What a War Crime Looks Like

WMC Exclusive

by Milon Nagi

March 12

The account below is compiled from testimony given at the courts martial of Paul Cortez and James Barker, from accounts of the Article 32 Hearing and other court proceedings in the cases, and from previous WMC and newspaper reports. Former Pfc. Steven Green, Pfc. Jesse Spielman and Pfc. Bryan Howard are still awaiting trial. References to them are to alleged actions on their part according to the above sources.

Through court martial testimony, including that of the now convicted Paul Cortez and James Barker, a picture is emerging of what took place on March 12, 2006. Almost everything we know about the day one year ago when Abeer Qassim Hamza al Janabi was raped and, along with her parents and sister, murdered comes from her proven and alleged killers. The only other witnesses, the family members themselves, are dead.

On that day, Pfc. Steven Green, Pfc. Jesse Spielman and Pfc. Bryan Howard, all currently awaiting trial, were on duty with Barker and Cortez at Traffic Control Point 2 (TCP2), near Mahmoudiya, Iraq. While others stood guard, Spielman, Green, Barker and Cortez sat outside playing cards, hitting golf balls and drinking canned Iraqi whisky mixed with an energy drink.

As Barker put it, they were “pretty buzzed.” Green started talking about wanting to kill some Iraqis, Barker said, but he didn’t take him seriously. As several soldiers testified, Green had said the same thing on almost a daily basis, to anyone, of any rank, who would listen. This time he was persistent. Instead of challenging him, Barker suggested a house they could go to—one that would be, Cortez later testified, “an easy target” since previous searches had shown that it contained only one adult male. It was fewer than 1,000 feet from TCP2, past one occupied and two unoccupied houses.

The soldiers had already noticed the family’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Abeer. Her mother Fikhriya told a neighbor that Abeer was afraid after American soldiers had been paying her unwanted attention at the checkpoint. They had started dropping by the house to ogle her, giving her mother a thumbs-up while they gestured to Abeer and passed their judgment: “very good, very good.” Abeer’s younger brother Mohammed, who was not home during the attack, once watched her stand, petrified, as Steven Green ran his index finger down her cheek. Increasingly worried at the soldiers’ behavior, her parents had arranged for Abeer to sleep at a relative’s house for protection.

According to Barker, it was Green who suggested they rape Abeer. This, say the prosecutors, provided the incentive for the others. “I’m down with that,” was Spielman’s response, Cortez told prosecutors, when presented with the idea as they left the TCP. Cortez, the senior soldier, might have put a stop to it. Instead he pulled rank insisting, testified Barker, that “if we were going to rape the girl, he was going to go first.”

Some of the men changed their clothes in a perfunctory way. Barker wore a black balaclava. Green simply pulled a t-shirt over his head, leaving part of his pale face exposed. Spielman, who joined the plan late, didn’t cover his face at all. They wore standard issue army boots and carried M4 rifles. According to Barker, they also brought weapons they had seen Iraqis carry: an M14 carried by Spielman and a shotgun, useful for close range kills, carried by Green. The soldiers had a trump card: They knew that Abeer’s father Qassim, for the family’s protection, kept an AK-47 in the house, the preferred weapon of Iraqi insurgents, thus useful to point to sectarian involvement.

Leaving Howard as lookout, the group split as they approached the house. Barker and Cortez went to the right, Spielman and Green around the left, coming across Qassim and his youngest daughter Hadeel. Spielman, said Barker, grabbed Hadeel with one hand while he held his gun in the other. Abeer and her mother were in the family kitchen. All except Abeer were herded into the bedroom. Then, said Barker, Spielman left the room, closing the door and holding the handle while Green remained inside with the couple and seven-year-old Hadeel.

Barker saw Abeer struggling with Cortez in the living room. Deciding to help, he pinned the girl down with his hands and knees while Cortez, his “brother in arms,” raped her. Abeer screamed, cried and tried to keep her legs together. A series of shots were heard from the bedroom. Contrary to his training, which stipulates that if shots are fired during a patrol soldiers must immediately investigate, Cortez did not even flinch. Once he was finished, they switched places. Abeer’s screams must have bothered Barker when he took his turn: afterwards he yelled at her to “shut up.”

According to testimony, Green entered the room, saying, “I killed them all, they’re all dead.” He propped up the family’s AK-47 against the wall, then, presumably still covered with the blood of her parents and sister, raped Abeer. He picked up her father’s gun and shot her in the head once, then a couple more times. Now the witnesses, the Iraqi ones, were all dead.

Someone suggested they burn Abeer’s body. Barker fetched a lamp he had seen in the kitchen and poured kerosene over Abeer. The fire was set using a lighter allegedly provided by Spielman. A propane canister was set loose to cause an explosion. Then the soldiers fled back to TCP2. Barker recalled handing his clothes to Green to be burned. Spielman allegedly threw the AK-47 into a nearby canal. The men went back to grilling chicken wings and got on with their day.

About two weeks later, Cortez was promoted to sergeant. He had, later in the day, returned to the house purportedly to investigate the killings, and managed while he was there to get rid of a potentially incriminating spent shell.

Some months later, in May 2006, Green—who had been allowed to enlist under a moral waiver—was discharged from the army with a “personality disorder.” Days after the deaths of the al Janabi family, commanders heard, he had thrown a puppy from the roof of a building and then set it on fire. It has since emerged that months before the rape and murders, a military mental health team had found that Green had “homicidal ideations.”

Other soldiers began to suspect the truth but were afraid to tell. Spc. Christopher A. Till testified at Cortez’s court martial that Cortez had told him what happened, but that “there were weapons lying around and I didn’t know what they were capable of.” In mid-June the soldiers’ roles finally emerged during combat stress debriefings.

One story is still untold: that of the last few moments of Abeer’s life, and those of her mother, father and sister. The little we are able to piece together from the accounts of their killers raises still more questions.

The family lived on their small farm while Qassim supplemented their meager farming income with an additional $3 a day from work in a Baghdad factory. Had he perhaps just come in from work, or was he just leaving, when the soldiers arrived at his home in broad daylight? What had he and his youngest daughter been doing outside the house—perhaps farm chores? Were Abeer and Fikhriya preparing a family meal, or doing some other household work in the kitchen? When Fikhriya, along with her husband and Hadeel, was forced into the bedroom, she knew that Abeer was out there alone with soldiers who had been eyeing her for weeks. Fikhriya’s cousin, who found the bodies, suggested that Fikhriya’s arms had been broken. Could she have been forced, as Cortez’s prosecutors described, to watch helplessly as her seven-year-old child and husband were shot?

Abeer must have died knowing what was happening to her family. While Cortez and Barker raped her, she probably heard screams and may have noted a sharp silence after the last gunshots were fired. After Green entered the room, presumably with her family’s blood on him, there can have been little doubt. We can hope that her terror prevented her from focusing on these details, or from feeling, however wrongly, that it was her fault that her parents and her sister had been killed so the soldiers might get to her. Perhaps she had a moment to thank Allah that her two younger brothers were away at school. They were later found crying by the burning house, where they could look inside and see the bodies.

We can’t be sure, of course. Key witnesses are dead. But this is what a war crime looks like.

Milon Nagi is a freelance writer working with the Women’s Media Center.

US lobby sets pro-Israel agenda

By Rob Reynolds in Washington DC

Iran has been identified as the number one threat for the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), during its annual policy conference in Washington DC.

Thousands of delegates gathered from around the country to attend meetings and hear speeches, and on Tuesday, they set out to lobby their representatives in congress.

Julie Morris, a delegate, told al Jazeera: "We are going to tell [congressmen] they need to be supportive of Israel and work together with the United States to apply sanctions on Iran."

Aipac is considered one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States with more than 100 000 members.

Washington’s senior officials trooped to the Aipac conference and dutifully pledged their undying affection for Israel.

To rapturous applause, Dick Cheney, the US vice president, said: "I stand as a strong supporter of Israel and Israel has never had a better friend in the White House than George Bush!"

'Number one issue'

With more than six thousand delegates, this years Aipac conference is the biggest ever and the biggest issue by far is Iran.

Benny Schechter, a delegate, said: "Number one issue is that Iran needs to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons."

Aipac members see Iran’s pursuit of nuclear power as an existential threat.

Another delegate said: "We have to take people at their word. The world didn’t take Hitler at his word and we lost not only six million Jews but eleven million people."

Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister: "It is a regime which denies the holocaust while threatening the world with a new one."

'Crippling effect'

As well as lobbying the US Congress for tougher sanctions against Iran, Aipac members are also pressuring US financial institutions to stop investing in companies with ties to Iran.

Howard Kohr, Aipac executive director, said: "If the largest state pension funds in the country were to divest from companies with ties to Iran it would have a crippling effect on Iran’s economy."

Having a powerful lobby in Israel helps provide tangible benefits for Israel, including $2.4 billion in mostly US military aid every year, making it the largest single recipient of US taxpayer dollars sent abroad.

Enough is Enough !

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Everytime I read an article written by some american or english "analyst" on Iraq, whoever he/she is, I simply cringe inside.

Papa Chomsky, Hajji Mullah Chossudovsky, the Nabob Chris Floyd, the John le Carre Kurt Nimmo, Lawrence of Arabia P.Cockburn, the Romantic Orientalist Troubadour Robert Fisk, the Misinformed Juanito Cole and the Invisible Man, Investigator, Max Fuller ...

These people have got NO clue of what is happening IN Iraq. Or they have a clue and they simply REFUSE to see. Which of course makes matters worse...

I have read the latest two articles by Papa Chomsky. Your Allah and Guru.

One on Counterpunch and the other in the Independent. Same crap, same flavor.

Please tell your Guru on my behalf that it is about high time, he either sticks to linguistics or simply retires to some Kibbutz and grows cabbages instead...and spares us his insights.

Papa Chomsky is one of the most hypocritical "leftists" I have ever come across.

As for Hajji Mullah Chossudovsky, either he simply does not read what is really happening on the Iraqi grounds or he relies solely on the contributors to his website.

The ones that promise us that Muqtada Sadr and the Sadrists ARE the Resistance against the American Occupation and that the Jaysh al Mahdi, the armed wing of that same infamous sectarian bunch is a distinct entity from which sprung "rogue" elements. Crap again. Muqtada al Sadr, the Sadrists and the Jaysh al Mahdi are one and the same and there are no "rogue" elements to them.

Or maybe Mullah Chossudovsky relies solely on the “brilliance”of Max Fuller.

Something that the Brussels Tribunal, supposedly fighting the Occupation does too.

Anyway who the hell is Max Fuller? Has this guy ever been to Iraq? Has he met Iraqis who were not in exile and did not belong to the Dawah party? Or just he simply extrapolates from his Latin American “expertise” in Colombia and juxtaposes it to Iraq willy nilly? Because everyone seems to quote Mr Invisible Investigator.

He asserts with great vehemence the following :

"What we do have is a growing body of eyewitness testimonies from Iraqis asserting the presence of members of one or other militia group. Such assertions are blown out of all proportion within the mainstream western media by writers who have never seriously questioned the role of US military-intelligence advisors in orchestrating the death squads despite a barrage of evidence. The views of journalists who take this line can be discarded as trash, but not those of the Iraqis, who, undoubtedly, genuinely see the involvement of both Badr and Mehdi militiamen. The problem with such testimonies is not in their credibility but in their ability to perceive the structures and follow the chains of command of the various armed groups that are assaulting them."

What Max fuller wants you to believe is that Iraqis do not know who is actually torturing them and drilling holes in their bodies. We were all awaiting Max Fuller to give us the real culprits. What Max Fuller is telling you folks is to discount what Iraqis who have undergone torture know about their torturer. Namely the Shia Death Squads which consist of Jaysh al Mahdi headed by Muqtada Al Sadr, The Badr Brigades of Al Hakim and the Maghawir Brigades from the ministry of Interior who are now part of the local police and so called Iraqi armed Forces.

But oh no, Max Fuller knows better. He knows better than the Iraqis themselves who is in charge and what the game is all about… What a pack of lies Max Fuller.
Let me ask you, what is exactly your agenda? Come on tell me, I promise I won’t utter a word.
Meanwhile, the Brussels Tribunal ought to reconsider whom it is exactly defending!

So when Hajji Mullah Chossudovsky gives publishing space to a highly sectarian Sadrist under the name of some "doctor" from some Kufa university, who not only praises the Sadrist thugs but also assures the lefties of the blogosphere that Iran is a "sophisticated democracy". Or when he allows someone like Mr Invisible Investigator speak on behalf of the Iraqis and tell the whole world that Iraqis "are not able to perceive" who is behind their torture and rape, what Hajji Mullah Chossudovsky is in fact doing is condoning the killing of Iraqis by Iranian backed puppets called the Sadrists and others who are also engaged in killing members of the IRAQI RESISTANCE who are fighting AGAINST the AMERICAN OCCUPATION.
And don't misquote me now, when I say Iraqi Resistance, I do not mean the despicable Qaeda, another lie that is shoved down your throats.

The same applies to Mr.Lawrence of Arabia, P.Cockburn who has become "plus royaliste que le Roi" endorsing those same thugs cited above. And I shall not say more because P.Cockburn simply gives me the hives.

As for the Nabob Chris Floyd and the clueless Juanito Cole, in almost all of their articles, they insist that:

1) Saddam Hussein's regime "oppressed" Shias and favored the Sunnis which is another blatant lie (but very much in line with the Guru's mantra) and it does not matter how many facts and figures one gives to the Nabob and Co, they have an agenda and wish to pursue it come what may. Arguing that the American occupation is the sole responsible factor for the sectarianism today in Iraq with a fertile terrain laboriously cultivated by the "tyrant" Saddam Hussein.
Needless to say by parroting this long regurgitated propaganda against the "dictatorial regime", and by insisting on what is not true, they are in fact contributing to sectarianism.
Partial truths are cause for sectarianism. Just in case you did not know.

If you want to know what Iraqi society in terms of sects was BEFORE the occupation, you need to ask the Iraqis, your excellencies.

See for instance the very valuable series of correspondence between another “ academic expert” Peter Sluglett and several Iraqis concerning so called "sectarianism" is pre-occupied Iraq.

And it is a must read for all those who wish to have an accurate picture.

As for John le Carre, Kurt Nimmo, he is totally obssessed with a strike on Iran.

I mean here are the two snakes meeting face to face in Baghdad and our John le Carre is already shouting that an imminent strike is about to take place. Joining the chorus of the other "luminaries."

As for Monsieur the Orientalist Troubadour, in an outburst of the most pathetic kind, of a mea culpa sort, tinged with British hypocrisy that we are so used to and if you want to know about British hypocrisy, ask the Iraqis.

Robert Fisk has "suddenly" realized that maybe, just maybe, the West and its journalists, writers and "academics" may be fomenting sectarianism particularly in Iraq and in the Middle East. Oh really Monsieur Fisk? After 30 years of living in the Middle East and being considered the expert "par excellence" did this thought just occur to you now?

So you guys are telling us Iraqis that 1)we do not know what regime we had prior to your occupation 2) that we don't know who is torturing, raping and drilling holes in our bodies 3) that those Iraqis who do "complain" about such practices are not "capable" of true knowledge 4) that you know all about Iraqi sectarianism and that Iraqis who have lived all their lives with each other and intermarried don't.

What arrogance and what racism! So tell me do you know better than this Iraqi woman who was forced to leave EVERYTHING behind and who says:

"The Americans caused so many problems by coming. They’ve damaged everything, the society, the human beings, the buildings, everything. When they came they brought with them people who were involved with Iran. Now, everything in our country is damaged. What a pity. What a pity.

"You know, the Americans said 'we come to liberate you from Saddam,’ but instead they destroyed Iraq. When they killed Saddam we lost more hope. All the Iraqi people would wish the time would turn back, even for one moment to when Saddam was in power, just to feel, even for that moment, what life was like. It didn’t matter if you hated Saddam or liked him, all Iraqis wish for a return to those days..."(full article here)

Or do you know better than Omar's mother and father about the identity of his kidnappers and still no news from him. Or you know better than R. who was sacked from his job by his Dawah employer because R is a sunni and his employer is originally an Iranian? Or maybe you know better than the thousands who are rushing to the Iraqi borders running away from the fascist militias? Or surely you know better than A,S,and D who were kidnapped and raped and tortured by the Al Mahdi Squads because they were "sunni whores"? Or maybe you know better than Auntie S. who married a shia 40 years ago even before Saddam Hussein came to power!

That is it...Keep doing that righteous liberal lefties.

So all eyes can be turned to Iran and the Iraqi genocide goes silently into the background.
The same thing you did when the sanctions were imposed for over 12 years...

The silent death of over a million Iraqis and you cried instead "Dictatorship and Oppression" of "kurds and shi'ites" so as not to look at and detract from the real oppression and dictatorship that you kept so cowardly and complicitly silent about - that of the sanctions.

And you are repeating it all over again, but this time around with more self righteousness and more cockiness.

I bet it will look good on your "academic" CV and if you are lucky enough, someone will give you a prize.


What all these "experts" above have in common is one major trait that unifies them. And that trait is part of the package delivered to us by America and Great Britain. These two started the first lie about Iraq and these “respectable” so called progressives have continued very faithfully in the same footsteps. Using the information given to them and to their governments by the likes of Kanan Makiya,Chalabi and the others exiled in Iran working for Teheran.

Then they come and declare themselves the know it all about Iraq.

Fabricating, exaggerating, deforming, projecting, demonizing, making up, misinforming,twisting, disinforming...about the Iraqi reality.


Enough of your collective lies and Bullshit! We are the ones who have not ceased to pay the price. Starting with the blatant lies of your governments and ending with yours.
Have some shame and if you can't have that, have a least a modicum of intellectual integrity.
But then, even that, seems too much to ask.

Now I remember, of course, we are arab Iraqis. How could I have forgotten that!

Giuliani tied to pedophilia

March 12, 2007

Rudy Giuliani - What gets covered regarding morals?

by Sara,

This is about a story that for some crack-pot reason is not getting written up by the national media, even though if you do just a mite of googleing, you'll discover that the Right Wing has long had the story, but gotten no traction on it. To read all the bloody details, what you do is google the two names, Alan Placa and Rudy Giuliani, and you can read about it for hours, should you have a taste for Priestly Pedophilia and the investigations of recent years thereof. I'll sketch an outline of the story here.

Placa and Giuliani became friends when they were 13-14, when they began High School, and remained close friends through College. Post college Placa went to the Seminary, and Giuliani off to Law School. After he was ordained, Placa went off to Law School too. Eventually he became a Monsignor in the Diocese of Rockville Center, Long Island NY, and as we know Giuliani went to DC to Reagan's DOJ. When Giuliani needed an Annulment of his first marriage, Placa did the job.

But Monsignor Placa got into considerable trouble in the late 1990's and early 2000 era, when he not only was accused of abuse of two minors, who could not sue him or the diocese because the five year statute of limitations was long past, but when the whole huge story broke, first in Boston, and then across the country, Monsignor Placa comes up in several parts of it. While serving on Long Island, he had developed a legal strategy for dealing with abuse complaints that involved having an "intervention team" that met with family members and the abused, without revealing that Placa was indeed the Diocese Lawyer on such matters. Placa took great pride that in cases that if litigated might cost the Diocese Millions, he could frequently manipulate the situation, and get out for a few thousand. Of course the Monsignor was flying a false flag -- he was not a spiritual counsel, he was the Bishop's Lawyer. He traveled the country teaching Bishops the technique -- apparently 200 cases where he was successful outside his own diocese.

Well into the 1980's, the preferred method of dealing with Priestly Pedophilia was to send the guy off for "therapy." There were several institutions available, St. Lukes in Maryland still exists and is professional, but there was another, the House of Affirmation run by a Father Thomas A. Kane, which was a huge fraud. Kane lied about his degrees in Psychology, but that was only found out later. In the meantime he acquired lots of high grade real estate, and when he was about to go under, he transferred title to Placa. (Estate in Mass, Estate in Florida among other assets.). The transfers were not discovered till years later. (When evaluated under court order the Houses of Affirmation were judged to have no treatment program that passed a professional review.)

In 2002 when this whole story was all over the papers and all, Suffolk County on Long Island ordered up a Grand Jury to review the whole situation with Rockville Center Diocese, and while they could not charge Placa because of Statute of Limitations matters, they issued a report about his "intervention team" that manipulated victims and their families, and his own unanswered accusations of abuse of two teens, (they didn't know about the House of Affirmation Property deals), and as a result, Monsignor Placa was suspended from the Priesthood, and essentially defrocked. Apparently his case has been sent to Rome where it rests. He was allowed to say one public Mass -- at the funeral of Rudy's Mother. (Which is why her funeral was picketed by victims.)

So after 2002 Rudy is no longer Mayor -- and he establishes a Consulting Firm in his name, supposedly dealing with private-public partnerships and all that, and who does he partner up with? Well Former Monsignor Alan Placa, his best buddy from High School and College. When the Long Island Grand Jury was trying to serve him with a Subpoena, Rudy hid him till the term was out. Then, Placa developed a speciality within Guiliani and Associates of taking private Not for Profit Hospitals owned by orders of Nuns who no longer had the membership to administer or staff them -- from which the Corporate Health Community was willing to pay nice commissions to the Guiliani Consultants.

Now every bit of this has been reported over the years in Newsday, the NYTimes, and to some extent in books by Jason Berry. You can find all the articles archived at the Bishopsaccountability Web site. You can find the report of the Grand Jury there. In fact the Times front paged it when Rudy hired Placa for his firm. And you can find the efforts of the Right Wing Bloggers to make an issue of this -- but they have never gotten any traction. By the way, one little part of it involved a real shouting match between Donoghue of the Catholic Civil Rights outfit, (Anti-Edwards) and Jimmy Breslin -- and I really recommend their essays as informative reading. Breslin wanted to know why a Catholic Civil Rights outfit should not be about advocacy against sexual abuse of minors, and he got a fight and not an answer.

So what I want to know is why did Rudy hire this guy? Is this his version of Affirmative Action? We know he recommended Kerik to George W. Bush for Homeland Security -- is this his taste in Health and Human Services? (God Help Us.)

I invite everyone to google all the documents and get your own take on the matter. But I have problems. Why, given the press that Placa's problems have already had, including Rudy's hiring of Placa, has this not been presented front face to the Religious Right of the Republican Party now discussing nominations -- with the question, do you really believe Christian Conservatives think this taste in appointees or hiring decisions is what they want?

I guess our problem is we have no little blue dress.

March 12, 2007 at 19:21 | Permalink

Justice Department Purge Documents Here - Includes White House Emails

All PDF

1 , 2 , 3 , 4

One-quarter of Iraq, Afghanistan veterans filing injury claims

McClatchy Newspapers
Publication Date: 03/13/07

WASHINGTON -- More than a quarter of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have filed injury claims with the government, according to an internal Department of Veterans Affairs report.

Of the nearly 690,000 veterans who served in those combat zones, more than 180,000 had filed claims by the end of last year, the report showed.

That's more than a 50 percent increase over where claims stood near the end of 2005, when the number of claims from the war was 115,000, according to the VA.

Veterans advocates said that the numbers likely would continue to climb, and not just because the number of troops has been escalating. Some soldiers wait years to file injury claims, they said, while some injuries, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, can take years to surface.

Steve Smithson, deputy director for claims at the American Legion, said the numbers "seem like a lot, but there may be a lot more. It's a cost of war that we don't always figure into the budget and we don't always realize. This is also a cost, taking care of the wounded, and we're going to be seeing more of this as the war continues."

VA spokesman Jim Benson said that every injury claim by an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran might not be a result of their deployment. The injury could have occurred either before or after they served overseas, he said.

The VA awards compensation for health problems when veterans can prove their injuries were related to their military service. Like the military's health care system for active-duty troops, the VA is under intense scrutiny in light of the treatment scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Several blue-ribbon panels are looking into how to ensure that both veterans and troops face fewer bureaucratic obstacles to treatment and benefits.

"I think Walter Reed is the tip of the iceberg," said Democratic Rep. Bob Filner of California, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. "What we saw is they were deliberately trying to keep the claims down."

The VA has granted 132,000 of the 180,000 benefit claims, which have been filed since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, according to the report. The balance includes claims that have either been denied or are pending.

In 2006, the department signed off on nearly 57,000 claims -- an average of more than 150 per day.

"This is good news that VA is processing so many more claims," said Paul Sullivan, veterans advocate and former VA project manager. "However, it's ominous that the claims activity continues to surge."

© The St. Augustine Record

Iran 'euro-based' oil bourse underway

Mar 11, 2007

An official said that the managing director of Iran's first petroleum exchange "Iran Oil Bourse" is expected to be appointed soon, bringing the oil-rich nation a step closer to opening its first 'oil bourse'. Majid Shayesteh, managing director of Kish Free Trade Zone Organization, said that President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has directed Iran's ministers of oil, economic affairs and finance to appoint the board of directors of the oil exchange and its managing director. He did not specify when exactly the exchange would open.

He also said the building which will house Iran's first oil exchange has been constructed on the Persian Gulf island of Kish and that the required technical equipment has been installed.

Shayesteh added that three major organizations are involved in the groundbreaking project, saying that coordinating efforts between the various groups initially delayed the project.

According to the official, the articles of association for the oil exchange have since been approved. Last month, a separate official announced that the petroleum exchange would begin operation "in the near future."

Mahmud Salahi, secretary of the High Council for Free Trade and Industrial Zones, had said that Iran decided to establish the euro-based oil exchange on Kish because "there was no such oil trading body in the region." The oil exchange will transact petroleum, petrochemicals and gas in various non-dollar currencies, primarily the euro. It would also establish a euro-based pricing mechanism for oil trading, or 'oil marker' as it is commonly called by traders.

Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said earlier that a stock market for trade in shares of oil companies will be established in Iran's southern of Kish in the near future. While touring of a local gas transfer operation, the minister said the stock market will be set up in cooperation with the oil and finance ministries.

The stock market will be open to the public soon after the appointment of a managing director and members of a board of directors.

Last month, after a year of speculation, Iran changed its oil bourse from petrodollars to petroeuros.

The Democrats' Fraudulent Iraq Exit Plan

Marc 13, 2007

By Kevin Zeese

The Democrats took the majority of both the House and Senate on January 4th, 2007 since then 192 members of the Armed Services have died as have countless Iraqi civilians. With power comes responsibility, so voters should know that this is now the Democrats War and every death and casualty is their responsibility.

When they came to power their leadership said they would not use the "power of the purse" to end the war. But pressure from voters opposed to the Iraq quagmire has changed their tune. Last week an obviously frustrated Rep. David Obey told Marine Mom, Tina Richardsin a Capitol Hill hallway encounter that his appropriations bill would de-authorize the war.

I went to Capitol Hill as part of a support delegation for Tina Richards this Monday to return to Rep. Obey's office to seek clarification of his hallway comments. There has been a lot of deal making by Congressional leaders to line up support for the Iraq War supplemental. They are adding billions in goodies for constituents, for Midwest farmers, avocado growers, communities that have lost bases, Katrina relief, Veterans and other goodies to gather votes.

The headline that the Democratic leadership would like voters to hear is "troops out of Iraq by August 2008." But the headline is more a wolf in sheep's clothing than a reality. After hearing details of the bill from Obey's appropriations staff person the loopholes may define the law more than the headline.

For most in the peace movement an August 2008 deadline for withdrawal is already way too slow. Why the delay? On November 17, 2005 Rep. Jack Murtha called for redeployment within six months. Here we are sixteen months later and the Democratic leadership is talking about redeployment in seventeen months! Six months has turned into 33 months ­ and in fact the August deadline is illusory. How many lives ­ U.S. and Iraqi ­ will have been lost in this quagmire over this time period?

But, that is not the worst of it. As Rep. Maxine Waters, the Chair of the Out of Iraq Caucus point out, a few weeks ago the Congress passed a non-binding resolution against the so-called "surge" but this appropriation will actually pay for the surge ­ which has grown since their vote by more than 8,200 troops. Indeed, the Democrats are poised to give Bush up to $20 billion more than he asked for!

The appropriation initially was going to require that only combat ready troops could be sent to Iraq. But in order to please "Blue Dog Democrats" and some Republicans the bill is now merely a requirement that Bush report to Congress if non-combat ready troops are used in Iraq. Since when do conservatives want us sending troops to wars who are not fully trained or equipped for combat? Combat readiness has become a symbolic requirement that will at best embarrass the commander in chief but it will not stop deployment of troops unprepared for battle.

And, it keeps getting worse. Regarding the August 2008 deadline not all troops are being redeployed (the bill does not say to where). The bill leaves four categories of soldiers who can remain in Iraq. These include troops to guard the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. This is the largest Embassy in the world ­ a city within a city ­ so who knows how many troops that will take. Also, troops involved in diplomatic and consular affairs will remain in Iraq.

But, the two big categories allow troops to remain in Iraq to fight Al Qaeda and to train the Iraqi military and police. President Bush has called Iraq one front in the war on terror, where the main target in the war on terror is Al Qaeda. Indeed, "we're in Iraq to fight them over there rather than over here," according to the president. Further, he claimed that Saddam and Osama were working together ­ and Vice President Cheney still makes that claim. And, throughout the Iraq War the resistance in Iraq has been defined as terrorists and there have been no solid numbers regarding how many Al Qaeda fighters are in Iraq. And, can you imagine the intelligence-leak drumbeat as that deadline approaches. There will be story after story planted in the establishment media about Al Qaeda coming to Iraq in preparation for the U.S. exit. This hole is so large by itself to make the Democratic exit strategy a virtual mirage.

And, then there is the training of Iraqi military and police. How many trainers will the U.S. have for an Iraqi military and police that will be in the very high hundreds of thousands, perhaps over a million? Will training include U.S. soldiers being embedded in the Iraq military or police as part of training them? This is another gigantic loophole that makes the withdrawal more a "stay the course" plan then a real withdrawal.

But, the thing that makes this supplemental appropriation particularly dangerous is the Democratic leadership decision not to raise the question of forbidding military force against Iran. The Bush administration has been beating the war drums for a military attack on Iran for months. It had been reported that the spending bill would have required congressional approval, with some exceptions, before using military force against Iran.

The Congressional Quarterly reported on March 8, 2007 that "The influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee also is working to keep the language out, said an aide to a pro-Israel lawmaker." Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the consigliore for the hard right Israeli lobby in the House of Representatives ­ a congressman who was a civilian volunteer with the Israeli army during the first Gulf War, is quoted as predicting "that the language would ultimately not be included in the supplemental on the House side."

On the 8th CQ reported "a Democratic leadership aide said there are no plans to remove
the provision. 'There's heat,' the leadership aide acknowledged. 'We've heard
their concerns, but we think it's likely to remain on the bill.'" Less than a week later it seems the hard right Israeli lobby, which is often the puppet master of U.S. foreign policy, has gotten the provision removed.

Thus, the Congress has decided to put up no barriers to a Bush attack on Iran. In hearings before Sen. Russell Feingold this January legal experts said that the original use of force resolution, the power of the president to act to defend U.S. national security and the authority of the president to introduce troops into "hostilities, but not into a war" may be sufficient to allow military action against Iran absent congressional action. If Congress put up barriers requiring Congressional approval or restricting the use of funds appropriated than that would limit the president's authority. But without Congressional action, Bush could act militarily against Iran.

So, the slow exit of the Democratic leadership will in the best case scenario be a partial exit that could keep tens of thousands (or more) troops in the Iraq quagmire. And, their failure to curtail the president's authority regarding Iran will give him the unbridled path he needs to go forward with military action against that country. This supplemental may result in a bigger Mid-East war in 2007, rather than a real exit from Iraq.

Is this what the November 2006 anti-war mandate was for?


Kevin Zeese is director of www.DemocracyRising.US and co-founder of www.VotersForPeace.US

Nuclear Weapons Transparency

GOOD Magazine

Nuclear Weapons Transparency

GOOD Magazine

House GOP condemns Muslim group’s meeting in the Capitol

By Jackie Kucinich March 13, 2007

House Republicans reacted angrily yesterday after learning that a Democratic colleague had approved the use of a conference room inside the Capitol for a controversial non-profit group.

Republican Study Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) expressed disappointment with the decision to allow the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to hold a discussion today on “Global Attitudes on Islam-West Relations: U.S. Policy Implications” in the Capitol building. He cited the group’s unwillingness to denounce radical Islamic group Hamas and radical Shiite militia and political party Hezbollah.

“Despite numerous opportunities, CAIR has repeatedly refused to condemn terrorist action by groups like Hamas and Hezbollah,” said Hensarling. “It is hard enough for members of Congress to reserve meeting rooms in the Capitol, and I am sure that there are many other places for groups to meet in private offices throughout Washington.”

CAIR, America’s largest Islamic civil-liberties group, has 32 offices and chapters in the United States and Canada. It has long walked a fine line on the issues of Hamas and Hezbollah but is widely accepted as a prominent Islamic group, according to Firas Maksad, a Middle East analyst at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy.

Maksad pointed out that its executive director, Nihad Awad, breaks fast during Ramadan with President Bush every year.

“CAIR is one of the most prominent, if not the most prominent, Muslim organizations in the United States,” said Maksad. He added that CAIR may be avoiding overt condemnation of Hamas and Hezbollah because both are considered legitimate political parties in the Muslim world.

“If they had a clear position, it [could] put them in a tight jacket as far as the Muslim world,” Maksad said.

According to its mission statement, CAIR’s goal “is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.”

But GOP members and staff remain unconvinced. They regard the approval of today’s meeting as another example of Democrats’ poor judgment.

“Apparently, the Democrats live in some parallel universe where it’s OK to set up a meeting in the Capitol for a group with known terrorist ties,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.). “This colossal failure in judgment — or even common sense — by the Democrats should make Americans pause and think, ‘With friends like these ...’”

Said a House GOP leadership aide: “Between appointing Rep. [William] Jefferson (D-La.) to the Homeland Security Committee and hosting an organization with suspected ties to terrorism in the Capitol, it seems like Democrats are throwing caution to the wind and common sense out the window.”

Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) said that the Democrats should have used “better discretion.”

“What [Democratic leadership] believes is appropriate is telling,” he added.

Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey was the Democrat who made the decision to allow the gathering in H-137, a Ways and Means meeting room. The Washington Times first reported the story yesterday.

In a statement issued yesterday by Pascrell’s office, the congressman said, “The Capitol Building is open to all Americans and should be available to encourage dialogue on the most relevant domestic and international issues of the day. … The public and congressional staff should be educated about various perspectives on America’s global involvement.”

The office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it had “no direct control over the room and no involvement in the scheduling process.”

Cheney at AIPAC: It’s the U.S. and Israel Against All Comers

By Matthew Rothschild

March 13, 2007

TThe Bush Administration seems to believe that a belligerent United States and an intransigent Israel can take on all comers.

So it was that Dick Cheney went to AIPAC’s convention in Washington on Monday to heap praise upon this lobby, which defends every illegal act that the government of Israel commits.

This is the cozy, symbiotic relationship that AIPAC has with the Bush Administration: AIPAC wants Bush to eliminate the Iranian threat to Israel, and Bush wants AIPAC to pressure Congress so he can play out his macho fantasies worldwide.

Said Cheney: “I commend AIPAC for the fine work you do,” adding, “I bring warm regards from the President of the United States. . . . He asked me to convey to this gathering his great appreciation for your efforts.”

One of those recent efforts has been to oppose Congressional attempts to make Bush get legislative approval before he goes out and bombs Iran. This is the cozy, symbiotic relationship that AIPAC has with the Bush Administration: AIPAC wants Bush to eliminate the Iranian threat to Israel, and Bush wants AIPAC to pressure Congress so he can play out his macho fantasies worldwide.

In his talk, Cheney linked Israel and America arm in arm as the bastions of all that is good in the world.

“Progress in the cause of security and long-term peace never comes easily,” he said. “Yet the United States and Israel persevere in that cause.” This requires, he said, “moral clarity, the courage of our convictions, a willingness to act when action is necessary, and a refusal to submit to any form of intimidation, ever. These qualities are a credit to the American and the Israeli people.”

The crowd cheered. Not a surprise. AIPAC has been the chief cheerleader all along for Bush’s adventurism.

And the convention continued to cheer as Cheney talked tough on Iran and Iraq.

“If Iran’s allies [in Iraq] prevailed,” he said, “Tehran’s own designs for the Middle East would be advanced and the threat to our friends in the region would only be magnified. My friends, it is simply not consistent for anyone to demand aggressive action against the menace posed by the Iranian regime while, at the same time, acquiescing in a retreat from Iraq that would leave our worst enemies dramatically emboldened.”

So this is a new reason for continuing the bloody Iraq War.

Now we’ve got to stay in Iraq to prevent Iran from gaining power because then Iran would be a greater threat to Israel.

The irony is that people who opposed the war from the start, from Noam Chomsky to Brent Scowcroft, warned that it would only strengthen Iran.

Cheney must have known this, too. But he probably thought, if that happens we’ll just go on to Tehran.

Which would only make AIPAC all the happier.

Index on US Troops

Monday, March 12, 2007

by Sarah Meyer

Photo AFP / David Hurst
US Army soldiers from the 1-68 BCT receive instructions

1. According to Rumsfeld
2. Warning Signs
3. The ‘Surge’
4. Blowback
5. Walter Reed Disaster
6. Scrambling
7. One Day in Iraq
8. Surge II
9. Nero Fiddles
10. What, Exactly, Are We Here For?
11. Future Deaths
12. References

These selected articles focus on the plight of the US troops. The troops are sandwiched between the President Bush’s imperial fantasies and crocodile tears,control by the US Vice President, a rampantly ambitious Pentagon, corporate greed and a Congress that fails to understand the terrifying disaster in Iraq. And lies. The overall picture is of contempt by the US government towards the US troops, towards the American people - and, by extension, to the world.

1. According to Rumsfeld

US to reduce troop numbers in Iraq
23.12.05. ABC. Mr Rumsfeld said the reduction would take place by spring next year, taking the numbers of soldiers to the below the 138,000 that were in Iraq prior to the country's elections last week.

US in quiet U -turn on Iraq troop numbers
28.07.06. Luce / Daniel, FT.com. "The US administration has quietly reversed its goal from whittling down troop numbers in Iraq before the mid-term congressional elections in November. A Pentagon spokesman on Friday confirmed that US troop levels in Iraq rose to 132,000 during the past week – the highest since late May – from 127,000 at the start of the week. ... The rise will prompt fears that the US is becoming increasingly bogged down in an unwinnable conflict."

2. Warning Signs

Military Personnel Wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan
20.12.04. Memory Hole.

A Soldier Speaks
04.08.05. C. De Leon, Alternet. Iraq combat veteran talks about his motivations for joining the army, the horrors of war and the anguish of returning home.

War Without End
04.06. J. Ryan, San Francisco Gate. More than 16,000 U.S. soldiers have been wounded. Each injury ripples through lives with its own pattern and force. And as two soldiers and their families are discovering, the war will be with them forever.

CNN Reports Progress in Iraq: 100 attacks per day on US troops, Double 2004, Triple 2003
06.11.05. Save the USA.

Pentagon: U.S. death toll in Iraq reaches 2,500
15.06.06. NBC.

A Broken, De-Humanized Military in Iraq
30.09.06. Dahr Jamail. “Another report released last weekend from the Veterans Health Administration found that over one third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking medical treatment are reporting symptoms of stress or other metal disorders. This is a tenfold increase in the last 18 months alone.”

The US Occupation of Iraq: Casualties Not Counted
05.10.06. Dahr Jamail, Truth Out. “Civilian contractors in Iraq, though they are paid handsomely for their time there, are easily lost in a legal no-man's-land if tragedy strikes.” The story of Tim Eysselinck’s suicide.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression in Battle-Injured Soldiers
10.06. Report, American Journal of Psychiatry.
and see accompanying story: PTSD Can Take Months to Strike Wounded Iraq and Afghanistan Vets (06.10.06. Forbes)

VA Takes Nine Months to Locate Data on Disability Claims by Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
10.10.06. National Security Archive. “Report Indicates that 1 in 4 Veterans of the Global War on Terrorism Claim Disabilities. … newly released data suggests official estimates dramatically understate the future cost of the current Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. If the current trend continues, then VA could receive as many as 400,000 disability claims from the 1.6 million deployed active duty and reserve service members in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT).”

• Compensation and Pension Benefit Activity Among Veterans Deployed to the Global War on Terrorism (PDF document)
See VBA Report 20.07.06.

Montana Guardsmen bring home hidden wounds
16.10.06. E. Newhouse, Great Falls Tribune. "Every one of my guys (patients) except one from the 163rd witnessed IEDs (improvised explosive devices)," said Keli Remus of Chinook Winds Counseling in Great Falls. "All were shot at or have shot others," he said. "All had at least heard of rapes." Meanwhile, “Television images of Americans fighting — and dying — in Iraq are traumatizing Vietnam veterans all over again. See other stories from Montana Great Falls Tribune Newspaper.

Vet Centers see escalating demand for help as troops return
18.10.06. D. Goldstein, McClatchey.

Troops With Stress Disorders Being Redeployed
19.10.06. CBS. The cases of Bryce Syverson and Jason Gunn. Video.

Mind games, part 1: The things they carry
24.10.06. N. Goldstein, Raw Story. PART I, The things they carry: Mental health disorders among returning troops

(And in the UK ... )
One dead, four lives ruined: the true cost of war in Iraq (05.11.06. A. MacMillan, Scotsman) ‘In a tragic and moving illustration of the deep crisis facing Britain's armed services, a Scotland on Sunday investigation has found that four of the six soldiers who bore the coffin of a colleague shot dead in Iraq are either quitting in disgust or are on long-term sick leave and likely to quit.’

Iraq Study Group Report: the Way Forward – A New Approach To 06.12.06.

About Face: Soldiers Call for Iraq Withdrawal
18.12.06. M. Cooper, Nation / ICH. For the first time since Vietnam, an organized, robust movement of active-duty US military personnel has publicly surfaced to oppose a war in which they are serving. Those involved plan to petition Congress to withdraw American troops from Iraq.

US soldiers' suicide rate in Iraq doubles in 2005
19.12.06. Reuters/NBC. Twenty-two U.S. soldiers in Iraq took their own lives in 2005, a rate of 19.9 per 100,000 soldiers. In 2004, the rate was 10.5 per 100,000 and in 2003, the year of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the figure was 18.8 per 100,000. The figures cover U.S. Army soldiers only. They do not include members of other U.S. military services in Iraq such as the Marine Corps.

Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds
20.12.06. Washington Post. U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health.

Iraq Vets Falling Through Health-Care Cracks
20.12.06. Forbes

Experts: Iraq vets wrongly diagnosed
24.12.06. Austin American Statesman.fairuse. Soldiers suffering from the stress of combat in Iraq are being misdiagnosed by military doctors as having a personality disorder, lawyers and psychologists say, which allows them to be quickly and honorably discharged but stigmatizes them with a label that is hard to dislodge and can hurt them financially.

US soldiers exiting UH 60 Black Hawk

Soldiers and Imperial Presidents
03.01.06. Charles Sullivan, ICH. The vast majority of those who serve in the United States military probably do so with the best of intentions and with honor. The belief that they are defending their country from foreign attackers and doing their patriotic duty as citizens is persistently reinforced. Military service is one of America’s sacred cows; it is something that is rarely questioned and is surrounded by an invisible aura of nobility. No one, especially those who serve, wants to think of their time in the military as anything less than honorable and worthy of glorification.

But the trouble with sacred cows is that they tend to preclude critical examination and often escape the scrutiny of rational thinking and moral judgments. … Anyone considering military service should deliberate upon the promises proffered by recruiters with extreme skepticism. Recruiters are trained to exalt war as the highest expression of patriotism and love of country; when, in fact, it is often the most debasing expression of our humanity that makes a shallow mockery of real service to god and country. The war resister and the conscientious objector may be the true patriot. … Marketing militarism and war to society at large is no different than selling potato chips laced with trans-fats or carcinogenic chemicals

Iraq Vets Come Home Physically, Mentally Butchered
04.01.07. Aaron Glantz, anti-war. According to documents obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, 25 percent of veterans of the "global war on terror" have filed disability compensation and pension benefit claims with the Veterans Benefits Administration. … According to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, service members with "a psychiatric disorder in remission, or whose residual symptoms do not impair duty performance" may be considered for duty downrange. It lists post-traumatic stress disorder as a "treatable" problem.

Terrified Soldiers Terrifying People
09.01.07. D. Jamail, anti-war.com. "Dr. Dyni said disturbed soldiers were behind the worst atrocities. "Most murders committed by US soldiers resulted from the soldiers' fears."

About Face: Soldiers Call for Iraq Withdrawal
18.12.06. M. Cooper, The nation / ICH.

Iraq Vets Falling Through Health-Care Cracks
20.12.06. Forbes.

Poll: US Troops lose confidence in Bush
02.01.07. Washington Times.

3. The ‘Surge’

"Surge: (OED) A high rolling swell of water, esp. on the sea; a large, heavy or violent wave … “

Rattled America will find it can't spin itself out of this one
05.01.07. Bob Ellis, The Age. GEORGE Bush will be hard put persuading three, four or five thousand American soldiers, marines and reservists who have already been there to go back to Iraq this year, to face 4 million Sunnis displeased by the Saddam hanging. Hard put too to persuade Nuri al-Maliki to stay in office, and stay alive, till they get there.

Presidents Address to the Nation
10.01.07. The New Way Forward in Iraq. Speech given on Troop Surge on national television. “America will change our strategy to help the Iraqis carry out their campaign to put down sectarian violence and bring security to the people of Baghdad. This will require increasing American force levels. So I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq.”

Pentagon Abandonning Its Limit on Total Active-Duty Time Required of Guard and Reserve
12.01.07. AP / ABC.

US Forces Order of Battle
Global Security (no date) Initial war plans for Iraq had an initial American invasion force of about 130,000 soldiers and Marines, which would drop quickly to as few as 30,000 to 50,000 by the end of 2003. … As of 01 March 2006 there were 133,000 US troops in Iraq, down from about 160,000 in December 2005. … By June 2006 the US had 14 combat brigades in Iraq, and a total of 127,000 troops. … According to a 25 June 2006 report in the New York Times, a draft plan calls for significant reductions in the American military presence in Iraq by the end of 2007. … There were about 152,000 US troops in Iraq as of early October 2005. As of mid-November 2006, there were approximately 152,000 US troops deployed to Iraq. … On January 11, 2007, the Department of Defense announced, as part of President Bush's new strategy for Iraq, the following force adjustments which would result building the capacity available to commanders to 20 brigade or regimental combat teams.

Steve Bell, Guardian (11.01.07)

At Fort Benning, a Quiet Response to a Presidential Visit
11.01.07. AP/Washington Post. 'To ensure that there would be no discordant notes here, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, the base commander, prohibited the 300 soldiers who had lunch with the president from talking with reporters.’

What the surge means
12.01.07. Boston Globe. Interview with (retired) Brig Gen. K. Ryan

Video.
Sacrifice. Keith Oberman. The “new” Bush policy of ‘sacrifice,’ is the work of neo-conservatives Jack Keane and Frederic W. Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute – another Israeli lobby. An American senator called the plan “Alice in Wonderland,” according to an article by Paul Craig Roberts in Counterpunch.


Symbolically, Baghdad plunges into darkness (10.01.07. Ali al-Mawsawi, Azzaman, uruk) “There is no electricity in Baghdad and the city of nearly 6 million people spends its nights in total darkness. … Nearly four years after the U.S. invasion, the country still has less electricity than under the former leader Saddam Hussein who was executed last month. It is not only Baghdad that is plunged into darkness. The national grid is so rickety that no province in the country now enjoys non-interrupted supplies.”

4. Blowback

Iraq war vets take their opposition to escalation to the airwaves
Wavy.com.

AN APPEAL FOR REDRESS
1341 Active Duty, Reserve, and Guard personnel have now signed the appeal! Many active duty, reserve, and guard service members are concerned about the war in Iraq and support the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Appeal for Redress provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to their Congressional Representative and US Senators to urge an end to the U.S. military occupation. The first Appeal signatures messages will be were delivered to members of Congress on January 16, to coincide with at the time of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January 2007. The wording of the Appeal for Redress is short and simple. It is patriotic and respectful in tone. As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq . Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.

Iraq vets' suicide rate soars. Video and Report. (15.01.07. Channel 4 news report)

Johnny Got His Gun
15.01.07. William Blum, Counterpunch. A report on how US govn. uses soldiers as Death Fodder.

The True Face Of This Administration Fully Revealed
16.01.07. Daily Kos. in the middle of the NYT article headed "Pressure Builds Over Plan for Troop Increase" is the following report … The article quoted a comment by a senior administration official that was outrageous. So appalling was it, and so revealing about the mindset behind the White House political tactics, that I cannot imagine in any other democracy that the person who made this statement would not immediately be told to resign from his non-elected high office of influence.

Bush Vs. War Powers Act
17.01.07. C. Nelson, Oh My News. ‘War Powers Act .. is very precise in the conditions it sets out for military deployments. Section 5 (b) puts a time limit of no longer than 90 days for the use of United States Armed Forces in a foreign nation without a declaration of war or a joint resolution of Congress otherwise authorizing the use of force.

"On the question as to who has ultimate say so, Section 5(c) of the War Power Resolution makes this crystal clear, stating, "Notwithstanding subsection (b), at any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution." In other words, Congress can mandate the removal of troops at anytime, if there has not been a formal declaration of war. The required formal resolution to allow the use of Armed Forces to into Iraq was Public Law 107-243, passed by the 107th Congress on Oct. 16, 2002. The resolution accused Iraq of harboring people responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Congress also concluded that "Iraq's continuing weapons of mass destruction programs threatened vital United States interests and international peace and security," and declared Iraq to be in "material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations" and urged the President “to take appropriate action, in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws of the United States, to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations."

In short, the authorization of force was based on the Weapons of Mass destruction theory, which was proven to be a lie based on old intelligence and Iraqi defectors. …

Once the justification for the Iraq resolution was found to be inaccurate and unsubstantiated, a new resolution for the immediate removal of our troops should have been issued by Congress, and a congressional hearing and investigation for gross misconduct and even possible criminal charges against Rumsfeld, Powell, Cheney and Bush himself should have been started.

The framers of the Constitution made clear that the United States Congress has the ultimate say so, and the War Powers Act merely reinforces that authority."

June 2006 Photo : Time
Double amputee Sgt. Christian Bagge prepares to jog with President Bush

A Grim Milestone: 500 Amputees
18.01.07. Time.com. The giant transport planes unload their sad cargo at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, the first stop home for the most seriously injured Americans of the Iraq war. Arriving virtually every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday nights for the past four years, the parade of wounded warriors may be one of the most predictable events in an otherwise unruly conflict.

Sick, Literally, of Fighting in Iraq
Aaron Glanz. ‘I don't know what happened to him in Iraq, but he came home very distressed," Tileston told Inter Press Service (IPS) from her home in Stanford, Kentucky. Tileston said her son had scars on the back of his head that he refused to talk about. When he was supposed to return to nearby Fort Campbell on Jan. 31 for a second tour in Iraq, he disappeared.’

Iraq Vets Come Home Physically, Mentally Butchered
Aaron Glanz. “New guidelines released by the Pentagon released last month allow commanders to redeploy soldiers suffering from traumatic stress disorders. According to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, servicemembers with "a psychiatric disorder in remission, or whose residual symptoms do not impair duty performance" may be considered for duty downrange. It lists post-traumatic stress disorder as a "treatable" problem.

Tomgram: Adam Hochschild, Over the Top in Iraq
21.01.07. Hochschild, Tomgram. The longer the war in Iraq goes on, and the more American troops are planted by Big Pushes in a highly combustible part of the world, the more we will continue to stoke a widespread humiliation and anger whose consequences are already guaranteed to haunt us for decades to come.

The first batch of US troops to Baghdad arrives
22.01.07. KBC

Soldiers Against Iraq Desert To Canada
25.01.07. CBS News

Head of Iraqi army: U.S. troops will be able to withdraw by 2008
26.01.07. IHT. ‘MOST” Troops, he said.

Warrior's Walk

‘Warriors Walk’ out of room
26.01.07. ASP / Army Times.

Unstable Gulf war veteran killed family
30.01.07. M. Wainwright, Guardian. UK horror.

Young Marine Dies of PTSD – and neglect
31.01.07. Bob Geiger, Alternet. ‘He died of wounds received during his seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, wounds different from the ones that earned Schulze two purple hearts. This young man died of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, of wounds to the soul and not the flesh. He died because the government that was there to send him far away to fight in 2004 wasn't there for him when he got home.’ Sere also comments.

Judge: Doctor Can't Treat Terrorists
31.01.07. AP / Guardian. Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir, an Ivy League-educated doctor, had argued it was unconstitutional to prosecute a doctor for providing medical services.

He was arrested in May 2005 at his home in Boca Raton, Fla., accused in a plot to assist terrorist organizations along with a New York jazz musician, a Brooklyn bookstore owner and a former Washington, D.C., cabdriver.

SENATOR ASKS VA TO EXPLAIN MARINE SUICIDE
01.02.07. Air Force Times.

Care for U.S. veterans could cost $662 bln: study
02.02.07. Reuters / Boston.com. Medical costs for U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could range from $350 billion to $662 billion over the next 40 years, as soldiers survive injuries that would have killed them in past conflicts, according to a Harvard University study.

Cost of troop surge already higher
01.02.07. McClatctchy. President Bush's dispatch of 21,500 more troops to Iraq will cost as much as $10 billion this year, triple the administration's price tag, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday. A CBO report requested by three House committee chairmen said the Bush administration's estimated cost of $3.2 billion doesn't take into account a complement of 15,000 to 28,000 support troops and other personnel, which it said will boost the cost significantly. … The troop increase will cost an extra $7 billion to $10 billion this year alone, with the price tag reaching $49 billion if the added forces remain in Iraq for two years, according to the CBO analysis.

Army division orders departing soldiers to stay put
01.02.07. Savannah now.

US troops will stay in Iraq, and the war will get worse
01.02.07. Harriman, Guardian. Bush and Baker agree that the country is much too important to American interests (oil?) to be left to its own devices

Surge could actually total 50,000
02.02.07. Army Times.

More IRR marines face involuntary call up
02.02.07. Marine Corps Times.

US Reconfigures the way casualty totals are given
02.02.07. DENISE GRADY, NY Times.

Soldiers in Iraq view troop surge as a lost cause
03.02.07. T. LASSSETER, MCCLATCHY/Common Dreams.

Bush: Military Commitment In Iraq Not Open-Ended
03.02.07. CBS.

Troops return to painful wait for needed help
05.02.07. Weaver / McGovern, ICH Blog. The California Nurses Association reported that in the first quarter of 2006, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs "treated 20,638 Iraq veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder, and they have a backlog of 400,000 cases." A returning soldier has to wait an average of 165 days for a VA decision on initial disability benefits, and an appeal can take up to three years.

Cost of troop buildup not in budget
06.02.07. Peter Spiegel, LA Times.

Why I fled George Bush's war
07.02.07. J. Key, Macleans. What happened to make a patriotic, gung-ho soldier desert the U.S. army, and turn against the war in Iraq. EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT

Boston Globe

Told to wait, a Marine dies
11.02.07. Boston.Globe. VA care in spotlight

VA comes up short for Iraq vets
11.02.07. McClatchy / Seattle Times. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is facing a wave of returning veterans such as Bowman who are struggling with memories of a war where it's hard to distinguish innocent civilians from enemy fighters and where the threat of suicide attacks and roadside bombs haunts the most routine mission. Since 2001, about 1.4 million Americans have served in Iraq, Afghanistan or other locations in the war on terror.
The VA counts post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as the most prevalent mental-health malady to emerge from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The story itemises the failures of the Dept of Vet Affairs in helping returning soldiers

Waivers to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds double from 2003 to 2006
13.02.07. Raw Story / Global Research. ‘In Wednesday's New York Times, Lizette Alvarez notes that "the number of waivers the military granted to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds has nearly doubled in the past three years, jumping to more than 8,000 in 2006 from about 4,900 in 2003, Department of Defense records show."

U.S. to pay long-term price of war wounds Estimate pegs costs at $350 billion
14.02.07. Dogen Hannah, MEDIANEWS STAFF.

41% Percent of Your (US) 2006 Taxes Go to War
15.02.07. Friends Committee on National Legislation

US Ill-Equipped to Deal With Wave of Troubled Vets
15.02.07. Aaron Glantz.

The Forgotten Families
16.02.07. D. St. George, Washington Post. Grandparents Raising Slain Soldiers' Children Are Denied A Government Benefit Intended to Sustain the Bereaved.

Pentagon Red Tape Keeps Medical Records From Doctors of the Wounded
16.02.07. Washington Post. Department of Veterans Affairs doctors are furious over a recent decision by the Pentagon to block their access to medical information needed to treat severely injured troops arriving at VA hospitals from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The VA physicians handle troops with serious brain injuries and other major health problems. They, rely on digital medical records that track the care given wounded troops from the moment of their arrival at a field hospital through their evacuation to the United States.

US Army to send unit to Iraq 3 months early
16.02.07. alertnet. Iraq Troop Boost Erodes Readiness, General Says.

Iraq Troop Boost Erodes Readiness, General Says
16.02.07. A. Scott Tyson, Washington Post. 'Outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker said yesterday that the increase of 17,500 Army combat troops in Iraq represents only the "tip of the iceberg" and will potentially require thousands of additional support troops and trainers, as well as equipment - further eroding the Army's readiness to respond to other world contingencies.

Wounded and Waiting
17.02.07. K. Kennedy, Marine Times. A slow medical evaluation leaves many injured troops in limbo.

Long Iraq Tours Can Make Home a Trying Front
23.02.07. L. Alvarez, New York Times.

Battle Worn
25.02.07. P. Span, Washington Post. After he was injured in Iraq, Richard Twohig found himself fighting an unexpected foe: the U.S. Army.

IG Report
IG finds 87 problems with medical retirement
26.02.07. Army Times.

Critics: Army holding down disability ratings
27.02.07. Army Times.

Report: Mental health system overwhelmed
27.02.07. Army Times. 40% of Army, Navy psych jobs vacant.

In Iraq, a head wound isn't always a trip home
27.02.07. MSNBC. Military personnel with brain injuries pressured to return quickly to duty

How the war on terror made the world a more terrifying place
28.02.07. Sengupta / Cockburn, Independent / ICH. 'An authoritative US study of terrorist attacks after the invasion in 2003 contradicts the repeated denials of George Bush and Tony Blair that the war is not to blame for an upsurge in fundamentalist violence worldwide. The research is said to be the first to attempt to measure the "Iraq effect" on global terrorism. It found that the number killed in jihadist attacks around the world has risen dramatically since the Iraq war began in March 2003.'

5. Walter Reed Disaster

Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility
18.02.07. D. Priest / A. Hull, Washington Post.

This Is No Way to Treat a Wounded Warrior
24.02.07. A. McFeeters, Boston Herald / Truth Out. Walter Reed Hospital's flaws are indefensible. A day at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is an eye-opener - about our soldiers, our government generally and the Bush administration. . I visited the renowned hospital after The , ashington Post exposed serious problems at the center, where as many as one-fourth of our injured soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan are treated.

Administrative Issues Cited at Walter Reed
25.02.07. S. Vogel, Washington Post. Report From Long-Running Army Probe Notes Problems; Official Orders Fixes.

A Firsthand Report on the Wounds of War
27.02.07. H. Kurtz, Washington Post. Bob Woodruff Indicts Military For Its Response to Veteran.

Walter Reed patients told to keep quiet
28.02.07. Army Times/democratic underground

Military press Crackdown Extends Further Than Walter Reed
28.02.07. Editor and Publisher.


Supporting the Troops: "Shut Up and Suffer"
28.02.07. Chris Floyd, uruknet. 'Because some soldiers were ballsy enough to tell the press about the callous way the Bush gang treats the cannon fodder it sends off to die, kill, maim and be maimed in a useless, pointless, illegal, corrupt, immoral, murderous, mismanaged war, now all the soldiers in Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit are being subjected to a punishment regimen – and banished to an area where they will be inaccessible to the press.'

Troops Defy Orders To Shut Up
28.02.07. Thomas Barton, GI Special 5B28.

Top officials knew of neglect at Walter Reed
01.03.07. MSNBC. Complaints about medical center were voiced for years.

Army denies patients face daily inspections
01.03.07. Army Times/Democratic Underground

US army hospital chief removed from post
02.03.07. New Zealand Herald. r General George Weightman, head of the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, was informed that Army leaders had lost confidence "in his abilities to address needed solutions for soldier outpatient care," an Army statement said.

Notes on our 'family and friends' wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
01.03.07. Kentucky Courier Journal. Hundreds of soldiers maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan are experiencing average stays of 10 months at Walter Reed, but some have been there for as long as two years. They're all struggling to recover from brain

ARMY CASUALTY PROGRAM
02.03.07. Secrecy News. The somber duties associated with official reporting of U.S. Army casualties, including notification of survivors, are spelled out in exhaustive detail in a new Army regulation. See Army Casualty Program,"Army Regulation AR 600-8-1 (February 28, 2007)

Switch to private maintenance company may have left Walter Reed Army Medical Center understaffed
11.03.07. Washington Post /amny. The scandal over dilapidated housing for outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center has focused attention on the decision to replace Army employees who maintained the hospital with a contractor connected to the Bush administration and to a Halliburton subsidiary. ... Some Democratic lawmakers have questioned hiring IAP Worldwide Services, which won a $120-million contract last year to maintain and operate Walter Reed facilities.

VA ordering review of 1,400 clinics after Walter Reed controversy
12.03.07. H. Yen, AP . boston com. 'Meanwhile, a new Army inspector general's report released Monday blamed poor training and conflicting policies among the Army and the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments for problems in how injured soldiers are evaluated for their return to military service or retirement.'

Photo Eric Gray
Seargant F. Fields and Staff Sgt. B. Alexander at Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas (01.03.07)

And in the UK?
Scandal of treatment for wounded Iraq veterans
11.03.07. N. Temko / M. Townsend, 11.03.07. Observer. · Soldiers 'denied proper hospital care' · Letters reveal anguish of families See also: The fresh agonies of our returning soldiers (Observer 11.03.07). Following, there was anger of the maimed Iraq heroes forced to pay for medical care

UPDATE:
3rd Official Out in Walter Reed Scandal
13.03.07. NBC. Army surgeon general Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, who is under fire in the controversy over care of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, will resign.

UPDATE
Where Walter Reed Looks Pretty Good
13.03.07. Tom Paine. But I’d like to point out that there are thousands of casualties of the Iraq War who would be grateful to be in Building 18 and receiving even second-rate medical care. Those are Iraqi civilians—the collateral damage of a vengeful, brainless military venture. These are people who didn’t volunteer to invade another country, and who have had no way to avoid the consequences of war. . While 90 percent of American battlefield casualties are being saved by a combination of organization and the very best trauma equipment and training, local Iraqis have no such advantage. Iraqi civilians are not in constant contact with helicopter-borne medical teams, field hospitals and a chain of treatment, airlifts and follow-up care.

6. Scrambling The Surge

Mercenaries to fill Iraq troop gap
24.02.07. B. Brady, Scotsman.

Rice Says Bush Won't Abide By Legislation To Limit Iraq War
25.02.07. kotv.

Two Army Units Will Forgo Desert Training
27.02.07. R. Burns, AP / Truth Out. 'Rushed by President Bush's decision to reinforce Baghdad with thousands more U.S. troops, two Army combat brigades are skipping their usual session at the Army's premier training range in California and instead are making final preparations at their home bases.

Military chiefs give US six months to win Iraq war
28.02.07. S. Tisdall, The Guardian. Violence expected to rise after UK withdrawal · Troop numbers too low · Coalition is 'disintegrating'

Snow: Troops 'rushed' to Iraq due to Bush 'surge' can get their desert training 'in theater'
28.02.07. Ron Brynaert, Raw Story. Earlier today, AP military writer Robert Burns reported that "[r]ushed by President Bush's decision to reinforce Baghdad with thousands more U.S. troops, two Army combat brigades are skipping their usual session at the Army's premier training range in California and instead are making final preparations at their home bases."

U.S. builds Baghdad garrisons to fight violence
05.03.07. Reuters / Sign On San Diego. Petraeus brainstorm. Troops are being moved from ‘sprawling bases’ (sic) to small outposts. More than a dozen have opened. ( Brill. And all that money given to Halliburton, KBR, Parsons ad nauseum for ZILCH?). Barry Lando picks up on this irony in his article, Total Withdrawal, Who Are You Kidding?

7. One Day in Iraq: March 6 2007

Attacks kill 112 Shi'ite pilgrims in Iraq 06.03.07. Habib al Zubaidi, Reuters Factbox: Security developments in Iraq, March 6 06.03.07. Another 73 killed as U.S. occupation grinds on: total of 25 bodies were found shot dead on Monday in different districts of Baghdad, police said. Mosul: Car bombs killing 5, wounding 18. … the story goes mercilessly on … Fear for Iraq crackdown as 12 U.S. soldiers die 06.03.07. Daily Mail. Afghan children die as US drops one-tonne bombs 06.03.07. J. Huggler, Independent. Nine civilians, including four children, were killed in Afghanistan when US planes dropped two 2,000lb bombs on their mud home. Their deaths came after at least eight civilians were killed by US Marines a day earlier. It has been a disastrous two days for the Americans in Afghanistan. Marines trying to get to safety after being ambushed by a suicide bomber sprayed gunfire wildly across one of the busiest roads in the country, killing passers-by. 9 GIs Killed By Roadside Bombs In Iraq 06.03.07. CBS. Elsewhere: 30 Bodies Found Around Baghdad; 38 Dead In Book Market Blast; Dozens Of Shiite Pilgrims Bush says gradual progress in Iraq despite violence 06.03.07. R. Cowen, Reuters/Washington Post.

8. ‘Surge’ II?

'Surge' needs up to 7,000 more troops
02.03.07. USA Today/ICH.

Shortages Threaten Guard's Capability
02.03.07. A.S. Tyson, Washington Post. 88 Percent of Units Rated 'Not Ready'

The Last Hot-Button Issue for the Bush Administration
06.03.07. Tom Engelhardt. Hostages to Policy.Tom Engelhardt writes: ‘According to a congressional staffer quoted in human-rights lawyer Scott Horton's No Comment newsletter, "This is Hurricane Katrina all over again. Grossly incompetent management and sweetheart contracts given to contractors with tight GOP connections. There will be enough blame to go around, but the core of the problem is increasingly clear: it's political appointees near the center of power in the Pentagon who have spun the system for partisan and personal benefit. But they'll make a brigade of soldiers and officers walk the plank to try to throw us off the scent."

Vermont: 36 towns call for impeachment probe of president
06.03.07. Vermont Guardian.

Pentagon will likely shift funds to pay for more troops
06.03.07. McClatchy / antiwar.com

When a Leader Missteps, a World Can Go Astray
06.03.07. Michiko Kakytani, NY Times / ICH. Mr. Brzezinski’s verdict on the current president’s record — “catastrophic,” he calls it — is nothing short of devastating. And his overall assessment of America’s current plight is worrying as well: - Fifteen years after its coronation as global leader, America is becoming a fearful and lonely democracy in a politically antagonistic world.”

Pentagon raises estimate of troops for Iraq
07.03.07. Reuters/smh.

At least 110 pilgrims die in suicide attacks as US admits extra 7,000 troops may go to Iraq
07.03.07. I. Black, Guardian. · Army says more soldiers needed for Baghdad surge · Latest assault echoes attack on Samarra shrine

Paul Craig Roberts asks: How Much More Harm Can Bush Do? (07.03.07, anti-war.com)

Buildup in Iraq Needed Into ’08, U.S. General Says
08.03.07. D. Cloud, NY Times / antiwar.com

Beyond Quagmire
09.03.07. T. Dickenson, Rolling Stone / ICH. A panel of experts convened by Rolling Stone agree that the war in Iraq is lost. The only question now is: How bad will the coming explosion be? "The war in Iraq isn't over yet, but -- surge or no surge -- the United States has already lost. That's the grim consensus of a panel of experts assembled by Rolling Stone to assess the future of Iraq. "Even if we had a million men to go in, it's too late now," says retired four-star Gen. Tony McPeak, who served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War. "Humpty Dumpty can't be put back together again."

Bush sends new Iraq budget request to US Congress
10.03.07. Reuters / Washington Post. It will cost about $3 billion to send extra U.S. troops to Iraq in support of the 21,500 already being deployed under President George W. Bush's reworked war strategy, the White House said on Saturday.

Pentagon Struggles to Find Fresh Troops
10.03.07. L. Baldor, AP . Huffington Post.

Bush: 8,200 More Troops Needed for Wars
11.03.07. D. Riechmann, AP /Guardian. President Bush asked Congress on Saturday for $3.2 billion to pay for 8,200 more U.S. troops needed in Afghanistan and Iraq on top of the 21,500-troop buildup he announced in January

Video
09.02.07. Channel 4 - News - On patrol with the 'surge'

The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq
11.03.07. M. Benjamin, Salon.com. At Fort Benning, soldiers who were classified as medically unfit to fight are now being sent to war. Is this an isolated event or ia trend?

Bush asks Congress for even more Iraq troops
12.03.07. E. MacAskill, Guardian. President George Bush has asked Congress for an extra 8,000 troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, on top of the 21,500 reinforcements announced two months ago.

Netanyahu: Attack on Iran 'last resort'
12.03.07. Jerusalem Post. At an AIPAC speech, Cheney said that failure in Iraq would endanger Israel. .. Cheney warned of "chaos and mounting danger," as well as a strengthened Iran and emboldened terrorists - in the case of an early American withdrawal from Iraq.

Fallback strategy for Iraq: Train locals, draw down forces
12.03.07. Barnes / Spiegal, LA Times. From legitgov newsletter : 'If the current 'surge' fails, planners suggest relying on 'advisors' [death squads] as the U.S. did in El Salvador in the 1980s. By Julian E. Barnes and Peter Spiegel 12 Mar 2007 American military planners have begun plotting a fallback strategy for Iraq in case the current troop buildup fails or is derailed by Congress. Such a strategy is based in part on the U.S. experience in El Salvador in the 1980s [...], according to military officials and Pentagon consultants who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing future plans. Years after, the U.S. role in El Salvador remains controversial. Some academics have argued that the U.S. military turned a blind eye to government-backed death squads, or even aided them.' Now see Time magazine story, The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq and researched articles on such 'teams' at The BRussels Tribunal

A Quarter of US War Vets Diagnosed With Mental Disorder: Study
12.03.07. Agence France / Truth Out. Has Anyone Done a Study on the Mental Disorder in the White House and US government - and perhaps On The Hill as well?

9. Nero Fiddles

Bush Suffers First Iraq Defeat in Congress
17.02.07. J. Lobe, anti-war. 'In a significant defeat for President George W. Bush, the House of Representatives Friday voted 246 to 182 to "disapprove" his plan to add an estimated 30,000 U.S. troops to the 140,000 marines and soldiers already deployed in Iraq. Seventeen Republicans voted with the majority Democrats to approve the nonbinding resolution.

Baghdad on the Potomac?
20.02.07. Townhall. 'Both houses of Congress have now gone on record opposing Bush's dispatch of 21,500 more troops to Iraq. Yet neither house is willing to end U.S. involvement by cutting off funding for the war.'

Contempt (Oxford English Dictionary): ‘The action of despising; the mential action in which a thing is of little account, or as vile and worthless; dishonour, disgrace. Object of contempt: disobedience or open disrespect to the authority or lawful commands of the sovereign, the priviledges of (the) legislative body; and especially action of any kind that interferes with the proper administration of justice by the various courts of law.

V.P Dick Cheney

Does Cheney ‘Validate’ al-Qaeda?
01.03.07. Consortium. Vice President Dick Cheney says he stands by his accusation that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq would “validate the al-Qaeda strategy.” And he apparently thinks he got the better of this latest war of words. Cheney has another undemocratic rant whilst speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Here is an example of US/Cheney 'take' on patriotism: "Anyone can say they support the troops and we should take them at their word, but the proof will come when it's time to provide the money."

Waxman to Force Walter Reed Ex-Chief to Talk About problems
02.03.07. Rood / Schechter, ABC/LEGITGOV. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Henry Waxman, D-Calif., wants to ask Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman about a contract to manage the medical center awarded to a company that had documented troubles fulfilling a government contract to deliver ice to victims of Hurricane Katrina. According to a letter from Waxman to Weightman posted today on the committee's Web site, the chairman believes the Walter Reed contract may have pushed dozens of health care workers to leave jobs at the troubled medical center, which he says in turn threatened the quality of care for hundreds of military personnel receiving treatment there. In the letter, Waxman charged that the Army used an unusual process to award a five-year, $120 million contract to manage the center to a company owned by a former executive of Halliburton.

Democrats Alter Plan To Restrict Iraq War
06.03.07. J. Weisman, Washington Post / ICH. Senior House Democrats, seeking to placate members of their party from Republican-leaning districts, are pushing a plan that would place restrictions on President Bush's ability to wage the war in Iraq but would allow him to waive them if he publicly justifies his position.

Democrats demand troops out of Iraq by 2008
08.03.07. MacAskill / Borger, Guardian. · Bold new strategy would veto war funding · Bush faces dilemma over withdrawal timetable

Iraq: Pulled Out Or Pushed Out
09.03.07. R. Dreyfuss, Tome Paine. Two parliaments, half a world away from each other, struggled with calls to end the war in Iraq yesterday. In Washington, Democrats in the U.S. Congress ended weeks of squabbling to settle on the outlines of a legislative plan to end the war no later than August, 2008, and perhaps sooner. Meanwhile, in Baghdad, a new constellation of political parties is beginning to take shape in the Iraqi parliament, united around the idea of asking U.S. forces to leave Iraq as soon as possible. Tremendous obstacles stand in the way of pro-peace forces both in Congress and in Iraq’s parliament, but if I had to guess, I’d bet that the Iraqis will ask the United States to get out of Iraq long before Congress can force the issue.

Pelosi Cautions Bush Not to Veto an Iraq Bill
11.03.07. C. Hulse, NY Times.

10. What, Exactly, Are We Dying For?

Further Contempt?

Life Distilled
"The Defense Department made the photos public with few dates or locations and little context, making it unclear whether the individuals in any of the hundreds of pictures died in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere. The faces of soldiers accompanying the coffins were blacked out."

Return of the Fallen
28.04.05. National Security Archive. PENTAGON RELEASES HUNDREDS MORE WAR CASUALTY HOMECOMING IMAGES. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT FORCES OPENING OF 360 NEW PHOTOS

What, Exactly, Are We Dying For?
26.10.06. Ronn Cantu, IVAW. ‘I think it was after my first firefight in Iraq, I've forgotten the exact time and date but it was after midnight one day in April 2004, that I first asked myself, “What, exactly, did we almost die for?” It seemed to me at the time that there was never a plan. What was our mission exactly? What was our goal? What, exactly, were we there to accomplish? Why were soldiers dying?’

Pentagon alters how wounded are calculated
02.02.07. D. Grady, NY Times/ICH. Statistics on a Pentagon Web site have been reorganized in a way that lowers the published totals of American nonfatal casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An Open Letter to America's Soldiers from the Ranks The Looming Shadow of Nuremberg
07.02.07. TONY SWINDELL, Counterpunch. Crimes Listed by the Nuremberg Standard of 1947: a war of aggression, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for its accomplishment; murder or ill-treatment of civilian populations in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war; plunder of public or private property; wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity; c! rimes against humanity such as murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war. Abu Ghraib, Haditha, Fallujah, the rape of Lebanon, the concentration camps in the West Bank and Gaza, clandestine prisons, the Iraq embargo of the 1990s, Halliburton, and Black Water. There are more, but these will suffice to compare against the Nuremberg Standard. It will not be a difficult task. For example, start with Halliburton and the plunder of public (American taxpayers') property.

Pentagon Lies with Stats
10.02.07. Boston Herald, Editorial. Archive. 'The Pentagon is playing a shameful numbers game and this week in Washington Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) blew the whistle on it. . One set of “official” numbers for troops wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq lists the figure at about 23,000. But the actual number of those injured in those two theaters of operation is more than double that - around 53,000.' For NY Times Abstract, see here

Number of US troops killed in Iraq breaks record
11.02.07. The Int. News. ‘More US troops were killed in combat in Iraq over the past four months, at least 334 through Jan 31, than in any comparable stretch since the war began, according to an Associated Press analysis of casualty records. Not since the bloody battle for Fallujah in 2004 has the death toll spiked so high. It is not possible to fully track the trend in bomb-caused deaths by month. The US military considers such information secret because it is considered potentially useful to the insurgents and their backers.… Now, under a new approach announced by Bush on Jan 10, US troops will be paired up with Iraqi brigades in each of nine districts across Baghdad, rather than operating mainly from large US bases.’ some further interesting details given.

U.S. deaths in Afghanistan, region
21.02.07. AP / Boston. As of Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007, at least 305 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. TheDefense Department last updated its figures Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007. . Of those, the military reports 193 were killed by hostile action.

Unacceptable death toll in Iraq, say Americans
28.02.07. Angus Reid. 77% of respondents believe the number of U.S. military casualties and Iraqi civilian casualties has been unacceptable.

US commanders admit: we face a Vietnam-style collapse
01.03.07. Simon Tisdall, Guardian/uruk.net. Elite officers in Iraq fear low morale, lack of troops and loss of political will.

The Mother of an Iraq War Vet Responds
01.03.07. T. Richards, Counterpunch. Demoralizing the troops.
Those were the words that inspired me to challenge Orin Hatch (R-UT) in the Senate hearing a few weeks ago. Those were the words that echoed so loudly in my mind I couldn't, no, I wouldn't stay silent.

Operation Iraq Freedom US Casualty Status (02.03.07)

Malaise from Iraq spreads
03.03.07. FT.

From Serving in Iraq To Living on the Streets
05.03.07. C. Davenport, Washington Post. Homeless Vet Numbers Expected to Grow.

How Many More Americans Must Die?
06.03.07. D. Thompson, Capitol Hill Blue/ VAIW. Nine more U.S. soldiers died in Iraq today: Nine too many in a war that should never have been launched by a President who lied with the approval of a Congress that failed to do its due diligence because both Democrats and Republicans abandoned their oath to the Constitution of the United States.

REPORT: 72 Percent Of Army Brigades Have Served Multiple Tours of Duty
07.03.07. Think Progress.

Not Found
"The requested URL /4 n/US Military Deaths in Iraq at 3,168 Soldiers Killed Directly, But 3,968 When Adding Pentagon Contractors.htm was not found on this server."

Number of US troops killed in Iraq breaks record
09.03.07. The Int. News. ‘More US troops were killed in combat in Iraq over the past four months, at least 334 through Jan 31, than in any comparable stretch since the war began, according to an Associated Press analysis of casualty records. Not since the bloody battle for Fallujah in 2004 has the death toll spiked so high. It is not possible to fully track the trend in bomb-caused deaths by month. The US military considers such information secret because it is considered potentially useful to the insurgents and their backers.… Now, under a new approach announced by Bush on Jan 10, US troops will be paired up with Iraqi brigades in each of nine districts across Baghdad, rather than operating mainly from large US bases.’ some further interesting details given.

Iraq: The Hidden Cost of The War
09.03.07. New Statesman / ICHblog. America won't simply be paying with its dead. The Pentagon is trying to silence economists who predict that several decades of care for the wounded will amount to an unbelievable $2.5 trillion.

Lift the Curtain
10.03.07. B. Herbert, NYTimes / ICH. Neglect, incompetence, indifference, lies. Why in the world is anyone surprised that the Bush administration has not been taking good care of wounded and disabled American troops?

Volunteer Soldiers Devastated by iraq Weren't 'Asking For It'
10.03.07. S. Bannerman, Alternet. "They volunteered, didn't they?" is a common sneering response to the stories about National Guardsmen whose lives were destroyed by Iraq -- the truth is that going to war is not what they signed up for.

How the US is Courting Disaster in Iraq
10.03.07. P. Bidwai, Khalee Taimes. THE United States’ political-military failure in Iraq will have terrible consequences for the entire world. And the US seems to be failing-badly. . While its occupation forces continue their anti-insurgent offensive, Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki’s government appears shaky. Its collapse will signify the US’s greatest political failure in Iraq. This could happen if Al Maliki yields to US pressure to end his dependence on Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr. . The recent raid by coalition troops on the interior Ministry’s intelligence headquarters has further embarrassed the embattled Prime Minister. Their "security sweep" in Baghdad and Anbar province has had extremely limited success.

41% Percent of Your 2006 Taxes Go to War

11. Future Deaths: Radiation & DU

Iraqi children born deformed

DU Death Toll Tops 11,000
29.10.06. James Tucker, American Free Press. Nationwide Media Blackout Keeps U.S. Public Ignorant About This Important Story. The death toll from the highly toxic weapons component known as depleted uranium (DU) has reached 11,000 soldiers.

Depleted Uranium Haunts Kosovo and Iraq
05.11.06. Scott Peterson, Global Research.

Is Depleted Uranium the suspect behind Military Suicides?
19.11.06. G. Mitchell, uruknet. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become an epidemic amongst soldiers/sailors serving and veterans who have returned from the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reasons are being depicted as purely psychological, but this seems to be very misleading.

Army made video warning about dangers of depleted uranium but never showed it to troops
06.02.07. David Edwards, Raw Story.

IRAQ WAR LIES AND MENDACIOUS JOURNALISTS
(UNSIGNED, 14.02.07. Free Market News. Here is an ignorant and irresponsible article by the 'right-wing' press.

Depleted Uranium: Pernicious Killer Keeps on Killing
19.02.07. Craig Etchison, Truth Out. Discusses The Questions; What is DU and why is it a problem; Assessing the effects of DU; International Condemnation; Why Ignore the Evidence?. Following are 2 paragraphs from The Conclusions: 'I suspect the military-industrial complex will stonewall admitting the effects of DU for as long as possible to avoid accepting responsibility, not to mention liability, for their reckless actions. When John Hanchette, a founding editor of USA Today tried to publish stories about DU, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him to desist. He was later replaced at USA Today. The World Health Organization's chief expert on radiation and health had his report on DU suppressed. Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then a colonel in the U.S. Army, was asked to lie about the risks of DU to humans. So the stonewalling will continue, even as cancers rage among our soldiers and Iraqi civilians, even as our soldiers die, or commit suicide to escape the horrific pain, even as birth defects proliferate across Iraq and among our veterans.

But what of that? DU is a moneymaker for corporations like ATK. And turning DU into munitions helps the government solve a big problem-what to do with mountains of DU it must store and, by law, keep out of the environment. What better solution than giving it free to the munitions makers, who then sell the munitions back to Uncle Sam at a handsome profit? Everyone wins.

Nuclear Test Facility Avoids Penalties for Radiation Exposure
28.02.07. Daily Nexus.

See letter by Dai Williams in Camp Falcon: What Really Happened?

VIDEO POISON DUST. Poison DUst tells the story of young soldiers who thought they came home safely from the war, but didn't. Of a veteran's young daughter whose birth defect is strikingly similar to birth defects suffered by many Iraqi children. … Is there a cover-up?

Photo 1952

Livermore may lead labs in building new H-bomb
02.03.07. Inside Bay Area. First new 'replacement warhead' in 20 years to be announced today. See also article by Ralph Vartabebian

Feds Tried to Cut Aid
10.03.07. Rocky Mountain News / ICH. Federal officials secretly schemed to limit payouts for sick and dying nuclear weapons workers, including thousands from the Rocky Flats plant outside Denver, newly released documents show.

MEANWHILE

VIDEO. We Have Been Abandoned by Our Own Country. "Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. " ICH: ‘ You have to watch this video to understand, how little regard our government has for the welfare of its own citizens.’

Pack and pray. That's what they told us.'
Katrina victims evacuate FEMA park
05 Mar 2007. Time. legitgov writes: Dozens of families evacuated from a FEMA trailer park that had been plagued by sewage leaks and power outages [as in Iraq] were in temporary homes Monday, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had requested work permits to dismantle the site this week. Allsee Tobias lost his New Orleans home in Katrina's flooding and then was told to leave his Hammond trailer over the weekend. He and about 20 relatives, including 10 children, lived in four trailers, and were anxious about being split up. "Pack and pray. That's what they told us," he said. [ Lori writes: Katrina victims can 'pack and pray' while Bush's private contractors at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq can enjoy, at a budget of $923M per year, 'an ornate former Saddam Hussein palace with soaring ceilings and its own espresso bar.'

Ark. gov. 'frustrated' with tornado response
06.03.07. USA Today / legitgov. Beebe told reporters he did not understand why a federal declaration had not been made for Dumas, where a tornado wiped out dozens of homes and businesses last month.

World in Crisis; Candidates in Denial
06.03.07. S. Landau. Monkey Politics. Bush (is) spending $600 billion to prosecute his Iraq War, exceeding the amount spent on the Vietnam War. Bush says it (the prosecution of the Iraq War) is for security. He excludes national health from security, however. His proposed budget would slash almost $80 billion from Medicare and Medicaid over five years. Obviously, the long-range value of Middle East adventures outweighs health care for America's grandparents and its 50 million poor.

12. References

Aaron Glanz, How America Lost Iraq, Tarcher (Reprint), March 2006

The Deserter's Tale
Audio, ICH. US Soldier Joshua Key has told Tony Jones about his new book, which concludes that American soldiers were behaving like terrorists in the Iraq war, as a result of their training.

IRAQ WAR LIES AND MENDACIOUS JOURNALISTS
UNSIGNED, Free Market News, 14.02.07. An irresponsible and uneducated article by a person who should have had the courage to print their name.

Iraq veteran groups in the US
See left column.


PHOTOS AND ARTICLES

Armed Forces and Hadji Girl

UNSPEAKABLE GRIEF AND HORROR


VIDEOS / FILMS

How GI Resistance Altered the Course of History
03.04.06. P. Rockwell, In Motion Magazine. "Sir, No Sir," A timely film, premiers week of 4/3/2006.

Video Sir No Sir!

Video.
No Bravery. (4 min.)

Video Service members rally against the war in Iraq
15.01.07. McMicchale, Navy Times / Truth out. . Appeal for Redress.

Videos show Iraq war through troops' eyes.
20.02.06. L. Pulkkinen. Videos / urls for: may God have mercy on our soul; Kauder's video that he made for his fallen squad mate; G. Algozzini videos; iron pony express; Others. Good story.!!!

Video.
US_Soldiers_Run_an_Iraqi_Off_the_Road. It would probably be nice to check on the guy that you just caused to roll his truck. To see if he's, you know, dead or something.

Video. Support our Troops? Michael Parenti.

Video. On patrol with the ‘surge’ in Baghdad. Channel 4 News (09.02.07)

Video Women soldiers have died of dehydration to avoid late night trips to toilet. (10.03.05, Amy Goodman.

Video. The Deserter's Tale US Soldier Joshua Key has told Tony Jones about his new book, which concludes that American soldiers were behaving like terrorists in the Iraq war, as a result of their training.

Video.The Century of the Self. Part II, The Engineering of Consent


Video. Can you spell Impeachment?

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This article will also be seen at http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Meyer/UStroops.htm.

The url to Index on US Troops is: http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2007/03/index-on-us-troops.html or you can use http://tinyurl.com/23j8ea

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Other Iraq articles on Index Research:

US Bases in Iraq. Part I: Baghdad

US/UK Bases in Iraq. Part II. The South: Falcon-al-Sarq, Tallil, Shaibah

Iraqs US/UK Permanent Bases: Intentional Obfuscation

Iraq: The Occupation is the Disease

Iraq: Assassination of Academics: The Jalili Report

Prisons and Torture in Iraq

Victims of Violence

Iraq: Security Companies and Training Camps

See also:

Totalitarianism and Obedience
13.02.07. Sarah Meyer, Index Research. Updated.

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Sarah Meyer is a researcher living in the UK

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Tags: Index Research, US Troops, trauma, Walter Reed, Congress, Iraq, DU, news and politics,