| | Letter from a serviceman
| rrick
8/26/2005 12:22 AM
Report abusive post | Letter from a serviceman
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Letter from a serviceman
This is a letter written by a U.S. serviceman to Larry Northern, the man who drove over hundreds of crosses at the Camp Casey memorial called Arlington West. It comes courtesy of the website Operation Truth.
Mr. Northern:
I am a Veteran of the Iraq war, having served with the 4th Infantry Division on the initial invasion with Force Package One.
While I was in Iraq,a very good friend of mine, Christopher Cutchall,was killed in an unarmoredHMMWV outside of Baghdad. He was a cavalry scout serving with the 3d ID.Once he had declined the award of a medal because Soldiers assigned to him did not receive similar awards that he had recommended. He left two sons and awonderful wife. On Monday night, August 16, you ran down the memorial cross erected for him by Arlington West.
One of my Soldiers in Iraq was Roger Turner. We gave him a hard time because he always wore all of his protective equipment, including three pairs of glasses or goggles. He did this because he wanted to make sure that he returned home to his family. He rode a bicycle to work every day to make sure that he was able to save enough money on his Army salary to send his son to college. At Camp Anaconda, where the squadron briefly stayed, a rocket landed inside a tent, sending a piece of debris or fragment into him and killed him. On Monday night, August 16, you ran down the memorial cross erected for him by Arlington West.
One of my Soldiers was Henry Bacon. He was one of the finest men I ever met. He was in perfect shape for a man over forty, working hard at night. He told me that he did that because he didn´t have much money to buy nice things for his wife, who he loved so much, so he had to be in good shape for her. He was like a father to many young men in his section of maintenance mechanics. They fixed our vehicles with almost no support and fabricated parts and made repairs that kept our squadron rolling on the longest, fastest armor advance ever made under fire. He was so very proud of his son-in-law that married the beautiful daughter so well raised by Henry. His son-in-law was a helicopter pilot with the 1st Cavalry Division, who died last year. Henry stopped to rescue a vehicle belonging to another unit on what was to be his last day in Iraq. He could have kept rolling - he was headed to Kuwait after a year´s tour. But he stopped. He could have sent others to do the work, but he was on the ground, leading by example, when he was killed. On Monday night, August 16, you took it upon yourself to go out in the country, where a peaceful group was exercising their constitutional rights, and harming no one, and you ran down the memorial cross erected for Henry and for his son-in-law by Arlington West.
Mr. Northern - I know little about Cindy Sheehan except that she is a grieving mother, a gentle soul, and wants to bring harm to no one. I know little about you except that you found your way to Crawford on Monday night in August with chains and a pipe attached to your truck for the sole purpose of dishonoring a memorial erected for my friends and lost Soldiers and hundreds of others that served this nation when they were called. I find it disheartening that good men like these have died so that people like you can threaten a mother who lost a child with your actions. I hope that you are ashamed of yourself.
Perry Jefferies, First Sergeant, USA (retired) |
| rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | Re: Letter from a serviceman | Quote |
ennessee National Guard soldiers killed in Iraq
SWEETWATER (AP) — Two Tennessee National Guard soldiers were killed Monday in Iraq, their family members said Tuesday.
Spc. Joseph "Joey" Hunt, 27, of Sweetwater, and Sgt. Victoir P. Lieurance, 34, of Seymour, were members of the 278th Regimental Combat Team. Two other members of the unit on the same combat patrol were injured Monday afternoon southwest of Samarra when an improvised explosive device exploded near their vehicle, ejecting at least one soldier.
The Hunt family issued a statement saying they did not know many details of the incident and asked to be allowed to grieve in private.
"Joey was a true East Tennessean who was proud of his family, hometown, state, and country. He enjoyed being involved in the many outdoors activities available in Sweetwater, and he always did so with a beaming smile on his face," the family said.
Hunt visited with his family while on leave in June.
"During that time he shared many stories and photos during his service there. He summed up his feeling during his break that it wasn´t easy being there, but that he and his fellow soldiers were proud of their service to their country," his relatives said.
Hunt had two sons — 5-year-old Caleb and 3-year-old Josh.
"They don´t have any idea what´s going on," Hunt´s aunt, Pat Thomas, told WATE-TV. "They went to be with their grandmother, Joey´s mom, and she was just holding both of them in her arms. And they kept saying, ´Why are you crying, Mamaw? Why are you sad?´"
Lieurance leaves behind his wife, Penny, and four children, two sons and daughters.
Both his parents said their son´s death makes their once-wavering opinions about the war in Iraq much more clear.
Andre Lieurance referred to Cindy Sheehan, the California mother of a slain soldier, who recently camped out in front of President Bush´s ranch in Crawford, Texas, in opposition to the war.
"She didn´t speak for me. Now she does," the father told The Knoxville News Sentinel on Tuesday. "I´m with her. I believe we were lied to. (My son) did what he was supposed to. Bush didn´t."
"It´s a bad war; it´s a stupid war," said his mother, Karen Lieurance. "I questioned it from Day One. I think it´s a lot easier to support the president when you don´t have a family member over there."
Three other members of the Knoxville-based 278th were killed last week, bringing to nine the number in the unit who have died while serving in Iraq. About 4,000 members of the 278th deployed last November.
———
Information from:
WATE: [link to www.wate.com]
WVLT: [link to www.volunteertv.com] |
| rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | Re: Letter from a serviceman | Quote |
he Photos Washington Doesn´t Want You To See:
The grim reality of Iraq rarely appears in the American press. A photo gallery
reveals the war´s horrible human toll.
[link to service.spiegel.de] |
| rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | Re: Letter from a serviceman | Quote |
Documents Tell of Brutal Improvisation by GIs
Interrogated General´s Sleeping-Bag Death, CIA´s Use of Secret Iraqi Squad Are Among Details
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
08/03/05 "Washington Post" -- -- Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush was being stubborn with his American captors, and a series of intense beatings and creative interrogation tactics were not enough to break his will. On the morning of Nov. 26, 2003, a U.S. Army interrogator and a military guard grabbed a green sleeping bag, stuffed Mowhoush inside, wrapped him in an electrical cord, laid him on the floor and began to go to work. Again.
It was inside the sleeping bag that the 56-year-old detainee took his last breath through broken ribs, lying on the floor beneath a U.S. soldier in Interrogation Room 6 in the western Iraqi desert. Two days before, a secret CIA-sponsored group of Iraqi paramilitaries, working with Army interrogators, had beaten Mowhoush nearly senseless, using fists, a club and a rubber hose, according to classified documents.
The sleeping bag was the idea of a soldier who remembered how his older brother used to force him into one, and how scared and vulnerable it made him feel. Senior officers in charge of the facility near the Syrian border believed that such "claustrophobic techniques" were approved ways to gain information from detainees, part of what military regulations refer to as a "fear up" tactic, according to military court documents.
The circumstances that led up to Mowhoush´s death paint a vivid example of how the pressure to produce intelligence for anti-terrorism efforts and the war in Iraq led U.S. military interrogators to improvise and develop abusive measures, not just at Abu Ghraib but in detention centers elsewhere in Iraq, in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mowhoush´s ordeal in Qaim, over 16 days in November 2003, also reflects U.S. government secrecy surrounding some abuse cases and gives a glimpse into a covert CIA unit that was set up to foment rebellion before the war and took part in some interrogations during the insurgency.
The sleeping-bag interrogation and beatings were taking place in Qaim about the same time that soldiers at Abu Ghraib, outside Baghdad, were using dogs to intimidate detainees, putting women´s underwear on their heads, forcing them to strip in front of female soldiers and attaching at least one to a leash. It was a time when U.S. interrogators were coming up with their own tactics to get detainees to talk, many of which they considered logical interpretations of broad-brush categories in the Army Field Manual, with labels such as "fear up" or "pride and ego down" or "futility."
Other tactics, such as some of those seen at Abu Ghraib, had been approved for one detainee at Guantanamo Bay and found their way to Iraq. Still others have been linked to official Pentagon guidance on specific techniques, such as the use of dogs.
Two Army soldiers with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Fort Carson, Colo., are charged with killing Mowhoush with the sleeping-bag technique, and his death has been the subject of partially open court proceedings at the base in Colorado Springs. Two other soldiers alleged to have participated face potential nonjudicial punishment. Some details of the incident have been released and were previously reported. But an examination of numerous classified documents gathered during the criminal investigation into Mowhoush´s death, and interviews with Defense Department officials and current and former intelligence officials, present a fuller picture of what happened and outline the role played in his interrogation by the CIA, its Iraqi paramilitaries and Special Forces soldiers.
Determining the details of the general´s demise has been difficult because the circumstances are listed as "classified" on his official autopsy, court records have been censored to hide the CIA´s involvement in his questioning, and reporters have been removed from a Fort Carson courtroom when testimony relating to the CIA has surfaced.
Despite Army investigators´ concerns that the CIA and Special Forces soldiers also were involved in serious abuse leading up to Mowhoush´s death, the investigators reported they did not have the authority to fully look into their actions. The CIA inspector general´s office has launched an investigation of at least one CIA operative who identified himself to soldiers only as "Brian." The CIA declined to comment on the matter, as did an Army spokesman, citing the ongoing criminal cases.
Although Mowhoush´s death certificate lists his cause of death as "asphyxia due to smothering and chest compression," the Dec. 2, 2003, autopsy, quoted in classified documents and released with redactions, showed that Mowhoush had "contusions and abrasions with pattern impressions" over much of his body, and six fractured ribs. Investigators believed a "long straight-edge instrument" was used on Mowhoush, as well an "object like the end of an M-16" rifle.
"Although the investigation indicates the death was directly related to the non-standard interrogation methods employed on 26 NOV, the circumstances surrounding the death are further complicated due to Mowhoush being interrogated and reportedly beaten by members of a Special Forces team and other government agency (OGA) employees two days earlier," said a secret Army memo dated May 10, 2004.
The Walk-In
Hours after Mowhoush´s death in U.S. custody on Nov. 26, 2003, military officials issued a news release stating that the prisoner had died of natural causes after complaining of feeling sick. Army psychological-operations officers quickly distributed leaflets designed to convince locals that the general had cooperated and outed key insurgents.
The U.S. military initially told reporters that Mowhoush had been captured during a raid. In reality, he had walked into the Forward Operating Base "Tiger" in Qaim on Nov. 10, 2003, hoping to speak with U.S. commanders to secure the release of his sons, who had been arrested in raids 11 days earlier.
Officials were excited about Mowhoush´s appearance.
The general, they believed, had been a high-ranking official in Saddam Hussein´s Republican Guard and a key supporter of the insurgency in northwestern Iraq. Mowhoush was one of a few generals whom Hussein had given "execution authority," U.S. commanders believed, meaning that he could execute someone on sight, and he had been notorious among Shiites in southern Iraq for brutality.
Mowhoush had been visited by Hussein at his home in Sadah in October 2003 "to discuss, among other undisclosed issues, a bounty of US$10,000 to anyone who video-taped themselves attacking coalition forces," according to a Defense Intelligence Agency report.
Military intelligence also believed that Mowhoush was behind several attacks in the Qaim area.
After being taken into custody, Mowhoush was housed in an isolated area of the Qaim base within miles of the Syrian border, according to a situation summary prepared by interrogators.
The heavyset and imposing man was moderately cooperative in his first days of detention. He told interrogators that he was the commander of the al Quds Golden Division, an organization of trusted loyalists fueling the insurgency with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, sniper rifles, machine guns and other small arms.
In the months before Mowhoush´s detention, military intelligence officials across Iraq had been discussing interrogation tactics, expressing a desire to ramp things up and expand their allowed techniques to include more severe methods, such as beatings that did not leave permanent damage, and exploiting detainees´ fear of dogs and snakes, according to documents released by the Army.
Officials in Baghdad wrote an e-mail to interrogators in the field on Aug. 14, 2003, stating that the "gloves are coming off" and asking them to develop "wish lists" of tactics they would like to use.
An interrogator with the 66th Military Intelligence Company, who was assigned to work on Mowhoush, wrote back with suggestions in August, including the use of "close confinement quarters," sleep deprivation and using the fear of dogs, adding: "I firmly agree that the gloves need to come off."
Another e-mail exchange from interrogators with the 4th Infantry Division based in Tikrit also suggested "close quarter confinement" in extremely claustrophobic situations, because "discomfort induces compliance and cooperation."
Taking the Gloves Off
A week into Mowhoush´s detainment, according to classified investigative documents, interrogators were getting fed up with the prisoner. In a "current situation summary" PowerPoint presentation dated Nov. 18, Army officials wrote about his intransigence, using his first name (spelled "Abid" in Army documents):
"Previous interrogations were non-threatening; Abid was being treated very well. Not anymore," the document reads. "The interrogation session lasted several hours and I took the gloves off because Abid refused to play ball."
But the harsher tactics backfired.
In an interrogation that could be witnessed by the entire detainee population, Mowhoush was put into an undescribed "stress position" that caused the other detainees to stand "with heads bowed and solemn looks on their faces," said the document.
"I asked Abid if he was strong enough a leader to put an end to the attacks that I believed he was behind," the document said, quoting an unidentified interrogator. "He did not deny he was behind the attacks as he had denied previously, he simply said because I had humiliated him, he would not be able to stop the attacks. I take this as an admission of guilt."
Three days later, on Nov. 21, 2003, Mowhoush was moved from the border base at Qaim to a makeshift detention facility about six miles away in the Iraqi desert, a prison fashioned out of an old train depot, according to court testimony and investigative documents. Soldiers with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 101st Airborne Division were running a series of massive raids called Operation Rifles Blitz, and the temporary holding facility, nicknamed Blacksmith Hotel, was designed to hold the quarry.
U.S. troops searched more than 8,000 homes in three cities, netting 350 detainees, according to court testimony. Even though Mowhoush was not arrested during the raids, he was moved to Blacksmith Hotel, where teams of Army Special Forces soldiers and the CIA were conducting interrogations.
At Blacksmith, according to military sources, there was a tiered system of interrogations. Army interrogators were the first level.
When Army efforts produced nothing useful, detainees would be handed over to members of Operational Detachment Alpha 531, soldiers with the 5th Special Forces Group, the CIA or a combination of the three. "The personnel were dressed in civilian clothes and wore balaclavas to hide their identity," according to a Jan. 18, 2004, report for the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division.
If they did not get what they wanted, the interrogators would deliver the detainees to a small team of the CIA-sponsored Iraqi paramilitary squads, code-named Scorpions, according to a military source familiar with the operation. The Jan. 18 memo indicates that it was "likely that indigenous personnel in the employ of the CIA interrogated MG Mowhoush."
Sometimes, soldiers and intelligence officers used the mere existence of the paramilitary unit as a threat to induce detainees to talk, one Army soldier said in an interview. "Detainees knew that if they went to those people, bad things would happen," the soldier said. "It was used as a motivator to get them to talk. They didn´t want to go with the masked men."
The Scorpions went by nicknames such as Alligator and Cobra. They were set up by the CIA before the war to conduct light sabotage. After the fall of Baghdad, they worked with their CIA handlers to infiltrate the insurgency and as interpreters, according to military investigative documents, defense officials, and former and current intelligence officials.
Soon after Mowhoush´s detention began, soldiers in charge of him "reached a collective decision that they would try using the [redacted] who would, you know, obviously spoke the local, native Iraqi Arabic as a means of trying to shake Mowhoush up, and that the other thing that they were going to try to do was put a bunch of people in the room, a tactic that Mr. [redacted] called ´fear up,´ " Army Special Agent Curtis Ryan, who investigated the case, testified, according to a transcript.
Classified e-mail messages and reports show that "Brian," a Special Forces retiree, worked as a CIA operative with the Scorpions.
On Nov. 24, the CIA and one of its four-man Scorpion units interrogated Mowhoush, according to investigative records.
"OGA Brian and the four indig were interrogating an unknown detainee," according to a classified memo, using the slang "Other Government Agency" for the CIA and "indig" for indigenous Iraqis.
"When he didn´t answer or provided an answer that they didn´t like, at first [redacted] would slap Mowhoush, and then after a few slaps, it turned into punches," Ryan testified. "And then from punches, it turned into [redacted] using a piece of hose."
"The indig were hitting the detainee with fists, a club and a length of rubber hose," according to classified investigative records.
Soldiers heard Mowhoush "being beaten with a hard object" and heard him "screaming" from down the hall, according to the Jan. 18, 2004, provost marshal´s report. The report said four Army guards had to carry Mowhoush back to his cell.
Two days later, at 8 a.m., Nov. 26, Mowhoush -- prisoner No. 76 -- was brought, moaning and breathing hard, to Interrogation Room 6, according to court testimony.
Chief Warrant Officer Lewis E. Welshofer Jr. did a first round of interrogations for 30 minutes, taking a 15-minute break and resuming at 8:45. According to court testimony, Welshofer and Spec. Jerry L. Loper, a mechanic assuming the role of guard, put Mowhoush into the sleeping bag and wrapped the bag in electrical wire.
Welshofer allegedly crouched over Mowhoush´s chest to talk to him.
Sgt. 1st Class William Sommer, a linguist, stood nearby.
Chief Warrant Officer Jeff Williams, an intelligence analyst, came to observe progress.
Investigative records show that Mowhoush "becomes unresponsive" at 9:06 a.m. Medics tried to resuscitate him for 30 minutes before pronouncing him dead.
In a preliminary court hearing in March for Williams, Loper and Sommer, retired Chief Warrant Officer Richard Manwaring, an interrogator who worked with Welshofer in Iraq, testified that using the sleeping bag and putting detainees in a wall locker and banging on it were "appropriate" techniques that he himself used to frighten detainees and make them tense.
Col. David A. Teeples, who then commanded the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, told the court he believed the "claustrophobic technique" was both approved and effective. It was used before, and for some time after, Mowhoush´s death, according to sources familiar with the interrogation operation.
"My thought was that the death of Mowhoush was brought about by [redacted] and then it was unfortunate and accidental, what had happened under an interrogation by our people," Teeples said in court, according to a transcript.
The CIA has tried hard to conceal the existence of the Scorpions. CIA classification officials have monitored pretrial hearings in the case and have urged the court to close much of the hearing on national security grounds. Redacted transcripts were released only after lawyers for the Denver Post challenged the rulings.
Autopsy Shields CIA
The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology´s standard "Autopsy Examination Report" of Mowhoush´s death was manipulated to avoid references to the CIA. In contrast to the other autopsy reports of suspicious detainee deaths released by the Army, Mowhoush´s name is redacted and under "Circumstances of Death," the form says: "This Iraqi [redacted] died while in U.S. custody. The details surrounding the circumstances at the time of death are classified."
Williams was arraigned yesterday on a murder charge and is scheduled for court-martial in November, a Fort Carson spokeswoman said. Welshofer´s court-martial is set for October. Loper and Sommer have not been referred for trial. Commanders are still considering what, if any, punishment to impose.
Frank Spinner, an attorney for Welshofer, said his client is going to fight the murder charge. Reading from a statement prepared by Welshofer during his Article 32 hearing this spring, Spinner quoted his client as saying that he is proud of the job he did and that his efforts saved U.S. soldiers´ lives. "I did not torture anyone," Spinner quoted him as saying.
William Cassara, who represents Williams, cited Mowhoush´s brutal encounters in the days before he died as possibly leading to his death. He said Williams, who was not trained in interrogation tactics, had little to do with the case.
"The interrogation techniques were known and were approved of by the upper echelons of command of the 3rd ACR," Cassara said in a news conference. "They believed, and still do, that they were appropriate and proper."
Staff writer Dana Priest contributed to this report. |
| rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | Re: Letter from a serviceman | Quote |
ush Regime Rotten To The Core
By Bill Gallagher
08/24/05 "Niagara Falls Reporter" -- -- DETROIT -- A storm of anti-war protests and sentiment is sweeping across the nation. Finally, reality and truth are trumping President George W. Bush´s lies. Even the perpetual propaganda machine of the corporate media can no longer manufacture consent for Bush´s monstrously bad policies and decisions.
A storm of anti-war protests and sentiment is sweeping While most Americans work and struggle with lower wages, a sputtering economy and rising gas prices, Bush still basks in the Texas sun in his long summer of content. He prefers isolation and deliberate disconnection from the grim evidence of his wholesale failures.
Cindy Sheehan has left the vigil outside Bush´s ranch to care for her ailing mother. But others are in her place, reminding the world that Bush will never admit his responsibility for the war in Iraq, its failure and the death of Sheehan´s son Casey and more than 1,800 other Americans.
The Busheviks consider Sheehan´s witness to the tragedy of the senseless war as an irritant, a PR problem that will fade in time. They´ve used the usual suspects of right-wing indecency -- Rush Limbaugh, Bill O´Reilly and Sean Hannity -- to do their dirty work. Those who question the war must be silenced at best, or at least discredited and vilified.
The war in Iraq is unwinnable and futile. We can never undo Bush´s madness in starting the war and his sheer incompetence in not planning for its aftermath. Nor can we stop the insurgency, the spawning of more terrorists and the instability U.S. military presence has created simply by "staying the course." No matter how and when we exit Iraq, more chaos and bloodshed will follow. The country will fragment and Bush´s insane experiment in nation-building will prove a catastrophic failure.
The reasonable move now is to cut our losses, save lives and get the hell out of Iraq in a hurry. Polls show nearly 60 percent of the American people now oppose the war and 63 percent want the troops home by next year.
Bush and his war council will never admit error or acknowledge miscalculations. They will continue to send Americans and Iraqis to their deaths as they desperately try to cobble together a political cover plan they´ll camouflage as a successful military mission.
Since no one named Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld or Rove will die in Iraq, they figure they can continue the carnage until about this time next summer, when they´ll shift the focus to Iran just in time for the mid-term elections.
Bogged down in Iraq? Just create a new war with a new enemy and our "war president" will use the occasion to keep the GOP in control of both houses of Congress.
Iran, a charter member of the "axis of evil," is perfect for the enemy role. Iran is seeking to develop nuclear materials for power plants, which could conceivably be used for weapons. The Europeans are working diligently to forge a diplomatic solution and get Iran to accept international inspections.
But Bush deplores diplomacy, preferring bullying rhetoric and the threat of force. He horrified the Europeans in his recent remarks about Iran, declaring "all options are on the table" and saying that "we´ve used force in the recent past to secure our country." Bush´s reckless rhetoric damages any hope that moderate Iranians will have any influence at all.
But Karl Rove wants a new war to bolster Republican fortunes. The president´s "brain" would like to concentrate on the next election, but Rove´s spending much of his time trying to avoid federal prison.
If there is any justice left in our nation, Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney´s chief of staff, will soon be indicted on felony charges for their roles in leaking the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.
These scum should be charged with treason, but my best guess is that they will face counts of obstruction of justice and lying to FBI agents. The trial will expose the pervasive corruption and ruthlessness of the Bush-Cheney gang, and spur talk of impeachment.
Sworn testimony will show the Busheviks would do anything to protect the lies that led to the war in Iraq. We can only hope the grand jury will look deeply at the motives for outing Valerie Plame and the central roles Bush and Cheney played in the scheme. They should be named as unindicted co-conspirators.
Two prominent figures in the scandal merit far more public attention than they have received so far. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former attorney general John Ashcroft played critical roles in the despicable plot, and the grand jury ought to be reviewing all their actions.
Ashcroft took a deep personal interest in the investigation of Rove, his friend and one-time campaign consultant when he was a senator from Missouri.
Murray Waas in the Village Voice details how Ashcroft at first refused to recuse himself from the case involving a friend, a clear conflict of interest, and how troubling that was to professionals in the Justice Department. Then Ashcroft ordered the FBI to brief him on an interview the agents had with Rove.
Waas reports investigators told Ashcroft they believed Rove "withheld important information from them during that FBI interview." That´s dynamite stuff. A former senior Justice Department official told Waas, "It would have been a nightmare scenario if Ashcroft let something slip to an aide or someone else they had in common with Rove ... and then word got back to Rove or the White House what investigators were saying about him."
Ashcroft waited five months before he finally recused himself from the Rove investigation and the White House has never explained what led to his abrupt departure.
Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, has long argued there has been the "appearance of impropriety" in Ashcroft´s handling of the investigation. Conyers wants a Justice Department investigation.
"The new information that Ashcroft had not only refused to recuse himself over a period of months, but also was insisting on being personally briefed about a matter implicating his friend, Karl Rove, represents a stunning ethical breach that cries out for an immediate investigation by the department´s Office of Professional Responsibility and Inspector General," Conyers urged.
While Ashcroft may have been involved in the cover-up, Condoleezza Rice´s fingerprints are all over the plot to out Valerie Plame to punish her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who exposed the hoax that Saddam Hussein was purchasing enriched uranium from Niger.
Roger Morris, a former National Security Council senior staff member, has done a masterful job of exposing Rice´s treachery in a report in "Counterpunch" magazine. Morris argues Rice´s "pivotal role" in the scandal has been "missed entirely or deliberately" as the media frenzy focuses on Rove and Libby.
Morris provides an intricate timeline, detailing the events and showing Rice´s involvement.
"Rice, by both commission and omission, was integral in perpetrating the original fraud of Niger and then inevitably in the vengeful betrayal of Plame´s identity. None of that spilling of secrets for crass political retribution could have gone on without her knowledge and approval, and thus complicity," Morris writes.
"Little of it could have happened without her participation, if not as a leaker herself, at least with her direction and with her scripting," Morris writes.
Rice´s glib one-liner, "We don´t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," scared the hell out of people and became a major propaganda lie in the march to war. Joe Wilson´s expose exposed Rice as a liar.
When the time came to attempt to discredit Wilson for speaking the truth, Rice was ready. "And when that moment comes, she has the unique authority, and is in a position, to do the deed. Motive, means, opportunity -- in the classic terms of prosecution, Rice had them all," Morris writes.
Rice´s lies were vital in taking our nation to war, resulting in the death of Casey Sheehan and, tragically, countless more to come. A recent "Time" magazine article is entitled "Can Condi Rice Save Iraq?" The quick answer is no, but you wouldn´t know that reading the nauseating, puff-piece profile of the secretary of state. We learn about her exercise schedule, hairdos named for her, her refusal to e-mail because it´s impersonal, and what a wonderful intellect and perfectionists she is.
We´re informed that Rice´s most appealing qualities are "her optimism and belief in the power of America ideals." Not a word about the Plame affair and Rice´s role.
Rice held an interview last week for reporters and an editor of The New York Times. Again, no mention of her collusion in peddling Plame´s identity.
Will Rice continue to dodge scrutiny?
Rice is a professional sycophant and her public service has been disastrous, but she´s usually given a free pass or promotion, no matter how badly she screws up. Roger Morris explains why.
"Her manifest failures in the fateful months before 9/11 in meeting the principal responsibilities of the National Security Adviser -- the sheer incompetence and shallowness that left so much intelligence uncoordinated, so much neglected or misunderstood -- should have been enough to have her run from public office long ago, of course, were it not for her hold on this tragically flawed president, and her deplorable immunity amid the chronic political cowardice of both Democrats and the media," according to Morris.
With a record of failure, incompetence and treachery, what are Condi Rice´s future prospects? Why, of course, the Republicans want her to become president.
Bill Gallagher, a Peabody Award winner, is a former Niagara Falls city councilman who now covers Detroit for Fox2 News. His e-mail address is gallaghernewsman@sbcglobal.net.
Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com |
| rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | Re: Letter from a serviceman | Quote |
Propaganda and War: Iraq and Beyond
Noam Chomsky, professor, linguistics, MIT
Audio |
| rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | Re: Letter from a serviceman | Quote |
we should be learning through the media that KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton has just gotten a $10 billion no-bid contract to take over management of VA hospitals. If veterans think it´s hard now to get decent health care, just wait until Cheney gets hold of it. No link availalbe because this news is word-of-mouth and has not hit the streets yet. |
| rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | Re: Letter from a serviceman | Quote |
The elite are out to destroy us with US out of the way they can pig up to the trough |
| rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | Re: Letter from a serviceman | Quote |
b is determined to get as much as the military personel out of the country hes afraid of revolt, his mercenaries will try to , I don´t they can do it, we make them choke. b being medicated now. Told you he was throwing things around, pressure getting to him. They think we don´t have an idenity we can controlled will accept this crap. I don´t think they know who we are |
| rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | Re: Letter from a serviceman | Quote |
Send a Rose to Cindy Sheehan
Welcome Cindy Sheehan back to Crawford with roses for her
and all the other parents of fallen soldiers.
If you can´t travel to Crawford, you can still stand with Cindy Sheehan and the Gold Star Families For Peace by sending a single rose for $3.
The mother of Casey Sheehan is back holding her peace vigil near President Bush´s ranch, waiting for George Bush to gather his courage to explain why her son lost his life. Instead, Mr. Bush has time for naps, bicycling, fundraisers and other ways of getting on with his life. And no time for Cindy Sheehan.
Sheehan told reporters: "Bush said my son died in a noble cause, and I want to ask him what that noble cause is."
Sheehan´s heart-felt stand has inspired over 1,600 vigils around the country and brought out over 100,000 people in support of Cindy Sheehan and against the war in Iraq -- even in "Bush country" states like Idaho and Utah. While Sheehan left Crawford last week when her mother suffered a stroke, she´s returning to her post as determined as ever.
https://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/codepink/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=879&t=workingassets.dwt
The roses are for the markers |
| rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | Re: Letter from a serviceman | Quote |
We used to have an airforce base 40 mi west of here
Sawyers Air Force Base. It was a B-52 base they were supposed to use the northern route to nuc Russia, they always flying over doing mock bombing runs, doors open and all that. They would come in a couple hundred ft up, you good see right into them, well that base has been closed for about ten years. One day this spring I heard the familiar sound of those engines, went outside there was an old b-52 couple hundred feet up coming from north north-west heading south south-west towards Chicago. A little strange nearest b-52 base is in N Dakota, It got alot stranger every 15 min another one would fly over same path all day. Thats alot of B-52´s, I would think they would be using these as backup, probably went to denver. Just another piece to the puzzle. I was told to tell you when it happened but I didn´t. |
| rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | Re: Letter from a serviceman | Quote |
forgot they were painted charcoal color, weird |
| rrick
12/8/2005 10:09 AM | | Re: Letter from a serviceman | Quote |
I.
In the greenest of our valleys,
By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace —
Radiant palace — reared its head.
In the monarch Thought´s dominion —
It stood there !
Never seraph spread a pinion
Over fabric half so fair.
II.
Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
On its roof did float and flow;
(This — all this — was in the olden
Time long ago)
And every gentle air that dallied,
In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
A winged odor went away.
III.
Wanderers in that happy valley
Through two luminous windows saw
Spirits moving musically
To a lute´s well-tunéd law,
Round about a throne, where sitting
(Porphyrogene !)
In state his glory well befitting,
The ruler of the realm was seen.
IV.
And all with pearl and ruby glowing
Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,
And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.
V.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch´s high estate ;
(Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him, desolate !)
And, round about his home, the glory
That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.
VI.
And travellers now within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows, see
Vast forms that move fantastically
To a discordant melody ;
While, like a rapid ghastly river,
Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out forever,
And laugh — but smile no more.
Mr Poe |
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