Saturday, June 09, 2007

Week in Review - Overlooked and Ridiculous News

Here's another one of those preposterous myths that will not die no matter how many times it is pointed out how ridiculous it is. Imagine the size of the armada which would have been required to bring millions of slaves to America. It didn't exist. The AP not only lets the myth of millions dying go unchecked and unchallenged but also cites unnamed historians to promote it. Might there be an agenda here?

Slaves Who Died at Sea Being Honored
By BRUCE SMITH, Associated Press Writer

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Eighteen years ago, Tony Akeem organized a ceremony in New York City to honor the millions of Africans who died crossing the Atlantic during the slave trade. Similar observances have since spread around the world.

On Saturday, offerings of water, honey and rum were to be poured along the shores of South Carolina and elsewhere for Middle Passage Remembrance Day. The remembrance is held the second Saturday in June.

"We must, we must, honor our ancestors," said Tony Akeem, who has been organizing an observance at Coney Island, N.Y., ever since a 1989 conference on the slave's brutal trip was held at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he works as a photographer.

The observances have spread from Philadelphia to San Francisco and from Brazil to Ghana. Most were started by people who have attended the New York event, Akeem said.

Saturday marked the 10th year South Carolina was participating in the remembrance. As many as 100 people were expected at a Fort Moultrie dock on Sullivans Island near Charleston.

The first slaves arrived in Charleston in 1670, the same year the Carolina colony was created. Historians estimate nearly 40 percent of the millions of slaves brought to what became the United States passed through Charleston. Many others died at sea.

"The stories run pretty strong that there were people who realized they were enslaved and would rather drown than be enslaved and when allowed up on the decks, would just jump into the water," said Fran Norton of the Fort Sumter National Monument, which includes Fort Moultrie. "It commemorates those people who gave up their lives for freedom." Just how many perished in the slave trade will never be known.

"We know that many died of disease because they were packed in the ships like sardines," said Osei Terry Chandler, a project director at a Charleston education facility who is helping organize the South Carolina memorial.

Participants at the ceremonies in New York and South Carolina planned to drizzle water, rum and honey into the waves Saturday. Some were to toss flowers into the coastal waters. Some were to beat drums.

"Pouring libations is simply to venerate your ancestors," said Bill Jones, who helps organize the Coney Island ceremony. "It gives the ancestors a cool drink of water, or a little bit of gin or a little bit of rum, whatever you pour the libation with.

"In African spirituality we believe we are in constant contact with our ancestors. They are not someplace in heaven, they are right here with us."

Capital punishment, Quantanamo Bay, Secret Prisons and "torture" are four issues that drive the leftist NGO's crazy. Here's more:
Rights groups identify 39 detainees they believe secretly held by U.S.
RAPHAEL G. SATTER
Associated Press Writer

LONDON — A coalition of human rights groups has drawn up a list of 39 terror suspects it believes are being secretly imprisoned by U.S. authorities and published their names in a report released Thursday.

Information about the so-called "ghost detainees" was gleaned from interviews with former prisoners and officials in the U.S., Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen, according to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and four other groups.

"What we're asking is where are these 39 people now, and what's happened to them since they 'disappeared'?" Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said "there's a lot of myth outside government when it comes to the CIA and the fight against terror."

"The plain truth is that we act in strict accord with American law, and that our counterterror initiatives — which are subject to careful review and oversight — have been very effective in disrupting plots and saving lives," Gimigliano said. "The United States does not conduct or condone torture."

Information on the purported missing detainees was, in some cases, incomplete, the report acknowledged. Some detainees had been added to the list because Marwan Jabour, an Islamic militant who claims to have spent two years in CIA custody, remembered being shown photos of them during interrogations, it said.

Others were identified only by their first or last names, like "al-Rubaia," who was added to the list after a fellow inmate reported seeing the name scribbled onto the wall of his cell.

But information for at least 21 of the detainees had been confirmed by two or more independent sources, said Anne Fitzgerald, a senior adviser for Amnesty International.

President Bush acknowledged the existence of secret detention centers in September 2006, but said that the prisons were then empty.

Bush said 14 terrorism suspects that the CIA had been holding, including a mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, had been transferred to military custody at Guantanamo Bay for trials.

Fitzgerald said she wasn't convinced that the sites were ever emptied, and claimed a program of secret detentions was ongoing.

"We wanted (the detainees') names in the public eye because of the impression that this is over, this is finished, and they're not doing this anymore," Fitzgerald said. "That's clearly not the case."

Detainees on the list include Hassan Ghul and Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi, who were both named in the 9-11 Commission report as al-Qaida operatives.

Another is Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a jihadist ideologue named as one of the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists." U.S. officials have confirmed that Nasar was seized in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta in November 2005, and the activists' report said that he was taken into U.S. custody after his arrest, citing unnamed Pakistani officials. His current location is unknown.

Also missing is Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman, the son of the Omar Abdel-Rahman, the "Blind Sheik" behind the first plot against the World Trade Center in New York, the report said.

Most of the 35 other detainees mentioned in the report have been previously identified, with the exception of four Libyans, alleged members of the al-Qaida-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

The report says they were handed to U.S. authorities and have not been heard from since.

The four other groups involved in drafting the report were the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University's School of Law, and Reprieve and Cage prisoners — both London-based rights groups.


U.S. troop buildup nearly complete
KIM GAMEL
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD — Twin car bombings struck intersections near Baghdad's most revered Shiite shrine Wednesday. The military said the buildup of some 30,000 extra U.S. troops aimed at stopping such attacks is nearly complete but it could take up to two months for the newly arrived reinforcements to be fully effective.

That would come just weeks before Gen. David Petraeus is due to report to President Bush and Congress in September on the security operation amid Democratic-led calls to start bringing American troops home from an increasingly unpopular war.

The last of five brigades and support troops scheduled to reinforce U.S. forces in Baghdad and surrounding areas will arrive in the "next couple of weeks," but it may take up to two months for the forces to establish themselves fully and get used to working with the Iraqis, Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner told reporters Wednesday.

The Bush administration has warned that the troop buildup will result in more U.S. casualties as American soldiers increasingly come into contact with enemy forces and concentrate on the streets of Baghdad and remote outposts.




Woman: Store Used Me As 'Upskirt' Bait
By Associated Press

WATERTOWN, N.Y. - A woman who claims she was used as unknowing bait to catch a man taking photographs up women's skirts is suing retailer T.J. Maxx. Svetlana Van Buren said store personnel surreptitiously videotaped a man taking photos up her skirt while she was shopping for coffee at the company's store in Watertown on June 14, 2006.

It was only after the man committed the crime that store personnel told her the photos had been taken and that the act was caught on tape, said Van Buren, a psychologist who was working at a state-run facility for youths at the time and now lives in Omaha, Neb. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the Jefferson County Clerk's office.

Officials at TJX Companies, Inc., of Framingham, Mass., which operates the T.J. Maxx chain, were not immediately available for comment.

The lawsuit contends that the store and law enforcement officials knew the man "secretly stalked" female customers for the purpose of taking upskirt photos, but did nothing to prevent it from happening to Van Buren.

T.J. Maxx should have used either a private female detective, a policewoman or a female employee who consented to being photographed to set a trap for the man, the lawsuit said.

Van Buren claims the incident has caused her physical and psychological pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. She said she has experienced sleeplessness, anxiety, depression and feelings of stress and violation, prompting her to seek professional help.

She blames T.J. Maxx for, among other things, making her the victim of a crime without her consent and violating her privacy rights. She claims the store failed to provide her with a safe environment and failed to stop a crime from being committed against her when it could have.

Her suit does not specify an amount in damages being sought.

The lawsuit does not name Jeremiah Williams, a Watertown man who was arrested outside T.J. Maxx the same day Van Buren was photographed. Williams was sentenced in February to two to four years in state prison for second-degree unlawful surveillance. Police accused Williams of taking more than 700 upskirt photos of women in public places with plans to start an Internet business with the shots.


110 comments:

  1. Here's an interesting historical letter on the slave trade--

    To ye aged and beloved, Mr. John Higginson:
    There be now at sea a ship called Welcome, which has on board 100 or more of the heretics and malignants called Quakers, with W. Penn, who is the chief scamp, at the head of them. The General Court has accordingly given sacred orders to Master Malachi Huscott, of the brig Porpoise, to waylay the said Welcome slyly as near the Cape of Cod as may be, and make captive the said Penn and his ungodly crew, so that the Lord may be glorified and not mocked on the soil of this new country with the heathen worship of these people. Much spoil can be made of selling the whole lot to Barbadoes, where slaves fetch good prices in rum and sugar and we shall not only do the Lord great good by punishing the wicked, but we shall make great good for His Minister and people.

    Yours in the bowels of Christ, COTTON MATHER

    I love this letter for the language and the all too human sadness of it. What a species, able so to disguise the inner motives with a higher purpose.

    bowels of Christ--bowels is an old biblical expression meaning something like compassion, or a mother's compassionate care for the kids, I believe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. As Immigration Plan Folded, Grass Roots Roared

    The legislation sparked a furious rebellion among voters linked by the Web and encouraged by radio.
    ---

    Times Topics: Immigration

    ---
    Hispanic Voters Enjoy New Clout With Democrats
    The immigration battle and the new presidential primary schedule have amplified the influence of Hispanic voters.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cool AlBobAl:
    We at the EB can be
    Bowels Conservatives
    We'll "lock in" the Constpation Coalition
    and turn the BOP into a Permanent Majority.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thou shalt not keep slaves

    Is that in the Big Ten?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Whites First

    GIGGLING Emily Parr shocked pals with her lack of respect for Auschwitz victims — by having a SNOWBALL FIGHT on a school trip to the Nazi death camp.

    Emily’s former schoolmate, who asked to be identified only as Katie, spoke out after disgraced Emily was booted off Big Brother for calling a fellow housemate a “n*****”.

    Katie, 18, insisted the loudmouth’s racism was nothing new.
    She said: “She often said things like P**i and sooty. She thought it was funny.

    “To the horror of college friends she even pushed in front of a black girl in the dinner queue and said, ‘Whites first.’

    ReplyDelete
  6. Correctomundo,
    Ok for Yalies if they are 'boners and
    True Blue-Blood Bowel Conservatives.

    ReplyDelete
  7. CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said "there's a lot of myth outside government when it comes to the CIA and the fight against terror."

    "The plain truth is that we act in strict accord with American law, and that our counterterror initiatives — which are subject to careful review and oversight — have been very effective in disrupting plots and saving lives," Gimigliano said. "The United States does not conduct or condone torture."

    *********************************

    Narrowly defined. That is correct. The United States does not conduct or condone torture.

    I think most people probably missed the (supremely, thankfully quiet) release a week or so ago of the Intelligence Science Board's report on interrogation methods. What they found, unsurprisingly, is that coercive interrogation isn't especially effective with jihadis. Unsurprising because the CIA and DOD made the conclusion, more broadly, decades ago. More likely than not, your coercion backfires and once backfired, you've got yourself a seriously messed-up source with which alternate methods then won't work either.

    OTOH, the techniques we had during the Cold War, and employ to great degree still, are no more effective than your workaday waterboarding. What're ya gonna do?

    The Board took a look at what we did with high value prisoners in WWII, which WAS effective and which never involved coercion, but rather elaborate staging requiring 3-4 hours of preparation for every hour of interrogation. This is already done to some degree with high value sources, but it's so resource-intensive that it's inapplicable to the vast majority of interrogations.

    Anyway, it'll be interesting to see whether and how changes are made to the agonizing business of getting haji to talk. Before the war's over.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That would be the LNWAUEDNTIROP

    (Long Non-War Against Undefined Evil Doers,
    Not To Include the ROP.)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am reading a book about John Donne, the poet, and Catholic in his youth. He came to the conclusion, not only that torture was reprehensible, but that it doesn't work, one of the first to do so. His brother was killed for not converting. Donne sort of kept low, then joined up with a couple expeditions against the Spanish, to show his good intent, got a job in gov't. and became fully converted himself. Things weren't so happy in merry ol England at the time. I hadn't realized how many abbys had been burned and gutted by the Protestants. Donne also took a chanced-forlove!-and married above himself, and secretly, to a girl 13 years his junior, landing him in jail for a time, but it worked out. His father was an ironmaster, and had some bucks.

    All the seafaring folk around Europe at the time seem really nothing more than pirates, a real free for all.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Aren't there some new methods on the horizon to get some truth,like interrogation while brain scanning, that sort of thing, that might not quite fit our constitution, but might work well with the jihadis?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Probably, I agree, just trying to be a bowls conservative.

    ReplyDelete
  12. "Long Non-War Against Undefined Evil Doers,
    Not To Include the ROP"

    Gotta whittle that down a little, Doug. It's not catchy. Worse, in fact, than that non-starter Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism.

    I still like un-war.

    "He came to the conclusion, not only that torture was reprehensible, but that it doesn't work, one of the first to do so."

    It can be hard to convince people that it doesn't, though. To some, it seems obvious that it should.

    Torture can "work" for false confessions (but then so can other, non-physical methods). Unfortunately, there just aren't any shortcuts, coercive or otherwise, in interrogation. (If it were as easy as threatening someone with a power drill, I'd be all for threatening someone with a power drill. It isn't.) And because every source is different, there is no cookie cutter formula that can be applied.

    We currently churn out something on the order of 500 interrogators per year. Good ones are rare. And the best ones work for other agencies.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Capt. Randy W. Stone, 34, is one of four officers accused of failing to report and investigate the deaths of the men, women and children in a deadly sweep on a chaotic day of battle in the village.

    His attorney, Charles Gittins, said investigating officer Maj. Thomas McCann concluded in a report to the commanding general overseeing the case that Stone should not face trial and the matter should be handled administratively.

    At Stone's preliminary hearing last month at Camp Pendleton, he argued that he never ordered an investigation into the killings because he believed the deaths resulted from lawful combat.

    "I have never lied and have worked at all times to assist as best I could to shed light on what I knew and when I knew it," Stone said at his hearing.

    The investigator's recommendation is nonbinding. A final decision will be made by Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the commanding general overseeing the case.

    If convicted, Stone faces up to 2 1/2 years in prison and dismissal.

    ReplyDelete
  14. LOS ESTEROS DEL IBERA, Argentina (Associated Press) -- The American multimillionaire who founded the North Face and Esprit clothing lines says he is trying to save the planet by buying bits of it. First Douglas Tompkins purchased a huge swath of southern Chile, and now he's hoping to save the northeast wetlands of neighboring Argentina.

    He has snapped up more than half a million acres of the Esteros del Ibera, a vast Argentine marshland teeming with wildlife.

    Tompkins, 64, is a hero to some for his environmental stewardship. Others resent his land purchases as a foreign challenge to their national patrimony.

    In an interview with The Associated Press, Tompkins said industrialized agriculture is chewing up big chunks of Argentina's fragile marshland and savanna, and that essential topsoil is disappearing as a result.

    "Everywhere I look here in Argentina I see massive abuse of the soil ... just like what happened in the U.S. 20 or 30 years ago," he said.


    Leading by example, the American Way.
    Which has never been to hole up, cowering, in a mountain redoubt, but to search out, engage and defeat the enemy.

    Lock and load.

    Metaphoricly speaking.

    ReplyDelete
  15. 'a massive abuse of the soil...like what happened in the U.S. 20 or 30 years ago'

    I must have missed something. What happened 20 or 30 years ago? We had the dust bowl in 1930 or so, but have been pretty good stewards since then I think, except maybe in forestry, but that has all changed too. There has been suburbanization.

    Mr. Tompkins may be a wonderful man, but sooner or later he may well be expropriated.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Such are the risks one takes, when saving the planet.

    The fellow is a clothier, not an ag specialist.

    Soon he'll have tours to the properties, eco-tours are all the rage, Chile and Argentina are both as nice as anywhere else.

    More of US going south, to influence them, there, rather than here. Though it is a long walk from southern Chile.

    ReplyDelete
  17. "Aren't there some new methods on the horizon to get some truth,like interrogation while brain scanning, that sort of thing, that might not quite fit our constitution, but might work well with the jihadis?"

    I can't for the life of me imagine how brain-scanning EPWs would violate the constitution. But it doesn't sound remotely field expedient.

    And I'm not myself a fan of gee-wiz.

    ReplyDelete
  18. panama ed,

    re: Captain Randy Stone

    Have you a link for your quote?

    ReplyDelete
  19. From Pole to Pole, abba

    One Hemisphere, One People.
    United in their diversity

    One man, or woman, one vote.

    50 States today, 150 soon enough.
    Bringing God's inalienable Rights to all mankind.

    Illuminate yourselves, open your minds to the possibilities of building our revolution of personal liberty on the diversity of our strengths.
    One brick at a time.

    ReplyDelete
  20. "At Stone's preliminary hearing last month at Camp Pendleton, he argued that he never ordered an investigation into the killings because he believed the deaths resulted from lawful combat."

    Too bad he didn't have the Marine Corps Commandant on his side.

    Bad enough that Murtha condemned them before trial. To have your own do it...is something else entirely.

    ReplyDelete
  21. ___"Also Saturday, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani made an unsworn statement in preliminary hearings to determine whether he should face trial on charges of dereliction of duty and violating a lawful order for failing to investigate the deaths in Haditha."

    Officer Advises Dropping Haditha Charges

    By making an unsworn statement, Lt. Col. Chessani will not face questioning by the prosecution during his Article 32 Investigation. Unsworn statements are given with the hope of swaying the hearing officer, while avoiding the potential dangers of cross examination.

    ReplyDelete
  22. panama ed,

    re: link

    Thanks.

    If you are DR's son, also thanks for your service.

    ReplyDelete
  23. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  24. First poem I remember my dad ever reading to me.

    IF you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;
    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
    Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
    And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
    If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
    If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;
    If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
    Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

    If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
    And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
    If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
    And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

    If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    ' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
    if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
    If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
    Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
    And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Stone did have the Marine Corps on his side; hence, the Article 32 Investigation in lieu of summary execution.

    What will prove interesting is whether Captain Stone will face Article 15. Perhaps, Trish will explain the significance of this to the uninitiated.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I mean for a US citizen Trish, it would definitely violate the constitution--you have the right to ramain silent etc.

    ReplyDelete
  27. allen, I fully appreciate the point. I don't disagree.

    I maintain that it was worse than awful - it was less than honorable - for the Commandant to make the statement that he did, when he did. It was wrong - wrong in a way that no politician, but any soldier, can understand.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Trish,

    re: Haditha

    So much garbage has been dumped into the media and the blogs regarding this matter it is hard to determine who said what to whom. If the Commandant did in fact say those things attributed to him, and if he did in fact behave with contemptible duplicity, then, he is not an honorable man. That said, the Corps is not the Commandant. There is no doubt in my mind that the accused Marines will get every benefit of doubt from their fellow Marines, the machinations of political hacks notwithstanding. If the Haditha Marines are innocent, they will walk away; however, if any disgraced the Corps by the commission of murder, they will hang. No Marine would have it otherwise. Our creed is “Death Before Dishonor”, not “Kill the Fucking Kid.”

    ReplyDelete
  29. ___Commandant USMC

    Back in the days when the Commandant was the only Marine with three and then four stars, he had considerably more autonomy. Today, he is more of a prime minister, without all the powers attached thereto.

    ReplyDelete
  30. If the Haditha Marines are innocent, they will walk away; however, if any disgraced the Corps by the commission of murder, they will hang. No Marine would have it otherwise. Our creed is “Death Before Dishonor”, not “Kill the Fucking Kid.”

    - allen

    I dunno. When that kid's doing overwatch on the IED, what should we do?

    ReplyDelete
  31. Work harder for his heart and mind?

    ReplyDelete
  32. You remind me of what descriptions of Haditha at that time were like, Trish:
    It was described as a place where virtually everyone would cooperate in any activity that would result in the deaths of our men.
    Back before the "Tribes had turned" and it was all against us.
    One article in particular sticks in my mind:
    When I get time, I'll try to find it.

    ReplyDelete
  33. trish,

    re: I dunno. When that kid's doing overwatch on the IED, what should we do?

    And this has what to do with the Haditha case?

    This is why only the Marine Corps will be able to sort out the facts of the Haditha incident: the public seems incapable of rational consideration or argument.

    Children acting as combatants are not exempt from sanction. War and murder are not synonymous, despite the misinformed Christian teaching of the Hebrew commandments.

    If it is proved that women and children were wantonly and willfully murdered at Haditha, the homicides should hang.

    Obviously, there are those who hold, but will not openly express the opinion, that all Iraqis are fair game - kill them all. That is another debate entirely.

    ReplyDelete
  34. With regards the E3s that cleared the house, with frags.

    As they'd been trained.

    I wonder, when they rolled into Haditha that morning, were "flash bang" concussion grenades part of the combat load, or just those frags.

    As Mr Yon made clear in his narrative of the British raid, in Badra, flaxh bangs led the way. The troopies were so loaded.

    How about those E3 US Marines in Haditha, what was the nature of their available weapons inventory?

    ReplyDelete
  35. They were missing in the Kurilla dustup, weren't they?
    Think they had neither them nor frags.

    ReplyDelete
  36. When should an E3 tell an E6 or O2 that orders to clear a building are illegal, because the available weaponry is legally inapproprite to the task, creating the possibilities of a war crimes sanction?

    Talk about your barrack's lawyers

    ReplyDelete
  37. The two fng's, you're right doug.
    They went on their first fire mission without a complete combat load.

    Not much mention of that, at the BC at the time. Just accolades and ou-rahs over the Sgt Maj's Ray-Bans.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Nothing, allen. It was just a thought in response to "Kill the Fucking Kid."

    ReplyDelete
  39. It took Mr Cynicism to mention the LTC had been shot by a released detainee.
    One of the first "Catch & Release" stories that fore shadowed the further failures to come.

    Camp Tanji, the Commander segregating the Iraqi troops from the US soldiers. For the security of the US troopers, the Iraqi not worthy of trust. Or equal rations.

    Stand down as they stand up.
    Then cut the legs out from under them, for years.

    The "new" Plan, back to the future.
    Secure Baghdad, train Iraqis to replace US.

    Same as on D-Day.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Oh but now we embrace the tribes, who once had no place in the "new" Iraq.

    The same tribes whose "fighters" have killed aprox 2,500 US Service men & women.

    We are achieving success, they are taking our bribes, now.

    ReplyDelete
  41. In the NYTimes they report another change in tactics, by at least one of the enemies. Well, maybe two.

    Depends on the meaning of enemy.

    The focus on Iraqi forces was detailed to Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., commander of the 1st Cavalry Division which runs the nearly four-month-old security operation in Baghdad, during a recent visit to the capital's Karradah district.

    Lt. Col. Troy D. Perry, the battalion commander in the area, told Fil there was an increasing pattern of bombers allowing U.S. patrols to pass hidden roadside bombs that were then detonated a short time later as Iraqi forces drove by.

    Fil and Perry speculated al-Qaida was focusing on Iraqi forces to unnerve the soldiers and police who are working with U.S. forces to clamp off violence in the capital.

    ''Al-Qaida is the biggest problem you've got right now,'' Fil said in a brief meeting with Iraqi army 1st Lt. Ziad Tariq, at an Iraqi base adjacent to the U.S. joint security station in Karradah late last month.

    In Iraq's first confirmation of Turkey's cross-border shelling of Kurdish regions in the north of the country, the Foreign Ministry summoned the second-ranking Turkish diplomat to protest and demand an end to the attacks.


    Those Turkish artillery rounds, will be referred to as "friendly fire", fired under mistaken impressions, by Iraq's allies.
    Historical precedent enough for that.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Recall movement has started:

    Arizona "Mothers against Illegal Aliens" are collecting signatures for a recall petition for Kyl and McCain.

    Anybody in Ms not doing anything next week? Trent Lott said that they ought to go home!

    South Carolina? Can you hear us out there? Aren't you'all getting a little tired of little Lindsey?

    Pennsylvania? Spector shouldn't be hard to move.

    They're going to try to revive this POS Next Week! Having about twelve or fourteen Republicans facing Recall Petitions might cool down their Ardor a bit. Don't you think?

    ReplyDelete
  43. Trish,
    This is It!

    Under US noses, brutal insurgents rule Sunni citadel
    Guardian gains rare access to Iraqi town and finds it fully in control of 'mujahideen'


    A three-day visit by a reporter working for the Guardian last week established what neither the Iraqi government nor the US military has admitted: Haditha, a farming town of 90,000 people by the Euphrates river, is an insurgent citadel.

    That Islamist guerrillas were active in the area was no secret but only now has the extent of their control been revealed. They are the sole authority, running the town's security, administration and communications.

    The executions are carried out at dawn on Haqlania bridge, the entrance to Haditha. A small crowd usually turns up to watch even though the killings are filmed and made available on DVD in the market the same afternoon
    .
    One of last week's victims was a young man in a black tracksuit. Like the others he was left on his belly by the blue iron railings at the bridge's southern end. His severed head rested on his back, facing Baghdad.

    Children cheered when they heard that the next day's spectacle would be a double bill: two decapitations. A man named Watban and his brother had been found guilty of spying.

    The Guardian witnessed a headmaster accused of adultery whipped 190 times with cables. Children laughed as he sobbed and his robe turned crimson.
    Two men who robbed a foreign exchange shop were splayed on the ground. Masked men stood on their hands while others broke their arms with rocks. The shopkeeper offered the insurgents a reward but they declined.

    DVDs of beheadings on the bridge are distributed free in the souk. Children prefer them to cartoons. "They should not watch such things," said one grandfather, but parents appeared not to object.

    One DVD features a young, blond muscular man who had been disembowelled. He was said to have been a member of a six-strong US sniper team ambushed and killed on August 1. Residents said he had been paraded in town before being executed.

    ReplyDelete
  44. I'd sign that, got a link, rufus?

    ReplyDelete
  45. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  46. ___Haditha

    Photographic evidence and testimony produced at the Article 32 Investigation of Lt. Col. Chessani shows that the women and children at Haditha were killed by gunshot to the head, none, claims the prosecution were injured or killed by shrapnel of any origin. None of the defense teams, to date, have disputed, on or off the record, the prosecution's claims.

    Moreover, all the women and children were found in one bedroom of one of the four houses "cleared" by the accused. Again, none of the defense teams has cared to deny this fact.

    These facts were presented at the Article 32 Investigation of Lt. Col. Chessani in order to show that the circumstances of the deaths warranted his attention. Again, neither Lt. Col. Chessani nor his lawyers dispute the claims of the prosecution.

    Today, Lt. Col. Chessani offered unsworn testimony to the his Article 32 Hearing Officer. By introducing himself and his claims of innocence in this manner he avoids questioning by the prosecution, thereby avoiding potentially damaging, self-incriminating testimony. If Lt. Col. Chessani goes to court-martial, his unsworn testimony may not be used against him by the prosecution. Essentially, Lt. Col. Chessani will get two bites from the apple.

    ReplyDelete
  47. And we've got the ballistics on the rounds that killed these Iraqis.

    The bullets, were they 5.56x45, 7.62x39 or 5.45×39 mm.

    Those tests will make all the difference, in proving who killed those Iraqi.

    The autopsies should offer defenitive proof.

    ReplyDelete
  48. "headmaster accused of adultery whipped 190 times with cables.
    Children laughed as he sobbed and his robe turned crimson.
    "
    ---
    Somehow that, like the Slitting of the Stews throats, really stuck in my mind.

    ReplyDelete
  49. A lot like Ozzie and Harriet:

    "DVDs of beheadings on the bridge are distributed free in the souk.

    Children prefer them to cartoons
    "

    ReplyDelete
  50. Bullet to the head seems to be an Iraqi technique, according to the NYTimes
    A total of 73 people were killed or found dead across Iraq on Saturday, 24 of them bodies dumped in Baghdad. Most of those victims were killed with a shot to the back of the head and showed signs of torture.

    Unless we have Marine death squads roaming the Iraqi night, which I doubt is the case.
    No, bullet to the head of innocents is an Insurgent signature, like a 1st Cav "death card".

    Good thing we'll have those autopsies, to prove what type of round caused the wounds.

    Trust in science.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Aren't we handing out 16's now tho?

    ReplyDelete
  52. I am unaware of autopsies having been performed on the deceased. But autopsy need not be dispositive, particularly if the defense teams stipulate to the facts of the prosecution, as they seem to have done by failing to contest said prosecutorial claims. As things now stand, the matter of autopsy may prove to be a moot question.

    It should be recalled that the initial battle assessment claimed that the houses had been cleared using fragmentation grenades and small arms fire. Since photographic evidence and sworn testimony now place the claim of the use of fragmentation devices on the women and children in doubt, the defense teams may be silent for fear of adding insult to injury. By the end of the month, the Article 32 Investigations of the accused shooters will be underway, and a sense of what actually happened will be made clear.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Reasonable doubt, even then, aye?

    Maybe those M16s and some of the 3 million 5.56 rounds we supplied Fatah made their way east.

    But that'd be now, not then, the Fatah M16s.

    Could have been 9mm or even 7.62x25, that killed those Iraqis.

    It'd be hard to tell, proof positive, from photos.

    Heck, it could be a special extended episode, "Haditha CSI". Maybe even a min-series.

    How forensics, medical science, can prove the case. No untied ends, like the leather glove not fitting on OJ's hand, over the "protective" latex.

    No, no lawyers tricks this time, autopsies will provide the solid evidence the US public and justice will demand.

    ReplyDelete
  54. 2 Marines Deny War Crimes

    After returning to the Marine base near Haditha on the evening of Nov. 19, 2005, Lieutenant Frank said, another officer, First Lt. Adam P. Mathes, told him that the Marines should not issue an apology for wrongfully killing civilians but offer a less conciliatory statement.

    Lieutenant Frank said Lieutenant Mathes, the company’s executive officer, advised a Marine major assigned to a civil affairs unit that “the best way to explain this to the Iraqi people” would be to tell them, “It’s an unfortunate thing that happens when you let terrorists use your house to attack our troops.”

    Lieutenant Frank, who testified after being granted immunity from prosecution in the Haditha case, said he complained to the company commander about the way that marines were forced to photograph and collect the 24 bodies.

    The marines had only four or five body bags at the base and used them to collect the largest of the dead civilians, said Lieutenant Frank. The children’s remains were placed in trash bags, he said. When the marines’ four-Humvee convoy carrying the bodies arrived at a local hospital morgue that evening, Iraqi workers reacted in horror and some vomited at the sight, he testified.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Yeah, I meant from now on, not then.

    ReplyDelete
  56. In his own videotaped testimony, Lieutenant Frank told a Marine prosecutor that each of the eight bodies he found on the bed had “multiple holes” in it, and that one child’s head was missing. But Lieutenant Frank repeatedly said in his testimony that he had never considered the possibility that a war-crime violation had occurred, the legal threshold under Marine Corps regulations that compels an episode to be reported to a superior officer.

    ReplyDelete
  57. re: No, no lawyers tricks this time, autopsies will provide the solid evidence the US public and justice will demand.

    Good luck with that.

    Oh, by the way, murder convictions are routinely had on circumstantial evidence, without a body or so much as a fragment thereof.

    What may come to hurt the accused shooters will be their initial report, which retrospectively appears on its face to be materially, factually challenged.

    While just a guess, the accused shooters appear to have been purposefully forced into the "Prisoners' Dilemma". My guess seems to be supported by the claims of their defense teams that they were separated, denied adequate hydration and nutrition, and denied bathroom breaks.


    re: “It’s an unfortunate thing that happens when you let terrorists use your house to attack our troops.”

    A point well taken, but one which has no bearing on the commission of cold-blooded murder, when proven.

    This administration has foisted upon our troops Rules of Engagement (RoE) which, in my opinion, are criminally negligent. I may be the first person at this site and at the BC to have said so. However, even vigorous, sane, fully implemented RoE will never permit the murder of women and children by self-appointed firing squads. Furthermore, if the USMC abandons the UCMJ (among others) and adopts the RoE of Genghis Khan, it will cease being the Corps. And that is NEVER going to happen.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Hey, bob, here is who to call
    Who to call to report Illegals
    Report to ICE
    (866) 347-2423 option 1
    Report to EEOC
    (800) 669-4000
    Report to Federal Employment Immigration Case Workers
    (202) 693-0051


    They've latched onto the 48,000 Americans killed since 9-11-01, by illegals.
    Ten times the body count.
    Arguably more damage to the economy.

    ReplyDelete
  59. My Mantra, finally gaining traction after being buried by the MSM and most of the blogosphere, but those are real peoples lives, families devastated, etc, as many as we lost in Vietnam.

    ReplyDelete
  60. If you don't see it, doug, it would hard to believe what is happening.

    But at 12 to 20 million, everyone is BEGINNING to see it, for what it is.

    Another asymetric technique.

    Wars that were fought in the 19th Century, the pressures have not changed, no indeed, they've increased.

    Mexico, Crimea, Mesopotania, Persia and the Levant.
    European Empire against the horde.

    The more things change, the more they stay the same.

    ReplyDelete
  61. ___ “the bodies of six children and two women on one bed”

    One Bed.

    ___“eight bodies he found on the bed”

    One Bed.

    2 Marines Deny Suspecting Haditha War Crime




    ___ W. Hays Parks___

    "The substantial number of head shots does not suggest a resisting force"

    "The fact is, a crime appears to have been committed. How could you not investigate that?"

    Expert says Haditha killings demanded immediate probe

    ReplyDelete
  62. We Generated Some Pretty Big Numbers this last go-round.

    If someone would organize it, I believe we could get ten or twelve Recall Petitions going at once. That's wake the Bastards up.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Long article about Iraqi security forces and all the problems Here

    Thanks for the numbers Rat.

    ReplyDelete
  64. I haven't followed that Haditha incident very well. Was there a gap in time between when the firefight took place and the photos of the dead, or the first investigation, took place?

    ReplyDelete
  65. Those moms look mad Rufus, and have better signs than mine. They seem well organized on their web page.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Read that earlier today, bob.

    Hard row to hoe, building an Army, especially if you change techniques every time a local US commander changed. Every 7 months to a year, in the middle of a multi-year process.

    No process, no strategic vison.
    Years misspent.

    ReplyDelete
  67. bobalharb,

    Photographs were taken within hours of the event.

    Lt. Col. Chessani denies having seen the photographs.

    ReplyDelete
  68. These were the pictures the Lt ordered the photag to delete?

    When the investigation became more intense
    Which he did not?

    ReplyDelete
  69. bobalharb,

    re: photographic evidence Haditha

    ___”A Marine who took pictures of 24 Iraqis killed by U.S. forces testified today that one of his commanders later pressured him to erase the photos, including ones showing dead women and children.”

    ___“Laughner also said he didn't know whether the pictures were ever shown to Chessani, whose lawyers assert that their client was never told about the photos.”

    Marine testifies he was pressured to erase Haditha photos



    ___“A staff sergeant testified Thursday that he was ordered to destroy grisly pictures of women and children killed by Marines so that the images would not be part of a statement being prepared for an investigative officer and a magazine reporter.”

    ___“Although Laughner deleted the pictures from his computer, the images remained on his digital camera and are now part of the criminal case against four officers and three enlisted Marines.”

    ___“At the inquiry on Chessani's conduct, Laughner said that he had no evidence the lieutenant colonel ever saw the photographs or knew of their existence.”

    ___“Laughner had taken the pictures in the hours after the killings.”

    Marine says he erased photos of Haditha victims

    Marine Says He Was Ordered To Destroy Haditha Photos

    ReplyDelete
  70. Yeah, I wondered about that too 'Rat:
    "Although Laughner deleted the pictures from his computer, the images remained on his digital camera and are now part of the criminal case against four officers and three enlisted Marines.”
    "
    ...from Allen's

    ReplyDelete
  71. He had to keep them somewhere, either on a card or laptop, or never used the camera again!

    ReplyDelete
  72. I was gonna link that, Rufus:
    They repeated their vile lies about a poll that had little connection to the Kennedy Monster:

    " Public opinion polls, including a New York Times/CBS News Poll conducted last month, showed broad support among Americans for the bill’s major provisions."

    ReplyDelete
  73. Another asymetric technique.
    It's happening in the UK also. Just like Paul McCartney sang it.

    Somebody's knocking on the door
    Somebody's ringing the bell
    Open the door and let 'em in

    Well not really knocking, but sneaking in quietly. It could be soon that we, like the UK, will have a new name as our second most common male name for newborn babies.

    Muhammad is now second only to Jack as the most popular name for baby boys in Britain and is likely to rise to No 1 by next year, a study by The Times has found. The name, if all 14 different spellings are included, was shared by 5,991 newborn boys last year, beating Thomas into third place, followed by Joshua and Oliver.

    Scholars said that the name’s rise up the league table was driven partly by the growing number of young Muslims having families, coupled with the desire to name their child in honour of the Prophet.

    Although the official names register places the spelling Mohammed at No 23, an analysis of the top 3,000 names provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) puts Muhammad at No 2 once the 14 spellings are taken into account. The different spellings of Muhammad in 2006 and the number of occurrences

    Mohammed 2,833
    Muhammad 1,422
    Mohammad 920
    Muhammed 358
    Mohamed 354
    Mohamad 29
    Mahammed 18
    Mohammod 13
    Mahamed 12
    Muhammod 9
    Muhamad 7
    Mohmmed 6
    Mohamud 5
    Mohammud 5


    I suppose that Pablo or Juan is preferable to Mohammed. Pero, bastante es bastante ya.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Where are the conservative pollsters to call the NYT on their lies?

    ReplyDelete
  75. doug,

    re: never used the camera again

    With all due respect, I do not understand your point.

    Recently, my son purchased an inexpensive digital camera and memory card. He is able to do decent video and also store a huge cache of photographs. Indeed, he gets far better results than I, with my expensive camera purchased three years ago.

    Since on examination, SSgt Laughner admitted that his actions constituted obstruction of justice, he may have been doing a little CYA. Also, as often is the case, he may have sent the photos home or to others for entertainment. How a young, presumably tech. savy Lt, who allegedly ordered the destruction of evidence, failed to consider the possibility of Laughner having backed up the data is amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  76. I read somewhere that there is something of an independence movement in Scotland. Do the moslems get up to
    Scotland? Maybe they are starting to want out while there's time.

    ReplyDelete
  77. Don't think many have yet AlBob.
    ...like the Romans.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Somebody notified blogger that my graphics were offensive and they took two down. I put the vitamin D babe back and left the whiff of bullshit one down. Whoever complained, if you prefer lame graphics, I can recommend a couple of other sites.

    ReplyDelete
  79. Allen,
    I just wondered where he might have kept them, given he was supposed to get rid of them.
    Hard for me to get into his head as to his thoughts... ugly thing to think about.

    My first guess was he would not want to keep them on his person after being ordered to get rid of them.

    ReplyDelete
  80. Good to know we are protected by Censorship, Deuce!
    Haven't done a tour in years, imagine there is all sorts of ugly Islamic shit that will be protected in perpetuity!

    ReplyDelete
  81. What was the whiff of Bullshit?

    ReplyDelete
  82. That's just amazing deuce, I can't believe it, you have the best stuff around.

    It was in the privy Doug from the bowls of compassion.

    ReplyDelete
  83. Some neurotic puritan lady somewhere, whose 14 year old son stays up, learning some good stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  84. So it was your Fault!
    us normal folk never having heard of bowls or bowels or whatever.

    ReplyDelete
  85. Thanks for the Haditha link, Doug.

    Allen, given the "criminally negligent" ROE and comprehensively hostile atmosphere, wisdom would dictate that we not establish a long-term military presence in Iraq. Just something to think about.

    Rat, we've joked about CSI Baghdad often.

    ReplyDelete
  86. Google's a bunch of damned commies, anyway. The motherfuckers. Some Queer (but I repeat myself) Sand-Monkey trying to cause you some trouble.

    ReplyDelete
  87. On a MS OneNote Forum:

    My son's PDA is an M249 SAW.
    My other son commutes in an M1A2 Abrams

    ReplyDelete
  88. Maybe you shouldn't have named it "bullshit?"

    Try EdwardsRules next time!

    ReplyDelete
  89. Article about how US will probably be staying in Iraq Here politics at home permitting of course.

    ReplyDelete
  90. As opposed to when you drown on purpose:
    ---
    PUEBLO – Police suspect 80-year-old Lorraine Sheets accidentally drowned in her swimming pool Friday.

    KOAA reports her husband, who had been out running errands, found Sheets' body.

    An autopsy will determine the cause of death.

    Sheets taught second grade for 30 years in Pueblo, most of them at Lincoln Elementary.

    ReplyDelete
  91. Listening to the Friday Dennis Miller Show:

    First hour he does a rerun of his first show with Dana Carvey, Hilarious.

    Short interview with Rudy.
    Gets a caller afterword who said he lost him in the debate when he talked of USING THE MILITARY FOR NATIONBUILDING!
    Anybody hear that one?

    Finally Byron Dorgan, Democrat North Dakota, first time in my life I've heard an entire interview with a Dem where I didn't disagree with anything.
    Talked mostly about immigration, with him being on the right side of the issue straight down the line.
    ...came from a town of 300.

    ReplyDelete
  92. Would appreciate any comments, about Rudy's nationbuilding comment.
    esp you, 'Rat.

    ReplyDelete
  93. New Video editor from Microsoft, 'Rat, check out the Video Demo.
    http://silverlight.net/

    ReplyDelete
  94. Brought Low by some s o b hiding behind a rock, I'd bet. This guy was pretty well dressed, and well armed.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Virtue still lives in the small towns, and on the farms. Doug:)

    ReplyDelete
  96. It would seem that the US is in the "Nation-building" business, whether we want her to be, or not.

    In that regard, Rudy's acknowledgement of that reality is a breath of fresh air.

    As we do not hear any of the "Big Three" of the Bush Team even mention the words. Nor any of the Dems.

    Sometimes a President, or any executive, must make lemonade. Best they realize it, and admit it. Then to lead US into denial through false and misleading statements about their intent.

    ReplyDelete
  97. One of the other items the "Iceman" carried, his supply of cannibas, "mary jane", the herb of choice for all discerning cavemen.

    Some things never change.

    ReplyDelete
  98. Sayeth Rudy:

    "Maybe we have to start thinking about some kind of hybrid organization of our military and our civilian agencies of the government. There’s a lot here that the Justice Department can bring to bear in places like Iraq and if we have to do another Iraq in the future. There’s a lot of skills that the Commerce Department can bring to bear, the Treasury Department, and a lot of our private businesses. This nation needs to get started again. Maybe we didn’t see that because this idea of nation-building is not one you want to undertake lightly. But whether we wanted to or not, it’s now our responsibity. We’ve got to get it done right."

    Well, here're the facts: We can draw down to @30,000 troops if we change our mission to one similar to JSOC in Afghanistan. Or we can continue on with the nation building/nation policing to the current tune of almost 200,000 troops in and out every year. This last, too, is about to run into more serious problems yet, as we can't keep the ballgame going to 09 without making the 15-month deployments 18-month deployments. And that would have to be done during a company and field grade officer exodus.

    So a new government organization (always a bad idea, but that's another issue) can be christened for future nation building endeavors, but will not aid the current one. And subsequent nation building endeavors are going to be an extremely hard, perhaps impossible, sell over the horizon - no matter what shiny new department you've put together. Might as well be selling syphilis for all the appeal it will have.

    ReplyDelete
  99. I should have mentioned maryjane Rat, but was too tired and screwed up. I thought that was funny. Wouldn't you know it, 5000 years ago up in the Alps, smoking weed. Sorta takes your focus away though, not paying attention, you end up, arrow in the back.

    ReplyDelete
  100. Hops and Cannabis are closely related, FWIW.

    Just heard that Hops are great for reducing Cholesteral.

    ...a lifetime Coors drinker who was my best friend in HS has been claiming similar virtues for decades.

    ReplyDelete
  101. Adolph Coors would probably pay you to say that, Doug.

    ReplyDelete