Month: December 2004

Who do these guys think they’re kidding?

However, Qassim Dawoud, Iraq’s national security adviser, said insurgent attacks were down since the invasion of Fallujah. He provided no details but said Iraq didn’t need U.S.-led coalition forces’ help to safeguard the election.

“We don’t want to involve the multinational forces in the election affairs,” he said. “We are taking our measures to provide security to our society, specifically to the electoral centers.”

Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan told Al-Jazeera television that Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles would patrol the streets during the election to ensure security.

Yeah, roll out the First Iraqi Mechanized Brigade! Of course! All four of those tanks can patrol “the streets,” no problem. What a bunch of jokers. Who picked these guys, anyway?

The Department of Defense released the names of three more US troops killed in Iraq, bringing the November US death total in Iraq to 137, the highest since the war began. In April of this year, 135 US troops were killed. Each of the three soldiers killed died from enemy action:

Sgt. Pablo A. Calderon, 26, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Sgt. Jose Guereca, Jr., 24, of Missouri City, Texas, “died Nov. 30 in Fallujah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their military vehicle.” Also, Spc. Sergio R. Diazvarela, 21, of Lomita, Calif., “died Nov. 24 in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his dismounted patrol.”

The military also reports that at least 71 of the those 137 died in the “liberating” of Fallujah. All told, 1,258 US troops have died since the war on Iraq began, with over 1,100 of those deaths occurring after the mission was deemed “accomplished.”

OK, now this is a shocker. Who would’ve imagined:

Iraqi rebels are creeping back into areas cleared by US marines in Fallujah, where the military continues daily to secure homes and try to seize weapons caches before they can be used to again attack US and Iraqi troops, marines say.

“The last few days we found 20, 25 guys in houses that were already cleared,” said one marine.

But, apparently reconstruction is going well:

But marines Tuesday were taking no chances as they blasted homes with heavy machine-gun fire and grenades before climbing from roof to roof and storming the empty buildings, according to an AFP correspondent embedded with the unit.

Meanwhile, Fallujah’s refugees are facing winter in their refugee camps:

More than 200,000 people who fled Fallujah ahead of the US offensive have yet to return and many are in desperate need of aid, with temperatures in Iraq heading towards freezing, a new UN emergency report says.

Figures compiled by the International Organisation for Migration show that 210,600 people, or more than 35,000 families, have taken refuge in towns and villages around Fallujah.

Nearly all those people remain outside the city, where the population was estimated at 250,000-300,000 before the attack.

US forces are maintaining a cordon around Fallujah as sporadic fighting continues.

Troops are preventing refugees from returning, saying they want to stagger the return so that basic facilities can be restored before people go home.

Most areas of the city remain without power, water, sewage and other basic services.

It is expected to take much longer than previously thought to start reconstruction as hundreds of buildings are completely destroyed.

“The return to Fallujah may take a matter of months rather than days, as was previously suggested by multi-national forces,” the document said.

But the US military is winning the hearts and minds of the hungry civilians trapped in Fallujah:

The US military is also attempting to provide assistance.

At one aid distribution point it recently delivered a supply of American snack food, including frosted flakes, granola bars and bagel chips to needy families, many of whom were left confused by the foreign food and frustrated.

At least some of the troops are forming a more realistic view of what they’re up against in Fallujah:

Marines at 1-3 Charlie Company’s small toe-hold in the city, an abandoned school surrounded by sprawling homes in the largely affluent neighborhood, say they have been frustrated by rebels who appear beaten one day, only to turn up again another.

But they also say with increasingly fewer marines — several units have already left the city following the November attack — there is virtually no way to keep rebels from taking up refuge in cleared buildings.

“If you want to keep this place secured, you need a whole lot of bodies,” said one marine corporal.

Meanwhile, this is Baghdad today:

What Jim says about Radley Balko’s TCS piece on libertarians and foreign policy. Jim:

Radley Balko’s TCS article this weekend leaves a smoking crater where claims of “libertarian unseriousness” on foreign policy have been.

Radley Balko, “That Republicans don’t take libertarian ideas on foreign policy seriously could very well be a problem with the Republicans, not with libertarian foreign policy.”

Also, don’t miss Roderick Long’s That Pre-9/11 Mindset: Meet the New Normal, Same as the Old Normal which hits some of the same points Balko does. Long:

Critics of the current régime’s so-called “War on Terror” are often accused of having a “September 10th” or “pre-9/11” mindset. (Our ever-articulate Prince President garbled both descriptions into the phrase “pre-September 10th mentality” during the first debate.) The suggestion is that everyone’s worldview should have been radically transformed by the events of September 11th; anyone whose worldview wasn’t so altered, anyone who continues to favour diplomacy over a resort to military force, must simply be blind to reality.

But there’s a problem with this argument: it assumes that everyone’s worldview needed changing. After all, any worldview that was radically altered by the September 11th attacks must have been radically mistaken to begin with. But anyone whose understanding of the world was substantially correct would not have had his or her overall view of things shaken by those events.

Why didn’t more of us (“us” being those of the anti-war/anti-state persuasion, whether “left” or “right”) abandon our way of thinking in response to 9/11? Because 9/11 didn’t teach us anything we didn’t already know. We’ve been saying for decades that the U.S. government’s arrogant interventions around the world have only been increasing the risk of blowback, and that the State, in the event of such blowback, would be as ineffective at protecting the civilian population as it is at everything else. The 9/11 attacks simply corroborated our “pre-9/11 mindset.”

We were right all along, so why would 9/11 have changed our minds? As Roderick Long says, “Those whose worldview was shaken by the 9/11 attacks must have had their heads in the sand. It may sound rude to say “we told you so,” but given that our opponents’ decision to ignore our warnings has led to thousands of deaths, perhaps a bit of rudeness is in order. We told them so.“

Dear Fellow Citizens:

For the past three years, the United States Department of Justice has been relentlessly engaged in actions geared toward covering up my reports and investigations into my allegations. These actions include gagging the United States Congress, blocking court proceedings in my case by invoking state secret privilege, quashing a subpoena for my deposition on information regarding 9/11, withholding documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act, and preventing the release of the Inspector General’s report of its investigations into my reports and allegations. My reports, many of which have been confirmed by the United States Senate and leaked memos by the Department of Justice, involve criminal conduct against our national interests, serious security breaches threatening our intelligence, intentional mistranslation of intelligence with severe consequences, and intentional blocking of certain terrorism and criminal cases from being investigated by our government officials.

This is not just about our government’s relentless fight against me, and my information. This fight is also directed against what is known as “the public’s right to know” in our essential oversight responsibility over our government as responsible citizens. These actions by our government are not geared toward protecting the "national security" of the United States. On the contrary, they are endangering our national security by covering up facts and information related to criminal activities against this country and it’s citizens. The Department of Justice and this administration are fully aware that making this information public will bring about the question of accountability. And they do not want to be held accountable. It is for these reasons that I have been striving to get the Congress to release the long overdue report by the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General, and to hold its own public hearings regarding these issues. In a letter written July 9, 2004 to the Attorney General, regarding the classification of the entire report on my case by the Inspector General’s office, Senator Grassley and Senator Leahy stated:

"We fear that the designation of information as classified in these cases serves to protect the executive branch against embarrassing revelations and full accountability. Releasing declassified versions of these reports, or at least portions or summaries, would serve the public’s interest, increase transparency, promote effectiveness and efficiency at the FBI, and facilitate Congressional oversight. To do otherwise could damage the public’s confidence not only in the government’s ability to protect the nation, but also in the government’s ability to police itself."

I know that it is very easy to get discouraged with the system and give up the fight. I know sometimes it makes sense to consider attempts to bring about transparency and accountability futile. I know many of us believe that by voting once every few years, paying our taxes in a timely manner, and abiding by the law, we more than fulfill our obligations as citizens of this great democratic nation. I myself used to sincerely believe that. There have been times when I came so very close to giving up, knowing that all those available channels I had pursued, from the Congress to the Courts, from the IG’s office to the 9/11 Commission, became rock-solid walls and ears deafened to the voice of public concern. Giving up would have been the easiest way to stop the time, energy, and financial resources being consumed in my fruitless battle to bring about truth, transparency, and accountability. For me, there were times it would have been very easy to stop, to get disgusted and give up; if it weren’t for those words of wisdom from our founding Fathers who said: "The price of liberty, is eternal vigilance." If it weren’t for the fact that I have lived in countries where the words freedom, liberty, transparency, and accountability represented fantasy, surrealism, and impossibility; which gave me more reasons to treasure what this great country and its Constitution offered me as its citizen.

I was told so many times by so many people that "these issues are so troubling, but this is the government and we can’t do anything about it. We can’t rock the boat." But stop for a second and think about it: We elect the captains of this boat, we maintain and sustain this boat through our taxes, and we, the people, suffer the consequences when this boat malfunctions, as we did on September 11. If we don’t have the right to rock this boat, when this boat or part of it is badly in need of being rocked and repaired, then who does?

Our Congress must fulfill the "checks and balances" responsibilities of the Constitution in the exercise of its fundamental duties, including probing deeper to produce more information about government activities as part of its appropriations, authorization, and oversight functions. We the people have put these representatives in the Congress. We the people have given them the authority to ensure oversight, integrity, transparency, and accountability of our government and our rights. Thus, we the people have the right and the power to demand that our representatives fulfill these obligations.

Government transparency is fundamental to democracy. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Information is the currency of democracy." Our democracy cannot endure without a committed citizenry and an open government that answers to the people. Our democracy has survived because of the participation of its citizenry, which completely depends on the government’s transparency and accountability.

I am asking for your support to do just that – demand government transparency and accountability. Please read the following petition demanding the immediate release of the long-completed IG Report, followed by public Congressional hearings, by clicking on the link below. If you agree, if you want answers and accountability, please sign this petition.

Sincerely,
Sibel D. Edmonds

(see 10 for introduction)
8 next

Good news out of Madison, “progressive” bellwether John Nichols has rung out November with
“Accenture pact a boneheaded move.”

The streak lives, still no mention of “Israel” this year, 101 columns down, nine to go.

If John does stumble, it very well may be over the violin incident, Ha’aretz and The Guardian,
“Images from another place, another time” and “Israel shocked by image.”

He could focus on the Jewish angst/Israel losing its soul aspect of the story.

Incidentally, The Guardian quotes novelist Yoram Kaniuk, who happens to be the source of a joke which says all you really need to know about the histroy of the Israeli/Arab conflict. Here it is, as told to Sana Hasan (“Enemy in the Promised Land”).

Continue reading “Nichols Countdown—9”