GOT THAT RIGHT

The start of a demonstration in Kennebunkport, Maine where Bush is on vacation August 26, 2006. About 700 demonstrators marched to condemn the war in Iraq. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi

U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst Accused:
Doubting Official 9/11 Story Is “Disloyal To The United States With The Intent Of Stirring Up Disloyalty, In A Manner That Brings Discredit Upon The United States Army”

SFC DONALD BUSWELL (left) received the Purple Heart for injuries sustained on the battlefields of Iraq

[Thanks to Carol B, who sent this in.]

“But, patriotism, as suggested by FOX News’ (Bill O’Reilly), is following the line of George W. Bush and cohorts completely! All my son is saying is, ‘Hey, maybe there’s a what if.’ Never, though, did he get sidetracked from the fact that (he loves his)country.”

August 21, 2006 By Stephen Webster, Investigative Reporter, The Lone Star Iconoclast

FT. SAM HOUSTON, Texas: Forty-one-year-old Sergeant First Class Donald Buswell is a hero. Having served over 19 years in the United States Army, Buswell has seen a lot of terrain.

On April 15, 2004, he was injured in a rocket attack while serving a tour in Iraq. For this, SFC Buswell was given a Purple Heart. And until recently, Buswell was an Intelligence Analyst stationed at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.

But if one were to ask Buswell’s Commanding Officer what he thinks of the Sergeant, the response would likely sound a little bit more like, “No comment.”

Such were the words given to The Iconoclast by Lieutenant Colonel Jane Crichton after inquiring why SFC Buswell is the focus of an investigation initiated by Colonel Luke S. Green, Chief of Staff at Fifth Army in Ft. Sam Houston.

According to unnamed military sources contacted by The Iconoclast, SFC Buswell “used his Government issued email account to send messages disloyal to the United States …”

Because of these statements, SFC Buswell could soon find himself dishonorably discharged, court martialed, or worse.

It all started as a simple response to a common, unsolicited mass email, sent to 38 individuals at Ft. Sam Houston on Aug. 2, 2006. The message, as well as Buswell’s response, is among documents obtained by The Iconoclast.

The sender of the first message is identified as “Anderson, Larry Mr JMC”. It reads:

“This is being sent more as assurance for what happens when a plane hits a nuclear site more so than in response to that German website alleging a government conspiracy related to the 9/11 Pentagon plane crash (though the website does present an interesting perspective) – Larry Subject: F-4 vs. Concrete Wall

“Take a look at this clip [not included] and you’ll get a good feel for what happens to an airplane when it hits a concrete wall. Many of you have seen the produced (but not factual), Michael Moore-esque website that asks the question; “If it’s true that a Boeing airliner hit the Pentagon, what happened to all the parts of it? Why do we not find more pieces of it?

“Where did all that mass GO???” (Therefore, the paranoid loony liberal reasoning, 9-11 must have been a US gov’t conspiracy!) Well, for those who question what happened to “all the mass of that airplane”…watch this clip.

“It’s the old Air Force engineering tests of the concrete barrier that surrounds nuclear reactor domes —tests to see if it will indeed survive an aerial attack. With the hi-speed cameras rolling, they accelerated an F-4 Phantom to 500mph and…

“Recall: “What happens when an ‘Unstoppable Force’ meets an ‘Immovable Object’???” (Remember, as you watch in slow motion as the F-4 turns to vapor, the Phantom was one of the toughest airplanes ever built).”

SFC Buswell responded later that day, saying:

“Subject: F-4 vs. Concrete Wall Hello,

“I receive many unsolicited e-mails daily, this one I chose to respond to. The below mentioned premise that an F4 Phantom fighter jet hitting that hardened concrete barrier is akin to the alleged 757 hitting the Pentagon is like oil and water; they don’t mix, and they serve to muddy the issue.

“The issue is 911 was filled with errors in the ‘official report’ and ‘official story’ of that day, and, what happened that day. We all know and saw 2 planes hitting the WTC buildings, we didn’t see the 757 hit the Pentagon, nor did we see the plane crash in Shanksville PA. Both the PA and Pentagon ‘crashes’ don’t have clues and tell-tale signs of a jumbo-jet impacting those zones!

“The Pentagon would have huge wing impacts in the side of the building; it didn’t. Shanksville PA would have had debris, and a large debris field; it didn’t.

Getting back to the F4…The Pentagon isn’t a nuclear hardened structure, so I can’t follow your weak logic that since an F4 vaporized itself in a test impact on a nuclear hardened structure that the alleged 757 hitting the Pentagon should have exhibited the same characteristics!

“I say Occums razor is the best way to deduce this ‘day of infamy’; if you weigh all options, do some simple studying you will see 911 was clearly not executed by some arabs in caves with cell phones and 3 day old newspapers!

“I mean how are Arabs benefiting from pulling off 911? They have more war, more death and dismal conditions, so, how did 911 benefit them? Answer: It didn’t. So, who benefited from 9-11? The answer is sad, but simple; The Military Industial (sic) Complex.

“It’s not a paranoid conspiracy to think there are conspiracies out there…and, it’s not Liberal Lunacy either, nor is it Conservative Kookiness! People, fellow citizens we’ve been had! We must demand a new independent investigation into 911 and look at all options of that day, and all plausabilities (sic), even the most incredulous theories must be examined.”

**************************************************

Upon returning to his office the next day, Buswell discovered the locks had been changed, his security clearance was revoked, and an investigation had been launched.

Buswell’s commanding officer, Colonel Luke Green, drafted a letter assigning Major Edwin Escobar to the investigation.

According to sources, Colonel Green has asserted that SFC Buswell failed to obey Army regulations when he used his government issued email account to send what have been termed as messages disloyal to the United States with the intent of stirring up disloyalty, in a manner that brings discredit upon the United States Army.

It has been reported that Colonel Green also wrote that SFC Buswell claims to have information proving a conspiracy on the part of the United States Military Industrial Complex to attack targets within the United States, e.g., The Pentagon.

Officials have suggested that the email response sent by SFC Buswell may be in violation of CFR 2635.705(a ), DoD-R 5500.7, and Joint Ethics Regulation paragraph 2-301b. These rules SFC Buswell is said to have perhaps violated regulate how soldiers utilize government resources, how they use their off-duty time, and how they use their official time.

The Iconoclast attempted to establish a dialogue with Colonel Green and Major Escobar, but calls were not returned as of press time.

SFC Buswell declined to comment on the investigation, but noted that he spoke with his parents about the matter for a period of two days before he was ordered to not disclose any further information.

“My son spoke with me about (the investigation),” said Winthrop Buswell, SFC Buswell’s father.

“There was an unsolicited email. My son, without divulging anything, without usurping anything, without doing anything to discredit anyone in any way, simply responded to that saying ‘Yes, there are what if’s. And maybe there is something that is being covered up.’ That’s all that I know. He responded to it, but it was unsolicited. I think – of course, I’m dad, being very much in love with his son and wanting to praise him – because he is a low man on the totem pole, of course he’s of pretty high rank but not quite an officer, that maybe … Maybe an investigation might be the scapegoat for whomever.”

“That is so ridiculous,” said Winthrop Buswell. “(To say he is disloyal to the United States) is totally ridiculous.

“And the discourtesy was, ah, very apparent at that particular time. …

“I’ve always thought the American way is this: to disagree is important. To dissent is important.

“And my son simply said, without any fanfare, ‘Look, let’s take a look at the whole picture. If you want to take a look at that, maybe there are a few paragraphs that a Michael Moore might want to emphasize.’ That is all that my son has said. Never, however, to at all disparage the country and the patriotism that is so necessary for all of us.

“But, patriotism, as suggested by FOX News’ (Bill O’Reilly), is following the line of George W. Bush and cohorts completely! All my son is saying is, ‘Hey, maybe there’s a what if.’ Never, though, did he get sidetracked from the fact that (he loves his)country.”

“What disturbed him more than anything else, I think, was the fact that the Iraqi citizens suffered so much and are suffering so much now,” said Winthrop Buswell.

“The time that he was injured, there were several Iraqis burning to death in front of him. He tried to put out the fire. It was a traumatic experience for him. … He spoke about that a number of times, and how terrible that was to see the citizenry being killed and suffering so much.”

“One of his heroes is Abraham Lincoln,” Winthrop Buswell continued. “And Abraham Lincoln said many things, but one of the things he said – and I’m paraphrasing – was, ‘I may disagree with the fellow who’s speaking, but I will stand and defend his right to speak.’

“That’s my son’s position. He does look at the what if’s. But that doesn’t take away from his dedication and his patriotism. I don’t know a fellow who gets more chills running up and down his spine when he sees the flag flying.”

“As a boy, (Donald was) always a very curious fellow,” he added. “Very daring, but never risking anything or stepping over the line. He loved motorcycles, but was always very cautious about it, always wearing proper clothing, always wearing a helmet. Also, he was very active in little model racing cars. He was in Cub Scouts.

“I remember walking to the gymnasium with him and having wonderful conversations with him years ago. His mother and I went through a divorce, and that is never easy for anyone. My son was also very close to his grandfather on his mother’s side, and also his grandfather and grandmother on my side. Donald loves railroading, and my father has the best job that anyone could ever have. He’s a locomotive engineer, and my son related to that. My son also has a strong belief in a power greater than ourselves.”

“But one of the things that stands out … is his love and his caring,” said Winthrop, choking back tears. “He loves children. He’s just the greatest guy, as far as I am concerned. He walks into a room with a big smile on his face. … He’s like my dad – he makes you feel like, you know … I … I care for you. Ah, he’s … He’s my son …”

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Two US Soldiers Killed Sunday

08.28.06 (AP)

Two US soldiers were killed in Iraq Sunday.

One soldier died in western Baghdad on Sunday afternoon after a roadside bomb explosion hit the vehicle he was traveling in, while another was killed by gunfire in the eastern part of the capital, the military said in statements.

U.S. Soldier Killed By Baghdad IED

8.27.06 by Ammar Karim, AFP News

Insurgents killed a US soldier in a roadside bomb attack southeast of Baghdad on Saturday, the military said, bringing the death toll since the March 2003 invasion to 2,619, according to AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

Marine From Milford Killed

08/26/2006 By MARIAN GAIL BROWN and DIRK PERREFORT, Staff Writers, Connecticut Post

A Marine from Milford who was awarded a Purple Heart after an insurgent grenade exploded and pelted him with shrapnel earlier this year was killed during combat Friday in Iraq, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Saturday.

Cpl. Jordan C. Pierson, 21, became the 32nd serviceperson with ties to Connecticut killed since in Iraq or Afghanistan since March 2002.

Pierson died during combat operations in the Al Anbar province, a combat hot zone. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division in Plainville.

Word of the Marine’s death reached his seaside hometown by late Friday.

“There were two Marines in full dress uniform standing outside their house when his mother got home,” said Rena Lewis, a neighbor. “I saw them there and I knew what it was about.”

Pierson graduated from Foran High School in Milford in 2003 and enlisted with the Marines that December. He postponed studies at the University of Connecticut to serve in Iraq.

“I’m a newspaper junkie and I keep up on everything that’s going on with this war,” Lewis said.

“I’ve gone around feeling as though it’s happening over there, and it’s so far away. And here it’s hitting me big time all of us, now, it’s so close to home with Jordan’s death.”

For Lewis, that meant bringing to the Pierson family a rotisserie chicken and loaf of Italian bread.

“I didn’t know what else to do, really,” Lewis said. “I just wanted to do something. And to tell them how sorry I was for the loss of their son.”

Milford Mayor James Richetelli said he met Saturday with Pierson’s mother and father and other family members at the parents’ home. “The family is in shock and is trying to process this,” he said.

A tree in front of City Hall that was lit to honor servicemen and women will be darkened until after Pierson’s funeral, Richetelli said. Lights on the tree were lit the day the Iraq war began in March 2003. Pierson has been the only U.S. soldier from Milford killed in the war, Richetelli said.

At about the time Pierson shipped off with Charlie Company for Operation Iraqi Freedom, his mother wrapped a thick yellow ribbon around the widest tree in her front yard.

To her and her neighbors on Whalley Avenue in Milford, the ribbon served as a symbol of hope for Jordan Pierson’s return home. “I always noticed that ribbon when I was jogging,” Lewis said. “When I went by a little while ago, it wasn’t there.” By late Saturday afternoon, it had been down.

Pierson is survived by his parents, Beverley and Eric Pierson; and a brother, Ethan.

Palmer Soldier Dies In Roadside Blast

8.20.06 BECKY STOPPA, Anchorage Daily News

PALMER, Alaska: Mae Woods sat up tall Monday in a chair inside St. John’s Lutheran Church, both hands gripping a silver-colored thermal coffee mug.

The mug belonged to her son, Shane Woods, a 23-year-old Army specialist. She has held onto the mug since learning of her son’s death Wednesday in Iraq.

“This was Shane’s cup, it belonged to him,” she said.

Mae and her husband, Wayne, were at the church to field reporters’ questions after the U.S. Department of Defense released news of Woods’ death Monday morning. Woods and two other soldiers from the Army’s 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Division were killed in Ar Ramadi when an improvised explosive device detonated near their Humvee, according to the release.

In addition to his parents, Woods is survived by a sister, Stephanie, a freshman at Palmer High School.

Woods, a 2003 Palmer High School graduate, loved the Iraqi people and believed in the mission, Mae Woods said. He served as a tank loader gunner and as a driver for his company’s first sergeant and commanding officer, his father said. He was stationed in Friedberg, Germany, when he was deployed first to Kuwait in January and then to Iraq on Feb. 1.

Though his unit had been engaged in heavy combat every day for the past several weeks, Woods was not afraid, his mother said. His Christian faith, she said, gave him strength.

“He always said, ‘Mommy, no matter what, you don’t have to worry. I’m in God’s hands and no matter what happens, I’m OK,’” Mae Woods said.

As she spoke, Wayne Woods thumbed through a folder full of photographs. One featured Woods at the family’s bear camp in Cordova, another standing atop Bodenburg Butte. He loved Alaska, his parents said. He especially loved the Taylor Mountains in Western Alaska and the Chugach Mountains in Southcentral.

Woods spent the better part of his youth in those mountains, helping the family run its guided-hunting service, Woods Outfitting in Wasilla, Wayne Woods said. Over the years, he said, his son amassed friends from across the country through the family business.

And he amassed friends in Iraq, he said.

“He was a beacon of strength to everyone who knew him,” Wayne Woods said.

Woods is the second young man from Palmer to die in Iraq. Sgt. Kurtis Arcala, 22, died Sept. 11, 2005, also the victim of an improvised explosive device.

Mary Ann Probasco’s grandson Peter Isackson was a lifelong friend of Woods. Isackson, his grandmother said, is also stationed at an Army post in Germany, and visited Woods a few times before he was deployed to Iraq.

Isackson reported that Woods’ enthusiasm for his mission was infectious, Probasco said. People couldn’t help but like him, a report that came as no surprise, she said.

“You never saw him without a smile. He was virtually bubbling about his opportunity to do things there,” Probasco said.

Woods knew from the time that he was a small boy that he wanted to be a soldier, his father said.

As a freshman he joined the Junior ROTC program at Colony High School. The move changed his life, Wayne Woods said.

“He was a real difficult kid just to keep up with,” he said.

Woods had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which made it tough for him to keep up in school, his father said. But membership in JROTC gave the teen a newfound focus, he said.

“He was able to overcome that,” Wayne Woods said. When Shane graduated in 2003 he was earning almost all A’s, his father said.

Joe Geraci, a former Palmer High School teacher who now lives in Colorado, said Shane Woods was a student he wouldn’t forget. Geraci said Woods and a few of his friends ate lunch in his classroom nearly every day during Woods’ sophomore year.

“They just hung out and talked. They were good kids, hard-working,” he said. Shane’s enthusiasm and his respect for everyone around him made him easy to like, Geraci said.

He said he developed a relationship with Woods and his family that’s lasted through the years since Woods’ graduation.

“We always, in education, talk about how kids are impacted by teachers so much. Very seldom do teachers talk about the impact kids make on their lives,” Geraci said. “Shane was one of those kids who touched me, and he touched everyone around him.”

A memorial for Shane Woods is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at the First Baptist Church in Palmer. Gov. Frank Murkowski has ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff in Woods’ honor until Friday afternoon.

One U.S. & Two Polish Soldiers Injured At Camp Echo

August 27, 2006 Xinhua

A U.S. soldier and two Polish soldiers were wounded in an accident in a military base in southern Iraq, the U.S. military said in a statement on Sunday.

The accident took place early Saturday in Camp Echo, a Multinational Division base in the southern province of Diwaniyah, some 180 km south of Baghdad, the statement said, without elaborating.

The injured received medical treatment immediately in Camp Echo ‘s military hospital, and one of the Polish soldiers was evacuated to a hospital in Baghdad for further treatment, it added.

REALLY BAD IDEA:
NO MISSION;
HOPELESS WAR:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

A US soldier patrols a street in Baghdad’s Ghazaliya neighborhood, August 15. (AFP/File/Thibauld Malterre)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

British Soldier Killed In Helmand;
Soldier Wounded In Kandahar Attack;
Nationality Not Announced

Aug 27 AFP News

A British soldier has been killed and another NATO soldier wounded in attacks in Afghanistan.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in Helmand province, ISAF said in a statement.

The Ministry of Defence in London announced the soldier was British. Most of the foreign troops in Helmand are with a British deployment of about 4,750.

ISAF did not immediately release details of the attack, which the ministry said occurred in the north of the province at about 5:00 am.

A base in Kandahar province came under mortar fire that wounded an ISAF soldier and six Afghans, the NATO-led force said without releasing the nationality of the foreign troop.

A Canadian force of about 2,300 soldiers is based in Kandahar.

Commanders have said they need more troops and equipment to confront a stiffer than expected resistance from the Taliban.

An insurgency launched by the extremists has been growing in strength, peaking this year with a more sophisticated attacks on military forces accompanying a stepped-up campaign of suicide and roadside bombings.

Everything Lovely In Afnam:
[Silly General Lost In Time Warp]

Aug 27 AFP News

Kandahar, Afghanistan: The head of US forces in parts of Africa and the Middle East, General John Abizaid, said during a visit Saturday that while the Taliban would be able to continue mounting their campaign thanks to their foreign sources of income, it was unlikely their action would prove to be “decisive”

The rebels had taken heavy casualties and had not “exerted control for any substantial period of time in any major population area,” Abizaid told reporters.

“Certainly they managed to take some district capitals for short periods of time, but those have been largely media victories and not military victories,” he said.

[Saigon, South Vietnam: The head of US forces in Vietnam, General John Abizaid, said during a visit Saturday that while the Vietcong would be able to continue mounting their campaign thanks to their foreign sources of income, it was unlikely their action would prove to be “decisive”

[The rebels had taken heavy casualties and had not “exerted control for any substantial period of time in any major population area,” Abizaid told reporters.

[”Certainly they managed to take some district capitals for short periods of time, but those have been largely media victories and not military victories,” he said.]

Civilian Family Butchered
[Again]

26 August 2006 By Tom Coghlan in Lashkargar, The Independent (UK)

NATO pilots have been accused of killing 13 Afghan civilians, including nine children, during an attack close to the British base at Musa Kala in Helmand province.

Witnesses and relatives of the dead, who were interviewed by The Independent at the town of Lashkargar, claim that on 31 July a family of 13 was attempting to flee the fighting in a rented pickup truck with three other men when an aircraft appeared overhead.

“We stopped the car,” said Abdul Habib, 40. “Then the plane dropped a bomb ahead of us and went away. After a while we started driving again, but the aircraft came back. I told my wives to stand up so that the pilot would see they were women, but at that moment it opened fire.”

The survivors say that the attack happened near the village of Chogra, just north of Musa Qala, where the small British garrison has been under frequent attack since June.

NATO officials said that two attacks were made on vehicles near Musa Qala on that day by NATO A-10 tankbusters. The aircraft type would tally with the survivors’ accounts of the attack, which describe the aircraft firing “big bullets” or “some kind of rockets” at them. The A-10 is armed with a 30mm cannon designed for destroying armoured vehicles. One of the attacks destroyed a vehicle on the eastern side of the town, according to NATO pilot records.

NATO records indicate that both A-10 attacks were called in by spotters from the British garrison in the Musa Qala platoon house, following an attack by Taliban forces.

“These were Taliban forces withdrawing after an attack, suggesting they were not civilians,” Major Toby Jackman, the NATO spokesman, said.

The vehicle that the family say they had been using was of a type often used by Taliban forces.

Mr Habib suffered extensive injuries to one arm, his shoulder, back and both legs. One of his sons and another man also survived with injuries. His two wives, 27 and 25, and children, Rafar, 10, Manan, eight, Mohammed, two, Nisar Ahmed, five months, Shabiqa, 11, Gulsoma, nine, Kasima, six, Shukria, four, and Shakoofa, two months, were all killed in the attack.

The family say that they had been trying to escape Musa Qala to stay with relatives in Baghran district, in the north of the province.

“This is the truth, please believe me,” Mr Habib said, weeping frequently as he described the attack. “I have lost all my family, save one son. God gave them to me, and he has taken them away again; what was my crime, what did I do wrong?”

Mr Habib’s brother, Sadiqullah, who uses only one name, said that he had collected the bodies of the dead women and children.

“Many people were gathered at the scene, and the bodies were in a row under sheets,” he said. “All the people were so angry. One boy was injured but he died on the way.” The bodies were badly disfigured and the family said they were unable to wash them according to Muslim tradition before burial.

Haji Faizal Haq, 56, says that his son, Mohammed Nabi, 26, who was driving the grey Toyota pickup, was killed. Another son, Mohammed Wali, 23, was injured in the attack.

“It was not a Taliban car,” Mr Haq said. “There was all the family’s possessions in the car and the women and children had been sitting high up on top of their possessions.”

Staff at the nearby emergency hospital said that the number of admissions in July, 227 new patients, was double the previous month – the overwhelming majority having suffered traumatic injuries consistent with explosions and battle. These have included significant numbers of women and children.

“In the last 15 days there has been an increase in the number of women and children,” said one doctor, who declined to be named. “In the past week we have received four women with injuries that are consistent with explosions, and four children. Two of the children had suffered traumatic amputations.”

TROOP NEWS

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE

The graveside ceremony for U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kurt Dechen in Springfield, Vt., Aug. 11, 2006. Dechen, who was killed Aug. 3, his 24th birthday, in Fallujah, Iraq. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

Thieving Officer Pleads Guilty:
$2 Million Stolen In Iraq;
[One Down, How Many More To Go?]

August 25, 2006 Associated Press

A former Army Reserve officer admitted Friday that he steered millions of dollars in Iraq-reconstruction contracts in exchange for jewelry, computers, cigars and sexual favors.

Bruce D. Hopfengardner, 46, of Frederick, Va., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.

Hopfengardner served as a special adviser to the U.S.-led occupation forces, recommending funding for projects on law enforcement facilities in Iraq.

He admitted conspiring with Philip H. Bloom, a U.S. citizen with businesses in Romania, Robert J. Stein, a former Defense Department contract official, and others to create a corrupt bidding process that included the theft of $2 million in reconstruction money.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Occupation Propaganda Newspaper Blown Up

US Marines at the parking lot of the state-owned Iraqi al-Sabah newspaper in Baghdad after a car bomb detonated by insurgents exploded.. (AFP/Wissam Alokaily)

8.27.06 (Reuters) & by Ammar Karim, AFP News

As journalists from the state daily Al-Sabah arrived for work a bomber ploughed an explosives-laden van into the parking lot, detonating his deadly cargo after coming under fire from security guards.

The newspaper is part of the U.S.-funded Iraqi Media Network

“Two people were killed and 25 others wounded. They all were employees of the newspaper,” Karim al-Rubaiya, Al-Sabah’s technical editor told AFP.

“Thank God the blast took place early in the day. There were fewer casualties as many employees had not reached the office yet,” he added.

The blast, the second this year, devastated the front of the two-storey concrete office building, demolished the facade of the newspaper’s production department and strewed the blackened wreckage of a fleet of cars across the carpark. It blew two cars through one wall

Insurgents fighting to topple the U.S.-backed Shi’ite-led government of national unity often target journalists working for state media.

Assorted Resistance Action

27 Aug 2006 Reuters & by Ammar Karim, AFP News

Guerrillas killed Mahmoud Faisal, a lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi army, in the town of Muqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles, northeast of Baghdad

In Diyala a senior army officer was killed,

Guerrillas killed four of former Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Abd Mutlaq al-Juburi’s bodyguards in an ambush on their car in Baghdad’s Ameriyah neighbourhood.

In the northern oil city of Kirkuk four Kurdish policemen were killed.

In Kirkuk itself, a car bomber blew himself up near the office of President Jalal Talabani’s party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, killing one guard and wounding 16 party members, police said.

The bomber rammed the fence and detonated the bomb, which also damaged 12 other vehicles. Last week the party’s office in Mosul was targeted, killing eight Peshmerga militiamen guarding the building and wounding 51.

In a separate ambush, insurgents shot dead defence ministry official Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Faisal as he drove betwen Muqdadiyah and Baquba, officers in the flashpoint city said, they said.

Around Baquba two truck drivers and a former policemen were captured.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“A Remarkable Mass Movement – A Mass Mutiny – Against Military And Government Leadership”

June 9, 2006 Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

There’s no epigram at the beginning of Sir! No Sir!, but if there were, it would be George Santayana’s famous phrase: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

A riveting documentary about the GI antiwar movement during the Vietnam era, director David Zeiger’s look back to the days of Nixon and LBJ and the massive military buildup in Southeast Asia bears so many parallels to the current conflict in Iraq that it’s eerie.

And no matter where one stands on the political spectrum – and on the war in Vietnam and the war in Iraq – those parallels are worth examining.

Featuring interviews with dozens of Vietnam veterans – West Point-schooled officers, Navy airmen, nurses, doctors, Marine squad leaders, and the Army grunts on the ground – Sir! No Sir! shines a light on a forgotten corner of the antiwar movement: the men (and a few women) who returned from their tours of duty filled with doubt and disillusionment over what they saw, and did, there.

Facing the possibility of court martial and imprisonment, thousands of vets linked arms with protesters.

According to Pentagon figures cited by Zeiger, more than a half-million “incidents of desertion” occurred between 1966 and 1971; whole units refused to go into battle; officers were being attacked and killed by their own men.

Sir! No Sir! documents a remarkable mass movement – a mass mutiny – against military and government leadership.

It was a movement fueled by conviction and conscience, and whether one looks at those veterans as heroes or traitors, their actions helped to bring about dramatic change.

Sir! No Sir!:
At A Theatre Near You!
To find it: www.sirnosir.com/

The Sir! No Sir! DVD is on sale now, exclusively at www.sirnosir.com.

Also available will be a Soundtrack CD (which includes the entire song from the FTA Show, “Soldier We Love You”), theatrical posters, tee shirts, and the DVD of “A Night of Ferocious Joy,” a film by me about the first hip-hop antiwar concert against the “War on Terror.”

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward this E-MAIL along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and inside the armed services. Send requests to address up top.

We Will Continue To Speak Until The Lie Is Dead

From: Richard Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: August 22, 2006

Arlington Northwest

While I was at the Veterans For Peace Conference in Seattle, Washington two weeks ago, I noticed this young woman looking at a particular cross at the display of over 2,600 markers representing American soldiers killed in Iraq.

After a few minutes, she simply laid on her back next to that cross.

It was a very quiet moment, that made me feel her presence.

I have no idea the connection between her and the soldier who was killed in Iraq. But, I am sure she knows the war in Iraq is a lie.

That makes this broken field of dreams so powerful.

It reminds me of a statement that William Broyles Jr. who is a Vietnam veteran wrote about the Wall in Washington, D.C.

“The Wall is like a character in a play, who’s silence makes all the other characters speak.”

This graveyard of the dead, forces all of us to speak, and we will continue to speak until the lie is dead.

Mike Hastie
Vietnam Veteran
August 22, 2006

Photo from the I-R-A-Q (I Remember Another Quagmire) portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at: (hastiemike@earthlink.net) T)

One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head. The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.

Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
December 13, 2004

UFPJ Betrays Again:
“A Habit Of Condemning The Popular Resistance Of The Arab People”
“UFPJ Went Further To Echo The U.S. Administration’s Own Political Constructs”

UFPJ’s statements join the US-proxy regimes of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt, in holding the popular resistance movement responsible for the savagery of Zionist colonial conquest, a textbook example of blaming the victim.

On July 18, 2006, during peak wholesale murders at the hands of the Israeli military, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) issued a statement that condemned the popular resistance movement in Lebanon as it equated it with Israeli actions.

27 August 2006 Free Palestine Alliance [Excerpts]

As we join people around the world in mobilizing against the unspeakable atrocities being committed by the Israeli military in Lebanon and Palestine, we are forced to turn our attention to attempts by forces within the US justice movement who have made a habit of condemning the popular resistance of the Arab people.

We feel that this is important due to the continued and unabated attempts to marginalize the voice of those at the receiving end of war.

On July 18, 2006, during peak wholesale murders at the hands of the Israeli military, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) issued a statement that condemned the popular resistance movement in Lebanon as it equated it with Israeli actions.

This was followed by a call on July 19, in which UFPJ not only completely eliminated Palestine (once again) from the political scene, but also escalated its condemnation of the resistance and declared that it was in violation of International Law.

UFPJ went further to echo the US administration’s own political constructs, that the Israeli forces should not use a “disproportionate response” as if a proportionate one exists, and as if the violence of colonists is just a mere “response”.

UFPJ’s statements join the US-proxy regimes of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt, in holding the popular resistance movement responsible for the savagery of Zionist colonial conquest, a textbook example of blaming the victim.

Given that the vast majority of the Arab masses support popular Arab resistance movements, condemning this movement from the vantage point of a privileged people is very troubling.

However, when such a practice becomes habitual, with reckless disregard to the concerns of the victims, the practice amounts to bigotry.

This outlook from UFPJ is no surprise.

UFPJ has consistently and vehemently opposed the inclusion of Palestine in the anti-war movement (and continues to do so every time it has a chance), and demanded the removal of Palestinian flags from the New York stage on March 20, 2004, because, according to UFPJ leadership, these flags invoked images of “terror”.

And, of course, UFPJ continues to reject the Palestinian right of return to their original homes and property, all while always claiming to know what is best for the Arab people, and always charging that the Palestinians just have to wait their turn.

The position taken by UFPJ (an increasingly Democratic Party functionary organization) regarding the current Israeli colonial conquest is the same as that of the various Saudi and Gulf-funded Arab organizations in the United States.

The collective goal of these organizations is to contain the justice movement in the various community sectors and to divert them as far from effective goals as possible.

Their modus operandi is always typical and transparent: to condemn “both sides” so as to appease their fund-providers and political sponsors; to issue some benign call for “peace” (albeit, false and unjust); and to declare that the only way to that pseudo-peace is through a specific wing of the existing power structure.

The UFPJ leadership also lacks basic moral courage.

Only two years ago, in Beirut, Lebanon, UFPJ claimed to support the resistance movement in the Arab World, including that of Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine, and joined in opposition to Zionism.

Yet, while in the US, UFPJ condemns that very same movement and does not dare speak against Zionism, lest they anger UFPJ’s political sponsors.

We wish to remind the leadership of UFPJ that the Arab people are the architects of their own destiny, and no amount of condemnation by UFPJ will move one solitary grain of sand in the Arab march for justice.

It is the Arab people who stand clear against the advance of empire for the benefit of all, as the likes of UFPJ stand on the side hurling condemnations.

UFPJ’s continuous racist positions towards the Arab people will only enter the history of social movements as a succession of disgrace after disgrace, befitting of a so-called leadership sheltered from the world and alienated from its suffering.

The UFPJ leadership must stop peddling the struggle and suffering of our people as an “exciting” commodity to achieve funding and financial support, as that leadership must not think, for a moment, that their manipulations will not be opposed.

We call on the member groups of UFPJ and the social justice movement at large to challenge these self-imposed “leaders”, who appear to be bent on destroying the moral compass of the anti-war movement, and to deny them the opportunity to brand the US peace movement as racist.

Some argue that organizations that stand against US and Israeli policies, such as UFPJ, should be allowed to express a “differing political point of view”.

We do not think that continuously insulting the aspiration of the Arab people, through denigrating cherished symbolisms and popular social movements, should be acceptable as a “matter of opinion”.

Racism is never a “matter of opinion”.

Furthermore, we believe that we would all be doing the movement a great disservice if we collectively allow the process of normalizing racist concepts to remain unchallenged.

The examples of these concepts are many, including, a “resisting Arab” is a “terrorist Arab”. As if the Arab people can only be supported if and when they are seen as “helpless victims”, or, better yet, dead.

Since the people of the US suffer from their alienation from the world, the last thing we need is for the movement to also echo that same troubling alienation by mirroring the behavior of empire within.

The Arab people have assumed their responsibilities. The people of the US must do the same, at least within the justice movement.

OCCUPATION REPORT

The Death Agonies Of The Occupation Economy

Aug. 25 DAMIEN CAVE, NY Times. Qais Mizher, Wisam A. Habeeb and Omar al-Neami contributed reporting for this article.

For Mehdi Dawood, Iraq’s failures have leached into the cucumbers, a staple of every meal that now devours a fifth of his monthly pension.

And it is not just the vegetables.

Fuel and electricity prices are up more than 270 percent from last year’s, according to Iraqi government figures. Tea in some markets has quadrupled, egg prices have doubled, and all over the country the daily routine now includes a new question: What can be done without?

“Meat, I just don’t buy it anymore,” said Mr. Dawood, 66, holding half-filled bags at a market in Baghdad. “It’s too expensive.”

“We are all suffering,” he said. “It’s the government’s fault. There is no security. There is no stability.”

As if Iraqis did not have enough to worry about. Going to the market already requires courage, after repeated bombings there, and now life’s most basic needs are becoming drastically more expensive.

Three months into the administration of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the inflation rate has reached 70 percent a year, up from 32 percent last year. Wages are flat, banks are barely functioning and the consensus among many American and Iraqi officials is that inflation is most likely to accelerate.

Violence, corruption and the fallout from decades of government control are kicking up the price of nearly everything, especially fuel, which in turn multiplies the production cost for goods.

“It’s a very serious problem,” said Anthony H. Cordesman, a Middle East analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “You don’t have stable trucking; you don’t have stable distribution. You have a constant protection racket, with security forces who are involved in sectarian fighting often taking bribes to have things operate. All of that builds up pressure on prices.”

Compared with security problems, which can be addressed to some extent by deploying more troops to the streets, the economy is harder to control, especially since most Iraqi commerce occurs beyond the reach of government policy.

Fuel remains the country’s most visible example of economic dysfunction. A gallon of gasoline cost as little as 4 cents in November. Now, after the International Monetary Fund pushed the Oil Ministry to cut its subsidies, the official price is about 67 cents.

The spike has come as a shock to Iraqis, who make only about $150 a month on average, if they have jobs. Estimates of unemployment range from 40 to 60 percent. And with black-market sellers commanding $3.19 a gallon because of shortages, up from about $1.25 a few months ago, the actual price most Iraqis pay is far higher than what is officially sanctioned.

Filling up now requires several days’ pay, monastic patience or both.

Three years after fuel shortages led to riots in Basra, tension is often palpable at the pumps. Lines stretch as far as the eye can see, and at least two shootings have been reported in Baghdad this month alone.

Near a station downtown this week, bribes and line cutting appeared to be the norm. At one point a Mercedes and several police vehicles cut ahead of at least 50 cars while a policeman watched.

“Why are you letting people come from outside?” shouted a man who was just a few cars from the station after seven hours of waiting.

The station’s manager said the drivers given special treatment must have had a note showing that they were doctors, or attending a funeral. A few hundred yards back, by a beat-up station wagon, Abdul Rehman Qasim had a different theory: the drivers avoiding the wait possessed either money or power. He had neither.

“I’m a poor guy,” he said. “So I leave some of my children here. They spend the night in the car.”

“Under the government of Maliki, things are getting worse and worse,” he added. “Only God can save us.”

In Iraq’s once-bustling markets, frustration is equally acute. Car bombers have regularly attacked commercial districts, and prices seem to be up at every stall. At markets in a middle-class Shiite area near downtown, chickpeas have doubled in price. Lamb now runs as high as $2.75 a pound, up from $1.50.

Cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplant have all jumped too, while the price of the propane gas cylinders most families use for cooking has quintupled to more than $15.

“We live hand to mouth,” said Mr. Dawood, a retired clerk for Pepsi.

Veiled women shopping nearby agreed. “We’re tired, and the situation is horrible,” said Zakiya Abid Salman, 55, a widow carrying eggplants. “There are no jobs, and the prices are always rising.”

Merchants said they had no choice but to increase prices because of the increased costs of doing business. And still, they said, their incomes have declined.

Ali Fouad, 27, pushing live fish around a shallow tub of water, said the price of transporting his product from farms south of Baghdad has nearly tripled since last year. A few months ago he sold about 110 pounds of fish a day, earning roughly $50 after expenses. Since he had to raise prices about 60 percent, he said, he sells less and earns only $20 a day.

“What’s our life today?” he asked. “We are working only for gas, ice and electricity. There is no savings.”

The Central Bank of Iraq is only three years old. Though the International Monetary Fund reports that officials have raised interest rates — and accelerated efforts to create a functioning market economy — its most recent study in July also concluded that “the banking system is largely inert.”

As a result, the report said, the effectiveness of such measures would be “very limited.”

“Increasing the interest rate for business loans and mortgages, if people aren’t taking out those loans, how much of an effect can you have?” said Edward W. Kloth, an economic adviser at the American Embassy here. “The tools that are available are very limited in this kind of a situation.”

Ali al-Dabagh, a spokesman for Prime Minister Maliki, said in an interview that “the government is working hard to find solutions.” He blamed terrorists for undermining Iraq’s elected leaders, but he acknowledged that the country “needs an administrative revolution.”

For the families trying to survive, time sometimes seems to be running out. Fathi Khalid, 43, a vegetable seller with a mostly empty stall, said obstacles seemed to multiply by the day. Sometimes roads are blocked so harvests never arrive. Sometimes he cannot afford to pay the right bribes. And week after week, his customers purchase less and less.

“Most people buy half what they used to,” he said. “The vegetables sit here and rot.”

OCCUPATION PALESTINE/LEBANON

Get The Message?

Philly Banner Drop: 8-22-2006 [Jewishconscience.blogspot.com]

Who Started Terrorism In The Arab-Israeli Conflict?

August 21, 2006 The Angry Arab News Service

Bombs in Cafes: first used by Zionists in Palestine on March 17th, 1937 in Jaffa.

Bombs on Buses: first used by Zionists in Palestine Aug. 20th-Sep. 26, 1937.

Bombs in Market Places: first used by Zionists on July 6th, 1938 in Haifa.

Bombing of Hotels: first used by Zionists on July 22nd, 1946 in Jerusalem.

Bombing of Foreign Embassies: first used by Zionists on October 1st, 1946 in Rome (against the British).

Mining of Ambulances: First used by Zionists on October 31st, 1946 in Petah Tikvah.

Letter Bombs: first used by Zionists in June 1947 against British targets in UK.

(For documentation, consult The Arab Women’s Information Committee and The Institute for Palestine Studies, Who Are the Terrorists? Aspects of Zionist and Israeli Terrorism, (Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1972)

[To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation by foreign terrorists, go to: www.rafahtoday.org The occupied nation is Palestine. The foreign terrorists call themselves “Israeli.”]

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Send to contact@militaryproject.org. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential.

80 Year Old Taken As Hostage For His Son

22 / 08 / 2006 Ma’an

Nablus: According to the Ma’an correspondent in Nablus, the Israeli forces broke into the house of Rawhi Sufan, 80, in the Al-Karyun district of the Old City of Nablus and arrested him in an attempt to force his 26-year old son Fuad, who is allegedly a member of the al-Aqsa Brigades, to surrender.

The Israeli forces also broke into the house of Firas Kandil, 25, and arrested him. It is reported that his brother is a wanted member of the Al-Aqsa Brigades.

“Israeli Forces Killed 25 Lebanese Civilians For Every Israeli Civilian Killed By Hezbollah”

August 21, 2006 Remi Kanazi, PoliticalAffairs.net [Excerpt]

If Hezbollah were a military, given Western standards, it would certainly be the most moral in the world.

During Israel’s five week offensive, Hezbollah killed 118 Israeli soldiers and 41 Israeli civilians (18 of which were Israeli Palestinians).

Hezbollah killed three Israeli soldiers for every one Israeli civilian.

In contrast, Israeli forces killed more than 1000 Lebanese civilians during the onslaught (more bodies are expected to be discovered during the current period of “calm”).

Robert Fisk, based in Lebanon, reported, “They are digging them up by the hour.”

Israeli forces killed 25 Lebanese civilians for every Israeli civilian killed by Hezbollah.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

HISTORIANS DEMOTE BUSH TO ‘DWARF PRESIDENT’

[Thanks to John Gingerich, who sent this in.]

By Don Davis

In a move heavily anticipated for the last five years, the National Academy of Historians has ratified what had been generally accepted knowledge, and officially demoted George W. Bush to status of “Dwarf President.”

Although Bush stands over six feet tall, both the microscopic size of his brain, and his total lack of any gravitas, immediately disqualified him from the definition of a full-fledged President.

As with Pluto, which has also been reduced to “dwarf status,” Bush has a relatively eccentric orbit, inclined to six degrees of separation from reality.

Also, in another parallel with Pluto, Bush orbits among various icy wrecks, including Iraq, New Orleans and the entire federal budget.

Some historians actually recommended that Bush be further downgraded to “satellite,” given his inability to break the gravitational pull of the Neo-Con Solar System, also known as Cheney Destroy-e-alis. Still others voted to designate him as a mere ass-teroid.

When informed that he had been accorded the same treatment as Pluto, Bush replied that he “appreciates that, since Pluto was always my favorite Disney character.”

Received:

“US Jews Stand Against Israel’s War Crimes”

From: L
To: GI Special
Sent: August 27, 2006
Subject: The IDF Is A Spoiled, Confused And Tired Army That Is Specializing Solely In Terrorizing Civilian Populations

Dear GI Special,

Thanks for the insight of Gilad Atzmon, republished from Information Clearing House.

“The IDF is a spoiled, confused and tired army that is specializing solely in terrorizing civilian populations while being engaged in constant tactical withdrawal.

“The IDF is basically a heavy army specializing in merciless regional bullying.

“Yet, it cannot win a war, and as such it has nothing to offer the American empire.”

But doesn’t that definition describe the US Armed Forces just as well?

And thanks for the picture from the NYC Die-in. It is so sweet to read the words, “US Jews say : Stop US Aid for Israel’s Aggressions”.

I clicked over to jewishconscience.blogspot.com/ and found
“US Jews Say: Stop Military $ to ISRAEL”, and
“US Jews Say: Israel, Stop Killing Civilians”, and
“US Jews Stand Against Israel’s War Crimes”

Great Stuff!

Please keep bringing the good news!

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

Telling the truth – about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington – is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance – whether it’s in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you’ve read, we hope that you’ll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers.  www.traveling-soldier.org/  And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! www.ivaw.net

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