JERUSALEM — Israel defied a surprisingly blunt U.S. demand that it freeze all building in West Bank Jewish settlements, saying Thursday it will press ahead with construction.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that President Barack Obama wants Israel to halt to all settlement construction _ including “natural growth.” She was referring to Israel’s insistence that new construction is necessary to accommodate the expansion of families already living in existing settlements.

Government spokesman Mark Regev responded by saying “normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue.” He confirmed that this meant some construction will continue in existing settlements.

The new conflict with Washington came on the same day Obama was to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House. Abbas has said the Palestinian demand for freezing settlements will be at the top of his agenda in the talks.

Obama’s administration has been more explicit in its criticism of Israeli settlement policy than its predecessor. The U.S. and much of the world consider the settlements an obstacle to peace because they are built on land the Palestinians claim for a future state.

More than 280,000 Jewish settlers live among more than 2 million Palestinians in the West Bank.

Regev said the fate of existing settlements will be determined in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. He said Israel has pledged to build no new settlements and to remove unauthorized outposts in the West Bank.

While Israel could flout U.S. opposition, it is wary of picking a fight with its closest and most important ally.

Israeli officials proposed a compromise earlier this week. In exchange for removing some 22 outposts, they would ask the U.S. to permit new construction in existing settlements. Clinton’s remarks followed that proposal.

But even the limited step of removing outposts faces stiff opposition from the Israeli right. Settler news site Arutz Sheva reported Thursday that leading rabbis linked to the settlement movement had issued a call to soldiers to disobey orders to demolish the outposts.

“The holy Torah (scripture) prohibits taking part in any act of uprooting Jews from any part of our sacred land,” the site quoted the rabbis’ statement as saying.

The new Israeli and the U.S. leaders have strikingly different approaches to Israeli-Palestinian relations. Netanyahu refuses to endorse Palestinian independence, a notion supported by Obama, his predecessor and the previous Israeli government.

Clinton said Obama told Netanyahu last week when the two met at the White House that the U.S. sees stopping settlements as key to a peace deal that would see a Palestinian state created alongside Israel.

“He wants to see a stop to settlements _ not some settlements, not outposts, not ‘natural growth’ exceptions,” Clinton said. “We think it is in the best interests (of the peace process) that settlement expansion cease. That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly. … And we intend to press that point.”

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Few displaced Iraqis return home as violence persists

ASEEL KAMI | SULAIMANIYA, IRAQ – May 12 2009

Full Article

In summer, the heat is unbearable. In winter, the torrential rains turn the cramped, leaking tent where Khalid Jamhuri lives with his family into a freezing morass of mud.

Still, Jamhuri is unwilling to leave this refugee camp in the semi-autonomous, northern Kurdistan region and return to the Sunni Arab area of Baghdad where Shi’ite militiamen killed his parents, brother and cousin in 2006.

“Some days I make enough to bring home food to eat. Some days I don’t,” said the slender 19-year-old, who now looks for construction work to support his wife, brother and new baby.

Jamhuri is one of the 3,8-million Iraqis who, prompted by six years of sectarian killing, packed up their belongings and fled to safety. About 1,8-million of them fled to different parts of Iraq and the rest left the country, mostly to Syria and Jordan.

Resettling displaced Iraqis promises to be a major challenge towards achieving reconciliation and averting renewed violence.

It is also key to getting a sluggish economy going and attracting foreign investment that has proven so elusive for Iraq, which has vast oil resources but little real industry outside that underproducing sector.

“This [resettling refugees] will encourage foreign investors,” said Iraqi analyst Hazim al-Nuami, adding that investors see a troubling signal in the fact that most refugees have not returned home.

Very few have returned, a sign of widespread wariness in a country still rocked by violence and where the threat of renewed sectarian war lurks just under the surface.

Only 195 000 internally displaced Iraqis came back to their homes by the end of 2008, the United Nations said, but officials hope that figure could reach 400 000 by the end of this year if the security situation improves in Iraq……………………………………………………

Jabbar Mohammed Ali, a displacement and migration official in Sulaimaniya, said only three or four percent of the 8 500 displaced families registered with his office have returned home…………………………

Layla Idan, a single mother, is one of the displaced Iraqis who says the government has not delivered on its promises…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

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US Military Contractor Gets Probation

After pleading guilty to shooting Afghan detainee

Jurisy, Jaclyn Belczyk, May 8, 2009

A US military contractor who pleaded guilty [press release; JURIST report] in February to voluntary manslaughter for the 2008 shooting of an Afghan detainee was sentenced in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia [official website] Friday to five years probation and a $12,500 fine. Don Ayala had been charged with second-degree murder for shooting and killing detainee Abdul Salam in retaliation for Salam’s earlier attack on Ayala’s fellow contractor Paula Lloyd [HTS in memoriam profile]. At the time of the incident, Ayala was stationed in Afghanistan as a contractor for Strategic Analysis [corporate website] as part of the US Army’s Human Terrain System [official website] program. Ayala was prosecuted under Section 3261 of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) [text], which allows criminal charges to be brought against military contractors overseas.

Crimes committed by military contractors abroad have also occurred in Iraq and are considered to be the impetus behind provisions in the US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement [PDF text; JURIST report] that give Iraqi courts limited jurisdiction over contractors working there. Earlier this week the security company known formerly as Blackwater Worldwide [corporate website] concluded its operations in Baghdad [JURIST report] as its contract to protect American diplomats in Iraq expired. The decision by the Iraqi government not to renew the contract was motivated in part by the alleged killing of 17 civilians by Blackwater guards [JURIST report] in September 2007. In January, five Blackwater guards pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, and weapons charges. A sixth guard pleaded guilty [text, PDF] to charges of voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit manslaughter for his role in the same incident.

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The NYT Finally Prints “Torture”

Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, May 8, 2009

Article

Here we have it in broad daylight: the New York Times’ cowardice in the face of its own government. In an obit today, the editors manage to use the word “torture”. It’s in an obit. The obit runs:

Col. Harold E. Fischer Jr., an American fighter pilot who was routinely tortured in a Chinese prison during and after the Korean War, becoming — along with three other American airmen held at the same prison — a symbol and victim of cold war tension, died in Las Vegas on April 30. He was 83 and lived in Las Vegas. The cause was complications of back surgery, his son Kurt said.

From April 1953 through May 1955, Colonel Fischer — then an Air Force captain — was held at a prison outside Mukden, Manchuria. For most of that time, he was kept in a dark, damp cell with no bed and no opening except a slot in the door through which a bowl of food could be pushed. Much of the time he was handcuffed. Hour after hour, a high-frequency whistle pierced the air.

After a short mock trial in Beijing on May 24, 1955, Captain Fischer and the other pilots — Lt. Col. Edwin L. Heller, First Lt. Lyle W. Cameron and First Lt. Roland W. Parks — were found guilty of violating Chinese territory by flying across the border while on missions over North Korea. Under duress, Captain Fischer had falsely confessed to participating in germ warfare.

You will notice how the NYT defines torture when it comes to foreign governments – isolation, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation. Much milder than anything the US did to one of its own citizens, Jose Padilla. But the parallel is almost perfect: these are, after all, the exact Chinese Communist techniques that were reverse engineered from the SERE program. So you have a perfect demonstration of the NYT’s double-standard. If Chinese do it to Americans, it’s torture; if Americans do it to an American, it’s “harsh interrogation.” Does Jill Abramson really expect us to take this lying down?

You will also notice the quality of the intelligence procured through methods milder than the Bush administration’s:

“He wanted me to admit that I had been ordered to cross the Manchurian border,” Captain Fischer told Life magazine. “I was grilled day and night, over and over, week in and week out, and in the end, to get Chong and his gang off my back, I confessed to both charges. The charges, of course, were ridiculous. I never participated in germ warfare and neither did anyone else. I was never ordered to cross the Yalu. We had strict Air Force orders not to cross the border.”

“I will regret what I did in that cell the rest of my life,” the captain continued. “But let me say this: it was not really me — not Harold E. Fischer Jr. — who signed that paper. It was a mentality reduced to putty.”

Dick Cheney believes that a “mentality reduced to putty” is the best source of reliable intelligence; that methods designed to give you false confessions should be the basis for national security assessments.

The NYT’s incoherence and double standards, equally, are self-evident. But I would like to know if Bill Keller will remove the t-word from this obit and replace it with “harsh interrogations” as he does when referring to the US government’s use of identical techniques. If not, why not? Remember: these people won’t even use the word torture to describe a technique displayed in the Cambodian museum of torture to commemmorate the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge – as long as Americans do the torturing.

I mean: the NYT isn’t just a vehicle for US propaganda, is it? It’s a newspaper, right? It has standards that it maintains across its copy. Right?

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Iraqi Gays Face Gruesome Torture/Murder Technique

By Doug Ireland, May 06, 2009, Source: Gay City News

Full Article

As the murder campaign targeting Iraqi gays intensifies, a leading Arabic television network last week revealed the use of a horrifying new form of lethal torture against Iraqi gay men — anti-gay Shiite death squads are sealing their anuses with a powerful glue, then inducing diarrhea, which leads to a painful and agonizing death. The use of this stomach-turning new torture was first reported by the Al Arabiya network, which is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates and was alerted to the story by a leading Iraqi feminist and human rights activist.

Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), told Al Arabiya that the torture substance “is an Iranian-manufactured glue that, if applied to the skin, sticks to it and can only be removed by surgery. After they glue the anuses of homosexuals, they give them a drink that causes diarrhea. Since the anus is closed, the diarrhea causes death. Videos of this form of torture are being distributed on mobile telephones in Iraq.”

Al Arabiya said its reporter confirmed the use of this anal torture by “visiting the Baghdad morgue in Bab-al-Moazaam in central Baghdad, where Neman Mohsen, the medical examiner, confirmed they have the bodies of seven homosexuals in the morgue. He said, ‘We were not able to identify the culprits, who dumped the bodies in front of the morgue and fled without being seen.’” A two-person team from Human Rights Watch (HRW) currently in Iraq to investigate persecution of LGBT people has also confirmed the use of this form of torture. In a widely-circulated email from Iraq, the head of HRW’s LGBT desk, Scott Long, said he and his colleague had gathered evidence which confirms the Al Arabiya report and that HRW would make its own detailed report after the organization’s two staffers return to the United States next week.

OWFI’s Mohammed, the woman responsible for gathering information about the use of this sadistic anal torture and passing it on to Al Arabiya, told Gay City News that “the story was so horrific that when I first heard it from gay friends I didn’t believe it. But then I investigated and found it was really true that the anuses of gay men were being glued shut.” Speaking by telephone from Toronto, where she was on a brief visit to relatives before a scheduled return to Iraq next week, Mohammed told this reporter that, “Fortunately, Al Arabiya has a very good human rights reporter, to whom I told what I had found, and he was able to confirm it by visiting the morgue.”…………………………………………………………

Mohammed, 49, is well known for her courageous human rights work. She co-founded OWFI in Baghdad in June 2003 in the wake of the U.S. invasion and occupation, and the organization has led campaigns against so-called honor killings, the abduction of women, and trafficking in women and children. She also co-founded Iraq’s first feminist newspaper, Al Mousawat (Equality), which has been published quarterly for the last three years. Trained as an architect, Mohammed told Gay City News she has abandoned that profession to work full time for OWFI. She has received numerous awards for her work for women’s rights and human rights, including the Eleanor Roosevelt Global Rights Award given by the US Feminist Majority Foundation.

Ali Hili, the 33-year-old gay Iraqi exile who coordinates the association Iraqi LGBT, which is headquartered in London but has members and informants throughout Iraq, told Gay City News that he has also been able to confirm the use of lethal anal torture. “We have had reports, increasingly over the last four or five days, about the use of this technique not just in Baghdad but in smaller town and cities all over Iraq,” Hili said by telephone. “We have reports on seven young men who have been through this horrible experience in which they were arrested in the south of Iraq and had their anuses sealed, or ‘locked’ as the torturers say. Our sources told us that hospitals all over Iraq’s southern region have received so many cases of similar incidents where men have had their anuses glued, but that what makes the situation even worse and more lethal is that they have been refused treatment in hospitals when they sought it because of homophobia.”

As of this week, Hili and Iraqi LGBT have documented 617 cases of assassinations of LGBT people since a death-to-all-gays fatwa was issued by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of all Shiite muslims in Iraq, in 2005. The murder campaign of “sexual cleansing” of homosexuals has intensified in recent months, with 70 new killings since December alone (see this reporter’s April 16-29 article, “Iraqi Gay Murders Surge; World Finally Takes Note”).

Now, Hili says, “I have just received word of seven new murders of gays in one week, last week.” He provided Gay City News with the names and towns of origin of the most recent victims of the anti-gay-death squads. They are Abbas Mosa, 33, from Al Hay; Saeed Majeed, 27, from Al Samawa; Jabar Khothayer, 19, from Al Dewaniya; Majed Alawi, 41, from Al Hindiya; Hazim Hussein, age unknown, from Al Najaf; Mohammed Qasim, 25, from Al Dewaniya; and Rama Sabri, 19, from Al Mohanawiya.

At the same time, the Iraqi news website niqash.org reported last week that “Al-Baghdadiya, a satellite television channel based in Cairo… broadcast a report on April 7 saying that 20 young men accused of homosexuality were taken to Ibn al-Nafis hospital in Baghdad with mutilated genitals.”

Doug Ireland can be reached through his blog, DIRELAND, at http://direland.typepad.com/direland/.

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Orthodox Jewish Community Struggles With Abuse Allegations

Alleged Victims and Advocates Say Sex Abuse Common, Rarely Discussed

By SCOTT MICHELS, May 5, 2009

Full Article

When Joel Engelman was 8 years old, he says, he was called from his Hebrew class to the principal’s office at his Brooklyn yeshiva, a Jewish religious school. His parents had recently told Rabbi Avrohom Reichman that their son had been abused by an older boy at the school, he says.

But he says the rabbi was not offering to help that day.

When Engelman arrived at the principal’s office, he says, Reichman told him to close the door. He told the boy to sit on his lap and began swiveling his chair back and forth, Engelman says. Reichman then touched him, moving from his shoulders down, Engelman claims.

The same kind of abuse went on twice a week for several months before he left the school, Engelman claims in a civil lawsuit filed against the yeshiva, the United Talmudical Academy.

For more than 10 years, Engelman, now 23, kept what he says happened to himself. He left the orthodox community and found new friends. It wasn’t until about two years ago, when he says he heard that other boys allegedly had been abused by Reichman, that he tried to do something about it.

But Engelman says the response from religious leaders has been just as disturbing as the alleged abuse. He claims the school’s religious leaders told him not to go to the police, and promised to remove Reichman from the school, which they did for a few months.

“They kept telling me, ‘Don’t go to the police, don’t do anything. We’ve dealt with this before,’” with other teachers, he said. “It really shocked me.”

A few days after the statute of limitations for Engelman to file a civil or criminal case against Reichman for abuse passed, the school reinstated the rabbi, the lawsuit claims.

Advocates: Abuse Problem Plagues Orthodox Community

Engelman’s is among a handful of publicized cases of alleged abuse within the insular Orthodox Jewish community. But alleged victims and their advocates say it is far from an isolated instance.

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office, which last month announced a hotline for alleged Orthodox sex abuse victims, says it has 19 active cases of alleged sex abuse in the borough’s Orthodox Jewish community. And advocates say the problem extends beyond Brooklyn……………………………………………………………..

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KBR Connected to Alleged Fraud, Pentagon Auditor Says

By Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Full Article

KBR, the Army’s largest contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, is linked to “the vast majority” of suspected combat-zone fraud cases that have been referred to investigators, as well as a majority of the $13 billion in “questioned” or “unsupported” costs, the Pentagon’s top auditor said yesterday.

In testimony before the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, April G. Stephenson, director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, said investigators have sent to the inspector general a total of 32 cases of suspected overbilling, bribery and other violations since 2004.

“I don’t think we’re aware of a program, contract or contractor that has had this number of suspensions or referrals,” Stephenson said. KBR’s work accounts for 43 percent of the Pentagon’s audited Iraq contracting dollars, according to the agency’s data.

Stephenson’s disclosures come as the Pentagon prepares to draw down forces in Iraq, requiring major support from contractors, while ramping up reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. Lawmakers are pushing the government to introduce more competition in its procurement programs.

Asked for comment, KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne said in an e-mail that KBR, then a subsidiary of Halliburton, was awarded the opportunity in 2001 to perform the Army’s war-zone logistics work “following a competitive bidding process.” The value of that work is now more than $31 billion. She said the firm “in no way condones or tolerates illegal or unethical behavior.”

President Obama has made contract reform a top priority. Shortly after taking office, he vowed to end no-bid contracts that he said “have wasted billions” of dollars in Iraq.

The hearing focused on contracts for logistics in war zones, which involves housing and feeding troops, washing their clothes, providing their recreation. Costs soared to $5.7 billion in 2008 from $55 million in 2001.

While KBR won the 2001 logistics contract in a competitive process, all task orders for that work, some worth billions of dollars apiece, were not competitively bid. Some commission members yesterday said they believed that contributed to overbilling and waste. They wanted to know why the Army had not moved faster to award logistics orders competitively two years after creating a program to do so.

“Is part of the problem that, in essence with this one contractor, we’ve basically said, ‘KBR is too big to fail?’ ” asked commissioner Christopher Shays, a former GOP congressman from Connecticut. “Or too important — so we are almost treating it like we treat DOD? It’s too big to fail, so we still fund them?”…………………………

A large portion of the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, called Logcap, consists of subcontracting. Last week, Stephenson’s agency issued a report that found the internal controls of KBR’s purchasing system to be inadequate……………………………………………..

Jeffrey Parsons, executive director of U.S. Army Contracting Command, said he was involved in the source selection and was not aware of any inadequate KBR systems.

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In Their Own Words: Why Dem Senators Screwed Homeowners

By Ryan Grim, Huffington Post

Full Article

Only 45 Senate Democrats voted Thursday to oppose the banking industry and pass legislation aimed at stemming foreclosures. The bill would have allowed bankruptcy judges to allow homeowners who met strict conditions to renegotiate mortgages — a process known as cramdown. It would have only applied to mortgages entered into before 2009.

Earlier in the week, the measure’s lead proponent, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), concluded that banks “frankly own the place.”

Of course, the 12 Democrats who voted “no” have a more charitable view of their own motivations. So we asked them what their reasoning was. In their own words, here is how (those we could find) explained their vote:

Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.): “A number of things. I thought the 31 percent is an arbitrary number. I think there are a whole lot of folks, are likely folks, out there who have little debt outside their home who could — I just thought it was an arbitrary number and I didn’t like the way it was constructed.”

Dorgan is referring to the percentage of a person’s income that a judge could determine should be dedicated to paying the monthly mortgage. The figure is roughly in line with what financial analysts agree is appropriate.

Is Durbin right? Do banks own the Senate?

“I don’t know who he’s speaking about,” said Dorgan. “He worked on this for a long, long time. And I wish they would have found a way to reach an agreement that would have allowed the legislation to get through…I don’t know the context of which he said that.”

Is the bill totally finished? “I don’t know. I think I wish they had found some middle ground by which they could have moved a piece of legislation. They didn’t do that. And you know, this legislation went well beyond subprime, as you know.”

Ben Nelson (D-Neb.): “I’ve not supported the cramdown for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I hate to see that authority to determine what the future contract is ceded to the court.”

Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), who ultimately voted yes: “My concern about this is that in our appropriate zeal to help the four or five percent of Americans who might be faced with bankruptcy, we don’t unduly raise the costs of homeownership on the 95 percent who never will.”

Tom Carper (D-Del.): “One of the reasons why usually mortgage rates are cheaper for primary homes is that the markets have the certainty that the judge won’t be invited to come in and change the terms of the mortgage.”

Of course, the Senate package only included mortgages pre-2009, so interest rates on future mortgages would be unaffected. So what would it take to get Carper’s vote?……………………………………………

Could it come back again?

Carper: “My guess is we’re not going to see this again.”

Really?

“I don’t think we’re going to see this again.”

Jon Tester (D-Mont.): “I just think a deal’s a deal. I have a lot of empathy for folks who tend to get led astray, but I just think it’s going to create some problems — pretty obvious, actually. I don’t have to list them. I’m generally opposed. I don’t think it works well.”

Mary Landrieu (D-La.): “My community bankers are really opposed to it and I think it’s important for people to realize there is a big difference right now in the country between the health of these large international financial institutions and our local community banks…I think we gotta be careful about adopting processes and procedures that would really hurt our community banks.”

The Huffington Post asked a few Republicans, too, since they still do, after all, vote……………………………

Susan Collins (R-Maine), on how her vote will play at home: “I think it’ll play just fine, because I view it as increasing the costs for homeowners, so it just wasn’t the right approach.”

A yes vote, John Kerry (D-Mass.), also weighed in: “They don’t own me and I’m in the Senate. I think it’s unfortunate. I don’t know what the rationale is behind people’s votes. I don’t know what motivates — some senators don’t like changing of a contract. Some senators don’t like to have courts have the power. There are different reasons.”

Millions of different reasons, perhaps.

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April deadliest month in a year as security in Iraq Plummets

Corinne Reilly and Hussein Kadhim | McClatchy Newspapers

Full Article

BAGHDAD — April was the bloodiest month for violence in Baghdad in more than a year, another sign that Iraq’s security gains are beginning to reverse.

On Wednesday, a series of explosions killed at least 43 people, including at least 41 who were killed in Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite Muslim slum in east Baghdad. Three bombs hidden in parked cars detonated in quick succession along a busy commercial street around 5 p.m., an official with Iraq’s interior ministry said. At least 68 were wounded, and authorities said they expect the death toll to rise.

“It was chaos in the streets,” said one witness, Wissam Hassan.

Two more car bombs detonated in Baghdad’s Hurriyah neighborhood Wednesday night, killing at least two people and wounding eight.

Large-scale bombings targeting civilians have been on the rise since March, and there is widespread concern among Iraqis that the violence may quickly spread as the U.S. begins to draw down.

In Baghdad alone, more than 200 people have been killed in attacks so far this month, compared with 99 last month and 46 in February, according to a McClatchy count.

The last time McClatchy recorded more than 200 civilian deaths in one month in the capital was in March 2008.

American officials have said they don’t think the renewed violence marks a serious setback. ……………………

Psychologists Told CIA Waterboarding Was Safe

Despite Red Flags, CIA Followed Interrogation Program of Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell

By MATTHEW COLE, ABC

Full Article

There is new scrutiny into the role of two psychologists who made an estimated $1,000 a day to oversee and advise the CIA’s interrogation of captured terrorists.

Both men, doctors Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, assured the CIA that their methods could ‘break’ a terrorist and would be safe, according to two former high-ranking CIA officials and a collection of recently declassified Bush administration memos.

The major problem, according to those who knew the two retired military psychologists, was that neither Mitchell nor Jessen had ever conducted a real interrogation, or been involved in an intelligence operation.

When they became involved in interrogations for the CIA, “that was their first step into the world of intelligence,” says Air Force Colonel Steve Kleinman, a career military interrogator and former colleague of both Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen. “That was their very first experience with it. Everything else was role-play.”

Kleinman and two other former colleagues tell ABC News that neither Mitchell nor Jessen had any experience with al Qaeda, Islamic extremists or battlefield interrogations.

And yet, more than anyone else, Mitchell and Jessen, long-time friends and colleagues, shaped the CIA’s interrogation program, according to the two former CIA officials………………………………………

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Abu Ghraib Guards Say Memos Show They Were Scapegoats

By Josh White, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, May 1, 2009
Full Article

When the photos of detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq surfaced in 2004, U.S. officials portrayed Army Pvt. Charles A. Graner Jr. as the ringleader of a few low-ranking “bad apples” who illegally put naked Iraqi detainees in painful positions, shackled them to cell doors with women’s underwear on their heads and menaced them with military dogs.

Now, the recent release of Justice Department memos authorizing the use of harsh interrogation techniques has given Graner and other soldiers new reason to argue that they were made scapegoats for policies approved at high levels. They also contend that the government’s refusal to acknowledge those polices when Graner and others were tried undermined their legal defenses.

Graner remains locked up at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., about halfway through a 10-year prison sentence for detainee abuse, assault and dereliction of duty. His lawyer said this week that he is drafting appeals arguments centered largely on the revelations in the memos and a newly released congressional investigation into the interrogation practices.

President George W. Bush “was so disappointed in what happened, yet the whole time he knew what was going on,” said Graner, answering questions through his wife, Megan, who also worked at Abu Ghraib. He is the only one of about a dozen soldiers tried for abuses at the prison who remains incarcerated.

Graner and other defendants — including Lynndie R. England, who was photographed holding a naked detainee by a leash — were blocked by military judges from calling senior U.S. officials to the stand at their trials in 2004 and 2005. The government would not acknowledge any policy or procedure that could have led to what the world saw in the photographs.

Some of what the guards at Abu Ghraib did, such as throwing hooded detainees into walls, echoes tactics authorized in the Justice Department memos, such as “walling,” in which interrogators were allowed to push detainees in CIA custody into a flexible wall designed to make a loud noise.

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Spanish Judge Opens Probe Into Guantanamo Torture

By: Agence France-Presse, 29 April 2009
Article

Madrid – A Spanish judge on Wednesday opened an investigation into an alleged “systematic programme” of torture at the US Guantanamo Bay detention camp, following accusations by four former prisoners.

Judge Baltasar Garzon will probe the “perpetrators, the instigators, the necessary collaborators and accomplices” to crimes of torture at the prison at the US naval base in southern Cuba, he said in his ruling, a copy of which was seen by AFP.

The judge based his decision on statements by Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, known as the “Spanish Taliban” and three other former Guantanamo detainees – a Moroccan, a Palestinian and a Libyan.

Garzon said that documents declassified by the US administration and carried by US media “have revealed what was previously a suspicion: the existence of an authorised and systematic programme of torture and mistreatment of persons deprived of their freedom” that flouts international conventions.

This points to “the possible existence of concerted actions by the US administration for the execution of a multitude of crimes of torture against persons deprived of their freedom in Guantanamo and other prisons including that of Bagram” in Afghanistan.

The four former Guantanamo detainees alleged they were held in cramped cells and suffered beatings and other physical and mental mistreatment.

The Palestinian, Jamiel Abdelatif al Banna, said he suffered “blows to the head that caused him to lose consciousness, was detained in an underground place without light for three weeks and deprived of food and sleep.”

The decision by Garzon, known around the world for ordering the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998, was unrelated to another investigation by the judge into six officials of the former US administration of George W. Bush over alleged torture at Guantanamo Bay.

Prosecutors this month issued an official request to the judge to drop that probe, arguing that the complaint targets officials who did not have the power to make decisions but who simply “drafted non-binding judicial reports.”

Spain since 2005 has assumed the principle of universal jurisdiction in alleged cases of crimes against humanity, genocide, and terrorism. But it can only proceed when any such cases of the alleged crimes are not already subject to a legal procedure in the country involved.

Several human rights groups have asked judges in different countries to indict Bush administration officials over the camp, which US President Barack Obama has vowed to close by January 2010.

More than 800 detainees have been held at the US military prison since 2002.

Some 240 people are still there. About 60 of them have been deemed eligible for release, but the Obama administration is struggling to arrange their transfer to a third country.

The Bush administration had charged about 20 of the detainees on terror-related charges, including two prisoners arrested when they were still teenagers.

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41 killed in Baghdad car bombings

BAGHDAD: Iraqi police have raised the death toll in a twin car bombing in Baghdad’s main Shia district to at least 41.

Wednesday’s blasts in Sadr City come less than a week after bombings claimed more than 150 lives over a two-day span.

The violence has raised fears that suspected Sunni militants are regrouping and trying to reignite sectarian strife as the U.S. military begins to withdraw.

Police and hospital officials in Sadr City say at least 41 people have been killed and 68 wounded. An Interior Ministry official gave a slightly higher death toll of 45.

Conflicting death tolls are common in the chaotic aftermath of bombings.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government approved draft legislation on Wednesday that would dissolve the National Security Council, a body formed by the U.S.-led coalition after its invasion of Iraq more than six years ago.

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Detainees Can Pursue Suit Against CIA

by: Carol J. Williams, The Los Angeles Times, Tuesday 28 April 2009

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is allowing detainees to sue the CIA for torture.

Article

The US government cannot avoid trial by claiming the state secrets privilege in the lawsuit brought by ex-Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed and four others, who allege they were tortured.

The president cannot avoid trial of a lawsuit brought by five former CIA captives, who allege they were tortured, by proclaiming the entire case a protected state secret, a federal appeals panel ruled today.

Both former President George W. Bush and President Obama’s Justice Department lawyers had argued before federal courts that a lawsuit brought by former Guantanamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed and four others should be dismissed in the interests of national security.

The lawyers argued that “the very subject matter” of the allegations that U.S. agents kidnapped and tortured terrorism suspects was entitled to the protections of the president’s state secrets privilege. In a move that surprised many human rights groups, the Obama administration declined to revise the Bush lawyers’ claims that the case needed to be dismissed to protect national security.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the executive privilege claim was excessive and the case could go to trial. The lawsuit by the five alleged torture victims is against Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing Co. subcontractor accused of complicity in the men’s mistreatment for having flown them to secret CIA interrogation sites after they were nabbed abroad by federal agents.

Previous lawsuits alleging abuse were brought against the U.S. government and dismissed by the courts presented with presidential claims of state secrets privilege.

Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan now goes back to U.S. District Court in San Francisco for trial, with the U.S. government, which is backing Jeppesen, free to argue that specific documents or pieces of evidence can be protected from disclosure if they pose a genuine national security risk, but not the entire case, said the opinion.

“By excising secret evidence on an item-by-item basis, rather than foreclosing litigation altogether at the outset, the evidentiary privilege recognizes that the executive’s national security prerogatives are not the only weighty constitutional values at stake,” said the unanimous opinion written by Circuit Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, an appointee of President Clinton.

Human rights advocates hailed the ruling as the first opportunity for torture victims to bring the U.S. government to account for its “extraordinary rendition” actions in which dozens of foreign terrorism suspects were snatched abroad and transported to secret interrogation sites by CIA and other agents and subjected to harsh techniques now recognized by U.S. officials as torture.

Mohamed, the lead plaintiff, was released from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in late February after having spent more than six years in U.S. custody, the first two years in the hands of Moroccan interrogators under CIA guidance and later at the intelligence agency’s “black site” in Bagram, Afghanistan.

Rights lawyers hailed the ruling as a breach in the wall of secrecy erected by the Bush administration and thus far maintained by President Obama.

“To date, no torture victim has achieved any measure of justice or compensation in the U.S. courts, in large part because the courts have allowed the executive to invoke overbroad secrecy claims,” said Ben Wizner, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union who argued the case before the 9th Circuit panel in February.

A Justice Department spokeswoman, Tracy Schmaler, said government lawyers were “reviewing the judges’ order.”

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Clamour in Iraq for justice over deadly U.S. raid

By Aref Mohammed, April 27, 2009
Full Article

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) – Relatives of two Iraqis killed by U.S. soldiers in a raid demanded justice on Monday and said they were bringing charges.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday denounced the raid as a violation of a security pact, the first crisis in an otherwise smooth implementation of a deal that sets a deadline for full U.S. withdrawal by the end of 2011.

“We are a peaceful family and I’m still in shock at how they suddenly raided our house, vandalised everything and killed my brother and his wife,” said Iraqi police captain Muamar Abdul-Munin, who was detained in the U.S. operation along with six others and released after government protests.

“We have started pressing charges against the U.S. forces. We want the guilty to be brought to justice.”

The U.S. military says the raid in Kut, 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Baghdad in Wasit province, was carried out with the approval of Iraqi forces, as required under the security pact.

Under the pact, U.S. soldiers can be tried in local courts for grave, premeditated crimes committed off base and out of uniform. Otherwise, they are subject to U.S. military justice.

Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari denied the Iraqi military had approved the raid.

“No one knew and no one in the army or police agreed to this raid,” he said……………………………….

Since the security pact took effect this year, U.S. troops have killed at least 45 people, most of them civilians, said Iraqi NGO Monitor of Constitutional Freedom and Bill of Rights.

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A Culture Soaked in Blood

By BOB HERBERT. NYT, April 25, 2009
Article

Guns.

Philip Markoff, a medical student, supposedly carried his semiautomatic in a hollowed-out volume of “Gray’s Anatomy.” Police believe he used it in a hotel room in Boston last week to murder Julissa Brisman, a 26-year-old woman who had advertised her services as a masseuse on Craigslist.

In Palm Harbor, Fla., a 12-year-old boy named Jacob Larson came across a gun in the family home that, according to police, his parents had forgotten they had. Jacob shot himself in the head and is in a coma, police said. Authorities believe the shooting was accidental.

There is no way to overstate the horror of gun violence in America. Roughly 16,000 to 17,000 Americans are murdered every year, and more than 12,000 of them, on average, are shot to death. This is an insanely violent society, and the worst of that violence is made insanely easy by the widespread availability of guns.

When the music producer Phil Spector decided, for whatever reason, to kill the actress, Lana Clarkson, all he had to do was reach for his gun — one of the 283 million privately owned firearms that are out there. When John Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Malvo, went on a killing spree that took 10 lives in the Washington area, the absolute least of their worries was how to get a semiautomatic rifle that fit their deadly mission.

We’re confiscating shampoo from carry-on luggage at airports while at the same time handing out high-powered weaponry to criminals and psychotics at gun shows.

There were ceremonies marking the recent 10th anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School, but very few people remember a mass murder just five months after Columbine, when a man with a semiautomatic handgun opened fire on congregants praying in a Baptist church in Fort Worth. Eight people died, including the gunman, who shot himself.

A little more than a year before the Columbine killings, two boys with high-powered rifles killed a teacher and four little girls at a school in Jonesboro, Ark. That’s not widely remembered either. When something is as pervasive as gun violence in the U.S., which is as common as baseball in the summertime, it’s very hard for individual cases to remain in the public mind.

Homicides are only a part of the story.

While more than 12,000 people are murdered with guns annually, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (using the latest available data) tells us that more than 30,000 people are killed over the course of one typical year by guns. That includes 17,000 who commit suicide, nearly 800 who are killed in accidental shootings and more than 300 killed by the police. (In many of the law enforcement shootings, the police officers are reacting to people armed with guns).

And then there are the people who are shot but don’t die. Nearly 70,000 fall into that category in a typical year, including 48,000 who are criminally attacked, 4,200 who survive a suicide attempt, more than 15,000 who are shot accidentally, and more than 1,000 — many with a gun in possession — who are shot by the police.

The medical cost of treating gunshot wounds in the U.S. is estimated to be well more than $2 billion annually. And the Violence Policy Center, a gun control advocacy group, has noted that nonfatal gunshot wounds are the leading cause of uninsured hospital stays.

The toll on children and teenagers is particularly heartbreaking. According to the Brady Campaign, more than 3,000 kids are shot to death in a typical year. More than 1,900 are murdered, more than 800 commit suicide, about 170 are killed accidentally and 20 or so are killed by the police.

Another 17,000 are shot but survive.

I remember writing from Chicago two years ago about the nearly three dozen public school youngsters who were shot to death in a variety of circumstances around the city over the course of just one school year. Arne Duncan, who was then the chief of the Chicago schools and is now the U.S. secretary of education, said to me at the time: “That’s more than a kid every two weeks. Think about that.”

Actually, that’s our problem. We don’t really think about it. If the crime is horrible enough, we’ll go through the motions of public anguish but we never really do anything about it. Americans are as blasé as can be about this relentless slaughter that keeps the culture soaked in blood.

This blasé attitude, this willful refusal to acknowledge the scope of the horror, leaves the gun nuts free to press their crazy case for more and more guns in ever more hands. They’re committed to keeping the killing easy, and we should be committed for not stopping them.

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Two suicide bomb attacks kill dozens in Iraq

By Aseel Kami Aseel Kami, Reuters

Update - On Thursday three suicide bombings — one in Baghdad and two in Diyala, the restive province northeast of the capital — killed more than 80 people. In barely 24 hours, five bombings have killed at least 140 people and wounded 240.

Thursday’s deadliest bombing destroyed a restaurant in the city of Muqdadiya, killing at least 47 people, most of them Iranians traveling in buses. On Friday, a morgue official said the toll had risen to 56 killed, Agence France-Presse reported from Diyala’s capital, Baquba.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Two suicide bombers wearing vests stuffed with explosives blew themselves up in separate attacks in Iraq on Thursday, killing almost 70 people, many of them Iranian pilgrims, police said.

The blasts occurred as apprehension grows in Iraq ahead of a pullout by U.S. troops from city centers in June, and after warnings from officials that insurgent groups may try to take advantage of that to launch attacks.

A national election due at the end of the year also threatens a resurgence in violence just as the bloodshed of the past six years appeared to be receding.

The blast in central Baghdad took place as a group of Iraqi national police were distributing relief supplies to families driven from their homes during the sectarian slaughter and insurgency unleashed by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Fifty people were wounded and at least five children were among the dead, police said.

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The Bush Administration’s Stunning Geneva Hypocrisy

by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | Report, Monday 20 April 2009

Full Article

While making allegations of Geneva Conventions abuses by Saddam’s troops in Iraq, Bush administration officials like Donald Rumsfeld were authorizing violations of the Geneva Conventions. Newly released US government documents, detailing how Bush administration officials punched legalistic holes in the Geneva Conventions’ protections of war captives, stand in stark contrast to the outrage some of the same officials expressed in the first week of the Iraq war when Iraqi TV interviewed several captured American soldiers.

“If there is somebody captured,” President George W. Bush told reporters on March 23, 2003, “I expect those people to be treated humanely. If not, the people who mistreat the prisoners will be treated as war criminals.”

Then, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, President George W. Bush, and other administration officials orchestrated a chorus of outrage, citing those TV scenes as proof of the Iraq’s government contempt for international law in general and the Geneva Conventions in particular.

“It is a blatant violation of the Geneva Convention to humiliate and abuse prisoners of war or to harm them in any way. As President Bush said yesterday, those who harm POWs will be found and punished as war criminals,” Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said on March 24, 2003.

That same day, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the BBC that “the Geneva Convention is very clear on the rules for treating prisoners.. They’re not supposed to be tortured or abused; they’re not supposed to be intimidated; they’re not supposed to be made public displays of humiliation or insult, and we’re going to be in a position to hold those Iraqi officials who are mistreating our prisoners accountable, and they’ve got to stop.”

At a March 25, 2003, press briefing about progress in the US-led invasion, Secretary Rumsfeld said, “This war is an act of self-defense, to be sure, but it is also an act of humanity…. In recent days, the world has witnessed further evidence of their [Iraqi] brutality and their disregard for the laws of war. Their treatment of coalition POWs is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.”

The US news media also assisted in this one-sided indictment by uncritically reporting the administration’s complaints while staying silent on the fact that, just days earlier, American TV had run scenes of captured Iraqi soldiers, some forced to kneel down at gunpoint to be patted down by US soldiers.

This behavior of the US news media during the early phase of the Iraq war fit with its lack of skepticism in the months leading up to the March 19, 2003, invasion as Bush administration officials spoon-fed the press false intelligence alleging secret Iraqi WMD stockpiles and covert links to al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

So, perhaps it should have come as no surprise when the US news media treated the TV footage of American POWs as further evidence that Iraq was run by a lawless regime with no respect for the rules of war.

Stunning Hypocrisy

In retrospect – now with much more of the documentary record available – the disparity between the administration’s outrage toward the Iraqis for showing the video and the abuse inflicted by the US government on captives from the Iraq and Afghan wars is stunning.

Declassified documents reveal that the Bush administration concocted legal theories to justify sidestepping the Geneva Conventions when it came to prisoners incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, at secret CIA prisons, and at various locations in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib, where shocking photos were leaked of sexual and physical abuse in 2004.

Indeed, while US government officials were preaching to Iraqis about the rules of war, the Bush administration was seven months into a secret interrogation program that authorized CIA interrogators to question Afghan and al-Qaeda detainees using brutal methods.

The techniques included painful “stress positions,” forced nudity in cold conditions and the simulated drowning of waterboarding, practices that human rights organizations say violated Geneva and anti-torture laws.

The Bush administration also ordered the CIA to engage in “extraordinary renditions,” which involved kidnapping terror suspects and shipping them to countries that are known to practice torture………………..

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Muslim Group Says FBI Asking People To Spy

JEFF KAROUB | April 16, 2009 (AP)

DETROIT — A Michigan Muslim organization said Thursday it has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate complaints alleging the FBI is asking followers of the faith to spy on Islamic leaders and congregations.

The Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan sent a letter last week to Holder after mosques and other groups reported members of the community have been approached to monitor people coming to mosques and donations they make.

Sandra Berchtold, a spokeswoman in the FBI’s Detroit office, had no immediate comment.

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said such complaints aren’t new, but concerns grew after a recent revelation the FBI planted a spy in a Southern California mosque.

An FBI agent testified in February at a detention hearing that an informant infiltrated several mosques in Orange County, Calif., and befriended Ahmadullah Niazi, brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard. Niazi was charged with lying about his ties to terrorist groups on his citizenship and passport applications.

Former FBI agents and federal prosecutors have said spying on mosques is one of the government’s best weapons to thwart terrorists, but agents need to have credible and specific information before sending in a plant.

Walid said the complaints in Michigan amount to a “fishing expedition.”

“If there was a specific imam who they felt was telling people to support Osama bin Laden, that’s a different story _ we wouldn’t have a problem with that,” he said. “Community members would be the first people to report to federal law enforcement if such things were being said.”

Walid said the most common complaints have come from people with pending immigration issues being approached by agents to monitor mosques in exchange for help in resolving their citizenship cases.

He said the Detroit area’s Muslim community _ one the country’s largest _ has been supported by non-Muslim groups and individuals, and that a Catholic youth organization, a Baptist pastor and an interfaith group promoting peace and justice have all written letters calling for a federal investigation.

“The attorney general has not been in office for that long,” Walid said. “He’s in the process of revamping the Justice Department. It’s extremely necessary for him to take a serious look at this issue.”

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Vatican to Investigate U.S. Nuns

For Not Holding Vatican Line On Homosexuality

April 15, 2009 05:26 PM EST | AP

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has launched a doctrinal investigation into the leadership of Catholic sisters in the United States, reportedly because they have not sufficiently promoted the Vatican line on homosexuality and other issues.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an association that gathers the leaders of most of the country’s women’s congregations, said it was informed of the “doctrinal assessment” in a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s orthodoxy watchdog.

The doctrinal investigation is separate from another Vatican-ordered study looking into the quality of the life in more than 400 U.S. women’s religious institutes. That study was launched as the church grapples with the dramatic decline in the number of American nuns and sisters over the past several decades.

In a statement Tuesday, the Leadership Conference said the new doctrinal study would look into its activities and initiatives, but it provided no details.

Calls to the Vatican spokesman were not returned late Wednesday. A spokeswoman of the conference, Sister Annmarie Sanders, declined to comment beyond the statement.

The National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper, said the Vatican ordered up the probe because the sisters had not addressed problems raised by the Vatican in 2001 about their promotion of church teaching on homosexuality, salvation and the priesthood, which the Vatican says is reserved for men.

The newspaper cited a letter from the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Levada, to the conference saying the Vatican had concluded that the problems raised in 2001 remain based on the “tenor and the doctrinal content” of speeches given at the conference’s annual meetings.

The conference said it was confident going into the investigation, saying it believed it had been faithful to its mission of serving leaders of women’s orders “as they seek to further the mission of Christ in today’s world.”

The conference says it has more than 1,500 members, who represent about 95 percent of the 59,000 women religious in the United States.

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Spanish Attorney General: No Torture Probe Of Bush Admin Officials

PAUL HAVEN | April 16, 2009

MADRID — Spain’s attorney general has rejected opening an investigation into whether six Bush administration officials sanctioned torture against terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, saying Thursday a U.S. courtroom would be the proper forum.

Candido Conde-Pumpido’s remarks severely dampen the chance of a case moving forward against the Americans, including former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Conde-Pumpido said such a trial would have turned Spain’s National Court “into a plaything” to be used for political ends.

“If there is a reason to file a complaint against these people, it should be done before local courts with jurisdiction, in other words in the United States,” he said in a breakfast meeting with journalists.

Spanish law gives its courts jurisdiction beyond national borders in cases of torture, war crimes and other heinous offenses, based on a doctrine known as universal justice, but the government has made clear it wants to rein in the process.

Last month, a group of human rights lawyers asked Judge Baltasar Garzon, famous for indicting ex-Chilean ruler Augusto Pinochet in 1998, to consider filing charges against the six Americans. Under Spanish law, the judge then asked prosecutors for a recommendation on whether to open a full-blown probe.

National Court prosecutors have not formally announced their decision, but Conde-Pumpido is the country’s top law-enforcement official and has the ultimate say. While an investigative judge like Garzon is not bound by the prosecutors’ recommendation, it would be highly unusual for a case to proceed without their support.

A senior court official told The Associated Press that a formal announcement would come Friday. He said prosecutors would stop short of an outright call for dismissal of the case, but would raise a series of legal objections that would make it impossible for it to proceed in its current form.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

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Yet Again and Again

Police: 2 Dead, 1 Hurt in Calif. Hospital Shooting
Police: Gunman kills 1, wounds 1, then kills himself at Long Beach, Calif., hospital
The Associated Press

LONG BEACH, Calif.

Police say an employee at a Long Beach, Calif., hospital shot another employee to death, critically wounded another and then killed himself.

Police Chief Anthony Batts said at a press conference Thursday that the violence erupted just before noon at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

Batts would not identify those involved. He says the motive remains under investigation.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Police say two people have been shot in a Southern California hospital, but their conditions are not immediately known.

Long Beach police spokeswoman Lisa Massacani says the shooting occurred shortly before noon in the lobby area of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

A hospital spokeswoman did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Gas company worker Dave Chamberlain told KCAL-TV he heard five shots and then saw a man waving a gun outside the hospital shoot himself.

A woman, Charity Perez, told the TV station her husband knew the gunman and identified him as a worker at a pharmacy.

A youth, Justin Hawkins, said doctors got people into rooms during the shooting before police arrived.

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GOP Senator Encourages Run On Banks

BURR TALKS UP BANK RUNS…. I’d hoped someone who’s been helping write federal law for more than 14 years would know better than to say things like this in public. (via Christopher Orr)

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) says when the financial crisis began he encouraged his wife to withdraw all the cash she possibly could from their local bank.

During a speech on the economy [Monday] night, Burr related his immediate reaction the week the crisis began.

“On Friday night, I called my wife and I said, ‘Brooke, I am not coming home this weekend. I will call you on Monday. Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take,” Burr said, according to the Hendersonville Times-News. “And I want you to tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday.’ I was convinced on Friday night that if you put a plastic card in an ATM machine the last thing you were going to get was cash.”

Now, maybe Burr was trying to be funny, but his comments don’t make any sense. Since the advent of FDIC, Burr’s family money was safe, right where it was. Calling home in a panic, and withdrawing the maximum, only serves to make a bad situation worse.

But even worse is hearing Burr talk like this publicly to voters who may be inclined to think he knows what he’s talking about. The senator wasn’t just describing a bank run, he was suggesting bank runs might be a good idea in the midst of a crisis. As Matt Yglesias explained, “Burr’s effort to whip people into a panic could lead to runs and bank failures. That, in turn, will lead to people losing jobs. People could even lose their business through no fault of their own other than having customers who chose to take the words of a United States Senator seriously. I’m having a hard to imagining what Burr could have been thinking.”

Burr was a sales manager for a lawn equipment company before joining the Senate. His 2006 financial disclosure shows a small amount of money in Wachovia savings accounts (hey, if I had cash in Wachovia, I’d have pulled it out too!)

Nonetheless, he’s got about half a million in IRA funds, plus what appears to be a few hundred thousand in various funds and stock positions, most of which I’m sure have been seriously battered. He’d have done better leaving his savings accounts alone and instead told his wife to go short six months earlier. (His SUNW stock, maybe more like nine years earlier.)

Interestingly, his financial disclosures shows two charitable donations made in lieu of honorariums, both from the American Bankers Association. Wonder if they’re rethinking his role right about now.

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Afghans chase off women law protesters

KABUL (AFP) – An angry crowd of more than 500 Afghans chased off a few dozen protesters in Kabul on Wednesday who criticised a new law for imposing Taliban-style restrictions on Shiite women.

Up to 50 women lawmakers and rights activists marched outside a Kabul university demanding “justice” and distributing a declaration saying the Shiite Personal Status Law “insults the dignity of women”, said an AFP reporter.

They were soon outnumbered by a rowdy group of 200 Shiite women and around 300 men who chanted slogans in favour of the law — which regulates marriage, divorce and inheritance for the Shiite minority on their request.

President Hamid Karzai signed the law in March but it has yet to be published, despite changes that some parliamentarians say soften more severe drafts.

Karzai ordered a review after an outcry from Western allies, including Canada, the United Nations and the United States, who say it violates international regulations on the equality of women.

He has said anything that violates women’s rights will be removed.

Critics allege, for example, that the law allows marital rape by stopping a wife from refusing sex and means she cannot leave her home without her husband’s permission except on urgent business.

Defenders say these points have been removed although there may be others that harm women’s rights.

“We don’t want a Taliban law, we want a democratic law and we want a law that guarantees human dignity,” protesters chanted outside a Kabul university headed by prominent, conservative Shiite cleric Mohammad Asif Mohseni.

They left without incident when the larger demonstration of Shiite men and women swarmed in, an AFP reporter said.

“Opposing this law is opposing Islam, the religion and the constitution,” said participant Mohammad Hussain.

Afghan Shiites, who make up about 15 percent of the population, generally live in peace with the Sunni majority.

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New Afghan civilian deaths probe – Again

April 14, 2009

International forces in Afghanistan are investigating reports that six civilians have been killed in an air strike in the east of the country.

Officials in Kunar province said a number of civilians were also hurt in the strike on Sunday night.

Nato officials confirmed there was an “event” but had no further details.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called on international forces fighting the Taleban to do more to avoid civilian casualties.

Last week, the coalition acknowledged that at least four civilians had been killed in an anti-insurgency operation in the east.

District governor Zalmai Yousufzai was quoted as saying by AFP that the dead were two children, a woman and three men.

The coalition has in the past said it does all it can to minimise civilian casualties.

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Vatican blocks Caroline Kennedy appointment as US ambassador

From IL Giornale. April 12, 2009

Vatican sources told Il Giornale that their support for abortion disqualified Ms Kennedy and other Roman Catholics President Barack Obama had been seeking to appoint.

Mr Obama was reportedly seeking to reward John F Kennedy’s daughter, who publicly gave her support to his election bid. She had been poised to replace Hillary Clinton as New York senator, but dropped out amid criticism that she lacked enough experience for the job.

The Italian paper said that the Vatican strongly disapproved of Mr Obama’s support for abortion and stem cell research. The impasse over the ambassadorial appointment threatens to cloud his meeting with the Pope during a G8 summit in Itay in July.

Ms Kennedy, 53, has said that she supports abortion. Raymond Flynn, a former US ambassador to the Vatican, said earlier this week that Ms Kennedy would be a poor choice.

“It’s imperative, it’s essential that the person who represents us to the Holy See be a person who has pro-life values. I hope the President doesn’t make that mistake,” he told the Boston Herald. “She said she was pro-choice. I don’t assume she’s going to change that, which is problematic.”

The White House refused to comment.

The McGlynn, “Yep, as I become more ancient the idea of the separation of church and state appeals more and more to me. We should adopt this idea. Do not let the Vatican name our ambassador.

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Iraqi military sues to shut newspaper, TV station in Baghdad

THE JERUSALEM POST Reports:

Iraq’s military has filed a lawsuit seeking to shut down the Baghdad operations of a major Arab newspaper and television station, alleging they falsely reported that orders had been issued to arrest ex-detainees recently released by the US, an official said Monday.

Al-Hayat newspaper and Al-Sharqiya reported last week, quoting Iraq’s military spokesman, that the names and photos of the released detainees had been distributed to checkpoints with orders to arrest them as part of an investigation into recent bombings in Baghdad.

Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said Monday that the two falsely quoted him, and the military filed a lawsuit last week to close their Baghdad operations.

He said he told the TV station and the newspaper that authorities were going over the files of those recently released to see if they had rejoined armed groups – but denied that he said authorities planned to arrest them.

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Afghan cleric defends contentious marriage law

By RAHIM FAIEZ and HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press Writers, April 11, 2009
Article

A key backer of an Afghan law that critics say legalizes marital rape and rolls back women’s rights rejected an international outcry as foreign meddling on Saturday and insisted the legislation offers women many protections.

The law, passed last month, says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse, and regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone.

The legislation has raised the specter of the deposed hard-line Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The strict Islamist regime required women to wear body-covering burqas and banned them from leaving home without a male relative.

Following an international uproar, in which President Barack Obama called the law “abhorrent,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai put it under review. The move puts enforcement on hold.

Mohammad Asif Mohseni, a top Afghan cleric who was one of the law’s main drafters, said the legislation cannot be revoked or changed because it was enacted through a legislative process — passed by both houses of parliament and signed by Karzai. He condemned the outcry, saying Western countries were trying to thwart democracy when results did not please them.

“The Westerners claim that they have brought democracy to Afghanistan. What does democracy mean? It means government by the people for the people. They should let the people use these democratic rights,” Mohseni told reporters in the capital, Kabul.

Surrounded by supporters, Mohseni unfurled reams of paper with hundreds of women’s signatures and thumbprints backing the law. The legislation came out of three years of debate and revision involving both Islamic scholars and members of parliament, Mohseni said.

Afghanistan is an Islamic state and its constitution defers to the Quran as the ultimate authority. Mohseni said the law simply reiterates rules from Islam’s holy book.

“In Shariah law, it states that a woman cannot go out without the permission of her husband,” he said. He argued that the law is permissive because it allows a woman to go out for a medical emergency or other urgent reason without asking beforehand. In addition, a couple can agree to opt out of this rule when signing a marriage contract, he said………………………………………….

The law says that every fourth day a man “can pass the night with his wife, unless it is harmful for either side, or either of them is suffering from any kind of sexual disease. It is essential for the woman to submit to the man’s sexual desire.”

“If she is not sick, and if she does not have another problem, it is the right of a man to ask for sex and she should make herself ready for it. This is the right of a man,” Mohseni explained…………………….

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US Military Says Afghan Family Killed in Coalition Raid

By VOA News 09 April 2009
The U.S. military said U.S. and Afghan troops killed four Afghan civilians, including two women, during an operation in eastern Afghanistan.

The U.S.-led coalition had earlier said militants were killed Wednesday during a raid in Khost province. But Afghan officials disputed the claim, saying civilians, including a baby, were killed.

After an investigation, the U.S.-led coalition confirmed those killed were not involved in militant activities.

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Huge Protest Marks Baghdad’s fall

By Mohammed Abbas and Aseel Kami, Reuters, Thu Apr 9, 2009

Article

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of followers of anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr thronged Baghdad on Thursday to mark the sixth anniversary of the city’s fall to U.S. troops, and to demand they leave immediately.

“Down, down USA,” the demonstrators chanted as a Ali al-Marwani, a Sadrist official, denounced the U.S. occupation of Iraq that began with the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003, and the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Firdos Square.

The crowds of Sadr supporters stretched from the giant Sadr City slum in northeast Baghdad to the square around 5 km (3 miles) away.

Protesters burnt an effigy featuring the face of former U.S. President George W. Bush, who ordered the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and also the face of Saddam.

Shi’ites were brutally persecuted under Saddam, who was executed to chants of Sadr’s name in 2006.

“God, unite us, return our riches, free the prisoners from the prisons, return sovereignty to our country … make our country free from the occupier, and prevent the occupier from stealing our oil,” Sadr said in a message read by a Sadr movement aide Asaad al-Nassiri.

“God, make us the liberators of our land,” the message said, drawing roars of approval from the crowd, many clutching or wearing Iraqi flags, and some wearing Iraqi national team tracksuits in a show of nationalist sentiment.

Hammering home the nationalist message, Nassiri exhorted the demonstrators to shake hands with each other and Iraqi police and soldiers overseeing the march. Long queues formed to kiss the police and troops on the cheeks and shake their hands.

U.S. NOT TRUSTED………………………………..

Many at the demonstration did not trust the United States to live up to the commitment to withdraw.

“Iraq has experience of occupation … No country has emerged from it through politics and transparency. It will only end through the sword,” said demonstrator Khalid al-Ibadi, referring to uprisings against British and Ottoman rule of Iraq.

Sadr, scion of one of Iraq’s great Shi’ite religious dynasties, is believed to be in Iran studying religious law.

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Ten Conservative ‘Democrats’ Vote for Bill That Protects the Children of Multimillionaires

Posted by Satyam Khanna, Think Progress

Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) recently introduced a $250 billion amendment to slash estate taxes for the heirs of multimillion-dollar estates. Yesterday, the Senate narrowly passed the bill by a 51-48 vote. Joining Republicans in approving the bill were ten Senate Democrats:

Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN), Cantwell (D-WA), Landrieu (D-LA), Lincoln (D-AR), Murray (D-WA), Nelson (D-FL), Nelson (D-NE), Pryor (D-AR), Tester (D-MT)

As the New York Times explained, under Obama’s budget, “99.8 percent of estates will never — ever — pay a penny of estate tax. The heirs of the remaining 0.2 percent of estates are who Ms. Lincoln and Mr. Kyl are so worried about.”

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Navy Lawyer Who Faulted Guantánamo Is Reassigned

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 5, 2009

Article

SAN JUAN, P.R. (AP) — A Navy lawyer who clashed with superiors over defense tactics for detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been removed from the case of a Canadian accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan, an official said on Saturday.

The lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, who was appointed by the Pentagon to represent Omar Khadr, was reassigned on Friday after an internal inquiry into his conduct, said Michael Berrigan, the deputy chief defense counsel at the Navy base in Guantánamo.

In his two years on the case, Commander Kuebler campaigned for Mr. Khadr’s return to Canada to short-circuit a military tribunal system that he described as unfair. Like all Guantánamo prosecutions, the case is suspended pending a review of policies by the Obama administration.

The chief defense counsel at Guantánamo, Col. Peter Masciola of the Air Force, concluded that Commander Kuebler’s removal was necessary to pursue “a client-centered representation,” according to a statement from his office. Colonel Masciola did not immediately respond to a request for further details.

Commander Kuebler was assigned to a new post in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the Navy. He could not be reached for comment. The Canadian government is seeking more information on his dismissal, said Catherine Loubier, a spokeswoman for the foreign affairs minister.

In February, Commander Kuebler was blocked from traveling to meet Mr. Khadr at Guantánamo amid the internal investigation, which he said was related to his criticism of Colonel Masciola’s management.

He complained about Colonel Masciola’s cooperation with the review of Guantánamo cases that was intended to decide whether the cases should be tried in civilian or military courts or some combination of the two.

“I don’t want to make it easier for the government to prosecute my client,” he said at the time. “I want my client to be released.”

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Famed Gitmo Lawyer Facing Six Months in Prison

For Writing Letter to Obama Detailing Torture of Client

Article

Lawyers for Binyam Mohamed face the incredible prospect of a six-month jail sentence in America after writing a letter to President Obama detailing their client’s allegations of torture by U.S. agents.

The privilege review team — officials from the U.S. Department of Defense who monitor and censor communication between Guantánamo prisoners and their lawyers — have previously been accused of using their powers to suppress evidence of the abuse and mistreatment of detainees.

Clive Stafford Smith, director of legal charity Reprieve, and his colleague Ahmed Ghappour have been summoned to appear before a Washington court on May 11 after a complaint was made by the privilege review team.

Stafford Smith had written to the president after judges in the UK ruled against the release of U.S. evidence detailing Mohamed’s alleged torture at Guantánamo. The letter [PDF] asked the president to reconsider the U.S. position and urged him to release the evidence into the public domain. He attached a memo summarizing the case because his US security clearance gives him access to the classified material. In order to comply with classification guidelines, the memo did not identify individual officers by name or specify locations of the abuse.

He and Gappour submitted the memo to the privilege team for clearance but the memo was redacted to just the title, leaving the president unable to read it. Stafford Smith included the redacted copy of the memo in his letter to illustrate the extent to which it had been censored. He described it as a “bizarre reality.” “You, as commander in chief, are being denied access to material that would help prove that crimes have been committed by U.S. personnel. This decision is being made by the very people who you command.”

The privilege team argue that by releasing the redacted memo Reprieve has breached the rules that govern Guantánamo lawyers and have made a complaint to the court of “unprofessional conduct”.

Stafford Smith described their actions as intimidation, saying the complaint “doesn’t even specify the rule supposedly breached.”

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Israeli Foreign Minister Grilled Again

Police grill Lieberman for second time in three days

By Jonathan Lis and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents

Article

Police questioned Avigdor Lieberman as part of a corruption investigation on Friday for the second time since he was sworn in as foreign minister earlier this week.

Fraud squad detectives questioned the foreign minister, who is also chairman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, for more than five hours and said another round was likely in the coming week.

On Thursday, Lieberman was questioned for more than seven hours over suspicions of bribery, money laundering, fraud and breach of trust, less than a day after he took office.

National fraud unit detectives questioned him under caution as part of a probe into his business-dealings proceeds.

Police sources said Lieberman may be indicted within a few months. Lieberman denies any wrongdoing and says the probe is politically motivated.

Lieberman’s with the detectives came after a senior member of his right-wing party, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, assumed the position of public security minister in charge of police.

Police have questioned Lieberman several times throughout his political career. Since he was questioned about an alleged money laundering affair in April 2007, detectives have gathered thousands of possibly incriminating documents.

About 1,000 of these documents were confiscated from Lieberman’s attorney’s office. Some 2,500 additional ones were gathered by the investigation team in Cyprus. These detail the activities of various companies that constituted part of Lieberman and his colleagues’ laundering network. They include bank documents listing money transfers and several accounts allegedly opened by Lieberman’s associates.

The detectives believe they have evidence tying Lieberman to the money transfers made to the Cyprus accounts.

Tel Aviv Magistrate Benny Sagi studied the evidence compiled by the police in January about the bank accounts attributed to Lieberman in January, concluding that “the inquiry has taken another most significant turn, which increases the suspicion.”

Lieberman is not suspected of one-time transfers or of transferring low sums, “but with depositing considerable sums into those accounts, sometimes in millions of shekels,” Sagi said. “In some cases we’re dealing with orderly, regular monthly deposits.”……………………………………….

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Israel Ends Inquiry Into Abuse in Gaza

By ISABEL KERSHNER, NYT, March 31, 2009

Article

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Monday that its advocate general had decided to close an investigation into allegations of abuses by soldiers during the recent campaign in Gaza. The allegations arose from the accounts of soldiers at a conference of graduates of a premilitary course at an academic college in northern Israel.

The military police found that “the crucial components of their descriptions were based on hearsay and not supported by specific personal knowledge,” the army said in a statement.

Specifically, a soldier’s claim that orders had been given to fire at an elderly Palestinian woman who entered a no-go zone was found to be based on a rumor, according to the military. Another case, in which a soldier had supposedly been ordered to fire at a woman and two children, was also found not to have been witnessed by the soldier who gave the account.

“After checking the claim, it was found that during this incident a force had opened fire in a different direction, toward two suspicious men who were unrelated to the civilians in question,” the statement said.

The allegations that arose from the conference at the academy and the wide coverage they received in the news media were troubling to many Israelis, most of whom are conscripted at the age of 18. Many Israelis view the army as a force that maintains high moral standards.

The academy’s director, Dany Zamir, told Army Radio on Monday that he accepted the advocate general’s report. Still, he added, “If soldiers will now feel that they cannot talk because of the outcome of this specific story, then this is very bad for us as a society and army.”

On the other hand, he stated, it was not his intention to attract news media attention by making the contents of the soldiers’ discussion public. He added that the news media’s focus on the story “truly complicated everything.”

The McGlynn, “As Expected”.

A group of nine Israeli human rights organizations issued a statement saying that the army’s speedy closing of its internal investigation underlined the need for an independent investigation into possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

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Wounded soldiers tell Army combat would be better than treatment in NC recovery unit

By KEVIN MAURER , Associated Press, March 24, 2009

Article

FORT BRAGG, N.C. – Soldiers in a recovery unit for wounded troops at Fort Bragg told the Secretary of the Army that they feel forgotten by the military and that combat duty would be better than the treatment they get now, according to a memo obtained by the Associated Press.

The memo summarized the comments of soldiers who attended a closed-door meeting last week with Army Secretary Pete Geren. It was held after the service said it would look into complaints of overzealous discipline reported by The Associated Press.

Some of the soldiers told Geren they have “feelings of worthlessness and abandonment,” the memo states. They told Geren that low morale and suicides in the base’s Warrior Transition battalion are “pushed by (a) negative command climate” that is enforced by the unit’s squad leaders.

“If I had been in the (unit) after I was wounded the first time, I would not have fought so hard to stay in,” one soldier told Geren, according to the memo. “It is very demoralizing and a very different experience from my previous recuperation.”

The Army set up its 35 Warrior Transition units two years ago to help soldiers navigate the medical system and monitor their progress and treatment following the scandal over shoddy conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

But a recent Associated Press investigation found that discipline rates vary widely across the system. The comments to Geren mirror those of a dozen current and former soldiers interviewed by the AP about their time in Fort Bragg’s unit. They accused the unit’s officers of being indifferent to their medical needs and punishing them for actions that stem from their injuries.

“Combat was preferable to the (unit) and the platoon level chain of command … were poorly trained and not earning their special pay to pay close attention to each (soldier’s) case and their progress to transition,” the memo states.

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Soldiers Sent to Iraq Despite Illness

Soldiers Say the Army Forced Them to Deploy Despite Health Woes

By Gregg Zoroya, ABC, March 23, 2009

Article

FAIRBANKS, Alaska : When the “Arctic Warriors” Stryker Brigade left for Iraq from nearby Fort Wainwright late last year, commanders told soldiers who were suffering medical problems that they would also go to war.

Spc. Mark Oldham was on a plane to Iraq by Dec. 5 despite being declared unfit because he passes out during training and requires a 30-day heart-monitor exam, his medical records show.

Sgt. Jesse McElroy, a combat veteran who had shoulder surgery in September and could barely move his arm, according to his medical records, was told to deploy or face charges for malingering.

Chief Warrant Officer Adisa “A.J.” Aiyetoro, a 19-year veteran who is stricken with active tuberculosis and unable to wear body armor because of back injuries, according to medical and court records, refused to go. “I’m not getting on that plane,” he says. His court-martial on charges of disobeying an order and missing a deployment is scheduled for Monday.

“The only reason that I’m being deployed is they want (greater) numbers” of troops in the field, Oldham said before leaving. He is assigned to communications.

A recent Army inspector general’s report says the process for deciding a soldier’s fitness for combat is so confusing that it increases the chance of sending ailing troops to war.

At Fort Wainwright, 80 soldiers with health issues were left behind when the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team deployed in September, says Lt. Col. Jonathan Allen, an Army spokesman.

Twenty-three were later brought to Iraq to help “maintain (the brigade’s) personnel strength” but only after their health improved, he says. Oldham and McElroy were among those left behind. Oldham was among those later deployed.

Army Col. Ronald Stephens, commander of Bassett Army Community Hospital at Fort Wainwright, says his doctors work well with commanders and follow all fitness guidelines.

Several soldiers caught in the process and willing to speak out tell a different story. They describe a climate where commanders constantly pressure soldiers with health issues to deploy, even when their medical records, which they provided, show physical problems.

In response, a group of soldiers that includes McElroy plans to meet Monday at the Alaska Peace Center here to gather signatures for a petition to mail to members of Congress. The petition says, “As the shortage of troops has become more and more difficult to overcome, our commanders have become more and more aggressive in deploying soldiers with injuries and illnesses.”

“What we’re trying to do is just get our stories heard,” says Sgt. Stephen Scroggs, who tracks the progress of ailing soldiers left behind for the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment. He is part of the rear detachment and is involved in the petition drive. “A lot of soldiers are suffering, I just don’t want them to suffer anymore.”

Allen says all medical cases were thoroughly vetted and when doctors determined that soldiers met deployment health criteria, they were deployed. Those with persistent issues stayed home, he says.

Aiyetoro began developing chronic, debilitating back pain after an earlier combat deployment. He is an armament maintenance technician with the 25th Brigade Support Battalion.

Medical records show that Army orthopedic surgeon Nick Sexton classified him as non-deployable Aug. 25. Sexton wrote that Aiyetoro is unable to wear his body armor and recommended a medical review that could lead to a medical discharge.

Central Command specifically forbids a solder to deploy if body armor cannot be worn: “In general, individuals should not deploy & (with) conditions which prevent the wear of personal protective equipment, including & body armor.”

A revised evaluation issued for Aiyetoro a few days later by another doctor found that he could wear body armor but “only during mission-essential movements.”

The Army did not make Sexton available for an interview. Stephens, the hospital commander, declined to discuss Aiyetoro’s case despite a waiver Aiyetoro signed allowing Stephens to do so. Stephens said in situation’s like Aiyetoro’s, it is possible for an initial medical opinion to later be overruled.

Since then, doctors have again changed Aiyetoro’s medical status. In February, doctors concluded that Aiyetoro needed further tests on his back to determine the extent of injuries and he needs additional tests to determine whether his tuberculosis is active, according to court records.

Aiyetoro says commanders cared more about filling their ranks than about him getting better when they ordered him to deploy in September. They made him feel like a malingerer for complaining about his back pain, he says, and “they pretty much classified me as a dirt bag.”

“They were not intending on getting me better (as much as) getting me on that plane,” says Aiyetoro, 36, married and the father of four.

The command offered to allow him to resign. Aiyetoro chose a court-martial instead, the trial is slated for Monday at Fort Richardson, outside Anchorage. “If I walk right now, it’s as if I never served in the military,” he says, explaining that he would lose benefits if he resigned.

McElroy says he also felt pressured by commanders. A veteran of a previous tour in Iraq, McElroy aggravated a shoulder injury in 2006 when his Stryker vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.

An initial surgery after his return from combat failed to correct the damage, according to his records, and he underwent another operation last September. His surgeon, Gregory Komenda, wrote in a December report that McElroy “should be considered unable to perform his duties.” Military doctors reached the same conclusion with one, Mark Clifford, writing in a January report, “Soldier is unable to perform Infantry tasks.”

Yet McElroy’s immediate commander continued to tell him he would deploy, first saying the second surgery should be delayed and then saying McElroy would leave for Iraq after a 30-day, post-operative convalescence, McElroy says.

After months of haggling, records show, McElroy was finally slated for a medical review and a possible discharge for health reasons. McElroy says he was accused of malingering and being a “sorry excuse for a non-commissioned officer,” because of his health issues.

In December, he says, he was told that if he was not in Iraq, he would be charged with malingering. The charges never came, and at the urging of Army doctors, McElroy was eventually slated for a medical board review that could lead to a medical discharge.

“I signed up & knowing that at some point I would be sent into combat. I have risked my life to defend this country,” McElroy says, adding that he feels “belittled, humiliated, threatened, angry, (in) mental shock.”

Allen says that soldiers have the right to complain to rear detachment commanders about any mistreatment and that no complaints were made in McElroy’s case. “It is the Army’s long-standing policy to treat all soldiers with dignity and respect,” he says.

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Him in Hindsight, by Jehan Sadat

Former first lady Jehan Sadat talks to Gamal Nkrumah about the poignant influences on her politics and the release of her latest bombshell on the 30th anniversary of the monumental signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty

Article

A light flickering on and off in Jehan Sadat’s sunlit sitting room is bugging one of her numerous cats, Jerry, I think the chubby ginger cat is called. He soon bores of the insubstantial and turns to me. Purring softly, as I stroke him, he eyes my notepad with curious suspicion. “I love my cats,” her brilliant emerald eyes sparkle with delight. She clicks her thumb and index finger, hunting for the right expression and apologises when he flies off at a tangent. “Cats are full of character. Small wonder the ancient Egyptians deified them.”

And, the conversation smoothly shifts towards the spiritual. “To include faith as a principle for peace in the Middle East seems at best counterintuitive. How can religion, which seems the source of so much misery in the region, do anything other than prove a divisive, countervailing influence to efforts towards peace? For me, the answer is simple: God, whether according to the Muslim, Christian, or Jewish tradition, enjoins us to treat others as we would ourselves be treated, to be compassionate, to be forgiving, to love our fellow human beings. God does not need to lead us to confrontations or brutality in his name. These actions represent the formulations and frailties of humankind.” We chatter, touching further on the subject of personal faith, deep religious conviction as opposed to superficial ritualistic religious lore — and above all God.

For Jehan Sadat religion is no abstraction: it is practical, functional and yet she confesses that she is instinctively drawn to the mystical. “I believe that events in our lives happen for a purpose, and yet sometimes marvel at the circumstances that have brought me, in some ways, full circle — face-to-face with a part of my life that I find most painful,” she smiles faintly without a trace of remorse.

“When my husband was slain by Islamic extremists, I never imagined that I would one day be living in America, speaking out in an effort to counter the idea that extremists speak for Islam. It would not have occurred to me in 1981 that the example set by my husband’s murderers could one day be seen as representative of my faith.” For her, there is no compulsion in religion, as Islam so explicitly makes clear.

“For me, being a good Muslim does not mean abjuring criticism or silencing dissent within our own communities.” Her dramatic rise from a cloistered childhood in the then leafy island suburb of Manial to the distinction of first lady is something of a fairytale.

Jehan is no shrinking violet. She has faced down many moments of despair with dignity and poise. She recalls forbidding moments that altered the course of her life, especially the assassination of her beloved Anwar. “Our nation seemed poised at the very edge of fiery conflagration, with fanatics on both sides fanning the flames.”

Sadat, defying the entire Arab and Muslim world, broke the taboo of entering the lair of the beast. “Such were events leading up to Sadat’s detention of Egypt’s dissidents. I say this not as a means of excusing it, but rather to place it in context.” She does not defend, but explains, the circumstances that led to her late husband’s arrest on 5 September 1981 of 1,500 religious figures and political activists.

She shifts in her seat. I ask somewhat peevishly whether such numbers were warranted. “In Anwar’s mind, such extreme action served as a protective and precautionary move. He saw no other way to keep the peace train on track.”

Mrs Sadat is jealously protective about the man she calls “the love of my life”. She blindly believes in his cause, not because he was her hero, but rather out of conviction. Many of the stories about Sadat have fantastical aspects that lend themselves well to political commentary. The result of her reminiscing is an enjoyable ode to her sweetheart My Hope for Peace. Her sharp memory and attention to detail are astounding assets. She gauges important cultural differences between Westerners and Muslims, but what is truly remarkable about her is the concise candidness with which she elucidates her arguments.

“As the widow of Anwar Sadat, I cannot count myself an objective analyst of his policies,” she concedes. “Sadat pursued peace because he knew it was what most Egyptians, exhausted by war and desperate to turn their energies towards less destructive pursuits, wanted,” she stresses. “And he knew it was in his nation’s, and the region’s, best interests. He put peace before his own political position, personal popularity, physical safety, or relationship with fellow heads of state.” Presumably, Mrs Sadat was referring to her husband’s poisoned relationship with a majority of Arab leaders at the time.

My Hope for Peace is a compelling book written by a zesty woman of Egypt who has been more than 50 years in the public eye. Delivering historical accuracy is paramount for this punctilious woman. Memories of the October war are starting to fade for the younger generations of Egypt. The scars linger, however.

Detractors, of whom there are many, view her as an appendage of her husband. Almost three decades after his assassination, she remains devoted to her husband’s cause but infuses it with a feminine touch. “I could not retreat into Anwar’s shadow.”

Jehan Sadat left an indelible mark with her introduction of the so-called “Jehan laws” that laid the foundations of women’s rights in Egypt. “At first, I was not even aware that they had nicknamed these laws after me.” She laughs. But on a more serious note, she delves into the challenges facing contemporary women. “Being open about it rather than sensationalising it,” she argues, “is a way of bridging the cultural divide,” she tells Al-Ahram Weekly.

The new book, then, stands every chance of being as quizzical and provocative as her earlier work The New York Times best-selling autobiography, A Woman of Egypt.

Her latest work, a slim but significant volume, tackles not only women’s rights but also the political future of the country and even more daringly her own interpretation of Islam. “Although I am not a religious scholar, I hope to set the record straight and correct what I see as the most persistent and prevalent misconceptions about Islam.”

The story opens by focussing on the nebulous nexus between the “Eleventh of September and the Sixth of October”. The two events are radically different, but for the author there is a common thread. The Arab victory on 6 October 1973 paved the way for Sadat’s magnanimity. 9/11, on the other hand, represented for her the culmination of Arab and Muslim fury.

Sadat’s October was the very antithesis of Al-Qaeda’s September. For the author, the onus should always be on forgiveness, in the spirit of Islam, not vengeance. Set between the outbreak of the 1973 War and 9/11, My Hope for Peace tackles familiar themes.

Jehan Sadat is convinced that Muslims are peace-loving people. “Although the details of the Arab-Israeli conflict have changed, this fundamental truth — that people want peace — remains the same.” According to her, those who preach violence are detested not only by the West, but by the Muslim masses themselves.

“Although I have dwelled much on the angry minorities in Egypt and the Arab world who opposed Sadat’s dialogue with Israel, it bears repeating that most Egyptians supported their president’s initiative,” she asserts. The Suez Canal cities used to be haunted by their ruins. People neither forget the tragedies, nor do they disregard the triumphs.

The subject matter, she assures me, is how people relate across cultures. And, it is not about pleasing the American crowd.

Peace only came to Egypt as a result of its victory over the Israelis. The outbreak of the Sixth of October War was greeted in startlingly different ways by the Arab and Western public. Some not surprisingly responded with foreboding.

She believes certain Arab regimes thrive on the Palestinian predicament and have no interest in real peace. Those, she claims, are the ones responsible for her husband’s death. They are even prepared to sacrifice the Palestinian cause to maintain their grip on power. “To the leaders of some Arab countries, solution of the Palestinian problem signals the downfall of their rule. The question of Palestine has become the convenient hanger on which they display their internal problems. The same holds true for some of the Israeli leadership,” she expounds.

Sadat was criticised for dealing with and thereby putting his trust in the hands of Likud. She herself didn’t understand it at the time. Later, she came to appreciate his foresight. “Nor did he let ideological considerations determine his perception of his one-time adversaries. There were many, including myself, who believed that making peace with a Likud leader would be all but impossible.”

“I did not believe that Begin had the political will and personal determination required for making peace with the Arabs. Anwar, however, assured me that Begin would be a workable partner. He was right.”

This prompts the question of whether the likes of Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman can pull off an agreement that the spineless Kadima and Labour couldn’t. She would not be drawn into a discussion of Israeli domestic politics. For her, the problem lies with current Arab weakness. “The Palestinians have to be one delegation to negotiate properly with Israel,” she notes.

“That Sadat himself took a long view of history was something that he demonstrated again and again, and not only in his certitude that his fellow Arab leaders would one day return to Egypt. This view fuelled his relentless efforts to make peace with Israel and kept him focussed when he encountered stumbling blocks.”

Regional concerns preoccupy her thinking, but domestic politics animate her.

“I try to share this holistic, big-picture approach to history. Speaking as someone who has felt the barbed point of the revisionist pen, I know all too well that the cycle of vilifying and lionising according to political fortunes has little foundation in reality.”

She married young, very young. “Two months exactly before I turned 16 I married, on 29 May 1949,” she says and it was her late husband who taught her politics. She remains indebted to him, she insists.

“The summer of 1981 was a crucial time for Egypt as our financial, social and political institutions were being sorely tested. Sadat was determined to weather the storm — to give us a more stable economy and peace.”

A tense silence follows. It is great to wave a flag, but those who hoist it must understand what it’s all about: development, risk and protecting the younger generations.

We swerve back to the question of democratisation that still dogs Egypt. “Sadat allowed protests on the university campus, fostered a free press, and established a multiparty system. For a time, Egypt seemed to be moving closer and closer to democracy, even though fundamentalists were now within their rights to deliver messages contrary to Egypt’s tradition of tolerance,” she notes.

And, this is the dilemma facing Egypt and other predominantly Muslim nations: what is the precise relationship of democracy and Islam? Indeed, can Western-style democracy incorporate Islam? Are democracy and Islam compatible? At this point, Sadat harkens back to the chain of events leading up to her husband’s assassination in 1981.

“They were insisting that Sharia be our only code of law; that Egypt no longer accept imports from the West; that the Quran forbade peace with Israel; that Copts were enemies of Muslims; and that men and women could not attend university together.”

“Granted their positions were abhorrent to the vast majority of Egyptians; however, their hate-filled rhetoric did fuel sectarian violence between Muslim and Copt. It was a frightening time, not least because the peace process hung in the balance,” she says.

“Although he could have silenced his critics and reinstated the old restrictions, Anwar did not.”

She presses her message that we are rushing into the future, unheeding of all that is lost. She is a woman that does not grow restive when all does not go perfectly under the considerate scrutiny of both her admirers and her adversaries. “I was aware of the dangers that surrounded us. He was aware, too.”

The husband and wife team as the wellspring of his success presented progress. But her husband’s gruelling death still haunts her. “I was afraid he would not return every time he left the house, every time he left the country. I was afraid, and my worst fears were realised.” She doesn’t flinch or recoil. “Yes, I was afraid. Towards the end, I was very afraid.”

But then, that has always been the case — and it didn’t stop her from living her life.

In the intervening years, women have gained some rights. As this timely biography reminds us, we need to consider carefully where we are going, and what kind of Egypt will our great-grandchildren experience.

Sadat chronicles the post-story of contemporary Egypt in vivid narrative non-fiction. Readers will no doubt learn a thing or two. They will be in turn captivated by triumphs and dismayed by lost opportunities.

“Today such breakthroughs are nowhere in evidence. Realism has been replaced with empty rhetoric on the part of political leaders, who claim they want peace but impose unrealistic preconditions for achieving it, or they continue to act in ways that threaten the viability of the two-state solution they endorse,” she pointedly contends. Peace with Likud was possible in Sadat’s day. Not that anyone at the time expected it to happen.

The author purports that her book answers a set of three challenges: Sadat’s faith; the role women play in that faith; and whether or not peace in the Middle East is just an unattainable dream.

“Since 1985, I have been lecturing, teaching and fund- raising to further that dream,” Sadat who lectures at University of Maryland extrapolates. “I teach a class about the status of women in the Middle East, mainly about Egypt.”

“Part memoir of her husband’s courageous initiative to recognise Israel’s right to exist which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize, but cost him his life,” Henry Kissinger aptly put it.

“I have been both praised and excoriated for being a ‘feminist’, hailed as a pioneer for women’s rights in the Arab world and deplored as a destroyer of families, accused of being a mere mouthpiece for my husband and also an undue influence on him. For better or worse, I have been a polarising figure, primarily for my ideas about and work on behalf of women and the family.”

By the time Sadat was assassinated in 1981, his widow had demonstrated remarkable political acumen in her own right.

It has not all been smooth sailing. “In the wake of my husband’s death all my ‘progressive’ ideas have been put to the test.” It is still a man’s world, she chuckles. “I’m the proverbial eternal optimist.”

The book is also testament to that truism that terrorism is repudiated by the overwhelming majority of Muslims. There was jubilation in many quarters when Sadat was gunned down. Such displays of naïve enthusiasm proved short-lived.

The Muslim Brotherhood, oiled by Gulf wealth and remittances, came to fill the political void created by the erosion of the revolutionary fervor of Arab nationalism cum socialism in the wake of the devastating defeat of 1967.

“Gamal Abdel-Nasser was a great nationalist leader. We all loved him. We fondly remember him.” But, she hastens to add, “He incarcerated many of the Brothers, some say he tortured them.”

“Sadat accepted government in line with Islamic Sharia law. Yet he was an enlightened ruler. He was not a religious zealot. He was not fanatical.”

“They did not kill him because he was irreligious. Nor was it because he hounded the Brothers. They assassinated him because he espoused the path of peace.”

She pauses. “That is why they had to get rid of him.”

Jehan Sadat is a strikingly attractive woman, bint balad — a bubbly and buoyant daughter of the land. So what is the secret of her beauty? She swims daily and walks one hour in the morning, she says laughingly.

And then she turns dead serious. “It is my faith.” She is not fanatical, though. She herself doesn’t wear the hijab, but neither would she object if her daughters or granddaughters don the hijab. She says that her niece is veiled, but that as long as that is her personal choice that is no business of hers. She abjures the participation of her children in politics, especially her son Gamal.

But for a savvy cosmopolitan modern woman, she discloses her deference to kismet. “During my hajj, the temperatures in Mecca soared above 105 degrees. Nothing, however, could have prepared me for the emotions I felt the moment I took my first step as a hajj pilgrim into the confines of the most sacred sanctuary of Islam,” she expounds on her deepening faith.

“As I stepped slowly and effortlessly into the Grand Mosque, I was lifting my heart and soul in praise of God. Tears of joy were running down my face as I whispered my prayer of devotion. For the first time in my life, I felt as if every ounce of my being was completely at peace.”

She pauses ponderously. “I was just a speck in that sea of humanity.”

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President Obama’s Weekly Address, March 21, 2009

Lists Budget Priorities in Weekly Chat

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A.I.G. Sues U.S. for Return of $306 Million in Tax Payments

By LYNNLEY
BROWNING, NYT, March 20, 2009
Full Article

While the American International Group comes under fire from Congress over executive bonuses,it is
quietly fighting the federal government for the return of $306 million in tax
payments, some related to deals that were conducted through offshore tax
havens.
A.I.G. sued the government last month in a bid to force it to return
the payments, which stemmed in large part from its use of aggressive tax deals,
some involving entities controlled by the company’s financial products unit in
the Cayman Islands, Ireland, the Dutch Antilles and other offshore
havens.
A.I.G. is effectively suing its majority owner, the government, which
has an 80 percent stake and has poured nearly $200 billion into the insurer in a
bid to avert its collapse and avoid troubling the global financial markets. The
company is in effect asking for even more money, in the form of tax refunds. The
suit also suggests that A.I.G. is spending taxpayer money to pursue its case,
something it is legally entitled to do. Its initial claim was denied by the
Internal Revenue Service last year…………………………………

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US military says Iraqi girl killed in US shooting

BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. military says a 12-year-old girl was killed when American soldiers fired at a vehicle speeding toward them and Iraqi police near the northern city of Mosul.

The military says Americans fired two warning shots when the vehicle ignored signals for it to stop near the Hurriyah Iraqi police station.

The military says the girl was standing about 100 yards (meters) behind the vehicle and was struck by a round.

The military confirmed the details in response to a query by The Associated Press.

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Inquiry on Graft in Iraq Focuses on U.S. Officers

NYT
By JAMES GLANZ, C.J. CHIVERS and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Published: February 14, 2009

Full Article

Federal authorities examining the early, chaotic days of the $125 billion American-led effort to rebuild Iraq have significantly broadened their inquiry to include senior American military officers who oversaw the program, according to interviews with senior government officials and court documents.

Court records show that last month investigators subpoenaed the personal bank records of Col. Anthony B. Bell, who is now retired from the Army but who was in charge of reconstruction contracting in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 when the small operation grew into a frenzied attempt to remake the country’s broken infrastructure. In addition, investigators are examining the activities of Lt. Col. Ronald W. Hirtle of the Air Force, who was a senior contracting officer in Baghdad in 2004, according to two federal officials involved in the inquiry.

It is not clear what specific evidence exists against the two men, and both said they had nothing to hide from investigators. Yet officials say that several criminal cases over the past few years point to widespread corruption in the operation the men helped to run. As part of the inquiry, the authorities are taking a fresh look at information given to them by Dale C. Stoffel, an American arms dealer and contractor who was killed in Iraq in late 2004……………………………………………

Mr. Stoffel, who gave investigators information about the office where Colonel Bell and Colonel Hirtle worked, was deemed credible enough that he was granted limited immunity from prosecution in exchange for his information, according to government documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with officials and Mr. Stoffel’s lawyer, John H. Quinn Jr. There is no evidence that his death was related to his allegations of corruption……………………

“These long-running investigations continue to mature and expand, embracing a wider array of potential suspects,” a federal investigator said.

The reconstruction effort, intended to improve services and convince Iraqis of American good will, largely managed to do neither. The wider investigation raises the question of whether American corruption was a primary factor in damaging an effort whose failures have been ascribed to poor planning and unforeseen violence.

The investigations, which are being conducted by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the Justice Department, the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command and other federal agencies, cover a period when millions of dollars in cash, often in stacks of shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills, were dispensed from a loosely guarded safe in the basement of one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces

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Will Obama Reverse ‘Invasion of the Hague’ Act?

The Dutch Still Wince at the Symbolic Bush-era ‘Invasion of The Hague Act’

By ROBERT MARQUAND

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands, Feb. 14, 2009

Full Article

In 2002, Congress passed a law enabling United States forces to unilaterally storm into peaceful Holland to liberate American soldiers held for war crimes.

Coming in the early days of the war on terrorists, and as the International Criminal Court was being formed here, the measure provoked controversy and seemed to the Dutch stout US allies an absurd example of America’s “with us or against us” foreign policy.

The law is still on the books.

Formally titled the American Service Members Protection Act, the measure is widely and derisively known here as the Invasion of The Hague Act.

Odd as it may seem, the law allows the US to constitutionally send jack-booted commandos to fly over fields of innocent tulips, swoop into the land of wooden shoes, tread past threatening windmills and sleepy milk cows into the Dutch capital into a city synonymous with international law and pry loose any US troops.

Today, the Dutch mostly treat the issue as a joke, a cowboy American moment. But it is widely felt that if President Barack Obama’s foreign policy team wants to achieve a symbolic break with the previous White House, it could rescind the invasion law.

As a Dutch Ministry of Justice official put it, “I wouldn’t overstate how seriously we take this any more, but it does seem a bizarre symbol.”……………………………………………….

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Rumsfeld Knew

His Guys Were Torturing People to Death, Which Is a Serious Crime

By Stephen Pizzo, News for Real

February 14, 2009
Full Article

During the Bush years Americans the boogeyman used to keep Americans cowed was the real or imagined threat of imminent terrorist attack.

Now we have a new president – and we have a new boogeyman – the economic meltdown. .

Now don’t get me wrong. Anyone who’s read this column over the past few years knows I’ve been Chicken Littling about the financial house of cards for a long time. And, now that it’s finally collapsed, it’s even worse than I predicted, and getting worse by the day.

Which is why Obama and his team are on the tube night and day talking about nothing else — as if Americans are concerned about nothing, which isn’t true.
71% of Americans want to see Bush administration investigated
71% of Americans are in favor of an investigation into the possible misuse of the Department of Justice by the Bush administration according to a Gallup poll released yesterday. (Full Story)

That’s a pretty startling number, even for those of us who’ve been arguing for investigations for some time now. After all, Obama didn’t get 71% of the vote, which means that a lot of folks who voted for McCain also want equal justice applied equally………………………………………………..

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Trump Bankruptcy Again, Habit Forming

Or, American Capitalism At Work

Trump Quits Trump Entertainment, Bankruptcy Possible

By Beth Jinks
Full Article

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — Donald Trump resigned from the board of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., the debt-laden casino company he founded, ahead of a possible involuntary bankruptcy filing next week.
“I’m not managing it, it’s not me that’s responsible for managing,” Trump, who was chairman, said in a telephone interview today. “Unless we’re going to be responsible for management it’s just not something that’s worthwhile.”
Trump’s departure comes ahead of a Feb. 17 deadline to make a $53 million bond payment originally due on Dec. 1. The Atlantic City, New Jersey-based casino operator said at the time it needed to conserve cash and hold debt-restructuring talks with lenders. Since an initial grace period ended on Dec. 31, Trump Entertainment’s deadline has been extended four times.
The 62-year-old real estate entrepreneur has “no idea” whether there will be a bankruptcy filing, he said. Trump is “not thrilled” the company may continue to use his name.
Bondholders are planning to force Trump Entertainment into Chapter 11 bankruptcy early next week, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

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Army Charity Hoards Millions

by: Jeff Donn, The Associated Press

Full Article

Fort Bliss, Texas – As soldiers stream home from Iraq and Afghanistan, the biggest charity inside the U.S. military has been stockpiling tens of millions of dollars meant to help put returning fighters back on their feet, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Between 2003 and 2007 – as many military families dealt with long war deployments and increased numbers of home foreclosures – Army Emergency Relief grew into a $345 million behemoth. During those years, the charity packed away $117 million into its own reserves while spending just $64 million on direct aid, according to an AP analysis of its tax records.

Tax-exempt and legally separate from the military, AER projects a facade of independence but really operates under close Army control. The massive nonprofit – funded predominantly by troops – allows superiors to squeeze soldiers for contributions; forces struggling soldiers to repay loans – sometimes delaying transfers and promotions; and too often violates its own rules by rewarding donors, such as giving free passes from physical training, the AP found…………………………………………………….

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A Reporter’s Journey

In the tragic story of Marine Lance Cpl. Jeff Lucey and his ordeal in Iraq, what really happened? by Christopher Buchanan

Frontline

What Jeff Lucey told his family about his time in Iraq as a Marine reservist made the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib pale in comparison.

His father, Kevin Lucey, remembers his son’s story: Two unarmed Iraqi men had stood before Jeff in the desert. They were presumably prisoners.

“Pull the f***ing trigger, Lucey!” someone had shouted. His gun was shaking, but he did look into the eyes of one of the guys. He said it was a young guy like him. The kid was scared. Jeff was wondering if this was somebody’s son, somebody’s brother, somebody’s father, somebody’s friend.

The order to shoot came again. Jeff obeyed.

He was about five feet away. The blood splattered all over. And then he shot the second one. One was in the eye, and one was in the throat.

Jeff told his family he watched the men die. Then he removed their dog tags and later brought them back home with him.

For Jeff’s family, there seemed no question that the young man, angry and anguished, was telling the truth. And if they did have any lingering doubts about the ordeal Jeff went through in Iraq, they disappeared on June 22, 2004, when, nearly a year after coming home from the war, Jeff Lucey hanged himself with a garden hose in his family’s basement in Belchertown, Mass………………………………………….

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President Obama’s February 9th Press Conference

Prepared Remarks

Are the gloves coming off?

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Donald Trump’s Casino Company Files For Bankruptcy

Again, Again and Again

WAYNE PARRY | February 17, 2009 AP
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The three Atlantic City casinos once run by Donald Trump filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday _ for the third time.

Trump Entertainment Resorts made the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, N.J., four days after the real estate mogul whose name remains on the company and its three seaside gambling resorts resigned as chairman of the board.

Trump was frustrated that bond holders and their allies on the board rebuffed his offer to buy the company and take it private.

“Other than the fact that it has my name on it _ which I’m not thrilled about _ I have nothing to do with the company,” Trump told The Associated Press Tuesday morning.

He acknowledged being sad over the end of a venture that was so publicly and relentlessly associated with his name and image. Yet he said the company “represents substantially less than 1 percent of my net worth, and has for some time.”

“If I can’t manage something, it’s not for me,” Trump said.

All three of the company’s casinos will continue to operate as usual during the bankruptcy proceedings.

It marked the third time that the three Trump casinos have filed for Chapter 11 protection. That is uncommon in American business, according to Harlan Platt, a professor and bankruptcy expert at Northeastern University in Boston, who has followed Trump’s casino bankruptcies for decades.

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Autism Expert on Vaccine Decision: Parents Know Best

CEO, Fully Recovered From Autism, Issues Statement Responding to Thursday’s Ruling on Autism and Vaccines

SHEFFIELD, MA – Raun K. Kaufman, CEO of Autism Treatment Center of America, issued the following statement Thursday:

“We disagree strongly with the court’s ruling and stand firmly behind parents of children with autism and other developmental disorders. Although there is currently ostensibly no statistical proof that vaccines have caused some cases of autism there is a plethora of anecdotal evidence. We work with thousands of parents, hundreds of whom have told us stories about how their children appeared completely typical before being vaccinated and within days or weeks of vaccination displayed the symptoms of autism. The program we teach, The Son-Rise Program, is built upon the idea that the parent is the child’s best resource. No one has the love, life-long dedication and day-to-day understanding of their child that parents have. When parents tell us that their child was typical, received the vaccines, then developed autism soon after, we believe them. In everyday language we call these true stories. We do not believe in waiting 20 years for the right kind of statistics, but rather helping parents and their children now. Apparently the court disagreed.”

When Mr. Kaufman was diagnosed with severe autism, no language, and a tested IQ of less than 30 his parents ignored the statistical evidence and instead developed The Son-Rise Program, which led to his complete recovery from autism.

Although vaccines do not cause all autism occurrences, Mr. Kaufman disagrees with those who say that so many parents are making up or imagining a link, and further disagrees with the position that the autism/vaccine link is coincidental.

Mr. Kaufman does not support canceling the vaccination program but believes it’s prudent for parents to ensure their child’s vaccines are thimerosal-free, administered separately and not at too early an age — and never when a child is ill.

Autism Treatment Center of America is a non-profit organization that teaches parents to help their children with autism and other developmental challenges. As providers of an educational intervention it has no vested interest in whether vaccines have caused some cases of autism but always stands by parents. Parents know their children and have an ability to help their children that is unparallel.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Inquiry on Graft in Iraq Focuses on U.S. Officers

NYT
By JAMES GLANZ, C.J. CHIVERS and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Published: February 14, 2009

Full Article

“These long-running investigations continue to mature and expand, embracing a wider array of potential suspects,” a federal investigator said.

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GM Considering Chapter 11 Filing

Sat Feb 14, 2009

CHICAGO (Reuters) – General Motors Corp, nearing a Tuesday deadline to present a viability plan to the U.S. government, is considering as one option a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that would create a new company, the Wall Street Journal said in its Saturday edition.

“One plan includes a Chapter 11 filing that would assemble all of GM’s viable assets, including some U.S. brands and international operations, into a new company,” the newspaper said. “The undesirable assets would be liquidated or sold under protection of a bankruptcy court. Contracts with bondholders, unions, dealers and suppliers would also be reworked.”

Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the story said that GM could also ask for additional government funds to stave off a bankruptcy filing.

GM declined to comment, the story said.

General Motors and Chrysler LLC face a Tuesday deadline to file restructuring plans to the government in exchange for receiving $17.4 billion in federal loans.

Automakers have struggled as U.S. auto sales have tumbled amid a recessionary economy. U.S. auto sales in January tumbled to a 27-year low.

GM has been in talks with bondholders and the United Auto Workers union to get an agreement on a restructuring that would wipe out about $28 billion in debt for the auto maker, sources have told Reuters. However, it appears unlikely a deal could be reached by the Tuesday deadline, they said.

GM has already announced plans to cut 10,000 salaried workers worldwide, or 14 percent of its staff, impose pay cuts for most remaining white-collar U.S. workers and has offered buyouts to its 62,000 U.S. workers represented by the UAW.

In addition, it is trying to sell its Hummer SUV and Swedish Saab brands and is reviewing the status of its Saturn brand.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Will Obama Reverse ‘Invasion of the Hague’ Act?

The Dutch Still Wince at the Symbolic Bush-era ‘Invasion of The Hague Act’

By ROBERT MARQUAND

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands, Feb. 14, 2009

Full Article

In 2002, Congress passed a law enabling United States forces to unilaterally storm into peaceful Holland to liberate American soldiers held for war crimes.

The law is still on the books.

Formally titled the American Service Members Protection Act, the measure is widely and derisively known here as the Invasion of The Hague Act.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Rumsfeld Knew

His Guys Were Torturing People to Death, Which Is a Serious Crime

By Stephen Pizzo, News for Real

February 14, 2009
Full Article

During the Bush years Americans the boogeyman used to keep Americans cowed was the real or imagined threat of imminent terrorist attack.

Now we have a new president – and we have a new boogeyman – the economic meltdown. .

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Trump Bankruptcy Again, Habit Forming

Or, American Capitalism At Work

Trump Quits Trump Entertainment, Bankruptcy Possible

By Beth Jinks
Full Article

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Hazlehurst Decision

Autism Court Utterly Confused By The Unknown

By Kent Heckenlively, Legal Editor for Age of Autism.

February 13, 2009

There’s a line in the movie, “The Right Stuff” in which an astronaut explains to an engineer the truth about funding by saying, “If there’s no bucks, there’s no Buck Rogers” and subsequently no space program.

The polite fiction maintained by this court is that those questioning vaccine safety have been listened to and substantial financial resources were directed to researching those claims. Nothing could be further from the truth, and it forms a necessary backdrop to a discussion of the Hazlehurst case.

Special Master Patricia Campbell-Smith begins by noting that this trial “does not and cannot offer a determinative explanation” for what causes autism. She then goes onto notes the number of articles submitted and the parade of experts and their qualifications, before finally noting that the government’s witnesses were more persuasive than the witnesses for the families.

But this decision was not inevitable. Campbell-Smith notes that “when appropriate, medical opinion and circumstantial evidence is enough to prove causation.” There was abundant medical evidence, including some very powerful testimony from family members and physicians, including a Harvard gastro-enterologist which could have more than sufficed for a favorable decision.

One of the staggering examples of the lack of intellectual curiosity in this case is the question of whether mercury exposure in the young might look and cause significantly different problems than in more adult members of the population. While Campbell-Smith does an adequate job of recounting some of the petitioner’s theories on the functioning of the immune system, there seems to be little interest in trying to figure out what has gone wrong with these children.

Campbell-Smith’s willful blindness extends to her discussion of how there is “some evidence of a temporal connection” to the MMR shot received by Yates Hazlehurst and his subsequent deterioration. She notes it, but doesn’t seem to be able to go any further with it. Equally indicative of a lack of intellectual rigor is her discussion of Andrew Wakefield’s theories. At one point she mentions how the theory of measles virus persistence of Dr. Andrew Wakefield “continued to attract scrutiny”, when it was subject to vicious attack from the outset.

In her discussion of whether Yates suffered from immune system problems, she notes his 8 ear infections and treatment with anti-biotics, his normal development, his gastro-intestinal problems, but seems to be dazzled by the parade of the government’s expert witnesses who can offer no other explanation, other than it couldn’t possibly have been the vaccines.

I also find it amazing that certain assertions put forth by the government are not questioned, while straight-forward propositions such as that mercury can affect immune-system function are questioned with the scorn reserved for those who believe 9/11 was an inside job. The government continually talks about autism “genes” but despite millions of dollar spent in this pursuit still can’t find them. And when such genes show “an association” is found, a closer observation inevitably shows those genes to be involved in detoxifying the body of harmful substances.

The other day I was staggered to read a press release from Stanford University in which they announced they’d developed a test which might identify those suffering from problems with mitochondrial function. Their answer was to measure glutathione levels. That’s something the biomedical community has been doing for years.

The sad truth of the matter is that we are massively out-gunned in terms of research dollars. The medical personnel who undertake our cause do it knowing full well there will be many defeats. Judges will be dazzled by experts who claim to know so much, except for the question of what causes autism.

But there is a moral dimension to our cause that they can never match. I don’t know how long it will take, but we will someday have the answer that even the medical community’s best and brightest fail to provide us.

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The witch-hunt against Andrew Wakefield

The Spectator
Wednesday, 11th February 2009

Full Article

The Sunday Times last weekend resumed its witch-hunt against Andrew Wakefield, the gastro-enterologist who warned against the possible risks to children of the MMR vaccine following a paper he wrote in the Lancet in 1998. In this paper, he described a new childhood syndrome which he called autistic enterocolitis, which suggested a connection between a new type of bowel disease and autistic spectrum disorder and reported the fact that some of the parents of the children in the study thought there was a connection between these symptoms and the MMR vaccine. The titanic furore which subsequently engulfed Wakefield, in which virtually the entire medical establishment turned on him, effectively forced him out of Britain and has resulted in his being investigated by the General Medical Council for serious misconduct.

The campaign against Wakefield in the Sunday Times has been led by journalist Brian Deer. Last weekend, the paper published a two-page ‘investigation’ and a front-page spin-off story alleging that confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established Wakefield had changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism…amidst various other lurid charges. Deer claimed that his ‘investigation’ was confirmed by evidence presented to the General Medical Council

What the Sunday Times did not report was that the GMC investigation into Wakefield was triggered by a complaint from… Brian Deer, who furnished the allegations against him four years ago. He has thus been reporting upon the hearing into his own complaint. Since when has a reputable paper published a story by a reporter who is actually part of that story himself — without saying so – and who uses information arising from the disciplinary hearing which he himself has instigated and which is investigating allegations he himself made in the first place?………………………………………..

It is of course precisely Wakefield’s concern that the MMR vaccine might, in a small proportion of cases, trigger a catastrophic reaction in a child with an as yet unknown pre-existing vulnerability. For that he is being hung out to dry – and any discussion about his concern is being suppressed by the intimidatory tactic of blaming anyone who says he might have a point for the reported rise in measles cases. As has been said over and over again from the very start, that problem could have been totally avoided if the government had provided single measles jabs. It refused — because it was determined not to concede any ground over multiple vaccines and so decided instead to play for the highest possible stakes in destroying Andrew Wakefield. It is the Department of Health – which never flags up similar concerns about the rise in cases of autistic spectrum disorder — that is responsible for the rise in measles cases.

Truly, health policy and a show trial straight out of Kafka.

Further: Olbermann’s apology for naming Wakefield, “Worst Person In The World”:

Here is Keith’s script from the February show, where Brian Deer received the bronze Worst Person in the World honors.

The bronze to Brian Deer.

He wrote the Times of London report that Dr. Andrew Wakefield had allegedly altered key research linking the Measles, Mumps and Rubella triple-vaccine to autism in children, which earned Dr. Wakefield a spot on this list yesterday.

The Times of London did not bother to mention that the British investigation into whether or not Wakefield did that was the result of a complaint by… Brian Deer.

The guy who wrote the article about the investigation never mentioned he was the complainant who precipitated the investigation.

The truth about the doctor’s research may be in doubt here, but not Deer’s vast conflict of interest nor the Times of London’s journalistic malfeasance.

The paper is owned by Rupert Murdoch, and it’s my bad for forgetting his new motto: “We have never been a company that tolerates facts.”

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Join The Fight Against Foreclosures!

Brave New Foundation

More Information

Eight million people are at risk of losing their homes because Wall Street abandoned responsible lending practices to gain short-term profits. And the housing crisis is not just a problem for families facing foreclosure – it’s a problem for every homeowner in America. As long as foreclosures persist, home values will keep going down, and everyone loses.

We need your help. Have you been affected by the housing meltdown? Foreclosed on? Underwater? Record your story, or the story of a friend, family member, or neighbor, and send it to us. You can also add your written story along with a photo for the map. Then, watch the video stories of the families, mothers, fathers, and children who have lost, or are losing the place they call home.

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Petraeus Leaked Misleading Story Pullout Plans

Full Article

WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (IPS) – The political maneuvering between President Barack Obama and his top field commanders over withdrawal from Iraq has taken a sudden new turn with the leak by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus – and a firm denial by a White House official – of an account of the Jan. 21 White House meeting suggesting that Obama had requested three different combat troop withdrawal plans with their respective associated risks, including one of 23 months.

The Petraeus account, reported by McClatchy newspapers Feb. 5 and then by the Associated Press the following day, appears to indicate that Obama is moving away from the 16-month plan he had vowed during the campaign to implement if elected. But on closer examination, it doesn’t necessarily refer to any action by Obama or to anything that happened at the Jan. 21 meeting.

The real story of the leak by Petraeus is that the most powerful figure in the U.S. military has tried to shape the media coverage of Obama and combat troop withdrawal from Iraq to advance his policy agenda – and, very likely, his personal political interests as well.

This writer became aware of Petraeus’s effort to influence the coverage of Obama’s unfolding policy on troop withdrawal when a military source close to the general, who insisted on anonymity, offered the Petraeus account on Feb. 4. The military officer was responding to the IPS story ‘Generals Seek to Reverse Obama Withdrawal Decision’ published two days earlier…………………………………………

Leahy: Investigate Bush Now

Full Article

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy insisted on Monday in firm and passionate terms that a comprehensive investigation be launched into the conduct of the Bush administration, saying anything less would prevent the country from moving forward.

Speaking at a forum at Georgetown University, the Vermont Democrat suggested the creation of a truth and reconciliation commission to uncover the “misdeeds” of the past eight years.

“Many Americans feel we need to get to the bottom of what went wrong,” said Leahy. “I agree. We need to be able to read the page before we turn the page.”

The Senator also stated that Attorney General Eric Holder never gave assurances to Republican Senators that he would not prosecute Bush administration officials who may have been involved in illegalities such as authorizing torture or warrantless wiretapping.

“There are some who resist any effort to investigate the misdeeds of the recent past,” he said. “Indeed, during the nomination hearing of Eric Holder, some of my fellow Senators on the other side of the aisle tried to extract a devil’s bargain from him in exchange for the votes — a commitment that he would not make… That is a pledge no prosecutor should give and Eric Holder did not give it. But because he did not it accounts for some of the votes against him.”

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Disasters Emergency Committee

30 Jan: Gaza appeal raises £3 million in first week

Committee Site

Just over one week after the DEC launched its emergency appeal for Gaza, £3million has been raised in donations from the British public.

Since the appeal was launched on Thursday 22nd of January, members of the DEC have reached almost 800,000 people with vital supplies of blankets, food, water, sanitation and medical equipment.

“We are delighted that the public have responded in this way to the appeal. The money raised is enabling aid agencies on the ground to reach people in dire need of humanitarian assistance.” said Brendan Gormley DEC chief executive.

But agencies warn that the situation for hundreds of thousands Gazans remains critical. 1.3 million people are now dependent on food aid and 1 million are without access to a safe and adequate water supply.

“More funds are needed so that DEC members can continue to meet people’s immediate needs. If you have not donated already, please give what you can so that we can continue our aid efforts. Money raised will go straight to helping the most vulnerable people in Gaza.” Mr Gormley said.

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Comprehensive Health Care Reform

In a joint letter sent to President Obama, Senator Max Baucus Senator Edward M. Kennedy write:

Dear Sir:

We were saddened to hear about Senator Daschle’s decision to withdraw from the nomination process. While we continue to believe that Senator Daschle is highly qualified to hold the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services, we respect his decision and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

We are writing to affirm our continuing commitment to enacting comprehensive health care reform this year, and to express our confidence that you will swiftly choose an exceptionally qualified and dedicated alternate nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services to assist in our efforts. As you have emphasized, we must act now. The ranks of the uninsured grow larger each day. The cost of health care to families, businesses and government are crippling and, although we spend more on health care than any other country, the quality of care provided by America’s health care system is often uneven compared to other industrialized nations.

We have a moral duty to ensure that every American can get quality health care. We must act to contain the growth of health care costs to ensure our economic stability; to help American businesses deal with the health care challenge; and to make sure that we are getting our money’s worth. Incremental efforts will no longer suffice and we cannot afford to wait any longer. With your continued leadership and commitment, we remain certain that our goal of enacting comprehensive health care reform can be accomplished this year.

Respectfully yours,

Senator Max Baucus Senator Edward M. Kennedy
Chairman Chairman
Senate Finance Committee Senate HELP Committee

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Pentagon Boosts Spending On PR Efforts, Raises Propaganda Concerns

CHRIS TOMLINSON | AP
In a growing attempt to win what it calls “the human terrain,” the Pentagon plans to spend more than $4.8 billion and employ more than 27,000 people this year to shape public opinion around the world. But critics worry that the Pentagon is using vast amounts of public money to shape the opinions of the American public. They dismiss the military’s assertion that it is trying to educate rather than manipulate the American people.

WASHINGTON — As it fights two wars, the Pentagon is steadily and dramatically increasing the money it spends to win what it calls “the human terrain” of world public opinion. In the process, it is raising concerns of spreading propaganda at home in violation of federal law.

An Associated Press investigation found that over the past five years, the money the military spends on winning hearts and minds at home and abroad has grown by 63 percent, to at least $4.7 billion this year, according to Department of Defense budgets and other documents. That’s almost as much as it spent on body armor for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2006.

This year, the Pentagon will employ 27,000 people just for recruitment, advertising and public relations _ almost as many as the total 30,000-person work force in the State Department.

“We have such a massive apparatus selling the military to us, it has become hard to ask questions about whether this is too much money or if it’s bloated,” says Sheldon Rampton, research director for the Committee on Media and Democracy, which tracks the military’s media operations. “As the war has become less popular, they have felt they need to respond to that more.”

Yet the money spent on media and outreach still comes to only 1 percent of the Pentagon budget, and the military argues it is well-spent on recruitment and the education of foreign and American audiences. Military leaders say that at a time when extremist groups run Web sites and distribute video, information is as important a weapon as tanks and guns.

“We have got to be involved in getting our case out there, telling our side of the story, because believe me, al-Qaida and all of those folks … that’s what they are doing on the Internet and everywhere else,” says Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who chairs the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee. “Every time a bomb goes off, they have a story out almost before it explodes, saying that it killed 15 innocent civilians.”

The McGlynn Comment: Yep, you are right on that.

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Facing Foreclosure? Don’t Leave. Squat.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) Urges Homeowners to Stay in Foreclosed Homes

Full Article

After an $850 billion bailout for Wall Street and another $25 billion for the auto industry, struggling homeowners still await large-scale government assistance. The Obama administration says it’s working out the details of its plan to stem foreclosures. In the absence of government action so far, some are taking action on the local level. In Michigan, Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans announced Monday he won’t enforce sales of foreclosed homes. And in Ohio, Rep. Marcy Kaptur is encouraging homeowners facing foreclosures to stay in their homes. Meanwhile, the government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae has agreed to restructure mortgages after a campaign led by one of its biggest critics, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America________________

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Secret Report Recommends Military Shift in Afghanistan

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News Chief Pentagon Correspondent, and Courtney Kube, NBC News Producer

Full Article

The Pentagon is prepared to announce the deployment of 17,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan as early as this week even as President Barack Obama is searching for his own strategy for the war. According to military officials during last week’s meeting with Defense Secretary Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon’s “tank,” the president specifically asked, “What is the end game?” in the U.S. military’s strategy for Afghanistan. When asked what the answer was, one military official told NBC News, “Frankly, we don’t have one.” But they’re working on it.

Senior military officials confirm to NBC News that a secret report from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to President Obama recommends a shift in the military mission in Afghanistan to concentrate solely on combatting the Taliban and al-Qaida and leave the “hearts and minds” aspect of the war to other U.S. agencies and NATO…………………..

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Generals Seek To Reverse Obama’s Iraq Withdrawal Decision

Inter Press Service, Gareth Porter

Full Article

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (IPS) – CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 18 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21.

But Obama informed Gates, Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that he wasn’t convinced and that he wanted Gates and the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan, according to two sources who have talked with participants in the meeting.

Obama’s decision to override Petraeus’s recommendation has not ended the conflict between the president and senior military officers over troop withdrawal, however. There are indications that Petraeus and his allies in the military and the Pentagon, including Gen. Ray Odierno, now the top commander in Iraq, have already begun to try to pressure Obama to change his withdrawal policy…………………………………………….

Meanwhile

CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus flips the coin at the Super Bowl.

One wonders how our soldiers in Iraq & Afghan felt about this pomposity.

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Gaza, What an Aid Worker Saw, Then and Now

By Mel Frykberg

Full Article

RAMALLAH, Feb 2 (IPS) – As fears rise of renewed violence in Gaza, Elena Qleibo, a French-Costa Rican aid worker from Oxfam, gives IPS a first-hand account of surviving Israel’s three-week bombardment of Gaza.

Excerpts from her account:

I was attending a meeting at Gaza City municipality on Dec. 27 when suddenly the meeting was interrupted by heavy booming sounds coming from a short distance away.

Plumes of smoke were rising from a number of bombed areas surrounding the building I was in. I and a number of colleagues rushed outside to try and establish what was happening.

Mayhem and confusion reigned as shocked Gazans realised they were coming under a sustained attack from warships off the coast and aerial bombardments from fighter jets circling the skies above. Later on as I tried to gather more information from people in my neighbourhood, many appeared in a state of incomprehension at the ferocity of the assault.

I am a cultural anthropologist, and first decided to make Gaza city my home in 2004 after living and working in the occupied Palestinian territories for a number of years. My first visit to Gaza was in 1987 during the first Palestinian uprising, or Intifadah.

During my years in Gaza I witnessed a lot of violence and upheaval during previous Israeli military attacks but never before had I seen devastation on this scale. ……………………

As the ‘smoke’ blew my way it had a very acrid and rancid smell, I then realised it might be a chemical weapon which could cause serious injuries. I quickly closed my windows and curtains and hid in the inner rooms of my apartment. Fortunately the wind then blew the fumes away. I later found out that these were phosphorous bombs. ……………………..

Aid is slowly coming in but a lot more is needed. I feel very grim about the future. There are so many people, breadwinners in particular, who are amputees and seriously maimed. They will forever be aid-dependent and unable to live normal lives or support their families

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Our Melamine: There’s Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup, and the FDA Has Known for Years

The Huffington Post
Leslie Hatfield
Posted January 27, 2009

Article

Maybe Jeremy Piven didn’t get mercury poisoning from fish at all — according to the results of a new study released by the Institute for Agriculture and Trace Policy (IATP), the actor may well have been sickened by soda or candy or anything that contains high fructose corn syrup, which, if you eat processed food in this country means, well, just about anything.

Foodies and nutritionists alike have been griping about high fructose corn syrup for years, and the industry has responded with an “astroturf” campaign and a level of secrecy generally reserved for military officials or secret societies (see Corn Refiners’ Association president Audrae Erickson’s stonewalling performance in King Corn).

Of course, I wouldn’t want to show my hand either, if the making of my product could be described as the undertaking of a “small Manhattan Project” (see eye-glazing production info here). But as it turns out, the HFCS industry has been hiding some major skeletons in its closet — according to the IATP study (pdf), over 30% of products containing the substance tested positive for mercury.

What makes this news truly shocking is not just that the manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup would put consumers’ health at risk, but that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knew about the mercury in the syrup, and has been sitting on this information since 2005.

Here’s the connection, according to the IATP press release (pdf): The IATP study comes on the heels of another study, conducted in 2005 but only recently published by the scientific journal, Environmental Health, which revealed that nearly 50 percent of commercial HFCS samples tested positive for the heavy metal. Renee Dufault, who was working for the FDA at the time, was among the 2005 study’s authors. In spite of Dufault’s involvement in the study, the FDA sat silent on this one for three years, and in fact last August, allowed manufacturers to call the sweetener “natural.”…………………………………………..

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From Hospital, Afghans Rebut U.S. Account

By CARLOTTA GALL, NYT, January 26, 2009

Full Article

MEHTARLAM, Afghanistan — The American military declared the nighttime raid this month a success, saying it killed 32 people, all Taliban insurgents — the fruit of an emphasis on intelligence-driven use of Special Operations forces.

But the two young men who lay wincing in a hospital ward here told a different story a few days later, one backed up by the pro-American provincial governor and a central government delegation.

They agreed that 13 civilians had been killed and 9 wounded when American commandos broke down doors and unleashed dogs without warning on Jan. 7 in the hunt for a known insurgent in Masamut, in Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan. The residents were so enraged that they threatened to march on the American military base here.

The conflicting accounts underscore a dangerous rift that has grown between Afghans and the United States forces trying to roll back widening Taliban control of the countryside. …………………………

The outrage over civilian deaths swelled again over the weekend. Hundreds of angry villagers demonstrated here in Mehtarlam, the capital of Laghman Province, on Sunday after an American raid on a village in the province on Friday night. The raid killed at least 16 villagers, including 2 women and 3 children, according to a statement from President Hamid Karzai. …………………………………………………………………….,

A United States military spokesman, Col. Jerry O’Hara, confirmed that United States air support forces had fired on a group of five carrying a wounded person outside the village. He said all five had been killed and all were militants. That some of the villagers survived may explain some of the discrepancy of the death toll.

Colonel O’Hara added that care had been taken not to use air power inside the village, to avoid civilian casualties. He dismissed the villagers’ accounts that they had mistaken the soldiers for thieves. “I am not buying that,” he said. “These people were acting as sentries.”

In a statement, Colonel O’Hara said, “Coalition forces exercised great restraint and prevented any civilian casualties at the same time the enemy placed the whole village in harm’s way by operating the way they do.”

In an interview, he also expressed frustration that four years after his earlier tour in Afghanistan, people still were not coming forward with information against Taliban members. “Until there is active involvement amongst Afghan civilians to turn in or give a tip on people with explosives, you are not going to get on the road to peace,” he said.

Yet, after seven years of war, Afghans say that villagers are less and less inclined to side with a foreign army that still conducts house searches and bombardments.

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Promises To Keep

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Raped in the Military? You’ll Have to Pay for Your Own Forensic Exam Kit

By Penny Coleman, AlterNet
Posted on November 11, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/106307/

Sarah Palin’s decision not to pay for rape kits when she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, was an issue in the campaign for the White House. But allow me to introduce the large pink elephant that has been sitting quietly in the corner of the room: TRICARE, the Pentagon’s Military Health System that covers active duty members, doesn’t pay for rape kits, either.

Spec. Patricia McCann, who served in Iraq with the Illinois Army National Guard from 2003 to 2004, raised the issue at the Winter Soldier Investigation in March. McCann read a memo issued to all MEDCOM commanders clarifying that “SAD kits” — which are forensic rape kits — “are not included in TRICARE coverage.” *

That would put Alaska and the military in a very special category.

Women in the military are twice as likely to be raped as their civilian counterparts. In fact, “women serving in the U.S. military today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq,” Congresswoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., told the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs in May.

——————————————————————————————

Syria and Iran Condemn U.S. in Blast on Iraq Border

By KATHERINE ZOEPF

October 28, 2008BAGHDAD — Iran joined Syria on Monday in condemning what they described

as an attack by four United States helicopters on the Syrian side of the border with Iraq that they said killed eight people.

The United States confirmed that a Special Operations mission took place in the area on Sunday, but a senior military official gave no more details for now.

The United States is trying to negotiate a strategic agreement with Iraq that would allow American troops to remain in the country and carry out military operations. The pact faces strenuous opposition from neighboring countries, especially Syria and Iran, because of concerns that the United States might use Iraqi territory to carry out attacks on them.

Syria’s state-run news channel reported that United States helicopters on Sunday attacked an area within Syria near the town of Abu Kamal. The official news agency, SANA, cited an anonymous official as saying that four American helicopters had “launched aggression on a civilian building under construction,” killing eight people, giving the details of those it said were killed, and that the Syrian deputy foreign minister had summoned the chargé d’affaires from the American and Iraqi Embassies in protest.

Syrian women mourn

Syrian women mourn for the eight people killed during a US raid across Syria’s border. (Photo: Reuters)

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youtube GqsV97i9T5Q]

US Inquiry Is Said to Conclude 30 Civilians Died in Afghan Raid

Wednesday 08 October 2008

by: Eric Schmitt, The New York Times

Washington – An investigation by the military has concluded that American airstrikes on Aug. 22 in a village in western Afghanistan killed far more civilians than American commanders there have acknowledged, according to two American military officials.

The military investigator’s report found that more than 30 civilians – not 5 to 7 as the military has long insisted – died in the airstrikes against a suspected Taliban compound in Azizabad.

The investigator, Brig. Gen. Michael W. Callan of the Air Force, concluded that many more civilians, including women and children, had been buried in the rubble than the military had asserted, one of the military officials said.

The airstrikes have been the focus of sharp tensions between the Afghan government, which has said that 90 civilians died in the raid, and the American military, under Gen. David D. McKiernan, the top American military commander in Afghanistan, which has repeatedly insisted that only a handful of civilians were killed.

McGlynn comment: A number of other reliable sources put the death toll at over ninety.

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