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Thursday, July 23, 2009
"There are still three million people displaced, innocent families," she added. "We have still many young men and women from our country who are fighting every day, there are men and women from all countries who have lost their lives, and this is a time to try to make some positive change."That's Angelina Jolie, no surprise, she's a smart woman and much smarter than TV readers playing at journalism.  Angelina is the UNHCR's Goodwill Ambassador and made her third trip to Iraq today. The above statement by her appears in CNN's coverage. The San Francisco Chronicle quotes her stating, "There are some changes. There are returns of displaced people, not a big number, but there is progress. This is a moment where things seem to be improving on the ground, but Iraqis need a lot of support and help to rebuild their lives." Wow. She puts everyone to shame. The Docker Boys of the New York Times take pot shots at her but she shows more awareness in interviews today than the paper publishes when it comes to Iraq -- whether the story was filed in DC or Iraq. Maybe her thoughts are on Iraqi refugees and the New York Times, a paper who helped sell the illegal war to begin with, does double-time as it attempts to re-sell the illegal war, re-brand it and add a sugary topping to make it go down so much easier. We'll stay with the topic of refugees for this entry. Richard Hall's " Fearful of returning to Iraq, refugees opt to remain in prison" ( The Daily Star) covers life for some Iraqi refugees in Lebanon: BEIRUT: "Rot Here or Die There" reads the title of a 2007 Human Rights Watch report on the predicament of Iraqi refugees in Lebanon. It’s a pertinent description of the limited choices that Iraqis have, and even more so when applied to those who are currently residing in Lebanese prisons.
Situated atop a jagged mountain-face 18 kilometers northeast of Beirut, Roumieh Prison holds approximately 3,700 prisoners, of whom 52 are Iraqis, while the vast majority are Lebanese.
The total number of Iraqis detained in Lebanon is estimated to be around 120, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Most are detained in Roumieh, although some are held in other facilities around the country. That's Lebanon. AFP reports this on Iraqi refugees in Jordan, " The United Nations said on Tuesday a budget shortfall has forced it to suspend medical aid to hundreds of chronically ill Iraqi refugees in Jordan." Every day conditions continue that create more Iraqi refugees. Women leave because they and their families are trouble and because their rights have been destroyed since the start of the illegal war. Women and men leave because they're Christians and Iraqi Christians are always only a month or two away from the latest wave of attacks on them. Sunnis leave because their neighborhoods were 'ethincially cleansed,' even Shi'ites leave. And there is the ongoing assault on Iraq's LGBT community. They are targeted for who they are. And some targeted aren't even gay. But someone decides they 'must' be (out of ignorance or to protect themselves -- easiest way to hide in a closet is to point to others) and they get targeted as well. And when has Nouri ever called it out? Iraq Christians? If the Pope is publicly speaking out, Nouri will find time to toss out a few words. Otherwise? He's as silent on the attacks on Iraqi Christians as he is about the attacks on Iraqi gays. Nouri was supposed to be paying monies to neighboring countries like Jordan, Syria and Lebanon -- supplying them with money to cover for schooling and other expenses the refugee populations create. But that really didn't happen. Just like Nouri's efforts to improve life for Iraqis didn't really happen but he talked so pretty in the lead up to the January 31st elections (in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces) this year. How long does someone get to lead before their refusal to aid their own people is noted regularly? Nouri's been prime minister for over three years now. It's over, I'm done writing songs about loveThere's a war going onSo I'm holding my gun with a strap and a gloveAnd I'm writing a song about warAnd it goesNa na na na na na naI hate the warNa na na na na na naI hate the warNa na na na na na naI hate the warOh oh oh oh-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!) Last Thursday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4323. Tonight? 4327.The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. iraqi hate the warthe balletangelina jolie
Posted at 09:58 pm by thecommonills
Permalink
Thursday, July 23, 2009. Chaos and violence continue, the US Ambassador in Iraq doesn't appear to stay at his post very much (" Is he here? I look in the pool hall . . ."),
Nouri admits US troops may stay in Iraq past 2011, the House Veterans
Committee holds a hearing on the needs of disabled veterans and their
families (though some witnesses seem unclear on that topic), and more. This
morning the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs
of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs held a hearing entitled
Examining the Ancillary Benefits and Veterans Quality of Life Issues. "This
Subcommittee has actively tackled many complex and complicated issues
that have been encumbering the Veterans Benefits Administration and and
it's ability to properly compensate veterans who file disability
claims," explained US House Rep John Hall who is the Chair of the
Subcommittee. "These issues have majorly centered on VA business
processes and operations. Today's hearing will focus on the actual
appropriateness of available benefits in meeting the needs of disabled
veterans and their families." Chair
John Hall: Mr. Zampieri, as you noted in your testimony, eye and ear
injuries have been associated with TBI, with explosions of roadside
bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan among other battlefields and theaters of
combat. Do you feel that VA has done a sufficient job evaluating all
the face and head trauma completely and accurately to compensate
veterans and provide them with all necessary ancillary-ancillary
benefits? Thomas
Zampieri: Thank you for the question. I think it's actually a concern
of ours and probably safe to say many of the other VSOs that
individuals with Traumatic Brain Injuries that have sensory associated
symptoms have a very difficult time in getting their ratings because so
many of those are subjective kind of complaints. You know we
frequently hear a a lot about the problems with tinnitus, for example.
Frequently TBI patients complain of photophobia which is extreme
sensitivity to light. And those are very difficult to rate. But those
things can have quite an impact on the individual's ability to function
and also their relationship socially, employment wise. And so we're
concerned about the way TBI assessments are done in regards to sensory
losses. I know that the VA has put a lot of effort towards looking at
new assessment methods and congratulate them for-for recognizing this
is a serious problem. Chair Hall then
asked him whether there were any devices currently are in the works
that hoped to address sight issues and he pointed to the Brainport
Vision Device which was a topic of the May 13th House Veterans Affairs
Committee hearing. From that day's snapshot: Robert
Beckman [Brainport Technologies] spoke of a portable device, the
Brainport Vision Device, where a small camera ("with zoom
capability") is hooked to other neurochannels ("such as the tongue").
Beckman stated, "One blind user with two glass eyes was able to
successfully shoot a basketball and another used the Brainport Vision
Device at an indoor rock climbing gym to see the next rock holds and at
home with his daughter to play Tic-Tac-Toe." "The
Brainport Vision Device will not replace the cane or the sight dog," he
continued. "But it will become an important, additional tool to
improve the safety, mobility and quality of life for blind users. Some
examples. Finding the open seat on a crowded bus or train. Identifying
the direction to the target building in a confusing parking lot.
Finding the handle in order to remove a hot pot from the stove. Wicab
recently sponsored clinical testing of the Brainport Vision Device at
the Atlanta VA. Dr. Michael Williams, the PI concluded, 'Bottom line,
the device performs remarkably well for the tasks that we looked at in
phase one'. To optimize the device we need feedback from a much larger
pool of users who are blind. We would welcome the opportunity to
further test the Brainport Vision Device at VA sites. Perhaps those
willing soldiers who are blind as a result of a blast injury should be
first in line to test this new technology?" Zampieri
noted the device was still in the early stages of research and stated
those who have tested it would declare "it holds some hope, but it's
not going to replace natural vision." Under questioning from Hall,
Abrams explained that he had a relative in residential care "and it
cost over $90,000 to $100,000 to put somebody in a home and homecare,
if you need twenty-four hour care, is hugely expensive." "First
observation," declared Glazer on the second panel noting an ongoing
program -- Army Wounded Warrior Career Demonstration Project
-- the National Organization on Disability is conducting with the army,
"a fundamental mismatch many of the supports for veterans are
constrained to an active service model placing the burden on veterans
and their families to find and approach agencies But we find that the
most seriously injured soldiers, especially with cognitive injuries are
not really able to effectively access these services. [. . .] Second
observation, the need to deal with both a veteran and the family
member. As others have stated, the process of recovering from injury
and coming home and coming to terms with disability is a very complex
process that impacts the entire family. Ancillary benefits in our
belief must be available to veterans and family members." Glazer
would go on to note issues such as criminal charges for veterans
suffering from PTSD or TBI, training in the management of personal
finances. Glazer, and her organization, are a little too Republican
for me (Tom Ridge chairs the organization) and it's a little too "smile
and pull up those bootstraps." But Glazer was one of the few who knew
how to speak. Globbidy-gook? No one gives a damn. Don't reference a
model, for example, in another country, without explaining it. If
that's the root of your response to Hall's question, you're wasting
everyone's time including your own. I don't usually note "I like this
organization, I don't like that one" but on this panel, Glazer's being
noted because she knows how to speak and because two others will be
ignored, I want to be really clear that no one reads this as I'm
endorsing Glazer's organization. And let's also note that when all you
do is toss out a bunch of numbers, no one's really impressed. In fact,
it's assumed you actually don't know what you're talking about --
including your numbers -- or you'd be offering testimony that people
could actually follow. I've never seen as many blank stares in a
hearing before (true of the first panel to a lessor degree). Those not
doing blank stares? A man to the right of us repeatedly put his hand
over his face during the second panel, at a loss as to what was being
said. At the end of the hearing, he stated he felt as if it had been
conducted in a foreign language. Glazer knew how to speak and so did
Kimberly Munoz. Munoz was asked to estimate
the amount spent by veterans and their families for assistance and
stated she didn't know that answer but that it varies due to the fact
"that some families have the assistance they need to get the benefits
they need from VA and they have to use less out of pocket to get the
services their veteran needs. Other families who may have not had the
guidance from perhaps a VSO or who don't have the education in our
country -- maybe they've moved here from another country -- and they
don't speak our language, it's hard for them to run through all the
rules and regulations and applications and so they have a
difficult time accessing the benefits that they need. There was a
study that was released by the Center for Naval Analysis that estimated
19 months of lost income of around $2,000 some odd dollars for a total
of $36,000 average loss per family of a catastrophically injured
service member. That's their income loss which isn't necessarily
answering your question of how much do they spend out of pocket to get
the services but it is -- it is a figure that's been widely reported." Chair
John Hall: Thank you and what additional factors do you think VA should
specifically consider when it adjudicates aid and attendance or
housebound rates? Kimberly
Munoz: I think they need to consider the -- one of the key questions
is: Can the veteran keep themselves safe from the hazards of daily
living? There's many other questions related to a body part function
or a loss of a body part but buried deep in there is can the veteran
keep himself safe from the hazards of daily living? For those who have
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and stand-alone TBI I believe that that
is a key to determining whether or not that veteran needs aid and
attendance. The aid and attendance can also vary in terms of do you
need physical aid and attendance or do you need oversight? So one
package of aid and attendance does not meet the needs of every single
veteran. Chair
John Hall: That seems to me that that judgment about the safety of the
veteran living independently is similar to a judgment that one would
have to make about an Alzheimer-Alzheimer's patient, for instance. In
many families they go through that difficult time when they realize
that a stove or an electric socket is no longer a safe thing for this
adult family member to be handling alone. Kimberly
Munoz: Some of the family members have suggested specially adapted
equipment be included in the grants available for home modifications --
like stoves that automatically turn off after a certain amount of time.
Or other appliances that consider short term memory loss for some of
the Traumatic Brain Injury patients. Chair
John Hall: And what else do you think Ms. -- Ms. Munoz what else could
the VA do to improve the quality of life of disabled veterans and their
families. Kimberly
Munoz: It sounds simple but I know it's very difficult and that is:
Make it easier for families to get what they need. Anytime you look at
the Title 38 and try to determine, "Well what am I -- what is this
veteran eligible -- or how do I go about it?" It's so hard to know who
is eligible for what. One family care giver told me the story of, you
know, "We thought we were eligible for respite care and then when we
called my son's rating wasn't, wasn't high enough." Or the SMC [Special
Monthly Compensation] code wasn't the right code. So they work very
hard then to find out, "Well how to I get that code?" And that's a
backwards way to work a system. You need to find out what does that
veteran need, much like you [George Kettner] suggested, what is the
need of that veteran and what is the need of that family so that they
can live safely and live independently -- not how do we get you pigeon
holed into the right code so that you get the services that that code
offers. Can you follow that? Yes, you
can. And an organization that sends a speaker like that. or Glazer,
into a hearing is way ahead of others. You need to know the topic of
the hearing -- a problem for one person on the first panel who
repeatedly answered questions with a variation of "I don't know" -- and
you need to be able to speak clearly on the topic. Glazer advocated
for less benefits -- I'm not joking -- and whether anyone agreed with
her or not, everyone could follow what she was saying. (She was saying
that benefits can prevent work. And that's as much as I'm doing to
circulate her nonsense argument.) Also
in yesterday's snapshot was Nouri al-Maliki, puppet of the occupation,
and US President Barack Obama's performace at the Rose Garden.
Apparently journalists also wanted to play a role -- something other
than reporter -- judging from the articles filed on the nonsense. For
perspective, we drop back to Whit Stillman's Barcelona. Specifically,
a party where American Fred (Chris Eigeman) is discussing his home
country. Female Party Goer: You can't say Americans are not more violent than other people?
Fred: No.
Female Party Goer: All those people killed in shootings in America? Fred: Oh. Shootings, yes. But that doesn't mean Americans are more violent than other people. We're just better shots. America's not more violent, insists Fred, they're just better shots. Apparently some similar defense was on the minds of Karen DeYoung (Washington Post), Jeff Zeleny (New York Times) and Mark Silva (Los Angeles Times
and other Tribune properties). None of the three challenges Barack's
laughable assertion that "Violence continues to be down". No, it
doesn't. As we explained yesterday, the trend in lower violence ended
with the month of January. Starting with February, you see an uptick in
violence. That trend has held each passing month. We also cited Al Jazeera which was explaining,
"An estimated 437 Iraqis were killed in June, the highest death toll in
11 months, and the near daily attacks have continued in July." June,
the most recent month with data, saw "the highest death toll in 11
months," but Barack wants to claim violence is down? Apparently Iraq
isn't more violent currently, it's just seen better shots and better
bomb builders? DeYoung has the strongest article, then Zeleny and then
Silva. One compliment to all three is they covered it. Strongly or
badly, they covered it. Nouri al-Maliki met with Barack Obama
yesterday. The Iraq War is six years old and counting. Where was the
coverage? Amy Goodman's pathetic two sentences in headlines? That's
something to be proud of? How pathetic. What do you get instead? You
get the crap Bob Somerby's calling out today
(the mind readers who 'just know' something but don't know a thing --
which didn't stop Amy Goodman from doing yet another segment on it
today). You really need to ask how the media -- Big and Small -- is
serving you because in this round of Liar's Poker, seems to be a lot of
Liz Smiths sitting down at the table wanting to be dealt in. Back
to this morning's articles: Where are Americans? The leader of a
country the US remains at war with visits and where are the voices of
Americans? We do grasp that the Iraq War continues, right? Check yesterday's snapshot
and then read the articles again. A poll was released yesterday. It
addressed Iraq. Where's any citation of the results? From yesterday's
snapshot: 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%.
Nouri and
Barack meet up at the White House yesterday as a poll is released which
finds the number of people who believe Barack will "remove most troops
from Iraq" has fallen from 83% in January to 68% presently -- a 15%
drop. Where's that in any of the articles? The articles
repeatedly (and falsely) claim the US will be out of Iraq in 2011.
That's not what's happening. It's not even claimed to be happening.
Does no one listen to Adm Mike Mullen, Gen Ray Odierno or even
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates? Reading the articles today, it
doesn't appear that anyone does. Uh-oh. Reality slaps them in the
face. Aljazeera reports,
"The Iraqi prime minister has admitted US troops could stay in the
country beyond 2011." Yeah, he did it today and it's only a surprise
if you've never grasped what the Status Of Forces Agrement does and
does not do. The Washington Post, for example, has one
person on staff who understands the SOFA completely. That's one more
than the New York Times has. Drop back to real time coverage
(Thanksgiving 2008) and you'll see the Washington Post could explain
what it did and didn't do and get it right. No other US outlet can
make that claim. (The Los Angeles Times hedged their bets but did
appear to grasp it in an article co-written by Tina Susman.) McClatchy Newspapers?
Oh goodness, Leila Fadel made an idiot of herself over the SOFA. Even
more so than the New York Times (Elisabeth Bumiller -- in December and
January -- offered some realities but they were lost on the other
reporters at the paper). The Times just got it wrong. Fadel got it
wrong and sang praises of it. It wasn't reporting, it was column
writing passed off as such. Today, Nouri declared, "Nevertheless, if
the Iraqis require further training and support we shall examine this
at the time, based on the needs of Iraq." Sound familiar? It should.
This month you should have heard Adm Mike Mullen make the same
statement, you should have heard General Ray Odierno make it over and
over beginning in May and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has made
it many times -- generally he's asked when he's visiting a foreign
country because US reporters don't really seem to care. One exception
would certainly be Dahr Jamail who was on KPFA's Flashpoints
yesterday and explained, "We still have over 130,000 troops in Iraq.
Troops are not being withdrawn from Iraq. They are being relocated to
different bases, some of the bases still within cities, but they are
not being withdrawn thus far." Dahr's latest book The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan has just been released this month. IPA provides
this context from Global Policy Forum's James Paul: "For all the talk
of 'U.S. withdrawal' from Iraq, the reality on the ground is starkly
different. U.S. troops still patrol the cities, in flagrant violation
of the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, while Washington remains hugely
influential in the politics of the country. The gigantic U.S. embassy
looms large in Baghdad, U.S. forces still hold thousands of Iraqi
prisoners in the vast U.S. prison camp in the southern desert, dozens
of U.S. military bases remain in place including the sprawling 'Camp
Victory' complex in Baghdad and Washington continues to press towards
its ultimate goal -- the de facto privatization of Iraq's vast oil
resources." You
wouldn't know all that from al-Maliki's performance at a Rose Garden
press conference on July 22. Standing alongside Obama, the Iraqi Prime
Minister was the picture of self-confidence. He talked about broadening
Iraq's relationship with the U.S. and cooperation in the area of
economics, culture and education as well as a conference in October for
potential investors in Iraq. "All of this comes as a natural
consequence of [Iraq's] stability," he said. (See pictures of the U.S. troops' six years in Iraq.) But
in private, Iraqi officials concede that the stability is, well,
unstable. Before any meaningful economic and cultural cooperation takes
place, they say, the U.S. must shepherd Iraq through to the elections,
scheduled for January 2010. They worry that the Obama Administration,
eager to move on to more pressing problems at home and abroad, may not
realize just how fragile Iraq is. The Obama Administration "must not
lose its focus" in Iraq, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told
journalists on July 21. Spencer Ackerman (Washington Independent) examined
the speech by Nouri today and contrasted it with remarks by
Afghanistan's Ambassador to the US (Said Jawad) where Jawad noted, at
length, US military fatalities. Ackerman observes, "By contrast, in
his speech today to the U.S. Institute of Peace, here's the closest
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki came to recognizing the fact that
over 4,300 U.S. troops have died in Iraq: "He extended his thanks to
'the international community and all the countries that have cooperated
and helped Iraq,' saying Iraq would enjoy a 'solid relationship with a
great and strong country like the United States'." Chris
Hill is the US Ambassador to Iraq. He's in the US (we'll get to it)
and today he was interviewed by Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports (link offers video options -- Hill is "Iraq, what next?"): Andrea
Mitchell: You're here obviously because Prime Minister Maliki's here
and met with the president. There are still tensions over the terms of
disengagement if you will. What do we know now as a result of the
meetings? About the way Iraq is stepping up to the plate and taking on
its own governance? Chris
Hill: Well, first of all, this is pretty complex withdrawal. We have
130,000 troops in country, we just brought them out of the remaining
cities. This is a, you know, major undertaking. And for the Iraqis,
it was a major development, a major political development for them. So
they're very pleased at how it went. Now it's a complex business. You
have the world's greatest fighting force, the United States military,
turning it over to the IRaqis who aspire to being better than they are
but, you know, this is going to be a work in progress. Certainly the
world's greatest fighting force has also become the world's greatest
training force. That is, we have done a lot of work for the Iraqis.
We've really tried to prepare them for this but, you know, they'll be
some glitches through this but we will work through them. And I think,
so far, so good. Andrea
Mitchell: The Pentagon has said that things are working with the fact
that there are new rules of the road, the US is not in the cities. Yet
commanders in the field are still complaining that there are time lags
and intelligence lags, that you have to get permission from the Iraqis
before you can engage. That doesn't work in a fighting
field. Chris
Hill: Well, first of all, I think overall, it's going very well. You
know there's a joint-operation center where the Iraqis and the US
military sit together. They get the information at the same time, they
make the decisions about what to do. So overall, it's going well but
are there incidents where it hasn't gone well, are there incidents
where the Iraqi say we want to do X and the American military guys say
we want to do Y? Of course there are, and there will probably continue
to be. But I think what is important is to stand back and look at
where we are -- "But
I'm in there fighting every day because I got a few more dreams in me."
A male friend at MSNBC asked us Friday night why we never mentioned Andrea Mitchell Reports?
We honestly weren't aware of it. He pointed out that Mitchell, a
reporter, is actually anchoring a daily hour long show (airs Monday
through Friday, one p.m. to two p.m. EST). He pointed out that Women's
Media Center and other "women-centric" (his term) outlets had
tongue-bathed non-journalist Rachel Maddow for her on air musings and
abusings but no one's giving Andrea Mitchell credit for holding down a
solid hour of news.
That may be due to the fact
that MSNBC hasn't created a site for her. We looked and couldn't find
it. We could find other MSNBC programs (even Al Roker Reporting: Marijuana Inc.),
but no page for Andrea Mitchell's show. But, yes, it is disturbing that
the "women-centric" outlets can repeatedly note the
factually-challenged Rachel Maddow, the non-journalist on a news
channel, but they can't give even a mild shout-out to Andrea.
"But I'm in there fighting every day because I got a few more
dreams in me." Though we frequently disagree with Andrea, we wouldn't
ever claim that she's not out "there fighting every day because I got a
few more dreams in me." And when we might lose faith in all, it's good
to find someone who is. Her fights aren't usually our fights, but she
keeps fighting. And for those who doubt the power of doing that, Katie
Couric. The same friend advised about the Hill interview today and that MSNBC (finally) has a webpage for Andrea Mitchell Reports.
Ava and I will note that on Sunday but this is the first I've heard
that they finally gave her program a webpage. So we'll note it and
underscore it and make sure everyone grasps that. (I'm not being
sarcastic about community readers or even drive-bys. I am underscoring
the fact that MSNBC had a one hour program driven by an actual
journalist -- not a sports commentator or drive-time hijinks radio
reject or any of the others -- and they refused to promote the show or
even give it a webpage.) In terms of Hill. Why
is he in the US? Andrea says on air that it's because of al-Maliki
being in the US. Hill's not supposed to hold Nouri's hand when Nouri
travels. More importantly, early voting has started in the KRG. What
is Hill doing back? This is his second trip to the US since going to
Iraq and, for those who've forgotten, despite telling John Kerry he
would leave immediately upon confirmation for Iraq, when his nomination
was confirmed, he waited days before leaving. And that was at the end
of April. It's July and Chris Hill, so eager to be confirmed, is now
out of Iraq for his second trip to the US. And he's out at a time when
you would think the ambassador would want to be present, to monitor
reports on the elections. As for his comments to Andrea Mitchell about
what's going on in Iraq, we'll drop back to Liz Sly and Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) interview Hill:
The
Times asked whether the embassy will have enough information to judge
what is happening in Iraqi cities now that U.S. forces will be
restricted in their movements and based outside of cities.
Hill:
We have embassies operating in scores of countries, and developing good
information about what is going on is always a challenge anywhere in
the world. I think our contacts in Iraq are better than in most
countries. Our ability to reach senior ministers, our ability to talk
to people, get their views and get information from them is pretty good
in Iraq compared to many countries we operate in. I personally don't
feel we have a problem there. If you are comparing it to a time when we
ran all the security ourselves, that is obviously a different era. It
was a different era that was not sustainable for the rest of history.
Clearly there is a point where you return security to the host country
security forces.
What's
going on Iraq? Chris Hill depends on stringers to tell him, not unlike
many a US outlet. The KRG holds provincial and presidential elections
Saturday, early voting has begun. Heath Druzin (Stars and Stripes) explains
that despite "a canopy of colorful campaign banners and a stream of
breathless programs on party-run television channels, there's an eerie
quiet on the streets of this regional capital just days before
elections in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region." He quotes "Change"
candidate Dara Saeed stating that people are "afraid of the police and
security forces, of being fired from their jobs" and don't want to say
who they'll vote for. Change is one party competing with the KRG's two
long dominat political parties: Jalal Talabani (president of Iraq)
represents the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani (president
of the KRG) represents the Kurdish Democratic Party. Gina Chon (Wall St. Journal) reports
"Change" is former PUK members who are "fed up with the party's
leadership" and "who are attracting voters who are frustrated with what
they say has been corruption, curbs on democracy and the neglect of
basic services in recent years." NPR's Quil Lawrence (Morning Edition) follows
that theme for his report and notes the so-called Change Party.
Lawrence offers his opinions and those of others. It's an overview and
one that is cheapened by the snarky intro Linda Wertheimer offers. Ranj Alaaldin (Guardian) offers
the opinion (he's doing a column, not a report) that "the status quo is
likely to continue for a while" and, on the power-sharing/horse-trading
of the past, "The PUK and KDP, as a coalition government, have a number
of agreements to divide key governmental positions equally between
them. The Kurdistan region presidency, for example, is held by the KDP
in return for its support for a Talabani presidency in Baghdad. Most
important of all is the KRG premiership which carries a host of
decision-making powers. A KDP official, Nechirvan Barzani, also holds
this position. He should have relinquished the role to the PUK in 2008
but, with Talabani's consent and against the will of PUK politburo
members, is to carry on until after the elections; the understanding
was that he would then make way for leading PUK candidate Barham
Salih." AFP explains early voting has begun for the Kurdish military, the "police, prisoners and the sick." Violence continued today in Iraq with multiple bombings. Reuters reports
a Kirkuk roadside bombing which claimed 1 life and left three injured,
a Ghazaliya bombing that injured three members of one family, a
Yusufiya roadside bombing (targeting the US military) which claimed the
life of 1 Iraqi bystander and left two more injured, a Kirkuk grenade
attack which left three US soldiers and one Iraqi interpreter and one
Iraqi bystander injured. Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports
a Baquba roadside bombing which wounded 1 Iraqi soldier and notes of
the three family members wounded in the bombing that they were "a
returning displaced family." We'll close with Cindy Sheehan. First, her radio program Cindy's Soapbox airs each Sunday and this Sunday the scheduled guest is Gore Vidal. And we'll note this from her latest column, " George W. Bush, Part III" ( Cindy's Soapbox). Okay,
so the United States of America has had a new puppet regime for six
months now. I was never so much into giving Obama a "chance" and I
think it's way past time to call Obama and his supporters out, like we
called Bush and his supporters out. Our Presidents are merely puppets
for the Robber Class and Obama is no exception.
I
am observing very little "change" in actual policy, or even rhetoric
from an Obama regime. Granted, his style and delivery are more polished
than the last puppet, but especially in foreign policy, little has
changed. Evidently we elect Presidents based on empty rhetoric and if
we can find someone who can say as little as possible with using as
many words as he can, that's better. I knew a year ago when Obama and
his ilk were blathering on about "change" that they didn't mean
positive "change" for us, but it's a shame Obama's voters didn't ask
him to be a little more specific or demand some good "change."
Besides
foreign policy where he is a complete disaster, it appears Obama's jobs
program is little more than adding tens of thousands of troops to an
already bloated military, instead of bringing troops home from
anywhere. Billions will go to the money trap of the Pentagon to invest
in recruiting our innocent, young, jobless and hopeless youth, when the
budgets of peace groups who do counter recruitment are tanking. This is
the 3rd week in July and already it's the deadliest month for US and
coalition troops deaths in Af/Pak. Who would ever have thought when
violence is surged that deaths would surge, also? I think I've seen
this movie before. Oops. we'll note this from ETAN last: Groups Oppose U.S. Training of Indonesia's Notorious Kopassus Special Forces
Contact: John M. Miller, ETAN, +1-718-596-7668
July
23 - More than 50 U.S. organizations today urged the U.S. government to
"strictly prohibit any U.S. cooperation with or assistance to the Indonesian Special Forces
(Kopassus)' in a letter sent today to President Obama, Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton and members of Congress. The letter was
coordinated by the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN).
"Restrictions on U.S. military assistance to Indonesia are needed to support democracy and human rights in Indonesia. Supporting Kopassus, which has <http://www.etan.org/news/2008/04brikop.htm>a
long history of terrorizing civilians, would send the worst possible
signal to those fighting for justice and accountability in Indonesia
and East Timor," said John M. Miller, National Coordinator of ETAN.
The letter, signed by human rights, religious, peace and other groups, states, "The history of Kopassus human rights violations,
its criminality and its unaccountability before Indonesian courts
extends back decades and includes human rights and other crimes in East
Timor, Aceh, West Papua and elsewhere."
A recent <http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/06/24/indonesia-abuses-special-forces-continue-papua>Human
Rights Watch report documents how Kopassus soldiers "arrest Papuans
without legal authority, and beat and mistreat those they take back to
their barracks."
In 2008, the Bush administration
proposed to restart U.S. training of Kopassus. the State Department
legal counsel reportedly ruled that the ban on training of military
units with a history of involvement in human rights violations, known
as the Leahy law, applies to Kopassus as a whole.
"The
previous administration was forced to conclude that training Kopassus
was both illegal and bad policy. The Obama administration should
maintain this restriction," said Miller.
The text of the letter is below. The letter with a complete list of signatures can be found at http://www.etan.org/news/2009/07kopassus.htm.
---
Text of Letter
We
the undersigned organizations call upon the U.S. government to strictly
prohibit any U.S. cooperation with or assistance to the Indonesian
Special Forces (Kopassus). This force, more than any other in the
Indonesian military, stands accused by the Indonesian people of some of
the most egregious human rights violations. The annual human rights
report of the U.S. Department of State, the East Timor's (Timor-Leste)
truth commission (CAVR), United Nations human rights monitors, and the full range of Indonesian and international human rights
have reported in detail the many crimes of Kopassus. Those responsible
for these violations continue to enjoy broad impunity for their
actions, even in a democratizing Indonesia.
The
history of Kopassus human rights violations, its criminality and its
unaccountability before Indonesian courts extends back decades and
includes human rights and other crimes in East Timor, Aceh, West Papua
and elsewhere. In 1998, a program -- organized and led by then Kopassus
commander (and recent vice- presidential candidate) General Prabowo Subianto
-- kidnapped, tortured and killed pro-democracy activists. Prabowo told
reporters he is unrepentant over these crimes saying, "we could say it
was preventative detention." Other well-documented Kopassus crimes
include organizing anti-Chinese rioting in Jakarta in 1998 and the 1984 massacre at Tanjung Priok in Java.
Throughout
24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation of East Timor, Kopassus
personnel, tortured and killed civilians in an attempt to intimidate
and terrorize the population. Kopassus personnel played a key role,
including organizing militia proxies, in the violence and destruction
during 1999, the occupation's final year.
The crimes of Kopassus are not only in the past. A recently published Human Rights Watch report details
ongoing Kopassus human right violations in West Papua. The report
documents how Kopassus soldiers "arrest Papuans without legal
authority, and beat and mistreat those they take back to their
barracks."
Those who favor engagement argue that U.S.
training could lead to reform of Kopassus. This argument is clearly
refuted by history. For decades, the U.S. trained and gave other
assistance to Kopassus personnel, including General Prabowo and other
leading officers. This relationship had no ameliorative affect, rather,
it provided the equipment and skills used for repression.
U.S.
law prohibits the training of military units with a history of
involvement in human rights violations. This provision has been long
been interpreted as narrowly as possible. However, in 2008, the State
Department ruled that the ban, known as the Leahy law, applies to
Kopassus as a whole. We believe that this ruling should apply and the
U.S. must continue to refuse to train Kopassus.
Posted at 04:03 pm by thecommonills
Permalink
"We still have over 130,000 troops in Iraq," explained independent journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday on KPFA's Flashpoints.
"Troops are not being withdrawn from Iraq. They are being relocated to
different bases, some of the bases still within cities, but they are
not being withdrawn thus far." Dahr's latest book The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan has just been released this month.  Yesterday,
Barack Obama and Nouri al-Maliki staged a dog and pony show at the
White House and, no, we didn't get the reality offered in Dahr's
statements, we really didn't get any awareness at all. Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) offers this: In
a brief news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after
the two met for more than an hour at the White House, Obama
acknowledged that there will be "some tough days ahead. There will be
attacks on Iraqi security forces and the American troops supporting
them. . . . There are still those who want to foment sectarian
conflict." Perspective would be: "My, Barack sounds so
much like Bush." That's because he does. That's because he is the third
term of George W. Bush. DeYoung also reports: A
senior administration official described Maliki's trip as a "working
visit," and the White House has not scheduled any formal social events
for the Iraqi leader. Instead, Maliki will spend four days in meetings
with U.S. economic, trade, defense and diplomatic officials. He will
meet with Cabinet members in those areas, as well as with senior
members of Congress and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and will deliver
a speech Thursday morning at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Uh,
what about Saturday? I actually have an invitation to that event. I
wasn't planning on attending but if it's some 'secret' moment, maybe I
will. As we noted here Tuesday morning,
"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." That's
supposedly a major event. (I didn't think so which is why I wasn't
planning on halting my return home to attend.) After the White House
yesterday, Saturday's event is billed as the big Nouri event in this
country. They're trying to get a humanitarian ground swell going on the
event (lots of luck). Jeff Zeleny (New York Times) quotes
a tone-deaf Barack stating, "The United States and Iraq have known
difficult times together." What? The US invaded Iraq. What a stupid
statement to make. But so in keeping for continuing the illegal war. Karen
DeYoung's article isn't rah-rah, that would be Zeleny's. But, with
both, you can find strong moments worth reading -- however fleeting.
The same can't be said for Mark Silva's article ( Los Angeles Times
for the link but appearing at all the Tribune properties). Not only is
it dead on arrival (I'm fine with basics, no frills reporting -- I'm
not fine with plodding pieces), it's got nothing to offer but a bunch
of false claims that Silva can't back up. And none of the articles include anything of real importance or timeliness. Check yesterday's snapshot
and then read the articles again. A poll was released yesterday. It
addressed Iraq. Where's any citation of the results? From yesterday's
snapshot: 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%.
We were on our way out of
the House Veterans Subcommittee hearing yesterday and I was speaking to
a friend (press) who brought up the poll. Clearly some in the press
knew about it. Nouri and Barack meet up at the White House yesterday as
a poll is released which finds the number of people who believe Barack
will "remove most troops from Iraq" has fallen from 83% in January to
68% presently -- a 15% drop. Where's that in any of the articles? They
repeatedly (and falsely) claim the US will be out of Iraq in 2011.
That's not what's happening. It's not even claimed to be happening.
Does no one listen to Adm Mike Mullen, Gen Ray Odierno or even
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates? Reading the articles today, it doesn't appear that anyone does. Barack made silly, uninformed and embarrassing statements like this: 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.But, as we
explained yesterday, the trend in lower violence ended with the month
of January. Starting with February, you see an uptick in violence. That
trend has held each passing month. We also cited Al Jazeera which was explaining,
"An estimated 437 Iraqis were killed in June, the highest death toll in
11 months, and the near daily attacks have continued in July." And
the press is just going to run with Barack's false claims? It's not
going to call them out? Why do we have a press? Why? If it's job is not
to provide oversight and be a watchdog, we don't need it. Just print up
the press releases issued each day, it'd be a lot cheaper.  They
don't provide a fact check on the claims made in the Rose Garden, they
don't cite the poll findings so Americans are rendered invisible as a
group, and they don't cite any voices of dissent. How is any of that
reporting? How is anything that's been written up actual journalism? IPA provides
this quote from Global Policy Forum's James Paul: "For all the talk of
'U.S. withdrawal' from Iraq, the reality on the ground is starkly
different. U.S. troops still patrol the cities, in flagrant violation
of the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, while Washington remains hugely
influential in the politics of the country. The gigantic U.S. embassy
looms large in Baghdad, U.S. forces still hold thousands of Iraqi
prisoners in the vast U.S. prison camp in the southern desert, dozens
of U.S. military bases remain in place including the sprawling 'Camp
Victory' complex in Baghdad and Washington continues to press towards
its ultimate goal -- the de facto privatization of Iraq's vast oil
resources." The peace movement has its own problems (most damaging, allowing itself to be hijacked by a political party) but it is rebuilding.
Nothing in the reports indicates that the reporters are aware of the
existence of the peace movement or indicates that there is any
opposition to the ongoing Iraq War. At the top of her show, Cindy's Soapbox,
Cindy Sheehan declared Sunday, "I was at the National Assembly
Conference to End the Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan in Pittsburgh
this past weekend and we really reconnected with a lot of peace groups
and individuals who know that true change comes from a bottom up
revolution -- not a trickle down effect like crumbs dropping on us from
the robber class." Note that Cindy's guest this coming Sunday will be
Gore Vidal. There are no voices of peace presented, there are no
voices of dissent presented, Barack claims violence is down when
violence is up and there's no correcting him, the military keeps
insisting that the US may well remain past 2011 and that's not in the
articles this morning, a poll founds 15% -- 15%! -- of Americans no
longer trust Barack will remove troops and that's not in the articles.
Does anything printed this morning qualify as journalism and, if so,
how? We'll close with this from Cindy Sheehan's " George W. Bush, Part III" ( Cindy's Soapbox). Okay,
so the United States of America has had a new puppet regime for six
months now. I was never so much into giving Obama a “chance” and I
think it’s way past time to call Obama and his supporters out, like we
called Bush and his supporters out. Our Presidents are merely puppets
for the Robber Class and Obama is no exception.
I am observing very
little “change” in actual policy, or even rhetoric from an Obama
regime. Granted, his style and delivery are more polished than the last
puppet, but especially in foreign policy, little has changed. Evidently
we elect Presidents based on empty rhetoric and if we can find someone
who can say as little as possible with using as many words as he can,
that’s better. I knew a year ago when Obama and his ilk were blathering
on about “change” that they didn’t mean positive “change” for us, but
it’s a shame Obama’s voters didn’t ask him to be a little more specific
or demand some good “change.”
Besides foreign policy where he is a
complete disaster, it appears Obama’s jobs program is little more than
adding tens of thousands of troops to an already bloated military,
instead of bringing troops home from anywhere. Billions will go to the
money trap of the Pentagon to invest in recruiting our innocent, young,
jobless and hopeless youth, when the budgets of peace groups who do
counter recruitment are tanking. This is the 3rd week in July and
already it’s the deadliest month for US and coalition troops deaths in
Af/Pak. Who would ever have thought when violence is surged that deaths
would surge, also? I think I’ve seen this movie before.The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. iraqdahr jamailflashpointskpfakaren deyoungthe washington postthe new york times jeff zelenythe los angeles timesmark silvacindy sheehancindy sheehans soapboxgore vidalaljazeeraipajames paul
Posted at 06:45 am by thecommonills
Permalink
Early voting begins in the KRG
Amid
a canopy of colorful campaign banners and a stream of breathless
programs on party-run television channels, there’s an eerie quiet on
the streets of this regional capital just days before elections in
Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.People
are afraid to say whom they want to vote for on Saturday -- "afraid of
the police and security forces, of being fired from their jobs," said
Dara Saeed, who was sipping tea outside a cafe.Saeed,
who is voting for the upstart Gorran (Change) List, was one of the few
opposition supporters willing to go on record opposing the ruling
coalition, run by two powerful families.Many
echoed Saeed's comments, saying they are afraid of repercussions if
they speak out against the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) or the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), who have united as the Kurdistani
List, after years of often bloody rivalry, for the presidential and
parliamentary elections. The above is from Heath Druzin's " In Iraq's Kurdistan, tension before the vote" ( Stars and Stripes).
The KRG holds provincial and presidential elections Saturday, early
voting has begun. You wouldn't know that to look at the bulk of the
domestic (US) outlets, would you? Do you remember January 31st when 14
of Iraq's 18 provinces held elections? Do you remember the non-stop
weeks and weeks of coverage the New York Times and others provided ahead of the election? We're not seeing that, are we? Kurdish
politics in Iraq have long been dominated by two political parties,
Jalal Talabani (president of Iraq) represents the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani (president of the KRG) represents the Kurdish
Democratic Party. Gina Chon (Wall St. Journal) reports that there are challenges to the two-party dominance: The
biggest threat to the List is a group of former PUK members, fed up
with the party's leadership, who have cobbled together an alliance to
challenge the old guard. Calling themselves the Change slate, they are
poised to capture several seats, analysts say.They
are attracting voters who are frustrated with what they say has been
corruption, curbs on democracy and the neglect of basic services in
recent years. "They made so many promises and told us so many lies,"
says Omer Mahmud Salih, a resident of the Kurdish regional capital of
Irbil. "Corruption exists in every country, but ours is beyond limits."Any
weakening of the two parties' hold on power could have repercussions
beyond the enclave's border. Tensions between KRG officials and the
federal Iraqi government -- long a cause for concern in both Baghdad
and Washington -- have been heating up.The
Kurdish parliament recently approved a draft constitution that has
angered Baghdad because it claims several bits of contested land,
including the oil-rich Kirkuk region. Kurdish officials had hoped to
include a constitutional referendum in the July 25 ballot, but Iraqi
federal officials overruled them.NPR's Quil Lawrence (Morning Edition) follows
that theme for his report and notes the so-called Change Party.
Lawrence offers his opinions and those of others. It's an overview and
one that is cheapened by the snarky intro Linda Wertheimer offers. Ranj Alaaldin (Guardian) offers
the opinion (he's doing a column, not a report) that "the status quo is
likely to continue for a while" and, on the power-sharing/horse-trading
of the past, "The PUK and KDP, as a coalition government, have a number
of agreements to divide key governmental positions equally between
them. The Kurdistan region presidency, for example, is held by the KDP
in return for its support for a Talabani presidency in Baghdad. Most
important of all is the KRG premiership which carries a host of
decision-making powers. A KDP official, Nechirvan Barzani, also holds
this position. He should have relinquished the role to the PUK in 2008
but, with Talabani's consent and against the will of PUK politburo
members, is to carry on until after the elections; the understanding
was that he would then make way for leading PUK candidate Barham
Salih." Early voting has begun. AFP explains:
More
than 100,000 Kurdish members of Iraq's armed forces were voting on
Thursday, along with police, prisoners and the sick, ahead of election
day.
Saturday's vote is being held six months after the rest of the
country went to the polls in provincial elections and as the US
military is planning its pullout from the country in 2011.
In the
election run-up, tensions between Barzani and the central government of
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki heightened over Kurdish claims 16
disputed areas including oil-rich Kirkuk and parts of three other
historically Kurdish-populated provinces -- Diyala, Nineveh and
Salaheddin.Staying with the topic of the KRG, we'll note this release from them: KRG launches Kurdistan Investment Guide London,
UK (KRG.org) -- The Kurdistan Regional Government’s Representative to
the UK yesterday in London launched the new edition of Invest in the
Future, a publication promoting the Region’s investment and trade
opportunities. Ms Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman launched the 2009
investment guide at the Middle East Association (MEA), the UK’s leading
trade association for British-Middle East business and trade. She said,
“In the Kurdistan Region there is high regard for the UK and a great
willingness to develop closer trade ties. For example in education,
which is a key plank of our government capacity-building strategy, we
already have ties with several British institutions and hope to develop
more including in private English language education for all ages and
levels, as well as vocational training..” Prime Minister
Nechirvan Barzani has emphasised the role of the private sector as the
engine of economic growth and development. The experience of the
Kurdistan Region in the last several years has demonstrated the
effectiveness of this model. Minister Falah Mustafa Bakir, Head of
Foregn Relations in Erbil, also issued a statement about the Investment
Guide: "The KRG's leadership has promoted private sector activity and
foreign investment. This publication provides entrepreneurs and
visitors with an excellent guide to the Region, as well as an overview
of commercial opportunities and the investment climate." The
KRG's High Representative explained how the Kurdistan Investment Board
and the Trade Ministry can help foreign companies to register an office
locally, and she encouraged British and international companies to
visit the Region and see for themselves the opportunities and good
security situation. The MEA plans to take its fifth trade delegation to
the Region in the autumn. When asked about hydrocarbons
policies, Ms Abdul Rahman said that from the outset the KRG has been
very transparent on oil and gas, and published the model production
sharing contract and companies with contracts on the government website. Ms
Abdul Rahman was also asked about measures on good governance. She
said, "We are doing a lot to improve governance and learn from the
experience of other countries. PricewaterhouseCoopers is advising the
KRG on good governance and e-government, and the British civil service
training college the National School of Government has been training
our senior civil servants in quality assurance." Mrs Feride
Alp of the MEA chaired the launch. Over 60 companies representing
different sectors as well as the British and Kurdish media attended the
launch. Read or download Invest in the Future 2009 (6.88 MB) as a PDF file. To obtain a hard copy of the publication, please contact Newsdesk Media, the KRG UK Representation, US Representation or the Department of Foreign Relations. notes James Bamford's " The NSA Is still Listening to You" ( Information Clearing House): This
summer, on a remote stretch of desert in central Utah, the National
Security Agency will begin work on a massive, 1 million-square-foot
data warehouse. Costing more than $1.5 billion, the highly secret
facility is designed to house upward of trillions of intercepted phone
calls, e-mail messages, Internet searches and other communications
intercepted by the agency as part of its expansive eavesdropping
operations. The NSA is also completing work on another data warehouse,
this one in San Antonio, Texas, which will be nearly the size of the
Alamodome.The need for such
extraordinary data storage capacity stems in part from the Bush
administration's decision to open the NSA's surveillance floodgates
following the 9/11 attacks. According to a recently released Inspectors
General report, some of the NSA's operations -- such as spying on
American citizens without warrants -- were so questionable, if not
illegal, that they nearly caused the resignations of the most senior
officials of both the FBI and the Justice Department.Last
July, many of those surveillance techniques were codified into law as
part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act (FAA). In
fact, according to the Inspectors General report, "this legislation
gave the government even broader authority to intercept international
communications" than the warrantless surveillance operations had. Yet
despite this increased power, congressional oversight committees have
recently discovered that the agency has been over-collecting on the
domestic communications of Americans, thus even exceeding the excessive
reach granted them by the FAA.I
am an author and journalist specializing in national security issues
and terrorism, and often communicate with parties in the Middle East as
part of my work. Because of concerns that my communications might have
been monitored, in early 2006, shortly after NSA's warrantless
surveillance program was revealed by the New York Times, I became a
plaintiff in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union
against the NSA that argued that the program was illegal and should be
shut down. We prevailed in federal district court, with Judge Anna
Diggs Taylor finding that President Bush had violated both the law and
the Constitution, but lost on the government's appeal when the court
ruled the plaintiffs could not prove that they were personally victims
of the secret eavesdropping program. In a decision worthy of Lewis
Carroll, the appeals court held both that the government could refuse
to confirm or deny whether it had monitored plaintiffs' communications
and that plaintiffs could not challenge the constitutionality of the
program unless they could show that their communications had been
monitored. A dissenting judge pointed out that the court's decision was
inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent and would effectively render
the program unreviewable by the courts.Project Censored's Peter Phillips' " Obama Administration Continues Drive For US Global Military Dominance" (World Can't Wait): The
Barack Obama administration is continuing the neo-conservative agenda
of US military domination of the world— albeit with perhaps a
kinder-gentler face. While overt torture is now forbidden for the CIA
and Pentagon, and symbolic gestures like the closing of the Guantanamo
prison are in evidence, a unilateral military dominance policy,
expanding military budget, and wars of occupation and aggression will
likely continue unabated.The
military expansionists from within the Reagan, George H. W. Bush,
Clinton, G. W. Bush administrations put into place solid support for
increased military spending. Clinton’s model of supporting the US
military industrial complex held steady defense spending and increased
foreign weapons sales from 16% of global orders to over 63% by the end
of his administration.The
neo-conservatives, who dominated the most recent Bush administration,
amplified this trend of increased military spending. The neo-cons laid
out their agenda for military global dominance in the 2000 Project for
a New American Century (PNAC) report Rebuilding America’s Defenses. The
report called for the protection of the American Homeland, the ability
to wage simultaneous theater wars, to perform global constabulary
roles, and to control space and cyberspace.The following community sites updated last night: The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. iraqstars and stripesheath druzingina chonthe wall street journal ranj alaaldinjames bamfordproject censoredpeter phillipsworld cant waitanns 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 06:41 am by thecommonills
Permalink
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
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
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look out for a MediaChannel 2.0 survey that we will be sending out
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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 03:38 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
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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 03:37 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
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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
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