Just Foreign Policy Iraqi Death Estimator    

Saturday, June 24, 2006

How Many more Innocent Lives will be lost, for this Mad Mans Lies

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Journalist Who Reported Evidence Disputing US Claims of an Al Qaeda Kill Has Been Murdered in Pak/Afghan Tribal Areas

A journalist who reported evidence contradictory to US claims on how Al Qaeda operative of tribal areas has been brutally murdered near Miran Shah. His killing has created great fear and terror in the whole tribal areas. Some suspect that the Bush administration has had a hand in the murder.

Link Here

Rob Kall: Bushstapo Uses Entrapment-Tainted "Terrorist Arrest" of Laughable Bozos

to Bump CIA Massive Spying on Bank Records as Top News Story

by Rob Kall

http://www.opednews.com

Most of the mainstream media ignored the important news and fell for the bait the Bushstapo threw them. It was a brilliant day for media manipulation and spin for Karl Rove.

Yesterday two major news developments emerged. The important one was that the CIA has spied upon millions of financial transactions, which is outrageous evidence of further abuses of power by the Bush administration. They are throwing the constitution down the toilet.

But Bush's team masterfully played the media, almost totally wiping the real story off the front pages, dropping it to minor news on TV, by electing to arrest, using major entrapments, a group of silly, incompetent misfits, who might have had fantasies of being terrorists.

It appears the Bush administration was working from an out of date version of a Canadian playbook, since the Canadians had arrested a group of "terrorists" a few weeks earlies. The problem is, apparently, the Bushstapo didn't keep paying attention in Canada, because the Canadian terrorists have become the laughing stock of Canada. They ordered two tons of highly-tracked-as-potential-bomb-material Ammonium nitrate to be delivered to a local storage locker, a dead give-away that something strange was amiss.

But the Miami "terrorists" didn't even come close to ordering explosive materials. They carried out a few actions that the government agents trying to entrap them encouraged them to engage in. Even Bushstapo chief Gonzalez acknowledged there is no immediate threat."

The reason this ragtag band of bozos was arrested was because the Bush administration needed a cover for the real news that was leaked, to the great consternation of Dick Cheney, that Bush and his people were doing even more spying in another area of our lives.

If we look at the terrorists who the Bush administration has arrested and prosecuted so far, they have two characteristics in common; most are eventually released for lack of an iota of evidence, and the ones who are held are idiots or nut jobs-- not a hardened, tough, serious terrorist among them-- NOT ONE!!

Tragically, these "terrorists" are being used by the Bushstapo to act as a foil for their further assaults on the constitution and American rights to privacy. This "terrorist arrest" was massively orchestrated with the mainstream media, with talking head experts on Terrorism jumping through hoops to describe how safe the targets are, how brilliant the arrest was.

But not everyone is buying it.

Bill PressAttorney Andrew Cohen writes for CBSnews.com Major Terror Ring Or 'Al Qaeda Lite'?: >>>cont

Link Here

Terror plan farcical

By ADAM HARVEY25jun06THE plot sounded menacing: a group of home-grown terrorists with sinister code names seek help from al-Qaida to attack the tallest US building, the 103-storey Sears Tower in Chicago.

But as more details emerge of a supposed terror plot interrupted by US authorities, the plotters and their half-baked plan seem less than deadly and more than a little ridiculous. >>>cont

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Pentagon: Vaccines may have killed soldier

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- A Fort Bragg paratrooper's death may have been caused by vaccinations he received for smallpox and influenza, the Pentagon said.

Pfc. Christopher "Justin" Abston, 26, of Smiths Grove, Ky., died unexpectedly in his barracks Dec. 4, 16 days after receiving the vaccines.

"The expert panel cautioned that the findings pointing to vaccinations were neither probable nor unlikely, but they do suggest the possibility that the vaccines may have caused Abston's death," the Army statement said.

The statement said the smallpox vaccine Abston received is known to cause an inflammation of the heart muscle or myocarditis, a condition found at his autopsy.

No vaccinia virus - the main ingredient of smallpox vaccine - was found in his heart muscle, but evidence of another virus, parvovirus B19, was detected. Natural infection with parvovirus B19 is another known cause of heart inflammation and death, the statement said.

The United States ended routine childhood vaccination against smallpox in 1971, and the World Health Organization reported the disease was eradicated in 1980. But about 15 months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. government ordered certain military personnel vaccinated and recommended shots for front-line health care workers.

Link Here

Iraq Veterans Facing Homelessness


(AP) NEW YORK As a member of the National Guard, Nadine Beckford patrolled New York train stations after Sept. 11 with a 9mm pistol, then served a treacherous year in Iraq.

Now, six months after returning, Beckford lives in a homeless shelter.

...

Thousands of veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan are facing a new nightmare -- the risk of homelessness. The government estimates that several hundred vets who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are homeless on any given night around the country, although the exact number is unknown.

...

Former Army Pfc. Herold Noel had nowhere to call home after returning from Iraq last year. He slept in his Jeep, parked anywhere in New York "where I wouldn't get a ticket."

"Then the nightmares would start," said the 26-year-old, who drove a military fuel truck in Iraq -- one of the war's most dangerous jobs. At one point, he saw a friend's leg get blown off. "I saw a baby decapitated when it was run over by a truck. I relived that every night," said Noel, who walks with shrapnel in his knee and suffers from severe post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Link Here

Iraqi cleric freed after U.S. raid

U.S. forces release a revered 70-year-old Sunni cleric, hours after detaining him, Iraqi officials said.

Earlier on Saturday crowds had gathered to denounce the early morning raid on the Tikrit home of Sheikh Jamal Abdul Karim al-Dabban, which was described as "outrageous" by a key political party.

FULL STORY

Patsy Ramsey has died of ovarian cancer, Jon Benet's mother

Just announced on MSNBC.

FOCUS | A Statement by Ehren Watada's Mother

Carolyn Ho, mother of war resister Lt. Ehren Watada, asks the nation to support her son at an upcoming National Day of Action on June 27th. She says that her son "demonstrates that one does not relinquish the freedom to choose what is right, even in the military, and that the freedom to choose what is right transcends the allegiance to man and institutions."

Link Here

FOCUS | Larry C. Johnson: So-Called Iraqi WMD


Larry Johnson comments on Rick Santorum's "desperate effort to re-energize his failing re-election campaign by touting the discovery of so-called Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq." He says that Santorum is trying to portray old stockpiles of sarin and mustard gas as WMDs, but these "were not the bill of goods sold to the American people to justify invading Iraq. We were warned of imminent mushroom clouds and unmanned aerial vehicles spritzing amusement parks with deadly biological agents."

Link Here

Terrorists in Miami, Ohhhh My

The Bush administration's high-profile round-up of seven young black men in Miami for what amounts to "aspirational" terrorism stands in marked contrast to the see-no-evil approach taken toward right-wing Cuban terrorists who have been protected by the Bush family for three decades. Though the Cubans have engaged in actual terrorism, including the mid-air bombing of a Cubana Airlines plane, they are shielded from ever facing justice for their crimes.

For the full story on how the Bush family applies two standards of moral outrage regarding terrorism, go to Consortiumnews.com at


Link Here

Legacy of Treason Depleted Uranium and the Poisoning of Humanity

ABOUT THE FILM :: BSHARP PRODUCTIONS :: Blowin' In The Wind :: The ...

In recent years I have become aware of the issue of depleted uranium (DU) and its use by the US Military in Iraq in 1991 and again in the current Iraq war. The photos of birth deformities and stories of suffering resulting from DU shocked me, reminding me of the Agent Orange victims of America's Vietnam war. Then I watched David Bradbury and Peter Scott's new film, Blowin' in the Wind . Its content shocked and appalled me, and spurred me into researching and writing this article. It is undoubtedly by far the most significant issue on the planet today, and yet the mainstream media stays quiet...

continua / continued

DEPLETED URANIUM BURNING: AN E T E R N A L MEDICAL DISASTER

Shocked? Angry? Scared by what you've seen?

Byronchild Magazine

Then I watched David Bradbury and Peter Scott's new film, Blowin' in the Wind . Its content shocked and appalled me, and spurred me into researching and ...

A FORGOTTEN "DAY OF INFAMY

Malcom Lagauche
Most countries have one or two days a year that indicate a tragedy for the nation. In the U.S., December 7, 1941, the day the Japanese attacked Peal Harbor, has been labeled a "day of infamy." September 11, 2001 has surpassed December 7 as a rallying cry for U.S. solidarity. Iraq, a county much smaller than the U.S., and never as large a player on the international scene, can claim several days of infamy: January 17, 1991; February 14, 1991; March 20, 2003; and April 9, 2003, among others. But, one date that gains little international attention is imbedded in the hearts and minds of all Iraqis: June 26, 1993. On that date, the U.S. military, under the command of Bill Clinton, ordered 23 Tomahawk guided missiles to demolish the headquarters of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence services, in central Baghdad. Twenty of the missiles hit the agency complex, while "only" three missed their targets...

continua / continued

The killing of US soldiers in Yusufiya: who’s responsible?


David Walsh, WSWS

...More than three years of indiscriminate violence and repressive military operations, the imprisonment and torture of innocent civilians, the destruction of the economy and infrastructure, which has made life unlivable for all but the most privileged stooges of the Americans, the deliberate fomenting of sectarian conflict, with its horrifying consequences—all this has produced levels of popular rage that inevitably find expression. Every ruthless colonial war has been met with popular ruthlessness. In every case, the responsibility lies with the colonizers...

continua / continued

Mainstream Media Lets White House Determine What is News, Virtually Ignores Offically-Declared "State of Emergency" in Iraq

as Various Resistance Groups Battle Our GIs Around the Green Zone



WhatReallyHappened.com

The mainstream media is -- as usual -- letting the Bush Administration lead it around by its nose. You'd have to look hard in any mainstream paper, or on any mainstream news program, to know that an official State of Emergency has been declared in Iraq. What does that mean? It means that the fighting, blood-letting and death has gotten so bad that American GIs are battling the resistance right outside the Green Zone. It means that never-ending talk of the "last throes of the insurgency" are, once again, shown to be lies by the reality on the ground...

continua / continued

Navy Finds Personal Data On 28,000 Sailors Posted Online...


Washington Post Josh White June 24, 2006 at 07:11 AM

Navy officials discovered this week that personal information on nearly 28,000 sailors and family members was compromised when it appeared on a Web site, fueling more concerns about the security of sensitive information belonging to federal employees.

Five spreadsheet files of data -- including names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of sailors and their relatives -- were found exposed on a Web site Thursday night during routine internal sweeps of the Internet for sensitive material, said Lt. Justin Cole, a spokesman for the chief of naval personnel. He said the material was removed from the Web site within two hours.

READ WHOLE STORY

National Dem. Insiders “Are Saying That Lieberman Could Lose” To Lamont...


Political Wire Stuart Rothenberg June 24, 2006 at 07:22 AM

National Democratic insiders aren't pulling many punches when it comes to Sen. Joe Lieberman's (D-CT) primary in Connecticut against businessman Ned Lamont. They are saying that Lieberman could lose.

The senator is having considerable problems with older white men, and his allies are counting on strong support in the minority community and from women to squeeze out a victory over the anti-war challenger.

READ WHOLE STORY

The Real Face of the Republican Party ANN COULTER

US Approves New Uranium Enrichment Plant...

New York Times MATTHEW L. WALD June 24, 2006 at 08:12 AM

In a milestone for nuclear power, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a license late Friday to a European consortium to build a uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico. It was the first time the N.R.C. had licensed an enrichment plant and only the second time it had used a new licensing system intended to smooth the path for new power reactors, if any are ordered.

Urenco, a consortium owned by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., the Dutch government and several German utilities, plans to break ground this summer and build a plant nearly identical to one operating in the Netherlands.

READ WHOLE STORY

Gore: Global Warming Skeptics “Will Seize On Anything To Say Up Is Down And Black Is White”...


Think Progress Faiz June 24, 2006 at 10:48 AM
READ MORE: 2006, Al Gore, Global Warming

As House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) said, "There is nothing in this report that should raise any doubts about the broad scientific consensus on global climate change...or any doubts about whether any paper on the temperature records was legitimate scientific work." But science has never stood in the way of global warming skeptics. The NAS report is no exception.

On a conference call that Al Gore held with bloggers this afternoon, I asked him for a response to the claims made by Electricity Daily and Sen. Inhofe. He said that global warming skeptics "will seize on anything to say up is down and black is white." Gore explained that science, by nature, thrives on uncertainty and tries to eliminate it; politics, on the other hand, is vulnerable to being paralyzed by uncertainty. When science and politics converge, Gore argued, the chance for "cowardice is high."

Read the whole post here.

Iraqi PM's Reconciliation Plan To Call For Withdrawal Timetable, Amnesty For Insurgents, Release Of Detainees...

Newsweek Rod Nordland June 24, 2006 at 03:46 PM
READ MORE: Iraq

A timetable for withdrawal of occupation troops from Iraq. Amnesty for all insurgents who attacked U.S. and Iraqi military targets. Release of all security detainees from U.S. and Iraqi prisons. Compensation for victims of coalition military operations.

Those sound like the demands of some of the insurgents themselves, and in fact they are. But they're also key clauses of a national reconciliation plan drafted by new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who will unveil it Sunday. The provisions will spark sharp debate in Iraq--but the fiercest opposition is likely to come from Washington, which has opposed any talk of timetables, or of amnesty for insurgents who have attacked American soldiers.

READ WHOLE STORY

Iraq drafts a plan for amnesty, reconciliation - Boston Globe - 13 hours ago

Amnesty for insurgents would work - Los Angeles Times - 23 Jun 2006

Iraq Refines Its Amnesty Plan - Washington Post - 22 Jun 2006

Peace be with Carl Kabat, OMI, Greg Boertje-Obed, & Michael Walli


North Dakota: Clowns (One from St. Louis) Sabotage Nuclear Warhead

Just imagine America, it was that easy for this priest and two vet to reach a nuclear weapon and use hammers on it imagine if it had been a terrorist what could have happened, And Georgie is going to protect you, THINK AGAIN.

Hell yes, it gives me back a little faith, that their is a priest out there, that speaks out to the evil that is being committed by Georgie and his band of rogues. Thank You and Bless You for giving me that little bit of faith again.

WMD Found in North Dakota: Disarmament Begins Tuesday

June 20, 2006

A Roman Catholic Priest and two Veterans went to a Minuteman III silo this morning and began to disarm the nuclear weapon using hammers.

More Info: Jonah House "Democracy Now" coverage 6-21 MP3 Interview with Kabat



Reverend Carl Kabat, OMI, Gregory Boertje-Obed, and Michael Walli entered the E-9 missile silo on the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation in North Dakota about 75 miles southwest of Minot. Using a sledgehammer and household hammers, they disabled the lock on the personnel entry hatch that provides access to the warhead and they hammered on the silo lid that covers the 300 kiloton nuclear warhead that is targeted and ready to launch. The activists painted DISARM on the face of the 110-ton hardened silo cover and the peace activists poured their blood on the missile lid.

They were detained and arrested by McLean County Sheriffs and are being held in the McLean County jail. The three have been charged with County Criminal Trespass and Criminal Mischief.

Speaking from jail, Greg Boertje-Obed, from Duluth , Minnesota , explained, “I believe Jesus led us to do this witness based on his teachings of intervening for the sake of the poor.
These weapons are killing us and the poor today. I believe this plowshares action is a natural extension of our Catholic Worker mission which is hospitality, providing for the needs of the poor, and defending the poor.”

Carl Kabat, OMI from St. Louis , Missouri added, “We now prepare for the nuclear bombing of Iran with the reasoning that only weapons of mass destruction can stop weapons of mass destruction. We bombed and strafed in Iraq based on lies that the Iraqi's possessed nuclear weapons. We have the weapons here.”

The Minuteman III missile is targeted and on alert for launch. The missile is armed with a warhead that carries 27 times the heat, blast and radiation of the bomb dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima , Japan in 1945.

The activists say that they are following the nonviolent Jesus, that they are taught by their faith to love their enemies, and that the money used for these weapons of mass destruction is a theft from the poor and should be used for food, housing, medical care and rebuilding the infrastructure of our country.

Nukewatch
PO Box 649Luck ,
WI 54853

Contact Nukewatch: 715-472-4185
Thursday or later — Cell: 715-491-3813
For press updates, more information and images, go to http://www.jonahhouse.org/

A Photo-Essay on the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki















IMAGINE IF IT HAD BEEN TERRORISTS.

OUR STATEMENT

WMD Here Plowshares
North DakotaE-8 Minuteman III
Missile SiloJune 20, 2006


Please pardon the fracture of the good order. When we were children we thought as children and spoke as children. But now we are adults and there comes a time when we must speak out and say that the good order is not so good, and never really was. We know that throughout history there have been innumerable war crimes. Two of the most terrible war crimes occurred on August 6th and 9th, 1945. On August 6th, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima , Japan , killing more than 100,000 people (including U.S. prisoners of war). Three days later the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki , Japan , killing more than 50,000 people. Use of these weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations were abominable crimes against humanity.

The U.S. has never repented of these atrocities. On the contrary, the U.S. has deepened and expanded its commitment to nuclear weapons. The U.S. built a large nuclear-industrial complex which has caused the deaths of many workers and has resulted in killing many more people by nuclear testing. Our country built thousands of nuclear weapons and has dispersed weapons-grade uranium to 43 nations. Each Minuteman III missile carries a bomb that is 27 times more powerful than those dropped on the Japanese people. The building of these weapons signifies that our hearts have assented to mass murder. Currently the U.S. is seeking to research a new class of smaller nuclear weapons – demonstrating its desire to find new uses for weapons of mass destruction.

The U.S. is rushing down the path that leads to more death and destruction, ultimately bringing this nation and other nations to ruin. Therefore we issue a call for national repentance. We make an urgent appeal to the people of the U.S. to change course – to place our security in God and not in weapons of mass destruction.

We have chosen to start the process of transformation and disarmament by hammering on and pouring our blood on components of the Minuteman III nuclear missile system. We believe that the concrete that goes into making missile silos would be better used for building homes. We know that total disarmament of our first-strike system of nuclear weapons will require national repentance with a change in the hearts and minds of the people of the U.S. The pouring of our blood is meant to make visible the bloodshed resulting from the production, testing, and use of nuclear weapons. We believe the message in the Bible that after Cain killed his brother Abel that Abel's blood “cried out from the ground.” We hear our sisters' and brothers' blood crying out from the ground. We believe that God hears these cries and grieves deeply over every person whose blood is shed.

We call ourselves the “Weapon of Mass Destruction Here Plowshares” to highlight that our nation has thousands of horrific weapons of mass destruction. U.S. leaders speak about the dangers of other nations acquiring nuclear weapons, but they fail to act in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which commits the U.S. to take steps to disarm its weapons of mass destruction. We act in order to bring attention to people's responsibility for disarming weapons of state terrorism. We can begin the process of exposing U.S. weapons of mass destruction, naming them as abominations that cause desolation, and transforming them to objects that promote life.

We dress as clowns to show that humor and laughter are key elements in the struggle to transform the structures of destruction and death. Saint Paul said that we are “fools for God's sake,” and we say that we are “fools for God and humanity.” Clowns as court jesters were sometimes the only ones able to survive after speaking truth to authorities in power.

Is there hope for the world? Yes – if people begin to live the truth now. We believe that Jesus reveals who God is, and that God is a God of love and nonviolence, teaching us to love all people, even our enemies. Furthermore, the prophets Isaiah and Micah prophesy that there will come a time when people will learn the ways of God and

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

By our plowshares/pruning hooks action we have tried to make visible God's will for disarmament and peacemaking. By living this truth we hope to shorten this murderous age – closing the gap between the future hope for universal peace and our present reality of endless violence and war-making. We begin to bring hope into the present moment.

-Carl Kabat, OMI, Greg Boertje-Obed, & Michael Walli

Link Here

Salon: Bush Admin. Hides Illegal Deeds With “State Secrets” Privilege...


Salon Mark Follman June 23, 2006 at 05:19 PM
READ MORE: George W. Bush

American presidents have long tested the bounds of executive power during wartime. But when it comes to protecting its secrets, the Bush administration has flexed unilateral power to a degree never before seen in U.S. history.

Since 2001, the administration has wielded the "state secrets" privilege as a wide-ranging weapon to snuff out legal challenges to its most Draconian tactics in the global war on terror. At stake are no less than bedrock American moral and legal principles. Bush lawyers have aimed to shoot down court cases involving the indefinite detention and brutal interrogation of prisoners, the covert transfer of terror suspects to foreign governments known to torture, and domestic surveillance prying into the lives of thousands of Americans.

READ WHOLE STORY

Karzai: War Not Getting at Terrorism Cause

Afghan President Hamid Karzai points to a journalist for asking a question during a press conference at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday, June 22, 2006. Afghanistan's president called al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri "the enemy of the Afghan people" and blamed him Thursday for his country's massive suffering. "He is first the enemy of the Afghan people, and then the enemy of the rest of the world," said President Hamid Karzai during a press conference. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
By TINI TRAN Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- One of America's closest allies says the war on terrorism fails to address its root causes.

Experts agreed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, saying Friday the major military offensive against the Taliban will not fix Afghanistan's larger crises - a lack of reconstruction and jobs, a booming drug trade, and a weak government.

"You won't win unless you can convince people that progress is being made," said Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department analyst now a scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

"One of the things we recognize is that we have failed to improve on the development side, especially in the south. In the areas with the greatest need, we have not gotten the reconstruction that was necessary."

The Cost of Superfund Neglect


The 8000 residents living in the town of Glen Avon, California, are lucky; they get to live right next to a 17-acre toxic waste dump:


[The Stringfellow site] served as a hazardous waste disposal facility from 1956-1972, accepting over 34 million gallons of waste from metal refinishing, electroplating and pesticide manufacturing companies. This waste was dumped into surface evaporation ponds. Rainfall caused the ponds to overflow, sending streams of heavily polluted water into nearby neighborhoods. The population of the census tract around the site is 52 percent minority and has a median household income of $43,000.

And no one's cleaning it up. Then there are the 6,491 residents of Montgomery County, Ohio, who live near North Sanitary Landfill. Decades ago, engineers decided that the best way to dispose of liquid industrial waste was to pour it on top of ordinary household garbage, thinking that the garbage would soak up the liquid like a sponge and hold it in place. But then they realized that the landfills started leaking all that toxic liquid, and instead of keeping it in place, the garbage—which covered hundreds of acres—just spread it around:>>>cont

Link Here

The Toll of the Superfund of NEGLECT

Lawsuit Says Poisons Killed 57 at WTC Site


Fifty-seven Ground Zero workers have died and thousands of others have been sickened by exposure to a noxious mix of chemicals released when the World Trade Center was reduced to smoldering rubble, their lawyer said yesterday. But the city denies responsibility.

Link Here

Army Lies to Mother of Slain Guardsman for Two Years

Two years after National Guardsmen Spc. Patrick McCaffrey and 1st Lt. Andre Tyson were killed in Iraq, the truth about their deaths has been exposed. Military officials initially told the families that the two men had been killed in an ambush by insurgents but an Army investigation concluded that they were in fact murdered by members of the allied Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.

Link Here

The Changing Face of Resistance


A characteristic of a successful resistance movement is its ability to switch tactics as circumstances change, and the insurgencies in both Iraq and Afghanistan are proving to be capable in this respect.

Link Here

Homeowners Far Away Pay Katrina's Damage


Hurricane Katrina may have made landfall on the Gulf Coast last year, but its impact is being felt hundreds of miles away, as insurers scramble to reduce their exposure to future catastrophes.

Link Here

| A Look at Republican Priorities: Comforting the Comfortable


New York Times

The New York Times editors say "bill would put $760 billion in new debt on the backs of Americans in the name of making a handful of extremely rich people even richer. Congressional leaders may know how to count votes, but otherwise their math is pathetic."

Link Here

Gore Vidal on Italy, Iraq - and why he hates George Bush


"Benjamin Franklin was shown the new American constitution, and he said, 'I don't like it, but I will vote for it because we need something right now. But this constitution in time will fail, as all such efforts do. And it will fail because of the corruption of the people, in a general sense.' And that is what it has come to now, exactly as Franklin predicted."

Link Here

Legacy of Treason:


Depleted Uranium and the Poisoning of Humanity

Link Here

Pro-Israel Donors Rally For Joe Liberman, as Left Takes Aim:





With Senator Joseph Lieberman facing an increasingly tight primary fight, pro-Israel interest groups are stepping up their support for the former vice presidential candidate.







Link Here

Peace deal offers Iraq insurgents an amnesty:


The Government will promise a finite, UN-approved timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq; a halt to US operations against insurgent strongholds; an end to human rights violations, including those by coalition troops; and compensation for victims of attacks by terrorists or Iraqi and coalition forces.

Link Here

Democracy in chains





By Greg Palast

US Republicans are planning to change the law to stop black, Hispanic and Native American voters going to the polls in 2008.

Link Here

VOTING RIGHTS ACT NAILED TO BURNING CROSS

Behind the “Delay” in Renewing Law is Scheme for Theft of ‘08
White Sheets Changed for Spreadsheets

by Greg Palast
For The Guardian
June 23, 2006

[New York] Don’t kid yourself. The Republican Party’s decision yesterday to “delay” the renewal of the Voting Rights Act has not a darn thing to do with objections of the Republican’s White Sheets Caucus.

Complaints by a couple of Good Ol' Boys to legislation has never stopped the GOP leadership from rolling over dissenters.

This is a strategic stall — meant to de-criminalize the Republican Party's new game of challenging voters of color by the hundreds of thousands.

In the 2004 Presidential race, the GOP ran a massive multi-state, multi-million-dollar operation to challenge the legitimacy of Black, Hispanic and Native-American voters. The methods used broke the law -- the Voting Rights Act. And while the Bush Administration's Civil Rights Division grinned and looked the other way, civil rights lawyers are circling, preparing to sue to stop the violations of the Act before the 2008 race.

Therefore, Republicans have promised to no longer break the law -- not by going legit … but by eliminating the law.

The Act was passed in 1965 after the Ku Klux Klan and other upright citizens found they could use procedural tricks -- "literacy tests," poll taxes and more -- to block citizens of color from casting ballots.

De-criminalizing the "caging" lists

Here's what happened in '04 -- and what's in store for '08.

In the 2004 election, over THREE MILLION voters were challenged at the polls. No one had seen anything like it since the era of Jim Crow and burning crosses. In 2004, voters were told their registrations had been purged or that their addresses were "suspect."

Denied the right to the regular voting booths, these challenged voters were given "provisional" ballots. Over a million of these provisional ballots (1,090,729 of them) were tossed in the electoral dumpster uncounted.

Funny thing about those ballots. About 88% were cast by minority voters.

This isn't a number dropped on me from a black helicopter. They come from the raw data of the US Election Assistance Commission in Washington, DC.

At the heart of the GOP's mass challenge of voters were what the party's top brass called, "caging lists" -- secret files of hundreds of thousands of voters, almost every one from a Black-majority voting precinct.

When our investigations team, working for BBC TV, got our hands on these confidential files in October 2004, the Republicans told us the voters listed were their potential "donors." Really? The sheets included pages of men from homeless shelters in Florida.

Donor lists, my ass. Every expert told us, these were "challenge lists," meant to stop these Black voters from casting ballots.

When these "caged" voters arrived at the polls in November 2004, they found their registrations missing, their right to vote blocked or their absentee ballots rejected because their addresses were supposedly "fraudulent."

Why didn't the GOP honchos 'fess up to challenging these allegedly illegal voters? Because targeting voters of color is AGAINST THE LAW. The law in question is the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Act says you can't go after groups of voters if you choose your targets based on race. Given that almost all the voters on the GOP hit list are Black, the illegal racial profiling is beyond even Karl Rove's ability to come up with an alibi.

The Republicans target Black folk not because they don't like the color of their skin. They don't like the color of their vote: Democrat. For that reason, the GOP included on its hit list Jewish retirement homes in Florida. Apparently, the GOP was also gunning for the Elderly of Zion.

These so-called "fraudulent" voters, in fact, were not fraudulent at all. Page after page, as we've previously reported, are Black soldiers sent overseas. The Bush campaign used their absence from their US homes to accuse them of voting from false addresses.

Now that the GOP has been caught breaking the Voting Rights law, they have found a way to keep using their expensively obtained "caging" lists: let the law expire next year. If the Voting Rights Act dies in 2007, the 2008 race will be open season on dark-skinned voters. Only the renewal of the Voting Rights Act can prevent the planned racial wrecking of democracy.

"Pre-clearance" and the Great Blackout of 2000

Before the 2000 presidential balloting, then Jeb Bush's Secretary of State purged thousands of Black citizens' registrations on the grounds that they were "felons" not entitled to vote. Our review of the files determined that the crimes of most on the list was nothing more than VWB -- Voting While Black.

That "felon scrub," as the state called it, had to be "pre-cleared" under the Voting Rights Act. That is, "scrubs" and other changes in procedures must first be approved by the US Justice Department.

The Florida felon scrub slipped through this "pre-clearance" provision because Katherine Harris' assistant assured the government the scrub was just a clerical matter. Civil rights lawyers are now on the alert for such mendacity.

The Burning Cross Caucus of the Republican Party is bitching that "pre-clearance" of voting changes applies only to Southern states. I have to agree that singling out the Old Confederacy is a bit unfair. But the solution is not to smother the Voting Rights law but to spread its safeguards to all fifty of these United States.


White Sheets to Spread Sheets

Republicans argue that the racial voting games and the threats of the white-hooded Klansmen that kept African-Americans from the ballot box before the 1965 passage of the Voting Rights Act no longer threaten Black voters.

That's true. When I look over the "caging lists" and the "scrub sheets," it's clear to me that the GOP has traded in white sheets for spreadsheets.


Greg Palast is the author of Armed Madhouse: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left and other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War.

Order it here

H a r l a n C o u n t y USA

Least we think that America was built by the starched shirts and expensive suits featured on FOX News and CNN.

This documentary will help to remind us that our freedoms and working conditions were not won by U.S. soldiers in foreign lands but through the suffering and sweat of our fathers and grand fathers in their struggle against commercial interests.

Click here to watch.

Link Here

Friday, June 23, 2006

CNN/AP: Report: Abramoff used Grover Norquist to distribute funds


Report: Abramoff used Norquist to distribute funds
Anti-tax advocate acted as a buffer for lobbyist's activities
Friday, June 23, 2006






Jack Abramoff arrives at the Federal Justice Building in Miami, Florida, in January to plead guilty to fraud.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In Jack Abramoff's world, prominent Washington tax-cut advocate Grover Norquist was a godsend.

Moving money from a casino-operating Indian tribe to Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition founder and professed gambling opponent, was a problem. Lobbyist Abramoff turned to his longtime friend Norquist, apparently to provide a buffer for Reed.

The result, according to evidence gathered by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, was that Norquist's Americans for Tax Relief became a conduit for more than a million dollars from the Mississippi Choctaw to Reed's operation, while Norquist, a close White House ally, took a cut.

Without citing any specific group, the Senate panel found numerous instances of nonprofit organizations that appeared to be involved in activities unrelated to their mission as described to the Internal Revenue Service.

Link Here

Wife Of Slain 'NY Times' Reporter David Rosenbaum Dies

Editor&Publisher: Wife Of Slain 'NY Times' Reporter David Rosenbaum Dies
By Joe Strupp
Published: June 23, 2006

NEW YORK -- Just six months after her husband, former New York Times reporter David E. Rosenbaum, was attacked and beaten to death in a robbery that drew attention to Washington, D.C.'s troubled EMS procedures, Virginia Rosenbaum has died of cancer.

An obituary in today's Times reported that she passed away on Thursday in her D.C. home of colon cancer.

A corporate research analyst for the D.C.-based Institutional Shareholder Services, Ms. Rosenbaum, 63, was the mother of two children with Mr. Rosenbaum, as well as two grandchildren. Following her husband's shocking death in January, which prompted an internal investigation into Washington's emergency response system, Ms. Rosenbaum had kept a low profile, allowing her brother-in-law, Marcus Rosenbaum, and others to speak for the family.

The investigation, by the D.C. Inspector General's Office, ended last week with a report that found the city's police and fire and EMS departments, as well as Howard University Hospital, had made mistakes in their handling of the injured Rosenbaum. The report made little mention of Ms. Rosenbaum, noting that she had called police the night of the attack to inform them that he was missing....

Link Here

Senate Approves Whistleblower Rights Breakthrough

Legislation Added to Defense Bill Would Restore Free Speech Rights Canceled by Supreme Court for Federal Government Workers on the Job

WASHINGTON - June 23 - The Senate yesterday acted quickly to plug a government accountability loophole created less than one month ago, when the Supreme Court’s Garcetti v. Ceballos decision canceled constitutional free speech rights for government workers carrying out their job duties. Senate bill S. 494, which includes that reform amidst a general overhaul of the Whistleblower Protection Act, was agreed to by unanimous consent as an amendment to the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, passed 96-0 last evening. For the last three Congresses, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) approved similar legislation, but until yesterday Senate leaders had refused to permit a floor vote.

The House version of the defense bill does not address whistleblower rights, although the House Government Reform Committee has passed an even broader-ranging version of the Senate reform, with two bills (HR 1317 and HR 5112) that together provide jury trials for whistleblowers and extend protection to national security employees and government contractors. The fate of S. 494 will be determined by a conference not expected until late in the session. But the Senate action makes it a foregone conclusion that federal whistleblower law will be strengthened. The remaining questions are – How much stronger will it become, and will rights be extended to all government workers and contractors who defend taxpayers?

The Senate vote is a milestone in a six year campaign by the Government Accountability Project (GAP) and a good government coalition that has swelled to 30 citizen organizations, spanning the ideological spectrum from taxpayer watchdogs and national security professionals, to civil liberties coalitions and federal labor unions.

GAP Legal Director Tom Devine commented, “We’re elated – it is long overdue for Congress to protect federal workers and declare war on government misconduct. The Senate acted quickly and responsibly to close the accountability gap created by the Supreme Court. This unanimous Senate mandate for whistleblowers proves there is a political imperative among voters, and a viable base in Congress to restore open government. Now the question is whether House leaders get the message.”

List of accusations of GIs in Iraq stuns experts


The accounts are brutal: An Iraqi man dragged from his home, executed and made to look as if he were an insurgent. Three prisoners killed by their Army captors. A team of revenge-seeking Marines going home to home, shooting down unarmed Iraqi men, women, children.

The recent flurry of accusations against U.S. servicemen has stunned military analysts and experts. Many see a critical new point in the war — though few agree whether it shows the toll of combat stress, commanders resolved to stamp out war crimes, or, as some claim, an overzealous second-guessing of the troops.

But the number and gravity of the latest allegations have drawn the greatest outcry against U.S. military actions since the Abu Ghraib prison abuses.

“All of a sudden there seem to be charges right and left,” said Loren Thompson at the Lexington Institute, a defense think tank in Arlington, Va. “It clearly has happened in some cases. But it’s hard to tell whether this is a pattern of wrongdoing on our part or just a pattern of closer supervision.” >>>cont

Link Here

Fighting Brings Curfew on Baghdad Streets


SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

Iraq's government imposed a state of emergency on Baghdad and ordered everyone off the streets on Friday after U.S. and Iraqi forces battled insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and rifles near the heavily fortified Green Zone. The military announced the deaths of five more U.S. troops...

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Crackdown in Ramadi

Mike Whitney Ramadi is not an "insurgent stronghold" as it is characterized in the media. Nor is it a "safe-haven" for foreign fighters and Al Qaida. This is merely the Pentagon’s fairy-tale to justify attacks on a civilian population. In fact, Ramadi is a city of 400,000, the capital of Anbar Province; a peaceful enclave that never experienced any widespread violence or turmoil before the illegal invasion by the United States armed forces. Most of the city’s people do not support the occupation of their country and a considerable number of them have taken up arms against the invaders. They are fighting in defense of their country...

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US Senate backs indefinite occupation of Iraq

Patrick Martin, WSWS After a two-day debate, the US Senate voted Thursday to reject two efforts to set limits on the duration of the US occupation of Iraq. An overwhelming bipartisan majority voted by 86-13 to reject a resolution setting a deadline of July 1, 2007 for withdrawal of US troops. Leading Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, lined up with the White House against the measure introduced by John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004. Then, by a 60-39 vote margin, the Senate rejected a non-binding resolution, introduced by Democrats Carl Levin and Jack Reed, calling on the Bush administration to begin withdrawing some American troops by the end of this year and to announce a timetable for further withdrawals...

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Lynching Saddam – Part 2: Juan Cole’s informed comment

Gabriele Zamparini, The cat's dream Following the murder of one of the main lawyers defending prisoner of war President Saddam Hussein in that lynching circus the US’ government exported to Iraq (even Kafka would have not dared calling that thing a "trial"), one of the most interesting comments comes from Juan Cole. The favourite of much part of the western anti-war movement spent as many as 111 words to comment: Another of Saddam's defense attorneys was assassinated. That tribunal, which at one time seemed as though it would be source of good news for the Bush administration, has been handled so badly that it has become nothing short of an embarrassment. Three defense lawyers killed, and one witness alleging that some of the men Saddam is alleged to have had killed at Dujail are still alive. Saddam even emerged after the February bombing of the golden dome at Samarra and the subsequent faith-based massacres between Shiite and Sunni as a voice of national unity. To give the old mass murderer the occasion to grandstand that way. It is incompetence, criminal incompetence. The former (?) head of state overthrown by a foreign, military, illegal and immoral invasion that’s destroyed the whole state of Iraq and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people, is called by Cole’s informed comment "Saddam" for three times and finally "the old mass murderer". Cole's Conclusion: "It is incompetence, criminal incompetence". This is the same Juan Cole who wrote last November, about the US’ use of White Phosphorous in Fallujah: "This is a public relations issue, not an issue of war crimes"...

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Schwartzenegger Says “No” To Bush On Border Troops...


Associated Press June 23, 2006 at 09:10 PM
READ MORE: George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger

The Bush administration this week asked California to send an additional 1,500 National Guard troops to the Mexican border, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied the request, two California National Guard officials said Friday.

The National Guard Bureau, an arm of the Pentagon, asked for the troops to fill recruiting shortfalls for the mission in New Mexico and Arizona. But Schwarzenegger said the request would stretch the California guard too thin if an emergency or disaster struck.

READ WHOLE STORY

Cheney Offended By NY Times And LA Times...


The Examiner Bill Sammon June 23, 2006 at 09:54 PM
READ MORE: George W. Bush, Homeland Security, Halliburton, Dick Cheney

The Bush administration is becoming more secretive in response to press disclosures about the tracking of global financial transfers and other counter-terrorism measures, said Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff.

In an exclusive interview with The Examiner, Chertoff criticized newspapers that revealed the financial tracking program on Friday. President Bush earlier complained that some of the same newspapers damaged national security by disclosing a classified terrorist surveillance program...
..."What I find most disturbing about these stories is the fact that some of the news media take it upon themselves to disclose vital national security programs, thereby making it more difficult for us to prevent future attacks against the American people," Cheney said Friday in Chicago. "That offends me."

READ WHOLE STORY

Harrisburg Paper Breaks News of Yet Another Possible Atrocity in Iraq

Published: June 23, 2006 2:15 PM ET

HARRISBURG Two Pennsylvania National Guardsmen are being investigated in connection with the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian earlier this year and have not returned to the United States with the rest of their unit, a Guard spokesman said Friday.

The two soldiers, Spc. Nathan B. Lynn, 21, of South Williamsport, and Sgt. Milton Ortiz Jr., 36, of Islip, N.Y., were both members of a combat team whose members began returning home earlier this month after a yearlong deployment.

Lt. Col. Chris Cleaver, spokesman for the Pennsylvania National Guard, said the Army is handling the investigation. He said he could not release other details.

Army Sgt. Doug Anderson, a military spokesman in Baghdad, had no immediate comment.

The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, which reported on the investigation in Friday's editions, quoted an unidentified member of Lynn's unit as saying that the civilian was shot during a February search of a home in Jazeera, near Ramadi.

Lynn's father, Williamsport police Capt. William Lynn, told the newspaper that his son maintains his innocence. William Lynn did not immediately return a phone message left at his office by The Associated Press on Friday.

Lynn joined the Guard in 2002, Ortiz in 1991; both are with a unit a based in Williamsport.

The allegations surfaced as seven Marines and a Navy medic are facing charges they killed an Iraqi civilian and covered up the crime in April, and four Army soldiers are facing murder charges in the shooting deaths of three Iraq civilians in May.

A group of Marines is also under investigation in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last year.

Springsteen mocks 'idiots' like Coulter who say musicians shouldn't 'speak up'


RAW STORYPublished: Friday June 23, 2006

Appearing on CNN earlier today, Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen mocked "idiots" like Ann Coulter and numerous conservative pundits on cable news programs for repeatedly opining that musicians and other entertainers aren't qualified to "speak up" about politics.

"Springsteen was asked if getting flack about his political views, such as backing John Kerry in 2004, made him wonder if musicians should try so hard to be taken seriously on topical issues," Editor & Publisher reported.

"They should let Ann Coulter do it instead?" Springsteen replied.

"You can turn on the idiots rambling on cable television every night, and they say musicians shouldn’t speak up?" added Springsteen. "It’s insane, it’s funny."
Eschaton has video of the Springsteen interview at this link.

BBC: Sears Tower 'plotters' just 'wannabes'

David EdwardsPublished: Friday June 23, 2006

In a BBC news broadcast today, Miami Herald reporter Mani Garcia remarks that the government's arrest of seven men in connection with a 'plot' to blow up the Sears Tower is probably overblown.

"They've been described to us by sources as 'wannabes' -- still to be determined if making a connection about talking about doing an attack and and being able to finance an attack," Garcia said. "We've seen previous cases where the Federal government has announced with great hoopla breaking terrorist cells. And when you start deconstructing a case, you see that there's a lot of talk."

Link Here

Pentagon Plots Unmanned, Shape-Shifting Bomber...


Popular Science Noah Schactman June 23, 2006 at 05:01 PM

For years, the U.S. military has wanted a plane that could loiter just outside enemy territory for more than a dozen hours and, on command, hurtle toward a target faster than the speed of sound. And then level it. But aircraft that excel at subsonic flight are inefficient at Mach speeds, and vice versa. The answer is Switchblade, an unmanned, shape-changing plane concept under development by Northrop Grumman.

When completed (target date: 2020), it will cruise with its 200-foot-long wing perpendicular to its engines like a normal airplane. But just before the craft breaks the sound barrier, its single wing will swivel around 60 degrees (hence the name) so that one end points forward and the other back. This oblique configuration redistributes the shock waves that pile up in front of a plane at Mach speeds and cause drag. When the Switchblade returns to subsonic speeds, the wing will rotate back to perpendicular.

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"Warm" Species Invade Antarctica


Scientists are calling for action to prevent foreign species from taking hold in Antarctica and wrecking the continent's unique ecosystems.

Despite Antarctica's inhospitable environment, non-native species introduced by tourists, scientists and explorers are gaining a foothold.

Read Whole Story

Snow: Tracking Americans Financial Transactions Is "Government At Its Best"...


Associated Press JEANNINE AVERSA June 23, 2006 at 02:34 PM

Treasury Secretary John Snow on Friday said a program tracking millions of financial transactions was not invasion of privacy of Americans but "government at its best" and vital to the war on terrorism.

Snow told a news conference the program, run by the CIA and overseen by the Treasury Department, was "responsible government, it's effective government, it's government that works."

READ WHOLE STORY

Defense Department Lets Fox News Into Guantanamo...



Think Progress June 23, 2006 at 02:41 PM
READ MORE: George W. Bush, Fox News

Last week, the Pentagon "shut down access entirely" to the Guantanamo Bay prison after the suicide deaths of three detainees. Journalists covering the suicides had their clearances revoked and were immediately flown back to the United States, and regular visits between detainees and their lawyers were cancelled. Human rights groups protested:

This press crackdown is the administration's latest betrayal of fundamental American values. The Bush Administration is afraid of American reporters, afraid of American attorneys and afraid of American laws.

READ WHOLE STORY

Tony Snow To Helen Thomas: “Stop Heckling And Let Me Conduct A Press Conference...You're Pestering The Teacher”...


Crooks and Liars June 23, 2006 at 02:50 PM

Tony Snow was asked about the news that the country is going through bank records...
Snow:

Helen, will you stop heckling and let me conduct a press conference... Well no, I'm making an argument, and you're, you're pestering the teacher...

READ WHOLE STORY

Iraq “State Of Emergency” Declared...


Associated Press SINAN SALAHEDDIN June 23, 2006 at 01:44 PM
READ MORE: Iraq

The Iraqi government declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew Friday after insurgents set up roadblocks in central Baghdad and fired on U.S. and Iraqi troops outside the heavily fortified Green Zone.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered everyone off the streets of the capital from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m.

READ WHOLE STORY

Charles Darwin's tortoise dies


June 23, 2006
THE world's oldest animal in captivity has died on the Sunshine Coast at the ripe old age of 176.

Giant Galapagos tortoise Harriet has died of a suspected heart attack.
She was a star attraction at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo since the 1980s and even features in the Guinness Book of Records for her longevity.

Her history is as colourful as the hibiscus flowers she lovingly munched on.

It is believed Harriet was one of three animals naturalist Charles Darwin brought back from his trip to the Galapagos Islands in 1835 and which led to his theories of evolution and natural selection.

A few years later, Sir Charles gave them to a Brisbane-bound friend.

For about 100 years Harriet was mistakenly thought to be a male.

At 176, Harriet was recognised as the world's oldest living chelonian - a reptile with a shell or bony plates.

Mr Irwin said he considered Harriet a member of the family.

"Harriet has been a huge chunk of the Irwin family's life," he said.

"I have grown up with this gorgeous old girl and so have my kids.

"She is possibly one of the oldest living creatures on the planet and her passing today is not only a great loss for the world but a very sad day for my family.

"She was a grand old lady."

Link Here

Courage to Resist: Aiding Soldiers Who Refuse to Engage in War, An Interview with Max Diorio

Kevin Zeese

One of the most powerful groups of voices in opposition to the occupation of Iraq is U.S. soldiers who come home and speak out. In particular, those who become so disillusioned and disgusted by the Iraq occupation that they refuse to return provide a special power that can help to end the nightmare of the Iraq quagmire. More and more soldiers are reaching that breaking point and saying they refuse to participate. As a result a support group has developed, Courage to Resist that is aiding those who refuse to participate. In the interview below with Max Diorio we examine why the war resisters are important in this debate and what people can do to help them...

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The height of humiliation


Haifa Zangana

Within months of the occupation of Iraq, complaints surfaced of human rights violations in prisons administered by occupation authorities. It took almost a year and published photographs of horrific incidents of torture in Abu Ghraib before the world began to heed the voices of detainees and those trying to defend them. Today, four years into the Anglo- American occupation, tens of thousands of Iraqis are still languishing in prison without charge, no trial in sight, deprived of the right to contest the grounds of their detention before judicial authorities. For various reasons, Iraqi women, too, have been caught up in the sweep of detentions and account for a goodly percentage of detainees, not only in Abu Ghraib, but in many other prisons. In addition to suffering the same hardships as male inmates, the women endure another plight: silence. The plight is two-fold, emanating, first, from the occupation authorities' denial that there are female detainees to begin with, and second from the nature of the stigma surrounding the arrest and detention of women...

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