Translation Under Fire

Translation Under Fire
tells the gut-wrenching story of a young U.S. army interpreter's struggle to do her job, and in the process, stay alive.
LINK

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October 18th, 2007

This is Rahna Rasheed’s younger brother.

That’s her body you can see covered on the stretcher in the background. She was 17.

She was shot this morning by green zone government forces who mistook her for a fighter during a raid on her village north of Baqubah.

She was rushed to Baqubah hospital but died of gunshot wounds to the head.

The lady with bloodstained clothers and blood on her face is her mother. The other two adults are Hamid and Shokriya Hasan her uncle and aunt. The photograph was taken this morning at Baqubah hospital morgue.

The savages of war reign down on anyone in their way

Via: Uruknet | Link: gorillasguides.com

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I survived Blackwater

"As we approached at typical breakneck speed, the Blackwater driver honked furiously and motioned to the side, as if they should pull over," she pens. "The kids in the back seat looked back in horror, mouths agape at the sight of the heavily armored Suburbans driven by large, armed men in dark sunglasses. The poor Iraqi driver frantically searched for a means of escape, but there was none. So the lead Blackwater vehicle smashed heedlessly into the car, pushing it into the barrier. We zoomed by too quickly to notice if anyone was hurt."

"Where do you all expect them to go?" she allegedly cried. "It was an old guy and a family, for goodness' sake. Was it necessary for them to destroy their poor old car?"

"Ma'am, we've been trained to view anyone as a potential threat," she says the driver, who she did not identify, replied. "You don't know who they might use as decoys or what the risks are. Terrorists could be disguised as anyone."

Tell me, what good is the Geneva Convention when you make up your own rules as you go along? They aren't calling it a "war", they torture covertly, and private contractors-- who came up with that euphemism? I prefer mercenaries-- they are immune from prosecution.

link

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Company That Killed Iraqi Civilians Gets Lucrative Drug War Contract

$15 billion of your money up in smoke for under-fire mercenary company, other defense contractors.

What do you do when you've been kicked out of Iraq for killing civilians and your company's reputation is in shambles? Fear not, the drug war is always hiring, and there's nothing on earth you could do to disqualify yourself from employment in the accountability-free industry of international drug prohibition.

While Blackwater's mercenaries beg for mercy for killing a baby and 19 other people in Baghdad on Sunday, they're already working on another lucrative government contract on yet another foreign adventure: the "war on drugs." [Village Voice]

Details are sketchy since the government doesn't report eagerly on the creepy deals it makes with baby-killing mercenary groups. But Village Voice says they're building giant remote-control surveillance blimps.

It remains unclear what these blimps will be used for or what other secretive drug war endeavors Blackwater will be undertaking, but this much is for sure: it will all be phenomenally expensive and it won't change a damn thing.

Never, ever forget that War is big business.

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Assholes of the Week

4:00 PM, 9/3/07
***Regarding the post below, Paul Krassner has apologized to Wes Clark for misrepresenting him.***

"Thanks to Comments on my Assholes of the Week #7 blog, I now add myself to one of them because I criticized General Clark for his silence about Pentagon plans to invade six other countries after Iraq, when in fact he did indeed speak out repeatedly."

link

Thanks, Paul, for admitting when you've made a mistake.



Paul Krassner's Assholes of the Week

General Wesley Clark, for waiting until recently to reveal to Amy Goodman on "Democracy Now" the following: "About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, 'Sir, you've got to come in and talk to me a second.' I said, 'Well, you're too busy.' He said, 'No, no.' He says, 'We've made the decision we're going to war with Iraq.' This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, 'We're going to war with Iraq? Why?' He said, 'I don't know.' He said, 'I guess they don't know what else to do.' So I said, 'Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al Qaeda?' He said, 'No, no.' He says, 'There's nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.' He said, 'I guess it's like we don't know what to do about terrorists, but we've got a good military and we can take down governments.' And he said,

"I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail."

Un-fucking-believable

[Read more »]

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"Redacted" stuns Venice

A new film about the real-life rape and killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers who also murdered her family stunned the Venice festival, with shocking images that left some viewers in tears.

"Redacted", by U.S. director Brian De Palma, is one of at least eight American films on the war in Iraq due for release in the next few months and the first of two movies on the conflict screening in Venice's main competition.

Inspired by one of the most serious crimes committed by American soldiers in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, it is a harrowing indictment of the conflict and spares the audience no brutality to get its message across.

De Palma, 66, whose "Casualties of War" in 1989 told a similar tale of abuse by American soldiers in Vietnam, makes no secret of the goal he is hoping to achieve with the film's images, all based on real material he found on the Internet.

"The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people," he told reporters after a press screening.

"The pictures are what will stop the war. One only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to motivate their Congressmen to vote against this war," he said.

Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi was gang raped, killed and burnt by American soldiers in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, in March 2006. Her parents and younger daughter were also killed.

Five soldiers have since been charged with the attack. Four of them have been given sentences of between 5 and 110 years.

"IT'S ALL ON THE INTERNET" Continued...

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The Big Disconnect

War is good for business. Everything else be damned. In that same context people always want to give Bush a good deal on a Brooklyn Bridge or an ocean front property in Kansas (or yellow cake or wmd's, etc) and without reservation he goes for his wallet like a father handing out cash to his kids.

Washington's Wars and Occupations
Month in Review #28
August 30, 2007
By Max Elbaum, War Times/Tiempo de Guerras

THE BIG DISCONNECT

The promised September assessment of where things stand in Iraq is around the corner.

So right on cue George Bush declared (Aug. 22) that "a free Iraq" is within reach.

The same day Iraq's Electricity Minister told reporters that "armed groups" - not the Iraqi government - control the switching stations that channel power throughout Iraq's energy grid. A new report from Bush's own Intelligence apparatus declared that prospects for the Iraqi government to unite the country were somewhere between bleak and gloomy.

Bush's dreamland "free Iraq" is part of the President's "support for freedom and democracy throughout the Middle East."

Most Arabs and Muslims, though, see that kind of support as "the kiss of death," according to Turki al-Rasheed, a prominent (and largely pro-U.S.) Saudi reformer. "The minute you are counted on or backed by the Americans, kiss it goodbye, you will never win," al-Rasheed told the New York Times (Aug. 10). The Times went on to report that "The paradox of American policy in the Middle East - promoting democracy on the assumption it will bring countries closer to the West - is that almost everywhere there are free elections, the American-backed side tends to lose."

It's Alice-in-Wonderland come to life. Bush's imaginings (and the imperial interests they are conjured up to defend) vs. the real world and most of the people in it.

And if it isn't hard enough to parse through the bullshit, we have to read between the lines when the Dems say "end the war."

"Even as they call for an end to the war and pledge to bring the troops home, the Democratic presidential candidates are setting out positions that could leave the U.S. engaged in Iraq for years. John Edwards would keep troops in the region to intervene in an Iraqi genocide and be prepared for military action if violence spills into other countries. Hillary Clinton would leave residual forces to fight terrorism and to stabilize the Kurdish region in the north. And Barack Obama would leave a military presence of as-yet unspecified size in Iraq to provide security for American personnel, fight terrorism and train Iraqis."

Bush says we're making progress in Iraq and anyone who differs is "undermining the troops."

I just can't. I'm done. (as Father Luke says)

(italics are mine; the rest is via an email newsletter from war-times.org; not yet published to the website)

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Short Bedtime Stories

a bit lengthy, but worth the time

Short Bedtime Stories
by Layla Anwar, from Arab Woman Blues

I would have really liked to sing you a bedtime lullaby. Alas, it is simply not possible. And in most likelihood, my voice will keep you very awake. Surely, I do not want to be a cause for your insomnia. So am offering you a few short stories to lull you into unconsciousness, into a deep catatonic sleep...(not that you really need it.) But just in case you are losing sleep over the ongoing Iraqi genocide.

Once upon a time...

* Once upon a time, was Badiaa, Kamel's wife.
She lived in a small house, borrowed house. Her husband is detained by the American dwarfs and her son has been killed by the same dwarfs.

She would spend many hours sitting in her kitchen, talking to herself. She sold most of the remaining furniture she had. Only three kitchen chairs were left and she confided in them. Sometimes pretending her husband or son were sitting opposite her and listening to her woes...

One night, not long ago, at 1 am, the "Iraqi" army and the dwarfs stormed her home. They searched, ransacked and destroyed the little she had left.

"Why, why? Is it not enough you took my husband and killed my son. Why destroy the little I have?" "It is for your own security. You have a sniper on your roof."

Of course, Badiaa has no electricity. She uses an oil lamp. One of the guards kicks the lamp. No Genie or sniper came out. But a fierce fire spread wildly, catching the doors, the walls,the curtains and the chairs...

Half of Badiaa's house is now burned down.

"We will send you a cheque." They laughed and walked away in the night.

Now Badiaa has only one chair left in the kitchen. Her walls are smoky black, her doors burned to ashes and her curtains eaten up by fire... She still sits in the kitchen. She has stopped talking to herself now that the two other chairs are gone.

* Once upon a time was Nasser.
Half of Nasser's family has been decimated, slaughtered by the dwarfs right where the Butcher prospered most... Every other day Nasser has a funeral. A family member, 20 years old was detained by the dwarfs and held up in some dungeon in Baghdad for months. No trial, no charges.
For months he was "interrogated" in that dungeon and then transferred to another dungeon in Southern Iraq, a sectarian Iranian stronghold.

After several months, the dwarfs decided to release him. No charges. They called him up. "Be ready to leave. You will be signing some release papers tomorrow." One more night in the dungeon and he will be free. That same day, the sectarian militias and some say the dwarfs (and I say both) bombed the prison. A prison filled with Iraqi sunnis.(Omar was there too.) The boy is dead. He finally left the dungeon...free.

* Once upon a time was Radhee
A bright, smart, quick witted man... Radhee has been without a job for well over a year. Radhee is stuck in a walled Sunni enclave called Adhamiya. Radhee spends his days devising ways and routes to get to the grocer without being shot at by snipers, militias or the dwarfs... Radhee gave up his daily schemes. Besides you cannot find any fruits or vegetables in the Adhamiya market and meat and eggs are a luxury from the past.

Radhee has no electricity, Radhee has no gasoline. So Radhee ingeniously invented a way to bake bread in his backyard. He uses the legs of his furniture as wooden logs and places newspapers on top. The whole invention makes for a flamboyant outdoor oven. Radhee and his family can now survive on bread and water. Nice home made bread baked on torn furniture parts and newspapers.
One hundred newspaper publications and "free" press have come in very handy.

Radhee is now living happily ever "after."

* Once upon a time was Salam.
Salam, a beautiful, educated young woman... After her kidnapping and her battering ordeal, Salam has become agoraphobic. She not only is unable to leave the house, she cannot even leave her bedroom.

She lies in bed most of the time, staring at the ceiling and her staring is punctuated by sporadic screams "Please don't, please don't."

* Once upon a time was Raouf.
Raouf, a handsome, loving caring man... Raouf can no longer sit straight. His ribs all are broken, his wounds badly infected... He has more stories to tell you and me. Stories that his bruises kept well hidden. Cigarette burns adorn his body like dark brown halos, like dim, dying stars...

Raouf cannot lie on his back, cannot walk, cannot move... He is slouched all day and all night, inert, his head bent down and his pictures and papers safely tucked close to him... Raouf sits, swallowing his open wounds and the stories they hide, in total silence...

Once upon a time, there was us, there was me.
Once upon a time, there were others, many others...
Once upon a time, there were peaceful nights and dreams.
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago.

Sleep well.

link

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Bone Dance: A Late Epiphany at the New York Times

Bone Dance: A Late Epiphany at the New York Times

This is the sound of a very large bone, lodged for a very long time, being hocked up at last:

"It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit." -- the New York Times, July 8, 2007.

Only four years -- and hundreds of thousands of dead bodies -- too late, of course. And it might have been nice if the Times editorialists had noted the very large part their own paper played in what they now call -- they now call -- "this unnecessary invasion."

[Read More from writer Chris Floyd]

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Bush’s Fleurs du Mal

Bush's Fleurs du Mal
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: May 27, 2007

The president thinks he can save face if he keeps taunting Democrats as the party of surrender - just as Nixon did - and dumps the Frankenstate he's created on his successor.

For me, the saddest spot in Washington is the inverted V of the black granite Vietnam wall, jutting up with the names of young men dying in a war that their leaders already knew could not be won.

So many died because of ego and deceit - because L.B.J. and Robert McNamara wanted to save face or because Henry Kissinger wanted to protect Nixon's re-election chances.

Now the Bush administration finds itself at that same hour of shame. It knows the surge is not working. Iraq is in a civil war, with a gruesome bonus of terrorists mixed in. April was the worst month this year for the American military, with 104 soldiers killed, and there have been about 90 killed thus far in May. The democracy's not jelling, as Iraqi lawmakers get ready to slouch off for a two-month vacation, leaving our kids to be blown up.

The top-flight counterinsurgency team that President Bush sent in after long years of pretending that we'd "turned the corner" doesn't believe there's a military solution.

--MORE--

So many deaths; so little truth.

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WE - A Documentary

WE - A Documentary

'We' juxtaposes the writer Arundhati Roy's eloquent 'Come September' address, with a collage of contemporary and historical footage of our world, against a stirring soundtrack (Lush, Curve, Love & Rockets, Boards of Canada, Nine Inch Nails, Dead Can Dance, Amon Tobin, Massive Attack, Tortoise, Telepop, Placebo and Faithless).

Roy asks her audience to consider September 11 in the years prior to 2001, and what this date might mean to the citizens of the world. She says:

"This historical dredging is not offered as an accusation or a provocation. But just to share the grief of history. To thin the mist a little. To say to the citizens of America, in the gentlest, most human way: Welcome to the world."

She then refers to the September 11, 1973 CIA supported military coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet, the British government's September 11, 1922 mandate in Palestine and George Bush Sr's announcement to go to war against Iraq on September 11, 1990.

"...to dogmatically hold to only one set of ideas results in, I think, a slow, sad, and unnecessary form of brain death. Westerners need to start reading non-western press if they ever wish to understand the world better than they do at this moment."


'We' was produced by New Zealander Scott Ewing, who initially released it anonymously on the internet. It first appeared on the Australian website: resist.com.au in September 2005.

It's a powerful antidote to the mind numbing propaganda disseminated by our mainstream media. Free your mind. Go to: www.weroy.org

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House Says No To Troop Build-Up

House Says No To Troop Build-Up

The Iraq War Resolution was just passed in the House of Representatives with the disapproval of Bush's 21,000 more troop build-up.

17 Republicans broke from party lines to add with the Dems 229 YEAs making a total of 246 with 182 NO votes. Beautiful. If we can have more of the same when the Senate votes tomorrow @ 1:45pm est.

More @ CSPAN

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Filibuster to End the War Now!

It Only Takes 41 Senate Votes to End the War. Republicans Show the Way.

Filibuster to End the War Now!

By JOHN V. WALSH

We hear over and over again that it "takes 60 votes to get something serious done in the Senate." That is a lot of malarkey. It takes only one senator to begin a filibuster against any bill. And then it takes only 41 votes to uphold that filibuster and prevent any proposed law from coming to the floor.

Thus, the present authorization for defense funding in the coming fiscal year can be stopped cold if it contains funds for the war on Iraq. And this can be done by just one courageous Senator, backed by 40 colleagues.

Let me propose the following scenario. Just one Senator, Ted Kennedy or Russ Feingold or Robert Byrd, arises in the Senate and declares that he will filibuster the present defense authorization bill if it contains funds for the war on Iraq or Iran. That bill is then dead unless there are 60 votes (3/5 of the 100 Senators) to end the debate, i.e., to invoke cloture. That is it. Bush no longer has the funds to prosecute the war. He has to come back with a funding bill acceptable to the 41.

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SOTU Drinking Game

I always think these games are right-on about the predictable buzzwords or talking points that are mentioned. Especially when the "sectarian violence", the pseudonym for civil war, is used.

SOTU Drinking Game 2007

Every time he says.... - # of Drinks

“The state of our union is strong…” (or some version of this) - 1,+1 if he breaks down in tears

"the American people" - 1

troops - small 1

surge - quick 1

Iraq - 1

Baghdad - 1

"sectarian violence" - 1 Car Bomb recipe

Iran - 1

terror (however itÂ’s pronounced) - small 1

detainees - 1, with your hands behind your back

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - 2 (+1 if he pronounces it correctly)

Saddam Hussein or Saddam - 1

elections - 1 if referring to another country's, 2 if referring to the 2006 midterms

freedom - 1

Homeland - 1 if followed by "Security"; 2 if another context

"Bring it on" - Arm-wrestle the person next to you; loser drinks

MORE//

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Healing Iraq

I got your alt news right here.

Read about the recent bombing at Baghdad?s Mustansiriya University from Zeyad of Healing Iraq.

Can you imagine the scene? Try. Think of your own schools, your own college campuses. Think of how you would feel if your own son or daughter had to go to school in the hell that is called Iraq. Think of what you would do if you heard the news that the school was bombed.

Eyewitnesses said cell phones were still ringing urgently in pockets and purses lying around human body parts. Try to imagine the person on the other line.

A man searched for his son and finally found his head and torso, but no legs. ?Where is his other half?? he asked, before he started shaking with violent sobs.

Over here, the above scenes elicit a 20-second sound bite in the news, perhaps immediately followed by dog food or deodorant commercials. At best, politicians would use it in talking points, to justify even more bloodshed and destruction.

Daily news and comments on the situation in post Saddam Iraq by an Iraqi dentist, this weblog's been around a long time and is where I go for the truth about Baghdad.

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House A Soldier/Resister

War Resisters in need of assistance! If you can help, please do! Can you help house a soldier/resister on their way to Canada?

"If you have room where you can house a resister for a few days, a few weeks or longer, please get in touch with us," the group said.

Since the news broke that George Bush will be announcing an increased deployment of 20,000 troops to Iraq, there has been a huge response within the U.S. military.

The War Resisters Support Campaign has been inundated with requests from soldiers who are considering coming to Canada.

This is an urgent appeal for housing spots for the new arrivals. If you have room where you can house a resister for a few days, a few weeks or longer, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH WITH US.

Welcoming a war resister here with the offer of temporary housing is a concrete way to help put an end to war in Iraq. Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated!

Please contact:

Tom at tomriley@pace-il.ca
or
Christine at 647.393.3096
or

Leave a message at:

The War Resisters Support Campaign office:
416.598.1222, resisters@sympatico.ca

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POWs - prisoners of "W"

BuzzFlash: Why do you think the rebuilding effort and relief effort in New Orleans has just come to a complete halt?

Greg Palast: It's not stalled. This is the plan. This is another White House gimmick to hide their evil intent in the clothing of incompetence.



The same with Iraq -- oh, we screwed up? We didn't get all the cheap oil that Wolfowitz promised in his congressional testimony, when he said the price of oil would decline. Well, it's gone up. Golly gee, who funds the Bush Administration but the oil companies and Saudi Arabia? Who profits when the price of oil goes up? That's "Mission Accomplished."



Look to New Orleans. Golly gee, the black folks haven't come back. There are no labor unions anymore in New Orleans. There are no public schools. It's all vouchers. Worker wages have gone down. It's "Mission Accomplished." This is the plan. This is the program.



The idea that this is just a screw-up, or a delay, or a stall is wrong. This is the plan. You're seeing it in effect. They don't ever want those people back. You still have 73,000 POWs - prisoners of "W."

What makes Palast a good investigative reporter is that he does his homework and not only tells us the real story sans agenda, but always finds a way to get his voice heard. Sure is a tenacious little fucker.

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Iraq children taunted by a few US soldiers. It just breaks your heart.
link

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Key Democrat Wants To Reinstate Draft

WASHINGTON ? Americans would have to sign up for a new military draft after turning 18 under a bill the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee says he will introduce next year.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Sunday he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars.

"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way," Rangel said.

In 2003, Rangel proposed a measure covering people age 18 to 26. It was defeated 402-2 the following year. This year, he offered a plan to mandate military service for men and women between age 18 and 42; it went nowhere in the Republican-led Congress.

What a tool. Just more indication that the US 2-party system is royally fucked up. You can't even hope for the lesser of the two evils anymore.

link

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A Come-to-Daddy Moment

Poppy Bush and James Baker gave Sonny the presidency to play with and he broke it. So now they?re taking it back.

They are dragging W. away from those reckless older guys who have been such a bad influence and getting him some new minders who are a lot more practical.

In a scene that might be called "Murder on the Oval Express," Rummy turned up dead with so many knives in him that it?s impossible to say who actually finished off the man billed as Washington's most skilled infighter. (Poppy? Scowcroft? Baker? Laura? Condi? The Silver Fox? Retired generals? Serving generals? Future generals? Troops returning to Iraq for the umpteenth time without a decent strategy? Democrats? Republicans? Joe Lieberman?)

The defense chief got hung out to dry before Saddam got hung. The president and Karl Rove, underestimating the public?s hunger for change or overestimating the loyalty of a fed-up base, did not ice Rummy in time to save the Senate from teetering Democratic. But once Sonny managed to heedlessly dynamite the Republican majority ? as well as the Middle East, the Atlantic alliance and the U.S. Army ? then Bush Inc., the family firm that snatched the presidency for W. in 2000, had to step in. Two trusted members of the Bush 41 war council, Mr. Baker and Robert Gates, have been dispatched to discipline the delinquent juvenile and extricate him from the mother of all messes.

Mr. Gates, already on Mr. Baker?s "How Do We Get Sonny Out of Deep Doo Doo in Iraq?" study group, left his job protecting 41?s papers at Texas A&M to return to Washington and pry the fingers of Poppy?s old nemesis, Rummy, off the Pentagon.

"They had to bring in someone from the old gang," said someone from the old gang. "That has to make Junior uneasy. With Bob, the door is opened again to 41 and Baker and Brent."

Another great Maureen Dowd piece that never lets us forget that it's Bush Inc in charge; not Baby Bush. [Read More] (This week is Free Access week at NYT)

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