GI Special:

thomasfbarton@earthlink.net

4.16.06

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GI SPECIAL 4D16:

 

 

 

 

An Execution In Radwaniya:

“Your Husband Was Killed By The Americans, And He Deserved To Die,” He Told Her

 

 

04/08/06 By Nir Rosen, Boston Review [Excerpts]

 

The Americans came for Sabah one Friday night in September.  His house in Radwaniya, on the western outskirts of Baghdad, stood in a dry, yellow field surrounded by brick walls.

 

Three cars were parked in front the day I came to visit, two weeks after Americans had shot him.

 

It was the month of Ramadan, and our mouths were as dry as his yard.  The resistance was active in Radwaniya, and we drove through fields and dry canals to avoid any checkpoints that might reveal to locals that I was a foreigner.  Journalists were targets now too.

 

The Americans had come maybe 20 times before to search for weapons in the house were Sabah lived with his brothers Walid and Hussein, their wives, and their six children. They knew where to look for the single Kalashnikov rifle the family was permitted to own. They had always been polite.

 

“This day they didn’t act normal,” Hussein told me.  “They were running from all sides of the house.  They kicked open the doors.  They didn’t wait for us.”  With Iraqi National Guardsmen standing outside, the Americans hit the brothers with their rifle butts.  Five soldiers were on each man.  Sabah’s nose was broken; Walid lay on the floor with a rifle barrel in his mouth.  The Shia translator told them to kill Walid, but they ripped the gun out of his mouth instead, tearing his cheek.  The rest of the family was ordered out.  The translator asked the brothers where “the others” were and cursed them, threatening to rape their sisters.

 

As the terrified family waited outside on the road, they heard three shots and what sounded to them like a scuffle inside.

 

The Iraqi National Guardsmen tried to enter the house, but the translator cursed them, too, and shouted, “Who told you to come in?”

 

Thirty minutes later Walid was dragged into the street.  The translator emerged with a picture of Sabah and asked for Sabah’s wife. “Your husband was killed by the Americans, and he deserved to die,” he told her. He tore the picture before her face.  Several soldiers came out of the house laughing.

 

Inside, the family found Sabah dead.

 

Blood marked his shirt where three bullets had entered his chest; two came out his back and lodged in the wall behind him.  American-made bullet casings were on the floor.  The house had been ransacked.  Sofas and beds were overturned and torn apart; tables, closets, vases with plastic flowers were broken.

 

Sabah’s pictures had been torn up and his identification card confiscated.  Elsewhere in the house one picture remained untouched—Sabah with his three brothers and their father, smiling in happier times.  When Sabah was buried the next day his body was not washed—martyrs are buried as they died.

 

Hussein told me that three days before Sabah was killed, an American patrol had stopped in front of Radwaniya’s shops and the Shia translator had loudly taunted the locals, cursing and threatening them for being Sunnis. 

 

Sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shia had been escalating throughout the year, and the Americans had done little to diffuse them.

 

 

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

 

 

One Marine Dead In Anbar Accident

 

4/15/2006 AFP

 

A marine with the 1st Marine logistics group died on Friday in Al Anbar province in a motor vehicle accident, the US military announced,

 

Entertainer-Turned-Soldier Killed

Spc. Scott M. Bandhold

 

[Thanks to Alan S, who sent this in.]

 

April 15, 2006 BY GRAHAM RAYMAN, Newsday Staff Writer

 

A North Merrick man who traveled the world as an entertainer and then joined the Army relatively late in life was killed April 12 in Iraq, Pentagon officials said Friday.

 

Spc. Scott M. Bandhold, 37, died when a roadside bomb detonated near his Humvee in Misiab, officials said.  A second soldier was killed and two others wounded.

 

Joe Bandhold, 52, a sergeant first class in the New York Army National Guard, said Friday his brother was driving an officer to a meeting.

 

He said the device was a "shaped charge," a weapon often used by Iraqi insurgents to target armored vehicles, and soldiers captured the bomber.

 

For Bandhold's far-flung family, the death was the second major tragedy in less than a year.  In July, Joy Bandhold, Scott's mother, passed away from emphysema.

 

In Florida, upstate New York, and Virginia, Bandhold's relatives remembered Scott as a gregarious, upbeat man with wide interests and passions.

 

"He was a really happy, optimistic, positive person," said his father, Hank Bandhold, 72, of Florida.  "Even when things were hard, the sky was always blue and the sun was always shining."

 

Brother Don Bandhold, 50, of Leesburg, Va., echoed that thought, and added haltingly, "I wish I could have gotten to know him better.  He's my hero."

 

"He could talk a starving pig off a garbage truck," Joe Bandhold of upstate Morrisonville said of his brother.  "He was like this dancing, war guy.  It was a little strange, but he made it work."

 

Bandhold already showed promise as a performer at age 7, said his dance teacher, Donna Carbone-Schaeffer, who runs the Dance Arts Studio on Merrick Avenue.  He trained diligently through school, and remained involved in the studio.  "Even after he stopped dancing, he still kept in touch," she said.

 

After graduating from Calhoun High School, Bandhold entered show business. He worked at Walt Disney World, then moved on to cruise ships and corporate events. Finally he took a job at a casino in Estoril, Portugal, where he met his future wife.

 

They married in 1995 and had two children, Mariana, now 10, and Afonzo, now 9.  The couple divorced in 2001.

 

At age 34, Bandhold joined the Army after he realized bad knees would prevent him from continuing in show business.  He had worked as a collection agent for a while, but had had a hard time finding a job that he liked.  He yearned for more financial stability.

 

Bandhold was also inspired by the Sept. 11 attacks.  In a posting on a high school alumni Web site, he described how while in Portugal after the divorce, he watched the World Trade Center building fall.

 

"In what seemed like slow motion,  I watched as our Twin Towers crumbled to the ground," he wrote. "I had to wait two years before I could join (divorce, legal fees, etc.) the Army ... I deploy in October."

 

While he sometimes groused about the desert and the heat, Bandhold was still supportive of the war.  "He was a patriot," Joe Bandhold said. "He even re-enlisted in Iraq and begged my wife not to tell me."

 

Don Bandhold spoke with his brother by phone two days before he died.  "I'd mailed him a box with candy and cookies in it, and I told him what was in it," he said.  "I told him I loved him."

 

Funeral arrangements were not yet finalized Friday.

 

Family Mourns Lansing Marine

 

April 13, 2006 Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc.

 

CHICAGO:  A 24-year-old Marine from Lansing, Ill., was killed over the weekend in Iraq.

 

Lance Cpl. Philip John Martini was killed Saturday by hostile small-arms fire in Al Karmah, near Fallujah, according to the Web site iCasualties.org.

 

According to a statement issued by Lt. Col. David Furness posted on the site, Martini died after a "well-planned and coordinated attack" by enemy forces, which U.S. Marines repelled.  Furness said Martini was moving to reinforce troops when he was killed.

 

Martini, who graduated in 2000 from Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, was on his third deployment in Iraq since joining in 2003.

 

"My mother would like everyone to mourn our loss second, for a celebration of his life, and his contribution to it itself," said Martini's brother, James, reading from a letter from Martini's mother.

 

He was a member of the 1st Battalion 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division. Joining the Marine Corps had been a dream of Martini's.

 

"He said, 'Mom, if I'm joining the Marines, I'm going to be a Marine. The best of the best,'" James Martini said.  "All of us will remember his smile, his love of his family and friends, especially the love of his big brothers."

 

Outside of Thornton Fractional South High School, the flag rested at half-staff in Martini's honor. To date, more than 2,300 soldiers have died in the Iraq war.

 

"It wasn't something that you ever dream could happen," said Anthony Martini, another brother.  "It was terrible. I think the past day, we've learned to laugh a little more, reflect on Phil."

 

Funeral services will be held Tuesday, April 18, from 2 to 9 p.m. at Drumm Funeral Home, 1200 E. 162nd St. in South Holland, Ill., according to the Northwest Indiana Times.  A mass in Martini's honor will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 19, at Holy Ghost Catholic Church, 700 E. 170th St. in South Holland.

 

Martini will be laid to rest at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill.

 

Martini's father urged anyone who wanted to send flowers or condolences to instead make a donation to the Injured Marines Fund.

 

"Phil was loved by cousins, uncles, aunts, just as much as we loved him," said Martini's father, Philip Martini. "He's so missed."

 

UK Soldier Dies After Iraq Attack

 

15 April 2006 BBC

 

A British soldier has died from injuries after an improvised device exploded in southern Iraq, the Ministry of Defence has said.

 

The soldier, the 104th UK military victim of the conflict, was a member of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

 

Three of his colleagues were slightly injured in the attack.

 

Conn. Man Serving In Iraq Injured By Bomb Attack

 

Apr. 15, 2006 WTNH

 

A Canterbury man serving in the U.S. Marines is recovering from a bomb attack in Iraq.

 

Lance Corporal Matthew Robbins sustained a concussion Monday near Fallujah, Iraq, after the Humvee in which he was riding hit an improvised bomb.

 

The 20-year-old Robbins has been in Iraq with the First Battalion, 25th Marines, since late March.

 

Robbins' mother, Kathleen Robbins, said her son was kept under medical observation and assigned light duty for a day before returning to the battalion's unit of about 200 men. The battalion is based in Plainville.

 

She said he has ringing in his ears but has been told that the symptom of a concussion should soon fade.

 

IED Destroys Humvee In Fallujah:

Casualties Not Announced

 

April 15 (Xinhua)

 

A roadside bomb struck a U.S. patrol in a town near Fallujah on Saturday, destroying a U.S. Humvee, a local police source said.

 

"An explosive charge, planted on the road between Fallujah City and Amriyat al-Fallujah town, went off at about 7:00 a.m. (0300 GMT)," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

 

"The blast destroyed a U.S. Humvee, killing and wounding all aboard," the source said, adding the blast prompted the U.S. patrol to open fire randomly at nearby houses.

 

The U.S. troops continued random shooting for 15 minutes, wounding three civilians, including a woman, and damaging several houses, the source said.

 

MORE:

 

Army Rep Says “The Humvee Was Not Designed To Be In A Fight”

“Where Did The Army Expect It Would Be Used?”

 

Letters To The Editor

Army Times

4.17.06

 

The March 27 article “Chink in the armor: Added Humvee protection brings its own risks” quoted an Army representative saying, “The Humvee was not designed to be in a fight.”

 

But does that mean it was not designed to be on the battlefield?

 

And where did the Army expect it would be used to do the battlefield support functions — command and control, logistics, liaison, etc. — it was designed for?

 

Aren’t battlefields and battle areas inherently dangerous places?  Given its intended use in the nonlinear battlefield area, why wasn’t the Humvee designed as a light-armored vehicle in the first place?  Why weren’t survivability and force protection concerns?

 

We seem to have designed a forward area support vehicle suited for some mythically safe and remote rear area:  a vehicle that would have to be modified with armor kits if survivability became important.

 

Although we have touted the terms “nonlinear battlefield” and “lethality of the modern battlefield” and “force protection” for years, we have ignored their obvious implications — and common sense — to equip all battlefield forces accordingly.

 

Col. William E. Florence (ret.)

Springfield, Va.

 

REALLY BAD IDEA:

NO MISSION;

HOPELESS WAR:

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

A U.S. army soldier views damage following an attack on a police post in Mosul April 14, 2006.  REUTERS/Khaled Al-Mousily

 

 

TROOP NEWS

 

 

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME:

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE

The casket of Cpl., Brian St. Germain of West Warwick, R.I., at the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter, R.I. April 12, 2006.  The 22-year-old Marine was killed in a flash flood in Iraq on April 2. (AP Photo/Joe Giblin)

 

Rumsfeld Linked To Guantanamo Prisoner Torture:

“The Question At This Point Is Whether He Should Be Indicted”

 

April 15, 2006 Julian Borger in Washington, The Guardian & 14 April 2006, ThinkProgress.com

 

Salon reports new evidence that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was intimately involved in prisoner abuse at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

 

According to a Dec. 20, 2005 Army inspector general's report on Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former commanding general in charge of Gitmo, Rumsfeld approved an interrogation plan for Mohammed al-Kahtani, the alleged 20th hijacker:

 

In a sworn statement to the inspector general, (Lt. Gen. Randall) Schmidt described Rumsfeld as "personally involved" in the interrogation and said that the defense secretary was "talking weekly" with Miller.

 

Donald Rumsfeld was directly linked to prisoner abuse for the first time yesterday, when it emerged he had been "personally involved" in a Guantلnamo Bay interrogation found by military investigators to have been "degrading and abusive".

 

Human Rights Watch last night called for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate whether the defence secretary could be criminally liable for the treatment of Mohamed al-Qahtani, a Saudi al-Qaida suspect forced to wear women's underwear, stand naked in front of a woman interrogator, and to perform "dog tricks" on a leash, in late 2002 and early 2003.

 

The US rights group said it had obtained a copy of the interrogation log, which showed he was also subjected to sleep deprivation and forced to maintain "stress" positions; it concluded that the treatment "amounted to torture".

 

According to a December report by the army inspector general, obtained by Salon.com online magazine, the investigators did not accuse the defence secretary of specifically prescribing "creative" techniques, but they said he regularly monitored the progress of the al-Kahtani interrogation by telephone, and they argued he had helped create the conditions that allowed abuse to take place.

 

"Where is the throttle on this stuff?" asked Lt Gen Schmidt, an air force officer who said in sworn testimony to the inspector general that he had concerns about the duration and repetition of harsh interrogation techniques.  He said that in his view: "There were no limits."

 

However, in the wake of the inspector general's report, Human Rights Watch said: "The question at this point is not whether secretary Rumsfeld should resign, it's whether he should be indicted.

 

“General Schmidt's sworn statement suggests Rumsfeld may have been perfectly aware of the abuses inflicted on Mr al-Qahtani."

 

The investigators found Mr Rumsfeld was "talking weekly" with Gen Miller about the al-Qahtani interrogation.

 

In December 2002, the defence secretary approved 16 harsh interrogation techniques for use on Mr al-Qahtani, including forced nudity, and "stress positions". However approval was revoked in 2003.

 

Gen Miller insisted he was unaware of details of the interrogation, but Gen Schmidt said he found that “hard to believe" in view of Mr Rumsfeld's evident interest in its progress.

 

Gen James Hill, former head of Southern Command, recalled Gen Miller recommending continuation of the interrogation, saying "We think we're right on the verge of making a breakthrough." 

 

Gen Hill then passed on the request to Mr Rumsfeld.  "The secretary said, 'Fine,'" Gen Hill remembered.

 

LIAR

TRAITOR

SOLDIER-KILLER

DOMESTIC ENEMY

UNFIT FOR COMMAND

 

Fourteen Arrested At Camp Casey

 

14 April 2006 By Scott Galindez, Truthout

 

Daniel Ellsberg and Deedee Miller were among fourteen arrested at the original Camp Casey for again challenging the new restrictions passed by McClellan County officials in September.  

 

According to an attorney representing the arrestees, the county did not pass any new laws, but instead issued an "instruction" to the county on enforcing already existing state laws of which the group is clearly not in violation.

 

The fourteen arrived at the original Camp Casey at around 10:30 am and set up a tent at the side of the road and a couple dozen chairs. At around 11:30 am the county sheriff pulled up and was informed that the group intended to stay.  The sheriff then informed them that he would call in more officers and anyone who stayed in the tent would be arrested.

 

About twenty minutes later, a dozen officers arrived and immediately issued a warning that if the group did not take down the tent in ten minutes anyone in the tent would be arrested.  The protesters then erected two more tents.  The fourteen arrested took turns getting into the tents and were arrested one by one in an orderly fashion.

 

The fourteen have been taken to McClellan County jail for processing.  Following the arrests Ann Wright, one of the eleven arrested in November, vowed that they will continue to return to the Crawford location until their right to protest there is restored.

 

MACHINE GUN FIRE ON THE ANSWERING MACHINE:

BATTLE OVER CUSTER BATTLES HEATS UP

 

[Thanks to JF, who sent this in.]

 

APRIL 12, 2006 Corporate Crime Reporter

 

One thing is clear.

 

They don’t like each other.

 

On one side – Robert Isakson and William “Pete” Baldwin – who sued Custer Battles under the False Claims Act.

 

On the other, Scott Custer, Mike Battles, and the defense contracting firm they set up to make millions in Iraq.

 

Last month, a federal jury in Alexandria found that Custer Battles defrauded the U.S. government on one contract with the Coalition Provisional Authority.  That jury verdict opened the way to a $10 million payout to the government and the two relators – Isakson and Baldwin – who brought the case under the False Claims Act.

 

The federal government refused to join the case.

 

Isakson and Baldwin have another False Claims Act case pending against Custer Battles.  That case will go to trial sometime later this year.

 

A federal criminal investigation into Custer Battles is ongoing.

 

In an interview with Corporate Crime Reporter, the lawyer for Custer Battles, Robert Rhoad, a partner at Porter, Wright in Washington, D.C., alleged that DRC, Inc. a company headed by Isakson – is being investigated by the federal government for fraud on contracts in Central America.

 

 

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

 

 

“Bush, You Asked Us To Bring It On, And So Have We.  Have You Another Challenge?”

Resistance Names Their Strategy

“Recoil, Redeploy And Spoil”

They Organize After Action Reviews By Internet;

Publish Combat News, Training Magazines And DVD’s

 

 

April 17, 2006 By Greg Grant, Army Times staff writer [Excerpts]

 

President Bush touts last year’s joint U.S.-Iraqi offensives in Tal Afar as a success for the administration’s “clear, hold and build” strategy.

 

But insurgents also claim victory in the northwestern Iraqi town, and they call their strategy recoil, redeploy and spoil, says an analyst who scrutinizes insurgent training materials.

 

The jury is still out.

 

But the mere fact that Sunni insurgents have developed a cohesive and widely distributed strategy indicates a sophisticated system for gathering lessons on the battlefield and adapting doctrine to suit.

 

In published communiqués and on their own Web sites, insurgents explain that their new strategy is meant to avoid toe-to-toe shootouts with U.S. troops and instead attack Iraqi security forces at a time and place of their choosing, preferably when U.S. troops have withdrawn.

 

The insurgents’ strategy of recoil, redeploy and spoil came out of an extensive, and often angry, debate in the aftermath of the Fallujah battles in 2004, where the insurgents suffered heavy casualties attempting to defend the city, said Peter Harling, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, an independent think tank that conducts field research in conflict zones.  Some insurgents thought the price paid in lives attempting to hold Fallujah was too high, and the groups now agree they shouldn’t try to hold ground in the face of American firepower.

 

The new insurgent strategy includes detailed instructions on how to fight on the urban battlefield, including how to overrun a city or town, to prove it is possible; how long to stay before security forces arrive and put a cordon in place; how long the insurgents should stay away after they have fled; and when they should return and attack the cordon from the outside.

 

ICG spent two years examining Iraqi insurgent communications, including Web sites, chat rooms, leaflets, magazines and videos.

 

The group’s findings reveal an increasingly sophisticated Sunni insurgency dominated by a few large groups with an increasingly cohesive message, ICG Middle East director Rob Malley said March 8 in a presentation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

 

“The insurgents’ confidence level has risen exponentially,” Malley said.  “They believe the U.S. is on its way out.”

 

An increasingly important field in insurgent literature is in lessons learned from the battlefield, Harling said.

 

Detailed tactical discussions take place on Internet chat rooms and in magazines about how to counter American air power with small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and shoulder-fired missiles. 

 

They provide advice on how to attack convoys and build sophisticated roadside bombs. Insurgents also release videos that show sniper attacks, roadside bomb attacks against American patrols and mortar attacks against American bases.

 

Harling said the insurgents’ publicized strategy is resource-oriented, as they believe U.S. involvement in Iraq is unsustainable. They instruct snipers to target officers because they are more costly to replace, and to attack fuel convoys.

 

 

A video on one insurgent Web site declares, in English, that the Iraq insurgency is writing a new chapter in urban warfare.  The video closes with a voice saying, “Bush, you asked us to bring it on, and so have we.  Have you another challenge?”

 

“If You Are Brave, Come And Get Him”

 

April 16, 2006 By KIRK SEMPLE, The New York Times Company

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 15:  Dozens of Iraqi police officers caught in a deadly ambush north of Baghdad on Thursday were still missing on Saturday, and their colleagues feared that some had been captured by insurgents or killed, police officials said.

 

A major in the Najaf police force, who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, said Saturday that Iraqi authorities had accounted for only about 60 officers, including 1 dead, 18 wounded and more than 40 survivors who had returned safely to police headquarters.

 

The rest were missing and presumed to be kidnapped, dead, hiding or to have not yet reported for duty in Najaf, officials said.

 

Police officials at the Najaf headquarters said that when they tried calling the cellphone of one of the missing officers, an unidentified man answered, laughed chillingly and said, "If you are brave, come and get him."

 

Assorted Resistance Action

 

Apr 15 AFP News & Associated Press & Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times & Aljazeera & Reuters & April 16, 2006 By KIRK SEMPLE, The New York Times Company

 

A large explosion ripped through an oil pipeline north of the capital Baghdad, setting the pipeline on fire and sending a thick black smoke billowing.

 

The blast hit a section of the pipeline in al-Fatha area, 90 kilometres (55 miles) southwest of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.  The pipeline is one of a network of lines linking the Baiji refinery, 260 kilometres north of Baghdad to the Kirkuk hub.

 

The cause of the explosion was unknown but residents suspected it was a sabotage.

 

Two electricity workers were killed and another injured when mortar shells landed on an electricity station on Saturday in al-Mussayeb, 60 kilometres south of Baghdad, station workers said.

 

The shelling killed one engineer and one manual worker, injured another manual worker and forced the suspension of generating electricity that feeds central and southern Baghdad areas, according to station workers.

 

Three Iraqi army soldiers were killed Saturday when the convoy in which they were travelling was hit by a roadside bomb in Baghdad's dangerous Al-Dura neighbourhood.  Eight soldiers were wounded.

 

Four police officers were injured in the explosion of a car bomb parked near a restaurant in eastern Baghdad.  A car bomb parked on the side of the road went off next to Khalid al-Sayyid restaurant in eastern Baghdad as a group of Iraqi police stopped to have lunch.  At least two vehicles were damaged in the blast.

 

In Basra, 11 employees of a company making concrete blast barriers used at military checkpoints were shot to death in a square Friday morning.  The men had been seized by guerrillas as they left work Thursday.

 

In Basra, four fighters killed Lt. Col. Ali Muhammad Abdul Latif, the chief of the city's traffic police, and wounded his driver, the police said.

 

An official from Basra's riot police division, Saleh Abdul Karim al-Asadi, was also killed, police officials said, adding that Mr. Asadi's bullet-riddled body was found Saturday under a bridge.

 

 

 

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

 

 

Cheese Dick Batiste

 

From: Soldier X (Ret’d)

To: GI Special

Sent: April 15, 2006

 

I love the Batiste quote.

 

That dude was my division commander.  I always thought of him as a cheese dick.

 

I guess he is joining the anti-rummy squad.

 

That is good for something I guess, but I still wouldn't trust him for shit.

 

[Got that right.  And, for anybody who missed it, here’s the quote again.  And see the following article about his target selection expertise.  T]

 

[“On a chilly December night in 2004, General Batiste introduced Rumsfeld to his soldiers thus: ‘This is a man with the courage and the conviction to win the war on terrorism.’”  April 14, 2006 Washington Times]

 

MORE:

 

Generals Do Lousy Target Selection

 

April 14, 2006 By Greg Palast, The Guardian [Excerpt]

 

Even the generals' complaint -- that Rumsfeld didn't give them enough troops -- was ultimately a decision of the cowboy from Crawford.

 

(And by the way, the problem was not that we lacked troops -- the problem was that we lacked moral authority to occupy this nation.

 

A million troops would not be enough -- the insurgents would just have more targets.)

 

Generals, let me give you a bit of advice about choosing a target:

 

It's the President, stupid.

 

 

 

The General Tells The Truth:

“Sir, We've Been In The Middle East More Than 50 Years”

“Ever Since The Dependency Upon Oil Has Developed”

 

Comment: T

 

[Apologists for the U.S. Empire, who serve Bush, and provide political cover for his butchering of Iraqis, try to distract public attention from reality by spewing out silly articles about how U.S. middle eastern policy is controlled by Israel. 

 

[Some are neo-Nazi scum, some may well be on the CIA payroll, others confuse their deluded fantasies with reality, but the result is the same: to relieve the U.S. Imperial class of responsibility for 50 years of oppression, exploitation, and U.S. control operating in the region, including the creation of the racist Zionist terrorist state of Israel to do their dirty work.

 

[These propagandists serve the enemy.  Nail their lies to the wall.]

 

Hearing Of The Military Quality Of Life And Veterans Affairs, And Related Agencies Subcommittee Of The House Appropriations Committee on March 14, 2006  [Excerpt]

 

GEN. ABIZAID: Sir, we've been in the Middle East more than 50 years.  We've been in the Middle East ever since the -- however you would like to call the dependency upon oil has developed.  And our forces have been there either as naval, air or land forces in one way or another for an awful long time.  And once the British pulled out the Arabian gulf, it became more and more necessary for us to provide more and more force in the region.

 

So do we need 200,000 Americans in the Middle East for the next 20 years?  No, but we've got to stabilize Iraq.  We've got to stabilize Afghanistan.

 

We need to maintain a presence that protects the small nations and ensures the continued stability of the region and the flow of those resources that are essential to our well-being.

 

MORE:

 

4.10.06 The Wall St. Journal

 

Under the Carter Doctrine of 1980, the U.S. committed to defending its interests in the Persian Gulf, the source of almost two-thirds of world oil reserves.

 

That led to a military mobilization in the region that cost the U.S. some $20 billion a year since the 1980s, according to a relatively conservative estimate by Amy Myers Jaffe, an expert at Rice University.

 

Disrespectfully Dedicated To The Idiot Asshole Brain-Dead No-Talent Hack Reporters Who Keep Writing About “Gunmen”

 

14 April 2006 By Vanessa Arrington, The Associated Press

 

[D]ozens of Iraqi police remained missing and nine were dead after insurgents ambushed their convoy Thursday evening as they left a U.S. base where they had picked up new vehicles, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.

 

Police heard cries of "Allahu akbar," or God is great, and "long live jihad" broadcast by loudspeaker from a nearby mosque, Maadal said.

 

Suddenly insurgents, including some women, opened fire and triggered a roadside bomb.

 

UFPJ:

“Abandoning Muslims And Palestinians Is Disgraceful”

[So Is Sucking Up To The Imperial Democrats, As Usual]

 

April 13, 2006 By STAN HELLER, CounterPunch [Excerpts]

 

In what country will a huge peace coalition hold an anti-war rally have nothing to say about Iran, Israel and Palestine or Afghanistan?  Is the answer Israel?  Turkey?  Micronesia? 

 

Sadly it's the USA.

 

On April 29 United for Peace and Justice is holding a big demonstration in New York City called "March for Peace, Justice and Democracy".  The only "peace" demand mentioned is bringing troops home from Iraq.

 

Oops, I mentioned Israel.  UFPJ doesn't want to say anything about it.

 

Condemn "unending oil war" and that's the beginning and ending of analysis.

 

The Christian Zionists who see a Jewish conquest of Palestine as the start of Armageddon?  They don't really matter. AIPAC, which draws half the Senate and a third of the House to their blood-curdling conventions. Not really worth mentioning, not even the 2006 gathering which was devoted to demands that the US "take care" of Iran. Bush himself has stated, "We will use military might to protect our ally Israel", but why get into that?

 

And those pesky Palestinians.

 

Yes, they have their troubles, but why mention them in an anti-war movement?

 

As if Israeli war-mongering wasn't based on its apartheid-like oppression of Palestinians. As if an Israeli official hadn't publicly said that wiping out Saddam would help Israel impose a new "order" on the Palestinians.  As if the al-Qaeda killers haven't tried to adopt the Palestinian cause as their own.

 

Bringing up Palestine in connection with the war will just alienate us from those thousands and thousands of Israel partisans who are just itching to join the movement once we get rid of our "anti-Semitism".  Uh-huh.

 

Unstated in the UFPJ rally call is a rush to the Democrats.

 

After grassroots activists pushed the UFPJ and ANSWER coalitions into having one successful giant demonstration on September 24, 2005, UFPJ passed a resolution to never work with ANSWER again!

 

Grand.

 

Dump all the bleeding hearts who sympathize with the Arabs and Muslims and the Dems will pick up votes in the heartland.

 

We have three weeks.

 

Something has to be done to change the political direction of UFPJ.

 

Abandoning Muslims and Palestinians is disgraceful.

 

Silence about Israel is inexcusable.

 

We need to pressure the out of touch UFPJ leadership.

 

We need public statements, petitions and a ton of emails to the UFPJ steering committee at their address ufpj-sc@unitedforpeace.org

 

Tell them to change the demands and to get speakers who'll talk about all the realities of the war.

 

 

 

OCCUPATION REPORT

 

 

“You Can't Ask The 4th ID To Go Out And Put Their Lives On The Line For A Sewer Repair”

 

April 16, 2006 By John Ward Anderson and Bassam Sebti, Washington Post Foreign Service [Excerpts]

 

BAGHDAD -- On the southern outskirts of Baghdad, a sewage treatment plant that was repaired with $13.5 million in U.S. funds sits idle while all of the raw waste from the western half of Baghdad is dumped into the Tigris River, where many of the capital's 7 million residents get their drinking water.

 

Adjacent to the Karkh sewage plant is Iraq's most advanced sanitary landfill, a new, 20-acre, $32 million dump -- also paid for by the United States -- with a liner to prevent groundwater contamination.

 

It has not had a load of garbage dropped off since the manager of the sewer plant was killed four months ago. Iraqis consider the access roads too dangerous, and Iraqi police rarely venture into the area, a haven for insurgents who regularly lob mortar shells across the city into the Green Zone less than six miles away.

 

"It's a nightmare -- you can't ask the 4th ID to go out and put their lives on the line for a sewer repair," said Charles Thomas, 59, a water contracting specialist with the Army Corps of Engineers who lives in Potomac.

 

 

 

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

 

 

The Zionist Army Of Occupation Butchers Another Child:

“The Interrogator Replied: ‘Democracy Is Only For The TV’”

 

March 29, 2006 By Gideon Levy, Haaretz

 

A bullet in the head from a distance of a few meters, fired suddenly and without warning shots aimed at the wheels, which the Israel Defense Forces claims there were. This is the way undercover soldiers from the Border Police killed Akaber Zaid, an eight-and-a-half year-old, who was on her way to the doctor, according to her uncle, who was with her and was also wounded.

 

Little Akaber was going to the doctor and he did indeed see her, but there was no longer a reason for him to do so. She had been on the way to have him remove stitches from her chin, but instead arrived dead at the same doctor's office, with her head smashed and her skull gaping.

 

Soldiers from the Border Police's undercover unit, known by the Hebrew acronym Yamas, shot at her uncle's taxi at close range as he was parking the vehicle next to the doctor's office.  All the soldiers' claims, as presented to the media by the IDF, to the effect that they had shot at the taxi's wheels in accordance with the "regulations for arresting a suspect," were nothing but lies, says the girl's uncle, who was sitting next to her.

 

The car was sprayed from the right and from behind with bullets, which entered through its windows. The shots were fired from just a few meters away, the uncle stresses, in the light of a street lamp.

 

We saw the taxi this week: All its wheels are intact. However, those who carried out the "investigations" on behalf of the IDF and the Border Police did not even bother to examine the vehicle, or to question the man who had driven it. He was also wounded and is hospitalized.

 

We also took testimony from him and could not find a single fact on the ground that contradicts what he reports:  The undercover soldiers shot at the girl from two directions, from nearby and, the uncle says, without warning. No soldier with a gun, certainly not an expert sharpshooter from the Yamas, would aim at close range at wheels and hit someone in the head instead.

 

Down the road, hundreds of meters from the shooting, are the remaining signs of the destruction wreaked by the Border Police. Not one wanted man was detained, but a five-story apartment block was badly damaged and there are wrecks of cars that were completely crushed, one after the other, still standing in the street.

 

Why did the undercover soldiers shoot at a young girl? How could they dare claim they aimed at the wheels? Why did they have to shoot at innocent people in a taxi in the first place? Why did they wreak such havoc? Why did they crush vehicles that were the last source of income for their owners? What is the difference between this action on the soldiers' part and a terrorist attack? And why are these questions not being asked?

 

The father did not accompany his daughter to Dr. Samara. He said he could not bear to see the doctor removing the stitches from her little chin. Akaber was a second-grade pupil from the village of Al-Yamoun, northwest of Jenin. In her picture from kindergarten, she can be seen wearing a square black graduation cap, like those worn by university graduates and people receiving doctorates. That is the custom in the Al-Yamoun kindergarten: The children who excel are photographed with the special hat. That is how she will remain in the collective consciousness of that town, whose sons once worked in Israel.

 

Akaber is not the first girl they are burying.  How many children were killed in Al-Yamoun in the past few years?  The school principal, who came to pay his condolences to the family, begins to list them, one by one, but stops suddenly and asks: "Why should I count them?  Are we finished having our children killed?"

 

The father enters the mourners' room in the local council building, his eyes red with crying. Abdel Rahman Zaid, 31, the father of six, drives a commercial van that travels in the West Bank, when possible.  About three weeks ago, Akaber fell on the stairs in her house and hurt her chin. Last Friday it was time to remove the stitches.

 

When Abdel Rahman returned from work, he asked his brother Kamal--a 27-year-old taxi driver, whom he calls Hamoudi--to go with Akaber to the doctor's house on the hill, where he has his office. It was Friday night, the last night of her life.  His brother took the girl and she sat beside him in the passenger seat. The father stresses that the taxi's windows were transparent; there were no curtains covering them or hiding the passengers.

 

Any soldier could see the occupants, any soldier from the Yamas could see that there was a small girl with a braid sitting there.

 

The two left for the doctor's and soon reached his street.  From his bed in the government hospital in Jenin, his wounded hand in a bandage, Kamal relates that after parking, he suddenly noticed some soldiers to the right of the car. It is a narrow road and they were standing barely a few meters away. He says they began firing immediately, from the right and from behind. Only after that did he hear shouting in Hebrew, which he does not speak. Little Akaber was already lying on the seat with her head smashed.

 

Kamal lifted her up in his arms; the soldiers instructed him to leave her on the road. Thus, they remained on the road--the dead girl and her wounded uncle.

 

The Yamas soldiers ordered him to stand, to lift up his shirt and then to sit back down. They continued to shoot in the air, Kamal says.  A neighbor took the girl to the doctor who was expecting her.  From there she was taken to the hospital in Jenin where her death was confirmed.

 

The uncle's arm was bandaged on the spot and he was taken by military Jeep for interrogation.  He says the soldiers beat him.  There was a dog in the vehicle, who sniffed him, and a soldier called Raslan who, he says, hit him in the head when he spoke Arabic. Kamal took three bullets in the arm and leg. He says seven bullets hit the girl, three of them in her head.

 

The yellow Renault taxi tells the story: Its wheels are intact, but its body is riddled with bullet holes. The back window is shattered, and there are bullet holes in the back head rest and in its sides. There are blood stains everywhere, the blood of the dead girl and her wounded uncle. All this time, they hid her death from her father. Abdel Rahman had heard the shots--the doctor's office is not far from their house--but he never thought of his daughter somehow, only of his brother. He went to the doctor's office and there they told him that Akaber had been wounded.

 

The doctor injected him with a sedative, and he says he did not wake up until morning. Only when he awoke and went home, at about 5 A.M., did his other brother break the bad news. His wife already knew: She heard the news on an Arabic-language TV station.

 

Through his tears, the father wants to tell us something: The girl's mother, Ikram, was born in Israel.  Akaber was also Israeli.  She was born in a Nazareth hospital and has an Israeli birth certificate.  She was buried in the Al-Yamoun cemetery on Saturday morning.

 

The IDF Spokesman: "On March 17, while a special forces unit of the Border Police was engaged in arresting wanted men in the village of Al-Yamoun, northwest of Jenin, the unit surrounded an area in which there was a suspicion that wanted men were hiding. During the operation, the force saw a taxi that seemed suspicious approaching the area and began the procedure of arresting a suspect.  When it failed to heed the soldiers' calls, they opened fire in the direction of the taxi."

 

Does anyone think the uncle would not have heeded the calls to stop if indeed the soldiers had called out?  The man was taking his little niece to the doctor.  The army announced merely that "the IDF regrets harming the Palestinian girl and is conducting a comprehensive examination of the circumstances of the event."

 

The scene of the destruction: A Palestinian bulldozer removed the wreckage next to the Zaid family's house on Sunday.  A five-story building, which the soldiers suspected was housing wanted men, has been partially destroyed.  The family members are now covering the huge holes in it with gray bricks, and its elegant columns are in danger of collapsing. In the yard below are the other wrecked cars: a yellow Mercedes taxi, a white Subaru, and another few pieces of metal that were once cars.