Author: Carol Watson

From Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches.

“When the Americans take over our police station, they bring us all together and tell us we are no longer in charge of anything,” he says, holding up his arms in exasperation.

The policeman says that all of them were made to stay inside the station while U.S. soldiers occupied the roof. “This is why I can say definitely yes, it was the Americans who shot Mr. Abrahim, and not Iraqi Police, because none of us were even allowed on the roof,” he says firmly.

He adds that he personally has on his desk between 150-200 files of incidents where U.S. occupation forces have killed innocent Iraqis, and that several other Iraqi Policemen at his station have a similar number. He lets out a deep breath and says, “There are so many people the Americans have shot.”…. read more

The US is apparently going to choose Iraq’s interim government rather than the UN.

Let’s play their game. Asked whether the US would have veto power over the candidates it didn’t like who were presented by Brahimi for the new Iraqi interim govt, a State Department spokesman said that Bremer and Blackwill would make sure those candidates don’t get on the list to begin with!

…Read more

Christopher Albritton is Back to Iraq and describes his return trip in “Greetings from Baghdad,” along with comments about the raids on Ahmed Chalabi’s house and INC offices, as well as the wedding deaths in “Chalabi to CPA.”

And Riverbend, the Iraqi girl blogger, also comments on Chalabi and the attack on the wedding party in her posting En Kint Tedri…

In the end, America had to know that Chalabi was virtually useless…. Could the decision-makers currently mulling over the Iraq situation be so ridiculously optimistic? Or could they have really been so wrong in the past? We have a saying in Arabic, “En kint tedri, fe tilk musseeba… in kint la tedri, fa il musseebatu a’adham” which means, “If you knew, then that was a catastrophe… and if you didn’t know, then the catastrophe is greater.”

The Pentagon attempts another cover-up, this time by forbidding military personnel to read FOX News, the government’s favorite media whore! Why? Because FOX was carrying the Taguba report on the Iraqi prison abuses at its website. Here is Vivienne Walt’s expose for TIME, “Military Personnel: Don’t Read This! How a Pentagon email sought to contain the prison abuse scandal.”

It’s not exactly every day that the Pentagon warns military personnel to stay away from Fox News. But that’s exactly what some hopeful soul at the Department of Defense instructed, in a memo intended to forbid Pentagon staff reading a copy of the Taguba report detailing abuse of detainees at prisons in Iraq that had been posted at the Fox News web site.

An email to Pentagon staff marked “URGENT IT (Information Technology) BULLETIN: Taguba Report” orders employees not to read or download the Taguba report at Fox News, on the grounds that the document is classified. It also orders them not to discuss the matter with friends or family members. The emailed memo was leaked to TIME by a senior U.S. civilian official in Baghdad, who did not hide his disdain for the “factotums” in the Pentagon. “I do wonder how incredibly stupid some people in the Pentagon are,” he emailed TIME. “Not only are they drawing everyone’s attention to the report — and where it can be seen — but attempting to muzzle people never works.”

Perhaps realizing that, the email’s author in “Information Services Customer Liaison” said: “This leakage will be investigated for criminal prosecution. If you don’t have the document and have never had legitimate access, please do not complicate the investigative processes by seeking information.” As the type-face switched to high-alarm red, the 180-word email continues: “THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS REPORT IS CLASSIFIED; DO NOT GO TO FOX NEWS TO READ OR OBTAIN A COPY.”

The memo also contained four tips on how to plug the leaks of explosive prison-abuse tales. The first is “NOT to go to Fox News to read or obtain a copy” of the Taguba report. The American official in Baghdad received the email on Friday from the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Policy team, marked to “MAL POL ALL POLICY,” with a note telling employees that those who have read the Taguba report on the web should “CALL POLICY IT SECURITY IMMEDIATELY!”

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“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive” — Sir Walter Scott

In this commentary, Jonathan Tasini notes strong antiwar sentiment appearing in an unlikely place:

I experienced a Walter Cronkite moment last week that signaled to me that something is in the air about what people feel about the Iraq war. No, it didn’t come from Ted Kopple’s reciting of the Iraq war dead, nor the polls showing declining support for the war, nor from any of the other pundits, prognosticators, analysts and experts who fill the airwaves and pages of what we see and read. My moment came after reading Rick Reilly’s column in Sports Illustrated. Yes, SI, magazine to the sports-obsessed (to which I proudly belong)…

In the May 3 issue of SI, Reilly, in his regular back-page column “The Life of Reilly,” wrote a piece under the headline “The Hero and the Unknown Soldier.” The hero in Reilly’s column was Pat Tillman, the former star football player who was killed in Afghanistan. After 9/11, Tillman had given up a multimillion-dollar contract to volunteer for the Army Rangers. He was lionized throughout the country for his sacrifice.

The Unknown Soldier was Todd Bates. Bates drowned in Iraq. His death went virtually unnoticed except to his family and friends. The man who raised Bates, Charles Jones, refused to go to the funeral, refused to eat or relate to others; he died just four weeks after the funeral. “He died of a broken heart,” Bates’ grandmother, Shirley, who also raised him, told Reilly. “There was no reason for my boy to die. There is no reason for this war. All we have now is a Vietnam. My Toddie’s life was wasted over there. All this war is a waste. Look at all these boys going home in coffins. What’s the good in it?” Reilly, in barely controlled rage, concludes his piece about Tillman and Bates:

“Both did their duty for their country, but I wonder if their country did its duty for them. Tillman died in Afghanistan, a war with no end in sight and not enough troops to finish the job. Bates died in Iraq, a war that began with no just cause and continues with no just reason.

“Be proud that sports produce men like this. But I, for one, am furious that these wars keep taking them.” … read more

Riverbend, the Iraqi girl blogger, pretty much seems to sum up the feelings of most Iraqis at the moment about the occupation in this last paragraph of her blog entry posted for May 7th.

…I sometimes get emails asking me to propose solutions or make suggestions. Fine. Today’s lesson: don’t rape, don’t torture, don’t kill and get out while you can- while it still looks like you have a choice. Chaos? Civil war? Bloodshed? We’ll take our chances- just take your Puppets, your tanks, your smart weapons, your dumb politicians, your lies, your empty promises, your rapists, your sadistic torturers and go …read entire post