That’s right: conservatives are now apologizing for espionage. The arrest of Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin is just the beginning of the dramatic court case that will expose Israel’s amen corner in the U.S. as a fifth column in the service of a foreign power — with the neoconservatives leading the chorus that this is a case of “persecution.”
Read all about how leading American “conservatives” have positioned themselves as apologists for espionage in my latest post on the Huff-blog.
The War Street Journal recently published an op ed piece by one Debra Burlingame, in which the author claims that the Freedom Center planned for the re-built WTC — re-dubbed the “Freedom Tower” — has been “hijacked” by those gosh-darned America-hating left-wingers, who will fill the heads of schoolchildren and other visitors with their anti-American “propaganda.” A small taste is quite enough:
“The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. is handing over millions of federal dollars and the keys to that building to some of the very same people who consider the post-9/11 provisions of the Patriot Act more dangerous than the terrorists that they were enacted to apprehend — people whose inflammatory claims of a deliberate torture policy at Guantanamo Bay are undermining this country’s efforts to foster freedom elsewhere in the world.”
As a libertarian, I don’t think anyone should be handing over millions of federal dollars for anything. Private citizens could buy the site, finance a memorial with voluntary contributions, and design it to their own specifications: otherwise, we are to be perpetually subjected to inquisitors of Ms. Burlingame’s ilk, such as the rightwing radio screamer Michael Smerconish who utilizes his posting privileges on the Huffington Post blog to support her attempt to “take back” the memorial.
If we must have a state-subsidized memorial — which seems pretty close to inevitable — then the War Party’s efforts to control what it looks like and what ideas it projects must be resisted — and that’s just what I do in my answering post on the Huff-blog, here.
Check out my latest post on the Huffington Post blog: it’s about “fragging,” a practice much in evidence during the Vietnam era when hundreds of American military officers were killed by their own soldiers — and, no, we aren’t talking about “friendly fire” here. Hand-grenades were the favored mode of execution, a most unfriendly way to die.
I have to say that I’ll be absolutely shocked and, yes, surprised if this does indeed turn out to be a case of fragging. After all, these soldiers are volunteer, unlike the conscripts forced to fight the Vietnam war. Could it be that they’re discovering that, as in Vietnam, we have no business being over there — and are now beginning to take out their anger at being bamboozled into volunteering on their officers?
Wow! I’ve made the big-time! The Huffington Post has asked me to blog for them — and here’s my first contribution. There I am, right alongside Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Catharine Crier, Gary Hart, Jann Wenner, Karen Finley (!), Erica Jong, Paul Krassner, my old adversary Bill Maher (what war in the Balkans?!), and of course Arianna Herself.
Gee, am I famous yet ….?
UPDATE: And I see that my friend Scott McConnell has joined the ranks of the Huff-bloggers, with a great post on the state of the antiwar movement.
UPDATE II: I just posted another one.
UPDATE III: Hey, lookee here — Lew Rockwell’s joined in the fun! Oh boy, is this really going to piss off the War Party, or what?!
Balkanalysis, run by frequent Antiwar.com contributor Chris Deliso, needs your help to improve its services. And they’re not asking for a lot – your contribution would certainly be appreciated.
Does this mean American private contractors have joined the Iraqi insurgents, or what?
Sixteen private American security guards are under investigation for shooting at U.S. Marines and Iraqi civilians during a three-hour spree west of Baghdad, the military said Thursday.
The Marines said the 16 Americans and three Iraqi contractors were arrested and held in a military jail for three days after spraying small arms fire at Iraqi civilians and U.S. forces from their cars in Fallujah late last month. There were no casualties.
[…]
Marines spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Lapan said Marines reported seeing gunmen in several late-model trucks fire “near civilian cars” and on military positions.“Three hours later, another Marine observation post was fired on by gunmen from vehicles matching the description of those involved in the earlier attack,” Lapan said.
U.S. forces later detained the contractors without incident and held them in a military jail for three days. The American contractors are thought to have left Iraq, the military said. A Naval Criminal Investigative Service inquiry is under way.
UPDATE: So, here’s the “contractor” side of the story:
A group of American security guards in Iraq have alleged they were beaten, stripped and threatened with a snarling dog by US marines when they were detained after an alleged shooting incident outside Falluja last month.
“I never in my career have treated anybody so inhumane,” one of the contractors, Rick Blanchard, a former Florida state trooper, wrote in an email quoted in the Los Angeles Times. “They treated us like insurgents, roughed us up, took photos, hazed [bullied] us, called us names.”
A Marine Corps spokesman denied that abuse had taken place and said an investigation was continuing. According to the marines, 19 employees of Zapata Engineering, including 16 Americans, were detained after a marine patrol in Falluja reportedbeing fired on by a convoy of trucks and sports utility vehicles. The marines also claim to have seen gunmen in the convoy fire at civilians.
This is believed to be the first time that private military contractors have been detained in Iraq by the US military, and it has reignited debate about their status and accountability.
The security guards claim the shooting incident was a case of mistaken identity. A spokeswoman for the company told the LA Times that the guards had fired warning shots into the air when an unidentified vehicle approached their vehicle as it passed through Falluja, but had not fired at any marines.
Mark Schopper, a lawyer for two of the contractors, told the newspaper that his clients, both former marines, were subjected to “physical and psychological abuse”. He said they had told him that marines had “slammed around” several con tractors, stripped them to their underwear and placed a loaded weapon near their heads.
“How does it feel to be a big, rich contractor now?” one of the marines is alleged to have shouted at the men, in an apparent reference to the large sums of money private contractors can make in Iraq.
Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan, a Marine Corps spokesman, who did not respond to emails from the Guardian, said in an email to the LA Times: “The Americans were segregated from the rest of the detainee population and, like all security detainees, were treated humanely and respectfully.”
The American contractors, who were working in explosives disposal, were arrested on May 18 and imprisoned for three days. All have since left Zapata Engineering, which is based in North Carolina, and have returned to the US. They also complained they were made to wear orange prison uniforms and fed the same “bad food” as Iraqi prisoners.
