Still Not Standing...

Remember when the Connecticut Cowboy said that we'll stand down when the Iraqi's stand up? Not only are the Iraqi's still not standing up, they're not even showing up. From the Iraqi parliament , to the Iraqi Army, only the American troops and American tax dollars are fully invested.

The Iraqi Parliament

Since last November, almost every session of the Iraq parliament has been adjourned due to weak attendance. Of the 275 member parliament, typically less than half attend. The situation has forced the speaker of parliament to begin fining the absent members $400 for each missed session. The individuals whom Bush so relished pronouncing their names in his faux drawl: Pachachi and Allawi, have both left Iraq, still collecting their six figure salaries. However, Pachachi was available for interview by Damien Cave of the New York Times. When asked about the turmoil in parliament, Pachachi said (safely from Abu Dhabi) that the Iraqi "people are totally disenchanted...there has been no improvement in the security situation. The government seems to be incapable of doing anything despite all the promises.” Cave also writes that this Monday's session actually met the quorum, including the attendance of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim who arrived late spending his 'first five minutes waving and nodding at colleagues, some of whom he apparently had not seen in months.'

The Iraqi Army & Haifa Street
Speaking of arriving late, today Cave gives us a disturbing look into what our troops are facing daily on the streets of Iraq, alongside their Iraqi brethren. Cave writes: 'In a miniature version of the troop increase that the United States hopes will secure the city, American soldiers and armored vehicles raced onto Haifa Street before dawn to dislodge Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias who have been battling for a stretch of ragged slums and mostly abandoned high rises. But as the sun rose, many of the Iraqi Army units who were supposed to do the actual searches of the buildings did not arrive on time, forcing the Americans to start the job on their own. When the Iraqi units finally did show up, it was with the air of a class outing, cheering and laughing as the Americans blew locks off doors with shotguns. As the morning wore on and the troops came under fire from all directions, another apparent flaw in this strategy became clear as empty apartments became lairs for gunmen who flitted from window to window and killed at least one American soldier, with a shot to the head." He goes on to write that the platoon is never quite sure who is firing at them, and who has killed their fellow soldier. Is it the Shiites, Sunni's, or is it...their tardy cohorts who vanished moments earlier? The Sergeant in command, Sgt. First Class Marc Biletski, shouts to his platoon: “Who the hell is shooting at us? Do we know who they are?” The Iraqi's are still nowhere in sight. At this moment, the Sergeant acknowledges: “This place is a failure...Every time we come here, we have to come back.”

Cave observes that 'many of the Iraqi units that showed up late never seemed to take the task seriously, searching haphazardly, breaking dishes and rifling through personal CD collections in the apartments.' The Americans later realize that the Iraqi's have not conducted a thorough search and have once again vanished. The gunfire begins once again, from all directions, bringing the Americans to wonder again who is firing at them. They again, locate the Iraqi soldiers. Most shocking about this demonstration of the twisted hell our troops are in, Lieutenant David Stroud remarks “it’s their show” and adding that the Americans have orders to defer to the Iraqis in cases like this.

At the end of this deadly chaotic exercise with 2 Iraqi soldiers shot, Cave ends with one final disturbing observation: Many of the rest of the Iraqi soldiers 'could not stop shouting and guffawing with amusement as they ran through the smoke. One Iraqi soldier in the alley pointed his rifle at an American reporter and pulled the trigger. There was only a click: the weapon had no ammunition. The Iraqi soldier laughed...'

ScooterGoat

Oh, it's all so sad. One pompous, elitist, lying Republican in the Bush Administration is the scapegoat for another pompous, elitist, lying Republican in the Bush Administration. Yes, in the ongoing debacle that is the Scooter Libby trial, Scooter is attempting to take a few down with him. Now, it wasn't Scooter who recklessly revealed the identity of a undercover CIA agent, it was Boy Genius, Karl. And Scooter even has a note from his dad to prove it.

I for one, would prefer they both go to jail. Especially Scooter. I can't wait for a sequel to "The Apprentice" (buy it here!), his freakish novel where a bear has sex with a 10 year old girl. Ah, family values. I suppose that Rove can remain free, as it appears his talent has run dry. Well, it's not really talent, more like a lack of a conscience while manipulating facts and the truth.

All that aside, the true issue at hand is once again being dwarfed by the egos and arrogance that is the Bush White House. Let me refresh the facts in this case. Valerie Plame had been a covert CIA operative for more than 30 years. Agents are put under cover for special reasons. Exposing them, also exposes fellow covert agents, and could very well endanger all of their lives. Plame and her associates were oddly enough charged with the objective of thwarting the proliferation of WMD's. All of her work, her associates, her cover corporations, all of her progress, was lost in an instant. Now, why would an administration, that oh professes so to want to rid our enemies of WMD's, go and destroy a CIA project(s) created for that sole purpose? That and the reason why we really invaded Iraq are the two 'buried leads' of our time.

The Untouchables

Do you think anyone suing Halliburton, in Texas, would ever get a fair trial? Surviving truck drivers and the families of those killed in an insurgent attack on a Halliburton fuel convoy in April 2004, filed a lawsuit against Halliburton. They claimed the corporation knew beforehand that the route was prone to insurgent attacks. This week, the federal judge hearing the case, threw it out.

The Washington Post reports that the suit had 'claimed Halliburton bore responsibility because the company knew the proposed route was the scene of a pitched battle but decided to send the drivers anyway.' Hey, when all else fails, blame the military: the presiding judge- U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller 'ruled that the Army had played a key role in sending the convoy and that it was not his place to second-guess that decision.'

It gets better. The judge, Gray Miller, was appointed by President Bush. Miller added that the court "cannot try a case set on a battlefield during war-time without an impermissible intrusion into powers expressly granted to the Executive by the Constitution." How convenient. Senator Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), who held a Democratic Policy Committee hearing on the truck drivers' claims said, regarding the lawsuit, "this appears to give very broad immunity to the contractor ...that's an unfortunate result from the standpoint of the rights you would expect an American citizen to have. It's very troubling."

Halliburton denied wrongdoing and argued it could not be sued because it was operating under orders from the Army. Halliburton issued a statement pointing to language in the ruling saying that the court could not hear the case because it "would have to substitute its judgment for that of the Army." This case is among the first regarding contractor safety at the hands of Halliburton. So far, 91 contractors and employees have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.

This particular, deadly incident occurred on April 9, 2004, when insurgents attacked a KBR fuel convoy, killing seven civilians and injuring at least seven more. The Post reports that the "drivers who survived the attack, as well as other former Halliburton employees, later said the company should have known the convoy would face extreme danger because of intense fighting along the convoy route over the previous two days. Sean A. Larvenz, who was in a different Halliburton convoy that day, said he had warned his bosses about the fighting but that they sent the doomed convoy anyway.

"As long as trucks rolled," Larvenz told senators this week, "they got paid." And isn't that what this invasion in Iraq is all about? Halliburton getting paid.

SWIFT Banking America

After the NY Times article revealing the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Communication) program was published, Bush, Cheney and the rest of the Potemkin Party openly chastised the Times for revealing a key tool in the war on terror. Representative Peter King demanded that the NY Times be charged under the Espionage Act. The Potemkins stated that now the terrorists will know that their finances are being tracked. Oh, thou doth protest too much.

This reaction from the Potemkins even illicited laughter from Tom Brokaw. And a Boston Globe interview with Victor D. Comras , a former US diplomat, demonstrated the obvious. Comras oversaw efforts at the United Nations to improve international measures to combat terror financing. Comras said: "Unless they were pretty dumb, they had to assume their transactions were being monitored... We have spent the last four years bragging how effective we have been in tracking terrorist financing."

To add to this, the clandestive, super duper, double, triple, top secret SWIFT has it's own website! It also has it's own monthly magazine! Thankfully our Edward R. Murrow- Keith Olbermann - uncovered both the website and the magazine, but he also aired the many video clips of Bush bragging about the 'bank tapping' of terrorists.

How dare the Times report on a program that the president has mentioned again and again and again. Exactly why did Bush and Cheney react so passionately about this article? Could it be that this administration isn't bank tapping terrorists, but rather Americans. More directly, Americans donating to Moveon.org or that other terrorist organization (according to the NSA) PETA!? Now exactly who is guilty of treason?

Erection Fraud

The hypocritical, bloated, racist, no-talent, drug addicted, deafened by oxycontin abuse, avoided the Vietnam war because of anal cysts, welfare collecting, radio hack was busted yet again in violation of prescription drug laws. MSNBC reported that Rush Limbaugh is being investigated for potentially violating the deal he made with prosecutors earlier this year "in a long-running prescription fraud case when authorities found he had a bottle of Viagra that was apparently prescribed to someone else." This deal dismissed “doctor shopping” charges as long as the Big Fat Idiot avoided arrest for 18 months. The doctor shopping charges entailed Rush deceiving several physicians in order to obtain "overlapping painkiller prescriptions."

He being the radio host who said that all drug addicts should be 'convicted and sent up the river.' What's more disgusting about Monday's events is that Rush was coming back from the Dominican Republican. Oh, the visuals. He told his radio audience today that he had fun and wishes he could provide more detail. Rush is one of the few allowed to broadcast to our troops overseas, by the Bush Administration (further proof that Bush et al do not care about our troops). He's addicted to painkillers, yet protests otherwise on his radio show. He also held disdain for Clinton's indiscretions, yet he is thrice divorced. He calls those calling for troop withdrawal, 'cut and runner's, yet he got out of serving in the Vietnam War because he had anal cysts. He is the example of this Potemkin Administration, being one of their main foot soldiers.

Here's what Rush had to say about drug addicts- like himself- from one of his broadcasts on October 5th, 1995:

"There's nothing good about drug use. We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up.
"What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too."

I'm willing to paddle the raft.

More Than 1 Plot Was Foiled

Today's dispatch from the Potemkin Administration. Put away your duct tape and your Toby Keith CD. The so-called "Miami 7" that US Authorities nabbed this week for plotting to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago, as the Herald Sun reports today, were more "ridiculous" than menacing. I am very intrigued that these 7 dimwits were thwarted on tips from a government informant (who appears to lack all of the skills of an investigator), yet when actual FBI agents raised red flags within the FBI regarding the Arabic flight school students in 2001, nothing was done. And there he was, the king of torture himself, Alberto Gonzalez, basking in the spotlight over this bogus 'collar' they nabbed. Ah, how 'quaint'.

The Herald Sun goes on to say that "as more details emerge of a supposed terror plot interrupted by US authorities, the plotters and their half-baked plan seem less than deadly and more than a little ridiculous." Most of the men were unemployed, but all were poor. Aside to not having any money, they had no weapons, explosives, no footwear, and not even running water or electricity. A government informant posed as a representative of al quaida. He provided them with boots, $3,500 and a camera, but nothing else.

Eventhough, the relatives of the men claim they are harmless and 'not even Muslims' and the local Muslim chapter said they're not Muslim, the Torture Czar, the US Attorney General, indicted them. They now face up to 70 years in prison. The Herald Sun continues to report another disturbing fact, that it is "unclear whether the Sears Tower attack was suggested by the suspects or the undercover agent." "It was more aspirational than operational," said John Pistole, the FBI's deputy director.

The Sun Sentinel also reported today that these seven men "accused of domestic terrorism were long on ambition, according to prosecutors, but they were far short on substance, according to neighbors and relatives." The government may have problems prosecuting the case as it "weighs heavily on an informant's involvement" according to the President of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. The key point being: "if the authorities created the crime, that's classic entrapment." Nice try, Alberto.

So, why do poor, unemployed, undereducated men want to attack America and a symbol of it's wealth and progress? I just gave you the answer.

That's Not Freedom I Smell

Abbott & Costello Go To Baghdad

The Washington Post has gotten their hands on a disturbing cable from the US Embassy marked "sensitive." It details the situation in Iraq- the situation being hellacious- just prior to Bush's delusional suprise visit/attack to Iraq. That stunt was embarrassing for Bush and America, and disrespectful to PM Maliki, only notifying him that POTUS was in the house just 5 minutes prior. (If that doesn't scream 'deadly hellhole', I don't know what does). The giggling leader of the free world who literally destroyed Iraq and killed thousands of it's people, resurrecting civil warfare just drops in on his own plane, stays for a few hours and hightails it out. A PDF copy of the cable shows that it was sent by the "AMEmbassy Baghdad" on June 6th from the U.S. Ambassador Khalilzad to the Ferragamo shopper herself- our delusional Secretary of State. The subject: "Snapshots from the Office -- Public Affairs Staff Show Strains of Social Discord." It contains 23 sections noting an overall diminished quality of life, 12 hour gas lines, loss of electricity in 115 degree heat, ethnic cleansing, theocratic militia, and fear by the AME employees that they will be killed or abducted just for working where they do.

Keep in mind, this administration originally called this bogus invasion Operation Iraqi Liberation...what does that spell? O.I.L. I'm sure they got a few chuckles out of their own clever arrogance. This administration could not care less about anything other than the contracts, their profits, and the squandering of Iraqi oil to help their Saudi buddies. Be proud America, here's some of what thousands of lives and close to 1 trillion US tax dollars have bought us:

1. "Personal safety depends on good relations with the 'neighborhood' governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders. The central government, our staff says, is not relevant; even local mukhtars have been displaced or coopted by militias. People no longer trust most neighbors."
2. "An Arab newspaper editor told us he is preparing an extensive survey of ethnic cleansing, which he said is taking place in almost every Iraqi province, as political parties and their militiast are seemingly engaged in tit-for-tat reprisals all over Iraq."
3. "pervasive harassment from Islamist and/or militia groups."
4. Loss of electricity and rising fuel prices "have diminished the quality of life." Upscale neighborhoods "have visibly deteriorated" and one of them is now described as a "ghost town."
5. "some groups are pushing women to cover even their face, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative." "dangerous" for men to wear shorts in public and "they no longer allow their children to play outside in shorts." People who wear jeans in public have also come under attack.
6. Out of the 9 US Embassy employees, only 4 have told their families where they work. They all plan for their possible abductions. No one takes home their cell phones as this gives them away.
7. Since April, the "demeanor" of guards in the Green Zone has changed, becoming more "militia-like," and some are now "taunting" embassy personnel or holding up their credentials and saying loudly that they work in the embassy: "Such information is a death sentence if overheard by the wrong people."
8. "For at least six months, we have not been able to use any local staff members for translation at on-camera press events....We cannot call employees in on weekends or holidays without blowing their 'cover.'"
9. "Fuel lines have grown so long that one staffer spent 12 hours in line on his day off. "

A 'Well Aimed' Cover-up

I saw a movie in 2002 called The Pianist. It was based on the memoir of the Polish pianist Wlyadyslaw Szpilman and his survival of the holocaust. There was one scene in particular that I found to be the most execrable. Szpilman helplessly watches in shock as the German Army storms a neighbor's apartment in Warsaw. He sees the German Army proceed to kill off the entire family: the men, women, children and finally a wheelchair ridden grandfather.

On November 19th, 2005, 4 marines stormed civilian homes on the Euphrates River in the town of Haditha. In the end, the marines had killed 24 Iraqis, including 4 women, 6 children (ages 3-14), a man using a cane and an elderly man in a wheelchair.

The marines had been traveling in a convoy of 4 Humvees. An IED detonated under the 4th vehicle, killing an occupant: 20 year-old Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas. This death has been stated as the catalyst for the bloodbath in Haditha.

In today's New York Times, John Broder reports on the massacre in Haditha and based on the first report from the investigator, he demonstrates the substantial contradictions between the marines themselves and the civilians who witnessed the massacre.

The Taxi
According to the investigator's report, after the IED exploded, and the marines established a perimeter, they noticed a taxi containing four young male passengers. They suspected they were responsible for the IED attack. According the marine's account of that day: several marines approached the taxi, ordering the occupants to get out of the vehicle. They state that the men jumped out of the car and disobeyed orders to stop. The marines shot and killed all 4 men. According to one of the defense attorneys, the marine sergeant and his men "believed their rules of engagement permitted them to shoot men of military age running away from the site of an improvised explosive device."

The 1st House
A common thread through the Marine's account is that they believed they were under a consistent attack from a house. The marines proceeded to enter that house and 'cleared' it. "Clearing by fire" involves the rolling of a grenade and a spraying of bullets. Broder reports that this clearing resulted in "7 civilian deaths, including 2 women and a 4-year-old boy. 2 children survived the attack by hiding under a bed, the children told reporters later. Another child and a woman escaped."

The 2nd House
The hysteria infused massacre continued as "marines saw a back door open...and believed themselves to be in 'hot pursuit' of an insurgent gunman. They burst into a second house, using assault rifles and grenades to clear a room, killing another 8 civilians, including 2 women and 5 children ages 3 to 14."

After this second round of blinded killing, their sergeant "'realized there had been a significant number of civilian deaths, and reported to the platoon's operations center that there had been 'collateral damage' from the operations, according to his lawyer. He estimated the dead as 12 to 15 Iraqis. " Yet, the killing did not stop, nor was it ordered to stop.

The 3rd House
4 more men were killed by the marines in the third house. 1 of the men was armed with an AK-47. Another man was killed, the marines thought he had a weapon, that weapon was a walking cane. At the end of the carnage, the killings were so substantial that "groups of marines came to the scene throughout the day to evacuate the wounded and bundle up the dead."

The Well Aimed Cover-up
Investigators have found evidence that the men in the taxi were not fleeing, as the marines have told military officials. Witnesses claim they were pulled from the taxi, ordered to lie face down, and then executed by the marines. "One Defense Department official said photographs indicated that the positions of those corpses and the pooling of their blood can be viewed as sharply inconsistent with the marines' version that the Iraqi men were shot as they fled...We may not know for sure what happened, but it doesn't look like there was any running involved."

As for the Iraqis murdered in their homes, the morgue director found that their wounds were not consistent with "attacks by fragmentation grenades and indiscriminate rifle fire". The death certificates of these Iraqis read: "well-aimed shots to the head and chest".

On November 20th, the Marines press release stated that 15 Iraqi civilians had been killed in a bombing in Haditha and that marines had killed 8 insurgents after they opened fire on Kilo Company.

That press release has not been corrected or retracted. An exit strategy has not been delivered by Bush. Armor has not been delivered. Soldiers are on their third deployment. Rumsfeld hasn't resigned. Cher is on Capitol Hill fighting for proper helmets for our soldiers. Halliburton & Blackwater count their millions. And the gates of hell are still open.