Tag: Antiwar movement

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When the beautiful Saudi news presenter was brutally beaten by her husband, this case first made news because the real story was that a Saudi male was being taken to task – by the law! – over bad behavior toward a woman. Now, as court cases seem inevitably (here in the U.S. as well) to twist and turn in strange and bizarre ways, we have the villain being pardoned by his victim. Admittedly, I can only believe this was part of the settlement, necessary to divorce and child custody issues.

Regarding the dismissal of her suit against the FBI, whistleblower Sibel Edmonds sends this along:

They are fighting it relentlessly all right! Now, this can be used to continue the gag on Congress, the quashing of any subpoenas for my deposition, and to prevent my information from appearing on the 9/11 Commission and DOJ-IG’s reports.

The US District Court for the District of Columbia (Judge Reggie Walton) today dismissed my lawsuit on grounds of national security and the State Secret Privilege. The government had invoked the rarely used (though often used by the Bush Administration) state secrets privilege.

This decision comes in the immediate aftermath of the FBI/DOJ reclassifying information to serve its litigation advantage.

“The decision today represents another example of the Executive Branch’s abusive nature of using secrecy as a weapon against Whistleblowers,” said Mark S. Zaid, my attorney. “It is quite disappointingly evident that accountability is no longer a word in our Government’s dictionary,” he added. An immediate appeal is planned.

We reserved a room at National Press Club for my press conference: ‘Peter Lisagor’ room, at National Press Club, 13th floor, 529 14th Street, Washington, DC, for this Thursday, July 8, at 1:00PM. I will be accompanied by Mark Zaid, and most likely POGO’s attorneys.

UPDATE: Here’s a pdf of the decision.

The war on Iraq claimed yet another life today, this time in a traffic accident in Balad, Iraq. CentCom reports:

One 13th Corps Support Command Soldier was killed and four injured as the result of a vehicle accident near Ramadi at approximately 1 a.m. July 7.

Yesterday, the Department of Defense released the name of a female soldier stationed in Afghanistan:

Spc. Julie R. Hickey, 20, of Galloway, Ohio, was evacuated from Bagram, Afghanistan, on June 30 and died in Landstuhl, Germany, on July 4 of complications from a non-combat related illness.

Such incidents rarely garner headlines in the mainstream media. These two deaths, however, bring the deaths totals in Iraq and Afghanistan to 872 and 129 respectively, and thus the total count to 1001. Once coupled with the official wounded count in Iraq of over 5000 or the unofficial count of 7,000-10,000, the human cost of these interventions demands we continue to ask those who supported or continue to support this war: at what cost?

So the three killed by the Taliban in last Monday’s attack on election workers were, as you probably correctly guessed, women, should come as no surprise. What’s distressing beyond the death and mayhem these “concrete blockheads” (as one reader aptly calls them!)inflict is the alarming fact that their strategy of harassment and terror may be putting Afghan elections off into 2005. And on top of this we learn that women are still wearing burgas in overwhelming numbers. While there apparently is some sense of safety in wearing a garment that renders one virtually invisible, a 1998 UN Human Rights report found that sexual harassment of women actually increased considerably after the Taliban mandated wearing the burqa – apparently some men find it provocative. Go figure.

In yet another demonstration of journalistic malpractice, this announcement from the US Department of Energy is reported by the AP with no analysis or background information:

Washington (AP) – In a secret operation, the United States last month removed from Iraq nearly two tons of uranium and hundreds of highly radioactive items that could have been used in a so-called dirty bomb, the Energy Department disclosed Tuesday.

The nuclear material was secured from Iraq’s former nuclear research facility and airlifted out of the country to an undisclosed Energy Department laboratory for further analysis, the department said in a statement.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham described the previously undisclosed operation, which was concluded June 23, as “a major achievement” in an attempt to “keep potentially dangerous nuclear material out of the hands of terrorists.”

I’m sure Spencer would prefer we not dredge up this story from the May 22 NY Times, but that’s just too damn bad:

U.S. considering moving 500 tons of uranium from Iraq

VIENNA – The United States has informed an international agency that oversees nuclear materials that it intends to move hundreds of tons of uranium from a sealed repository south of Baghdad to a more secure location outside Iraq, Western diplomats close to the agency say.

However, the International Atomic Energy Agency has taken the position that the uranium is Iraqi property and the agency “cannot give them permission to remove it,” a diplomat said.

The diplomat said the United States was highly unlikely to be deterred by that position and that U.S. officials had contacted the agency on the matter this year, before the Iraq insurgency flared last month.

Wow, Spencie, what a “major achievement!” You moved less than two tons of uranium out of Iraq – just enough to get a headline about “uranium” associated with Iraq, further confusing The Clueless Bush Base, which thinks anything radioactive is WMD – so there are only 498 tons left. Let us know when you get the rest out, OK? Then the Iraqis can charge us for stealing their uranium. And, about that remaining uranium which was looted because you guys failed to guard it, has it been secured or is it still being trucked out of Iraq?

From April 16:

Iraq’s nuclear facilities remain unguarded, and radioactive materials are being taken out of the country, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency reported after reviewing satellite images and equipment that has turned up in European scrapyards.
[…]
According to ElBaradei’s letter, satellite imagery shows “extensive removal of equipment and in some instances, removal of entire buildings,” in Iraq.

Oh, well, the Occupation has only had a year or so to secure those sites, so it’s good to see that they’re finally getting around to it and just in time to keep “terrorists” from making a dirty bomb out of all that radioactive stuff laying around in Iraq! The whole world just got a little safer after Spencer’s major achievement.

UPDATE: U.N. Didn’t OK Uranium Transfer to U.S.

In non-diplospeak, the Americans stole Iraqi uranium.

UPDATE: Tim Dunlop’s Adventures with The Bush Base Trolls who are dying to gloat over this uranium because they think it is “WMD.” Tim may have even taught them a thing or two, to the extent that is possible.