GI Special:

thomasfbarton@earthlink.net

1.21.06

Print it out: color best.  Pass it on.

 

GI SPECIAL 4A13:

 

 

NO MORE:

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW!

1.11.06: US soldier waits for his flight at the US military base in Tikrit.  (AFP/File/Filippo Monteforte)

 

 

“I Ain’t Movin’  Are You?”

“I Developed A Conscience And Would No Longer Participate In A War That We Were Lied Into”

Monica & Sgt. Kevin Benderman  (Guillemette.typepad.com/photos)

 

January 19, 2006 Karen Kwiatkowski, LewRockwell.com [Excerpt]

 

Sgt. [Kevin] Benderman had provided Monica with a message for the radio listeners, and only part of it was heard on air.  It is shared below, and is well worth reading at a time where this country seems intent on betraying allies and seeking new enemies, even as it persists in manipulating both Iraqi and Afghan politics. The betrayal and antagonism are not only outwardly directed.  Soldiers like Kevin Benderman are also targets. He writes,

 

First of all, I would like to say thanks to everyone who has supported Monica and me while we deal with the madness the Army has put us both through because of my decision to stand up for what is right. 

 

I have served a little over 5 months of a 15-month sentence given to me because I developed a conscience and would no longer participate in a war that we were lied into.

 

I consider it an honor to be put in prison for standing for what is right and all that I can say to the men responsible is "I feel sorry for you."  The reason I feel for them is because they refuse to see the truth, and self-deception is the worse kind. 

 

But on a larger scale, the American people were lied to by men who care for nothing but their own personal agenda and are willing to abuse the goodwill and patriotism of the American people in order to reach their personal goals. 

 

This is not what our founding fathers envisioned for this country.  They did not want the elected representatives to use fear as a governing tool and they did not want the citizens to give over all of their rights to people who would let absolute power corrupt absolutely. 

 

I, for one, believe in the Constitution when it says that the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that this country is run correctly lies with the American people and not solely with this government.  While we do hire people to do the work of government it is up to us, the citizens, to ensure that they are doing this in accordance with the law of the land. 

 

True freedom requires eternal diligence and it will take everyone doing their share of keeping watch to prevent freedom from slipping out of our hands. 

 

It is the small things that add up to keep all of us in line. 

 

Which brings to mind three small words spoken by a woman who had had enough, "I ain't movin'" 

 

The woman was Rosa Parks.  We should think about her courage when we feel as if we are too small to matter. 

 

"I ain't movin'."  Are you?”

 

 

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

 

 

Kingsville Sgt. Killed In An Najaf

 

January 07, 2006 (AP)

 

A Texas soldier was among five servicemen killed by an explosion during convoy operations in Iraq, the Department of Defense said.

 

Sgt. Johnny J. Peralez Jr., 25, of Kingsville, died in An Najaf when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle, the military said Friday.

 

He and the other four soldiers were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas.

 

Peralez was a combat medic, relatives told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. He was a 1998 graduate of Falfurrias High School, where he played the alto saxophone in the high school band, a family spokeswoman said.

 

Survivors include his mother, grandmother, brother and sister, the newspaper reported.

 

Fort Hood Division Suffers Heavy Casualties

 

01/20/06 AP

 

FORT HOOD, Texas -- It didn't take long for the painful side of war to be felt again at this Central Texas military post.

 

The 4th Infantry Division moved into Iraq in force in late December for another year-long deployment, and in less than a two-week period, 11 of its soldiers were killed.

 

"It's still a very dangerous place over there, that's for sure," Col. Dick Francey, the 4th Infantry's rear commander, said.  [Clearly Pentagon material.]

 

The 1st Cavalry Division, also based at Fort Hood, lost more than 90 soldiers during its year-long deployment that ended in spring 2005. Its commander said recently that he expects the division to return to the war zone later this year.

 

U.S. Bases In Ramadi Hit By Rockets:

“Minor” Injuries Reported

 

Jan 20, 2006 Reuters

 

Witnesses in Ramadi said insurgents fired several rockets at two U.S. bases in the city, a Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold, causing some minor injuries, the military said.

 

British Mercenary Working For Alabama Base Killed

 

Jan. 20, 2006 Associated Press

 

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - A British civilian working for an Alabama-based military operation in Iraq died when an explosive hit the vehicle he was riding in, the Army said Friday.

 

Stephen Enright, 29, of Devon, United Kingdom, was in Iraq under a contract with the Army Engineering and Support Center, based at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville.

 

The explosion on Jan. 19 killed him and injured another work, the center said in a statement.

 

Enright worked for Armor Group of London.  The company was providing security to Environmental Chemical Corp. of Lakewood, Colo.

 

The Huntsville center is responsible for handling and disposing of munitions in Iraq.

 

Iraqi Fire Department Extinguishes MND-B Tank Fire

 

January 20, 2006 MNF Release A060120a

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A Multi-National Division-Baghdad M1A2 Abrams Tank’s engine caught fire Jan. 20.

 

The fire spread to the fuel cell and the ammunition.

 

Soldiers attempted to put the fire out using on-board fire extinguishers but were not able to prevent the fire from spreading.

 

The MND-B Soldiers manning the vehicle evacuated the tank, and no Soldiers were injured in the incident.  The fire did not result from enemy attack.

 

A local Iraqi fire department extinguished the fire.

 

Casualty Report:

Command Caught Faking Resistance Body Count

 

 

Jan. 18 MARTIN SIEFF, UPI Senior News Analyst, (UPI) [Excerpts]

 

It was another grim week in Iraq, with more massive attacks inflicting casualties on Iraqi civilians and security forces alike, and U.S. fatalities rising again, with little, if any signs of significant progress.

 

The total number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq through Monday, Jan. 17 since the start of U.S. operations to topple Saddam Hussein on March 19, 2003, was 2,242 according to official figures issued by the Department of Defense, a rise of 33 in only seven days, and an average of 4.7 soldiers killed per day.

 

This was even worse than the figure of 28 in the previous seven-day period when the average death rate was 4 U.S. soldiers killed per day.

 

The number of U.S. troops wounded in action from the beginning of hostilities on March 19, 2003, through Jan. 17, was 16,472, the Pentagon said.

 

Some 7,625 of those troops were wounded so seriously that they were listed as "WIA Not RTD" in the DOD figures.

 

In other words: Wounded in Action Not Returned to Duty, an increase of 17 such casualties in seven days. 

 

In all an estimated 2,000 of the U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq, or one in eight of them, have suffered brain damage, loss of limbs or been crippled for life by their injuries.

 

Worse yet, the relatively high figures of Iraqi troops and civilians killed in insurgent attacks over the past week came when they were also succeeding in inflicting an increased number of fatal casualties on U.S. forces.

 

[T]he U.S. estimate of the number of insurgency combatants killed or captured remains very rough and approximate. 

 

The estimates remain 3,000 per month killed for the two months of August and September, but they have been amended downwards to only 2,000 per month for October, November and December.

 

These figures are curious for several reasons: First, the DOD has reduced its estimate of insurgents killed per month from October through December from 3,000 per month to only 2,000 per month, a reduction of 33 percent per month.

 

The most likely reason for this revision is that the new wave of violence across Iraq in the New Year following the relative lull during the election campaign and immediately thereafter in December led military analysts to reduce their assessments on the level of attrition U.S. and allied Iraqi and Coalition forces were succeeding in inflicting on the insurgents.

 

But the figures still appear to be "guestimates" rather than estimates: They are still rounded off to a tidy 2,000 per month for three months in a row, neither more nor less. This suggests that specific intelligence even on identifying the number of insurgents killed in sweeps and fire-fights remains extremely imprecise.

 

Third, even these revised figures may be far too optimistic.

 

If correct, they would mean that the insurgency still lost 12,000 troops in only five months when U.S. official figures cited by the Iraq Index project have put the total number of active insurgents at 15,000-20,000 for the three months of October, November and December.

 

Those figures, therefore, would, if true, mean that the insurgency had lost 60 percent of its active manpower in only five months, a rate of attrition that has only been seen historically in the closing stages of counter-insurgency operations when the guerrilla movement is literally disintegrated and rapidly losing its ability to inflict casualties.

 

There has so far been no sign of that process so far in Iraq and almost no respected U.S. military analyst believes it is happening.

 

The 2,000 per month revised figure for October through December, like the 3,000 per month figure for August and September, therefore appears to be little more than guesswork.

 

IMPOSSIBLE MISSION

FUTILE EXERCISE

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW!

An Iraqi soldier (L) walks behind a patrol team with the U.S. Marines in Al Anbar province December 31, 2005. REUTERS/Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks/Handout

 

 

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

 

 

“Kabul Is Now A City Under Siege”

 

January 20, 2006 By Greg Grant, Army Times staff writer [Excerpts]

 

The security situation in Afghanistan has taken a turn for the worse in the past year, according to a team of foreign policy and terrorism experts recently returned from a fact-finding mission there.

 

Author Peter Bergen, who has traveled extensively in Afghanistan in the past few years, researching a new book on al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, said Kabul is now a city under siege amid a wave of suicide bombings: a disturbing development virtually unknown in Afghanistan until last year. There were only nine major attacks in the whole country in 2003, he said, but that rose to 81 in 2005, and there have already been 10 so far this year.

 

There is a sense among the NATO participants that the alliance’s expanding mission is just a cover for the United States to get out of Afghanistan, said Walter Slocombe, who was an undersecretary of defense during the Clinton administration.

 

Slocombe questioned the ability of NATO troops to logistically support such a large operation, noting that NATO has only two C-130 transport planes operating in Afghanistan.

 

General Attacks U.S. Occupation Record in Afghanistan

 

1.20.06 London Daily Telegraph

 

The commander of Dutch forces launched an extraordinary public attack on the American military's record in Afghanistan.

 

Gen. Dick Berlijn said that four years of "unnecessarily harsh" U.S. combat operations had brought "little or no" benefit to the restive south of the country.

 

 

TROOP NEWS

 

 

Panic Time At The Pentagon:

Spin Spin Spin

 

January 18, 2006 From News Briefing with Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey, U.S. Department of Defense News Transcript

 

Q: Mr. Secretary, Will Dunham with Reuters.  In your opening statement you mention that the Army is not broken.  But the Army did miss its fiscal 2005 recruiting goal, large overseas deployments continue, and stop-loss remains in place.  To what degree do you think the Army is strained, and do you think it's in danger of being broken in the future if the situation doesn't turn around?

 

SEC. HARVEY:  I think the -- first of all, recruiting I don't think is a measure of the strain on the Army.  The measure -- I think the best measure of the strain is reenlistment.

 

Guess What The Base Exchange Has Been Selling

 

[Thanks to John Gingerich, who sent this in.]

 

(Posted Kaspars at Strangedangers.com)

 

The following directive was issued by the commanding officer of a naval installation somewhere in the Middle East, and it was obviously directed at the Marines.

 

To: All Commands

Subject: Inappropriate T-Shirts

Ref: ComMidEastFor Inst 16134//24 K

 

1. All commanders promulgate upon receipt.

 

2. The following T-shirts are no longer to be worn on or off base by any military or civilian personnel serving in the Middle East:

 

"Eat Pork Or Die" (both English and Arabic versions)

 

"Shrine Busters" (Various. Show burning minarets or bomb/artillery shells impacting Islamic shrines.  Some with unit logos.)

 

"Napalm, Sticks Like Crazy" (Both English and Arabic versions)

 

"Goat - it isn't just for breakfast any more". (Both English and Arabic versions)

 

"The road to Paradise begins with me." (Mostly Arabic versions but some in English. Some show sniper scope cross-hairs)

 

"Guns don't kill people.  I kill people". (Both Arabic and English versions)

 

"Pork.  The other white meat". (Arabic version)

 

"Infidel" (English, Arabic and other coalition force languages.)

 

3. The above tee shirts will be removed from base exchanges upon receipt of this directive.

 

4. The following signs are to be removed upon receipt of this message:

 

"Islamic Religious Services Will Be Held at the Firing Range At 0800 Daily."

 

"Do we really need 'smart bombs' to drop on these dumb bastards?"

 

5. All commands are instructed to implement sensitivity training upon receipt.

 

DynCorp Has Lost 26 Employees In Iraq War:

War Profiteers Refuse More Info Because Their Stock Going Public

 

Jan. 19, 2006 SHEILA FLYNN, Associated Press

 

DALLAS - With three people killed this week, a Dallas-area company that offers military support services overseas has lost 26 employees in Iraq since the war began in 2003.

 

DynCorp officials said they couldn't answer detailed questions about their operations because the company is about to go public.

 

DynCorp had revenues of about $1.9 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31. Members of its board of directors include retired Gen. Anthony Zinni and retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey.

 

Irving-based DynCorp International's latest losses came Wednesday, when an improvised explosive device hit a convoy en route from a regional office of the American embassy near Basra.

 

Killed were Richard Thomas Hickman, 52, of Cave Spring, Ga., and Roland Carroll Barvels, 42, of Aberdeen, S.D., members of DynCorp's police training mission. The attack injured another American employee and an Iraqi translator, DynCorp spokesman Gregory Lagana said Thursday.

 

Another officer was killed in Iraq on Monday, and the company has also lost five workers in Afghanistan since March 2003, Lagana said.

 

 

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

 

 

Resistance Cutting Off Baghdad Power Supplies

 

19 January (IRIN)

 

Lengthy power cuts over the past two weeks due to insecurity and a decrease in oil production are seriously affecting the lives of Iraqis in the capital, Baghdad.

 

With temperatures below zero degrees centigrade, residents of the city are currently getting fewer than eight hours of electricity per day, making them dependant on generators which require fuel that is both in short supply and prohibitively priced.

 

The closure in December of a major oil refinery in the northern town of Baiji, say observers, made the situation considerably worse, increasing the number of daily power cuts in Baghdad.

 

Khalid Ala'a, a senior official at the electricity ministry, blames the deteriorating security situation: "The difficulties in guaranteeing security to our employees and the increase of demand for power during the winter season have caused a decrease in the production of power at our plants," Ala'a said.

 

Iraqi employees working for foreign energy companies have received threats on a regular basis, while dozens have been killed for what insurgents see as a betrayal.

 

Assorted Resistance Action

Iraqi police vehicle damaged by shrapnel after an attack by a roadside bomb Jan. 20, 2006, in Baghdad.  The attack targeting a passing Iraqi police patrol, injured three police. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

 

1.20.06 By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA (AP) & AFP & (CNN) & By DPA & (KUNA) & Reuters

 

A senior Iraqi police officer and his four bodyguards were captured by armed men, some wearing military uniforms, late Thursday outside a Karradah restaurant, police said.

 

Four Iraqi policemen were seriously injured early Friday when a bus parked at roadside close to Mustansiriya yard here, went off.

 

An Iraqi Interior Ministry source said that the bomb placed inside the bus went off while a police patrol was passing by and this resulted in the injury of three police members.

 

In Karbala, south of the capital, a police commandos lieutenant was gunned down in front of his house.  Lieutenant Ali Hussein Elewi was shot on his way to work and died on the spot, the police sources said.

 

About 11 p.m. Thursday, at least 15 masked guerrillas dressed like Iraqi police commandos stormed the Najam al-Zawiya restaurant in central Baghdad, according to an Iraqi police official with Baghdad emergency police.

 

Those captured included the restaurant's owner and his son, an Iraqi police colonel, a businessman and a man who worked for an official under the Saddam Hussein regime as a bodyguard.

 

In Diyala province, one policeman was killed and four Iraqi police officers were wounded about 9 a.m. Friday when a roadside bomb struck their convoy in Muqdadiya, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Baquba, according to an official with Diyala Joint Coordination Center.

 

Four soldiers were injured when a second roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi Army patrol in eastern Baquba about an hour earlier. 

 

 

 

Resistance Group Hunts Down & Kills Road Pirates

 

Jan 20, 2006 By DPA

 

Three people believed to be involved in trafficking were killed by guerrillas in an area near al-Ramadi, 130 kilometres west of Baghdad, a police source said on Friday.

 

The source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa that the victims, who were shot dead on Thursday, were members of a gang involved in trafficking trucks and small vehicles on the highway linking Iraq, Jordan and Syria.

 

According to the source, an armed group identified as the Factions of the Mujahedeen Army pursued the gang and decided to killed them after leaving leaflets beside their corpses reading 'This is the fate of thieves, road pirates and saboteurs.'

 

Leaflets signed by armed resistance groups were distributed in Baghdad and western Iraqi cities two weeks ago announcing that insurgents were hunting down thieves and road pirates.

 

Oil Workers Union President Says:

“Occupation Forces Must Leave The Country Immediately And Unconditionally”

“We Support The Honorable Resistance”

 

January 12, 2006 Basra Oil Union, posted by Ewa Jasiewicz

 

Speech by Hassan Jumaa at UK Stop The War Coalition International Peace Conference December 10, 2005.

 

Here is the transcript of GUOE President Hassan Jumaa Awad al Assadi's speech at the UK Stop the War Coalition's international peace conference held in London, December 2005.  Translation is by Lebanese Academic and Writer Gilbert Achcar

 

Hassan Jumaa Awad is the President of the General Union of Oil Employees in Basra

 

**********************************************************

 

In the name of God, The Merciful, The Compassionate,

 

Dear friends, antiwar activists, and peace lovers,

 

Allow me to thank you very much for your invitation to join this conference which opposes war and advocates peace. 

 

As you know, the occupation of Iraq is one of the most important issues on the current international scene. I believe that conferences of this kind are important and very useful for informing world public opinion about the latest developments in the military actions of the occupation forces.

 

As you also know, we live in a world in which evil forces pursue domination and the usurpation of rights and property.  In order for peace to reign over the entire world, we have to stand steadfast against those evil forces, unify our protest and practice solidarity, for it is the unity of peoples that intimidates the forces of evil.

 

 

These firms came under the protection of American tanks; however, our Union's first action was to expel KBR (Halliburton) from our oil sites, thus marking the victory of Iraqi workers against the forces of evil.

 

Dear friends,

 

Our Union was reconstituted eleven days after the arrival of occupation forces in Baghdad.  That was on April 20, 2003: a number of activists faced up to this task, rendered exceptionally difficult by the state of chaos and security instability prevailing in the country. 

 

The main goals of the reconstitution of the Union were well-known: the first was to secure Union members' claims while Iraqi state administration fell under American control; the second goal was to safeguard the oil sector's production mechanism, knowing full well that America's goal is to control Iraq's oil.

 

It is for these reasons that the Union was reconstituted in the oil sector: because we were aware of American intentions, as oil was one of the main reasons for launching the war on Iraq. 

 

As you know, brothers and sisters, Iraqi oil reserves are considered the world's second largest and that is why the war was launched against the land of the two rivers.

 

Allow me to say a few words about the vicious onslaught that America and its allies launched against our beloved Iraq.

 

The reasons for war that were presented to the world were, first, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction: Bush, the criminal, purposely ignoring that inspection commissions had been roving Iraq north to south since 1991 in search of these weapons and did not find any.

 

The second alleged reason was the war against terrorism, whereas Bush and the U.S. administration knew quite well where terrorism was truly based.

 

We say therefore that these were not the main reasons for launching the war on Iraq, but the reasons were those that I mentioned, to which should be added that one of the main reasons was also that Iraq constituted the major threat to the security of Israel.  We know, and everyone here knows, real American intentions. 

 

America is fully prepared to annihilate the entire world for its interests, and its interests lie in exerting control over Iraqi oil and putting this wealth at its disposal.

 

We know, brothers and sisters, how clear are the goals of this war, military occupation being but the first step to be followed by economic occupation.

 

America has destroyed the infrastructure of Iraq: it destroyed the schools, the universities, the hospitals, the factories, the plants and it has violated human rights.

 

Among these violations stands the fact that the Transitional Administrative Law [TAL, promulgated by U.S. proconsul Paul Bremer] did not allow the formation of unions and other organizations.

 

American and British politicians are claiming that they are establishing democracy in Iraq, since there was no democracy in our country because it lived under a dictatorial regime.  But very regrettably, their so-called democracy consists in the citizens having to stop whenever an American or British military column passes by, for fear of being killed, as everyone knows: this is their so-called democracy.

 

The Administrative Law considers demonstrations a crime punishable by law.

 

In our experience America has not been honest in any way.  Every now and then they declare that the security responsibility has been handed over to the Iraqis, but then we see the occupation forces roaming everywhere.

 

We believe that America deliberately creates crises every now and then in the areas that are somewhat stable and secure, the reason obvious to all being that crises justify extending the presence of the occupation forces.  If stability and security prevailed, these forces would have to leave. 

 

However, America does not want to withdraw at this time, because it did not complete its operation; it has not yet accomplished the second phase of the occupation, the economic occupation of Iraq.  That is why the U.S. administration is currently putting forward its economic plans which include privatization of the oil and manufacturing sectors, and the production sharing agreement project.

 

From this platform, I would like to make clear to all the positions of our Union, which are known to the Iraqi people:

 

1. Occupation forces must leave the country immediately and unconditionally.

 

2. We will stand firmly and resolutely against all those who want to tamper with the security and power of the Iraqi people.

 

3. We condemn terrorist attacks against our people and stress the importance of respecting human rights.

 

4. We support the honorable resistance that targets and strikes at foreign military forces and seeks to drive the occupiers out.

 

5. We will not allow the intrusion of foreign companies and production sharing agreements, and we will stand with all our force against monopoly firms such as Halliburton, KBR, Shell, and others.

 

6. We ask the patriotic forces, the antiwar movement and peace-lovers to support our Union in its campaign against privatization and PSAs.

 

7. We demand the unconditional cancellation of Iraq's (foreign) debts, as these debts never benefited the Iraqi people but served the buried regime.

 

In conclusion, I wish you good luck and success, and I look forward to meeting you in a free, democratic, and united Iraq that would be a workshop for all free citizens of the world.  I offer again my thanks and appreciation to the organizers of this conference.

 

May peace and God's mercy, and blessings be upon you.

 

 

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

 

 

Just For The Record

 

 

From: Mike Hastie

To: GI Special

Sent: January 20, 2006

Subject: Just For The Record

 

It is a little easier to be non-violent living in America, when you have never seen your family members gutted after U.S. jets have just finished bombing your town or village.

 

I don't deserve a medal for being non-violent.  That keeps me humble.

 

Mike Hastie

Vietnam Veteran

(just for the record)

 

The Majority Will Rule:

By “The Ballot Or The Bullet”

“The Ballot Or The Bullet” – Malcolm X

 

January 20, 2006 Molly Ivins [Excerpts]

 

The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it.  It's about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. 

 

There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times.  There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.

 

The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. 

 

The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it.

 

The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage.

 

The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich.

 

The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

 

The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment.

 

The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax.

 

 

 

Basic Training For Civilians:

What To Do When Traitors Order Our Troops Into The Streets Against The Citizens:

Do Bring Flowers;

Do Not Wear Dumbshit Face Masks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thanks to D, who sent these in.  He notes that Brunswick, GA was occupied by several thousand cops and soldiers during the G8 meetings in 2004.  These are Indymedia photos.]

 

 

OCCUPATION REPORT

 

 

Baghdad’s Collaborator Cops: Resistance Wants To Blow Them Up; Restaurants Don't Want To Seat Them

 

 

Jan. 09, 2006 Huda Ahmed & Dogen Hannah, Knight Ridder Newspapers

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Most restaurants would be happy to have police officers as regular customers, grateful not only for the business but also for the presence of law and order.

 

Not in Baghdad.  Not when Iraqi security forces are the target of insurgents' bombs. In many restaurants, Baghdad's finest are politely, albeit reluctantly, requested to walk out the door the minute they walk in.

 

"We ask the police not to come," said Yasser Emad, 39, the manager of his family's popular restaurant in the capital's middle-class Karrada district.  "We hate to do this, but we want peace for the public and the restaurant."

 

It's an awkward conversation that can end unpleasantly, yet restaurant owners and workers said they had no choice but to protect lives and livelihoods.  In November, a bomber blew himself up in a restaurant as police were eating breakfast, killing 35 officers and civilians and wounding 25.

 

Such attacks give everyday Iraqis another reason to fear the presence of Baghdad's blue-shirted patrol officers.  Already, motorists in the capital's traffic-jammed streets had steered clear of police cars and sweated out checkpoints, knowing that proximity put them in danger.

 

"I don't enter a restaurant if there are police," said construction contractor Omar Ahmed, 25, as he dined recently in Baghdad.  "I wish I could eat with them at the same table, but we cannot, because of the security situation."

 

Some diners quickly finish eating when police walk in, said Emad, the restaurant manager.  Others ask before entering whether police are inside, explaining that they "do not want to dine with the Prophet Muhammad," a gallows-humor reference to the possibility of being blown to heaven mid-meal.

 

The Interior Ministry has responded to complaints by providing hot meals to some security forces at stations or cold meals while officers are on patrol.  Still, there are practical limits to that solution, and many officers find it easier and more enjoyable to eat out.

 

The Interior Ministry "... used to cook for us, but the food gets cold when we fetch it for our colleagues," said patrol officer Haider Ahmed Saleem, 28, as he emerged from a restaurant with a bag of sandwiches for himself and fellow officers.  "We prefer food from the restaurant because it is clean, hot and delicious."

 

Aware of the danger, Saleem said he and other officers had heeded requests to eat take-away food more often, sending one officer to pick it up while the rest waited elsewhere.  Police also vary the restaurants they visit and the routes they travel to get there, he and other officers said.

 

Not every officer is so understanding.  Emad said a policeman once declared angrily that he and his fellow officers would "eat here whether you like it or not" when the manager asked them to wait for food to be delivered to them in their cars.

 

Occupation Troops Assist Resistance:

Shoot Key Gas Co. Executive

 

Jan 20, 2006 By DPA

 

In Kirkuk, three personnel from the Northern Gas Company were wounded when US troops opened fire on their vehicle.

 

Brigadier Sarhat Qadir said US troops opened fire on a car carrying the company's director of research, Sabah Kareem, and two others, injuring them.

 

 

 

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

 

 

Better Luck Next Time

 

1.19.06 Honolulu Advertiser

 

Rep. Neil Abercrombie, just back from a visit to Iraq, said a missile or missiles were fired at a airplane he and other congressmen were aboard.

 

[Thanks to Z, who sent this in.]

 

 

 

 

CLASS WAR REPORTS

 

 

Class War:

Your Bankruptcies, Their Bonuses Break Records

 

 

1/13/06 by Harkavy, Village Voice

 

What a way to celebrate Friday the 13th: While the press is fixated on Sam Alito (he's in) and Iran (it's out), new reports bring disastrous financial news to Americans, even if you didn't read all about it.

 

Adding up the damage: Wall Street bonuses for the securities industry are record-breaking, and so are personal bankruptcies for the rest of you.

 

Oh, and you just got the bill for tax cuts enacted in 2001 for the benefit of millionaires.  The cuts took effect at the beginning of 2006.

 

And by the way, "Gramps" Dick Cheney's Halliburton is still charging you millions of dollars for "maintaining" excess, unused Mercedes trucks that are just sitting idle in the Iraqi desert.

 

New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, nominally a Democrat, is deliriously happy about those bonuses, saying:

 

"The securities industry had a very good year during 2005. The industry paid record bonuses based on exceptional revenue growth and solid profits."

 

Wall Street bonuses will set a new record of $21.5 billion in 2005, surpassing the previous record of $19.5 billion set in 2000 during the peak of the last bull market, according to a forecast released today by State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi.  This translates into average bonuses of $125,500, also a new record.

 

Revenues at Wall Street firms grew by 44.5 percent through the first three quarters of 2005, reaching the highest level since the stock market peaked in 2000.  Merger and acquisition activity account for most of the surge in revenues, which is expected to be up 28 percent over last year's level and to exceed $1 trillion for the first time since 2000.  Given the surge in merger and acquisition activity, investment bankers received the largest increases and bonuses just like last year.

 

One out of every 53 households in the United States filed for bankruptcy protection in 2005.  That's the headline on this CNN story, released the same day as Hevesi's statement on the bonuses.

 

Bankruptcy filings soared 31.6 percent in 2005.  Luckily for the ruling class, new laws will severely curb that number, because it now is harder for ordinary Americans to file Chapter 7 proceedings to get a "fresh start."

 

Corporate America, of course, continues to take advantage of generous bankruptcy laws.

 

Halliburton, for example, took various thriving and profitable units through bankruptcy court to rid itself of asbestos-litigation burdens. 

 

And as I just pointed out last week, vultures like Sago coal mine owner Wilbur Ross love to take companies into bankruptcy to escape having to pay for workers' pensions and health-care benefits.

 

Tax cuts specifically benefiting millionaires, and costing the Treasury $27 billion over the next five years, just went into effect.

 

 

 

Police In China Battle Villagers In Land Protest:

“There Are Uprisings Everywhere”

 

January 17, 2006 By HOWARD W. FRENCH, The New York Times Company

 

SHANGHAI, Jan. 16:  A week of protests by villagers in China's southern industrial heartland over government land seizures exploded into violence over the weekend, as thousands of police officers brandishing automatic weapons and electric stun batons moved to suppress the demonstrations, residents of the village said Monday.

 

The residents of the village, Panlong, in Guangdong Province, said that as many as 60 people were wounded and that at least one person, a 13-year-old girl, was killed by security forces.  The police denied any responsibility, saying the girl died of a heart attack.

 

Villagers said that the police had chased and beaten protesters and bystanders alike, and that villagers had retaliated by smashing police cars and throwing rocks at security forces in hit-and-run attacks.

 

Residents said Monday that the village had been sealed off, with the police monitoring roads into the area to check identification and bar access to outsiders.  News of the violence appears to have been blocked in China.

 

The residents of Panlong said their anger had been set off by a government land acquisition program that they had been led to believe in 2003 was part of a construction project to build a superhighway connecting the nearby city of Zhuhai with Beijing.  Later, the villagers learned the land was in fact being resold to developers to set up special chemical and garment industrial zones in the area.

 

The clash in Panlong was the second time in just over a month in which large numbers of Chinese security forces, including paramilitary troops, were deployed to put down a local demonstration.  The earlier protest, 240 miles north in the village of Dongzhou on Dec. 6 over the construction of a power plant, was one of thousands recently in rural China over the environment and land use, with little relief available through the country's legal system.

 

In Panlong on Saturday, the sixth day of protests, "the police arrived at 8 p.m., and then started beating people from 9 p.m., trying to disperse the crowd," said a schoolteacher who spoke from the village by telephone, giving her name only as Yang.  "When this happened, the crowd got very angry and lots of people picked up stones on the ground and threw them at the policemen.  After being attacked, policemen were furious.  They just beat up everyone, using their batons."

 

Villagers said the demonstrations had begun as silent sit-ins but grew more boisterous by the day, as more people joined in.  Eventually, they said, as many as 10,000 police officers were deployed, roughly twice the number of protesters at the peak of the demonstrations, according to some estimates.

 

In December, in the protest in Dongzhou, residents say as many as 30 people w