Friday, December 24, 2010

Bully Mama

bullymama


That's "Bully Mama." From May 6, 2007. The one and only Barbara Bush (thank goodness about one and only).



I always felt -- my thoughts -- that Bully Boy Bush had a real nasty streak and really didn't care for a lot of people that others would be sympathetic towards and I always felt -- my thoughts -- that he got that from Babsie Bush who has rarely uttered a public remark that didn't contain a huge helping of resentment.


Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Friday, December 24, 2010. Chaos and violence continue, Nouri's incomplete Cabinet continues to receive criticism, a father offers an 'excuse' for killing his own daughter, and more.
Marci Stone (US Headlines Examiner) reports, "Friday afternoon, Santa is currently in Baghdad, Iraq and on his next stop is Moscow, Russia, according to the 2010 NORAD Santa Tracker. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been tracking Santa as he makes his annual journey throughout the world." Gerald Skoning (Palm Beach Post) quotes Santa saying, "We send our special wishes for peace and goodwill to all. That includes the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea." Please note that this is Santa's seventh trip to Iraq since the start of the Iraq War and, as usual, his journey was known in advance. No waiting until he hit the ground to announce he was going to Iraq -- the way George The Bully Boy Bush had to and the way US President Barack Obama still has to. In the lead up to Santa's yearly visit, many 'authorities' in Iraq began insisting that Christmas couldn't be celebrated publicly, that even Santa was banned.

Gabriel Gatehouse (BBC News) quotes
Shemmi Hanna stating, "I wasn't hurt but I wish that I had been killed. I wish I had become a martyr for this church, but God kept me alive for my daughters." Shemmi Hanna was in Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad when it was assaulted October 31st and she lost her husband, her son, her daughter-in-law and her infant grandson in the attack. The October 31st attack marks the latest wave of violence targeting Iraqi Christians. The violence has led many to flee to northern Iraq (KRG) or to other countries. Zvi Bar'el (Haaretz) notes, "This week the Iraqi legislature discussed the Christians' situation and passed a resolution in principle to help families who fled. However, the parliament does not know where the Christians are, how many are still in Iraq, in their homes, and how many have found asylum in Iraqi Kurdistan." John Leland (New York Times) reports:

The congregants on Friday night were fewer than 100, in a sanctuary built for four or five times as many. But they were determined. This year, even more than in the past, Iraqi's dwindling Christian minority had reasons to stay home for Christmas.
"Yes, we are threatened, but we will not stop praying," the Rev. Meyassr al-Qaspotros told the Christmas Eve crowd at the Sacred Church of Jesus, a Chaldean Catholic church. "We do not want to leave the country because we will leave an empty space."

Raheem Salman (Los Angeles Times) reports, "Rimon Metti's family will go to Christian services on Christmas Day, but his relatives will be praying for their own survival and wondering whether this is their last holiday season in Baghdad. If they had any grounds for optimism about the future of their faith in Iraq, it vanished this year amid repeated attacks on fellow believers." Shahsank Bengali (McClatchy Newspapers) adds, "Nearly two months after a shocking assault by Islamist militants, Our Lady of Salvation Catholic Church will commemorate Christmas quietly, with daytime mass and prayers for the dead, under security fit more for a prison than a house of worship. It is the same at Christian churches across Baghdad and northern Iraq, where what's left of one of the world's oldest Christian communities prepares to mark perhaps the most somber Christmas since the start of the Iraq war."
Meanwhile Taylor Luck (Jordan Times) reports on Iraqi refugees in Jordan:

Although the calendar will say December 25, for Theresa, Saturday will not be Christmas.
There will be no cinnamon klecha cooling on the dining room table, no outdoor ceramic nativity scene, no readings of hymns with relatives.
The 63-year-old Iraqi woman has even refused to put up Christmas lights in the crowded two-room Amman hotel apartment she has called home since fleeing Baghdad last month.
"There is no holiday spirit. All we have is fear," she said.
This holiday will instead mark another year without news from her 46-year-old son, who was kidnapped outside Baghdad in late 2006.

From Turkey, Sebnem Arsu (New York Times -- link has text and video) notes the increase in Iraq refugees to the country since October 31st and quotes Father Emlek stating, "I've never seen as many people coming here as I have in the last few weeks. They also go to Lebanon, Jordan and Syria but it seems that Turkey is the most popular despite the fact that they do not speak the language." Jeff Karoub (AP) reports on the small number of Iraqi refugees who have made it to the US and how some of them "struggle with insomnia, depression and anxiety."
One group in Iraq who can openly celebrate Christmas are US service members who elect to. Barbara Surk (AP) reports that tomorrow Chief Warrant Officer Archie Morgan will celebrate his fourth Christmas in Iraq and Captain Diana Crane is celebrating her second Christmas in Iraq: "Crane was among several dozen troops attending a Christmas Eve mass in a chapel in Camp Victory, an American military base just outside Baghdad." Marc Hansen (Des Moines Reigster) speaks with six service members from Iowa who are stationed in Iraq. Sgt 1st Class Dennis Crosser tells Hansen, "I certainly understand from reading the paper what's going on in Afghanistan and the attention definitely needs to be on the troops there. But everyone serving here in Operation New Dawn appreciates a little bit of attention as we finish this up."

Today Jiang Yu, China's Foreign Minister, issued the following statement, "We welcome and congratulate Iraq on forming a new government. We hope that the Iraqi Government unite all its people, stabilize the security situation, accelerate economic reconstruction and make new progress in building its country." James Cogan (WSWS) reports:
US State Department official Philip Crowley declared on Wednesday that Washington had not "dictated the terms of the government". In reality, constant American pressure was applied to Maliki, Allawi, Kurdish leaders and other prominent Iraqi politicians throughout the entire nine-month process to form a cabinet. The US intervention included numerous personal phone calls and visits to Baghdad by both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
The key objective of the Obama administration has been to ensure that the next Iraqi government will "request" a long-term military partnership with the US when the current Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) expires at the end of 2011. The SOFA is the legal basis upon which some 50,000 American troops remain in Iraq, operating from large strategic air bases such as Balad and Tallil and Al Asad. US imperialism spent billions of dollars establishing these advanced bases as part of its wider strategic plans and has no intention of abandoning them.
Cogan's only the second person to include the SOFA in his report. Some are impressed with the 'feat' of taking nearly ten months to form a government, stringing the country along for ten months while no decisions could go through. The editorial board of the Washington Post, for example, was full of praise yesterday. Today they're joined by Iran's Ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Danaiifar. The Tehran Times reports that Danaiifar was full of praise today hailing the "positive and final step which ended the 10-month political limbo in Iraq." However, Danaiifar was less pie-in-the-sky than the Post editorial board because he can foresee future problems as evidenced by his statement, "We may witness the emergence of some problems after one and half of a year -- for example, some ministers may be impeached." Of course, there are already many clouds on the horizon, even if Iranian diplomats and Post editorial boards can't suss them out. For example, Ben Bendig (Epoch Times) noted the objection of Iraq's female politicians to Nouri al-Maliki's decision to nominate only one woman (so far) to his Cabinet: "Some 50 female lawmakers went to the country's top leadership, the United Nations and the Arab League to voice their concern and desire for increased representation." BNO notes that protest and also that a group of Iraqi MPs are alleging that Iraqiya bought seats in the Cabinet via money exchanged in Jordan. UPI adds, "Maliki, a Shiite who has a long history of working with Tehran, has named himself acting minister of defense, interior and national security, three most powerful and sensitive posts in the government he is stitching together. Although Maliki appears to be bending over backward to accommodate rivals among Iraq's Shiite majority as well as minority Sunnis and Kurds in his administration in a spirit of reconciliation, he is unlikely to relinquish those ministries that dominate the security sector." DPA reports, "Sheikh Abdel-Mahdi al-Karbalaei, a confident of influential Shiite spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said that the new cabinet is 'below the standards' Iraqi citizens had hoped for and suggested it could prove to be weaker than the previous government." Ranj Alaaldin (Guardian) also spots clouds on the horizon:

Lasting peace and stability depends on resolving outstanding disputes with the Kurds on oil, revenue-sharing, security and the disputed territories (Kirkuk in particular). The Kurds, rather than exploiting their kingmaker position to take a stronger proportion of ministries in Baghdad (they are taking just one major portfolio – the foreign ministry), are instead banking on guarantees from Maliki to implement their list of 19 demands that includes resolving the above disputes in their favour.
They may have been naive, though. With their historical and federalist partners, the Islamic supreme council of Iraq in decline, the Kurds may be isolated in the new government – a government dominated by the nationalistic and centrist characteristics of the INM, the Sadrists and indeed State of Law.
Maliki may, therefore, turn out to be unable to grant concessions even if he wanted to and could use Osama Nujayfi, the new ultra-nationalist speaker of parliament and Kurdish foe, to absorb the Kurdish criticism and insulate himself from any attacks.

AP reports that Iraqi police sought out a 19-year-old woman because of rumors that she was working with al Qaida in Mesopotamia only to be greeted with the news that her father allegedly killed her and the father showed the police where he buried the woman . . . last month. The story begs for more than it offers. The most obvious observation is: what does it say that a woman's allegedly killed by her father and no one says a word for over a month? After that, it should probably be noted that there are many men in Iraq killing women who, no doubt, would love to also be able to pin the blame on al Qaida. In other violence, Reuters notes a house bombing in Haswa which claimed the life of Mohammed al-Karrafi, "his wife, two sons and a nephew" -- as well as injuring four more people, and a Samarra roadside bombing which claimed the lives of 2 police officers. DPA notes it was two homes bombed in Haswa and that the Samarra roadside bombing also injured four Iraqi soldiers. Jomana Karadsheh (CNN) reports, "Another policeman was wounded in Baghdad Friday night when a roadside bomb detonated by a police patrol, an Interior Ministry official told CNN."
And we'll close with this from Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan's latest Al Jazeera column:
The recent repeal of the US military policy of "Don't ask, don't tell" is far from being the human rights advancement some are touting it to be. I find it intellectually dishonest, in fact, illogical on any level to associate human rights with any military, let alone one that is currently dehumanising two populations as well as numerous other victims of it's clandestine "security" policies.
Placing this major contention aside, the enactment of the bill might be an institutional step forward in the fight for "equality"; however institutions rarely reflect reality.
Do we really think that the US congress vote to repeal the act and Obama signing the bill is going to stop the current systemic harassment of gays in the military?
While I am a staunch advocate for equality of marriage and same-sex partnership, I cannot - as a peace activist - rejoice in the fact that now homosexuals can openly serve next to heterosexuals in one of the least socially responsible organisations that currently exists on earth: The US military.
It is an organisation tainted with a history of intolerance towards anyone who isn't a Caucasian male from the Mid-West. Even then I'm sure plenty fitting that description have faced the terror and torment enshrined into an institution that transforms the pride and enthusiasm of youth into a narrow zeal for dominating power relations.

And we'll close with this from Francis A. Boyle's "2011: Prospects for Humanity?" (Global Research):

Historically, this latest eruption of American militarism at the start of the 21st Century is akin to that of America opening the 20th Century by means of the U.S.-instigated Spanish-American War in 1898. Then the Republican administration of President William McKinley stole their colonial empire from Spain in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; inflicted a near genocidal war against the Filipino people; while at the same time illegally annexing the Kingdom of Hawaii and subjecting the Native Hawaiian people (who call themselves the Kanaka Maoli) to near genocidal conditions. Additionally, McKinley's military and colonial expansion into the Pacific was also designed to secure America's economic exploitation of China pursuant to the euphemistic rubric of the "open door" policy. But over the next four decades America's aggressive presence, policies, and practices in the "Pacific" would ineluctably pave the way for Japan's attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 194l, and thus America's precipitation into the ongoing Second World War. Today a century later the serial imperial aggressions launched and menaced by the Republican Bush Jr. administration and now the Democratic Obama administration are threatening to set off World War III.

By shamelessly exploiting the terrible tragedy of 11 September 2001, the Bush Jr. administration set forth to steal a hydrocarbon empire from the Muslim states and peoples living in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf under the bogus pretexts of (1) fighting a war against international terrorism; and/or (2) eliminating weapons of mass destruction; and/or (3) the promotion of democracy; and/or (4) self-styled "humanitarian intervention." Only this time the geopolitical stakes are infinitely greater than they were a century ago: control and domination of two-thirds of the world's hydrocarbon resources and thus the very fundament and energizer of the global economic system – oil and gas. The Bush Jr./ Obama administrations have already targeted the remaining hydrocarbon reserves of Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia for further conquest or domination, together with the strategic choke-points at sea and on land required for their transportation. In this regard, the Bush Jr. administration announced the establishment of the U.S. Pentagon's Africa Command (AFRICOM) in order to better control, dominate, and exploit both the natural resources and the variegated peoples of the continent of Africa, the very cradle of our human species.

This current bout of U.S. imperialism is what Hans Morgenthau denominated "unlimited imperialism" in his seminal work Politics Among Nations (4th ed. 1968, at 52-53):

The outstanding historic examples of unlimited imperialism are the expansionist policies of Alexander the Great, Rome, the Arabs in the seventh and eighth centuries, Napoleon I, and Hitler. They all have in common an urge toward expansion which knows no rational limits, feeds on its own successes and, if not stopped by a superior force, will go on to the confines of the political world. This urge will not be satisfied so long as there remains anywhere a possible object of domination--a politically organized group of men which by its very independence challenges the conqueror's lust for power. It is, as we shall see, exactly the lack of moderation, the aspiration to conquer all that lends itself to conquest, characteristic of unlimited imperialism, which in the past has been the undoing of the imperialistic policies of this kind….

On 10 November 1979 I visited with Hans Morgenthau at his home in Manhattan. It proved to be our last conversation before he died on 19 July 1980. Given his weakened physical but not mental condition and his serious heart problem, at the end of our necessarily abbreviated one-hour meeting I purposefully asked him what he thought about the future of international relations.

cnn
jomana karadsheh



Read on ...

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Little Miss Bully Boy


littlemissbullyboy

That's "Little Miss Bully Boy" from April 29, 2007 and the point here was to try to illustrate Laura Bush's claim (on NBC's Today show before I did the comic) that, "No one suffers more than their president and I do."



And I think it's funny and don't regret it. But I will give Laura a few more props than I would have when she was in the White House.

That's because of her wording in a lot of things and the way she conducted herself as compared to the way Michelle does. I was basing Laura on Hillary who is one-of-a-kind. Hillary was a hard working First Lady. I felt Laura was (a) unhappy in the role and (b) not working hard at all. But she was a workhorse compared to clotheshorse Michelle Obama.

SO I will note that. I don't regret any comic I did of her. But I will say that she was probably better than I gave her credit for. I will not say the same about her War Hawk husband.


Now here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Thursday, December 16, 2010. Chaos and violence continue, Joe Biden mentions Iraqi Christians, news about the Kurdish deal with Nouri surfaces, Julian Assange is out on bail, activists protest the war outside the White House, and more.
Last night on WBAI, Joy of Resistance (available in the WBAI archives for 89 days from today) found host Fran Luck addressing the topic of "Swedish and US rape laws and the current wave of misogny that has surfaced in response to rape allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange" with attorney Jill Filipovic. Excerpt:
Fran Luck: We're going to be looking at some of the aspects that haven't been discussed very much, certainly in the leftist media, about -- or in the right wing media, only in the feminist media -- about some of the kind of side effects of the rape accusations against Julian Assange that have kind of brought up huge amounts -- almost dust clouds -- of misogyny that, amazing, has been all over the internet. And we're going to look at that and we're also going to look at Swedish law on rape with Jill who is a feminist lawyer as well as being a blogger for Feministe. I was first alerted to this when I began to see these huge amounts of just absolutely evil posts calling, oh, God, talking about women as just these revenge motivated monsters, acting out of jealousy, all of the tropes, everything that women in court rooms have to confront when they are accusing men of rape, okay, their characters are defamed, etc. Now my position on this whole thing is that I don't know what happened. I don't know if Assange is guilty of these charges, I don't know that he is not. I know many people feel the circumstances are suspicious and I agree with that. I also am very much rooting for WikiLeaks and I think what they're doing is absolutely marvelous for the world. However, you know, that doesn't mean that their founder is a wonderful person. We don't know. He may be wonderful in some aspects and not in others. I think we need to keep an open mind to both sides. I certainly am not going to dismiss any rape allegations by any woman. So, Jill, what's your take on this?
Jill Filipovic: Well I think that's right. I think that part of the problem with the Julian Assange accusations is that there's become such a cult of personality around Assange himself that he's now so tied to the WikiLeaks project that any criticism of him at all is seen as somehow feeding into this right-wing target that's been painted on his back. You know, I think we can all agree Assange is under fire and he is in a very difficult situation and he is heading up what I believe is a very valuable project. We can believe that and also realize that life is complicated and he can head up a very valuable project and also potentially have done some very bad and illegal things. We can also withhold judgment on whether or not he's guilty. And, at the same time, we can withhold judgment on whether or not the women who have accused him of rape are just making up their accusations.
Fran Luck: Mm-hmm. I know the lawyer for the two woman has said his clients have been assaulted twice. "First physically, before being sacrificed to a malevolent online attack." And the women were having a very tough time and we know one of them has now fled which has some people saying, 'Well the charges weren't real, that proves it." And, you know, as a feminist I can understand caving under that kind of pressure, that kind of assault. Another target has been the government of Sweden and the laws of Sweden. There's been a lot of misrepresentation. I mean, all over the internet, there are posts that say: 'Oh! A man can be arrested for not wearing a condom in Sweden.' Which is also very funny, right? Tell us why.
Jill Filipovic: Right. I mean that is such an incredible mischaracterization. You know, what I think has happened, there's been a series of, I think, over-reliance on statements made by Julian Assange's criminal defense attorneys. I believe they're the ones who first used that phrase "sex by surprise" which isn't actually a crime in Sweden, isn't a legal term in Sweden. A lot of the reporting on it is centered around one tabloid, Daily Mail article that used the "sex by surprise" term and that also basically said that these accusations are about a broken condom and a lady who was mad because a condom broke when, if you actually read what the Swedish prosecutors have said in public -- which isn't a whole lot, but they've made the charges pretty clear, is that one of the women says that she was physically held down during sex and Assange also refused to wear a condom. And the second woman says that Assange had sex with her without a condom while she was asleep. That's very different than: The condom broke and we all agreed we would just keep going and the next morning I have -- what a right-wing blogger called --'buyer's remorse' and so I'm going to report this man for rape. These are crimes that involve physical force, that involve lack of consent, that are serious crimes and that would be considered crimes -- that would be considered sex crimes and sexual assault in place other than Sweden which has been sort of painted as the lefty feminist out of control country when in fact their rape laws are entirely reasonable.
Fran Luck: Why don't you talk about their rape laws and how they differ from US rape laws.
Jill Filipovic: Sure. I'm not an expert in Swedish rape laws so I don't want to put forth the idea that I'm issuing some sort of expert Swedish opinion here. But I have read the Swedish penal code and I have been doing a good deal of reading of how rape is treated in Sweden and, you know, it's clear that in Sweden they have what would sort of be our first degree rape law which is forceful sexual intercourse and then they also have a law that covers sexual coercion. So a law that basically says if there's a lack of consent, if sex is coerced, then that's a sex crime. And I think that is sort of what fits into a lot of what we've been talking about here in the Assange case which is that one of the accusers has said that the incident started out consensually and that at some point consent was withdrawn and Assange didn't stop. When you actually think about how that plays out, if you're having sex with someone consensually and then you say "No stop" because the condom broke or because it hurts or because something just went wrong, most people are going to stop at that point. The only person that's not going to stop at that point really is going to be a rapist. And it's not such an out there thought that consent should be able to be withdrawn at any point during sex. The idea that consent can be withdrawn -- even after sex has commenced -- is not the law across the United States. It's the law in some states, it's not the law in others. In a lot of states, it's very unclear whether or not you can withdraw consent. You know, in the US, we really hang a lot on the idea of force when it comes to rape and sexual assault.
Fran Luck: In our laws.
Jill Filipovic: In our laws. And I think in our culture as well. But legally we pin a lot on this force issue and the way that consent tends to be used in rape trials and in rape cases is with the defendant saying 'well she consented' as a defense. You don't see a lot of folks being prosecuted based on the idea that the woman did not consent. Instead, what you see is you see the prosecution focusing on the force issue, you know, whether or not there was violence involved, how much, how much force was used, how much force you can prove. You know, there aren't -- The idea of consent and a lack of consent translates into assault is just not really part of American legal culture which I think has led to a lot of confusion and, I think, a lot of the derision of Swedish laws.
Fran Luck: Mmm-hmm. What's the basic philosophical difference between basing your rape laws on lack of consent versus force?
Jill Filipovic: I think the basic philosophical difference is how you view sex versus how you view crimes and violence. As someone who is a big proponent of a "Yes Mean Yes" model of consent -- affirmative consent -- my view is that sex is something that should be fun for everyone involved. That sex is great. And people should like it. And they should have fun with it. And, you know, at the point where you are creating sexual assault laws that don't just say any sex without consent isn't assault but instead say, "Eh, if you don't consent that's maybe not assault. You have to physically do violence to someone, you have to hold someone down, you have to hit them, you have to punch them, you have to threaten them with a weapon and only then are we going to say that you broke a law, to me, is a really sexually unhealthy way to view the world, to view sex." And I think that a much better model and a much clearer model for all of us would assume that sex is something that shared, something positive. And as much as I hate to compare women's bodies to objects, you know if I leave a hundred dollar bills out on my table it doesn't mean that just because you're in my house you get to take that and walk away and then claim that because I didn't say that you couldn't have it, that I gave it to you. It's a little bit of an icky metaphor.
Fran Luck: So-so here we are with Sweden being just vilified and being seen by many misogynist men as home of these crazed radical feminists who -- which another wonderful term, I think --
Jill Filipovic: "Leftist, atrocious sluts" is what one blog post call them.
Fran Luck: Oh, okay. Yeah, we have some examples. You know, here's one. "She is one" -- I guess they're talking about one of the rape accusers, "She is one of the many Swedish women who advocate using false rape charges in the name of gender equality. In other words, she's a complete raving lunatic and should be" I can't say this, something-"slapped and subsequently put in jail." And in another one, one of these women is called a psychotic bitch and Sweden is a" another word I can't say, a word that goes with the word "whipped." What you're saying when a woman is dominating a man, that it's that kind of country. So this is all over the internet and in reality there laws are really -- should be -- they should be honored because they are kind of advanced. So I wanted to -- I did want to talk about that.
Again, for those who can enjoy online streaming, the episode is available in the WBAI archives for 89 days. Fran's other guests were Susan J. Douglas, Lu Baily and Amanda Marcotte. The next installment of Joy of Resistance will air January 5th. Trina caught the broadcast and noted, "On The Issues magazine was mentioned repeatedly thoughout the show so I'm giving a link to that in case listening/streaming audio doesn't work for you (due to equipment issues or hearing issues) and you can read a number of strong articles including a few by some of the guests."
Henry Chu (Los Angeles Times) reports, "After nine days in jail, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted bail Thursday in a politically charged case concerning alleged sex crimes in Sweden. [. . .] But he must surrender his passport, submit to monitoring by an electronic tag, abide by a curfew and report to the police daily." BBC News adds he will be staying at the home of Vaughan Smith. BBC News' Maddy Savage reported on the day for PRI's The Takeaway: "Dramatic scenes in the last few minutes as supporters outside the court are cheering and screaming in joy at the decision. What happened here is that the decision to grant Julian Assange bail has been upheld following an appeal by prosecutors and this means that he should be able to leave jail shortly". Al Jazeera quotes Assange stating, "I hope to continue my work and continue to protest my innocence in this matter and to reveal as we get it, which we have not yet, the evidence from these allegations." Generally speaking, a defendent sees evidence during a trial.
At The Atlantic, David Samuels writes, "Julian Assange and Pfc Bradley Manning have done a huge public service by making hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents available on Wikileaks -- and, predictably, no one is grateful. Manning, a former army intelligence analyst in Iraq, faces up to 52 years in prison. [. . .] It is dispiriting and upsetting for anyone who cares about the American tradition of a free press to see Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and Robert Gibbs turn into H.R. Haldeman, John Erlichman and John Dean." You know what? It is dispiriting and upsetting for anyone who cares about the American tradition of innocent until proven guilty to see David Samuels convict Bradley Manning.
Monday April 5th, WikiLeaks released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Monday June 7th, the US military announced that they had arrested Bradley Manning and he stood accused of being the leaker of the video. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) reported in August that Manning had been charged -- "two charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The first encompasses four counts of violating Army regulations by transferring classified information to his personal computer between November and May and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system. The second comprises eight counts of violating federal laws governing the handling of classified information." Manning has been convicted in the public square despite the fact that he's been convicted in no state and has made no public statements -- despite any claims otherwise, he has made no public statements. Manning is now at Quantico in Virginia, under military lock and key and still not allowed to speak to the press. As Daniel Ellsberg reminded from the stage in Oakland last September, "We don't know all the facts." But we know, as Ellsberg pointed out, that the US military is attempting to prosecute Bradley. Paul Courson (CNN) notes Bradley is a suspect and, "He has not admitted guilt in either incident, his supporters say." Cameron Joseph (National Journal) reports that Daniel Ellsberg was at the White House today "chained to its snowy gates as part of a protest organized by Veterans for Peace [. . .] Ellsberg was one of dozens arrested, the Associated Press reported." David Jackson (USA Today) explains, "It's cold and snowy in Washington, D.C., but that didn't stop protestors from showing up at the White House today to demonstrate against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Police appeared to arrest an unknown number of protestors as they sought to chain themselves to the White House fence." UPI offers a photo essay of the protest by Kevin Dietsch. David Swanson's War Is A Crime offers video of the protest. Paul Courson (CNN) states 131 is the number of activists arrested and cites US Park Police spokesperson David Schlosser as the source for that number. At Stop These Wars (umbrella group for the various groups and individuals organizing the action) it's noted, "131 veterans and others were arrested December 16 in front of the White House. Preliminary gallery of photos here. More to come."
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Moving to the topic of Iraqi refugees, Michael Sheridan (New York Daily News) reports, "A desperate journey for freedom met a horrific end after a boat believed to carry as many as 80 asylum-seekers from Iran and Iraq broke up and sank off the Australian coast on Wednesday. The wooden craft smashed against jagged rocks near Christmas Island, breaking into pieces and dumping its passengers into the cold ocean, as witnesses said they were helpless to do anything." Bonnie Malkin (Daily Telegraph) adds, "As the refugees -- women, children and men -- were thrown, or jumped into the water, residents launched desperate, but ineffectual, rescue efforts: lifejackets were tossed but then thrown back by the wind, a rope was thrown, but it broke. The passengers stood no chance, said one resident. Another spoke of the horror of children dead in the water. Yet another told of the utter despair at being unable to help." The Telegraph estimates that at least 28 people have died but "Navy boats managed to pluck 41 people from the water and one man swam to shore. The rescue effort was suspended over night but fresh attempts to search for the estimated 28 people still missing in the morning were being hampered by continuing bad weather." Matthew Taylor (Guardian) adds, "According to figures from the UNHCR, 128 boats carrying asylum seekers have landed in Australia so far this year."
Iraq is the largest refugee crisis in the MidEast. Violence and instability has created the crisis (both stem from the US-led Iraq War). ". . . the recent atrocities committed against the Iraqi Christians. There is a shared consensus and empathy between the government and the Iraqi people to provide security and safe environment for Iraqi Christians who have played an important role in the Iraqi national heritage and-and movement in rebuilding our country. International support is critical to encourage Iraqi Christians to stay in their homeland as an integral part of the Iraqi society," Hoyshar Zebari, Foreign Minister of Iraq, declared yesterday at the United Nations Security Council meeting. The latest wave of attacks on Iraqi Christians began October 31st with the assault on Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad in which at least seventy people were killed and another seventy injured. Since then, Baghdad and Mosul especially have been flashpoints for violence aimed at Iraqi Christians with many fleeing -- and many fleeing to the KRG. Asia News notes the kidnapping of an Iraqi Christian in Mosul yesterday and quotes Monsignor Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka declaring to the European Parliament on Wednesday that "Iraq's Christians live in fear of the future." C.M. Sennott (Global Post) quotes the editor of the Catholic weekly periodical America stating, "What is often unnoticed in the Middle East is the devastating effect of US policy on Christians in the region. US policy makers have never taken the plight of Christians seriously, whether in Iraq or in Lebanon. There may be protests of specific violations, but not in those areas where the US or Israelis have other strategic interests. For all the communication with US government over the past 20 years, I have seen no serious action from any administration to improve protection for Christians. Religious freedom is basically a reporting matter and no more."
We'll try to note more on Zebari and the UN in tomorrow's snapshot. There's not time or space today. At UN Security Council meeting yesterday, US Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the UN Security Council and stated, at one point, "Attacks by extremists remain an unacceptable aspect of daily life in Iraq. We're particularly concerned about recent attempts to target innocents because of their faith, including both Christians and Muslims, and to lash out at security forces working to keep the country safe." Of Bident's remark, Katherine T. Phan (Christian Post Reporter) quotes USCIRF Deputy Director Elizabeth K. Cassidy stating, "We were pleased that he mentioned that issue in his statement although it was a fairly general statement." In speaking, he became the highest ranking official in the administration to speak out against the targeting of Iraqi Christians thus far (last month US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke on the issue). The US Commission on International Religious Freedom issued the following yesterday:
WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today condemned the terrorist attack of December 14 against worshippers at a mosque in Chabahar, Iran, and similar attacks in Iraq, on the eve of the Shia Muslim festival of Ashura and called on governments in the region to be especially vigilant in protecting all religious worship during this holiday season.

"This is the latest of a long string of despicable attacks launched by the forces of extremism and intolerance against innocent religious worshippers in the region," said Leonard Leo, USCIRF chair. "From Ashura to Christmas, public religious observances during this time of year continue to provide targets for religiously motivated violence in the Middle East and other parts of the world. We strongly urge greater protection for worshippers during this special season."

Similar violence has struck Ashura celebrations in neighboring Iraq this year. Over the past few days, several attacks have targeted Shia pilgrims in Iraq, including a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Tuesday that killed at least 39. During last year's Ashura observance in Iraq, a series of bombings killed at least 19 individuals and injured more than 100. A recent wave of attacks against Christians in Iraq, including the October 31 attack on Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation Church, also has heightened concern about the prospect for escalating attacks as the Christmas holiday approaches.

The Ashura holiday commemorates the death of Imam Hussein in 680 A.D.

USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives. USCIRF's principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact Tom Carter, Communications Director at
tcarter@uscirf.gov This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or (202) 523-3257.
While Iraqis continue to die in Iraq and outside of Iraq, thug Nouri al-Maliki may indeed win a second term. Time magazine is wrapping up the year and they note Nouri as a "People Who Mattered." Ishaan Tharoor's sketch includes this: "Revelations in WikiLeaks' Iraq war logs, published in October, counted thousands of previously unreported civilian casualties, many at the hands of Maliki's state security forces. It's bad press the controversial politician could ill afford." Meanwhile UPI notes, "Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker, told London's pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that, while the main Shiite alliance in Iraq backed many proposals offered by the Kurds, the Iraqiya slate was holding up several measures. He said Iraqiya is opposed to measures describing the territorial boundaries of the Kurdish provinces and authority over the Kurdish military force Peshmerga." Kholoud Ramzi (Niqash) notes the potential obstacles to the power-sharing deal that's led to Nouri being declared prime minister-designate, "But even before the agreement was signed, the Kurds supported Maliki. In bilateral talks with the President of the Kurdistan region, he had sought to reassure the Kurds that he would resolve some of the controversial issues causing tension between the central government and that of the region. These include the oil and gas law, the financing of the Peshmerga forces, the population census process, and the deployment of the Iraqi army in areas usually described as "disputed", most notably Kirkuk province." Why did they support Nouri? UPI provides one reason: "In a previously undisclosed August-dated Kurdish communique published by the Iraq Oil Report, Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani pressed Baghdad to drop its opposition to KRG contracts with foreign oil companies, agreements the federal government deems illegal."
March 7th, Iraq concluded Parliamentary elections. The Guardian's editorial board noted in August, "These elections were hailed prematurely by Mr Obama as a success, but everything that has happened since has surely doused that optimism in a cold shower of reality." 163 seats are needed to form the executive government (prime minister and council of ministers). When no single slate wins 163 seats (or possibly higher -- 163 is the number today but the Parliament added seats this election and, in four more years, they may add more which could increase the number of seats needed to form the executive government), power-sharing coalitions must be formed with other slates, parties and/or individual candidates. (Eight Parliament seats were awarded, for example, to minority candidates who represent various religious minorities in Iraq.) Ayad Allawi is the head of Iraqiya which won 91 seats in the Parliament making it the biggest seat holder. Second place went to State Of Law which Nouri al-Maliki, the current prime minister, heads. They won 89 seats. Nouri made a big show of lodging complaints and issuing allegations to distract and delay the certification of the initial results while he formed a power-sharing coalition with third place winner Iraqi National Alliance -- this coalition still does not give them 163 seats. November 10th a power sharing deal resulted in the Parliament meeting for the second time and voting in a Speaker. And then Iraqiya felt double crossed on the deal and the bulk of their members stormed out of the Parliament. David Ignatius (Washington Post) explains, "The fragility of the coalition was dramatically obvious Thursday as members of the Iraqiya party, which represents Sunnis, walked out of Parliament, claiming that they were already being double-crossed by Maliki. Iraqi politics is always an exercise in brinkmanship, and the compromises unfortunately remain of the save-your-neck variety, rather than reflecting a deeper accord. " After that, Jalal Talabani was voted President of Iraq. Talabani then named Nouri as the prime minister-delegate. If Nouri can meet the conditions outlined in Article 76 of the Constitution (basically nominate ministers for each council and have Parliament vote to approve each one with a minimum of 163 votes each time and to vote for his council program) within thirty days, he becomes the prime minister. If not, Talabani must name another prime minister-delegate. In 2005, Iraq took four months and seven days to pick a prime minister-delegate. It took eight months and two days to name Nouri as prime minister-delegate. His first go-round, on April 22, 2006, his thirty day limit kicked in. May 20, 2006, he announced his cabinet -- sort of. Sort of because he didn't nominate a Minister of Defense, a Minister of Interior and a Minister of a National Security. This was accomplished, John F. Burns wrote in "For Some, a Last, Best Hope for U.S. Efforts in Iraq" (New York Times), only with "muscular" assistance from the Bush White House. Nouri declared he would be the Interior Ministry temporarily. Temporarily lasted until June 8, 2006. This was when the US was able to strong-arm, when they'd knocked out the other choice for prime minister (Ibrahim al-Jaafari) to install puppet Nouri and when they had over 100,000 troops on the ground in Iraq. Nouri had no competition. That's very different from today. The Constitution is very clear and it is doubtful his opponents -- including within his own alliance -- will look the other way if he can't fill all the posts in 30 days. As Leila Fadel (Washington Post) observes, "With the three top slots resolved, Maliki will now begin to distribute ministries and other top jobs, a process that has the potential to be as divisive as the initial phase of government formation." Jane Arraf (Christian Science Monitor) points out, "Maliki now has 30 days to decide on cabinet posts - some of which will likely go to Iraqiya - and put together a full government. His governing coalition owes part of its existence to followers of hard-line cleric Muqtada al Sadr, leading Sunnis and others to believe that his government will be indebted to Iran." The stalemate ends when the country has a prime minister. It is now nine months, nine days and counting. Thursday November 25th, Nouri was finally 'officially' named prime minister-designate. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) explained, "In 30 days, he is to present his cabinet to parliament or lose the nomination." Steven Lee Myers (New York Times) added, "Even if Mr. Maliki meets the 30-day deadline in late December -- which is not a certainty, given the chronic disregard for legal deadlines in Iraqi politics -- the country will have spent more than nine months under a caretaker government without a functioning legislature. Many of Iraq's most critical needs -- from basic services to investment -- have remained unaddressed throughout the impasse." Jane Arraf (Al Jazeera) offered, "He has an extremely difficult task ahed of him, these next 30 days are going to be a very tough sell for all of these parties that all want something very important in this government. It took a record eight months to actually come up with this coalition, but now what al-Maliki has to do is put all those people in the competing positions that backed him into slots in the government and he has a month to day that from today."
Henceforth 11 days were left for this difficult task. For this reason, Maliki try to accelerate the process to form the goverment as soon as possible during the negotiations. Some analysts point out that the constitutional limitation, laws and the timing were violated many times before. Therefore, Maliki may break the deadline. This assumption could be regarded as correct considering the previous examples. Besides the deadline issue is a vital problem for Iraq politics with each passing day, because it is observed that al Irakiyya waits for the opportunity in case Al Maliki fails.
Second political issue is that the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani focused on the right of self determination in the speech made in 13th Congress of KDP on December 11 and its effects. Two subjects from Masoud Barzani's speech that contain several massages cause serious reflections. The main points of the speech were poverty, fight against corruption, and respect for ethnic and sectarian identities, the Kurd role in government formation process, Kurdish claims of Kerkük and the right of self determination. The last two of them starts new arguments in Iraq politics. Different reactions come to the idea of self determination right and the claims that Kurds will not give up from Kerkük. These reactions are generally critical.
Yesterday, Joe Biden chaired the United Nations Security Council meeting on Iraq.
US Vice President Joe Biden: Since President Obama asked me to oversee our administration's Iraqi policy when we took office, let me assure you that the United States will continue to work with Iraqi leaders on the important tasks that lie ahead: Conducting the census, integrating Kurdish forces into Iraqi security forces, keeping commitments to the Sons Of Iraq, resolving disputed internal boundaries and the future of Kirkuk, passing critical hydrocarbon legislation and a fiscally responsible budget in helping stabilize its economy. We must also continue our efforts to protect and support those displaced by war and to help enable voluntary, safe, diginifed and sustainable returns.
Grabbing the issue of Sahwa (Awakenings, Sons Of Iraq), Lara Jakes (AP) reports that plans to bring Sahwa into the fold appear "at risk of being derailed" and that Nouri and those close to him are pushing the problem off on "local officials and the Shiite dominated Interior Ministry" of being resistant and they state that the plan is to pie-in-the-sky to be achieved. Turning to today's violence, Reuters notes a Baghdad roadside bombing left three people injured. Xinhua reports that in addition to those three injured in Baghdad, a Dujail bombing left five people wounded.
Turning to the US, 4433 is DoD's figure for the number of US service members killed in Iraq. One of the fallen is Sgt Michael Ferschke, another is Spc Morganne McBeth.

Charlie Reed and Chiyomi Sumida (Stars and Stripes) report
that Ferschke's widow has finally -- by an act of Congress (not joking) -- been allowed to reside in the US with their son. That's providing Barack signs it into law -- it passed the House yesterday (the Senate earlier this month):

Congress move essentially grants an exemption to U.S. law that will allow Hotaru Ferschke to relocate from Okinawa to the Tennessee hometown of her husband, Sgt. Michael Ferschke.
"I kept my promise to my son. This is what makes me feel so much better than anything," said Robin Ferschke, Michael's mom, who has been fighting to help her daughter-in-law move to the U.S. "I am sure my son is proud of me."

WBIR adds, "The effort to pass the measure in the House appeared dead for the year, but Knoxville Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. was able to secure a final vote with just hours remaining in the current 111th Congress" and they quote Duncan stating, "This is something that everyone has wanted to support all through this process, and it is a great moment for this family. Helping people caught up in extraordinary circumstances like the Ferschke's is one of the most basic and important jobs of Congress, and I am so grateful for all the bipartisan support in the House and Senate."

Spc Morganne McBeth was killed in Iraq as well and apparently by those she served with. Drew Brooks (Fayetteville Observer) reports that Spc Tyler Cain faced an Article 32 hearing yesterday at Fort Bragg: "Prosecutor Capt. Mike Lovelace argued that Cain lied to officials investigating the death of Spc. Morganne McBeth by giving two versions of the events that led to her death. Cain's lawyers, including Maj. Greg Malson, argued that Cain only clarified his earlier statements and that there was no intent to deceive investigators." Wisdom Martin (Fox) reports Lovelace is charged with conspiracy and Spc Nicholas Bailey with involuntary manslaughter. He also quotes Sylvia McBeth (Morganne's mother) stating of the military, "They're still trying to cover this thing up from us because they're still not contacting us and letting us know anything. We did not even know there was going to be a hearing today."
Meanwhile Senator Daniel Akaka is the Chair of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and his office issued the following today:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the House of Representatives passed the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010 (S. 3447), a bill introduced by Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel K. Akaka to improve educational assistance for those who served in the Armed Forces after September 11, 2001. The bill was unanimously approved by the Senate on Monday and now awaits the President's action.

"Assisting veterans who are pursuing an education is a vital part of our commitment to the young men and women in the armed services," said Senator Akaka. "This bill will improve the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit, and I applaud my colleagues in the House and Senate for supporting it. I thank the veterans service organizations that came together to help us develop and pass this important measure. I urge President Obama to sign the bill into law."

The committee report for S.3447 can be found here. For more information on the GI Bill, please visit http://www.gibill.va.gov.




Read on ...

Thursday, December 9, 2010

My Cousin Maliki




mycousinmaliki

That's "My Cousin Maliki" from April 22, 2007.



Backstory, Robert Gates went to Iraq to pressure thug Nouri to move already -- he'd been in office for a year by that point. So I riffed on My Cousin Vinnie and Bobby Gates becomes Oscar winner Marisa Tomei.




Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Thursday, Decmeber 9, 2010. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces another death in Iraq, Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc is in the news, Byron Dorgan delivers his farewell speech on the Senate floor, Human Rights Day is tomorrow, sexist attacks continue on rape victims -- they are attacks on all victims and they need to stop, and more.
A US soldier has been announced dead by the military becoming the first soldier killed in Iraq this month. Xinhua quotes from the statement: "A soldier assigned to United States Forces-Iraq was killed on December 8 while conducting operations in southern Iraq." Bushra Juhi (AP) notes the death and that 2 police officers died this morning while on a Baghdad patrol. Reuters notes 1 Sahwa was shot dead in Taji, and, dropping back to yesterday for both, 1 police officer was shot dead in Baghad and Omar Jassim Mohammed (Supreme Judiciary Council's auditing department head) was shot deadin Baghdad.
The violence continues in Iraq including a new wave of violence targeting Iraqi Christians which began (this latest wave) with an assault on Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad October 31st which left at least 70 people and at least another seventy injured. Prashant Rao (AFP) reports that today, 40 days after the attack, many Iraqi Christians attended prayers. Father Amir Jaje is quoted stating, "Today, we began the prayers, and tomorrow we will have the mass to mark 40 daays. Many of the participants in the ceremony today were present during the attacks or were related to victims of the attack -- they all needed some moral support. Despite the terror and the violence that happened here, they came here once again and expressed their love for those who died." Wednesday, Alsumaria TV quoted Pope Benedict XVI stating, "Respect for the rights of all is a requisite for civil coexistence. May this, our prayer to the Lord and our solidarity bring hope to those who are suffering. I am thinking about many difficult situations, like the continual attacks against Christians and Muslims in Iraq." And they noted, "Iraq's Immigration and Displaced Directorate in Dahuk Province announced that it has received more than 80 Christian families displaced from Baghdad and Mosul in fear of armed attacks. The Directorate expects more families to move soon." AKI notes today that Basra has just lost 40 Christian families who have fled due to safety concern.
Iraq's still not safe. And it still has no executive government (the president is a ceremonial post, the Parliament is legislative). Sam Dagher (Wall St. Journal) reports today that politicians are scrambling for posts in Nouri's cabinet: "Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has the better part of this month to name government ministers from the big winning parties in March elections, after rival factions agreed to a power-sharing deal last month. To do so, he has fallen back on a controversial points system that seeks to match the relative prestige of each cabinet portfolio with a party's electoral performance." Al Iraq Net is reporting that Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc is getting the post of Deputy Prime Minister. And Currency Newshounds reports that the Parliament is set to meet Sunday with the budget as one of the topics on deck. It's the appearance of movement, if not actual movement.
March 7th, Iraq concluded Parliamentary elections. The Guardian's editorial board noted in August, "These elections were hailed prematurely by Mr Obama as a success, but everything that has happened since has surely doused that optimism in a cold shower of reality." 163 seats are needed to form the executive government (prime minister and council of ministers). When no single slate wins 163 seats (or possibly higher -- 163 is the number today but the Parliament added seats this election and, in four more years, they may add more which could increase the number of seats needed to form the executive government), power-sharing coalitions must be formed with other slates, parties and/or individual candidates. (Eight Parliament seats were awarded, for example, to minority candidates who represent various religious minorities in Iraq.) Ayad Allawi is the head of Iraqiya which won 91 seats in the Parliament making it the biggest seat holder. Second place went to State Of Law which Nouri al-Maliki, the current prime minister, heads. They won 89 seats. Nouri made a big show of lodging complaints and issuing allegations to distract and delay the certification of the initial results while he formed a power-sharing coalition with third place winner Iraqi National Alliance -- this coalition still does not give them 163 seats. November 10th a power sharing deal resulted in the Parliament meeting for the second time and voting in a Speaker. And then Iraqiya felt double crossed on the deal and the bulk of their members stormed out of the Parliament. David Ignatius (Washington Post) explains, "The fragility of the coalition was dramatically obvious Thursday as members of the Iraqiya party, which represents Sunnis, walked out of Parliament, claiming that they were already being double-crossed by Maliki. Iraqi politics is always an exercise in brinkmanship, and the compromises unfortunately remain of the save-your-neck variety, rather than reflecting a deeper accord. " After that, Jalal Talabani was voted President of Iraq. Talabani then named Nouri as the prime minister-delegate. If Nouri can meet the conditions outlined in Article 76 of the Constitution (basically nominate ministers for each council and have Parliament vote to approve each one with a minimum of 163 votes each time and to vote for his council program) within thirty days, he becomes the prime minister. If not, Talabani must name another prime minister-delegate. . In 2005, Iraq took four months and seven days to pick a prime minister-delegate. It took eight months and two days to name Nouri as prime minister-delegate. His first go-round, on April 22, 2006, his thirty day limit kicked in. May 20, 2006, he announced his cabinet -- sort of. Sort of because he didn't nominate a Minister of Defense, a Minister of Interior and a Minister of a Natioanl Security. This was accomplished, John F. Burns wrote in "For Some, a Last, Best Hope for U.S. Efforts in Iraq" (New York Times), only with "muscular" assistance from the Bush White House. Nouri declared he would be the Interior Ministry temporarily. Temporarily lasted until June 8, 2006. This was when the US was able to strong-arm, when they'd knocked out the other choice for prime minister (Ibrahim al-Jaafari) to install puppet Nouri and when they had over 100,000 troops on the ground in Iraq. Nouri had no competition. That's very different from today. The Constitution is very clear and it is doubtful his opponents -- including within his own alliance -- will look the other way if he can't fill all the posts in 30 days. As Leila Fadel (Washington Post) observes, "With the three top slots resolved, Maliki will now begin to distribute ministries and other top jobs, a process that has the potential to be as divisive as the initial phase of government formation." Jane Arraf (Christian Science Monitor) points out, "Maliki now has 30 days to decide on cabinet posts - some of which will likely go to Iraqiya - and put together a full government. His governing coalition owes part of its existence to followers of hard-line cleric Muqtada al Sadr, leading Sunnis and others to believe that his government will be indebted to Iran." The stalemate ends when the country has a prime minister. It is now nine months, two days and counting. Thursday November 25th, Nouri was finally 'officially' named prime minister-designate. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) explained, "In 30 days, he is to present his cabinet to parliament or lose the nomination." Steven Lee Myers (New York Times) added, "Even if Mr. Maliki meets the 30-day deadline in late December -- which is not a certainty, given the chronic disregard for legal deadlines in Iraqi politics -- the country will have spent more than nine months under a caretaker government without a functioning legislature. Many of Iraq's most critical needs -- from basic services to investment -- have remained unaddressed throughout the impasse." Jane Arraf (Al Jazeera) offered, "He has an extremely difficult task ahed of him, these next 30 days are going to be a very tough sell for all of these parties that all want something very important in this government. It took a record eight months to actually come up with this coalition, but now what al-Maliki has to do is put all those people in the competing positions that backed him into slots in the government and he has a month to day that from today."
Turning to the US where Anthony Welsch (WBIR -- link has text and video) reports the war contractor EOD Techonolgy had their Lenoir City and Roane County offices raided by federal agents last night: "Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, and agents from the office the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction combed through offices at EOD's Roane County facility, loading up large boxes and hauling them to a back room." Josh Flory (Knoxville News Sentinel) adds, "As many as a dozen agents, most wearing blue, Federal Agent windbreakers, were on site during the day, going in and out of the buildings. Agents were seen unloading equipment from unmarked vehicles and carrying paperwork between the various buildings on the EOD Technology campus. The agents also were seen escorting several occupants of the buildings to their vehicles."

At this point, no one's explaining the raids. Previous work examining war contractors has been done by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. Last week, Senator Byron Dorgan, Chair of the DPC, gave an overview on the Senate floor of what the DPC has encountered.
Senator Byron Dorgan: We've had whistle blowers come in. A woman came in and she told us she was working at a recreational facility in the war theater -- and that is, at the base, there's a recreational facility where you can go in and play pool and play ping pong and do various things. It was a facility with many different rooms. Well you were to -- She worked for Kellogg Brown and Root and she was to keep track of how many people came into the facility because they got paid based on how many people came into the facility. She said, "What they told me to do was to keep track of how many people came into each room and that's what we billed the government for." If somebody came in and went through three rooms, the government got billed for three visits by soldiers. And she said, "I went to the people in charge at our base and I said, 'This is fraud. We can't do this. We're defrauding the government'." She said, "They put in detention, in a room under guard, immediately and sent me out of the country the next day." It is the story at virtually all of the hearings that we have had. Now the point of it is two-fold. One, as I said, to protect America's soldiers and to do right by the men and women who've gone to war because this country has asked them to. But the second thing is, on behalf of the American tax payer, to decide if we are deep in debt, if we are choking on debt and deficit, to continue doing what we know is wrong, shoveling these contracts out the door without adequate accountability, is something we have to pay attention to.
Senator Dorgan chose not to run for re-election this year and is stepping down. It will be a huge loss for the Senate and for the country. Along with the DPC, Byron Dorgan currently chairs the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, the Senate Energy and Water Development Subcomittee and the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety and Security. Today saw the House pass the reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program (the Senate passed it yesterday) and this was among the many issues Senator Dorgan worked on. He declared today, "Reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program is critically important in our nation's growing effort to combat this devastating disease. The Special Diabetes Program is a smart federal investment -- leading to important discoveries and clinical advances as well as providing crucial and often life-saving programs to Native Americans." His office notes: "Today, more than 24 million people have diabetes, which is an increase of more than four-fold over the last 30 years. Native Americans suffer from diabetes at more than twice the rate of the general population in the US. In fact, in some tribal communities the rate of diabetes has reached over 60 percent."
After making a name for himself in North Dakota's state politics, Byron Dorgan was elected to Congress in the 1980 election and served in the House of Representatives from 1981 through 1992. That last year, 1992, he ran for the US Senate and won. He would be re-elected in 1998 and again in 2004. We'll note approximately seven minutes of the twenty-nine minute farewell speech he gave today on the Senate floor.
Senator Byron Dorgan: Those of us who are leaving the Congress at the end of the year are given the opportunity to make a farewell speech but more it's an opportunity to say thank you to a lot of people that we owe a thank you to and to colleagues, to family and to the staff here in the Senate and our staffs and the people of North Dakota, in this case, who gave me the opportunity to serve -- It's the opportunity for me to say thank you. One of my colleagues the other day talked about the number of people who have served in the United States Senate. Since the beginning of our country, there have been 1918 people who have served in the United States Senate. When I signed in -- you sign on the line -- I was number 1802 and there have been 212 senators with whom I have served in the years that I have been in the Senate. It's hard to get here and it's also hard to leave here. But all of us do leave and the Senate always continues. And when finally you do leave, you understand that this is the most unique legislative body in the world.
Now I arrived here 30 years ago -- in Congress. And when we all show up the first day, we feel so very important and we believe that the weight of the world rests on our shoulders and then we begin getting mail from home. And I have long described a letter that was sort of leavening to me, sent to me by a school teacher early on after I arrived here. And her class was to do a project, "To write to Dorgan in Washington DC." And I paged through the 20 letters from fourth grade students and one of them said, "Dear Mr. Dorgan, I know who you are. I see you on television sometimes. My dad watches you on television too. Boy, does he get mad." And so I knew [laughter from the Senate floor] -- And so I knew the interests of public service, of trying to satisify all the various interests in our country. It is important, it seems to me, that we do the right thing as best we can and as best we see it. That Dad from that letter showed up at a good number of my meetings over the years, I think. Didn't introduce himself. But in most cases, the people that I represented over these many years were ordinary folks that loved their country, raised their families, paid their bills and wanted us to do the right thing for our country's future.
Now I have a lot of really interesting memories from having served here. Twelve years in the US House and 18 years in the US Senate. The first week I came to Washington in the US House, I stopped to see the oldest member of the House, Claude Pepper. I'd read so much about him, wanted to meet him, walked into his office and his office was like a museum with a lot of old things in it, really interesting things. He'd been here for a long, long, long time. And I've never forgotten what I saw behind his chair: Two photographs.
The first photograph was of Orville and Wilbur Wright December 17, 1903 making the first airplane flight, signed: "To Congressman Claude Pepper with admiration, Orville Wright." And beneath it, a photograph of Neil Armstrong stepping on the surface of the moon, signed: "To Congressman Pepper, with regards, Neil Armstrong."
And I'm thinking to myself, "Here's a living American -- in one lifetime -- has an autographed picture of the person who learned to fly and the person who flew to the moon. Think of the unbelievable progress in a lifetime. And what is the difference between learning to fly and flying to the moon?
Well it wasn't measured on that wall in inches -- although those photographs were only four or five years apart. It's measured in education, in knowledge, in a burst of accomplishments in an unprecedented century -- and this country has been enormously blessed during this period. The hallmark, it seems to me, of the century we just completed was self-sacrifice and common purpose, a sense of community, commitment to country and especially, especially leadership.
In America, leadership has been so important in this government we call self-government. And there was a book written by [David] McCullough about John Adams and John Adams described that question of leadership. He would travel in Europe, representing this new country and he would write letters back to Abigail. And in his letters to Abigail, he would plaintively ask the question, "Where will the leadership come from for this new country we're starting? Who will become the leaders? Who will be the leaders for this new nation?"
And then in the next letter to Abigail, he would again ask, "Where will the leadership come from?" And then he would say, "There's only us. Really only us.There's me. There's George Washington. There's Ben Franklin. There's Thomas Jefferson. There's [Alexander] Hamilton, [George] Mason and [James] Madison. But there is only us" -- he would plantively say to Abigail.
In the rearview mirror of history, of course, the "only us" is some of the greatest human talent probably ever assembled. But it is interesting to me that every generation has asked the same question that John Adams has asked: Where will the leadership come from for this country? Who will be the leaders?
And the answer to that question now is here in this room. It's always been in this room. My colleagues -- men and women -- tested by the rigors of a campaign, chosen by citizens of their state to say, "You lead. You provide leadership for this country." Now for all the criticism about this chamber and those who serve in this chamber, for all of that criticism, I say that the most talented men and women with whom I have ever worked are the men and women of the United States Senate -- on both sides of the aisle.
They live in glass houses. Their mistakes are obvious and painful. They fight. They disagree. Then they agree. They dance around issues. Posture. Delay. But always, always there is that moment -- the moment of being part of something big, consequential, important. The moment of being part of something bigger than yourself. And at that moment, for all of us at different times, there's this acute awareness of why we were sent here and the role the US Senate plays in the destiny of this country.
If we had room today for more, we would note it. We'll note some more tomorrow or else at Third on Sunday. For those wondering, Senator Dorgan does qualify for coverage in the Iraq snapshot. He's done some very strong work uncvoering corruption in war contracting and, most importantly, documenting the very real damage US service members and contractors serving in Iraq and Afghanistan suffered from having been exposed to toxic chemicals. Video of his speech will be posted to his Senate website either later today or tomorrow.
Also providing a service is WikiLeaks and, from their Twitter feed, we'll note this:
Wikipedia editors delete list of Wikileaks Mirrors | http://is.gd/is7vG
The #cablegate stories they tried to censor: Oil giants "squeeze" Hugo Chavez http://is.gd/irYKG Petition: "Stop the crackdown on WikiLeaks and its partners." 275,000 have signed. Will you? http://is.gd/iraFX The #cablegate stories they tried to censor: Shell has people in every Nigerian ministry http://is.gd/irYEd UN High Commissioner for Human Rights "concerned" by #wikileaks #censorship: http://is.gd/irYbs Brazilian President Lula speaks out in defence of Wikileaks: http://bit.ly/foaWa5 UN Representative for freedom of expression defends Wikileaks and Julian Assange: http://is.gd/irEQg
Julian Assange is the face of WikiLeaks, he is not all of WikiLeaks, just one part of the organization. He has been accused of rape and sexual assault. He is innocent at this point and may remain so (and if there is no trial, then the matter ends with him innocent). But the women making accusations are innocent at this point as well. And smear jobs -- there's basically one which all the losers refashion and repeat -- on the women are smear jobs on all victims of rape because these attacks encourage and lead to other attacks. The attackers?
As Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner in Romancing The Stone, screenplay by Diane Thomas) observed, "But if there was one law of the west, it's that bastards have brothers who seemed to ride forever." And they seem to thrive on sexism. Yes, as with Tuesday's snapshot and Wednesday's snapshot, we have to deal with the attacks on two women over rape charges. Faux feminist Nicole Colson (US Socialist Worker) declares, "Rape and sexual assault are very serious charges that deserve investigation. But it's impossible to take the charges against [Julian] Assange at face value given the nature of the attack on him by the world's superpowers." What is about Colson that forever finds her attacking women? Throughout 2008, she used sexism to trash Hillary but then women only pop in Nicole's writing to be trashed. She might want to take a look at that. She might also want to take a look at "impossible to take the charges . . . at face value." Marina S. (It's Not A Zero Sum Game) observes:
No, what this is about, as Cath Elliott wrote on Lib Con a few days back, is how quickly all pretensions to feminist sympathies give way to a "bros before hos" attitude among men on the left once one of their own is in the dock (though in fairness she expressed it with more class). It's easy enough to march at the back, mumbling feminist slogans out of time because you don't quite know the words, when it's some sleazy capitalist or smarmy Republican in the firing line; statistically, it's more likely to be one of those guys in some jacuzzi showgirl snorting scenario, anyway.
But one of ours? Julian Assange, fearless defier of the Keystone Cops wannabes that are US officials trying to wipe the egg of their faces? Courageous snook cocker at misspeaking power-drunk bank functionaries? Heroic exposer of all that is ignoble and slightly ridiculous about contemporary diplomatic statecraft? Impossible! It's a conspiracy! A politically motivated witch hunt! A miscarriage of justice! A honey trap! Fame seeking! Misuse of Interpol resources!
And let's move over to Cath Elliott (Liberal Conspiracy):
When an article suggesting that a man accused of sex crimes is himself an innocent victim, it feeds into the prevailing misogynistic anti-woman narrative that says that all women who accuse men of rape are lying, and that there's no such thing as rape, there is instead just bad sex, or as John Band put it "poor bedroom etiquette".
And we join in with that 'lying women/bad laws' shtick, we're just adding our name to a whole host of sites and other media organisations keen to deny women's experiences, and that basically tell women that the men are sticking together again therefore this is a site where we really don't belong.
That's why I felt it important to speak out about this issue. Not because I believe Assange to be guilty, but because as a feminist I think it discredits us to just blithely assume that he's not.
Both of the women above reside in the UK. On US shores, it's so very telling that all the same sexists (and liars) from 2008 can be found trashing the women. Take Dave Lindorff -- no link to trash but you can find his garbage at David Swanson's site (and maybe David can explain why he's posting attacks on two women?) -- who puts the term rape in quotes as he reidicules the women. This is Dave Lindorff, please remember, who was a Barack supporter who used sexism to trash Hillary and whose 'reasoning' for supporting Barack was suspect at best: "a black candidate who has risked jail by doing drugs". As those paying attention throughout 2008 quickly grasped, the sexism is coming from men and women on the left, not just men on the left. (I'm not interested in the right-wing for this conversation, let them police themselves. But on our side we're supposed to care about equality.) Naomi Klein's also weighed in with as much as she can manage -- a Tweet. Leading to this response Tweet from Clare Cochrane:
@NaomiAKlein true, but defending #Wikileaks does not necessitate mysogyny & being a defender of freedom does not mean u escape a #rape trial
This, right here, is what makes rape an insidious crime. Those we admire, those we respect, we tend to minimize, deflect, or outright deny such a charge against them. What we as a society have got to come to realize is that a rapist can do good in other areas and still have raped someone. A rapist can be someone who does works we admire. A rapist can be someone whom we have previously respected, and whose political and ideological beliefs mirror our own. Which is why an organization or political thought should stand alone, divorced from its most vociferous defenders and/or creators. Wikileaks needs to stand or fall on its own merits, and we need to defend or decry Wikileaks on its own merits (or lack thereof). What we cannot do is excuse Julian Assange from even having to defend himself against a charge because such a charge may hurt his organization. Which is where Klein is wrong again. Yes, women's freedom was used as a battle cry in Afghanistan. Yes, it was the wrong cry, not in the least because we have done a piss poor job of securing the safety and freedom of women since entering Afghanistan. But Julian Assange may have actually committed rape. And there are laws against rape. And he can and should be charged with the crime. This isn't some nebulous "protect teh women" battle cry.
I don't know if Julian Assange is or is not a rapist. I know he is being held in connection to a crime. I know that the support he is receiving from Klein is, to be frank, beneath her. As Jessica Valenti highlighted, one of the charges facing Assange is not merely that he had sex with a woman without the condom she required but that he engaged in sexual intercourse with a sleeping woman. That last one? That's describing rape, pure and simple. It's rape, because a sleeping woman does not have the ability to consent to sex. These two women deserve their day in court. If their accusations are true, they deserve every measure of justice that can be awarded to them.
As we noted last week, Naomi Klein is not a feminist. Her entire life has been about rejecting her mother (a feminist). She's still an angry little child (hilarious photos taken by Wally in DC today of Naomi which will run in Friday's gina & krista roundrobin, FYI). She's done nothing for feminism. Just because she's left and a woman don't wrongly assume she's done a damn thing for feminism. It's amazing what an issue the attacks are in England while in America . . . So much silence. And we find that the same women who were silent on the sexist attacks on Hillary are again 'taking one for the team' and sitting this out. Laurie Penny (New Statesman) observes:
I have no idea whether Assange, who firmly denies the accusations, did or did not commit sex attacks in Sweden last August. But just as we would condemn anyone who pronounced him guilty at this early stage, should we also not be concerned that many liberals, some of whom would count themselves feminists, have leapt to the conclusion that Assange must be the innocent victim of a smear campaign? Some have gone further, actively attacking the women in question and accusing them of colluding in a conspiracy to destroy Assange. This plays easily into the narrative that most women who accuse men of rape are liars, and most men who attract such accusations are just saucy scamps with, as the commentator John Band put it, "poor bedroom etiquette".
The attacks need to stop and the number of people calling out the attacks will continue to increase. Robert Knight, Ray McGovern, et al think they're helping Julian Assange by attacking two women. They're not and they're not helping the left as we see just how sexist so many of the men -- and a large number of the women as well -- can be. In other news, Jack Healey (Huffington Post) notes an earlier time when human rights and human rights groups were increasing in number and how it changed:
Then, 9/11 occurred and America lost thousands of people. American anger channeled fear instead of courage; Iraq is invaded for unknown reasons still; torture begins in the jails of Iraq by our forces; water boarding, a torture technique, is used often and repeatedly; secret prisons are set up in many countries and we send prisoners to these places to be tortured by others; Guantanamo becomes a prison of infamy and reduces the respect for law to this day; unmanned drones are put into frequent use in targeted killings as weapons with no accountability while official statistics on the number of innocent civilians killed are absent (some studies suggest ten to fifty civilians are killed for every one militant insurgent); the new President enlarges the war in Afghanistan; Bagram prison rivals Guantanamo in another attempt to reduce our level of decency and thus up the hatred of American forces in the region; and all the while, Bin Laden roams the earth freely ten years after his hits on our cities. American efforts to mix security issues with human rights lowered the prestige, interest and support of human rights. Press and media move as the governments move--away from human rights. What happened to the momentum, to the wave that swept human rights through our streets and past our doors? It seems as though the tide has gone out.
Instead of getting depressed and angry and disillusioned, I offer a model to emulate who I got to know over three meetings and one letter. His name was Peter Benenson, the founder of Amnesty International. Most of the world does not know him or about him: he never sought the lime light, the TV shows or the award chase, and he even refused to go to Oslo when Amnesty won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. A simple lawyer in London, Peter refused the knighthood nonsense of the crown. He had time to write a long, warm and personal note to me once I left Amnesty after twelve years, but you could not get him to a fancy dinner. He was a humble man who sought solace in the Catholic shrines of Europe after a car accident. But make no mistake, his idea and action of that idea changed the world. This Human Rights Day is a time to stop and remember how Peter Benenson brought that idea to life.
Peter Beneson was president of Amnesty International from 1961 through 1966 before leaving it. Human Rights Day is this Friday. Amnesty didn't start it, the United Nations did:

The promotion and protection of human rights has been a major preoccupation for the United Nations since 1945, when the Organization's founding nations resolved that the horrors of The Second World War should never be allowed to recur.
Respect for human rights and human dignity "is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world", the General Assembly declared three years later in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1950, all States and interested organizations were invited by the General Assembly to observe 10 December as Human Rights Day (resolution 423(V)).
The Day marks the anniversary of the Assembly's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Over the years, a whole network of human rights instruments and mechanisms has been developed to ensure the primacy of human rights and to confront human rights violations wherever they occur.

This UN web folder contains background and notes:

Human Rights Day 2010 on 10 December recognizes the work of human rights defenders worldwide who act to end discrimination.
Acting alone or in groups within their communities, every day human rights defenders work to end discrimination by campaigning for equitable and effective laws, reporting and investigating human rights violations and supporting victims.
While some human rights defenders are internationally renowned, many remain anonymous and undertake their work often at great personal risk to themselves and their families.

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