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I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email.
Original content copyright © 2003 - 2005 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed.
Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com
Joe Chenelly, who did a fine job presenting MilBloggers in the Army Times, quoted me during an NPR interview recently:
On particular blogger, who goes by the handle Greyhawk, recommended that anyone blogging, when they write, to write assuming that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is going to read your blog.True - but the full quote is to write like the Chairman and your mother are going to read your blog. I invite any reader here to decide which of those two people would be more embarrassed by the following (by the way mom, stop reading now) :
Everyone has a vision of how they want to remember their combat experience and particularly how they want others to view their combat service. Most soldiers, and especially infantrymen, want to realize all their Jerry Bruckheimer-fueled fantasies with macho military fervor. All I did was include more details in hopes of providing a more honest and humorous perspective of what soldiering is typically like. I could write ?We went on a raid tonight. We smashed the gate down and cleared the house, but the guy we were looking for wasn?t home.? But instead I?d write ?Tonight we went on a raid. It wasn?t till 3am and I couldn?t sleep so I masturbated before we left. On the way to the raid we got lost, but after driving around for a while we finally found the house. We tried to breech the gate of the outer wall, but in the process accidentally ended up knocking the entire wall over. After clearing the house, we realized it was the wrong one. Once we figured out where the correct house was, we raided it. But the guy we were looking for wasn?t home. As I was pulling security on an alley, I realized that the chow we had for dinner wasn?t agreeing with me and when I tried to fart ended up shitting my pants a little. Once we finished searching the house, we hopped back in our Humvees and took what we thought was our planned egress route, but instead found ourselves on a dead end canal road. While turning around, one of the Humvees got stuck in the mud. Most raids do not go this badly. We eventually made it back to our base safe and sound. My ass had started to chafe from when I ?sharted?, so I took a shower, masturbated, and went to bed.? (This, by the way, is a true story.) If I wrote a story like this, my commander would spend thirty minutes condemning me for portraying our unit as incompetent and unprofessional, but charge me with violating OPSEC because I disclosed tactical details on how we perform breeches.That's Jason Hartley of Just Another Soldier notoriety. His blog was shut down by his commander, but he later put it back online. That earned him an Article 15, and punishment that included a demotion and a fine. Hartley is also interviewed in the NPR piece linked above, which goes to great lengths to discuss censorship and military blogs. He uses the opportunity to insult his fellow military bloggers, insisting that those who are allowed to continue blogging are producing "insipid" content. (This judgment from a guy who once posted a picture of himself on the toilet, as he bragged to NPR.) He finds the Dagger Jag blog especially offensive, citing it in his NPR interview and, apparently, every other chance he gets:
Apparently our brigade JAG guy (2 BCT 1 ID) was too busy with his own blog (daggerjag.blogspot.com or something like that) to process my article 15 while we were in Iraq, so it didn?t get resolved.That's a very serious accusation to make - especially about a blog updated as infrequently as Dagger Jag was. Reading that comment one might be tempted to speculate that Spc Harltley has a problem with typing faster than he thinks. This is the blogosphere, after all, and such news tends to get around. How? Glad you asked.
This case illustrates perfectly the absurdity of attempting to regulate military blogs. Once his blog was shut down Hartley began sending his observations out via an email list - one that anyone who wished could sign up for at his site. Of course, several bloggers did so, and they posted his email on their blogs, and as a result his words appear on even more web sites and reach an even larger audience than if he was simply running a blog.
Still, Just Another Soldier is the example cited time and again by those who insist that military bloggers are oppressed and censored by "The Army". There's another angle that is repeatedly misinterpreted in the MilBlogs story - blame "The Army" all you want, it's the individual commanders who determine if a soldier's activities are prejudicial to morale, order, and discipline. Jason's obviously made his decision. And as he seems to comprehend (based on the above excerpt) the reality is that Hartley's work violates the mother side of Greyhawk's rule above. And while some Americans are interested in the former SGT's uninsipid toilet habits, the Chairman doesn't care, and his commander was obviously unimpressed.
Ma Deuce Gunner on NPR - and I don't mean he's talking about NPR, I mean he was interviewed for a segment on NPR. The piece also incudes a discussion with Jason Hartley, who writes Just Another Soldier, and who ran afoul of his command by blogging.
Audio available at the link.
The weekend edition. Lot's of great links on yesterday's too - don't miss it.
An article posted on an Islamist Web site sparked off wide-spread speculation over the fate of Al Qaida Leader Osama bin Laden on Friday.
According to Reuters reports, an article on www.islam-minbar.net Web site started with a stunning declaration - bin Laden had died.
A posting on an Islamist Web site stirred speculation over the fate of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and prompted a flurry of denials yesterday that the world's most wanted man is dead.
An audiotape purportedly by America's most-wanted insurgent in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, posted Friday on the Internet threatens more attacks against U.S. forces and urges followers to be wary of any American attempts at dialogue.
Insurgents set off at least 17 bombs in Iraq yesterday, killing at least 50 persons, including three US soldiers, in a series of attacks aimed at shaking Iraq's newly formed government.
Two years have passed since President Bush stood atop an aircraft carrier (May 1, 2003) and announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq. Since that ''mission accomplished'' photo-op, more than 1,400 U.S. troops and thousands of Iraqi civilians have died. And just recently, the Pentagon acknowledged that insurgent attacks have again increased to last year's levels of some 400 attacks per week.
A skull with pink and white dentures belongs to an old woman, investigators said. A skeleton nearby was that of a teenage girl, still clutching a brightly colored bag of possessions.
By Al Pessin. The US Defense Department says a statement Thursday by its intelligence chief was not a new assessment indicating an increased nuclear weapons capability by North Korea. The spokesman was attempting to clarify comments made Thursday by the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The United States and Italy acknowledged Friday they could not bridge sharp disagreements over who was at fault in a friendly-fire shooting in Iraq that killed an Italian intelligence agent.
Pfc. Lynndie England will plead guilty to abusing Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison, her lawyer said late Friday, about a year after photos of her sexually humiliating inmates made her the face of a scandal that damaged the credibility of the U.S. military.
Pfc. Lynndie R. England, the 22-year-old woman who became a vivid symbol of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, will plead guilty on Monday to reduced charges, her lawyers said yesterday.
Attorneys for a U.S. Marine accused of murdering two Iraqi detainees argued yesterday to cross-examine a key prosecution witness, saying denying them that chance in a pretrial hearing 'makes this proceeding a sham.'
WND: Scott, Drudge reports that at last night's presidential news conference, "CBS, NBC and Fox cut off President Bush in mid-sentence as NBC rushed to Donald Trump, Fox to Paris Hilton and CBS to 'Survivor.'" And my first question, why does the president recognize for questions those reporters whose networks treat the White House with such despicable contempt?
Former Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, the Democrat who gave a convention keynote speech for President Bush, said Friday he doesn't see another Republican like Bush coming along and there's a chance the Democrats could win the White House in 2008.
A college has been stripped of its status as a Catholic institution because it invited pro-abortion Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., to give its commencement address and receive an honorary degree.
An Australian man accused of trying to strangle his wife has lost a round in his legal battle to keep her on life support. If she dies, he could be charged with murder.
Marine Stops Enemy Attack, Saves Comrades
U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Bryan J. Nagel
Insurgents launched an attack against one of 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment?s observation posts in the city here the evening of April 20 but they didn?t count on one Marine: Pfc. Bryan J. Nagel.Here's what they were up against
The NY Time's editorial, 27 April 05:
The millions of brave Iraqis who risked their lives to vote in January didn't expect that nearly three months later, their squabbling politicians would still be struggling to form a government. As a result, precious momentum has been lost, and a briefly improving security situation has again started deteriorating. The Sunni-based insurgency seems to have drawn fresh encouragement from the inability of the victorious Shiite and Kurdish parties to put the future of their country ahead of their narrow political agendas.Let's emphasize that last line: The Sunni-based insurgency seems to have drawn fresh encouragement from the inability of the victorious Shiite and Kurdish parties to put the future of their country ahead of their narrow political agendas. "Seems" is the weasel-word in this bile, a legalism that lends deniability to the writer who's made an utterly ridiculous statement of cause-and-effect, with no support available. Are we to seriously consider that at some point in the debate over the exact form of a new government, terrorists who were about to give up murderous rampages for a life of quiet and ease suddenly were re-inspired to forego dental school and become pilots of suicide car bombs? That some leader of this group declared - after some arbitrary time limit was exceeded - that a new wave of kidnappings was needed? That some previously agreed-to deadline had been crossed?
Of course not. Terrorist Violence never went away in Iraq, as readers here well know. Terri Schiavo starved slowly to death, an old Pope passed away and a new one was selected, then front-pages rediscovered Iraq. And this was to be the new mantra of failure, and all the lesser papers would follow the lead of the Times: The Sunni-based insurgency seems to have drawn fresh encouragement from the inability of the victorious Shiite and Kurdish parties to put the future of their country ahead of their narrow political agendas. So it was written, so shall it be.
Except for one thing. On that very day the elected representatives of the people of Iraq announced the cabinet had been chosen. How painful for the Times, who couldn't even stop editorializing in their page one coverage of the news:
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 27 - Iraq's new prime minister announced Wednesday that he had submitted a full list of cabinet members, opening the way for a multiethnic government to assume power and end a three-month political stalemate that has appeared to be fueling violence.Emphasis added. Note the weasel word "appeared".
One thing we can't accuse the New York Times of is wasting time . Having had the rug yanked from under them by a reinvigorated government in Iraq, their argument has now morphed overnight into a slightly new variation on the theme. First paragraph, today's editorial:
Three months of jockeying among Iraq's victorious Shiite and Kurdish parties have finally produced a cabinet that won quick ratification from a legislature where those same parties dominate. The January election that began this process was inspiring. The months of petty haggling that followed were not, and while the formation of an elected Iraqi government is a historic moment, its makeup is far from ideal. Crucial choices have been needlessly delayed, and an incomparable opportunity for drawing patriotic Sunni Arabs away from the insurgency was largely squandered.Squandered! Squandered I tell you. This will be the new critical narrative of the defeated - the opportunities of the elections were squandered. Those crucial three months are gone, and cannot be reclaimed. If you wonder why the Times is so eager to declare an elected, sovereign government of a foreign nation a failure, you need only note that the victory of the Iraqi people was an undeniable success for those who support freedom everywhere, and a strong indicator that the war in Iraq was worth the sacrifice. All this is in direct opposition to the editorial policy of the New York Times, and three months is all the opening they needed to reinvigorate their attacks. Insurgents can't respond to events in that narrow time span, can't recruit, re-arm or re-invigorate, but editorial writers can.
There's another aspect of the Times narrative that most people will find repulsive. As noted before, the Times has no problem with the inability of the US Senate, a body drawing on over 200 years of history and tradition, to approve presidential appointments in this country. (For the record, my opinion in both the Iraq and American examples is business as usual. Such is the price of democracy.) Their double standard is inexcusable, and in leering down their noses at the struggling people of Iraq the Times comes dangerously close to accusing "those people" of being incapable of self-government, or sustaining democracy. But sneering at Iraq while ignoring obstruction on the US Senate floor reveals the underlying reality that it's the elected government of the United States that the Times can't abide - the people of Iraq are just collateral damage in their attack, future corpses who's photos will one day help sell newspapers - and fuel more cries of failure.
Least we forget, here's the NY Times on the Iraqi elections, on the day of the elections:
Nearly 22 months after American troops captured Baghdad, lighting a fire of enthusiasm for the freedoms Iraqis had craved so long, it is a measure of how much has gone wrong that Iraqis committed to Western-style democratic ideals can differ so sharply over the best way to secure them. Much of the problem is that the elections are being held under the dominion of the United States.Let's close with a word of praise: The Times is certainly consistent.Many Iraqis, interviews in recent months have shown, do not accept that fundamental choices about the shape of their future political system should be made by a foreign power, particularly one they regard as a harbinger of secular, materialistic values far removed from the Muslim world's.
But questions over the election go far beyond the American stewardship, to issues that touch on whether it was ever wise or realistic to think that Jeffersonian-style democracy, with its elaborate checks on power and guarantees for minority rights, could be implanted, at least so rapidly, in a country and a region that has little experience with anything but winner-take-all politics.
In the latest evidence Iran is seriously planning an unconventional pre-emptive nuclear strike against the U.S., an Iranian military journal has publicly considered the idea of launching an electromagnetic pulse attack as the key to defeating the world's lone superpower.
President Vladimir Putin, on a historic visit to Israel, defended Russia's planned sale of anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, insisting that they would pose no danger to the Jewish state.
North Korea is able to mount a nuclear warhead on missiles that could hit the United States, a senior US defense official said in a startling assessment of the hardline communist state's military capability.
President George W. Bush used a rare prime-time news conference to promote two embattled domestic priorities and defend his multilateral approach to the North Korean nuclear crisis.
President Bush offered a rosy assessment Thursday of developments in Iraq, but the reality is that Iraqi politicians spent most of the nearly three months since their widely hailed national election settling old scores and maneuvering for sectarian gains. They dithered as insurgents regained their momentum. This week's declaration by Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that insurgents are as able to wreak havoc now as a year ago calls into question the credibility of his other assertion that the United States and the Iraqi people are "winning" this fight. More than 100,000 American troops patrol the nation and more than 100,000 Iraqi security forces have supposedly been trained, yet guerrillas show increasing coordination in their attacks. We'd hate to imagine what "losing" this fight would be like.
The White House learned a painful media lesson Thursday: Do not launch a press conference on the first night of May Sweeps! CBS, NBC and FOX cut off President Bush, mid-sentence, in several time zones, after sacrificing one hour of prime.
Here is a list of the 37-member Cabinet approved in Iraq on Thursday. Seven posts remain undecided.
Iraq's new prime minister said yesterday he submitted a slate of 36 cabinet members, including seven women, a critical step before the National Assembly votes on a new government drawing in main ethnic and religious groups and ending a three-month stalemate.
From the redoubt of his retirement, former secretary of state Colin Powell is beginning to exact revenge. His sterling reputation was soiled, having lost most of the important battles within the administration during the first term. While he lamented that he had been "deceived" into presenting false information before the United Nations to justify the Iraq war, he acted as the good soldier to the end, giving every sign of desiring to fade away.
One day after Iraq's National Assembly approved the country's first democratically elected government, insurgents launched a series of attacks in Iraq on Friday, killing at least 14 Iraqis and wounding 50, officials said.
...But if the U.S. military is getting better intelligence these days in Iraq, it appears that the militants are too. A recent surge in attacks against Iraqi officials and security forces, Shiite civilians and U.S. troops indicates rebels are successfully using informants to plan such assaults.
An Iraqi militant group said in an Internet posting Thursday it shot dead six Sudanese truck drivers it had kidnapped. A video of the shooting was placed on a website purportedly by the group Ansar al-Sunnah Army but it was not possible to confirm the six men, kneeling on the ground with their heads toward the camera, were killed.
Afghan government troops have captured a key Taliban commander after a brief shoot-out during a raid in southeastern Afghanistan, an official said yesterday.
A military jury sentenced a soldier to death Thursday for a deadly grenade and rifle attack on his own comrades during the opening days of the Iraq invasion, a barrage that prosecutors said was triggered by religious extremism.
Marines testifying on behalf of a comrade accused of murdering two Iraqi detainees praised him Thursday as a model leader who showed compassion for Iraqi citizens.
Some called Marine 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano the "preppy marine," a charismatic Gulf War veteran-turned-Wall Street broker who cut his long locks and reenlisted in the Marines after several close friends perished in the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks.
An Army squad leader accused of premeditated murder in the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian requested a military jury trial Tuesday after withdrawing from a pending plea agreement.
The United States military said it was investigating the shooting and wounding of three civilians by coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan. The three were in a civilian minivan traveling behind a military convoy when it ran into an ambush on Tuesday. According to the military, American troops returned fire on insurgents and hit the civilians, caught in the middle. The government news agency Bakhtar said the troops fired on the civilian car, suspecting them of being behind the ambush.
Belgian doctors sent an Iraqi girl home on Thursday after treating her for leg wounds caused by a bomb during the U.S. invasion -- and sent the 51,570 euro ($66,650) bill to the U.S. embassy.
A blood component recently approved by the FDA to help hemophiliacs control bleeding is now helping soldiers survive traumatic injuries that would have been fatal in past wars, according to Army doctors who studied medical techniques and technology used in Iraq.
U.S. colonel wages perception war by fielding complaints, questions on weekly call-in show. One caller wants to know why she can't attend the trials of her family members. The next claims his house was robbed of 3 million dinars after a raid, and he wants it back. A third asks about Western medical attention for a critically ill child.
Blogging live from Iraq, Airborne Hog Society has some Insurgent Bloopers, lets hope he reports more of these in the future. But don't stop there check out his whole blog, it's a great read.
(Greyhawk notes: this post, written during my tour in Iraq, was originally published here in January 2005. I'm re-posting it today to mark the one-year anniversary of CBS' broadcast of the various photos they had been handed via one of the defendents in the case, immediately after it was determined he would stand trial for his crimes. See also an even earlier post on the timeline of events surrounding the case. I suppose I should get around to updating that entry...)
Abu Ghraib is but a stone's throw from where I now type these words, and it's ugliness is more than skin deep. It's a very real place, and an undesirable home to criminals and those whose duty it is to guard them. But to many it's an abstract image, a debate point to be used against opponents like garlic to frighten vampires, a boogy man to frighten children. They inject that ward into any writing they do on certain topics in an attempt to frame the discussion around what is unquestionably now the immediate mind's eye association most people in the world make with the word "torture" - the horrendous photos from the notorious prison.
Here's an illustration from the Washington Post: Does the Right Remember Abu Ghraib? See, it's about Abu Ghraib people! Defend that! The title alone is an attempt to frame the debate on two points. 1) The issue is a right/left issue, and 2) The notorious digital images from Abu Ghraib are a result of government policy.
Both claims lack merit.
Let's dispense with the right/left aspect of this outright. Not everything can be pigeonholed into those political categories, and certainly no one on either end of the political spectrum feels torture is one of the defining points of their position. As much as some may take delight in setting up a "torture aficionado straw man" who supported that other guy in the last election" it's certainly not a legitimate starting point for any reasonable discussion on the matter. Unfortunately there are those who would have it that way in the US Senate, and whatever the outcome the nation will be the worse for it.
If you're looking for further discussion on that political topic move on. The remainder of this post is not for you. But you will miss a chance to look a little deeper into the ugly mirror that is Abu Ghraib, perhaps to clear a bit of fog from it's surface, and discover if you know all you think you do on that topic.
Take this simple 10 question quiz. The answers follow (no fair peeking). There are no trick questions, and no opinion questions. Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts. But perhaps not those you'll find on the editorial pages of your local paper.
Pencils ready? Here's the quiz:
1. The famous "60 Minutes" photos from Abu Ghraib were
a. Taken over a period of several months
b. All from one night
c. All from one week
-------------------
2. Who were the victims in those photos, and why were they singled out for abuse?
a. Iraqi cab drivers / mistakenly identified as terrorists
b. Suspected Al-Qaeda Terrorists / Intel officers acting under orders from the Pentagon had carefully instructed the guards at Abu Ghraib in the effectiveness of humiliation in getting terrorists to "sing", and actively encouraged it's use.
c. "Insurgents" / High Command needed info quickly to stem the rising tide of violence during Ramadan
d. Ordinary criminals in prison for their crimes, of no intelligence value/they were brought to the high security area for fighting among themselves at another area of the prison.
-------------------
3. Throughout Fall 2003 SSg Ivan Frederick, a guard at Abu Ghraib, was continuously emailing his concerns about conditions home to his family, but higher ups ignored them.
True or False
-------------------
4. The highest ranking of the accused torturers at Abu Ghraib were Reservists, not Active Duty. What were their civilian occupations?
a. Republican precinct Chairmen
b. WalMart Stockboys
c. Postal workers
d. Prison guards
-------------------
5. Lyndie England was an administrative worker at the prison. Why was she present for the torture session?
a. Not enough "real guards" due to poor planning
b. She was celebrating her Birthday with her boyfriend, and had violated orders to be there
c. The naked pyramid was scientifically proven more effective if a female was present
d. Direct orders of Donald Rumsfeld
-------------------
6. The Army suppressed the story of Abu Ghraib until the 60 Minutes broadcast.
True or False
-------------------
7. The Army investigation began
a. After 60 Minutes aired the photos when General Taguba was sent to find out what happened
b. Shortly after the event when a fellow guard learned of the photos and reported the abuse to higher ups at Abu Ghraib
c. When Frederick alerted his family to what he was being forced to do
d. When photos began showing up on weblogs operated by the guards
-------------------
8. How were the pictures made public?
a. Discovered after months-long investigations by reporter Seymour Hersh and 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes
b. Handed to Hersh by Gary Myers, his old pal from the My-Lai court martial who was coincidentally representing SSG Ivan Frederick, the highest ranking individual charged with torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, immediately after the preliminary hearing in which they were released to the defense
c. Handed to a representative of 60 Minutes by relatives of SSG Frederick
d. Discovered posted on weblogs operated by the guards
-------------------
9. General Taguba in Senate testimony blamed events on
a. Poorly supervised individuals acting on their own
b. Unnamed Pentagon bureaucrats
c. The military culture
d. Individuals carrying out what they believed to be legal orders
-------------------
10. SSG Frederick:
a. Was given a slap on the hand
b. Was found guilty by court martial despite the valiant efforts of his top-notch defense team to identify the "real criminals"
c. Pleaded guilty at start of court martial
---------------------------------------------------------
Answers
1: B. The photos were from November 8, 2003.
Those who thought otherwise are experiencing the "success" of Seymour Hersh's early efforts. In a theme later adopted and repeated worldwide, Seymour Hersh (and others) insisted frequently that there were thousands of photos available: "This is a generation that sends stuff on CDs, sends it around. some kid right now is negotiating with some European magazine. -- You know, I can't say that for sure, but it's there. -- It's out there. And the Army knows it." As of this writing no additional pictures have surfaced.
2. D. Criminals brought to the cell block for fighting. They were not being interrogated for information, in fact they were being tortured as punishment and for "fun". At England's hearing, a government lawyer read numerous statements from England's previous sworn statements into the record. The statements are of England admitting to stepping on prisoners' toes, taking photos, posing for photos and posing prisoners for photos, and saying she participated for fun, not due to orders. Additional testimony corroborated this admission.
Another Hershism: He tried desperately to depict the Abu Ghraib torture victims as innocents swept off the streets as a result of confessions gained in earlier torture sessions: "I'll tell you how they get there. You bust the guy that doesn't have anything to do. You humiliate him. You break him down. You interrogate him. He gives up the name of you want to know who is an insurgent, who is Al Qaeda? He gives up any name he knows."
3. False. Frederick began emailing his family about the situation at Abu Ghraib after he was arrested for his part in the torture. Those who thought otherwise may have been mislead by Seymour Hersh's original New Yorker piece on the event, in which Seymour told the story without using chronological order.
4. D. Although several early stories tried to paint them as untrained individuals thrust into a job they weren't prepared to do, Ivan Frederick (38 at the time) and Charles Graner (36 at the time) were prison guards.
Key quotes:
Frederick (original 60 Minutes story linked above): Frederick told us he will plead not guilty, claiming the way the Army was running the prison led to the abuse of prisoners.
"We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my chain of command for certain things...like rules and regulations," says Frederick. "And it just wasn't happening."
...He's a corrections officer at a Virginia prison, whose warden described Frederick to us as "one of the best."
Graner (link above): But public records indicate that Graner had troubles at work as a correctional officer in the state prison system in Greene County -- a history of disciplinary actions that culminated in his firing in 2000. He was later reinstated by an arbitrator.
A reporter who served with Graner previously: He said he was shocked to hear that Graner has been accused of mistreating prisoners, in part because of the training they and other guards received years ago. "It was drilled into our minds well before we left the continental U.S. what we were allowed to do, and not allowed to do, relative to the treatment of prisoners."
More Hersh: "Let me just say this. I believe the services have a -- look, the kids did bad things. But the notion that it's all just these kids [doing these things]... The officers are "in loco parentis" with these children. We send our children to war. And we have officers like that general, whose job is to be mother and father to these kids, to keep them out of trouble. The idea of watching these pictures, it's not only a failure of the kids, it's a failure of everybody in the command structure."
5. B. England was celebrating her 21st birthday with her boyfriend, Graner. Numerous early media versions of the story would quote her family members questioning why she was being used as a guard when that wasn't her job. (At the time it was a "not enough soldiers to do the job" story) England was in fact violating orders by being in the cell block. Later she would claim that her superiors had instructed her to pose and told her exactly what to do. If that's true, it was Frederick or Graner giving the "orders", but she never named names, or, if she did, it didn't "make the papers".
But England refused to give him up. In March 2003, she went with Graner and another soldier to Virginia Beach. During the trip, Graner took pictures of himself having anal sex with England. He also photographed her placing her nipple in the ear of the other soldier, who was passed out in a hotel room. Soon, it became their new game: Whenever Graner asked her to, England would strike a pose.6. False. The story first appeared in CNN in January, with a follow up in March, to include mentions of the photographic evidence. Without the sensational photos the story didn't get much attention."Everything they did, he took a picture of," says Hardy, her lawyer. "I asked Lynndie why she let him. She said, 'Guys like that. I just wanted to make him happy.' She was like a little plaything for him. The sexual stuff, the way he put her in those positions, that was his way of saying, 'Let's see what I can make you do.'"
<...>
During that time, Graner instigated another kind of amusement: sexually charged weekly theme parties in the barracks. "Naked Chem-Light Tuesday," he called it. A Chem-Light is a light stick used by soldiers that's akin to a flashlight, containing hydrogen peroxide and a fluorescent dye packaged in a small plastic tube. Break it open, and the stuff glows for hours. One night, Graner pulled his shorts down, poured the contents of a Chem-Light onto his penis, and walked around naked.
<...>
And pose for more pictures. In a supply room, Graner takes a shot of England performing oral sex. England adds a flourish for the photos: a thumbs-up sign. In another photo, England is standing near a detainee, Hayder Sabbar Abd, a 34-year-old taxi driver, as he is being made to simulate masturbation. Again, she gives a thumbs-up.
<...>
They'd found a dead goat and a dead cat somewhere and started slicing them up. Someone took a photo of a soldier pretending to have sex with the goat's head. "Then they cut off the cat's head and shoved it on the top of a soda bottle," England says.
For several weeks, the decaying animal heads provided entertainment for the soldiers. "Someone put sunglasses on them, and put the rifle next to the heads and took a picture. Some soldiers put a cigarette in the cat's mouth," she says. The soldiers stashed the severed heads in their rooms."It was funny," England says. "So funny."
7. B. The Army began investigating as soon as a fellow guard reported the photos he had seen.
8. C. The known correct answer is "C" - Members of Frederick's family handed the photos to a 60 Minutes representative. The NY Times offers this quote from his uncle: "The Army had the opportunity for this not to come out, not to be on 60 Minutes," he said. "But the Army decided to prosecute those six G.I.'s because they thought me and my family were a bunch of poor, dirt people who could not do anything about it. But unfortunately, that was not the case." Ironically that may better describe the motive of the 60 Minutes crew.
The relationship between Hersh and Frederick's lawyer was certainly just an amazing coincidence.
If you'd heard this quote from during the time of the 60 Minutes / "Rathergate" story you might have been misled on this question: Ms. Mapes is also responsible for CBS's reporting on the Abu Ghraib pictures, a story she helped break. According to TV reporter Gail Shister, "The scoop was the result of more than two months' legwork by 60 II producer Mary Mapes." In an interview with Charlie Rose, Mapes described how hard she worked to find the incriminating pictures:
"We ended up chasing it, chasing it halfway around the world and back again. Trying not just to chase the rumors of it, but---but to find out what the reality of it. And in the beginning, a lot of it was whispered accounts of pictures that existed somewhere, an investigation that was going somewhere against someone, and we were able luckily to narrow that down and get our hands on the pictures which really gave us our first real hard proof that this was real."
9. A. The key quote from Taguba's Senate testimony: "We did not find any evidence of a policy or a direct order given to these soldiers to conduct what they did. I believe that they did it on their own volition and I believe that they collaborated with several MI (military intelligence) interrogators at the lower level." Follow the link to see the media spin on this one. The headlines screamed "Taguba blames Leadership for Prison Abuse".
10. C. Frederick entered a guilty plea at the start of his court martial. No evidence was presented, the story was not recorded. His lawyer was at his side as he called for all those other guilty parties to follow his example. He didn't clarify who he meant. After he was sentenced to eight years his lawyer called the sentence "excessive" and said he intended to appeal.
What was your score?
A discussion of torture is an ugly necessity in the world today, but those who would enter that discourse with the battle cry of "Abu Ghraib" should at least understand their position. It's a house of cards, ugly cards to be sure, and not a foundation for discussion with any intent of serious resolution.
2005-01-07 12:47:17
Sorry no open post Yesterday, Greyhawk crashed early. (Slept like a baby.)
Even though it only happened a few months ago a lot of folks are already forgetting and denying the real true history of the war in Iraq. Thus, as a service to our readers, The Mudville Gazette presents excerpts from my upcoming book, The Real True History of the Iraq War before all that forgetting and denying gets any worse. The book will be academic yet accessible - and the first balanced, non-partisan look at the reality of Bushitler Chimpymonkey's neocon oil war for Cheney's Haliburton cronies ever.
Chapter One: Before the Beginning
February 2003: The tension built to a fever pitch. American opinion was evenly split for and against war in Iraq. But after the president's unforgettable State of the Union Address in which he revealed that Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to attack America with "nuculer" missiles and that the Iraqi dictator had actually piloted one of the suicide aircraft on 9/11, previously undecided Americans took to the streets by the hundreds of thousands, demanding an immediate invasion of Iraq, a nation previously best known for being the Garden of Eden.
The red-hot rhetoric over Social Security on liberal talkradio network AIR AMERICA has caught the attention of the Secret Service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
A liberal radio talk-show host who aired a comedy skit featuring an apparent gunshot warning to President Bush has apologized, and says she's not afraid of being prosecuted over the matter.
The fight against international terrorism remains "formidable" for the United States and its allies, with 651 significant attacks taking 1,900 lives worldwide last year, according to two US government reports released Wednesday.
President Bush will hold a prime-time news conference on Thursday night and will open it by setting out more specifically than he has so far his proposals for shoring up Social Security, the White House announced on Wednesday night.
Iraq's new prime minister said Wednesday he submitted a complete list of 36 Cabinet members, including seven women, a critical step before the National Assembly votes on a new government drawing in the main ethnic and religious groups and ending a three-month stalemate.
An Iraqi legislator was shot and killed by militants who stormed into her house in a middle class neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, underscoring fears that the political impasse has emboldened insurgents to step up deadly attacks in recent weeks, after a lull following the Jan. 30 elections.
The Iraqi platoon slips in darkness down a path from an abandoned rail yard to a cemetery in Haifa, a Baghdad district long notorious for insurgent ambushes
The American who led the hunt for Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction has revealed that the investigation was cut short after he was targeted by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the militant leader in an attack that left two people dead. The head of the Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, has reported that his investigation into the possible transfer of WMD to Syria had been wound up because of the "declining security situation".
Saddam Hussein asked his weapons specialists about a timeline to restart production of deadly chemical weapons and the potential to have a fleet of bomb-laden boats to attack American ships in the Persian Gulf, a CIA report says.
The United States opposed the reappointment of the U.N.'s top nuclear inspector Wednesday because of his views on Iran and prewar Iraq, prompting the atomic watchdog agency to delay its decision to avoid a confrontation with Washington and other members.
Washington still believes six-nation talks are the best way to solve the North Korean nuclear crisis, the top U.S. diplomat on the matter said on Thursday, steering clear of speculation that a deadline was looming for Pyongyang to return to the table.
...The Army has also enacted a number of changes designed to prevent future abuses, including identifying unacceptable interrogation methods, adding layers of oversight and requiring that all reports from the International Committee of the Red Cross be forwarded immediately up the chain of command to senior military officers and civilians at the Pentagon.
The Army is preparing to issue a new interrogations manual that expressly bars the harsh techniques disclosed in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, and incorporates safeguards devised to prevent such misconduct at military prison camps in the future, Army officials said Wednesday.
When soldiers in war are not properly trained and supervised, atrocities are all but inevitable. This is one reason why the military command structure is so important. There was a time, not so long ago, when commanders were expected to be accountable for the behavior of their subordinates.
The pretrial hearing of 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano opened yesterday with testimony from two government witnesses and a continued dispute over the investigating officer chosen by the Marine Corps to recommend whether the charges of premediated murder of two Iraqis should proceed to a court-martial.
A key witness in the case against a Marine officer accused of murdering two Iraqi civilians was abruptly taken off the stand Wednesday on suspicion of violating orders on giving interviews about the case.
Dissatisfied with the results of a joint investigation with the United States, Italy on Wednesday began its own probe into the March 4 killing of one of its intelligence agents by U.S. troops in Baghdad.
A Polish priest at the Vatican was accused Wednesday of collaborating with his country's communist secret police during the 1980s, a time when Pope John Paul II was inspiring his countrymen to resist the Soviet-backed government.
It is possible to read someone?s mind by remotely measuring their brain activity, researchers have shown. The technique can even extract information from subjects that they are not aware of themselves.
In Iraq, The JAG-ged Edge sees a star in the midst of a sandstorm.
"The only plausible reason for keeping American troops in Iraq is to protect the democratic transformation that President Bush seized upon as a rationale for the invasion after his claims about weapons of mass destruction turned out to be fictitious."
The New York Times editorial, 27 Apr 05
"Out and out dishonesty"
-Glenn Reynolds responds to same.
In today's mail: from Executive Producer Brad Maaske, a copy of WMD, The Murderous Reign of Saddam Hussein. Haven't had time to view it yet, but this accompanying note from Brad seems apt:
When we made WMD we realized that in America 30% of the people hate President Bush and another 10% have their minds closed about Iraq, and any war anywhere... No matter how you tell the story, the people who hate will continue to hate. Some even believe that Saddam is a hero for being strong and killing his people to maintain control. We doubt if anything in this lifetime will change that.If Brad's right, I suspect the Times editorial staff is pandering to that crowd.
But perhaps he's only partly right. Perhaps there's a certain percentage of the American population that had to have the fear of their own death via a nuclear, biological, or chemical attack made clear to them before they would give their personal approval to sending someone else's kids off to defend them in a war. I'm almost willing to believe such people exist, and that those same people are outraged because that old tricksy Bush pulled a fast one on them, and they now feel betrayed that their fervent support of the invasion of Iraq was built on a foundation of deception (or "fiction" as the Times would say). If so, let me assure any of those same gullible folks who may read this: Almost was the key word in the above sentence. I don't believe you exist. Fooled you though, didn't I? See, you're too easy.
But in case I'm wrong and you do exist, I feel it's my civic duty to warn you folks of this too: the New York Times might be the ones who are hoodwinking you. You know you can't trust your own judgment in such matters, so you would do well to keep that in mind.
Simplified version: are there really people out there who were tricked into supporting the war by the WMD issue, and if so, how do they know they can trust the NY Times?
Enough of that - it's not the main point of that Times piece anyway. They put their main point up front:
The millions of brave Iraqis who risked their lives to vote in January didn't expect that nearly three months later, their squabbling politicians would still be struggling to form a government. As a result, precious momentum has been lost, and a briefly improving security situation has again started deteriorating. The Sunni-based insurgency seems to have drawn fresh encouragement from the inability of the victorious Shiite and Kurdish parties to put the future of their country ahead of their narrow political agendas.
But that's especially ill-timed, given the headlines in so many other papers today:
Iraqi Leaders Give 6 Cabinet Posts to SunnisWow - stop the presses! Sorry boss, too late.
With Pressure Mounting To Form Government, Breakthrough AchievedBAGHDAD, April 27 -- Iraq's new Kurdish and Shiite Arab political leaders agreed to a cabinet split Tuesday, giving six posts to the holdout Sunni Arab minority, top politicians involved in the negotiations said.
Too make matters clear though, I applaud the New York Time's expression of the need for swift action in government - after all, it hardly reflects credit on a democracy when the elected representatives of the people can't set aside partisan bickering and appoint ministers in a timely fashion.
And I'm sure the Times editors aren't tricking me with this new editorial emphasis on eliminating obstructionism and endless, indecisive debate in government. I know truth from fiction, after all. So although they probably prefer not to use vulgar terms associated with weapons of mass destruction I look forward to seeing the Times clarion call for the US Senate to pass "the nuclear option" in tomorrow's editorial.
The Dawn Patrol, a daily feature of the Mudville Gazette, is a roundup of news stories that we think might be of interest to readers and of use to fellow bloggers. Appearances of stories or editorials in this collection are not to be considered as endorsement of their content by the Greyhawks.
Comments caught on tape encouraging battle in Iraq
The question is raised with the disclosure of secretly recorded comments from the kingdom's chief justice encouraging young Saudis to travel to Iraq to wage war against Americans.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday that U.S. and allied forces in Iraq are winning the war against former Saddam Hussein loyalists, foreign terrorists and criminals.
The recovery of a laptop computer in Iraq by American forces in February has helped in the capture of several associates of the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.
Texas Army National Guardsmen play a deadly game of Russian Roulette every time they go to work because the sandy ground that they patrol is strewn with unexploded ammunition.
Iraq's prime minister-designate Ibrahim Jaafari reportedly handed President Jalal Talabani his proposed cabinet list, after nearly three months of protracted consultations which tested Washington's patience.
Iraq's new Kurdish and Shiite Arab political leaders agreed to a cabinet split Tuesday, giving six posts to the holdout Sunni Arab minority, top politicians involved in the negotiations said.
The CIA's chief weapons inspector said he cannot rule out the possibility that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were secretly shipped to Syria before the March 2003 invasion, citing "sufficiently credible" evidence that WMDs may have been moved there.
The new leader of Iraq has sent a letter to Tony Blair thanking him and the British people for freeing his country from Saddam Hussein.
An explosive study released today on New York Times coverage of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict reveals that the Times reported Israeli deaths at rates up to seven to ten times greater than Palestinian deaths.
The U.S. count of major world terrorist attacks more than tripled in 2004, a rise that may revive debate on whether the Bush administration is winning the war on terrorism, congressional aides said on Tuesday.
The millions of brave Iraqis who risked their lives to vote in January didn't expect that nearly three months later, their squabbling politicians would still be struggling to form a government. As a result, precious momentum has been lost, and a briefly improving security situation has again started deteriorating. The Sunni-based insurgency seems to have drawn fresh encouragement from the inability of the victorious Shiite and Kurdish parties to put the future of their country ahead of their narrow political agendas.
Tensions between the United States and Italy surged Tuesday, as Italian politicians and citizens reacted furiously to leaked reports in the Italian news media that a joint investigation into the shooting death of an Italian agent in Baghdad would absolve American soldiers of guilt in the incident.
Military prosecutors ended months of silence on Tuesday as they presented their first witnesses in the case of a marine accused of murder during his platoon's search of a suspected insurgent hideout near Baghdad last year.
Fellow Marines testified Tuesday that an officer who is accused of murder shot two Iraqis in the back and put a sign near the bodies bearing a Marine slogan: "No better friend, no worse enemy."
Going once, going twice, SOLD to the highest bidder: Military-issue items including body armor, combat helmets and gas masks.
President Bush is offering to make closed military bases available for new oil refineries and will ask Congress to provide a "risk insurance" to the nuclear industry against regulatory delays to spur construction of new nuclear power plants, senior administration officials said Tuesday.
Afghanistan's ousted Taliban have denied that an Afghan arrested in the United States and accused of being a top heroin trafficker ever supported them, as a U.S. prosecutor has said.
Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker says his investigation into the scandal-plagued oil-for-food program has not cleared U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of wrongdoing, despite Mr. Annan's claims to the contrary.
President Vladimir V. Putin made the first official visit to Egypt by a Russian leader in 40 years on Tuesday, focusing on efforts to revive the internationally backed plan for Middle East peace in a meeting with Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak.
A state Senate committee approved a proposal Tuesday to put a serial number on every handgun bullet made or sold in California.
By Byron Spice, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Researchers called an early halt to two large, federally sponsored clinical studies of the drug Herceptin when it proved to be unusually effective at preventing cancer.
Something different: Tarzana Joe will do a segment on poetry from front line troops on Hugh Hewitt's radio program today - 3PM Pacific. We solicited entries for this project a couple week back - rumor has it a Greyhawk original piece might be included. Check local listings, or listen on line here.
Michael Schaefer, creator of Deepblog, sends sad news:
My father, F.W. Schaefer of Hutchinson, Minnesota, passed away yesterday. America has lost yet another proud veteran of WWII. He is loved and missed.I'm sure a comment would be appreciated here.
The 90th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli passed by last weekend. (A 1981 movie version of the campaign
Gallipoli Casualties:
Turkey 86,692
Britain 21,255
France 9,798
Australia 8,709
New Zealand 2,701
India 1,358
Newfoundland 49
Vietnam veteran and author John Harriman returns to Mudville with the seventh installment of his series Warrior to Warrior, letters from a Vietnam veteran to our soldiers in Iraq. See the intro to the series here).
Welcome to The World, Capital W
By John Harriman
Dear Warrior . . .
After you were in Iraq a while-say, 10 minutes-you started thinking about coming home, right?
That's how it is for soldiers. You count the days down and always know the number. You keep time with Xs on your calendars, and one bold, circled, starred and underlined X marks your day of departure.
Vietnam veterans had a name for home: The World, capital T, capital W, our name for the only world that mattered.
The World was an idealized world, to be sure.
Back in The World, we thought, the air is fresher, the sky is clearer, the beer is colder and the women are hotter.
Back in The World, we argued, the food tastes better, the work is safer, the neighbors are friendlier and the dog might have had an itch, but it never had fleas.
Back in The World, we vowed, we would go back to school and spend more time in class and less time in bed. This time we would earn that degree, and this time with a B average.
Back in The World, we promised, we would not cut corners on the job and not call in sick just to get extra days at elk camp . . . okay, well, maybe just one extra day.
Back in The World, we swore to God, we'd go to church every Sunday and be more considerate of our parents and more thoughtful to all of our loved ones.
Then we got back to The World.
There we found that many of our good intentions didn't last any longer than our best efforts. Because we found the world we live in is where we are and what we make of it, whether we're in a foreign country or in the Sweet Grass Hills of Montana. We found that the world--small t, small w--is no more awful nor more beautiful than our ability to make it so. We knew this all along, but in our fascination with getting to that bold, circled, starred, underlined X on the calendar, we simply ignored reality. So we missed a lot of day-to-day living by living only for a day on the calendar.
We found, too, that The World went on without us.
We found that our families loved us and missed us, of course. But Dad didn't stop bird hunting. Mom didn't stop taking her famous muffins to church, Sis got engaged with no regard for us, and, inconsiderate kid that he is, Little Brother didn't stop growing until he got taller than his older, bolder, soldier brother. And, "Oh, dear," said Mom, "Would you mind giving Dusty a bath? He's got fleas again." Not again, Mom. Still.
We found that news people didn't care all THAT much whether we came home unless we came home in a coffin.
We found that our neighbors, if they acknowledged our return at all, didn't really want to talk about our war. And they seemed to get more than a little uncomfortable if we mentioned it. So we kept our mouths shut for decades.
We found that people stared at us because we poured our milk or beer over ice, which was the only way we could cool it down over there. And Mom was shocked at how we drowned so much of our food in catsup, which helped the meals go down in that other world.
On the plus side, our wives were way more beautiful than when we left. The air was fresher, too, the food better, the mountains and prairies and skies every bit as grand as we had dreamt.
One thing we didn't expect, though. We found we missed something from that other world. A thing we didn't appreciate while we were over there. Isn't that always the way?
We found we missed the men around us, our brothers in arms. We missed the bond we had welded in a brotherhood of war. We never felt it until we left, and for some of us, it took decades to appreciate.
You have a chance still to make it a part of your experience. Put a circle around tomorrow instead of an X. For just one day, instead of looking to come home, look to your brothers at war. Write down their names in a journal and in your heart. You may think you want to forget the guy who keeps filling your boots with sand every night. Later, when you return to The World, you will want to remember his name--all their names--for all time. Believe me.
Till next week . . .
God bless you and Godspeed.
____________
John is a veteran of two combat tours in Vietnam and a member of the American Legion. These columns are excerpts from an upcoming book. His current book, Delta Force #1 : Operation Michael's Sword is a fictional account of the 9/11 attacks and the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom.
US investigators have found that American troops who shot an Italian agent to death at a Baghdad checkpoint March 4 followed proper procedures, an Army official said yesterday. But Italy was disputing two factual issues in the report: the speed of the car and the nature of communications between the Italians and US forces before the shooting. Intelligence officer Nicola Calipari was killed while escorting freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena.
A front-page article yesterday about Bush administration pressure on Iraqi political leaders to reach a compromise on a government included an erroneous identification provided inadvertently by a State Department official for an Iraqi who had been telephoned by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He was Massoud Barzani, leader of a main Kurdish political party, not Jalal Talabani, an Iraqi Kurd who is the new president.
Following training, Iraqi soldiers will be capable of protecting the Green Zone
and its surrounding areas without assistance from the U.S. military.
U.S. soldiers assigned to the 6th Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division took the first steps toward the success of their new mission in Iraq April 18 -- training the ?Defenders of the Green Zone.?
More reports on training:
Staff Sergeant Lloyd Pegues (1-30th Infantry, Fort Benning, GA), an instructer at the Iraqi Army Academy, talks about the progress of the Iraqui forces.
Captain Michael Whitney (1-30th Infantry, Fort Benning, GA) went along for the ride as the Iraqi Army to house to house searches.
Coalition forces captured 18 suspected terrorists during a search-and-seizure operation conducted April 22-24 in Babil province, Iraq. Elsewhere, a security detainee died at a U.S. military hospital.
Jordanian rebel Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ? Iraq's most wanted fugitive ? recently eluded capture by American troops, but left behind a treasure trove of information, a senior military official told ABC News
Wrapping up his investigation into Saddam Hussein's purported arsenal, the CIA's top weapons hunter in Iraq said his search for weapons of mass destruction "has been exhausted" without finding any.
Report Finds No Evidence Syria Hid Iraqi Arms
U.S. investigators hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have found no evidence that such material was moved to Syria for safekeeping before the war, according to a final report of the investigation released yesterday.
Insurgents fighting against US forces and the new government in Iraq are making a concerted effort to gain chemical weapons capability and have already used old Iraqi chemical munitions in their attacks, the top US weapons investigator has warned.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told the nation Monday that the collapse of the Soviet empire "was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century" and had fostered separatist movements inside Russia.
President Bush on Monday pressed Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah to help curb skyrocketing oil prices that are hurting the budgets of American families and businesses.
Crude oil futures slipped Monday as President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah met, in part, to discuss possible ways to bring down high oil prices.
The United States' top diplomat in Venezuela on Monday denied claims by President Hugo Chavez that a woman linked to the U.S. military had been arrested while photographing a military installation.
Zacarias Moussaoui?s guilty plea last week in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and his admission that he was training for a separate, post-9/11 attack on the White House, reveal a chilling truth about al Qaeda, the new secretary of homeland security said today.
An Afghan man regarded by the US as one of the world's most wanted heroin traffickers has been arrested, American officials have announced.
..."You are Muslim, aren't you?" he said to the Turkish manager of one fully stocked bar. "You aren't allowed to serve this liquor."
"We are Muslim," manager Cenk Acar said. "But this is business."
An Afghan woman was stoned to death in the northeastern Badakhshan province on the basis of a Fatwa (decree) issued by religious scholars after reportedly finding her guilty of adultery.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is downplaying suggestions the United States might seek United Nations approval for a blockade of North Korea to prevent it from exporting nuclear technology or material. Ms. Rice says the Bush administration remains committed to the Chinese-sponsored six-party talks to persuade Pyongyang to end its nuclear program.
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of four U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
Only one in two Germans below the age of 24 know that the term 'Holocaust' is used to describe the mass murder of Jews by the Nazi regime, the daily newspaper Die Welt reported on Saturday.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has overcome fierce opposition attacks over his support for the Iraq war to hold a strong lead in the run-up to a May 5 general election, two opinion polls showed on Tuesday.
The government is bracing itself for the possibility that the 13 pages of legal advice drawn up by the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, in the build-up to the Iraq war will be leaked, as many expect, in the next few days.
Comic books and soldiers have been allies since the earliest days of World War II, when Superman and Captain America sold war bonds, promoted paper drives and battled Nazis at home and abroad.
Now superheroes are going back to the front.
Dadmanly (a soldier in Iraq) debates yet another anti-war type blog to blog. This one, at least, has the courage to link back to Dadman.
So what's the combined impact of these online discussions on his frame of mind?
I am herewith announcing my intent to create cross-border dialog with those thoughtful and concerned liberals who are as alarmed with the current state of political discourse and discussion as I am. Please contact me with any ideas, I thought perhaps a group blog, or interest in creating such a debate space in the Blogosphere.Best of luck Dadman - I mean that, but your recent experience makes exactly one example I know of where a lefty blogger has linked a GI in Iraq. Our reality doesn't fit the "reality-based" community.
Your Ho Chi Minh City at 30 version of From the Front.
Was it worth it? A Vietnam veteran tells his story:
"They came at us about 5:30 in the morning. They overran the camp. We beat them back. They overran it again. We beat them back. I'd never seen hand-to-hand before. It lasted more than six hours. I see a personnel carrier. One of the Vietnamese, he didn't even have a weapon anymore, just a little guy with a hatchet. The battle was over, but he ran and attacked the personnel carrier, banging on it with his hatchet."One of our guys on top of the carrier looked
