Tag: Antiwar movement

Edit: Mashaan al-Juburi, Youssef Kashmola or Usama Kashmula (depending on which account you rely – picture here)governor of Mosul, was assassinated today as he drove toward Baghdad in a convoy.

Also assassinated today was Sabir Karim, an auditor for the Industry Ministry, as he left his office in Baghdad.

UPDATE: AP is naming the assassinated governor of Mosul as Youssef Kashmola. However, googling the name Youssef Kashmola or Youssef Kashmala produces no results. I can document al-Juburi as being the governor of Mosul up to June 17, 2004, so I’m not sure what’s going on at this time. I’ll update this post if I find the name verified or an explanation for this confusion.

The consensus seems to be some version of the Kashmola name. This picture identifies him as governor of Mosul province, not the city.

Democracy Now! is reporting that a deal has been struck between Dennis Kucinich and John Kerry’s warmongering delegates, brokered by political hack Sandy Berger, concerning the anti-war stance of the Democrat Party. Kucinich’s demand for an early withdrawal of US troops from Iraq has been quashed. Interviewed by Amy Goodman, Kucinich said:

“Amy, I have not changed my position one iota. I think it’s important to understand that. At the same time, what we’re able to achieve inside the Democratic Platform Committee is an altogether different thing. So, you know, I know that there’s still a great distance to go before the Democratic Party and John Kerry will have policies that are going to be satisfactory to me. But I also know that there comes a time where we have to realize the implications of what happens if we continue to say that, you know, if you don’t adopt a withdrawal strategy, you are not going to have our support. I think that’s, you know, that’s a very dangerous proposition in terms of the fact that we have an administration that lied to get us into a war, and you can’t — you know, you can’t pin that war on the Democrats. This was a — you know, there are Democrats who voted for it. That’s true. And John Kerry was one of them. And I’m going to do everything I can to keep trying to influence a new direction for the Party. But we didn’t have the votes inside the platform. So, the question is, do we — you know, do we create a fight that there’s just no support for winning inside the Party?” Continue reading “Did Kucinich Sell Out Anti-War Democrats?”

American Ambassador Robert Beecroft finished his mandate as head of the OSCE mission in Bosnia in early July. In his open farewell address, published by the Imperial propaganda outfit IWPR, and reposted by NATO propaganda outfit ISN, he offers an interesting assessment of Bosnia’s problems. While honest, his proposed solution shows a fundamental lack of understanding of Bosnia and its people.
Continue reading “More Mythical Bosnia”

Last Thursday’s issue of NIN, the foremost Serbian news weekly, carried an interview with Morton Abramowitz, the eminence grise of the Washington foreign policy establishment and founder of the International Crisis Group. Abramowitz has been one of the leaders of the interventionist camp in the Balkans, even to the point of actually advising the KLA delegation at the farcical Rambouillet talks in 1999.
The interview reveals that Abramowitz, and the establishment he represents, live in a dream world not unlike the one inhabited by the Bush regime – with one important difference: they favor the Democrats. So, here is what Abramowitz had to say… Continue reading ““Aggressive” Balkans solutions”

Yet more evidence makes it clearer still that the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan has had less than a desirable outcome to date for the inhabitants of that country, especially the women. In that benighted country, branding someone a communist is enough to invite a death sentence by the warlords. Especially if you’re an uppity woman, such as Malalai Joya, who continues to defy the Afghan warlords.

Nevertheless, the women of Afghanistan continue to amaze with their fortitude and guts: “I have seen too many sorrows and I have no fear in my soul anymore,” Joya is quoted. “…I’m sleeping in a different house every night and I have cars with blacked out windows following me everywhere.”

Another article spells out reasons for attacking women in a recent bus bombing attack:

Fawzia Mohamadi, 30, a victim of the bombing, said male passers-by shouted as the bus burned. “They were saying, ‘Let them die,'” she said from her hospital bed, where she is recovering from burns to her left leg. “They were shouting, ‘These are women begging for America’s dollars. Don’t help them.’ They were holding up our burning sandals and clothes and shouting.”

Or, succinctly, as the article title puts it: “Use your vote and you’ll die, Taliban tell Afghan women.”

I just had what has to be the most extraordinary day I’ve spent in quite some time.

This requries a little backstory: I just went through a major hassle with my previous bank, somebody stole my check card number and bought some stuff online, I filed a fraud complaint, they called me a liar, the whole thing was just a mess. Today it came to a conclusion, and I withdrew all my money and closed my accounts with that bank.

I checked online, and found another bank with local branches which offered the services I wanted, so I headed over there, money in hand, intent on opening new accounts.

Didn’t happen…

They require ID to open an account. I expected that, I mean, that’s obvious. But apparently, under the USA PATRIOT Act, the amount of ID that bank now requires is so excessive as to make opening an account virtually impossible. They wanted two types of ID.

Driver’s License… I’ve got that, no problem

And another form of “acceptable ID”. They were pretty vague about what was acceptable, but they were quite clear about what was not acceptable, which is to say everything. Social Security Card? No good. Student ID? Not a chance. Car insurance card? That one stopped her for a second. Do you own a car? No… I just have road service for driving other people’s cars. Then the card is no good.

The only things the woman would confirm as actually acceptable secondary ID were:

Proof of Car Ownership

Major Credit Card

Military ID Card

So basically, I’d either need to go buy a car and then prove to them I own it, or join the military, or no banking for me. Major Credit Card struck me as particularly funny. Oh, you mean one of those things banks give you after you have an account with them?

Well, this went on for awhile, and she ultimately said if I could bring in a voter registration card, my cable bill, and a paycheck from my employer, they’d look it over and might be able to help me then. God only knows what happened to my voter registration card.

Ultimately we decided that I just wasn’t a fit customer for that particular bank. The woman gave me something which I consider to be quite an intriguing collectible, a pamphlet entitled:

USA PATRIOT Act
Protecting America
and
Protecting You

I feel safer already, don’t you? The pamphlet describes how the war on terror requires them to collect all sorts of crazy information to prove that I am who I say I am, and how they reserve the right to do pretty much whatever the hell they want.

But the final result is, I walked into a bank with a wad of cash, tried to give it to them, and they said “no”.

The thing that struck me as most interesting is that I could have taken my money over to the gun store and bought a bunch of weapons and ammo, and they wouldn’t have required half as much information about me.

Now, you’d think I’d be mad, but quite honestly the whole situation was so surreal, so unexpected, and so downright entertaining that the smile never left my face the whole time I was there. Even now, I consider the tale more humorous than deleterious. I mean sure, I’m out an hour’s time and I’m still without a bank, but at least I had something interesting to write here.