Antiwar.com Blog

JUAN COLE, in his commentary today, Al-Hakim to ash-Sharq al-Awsat: Saddam must be Tried in Iraq included this veritable gem at the very end:

…Bremer is reportedly worried that the IGC is not moving toward those elections fast enough to meet the July 1 deadline for turn-over of sovereignty to a transitional government, and is requesting a doubling of CPA employees to 2,000. The State Department, however, does not have another 1,000 Middle East experts, and many of the ones it has are being vetoed by Undersecretary of Defense for Planning, Douglas Feith, on grounds of their lack of sympathy for Neoconservative philosophy.

Upon reading this paragraph, I visualized Doug Feith–playing the lead role of Mickey Mouse in Disney’s cartoon “The Sorceror’s Apprentice”– having to resort to exponentially increasing neocon Middle East experts like Daniel Pipes the same way: by repeatedly chopping the expert in half again and again until he has enough loyal bucket-carrying brooms to bail the Administration out. But what happens if the Sorcerer doesn’t arrive in time; do all the neocon mice drown in the floods they have created?

A Soldier’s Letter from Iraq

Spec-4 Marshall L. Edgerton was 27 years old. He was from Rocky Face, Georgia. He was assigned to [deleted], 82nd Airborne Division. We are based in Fort Bragg, N.C. Marshall was killed December 11th when he was escorting a delivery truck into the 82nd Headquarters in Ramadi, Iraq. The news told you that a furniture truck blew up outside the compound, and that our excellent defenses prevented a lot more people from being killed. That’s a load of sh*t. The truck blew up inside the compound, and the reason only 15 people were hurt and one American killed is plain luck. They make us get on every vehicle that enters the compound, and plenty of vehicles come. It’s like playing Russian roulette.

We understand water trucks and gasoline trucks. We need that stuff, even though there are still plenty of ways they could detonate one of those too. Let me tell you what was being delivered though, and what Marshall Edgerton died for. A general is decorating his office here. It’s a nice office, a luxury office you might say. And it needed a carpet to go with all the new furniture. Now while the grunts and we [deleted] can get along with field tables and folding chairs, of course the general has to trick out his office like he’s a Roman caesar or something. So these furniture trucks come onto our compound when we already know that a lot of people out there want to kill us. This truck was loaded with carpet.

Marshall came to Iraq to die for a general’s carpet. Marshall’s family will grieve so a general could have carpet. What we really need here are big trucks that can haul away all the bullshit. And a few to get our asses back to an airport.

Don’t give my name or email address. The truth can get you in a lot of trouble here.

Anonymous

Letter 12/14/2003

Invade the Vatican!

Prescience is no sweat with these clowns, of course, but your humble correspondent nailed the current climate back in March.

(Some links swiped from Lew Rockwell.)

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals rules against the government on Jose Padilla’s detention as an enemy combatant:

Contrary to the government’s argument, they said, the president does not have “inherent constitutional authority as Commander-in-Chief to detain American citizens on American soil outside a zone of combat.”

While considerable “deference” must be given to the president’s authority, the court said the deference does not include allowing him to sidestep the federal courts and the Congress.

Indeed, it said, “separation of powers concerns are heightened when the Commander-in-Chief’s powers are exercised in the domestic sphere.”

The panel rejected the administration’s argument that a 1942 Supreme Court case involving the military tribunals during World War II supported the government’s position.

Our very own Sam Koritz guest blogging over at Liberty & Power.

In mid-November, one Bosnian TV station broadcast the 169th installment of a program called “TV Tribunal” – a weekly newscast dedicated to “informing” the public about the Hague Inquisition. What made it special was a segment in which Head Inquisitor, Carla DelPonte, speaks of her hunt for Slobodan Milosevic, which contained several interesting revelations. Transcript of the segment, in translation, is featured in this week’s edition of Serbian magazine NIN.
In it, DelPonte says she had initiated and maintained secret contacts with Zoran Djindjic, Washington’s hand-picked quisling in Serbia, before he came to power – so secret, not even the Inquisition knew about them. At their first meeting, in Switzerland, Djindjic vowed to deliver Milosevic to The Hague.
DelPonte also claims that Djindjic coordinated Milosevic’s abduction with the ICTY and NATO, and that ICTY had agents on the ground (in Serbia) to ensure all would go as planned. Continue reading “A real “Joint Criminal Conspiracy””