the stability that we all aspire
to achieve in Iraq.
I would like to address this
matter openly. What we in the Kurdistan Regional Government want to
achieve is to resolve these issues peacefully and in accordance with
the terms and conditions enshrined in the Iraqi Constitution, for which
80% of Iraqis voted.
We have always been ready in the past,
and we are ready and willing now to sit at the negotiating table with
the federal government and talk with those who possess the will to
solve these issues.
Sometimes we in the
Kurdistan Region are accused of being too firm and insistent in our
demands. But I would like Iraqis and the whole world to be aware of two
things:
First, our insistence on the commitment to the
Constitution and its guarantees for freedom and democracy emerge
directly from our history.
We in the
Kurdistan Region have suffered greatly as the result of agreements
which were unfulfilled and promises which were ignored.
In
order for us to live in peace and stability, we want our rights to be
protected. This will take place as a result of permanent agreements by
which all concerned will abide, in accordance with Constitutional
principles. We don't have any hidden agenda in Iraq.
Second, for
those who say that we cannot negotiate seriously, there are tangible
examples of how the KRG has participated seriously in negotiations that
have led to historic results. Therefore, we can engage in a similar
manner with Baghdad in this regard.
We want to be a reliable and cooperative partner with the federal government. Our vision of security,
stability and prosperity for the Kurdistan Region requires a peaceful
and cooperative relationship and coordination with all of Iraq and with
Baghdad and we will continue with this policy in the Kurdistan
Region.
All that we ask for is to have a
relationship within the framework of the Constitution, which is the
highest law of the land and the greatest guarantee to us that history
will not repeat itself. Our
message is clear. The Kurdistan Regional Government is ready and
hopeful that serious dialogue will resume with the federal government
to solve the issues according to Constitutional principles and within a
federal, democratic Iraq.
Our insistence on resolving the issues are
with the aim of guaranteeing a bright future for our people and the
prevention of any repetition of our tragic history. Meanwhile, do-nothing Nouri is headed to the US. Liz Sly (Los Angeles Times) reports
Nouri, who has been making disparging remarks about US service members
lately, intends to visit Arlington Cementary while visiting the White
House. Reportedly he plans to pay his 'respects' -- non-existant ones
to judge by his recent remarks. She quotes Nouri al-Maliki's boy-toy
Sami Askari declaring, ""The Democrats were in opposition to George
Bush so they tended not to see his positive points, only to concentrate
on the negative ones. So I think the prime minister needs to say this:
That as a people, we are not ignoring what others did for us. Every
Iraqi who goes to Washington needs to make clear that the war was not a
failure." Save the fantasy talk for Nouri, Askari. Nouri made quite
clear to Barack last summer what he thought of Bully Boy Bush. The idea
that after running Bush down (no problem with that here), Nouri's now
going to counsel Barack on the 'good' in George W.'s efforts is
laughable. What's not being reported are rumors that Biden has
scheduled a high-level meeting with Nouri and former Ba'athists for
this visit. Those are rumors. When Biden visited Iraq, Nouri remainded
non-committal to the idea and indicated he would weigh a meet up with
Ba'athists and Arab neighbors. Shortly after Biden departed Iraq, Nouri
began issuing fiery statements indicating otherwise. Nouri's personal press representative Mike Tharp of McClatchy Newspapers and Nouri's Ass raves like he's audtioning for Pat Newcomb: The Movie, insisting
-- in a non-journalistic manner -- that Nouri is "the popular leader of
an American ally, the prime minister of an increasingly
independent-minded country". When Mike gets the taste of Nouri's ass
washed out of his mouth, someone inform him that Nouri's a thug and a
US installed puppet currently testing the length and tethering of his
leash. If Tharp's behavior seems shocking, you
must have missed this weekend when he made like Eric Carmen serenading
Nouri with "All By Myself" ("Don't wanna bee all by myself . . .") as he insisted
that the Iraqi forces, all by themselves, protected the pilgrims -- all
by themselves! Like the Nouri publicist he's become, he was gushing
about "their first big test" and how they "passed" "with flying
colors"! and all by themselves . . . He quoted Iraqi military
spokesmodel Qaasim Atta stating, "This is the first 100 percent Iraqi
security plan to protec the pilgrims. The forces are Iraqis, even the
helicopters above." Problem was Mohammed al Dulaimy already reported
that US helicopters -- two of them -- were hovering over Baghdad. So
Tharp buried that reality in the thirteenth paragraph of his eighteen
paragraph p.r. copy. From Thursday through Saturday, Tharp babbled, no
deaths and Iraqi security forces did it all by themselves! If you
leave out the two helicopters. And if you leave out what Muhanad Mohammed (Reuters) reported,
"Cameras on air balloons monitored the site, the surveillance provided
by the U.S. military at Iraq's request." Leave that out too in order
to sing "All By Myself." Leave out the fact that AP reported Saturday of the pilgrimage, "The event was a relative success, despite bombings that killed several people and injured dozens." Leave out that Alsumaria reported on Saturday's pilgrimage:
"One citizen was killed and tens pilgrims were wounded as they were
heading to Imam Moussa Al Kazem shrine (AS) due to roadside bomb
explosions in Zaafaraniya, New Baghdad, Al Saydiya and Al Dora region."
But no deaths and Iraqi forces did it all by themselves. Think we're
going to need some louder voices on the chorus in order to drown out
realities such as the fact that the US forces, stepping away from Iraq
cities, have been doing more work along the route of the pilgrims.
Baghdad's the destination. But the pilgrims don't fly in to Baghad
International, step onto the tarmac and rush to the shrine. That's not
how it works. But if you're stupid enough, if you're as stupid as the
press hopes you are, you will be grinning and swearing, "Mission
accomplished!" Here on planet earth, we gasp at the billions of Iraqi dollars Nouri sits on while people the starve. Aljazeera explains,
"Abject poverty across Iraq is fuelling an illegal trade in human
organs. Hundreds of people are believed to have sold kidneys and other
organs through dealers in the capital, Baghdad, over the last year. . .
. About 23 per cent of Iraqis live in poverty, meaning that they are
forced to survive on $2.2 a day or less, according to government
figures." Let's drop back to the July 14th snapshot: And the river dries up as Jenan Hussein (McClatchy Newspapers) reports
on the poverty, "Beggars have become as visible as blast walls and
checkpoints in Iraqi cities. Government ministries don't have reliable
statistics, partly because those who beg fear official crackdowns on
their only livelihood. It's a problem the government has yet to
tackle." This happens as the Oil Ministry brags
it has "acheived (59.1000) million barrels with (3.378) billion dollars
incomes with daily average of (4.400) barrels per day for May and the
raise was (686) million dollars. In comparison with April which
achieved (54.700) million barrels with (2.692) billion dollars incomes."We probably shouldn't begrudge Nouri having Mike Tharp as his p.r. agent -- clearly Nouri needs all the spin control he can get. Meanwhile Gabriel Gatehouse (BBC News) reports that tensions are escalating between the Iraqi military and the US military over their roles. Ernesto Londono (Washington Post) adds
that this revolves around the security agreements (primarily the treaty
masquerading as a SOFA), "The conflicting interpretations of the
security agrement, U.S. officials said, have led to numerous standoffs
on the ground, including cases in which Iraqi soldiers have prevented
American convoys from passing through checkpoints." Help us out, US
forces are still in Iraq why? It's not to protect Iraqi women, it's
not to protect Iraqi Christians, it's not to protect Iraq's LGBT
community, so why are they still there? To be sitting ducks? Thomas
E. Ricks ( Foreign Policy) offers two more examples of the unraveling of Iraq today -- here for first one, here for second. Friday a helicopter crashed in Iraq. CNN reported
it was an "Xe" (Blackwater) helicopter and that two employees died and
another two were wounded. Yesterday afternoon, the US State Dept
issued the following statement:
The
Department of State is deeply saddened by the deaths of two employees
of Xe Consulting during a helicopter crash in Iraq on July 17 and
extends our heartfelt sympathies to their families. Our thoughts are
also with the two men who were injured in this incident and their
families. These men played an important role in assisting the
Department in protecting American diplomats and missions in
Iraq.
The
Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security is coordinating with
appropriate U.S. and Iraqi officials regarding an investigation into
the cause of the crash.
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . . Bombings? Reuters reports
a Baghdad car bombing which left four people injured, a Mosul roadside
bombing which injured a police officer and a bystander, a Mosul bombing
which injured a police officer, a Mosul roadside bombing which claimed
the life of 1 Iraqi police officer, a Ramadi car bombing which claimed
the lives of 2 Iraqi police officers, left one injured as well as three
bystanders and a Baghdad roadside bombing which left nine people
injured. Mohammed al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad sticky bombing which injured Capt Humadi Othman (of Facilities Protection Services) and one other person. Shootings? Reuters reports
1 police officer shot dead in central Mosul, 1 police officer shot dead
in southwest Mosul, 1 police officer shot dead in east Mosul and 1
Iraqi soldier shot dead in southeast Mosul. Sunday the US military announced:
"AL ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq – A Multi National Force – West Marine was
killed in a combat-related incident as a result of enemy action here
July 19. The Marine's name is being withheld pending next-of-kin
notification and release through the U.S. Department of Defense
official website at http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/." The announcement brought to 4327 the number of US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war. If
you're in the DC area I encourage you to join the Human Rights
Campaign, Human Rights Watch and the National LGBT Bar Association for
a unique event in Washington, D.C. to support lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender Iraqis who have fled their home
country. On
Friday, July 24, spokesmen for a group of twenty LGBT Iraqi refugees
undergoing their resettlement process will be in Washington, D.C. to
bring attention to their struggle and raise money to support LGBT Iraqi
refugees still in the Middle East. Since
the U.S. invasion, sectarian violence and fundamentalist religious
leaders have filled a power vacuum left by the war that has made life
for LGBT Iraqis increasingly unbearable. In recent months,
international media have reported that LGBT Iraqis face kidnapping,
torture, horrific sexual violence, death threats and
murder. Start your weekend off with a reception that may save lives. All proceeds from the fundraiser go to support Helem,
a Lebanese LGBT organization that has provided food, shelter and
clothing to LGBT Iraqi refugees currently undergoing their resettlement
process. What: Fundraiser to Support LGBT Iraqi Refugees
When: Friday, July 24, 2009
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Where: Human Rights Campaign Equality Center
1640 Rhode Island Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20036,
(at the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue and 17th Street)
Cost: Please bring your checkbook or credit card and donate as you can. For questions or more information, please contact Eric Wingerter at iraqrefugeelgbt@gmail.com
Also in the US, Walter Cronkite passed away Friday at the age of 92. The former anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News was remembered today on CBS News' online web program Washington Unplugged. Sharing their memories and evaluations were CBS News' Bob Schieffer, who hosts the program, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post
and Marvin Kalb who worked for CBS News and NBC News (and earned the
honor of making Tricky Dick's enemies list). CBS News honored Cronkite
last night in prime time with a special and you can find it online at CBS' website (text and video). At her website, under news videos,
Carly Simon has taped the following message (currently plays after
beauty tips for looking older -- a humorous video; good morning and
work on mixing her forthcoming album due out later this year): My
sister Joey [opera singer Joanna Simon] and Walter Cronkite were very
much in love and spent pretty much the last four years of his life
together. Joey took care of him night and day when he was sick. And
Walter loved her and she loved him and she will always love him -- as
we all will. He never said anything that wasn't absolutely real. He
was an impeccable human being and this message is for everybody who
loved him and will continue to. Peter Simon tells K.C. Myers (Cape Cod Times),
"They were an adorable couple. To see them together, it was so
moving. They were so in love with each other. Now she's going through
a terrible loss." Kate Nocera and Erin Durkin (New York Daily News) quote
Joanna Simon stating, "He loved to sail. Sometimes we would take day
sails. Other times, we would go to Nantucket or Newport. One time we
sailed up the coast of Maine. [. . . .] My entire life with Walter gave
me such great joy. Now, without him, I'm kind of at a loss as to what
to do with the rest of my life. I go through waves. Sometiimes I'm
okay. Sometimes I just want to turn the clock back." In 1962, with
the New York City Opera, Joanna Simon made her debut in The Marriage of Fiagaro.
It was the start of a highly accomplished and praised career. Walter
Cronkite is survived by his three children Chip Cronkite, Kathy
Cronkite and Nancy Cronkite and by his four grandchildren John
Macintosh Cronkite-Ikard, Peter Cronkite, William Maxwell
Cronkite-Ikard and Walter Cronkite IV.
Posted at 02:51 pm by thecommonills
Permalink
US military sitting ducks, 6 Iraqi police officers killed
The
tip was as alarming as it was unusual. A Sunni insurgent cell was
planning a mortar attack on a large U.S. base adjacent to Baghdad's
airport.
A credible informant told U.S. intelligence officials
Tuesday morning that several mortars launching from nearby Amiriyah, a
quiet neighborhood that had not been a staging ground for rocket or
mortar attacks since 2007, would rain down shells on the base that
night.
Over the next few days, Capt. Dustin Navarro and his Iraqi
army counterpart wrangled over the appropriate response. They met,
argued, sparred and compromised. In the end, two things became evident:
First, Iraqi and American commanders have markedly different notions of
what U.S. troops in Baghdad are entitled to do to protect themselves
under a security agreement that went into effect July 1 and that
sharply limits U.S. activity in Iraqi cities. The above is from Ernesto Londono's " U.S. Troops in Iraq Find Little Leeway" ( Washington Post)
which examines the US role as babysitters and sitting ducks, as targets
and and lightening rods. Read it and wonder how anyone can justify the
continuation of the US presence in Iraq? All US troops need to be out
of Iraq and out of Iraq right now. It may take a Somolia type incident
for that realization to really hit home. If such an incident takes
place, there will be little of the deference (wrongly) shown to the
current administration in the US. If that happens, Barack will have to
explain just what the hell is doing? It's something a real peace
movement would have forced him to explain months ago -- around the time
he dropped his "one brigade out a month" claim. We don't have a
peace movement in this country currently (maybe it can be rebuilt) just
like we don't have independent media. We do have Panhandle Media and, if you doubt that, catch the first half of Democracy Now! today where Queen of all Beggars Amy Goodman is joined by fellow street 'reporters' Robert Parry and Danny Schechter.
Listen to the whines and roll your eyes, listen to the self-pity and
laugh. Robert Parry, who utilized non-stop sexism throughout 2008,
insists, "We have to build something different." Yes, WE do. Something
without your sexist garbage. Something without your dated, fumbling
approach that is not worth supporting with time or money. What's your
excuse? You've always got an excuse. People aren't giving you enough
money! Whine, whine, whine. You've been around for over a decade and
what the hell have you accomplished online, what can you point to? How
pathetic. And no, we don't care if you go under. You have earned your
reputation as sexist supreme and we're not supporting you. Danny
Schechter. No one breaks my heart as much as Danny. He knows
sexism is wrong. He refused to call out in 2008. He had a million
different excuses for staying silent. At one point, he was maintaining
privately that Hillary made an issue out of being a woman so certain
'critiques' were okay but, at the same time, he was maintaining that
Hillary didn't call out the sexism and that's why others stayed silent.
It's funny how in both 'rationales,' the source of the attacks is
blamed. You get that, right? In the first one, it's her fault for
allegedly making an issue out of being a woman. (She didn't do that.
Others -- people on the left who loathed her -- did that throughout
2007 and it was repeated over and over and accepted as fact.) In the
second one, the silence on the sexist attacks are her fault as well
because she didn't do this or she didn't do that. She was attacked and it's all her fault? That's a new media we need to support? We need to support a new media that's nothing but a Democratic Party organ? Robert
Parry and Danny both spent this year being just that. (Danny's shown
more independence in the last few weeks.) An independent media should
not be taking sides in an election and it certainly should not be
rendering Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney's presidential runs
invisible. Every time Parry or Danny wrote of Obama's campaign (which
was basically every time they wrote), they should have also been
covering Ralph and Cynthia's. They didn't. Because covering
those campaigns required more work than thumbing through the New York
Times that day and keeping a half-eye on MSNBC. it required a little
work. And the ones who want money now, don't understand why people are
sick of it? An independent media is not an arm of the Democratic
Party. An independent media does not take partisan sides. It can be
left, absolutely. But left does not mean Democratic cheerleader. And
that's all our so-called 'alternative' media is today with very few
exceptions. Lastly, on Sunday nights, the hour 60 Minutes airs in? That's prime time. It's considered prime time, it has been considered prime time for decades. So if CBS shelved 60 Minutes
last night to air a tribute to Walter Cronkite (I have no idea when it
aired, I don't sit in front of the TV), they did present a prime time
special on Cronkite. As for the claim regarding the burial of
Cronkite's remarks on Vietnam, Ava and I caught Meet The Press Sunday morning.
That's the last TV program I've watched and, on that broadcast, in
their tiny minute devoted to Cronkite, the Vietnam moment was noted. I
have no idea what other programs noted or didn't note but a program
that doesn't know what prime time is really isn't a program whose media
'critique' I put a great deal of trust in. To Saturday's entry, add this from Muhanad Mohammed (Reuters):
"Cameras on air balloons monitored the site, the surveillance provided
by the U.S. military at Iraq's request. " And thank you to a friend at
CNN for passing that along, I had missed it. Last week say 3 US
soldiers killed by mortars targeting a US base. Among the claims
surfacing since then is that the suspect is backed by Iran. Iran's Press TV counters: Political
insiders say reports that an Iranian-backed militant has been arrested
in Iraq are designed to divert attention from the US role in regional
violence.An Iraqi police
official told the Associated Press on Sunday that a member of an
Iranian-backed militia has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in
a terrorist attack that killed three US soldiers on Thursday,.An
informed source speaking on conditions of anonymity said Monday that
suchlike reports are circulated by US intelligence agencies and the
powerful remnants of the Ba'ath Party in a bid to portray Iran as the
enemy and influence Iraqi people against their better judgment. Violence continues in Iraq. Reuters reports
multiple shootings and two bombings: a Mosul roadside bombing which
claimed the life of 1 police officer, a Ramadi car bombing which
claimed the lives of 2 Iraqi police officers with a third injured and
three bystanders also wounded, 1 police officer shot dead in east
Mosul, 1 police officer shot dead in southwest Mosul and 1 off-duty
police officer shot dead in central Mosul. Six Iraqi police officers
killed in today's violence. Bonnie reminds that Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Barry and TOTUS" went up last night. The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. iraqthe washington posternesto londonodemocracy nowdanny schechterthe world today just nuts
Posted at 06:20 am by thecommonills
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