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The Pentagon won't let us see their Abu Ghraib
| A Republican Senator suggested the same day they contained scenes of “rape and murder.” No wonder Rumsfeld commented then, "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse." Yesterday, news emerged that lawyers for the Pentagon had refused to cooperate with a federal judge's order to release dozens of unseen photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by Saturday... ...“Some of the worse that happened that you don't know about, ok? Videos, there are women there. Some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men….The women were passing messages saying ‘Please come and kill me, because of what's happened.’ “Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out.” |
| A total of 24,865 civilians were reported killed in the first two years of the conflict, beginning with the invasion, almost 20% of them women or children. This means approximately one in every 1,000 Iraqis has been killed since March 2003. The report's assertion that 37% of deaths were caused by the US-led forces may cause dismay among Western governments, especially as only 9% are attributed to insurgents. But even if another 11% attributed to "unknown agents" is included in the second figure, the report says coalition forces are still the main cause of death. |
2005 July 19, Tuesday
Insomnia. 4am. Why not update website?
Criminey: RATIONING! I'm telling yiz...start a victory garden...
Not surprised: Corruption threatens to leave Iraq with a 'ghost army'
| The Iraqi armed forces are full of "ghost battalions" in which officers pocket the pay of soldiers who never existed or have gone home. "I know of at least one unit which was meant to be 2,200 but the real figure was only 300 men," said a veteran Iraqi politician and member of parliament, Mahmoud Othman. "The US talks about 150,000 Iraqis in the security forces but I doubt if there are more than 40,000." |
| ...because Iraq in particular is increasingly, in Krohn's phrase, a "sustained and unpopular war," refilling the ranks has proved no small problem for the Pentagon, which has recently found itself scraping the bottom of that recruitment barrel in all sorts of ways. This may sooner or later result in what Krohn calls a "hollow army." |
| ...in June 1996 the PIRA decided to do a little road trip. They set off their biggest bomb ever, more than 3,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, in central Manchester. Same tactics: lots of warnings, no dead, huge damage. There was a silver lining to this one: the center of Manchester was a disgusting slum, and the bomb cleared it right out. Urban planners were the only demographic that jumped up and down for joy when the evening news came on, and downtown Manchester is now, from what I've read, the cutest little yuppie paradise in the UK. |
| Every empire passes through several stages, slouching inexorably towards its expiration date. There are many variations, but generally it moves according to the following stages: rape and pillage, freshness and dynamism, power and might, arrogance, stupidity, decline and collapse. Today's Bushlandia is not near collapse yet. It is past arrogance, and well into the stupidity domain.... ...A few months ago it seemed that the Bushies were prepared to attack Iran. It was a very bad idea back then and is still now, but today it is much less likely to happen. Then it seemed that stupidity was going to prevail. Today-not that the stupidity has diminished-things are getting so much worse in Iraq (and, increasingly, Afghanistan, where even a tenuous US control over a few urban centers is slipping), that pure cowardice and resource shortage now decide what can and can't be done. |
| One can recall that in the last years of Brezhnev's senility the Soviet Union scored some of its biggest successes in America's "near abroad": the Sandinista revolution swept away the thuggish Somoza dictatorship. Almost all regimes in Central America tottered under leftist insurgencies: Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras all seemed on the verge of joining Nicaragua and Cuba. Panama forcefully negotiated return of the canal to its control, expelling American domain from its soil. Afghanistan was successfully invaded by the Soviets. Iran-the most important power in the Middle East-exploded in anti-American revolution. And yet all this was not important-the USSR collapsed anyway, from its internal problems and weaknesses. |
2005 July 17, Sunday
Ah, so THAT'S WHY he hasn't updated the site for weeks and weeks and weeks...
2005 July 10, Sunday
I've been working hard in my garden - planting herbs and vegetables. I should have a potato and bean surplus in a few weeks - I'm already starting to harvest the occasional handful of strawberries. I'll post some pics in the near future - the "before" photo of me standing in a brown pit, compared to the present situation is striking - only three months separate the two. I know NOTHING about gardening - if I can learn how to grow my own food, anyone can.
Go on George, bring back the draft!
| McNeil's perspective that the draft is creeping back is strengthened by recent announcements by Selective Service that it can now register and draft healthcare workers, computer specialists, linguists and other personnel if necessary. In March, the SSS issued a report notifying the President that "it would be ready to implement a draft within 75 days" following Congressional authorization. While spokesman Richard Flahavan says the steps are "strictly in the planning stages," and the report was part of the SSS' annual budget request, these moves agitate fears of a returning draft. Military expert David Segal believes that a new military conscription policy would galvanize an anti-draft movement that would dwarf that of the 1960s. |
The fourth link above needs a little explanation for non-UK readers. It's an allusion to a heinous British band from the seventies/early eighties called "Status Quo". Nuff said.
The Village Voice on Saudi's oil woes: The Saudi Facade. Be afraid. Fear is good.
2005 July 6, Wednesday
Greetings to the six people who still visit the site - sorry about the absence - been busy, making money. One must have enough cash to buy a little land in preparation for The Meltdown...some funny people have been busy(er than me):
What a great country - deliberately poisoning people with pesticide:
| participants were intentionally dosed with toxic pesticides, appear to have routinely violated ethical standards by failing to obtain informed consent, dismissing adverse outcomes, and inflicting harm on human subjects. In one experiment under EPA review, human subjects were exposed to MITC, a dangerous pesticide closely related to the chemical that killed thousands in Bhopal, India, in 1984. In another, human subjects -- mostly college students and minorities paid $15 per hour -- were placed in a chamber with chloropicrin, an active ingredient in tear gas, for up to one hour at a time for four consecutive days. In some experiments, subjects were instructed to swallow capsules of pesticides with orange juice or water at breakfast [...] |
KA-CHING! U.S. spending on Iraq may soon surpass Korean War budget
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