GI Special: thomasfbarton@earthlink.net 9.9.05 Print it out (color best). Pass it on.

GI SPECIAL 3C47:

“We Were Not Too Keen On Getting Killed For

Some Bullshit Reason” I am no longer a soldier in the United States army, and I am no longer fighting this useless war in Iraq. The bottom line is this: As we continue to fight dedicated guerrilla warriors, a growing number of Americans keep dying in vain. From: J. D. Engelhardt aka hEkLe To: GI Special Sent: August 16, 2005 Subject: IEDs OLD NEWS:

June 22, 2005 By DAVID S. CLOUD, New York Times WASHINGTON, June 21 - American casualties from bomb attacks in Iraq have reached new heights in the last two months as insurgents have begun to deploy devices that leave armored vehicles increasingly vulnerable, according to military records. Last month there were about 700 attacks against American forces using so-called improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.'s, the highest number since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to the American military command in Iraq and a senior Pentagon military official. The surge in attacks, the officials say, has coincided with the appearance of significant advancements in bomb design, including the use of "shaped" charges that concentrate the blast and give it a better chance of penetrating armored vehicles, causing higher casualties. Another change, a senior military officer said, has been the detonation of explosives by infrared lasers, an innovation aimed at bypassing electronic jammers used to block radio-wave detonators. Most likely, this little bit of precious information was overlooked as just another article concerning the ever present droll of “The War Against Terrorism” in Iraq. Unfortunately, what is said here not only proves the presence of a growing insurgency in Iraq opposed to Coalition Forces, but more importantly displays the insurgency’s increasing ability to improve techniques needed to kill American soldiers. I am no longer a soldier in the United States army, and I am no longer fighting this useless war in Iraq. However, not too long ago I was there, and ever day I could not help to notice just how potentially fatal operating in a combat zone really is, regardless of how much fancy equipment or impenetrable armor you are surrounded by. The bottom line is this: As we continue to fight dedicated guerrilla warriors, a growing number of Americans keep dying in vain. When my unit first arrived to Iraq in early 2004, we began by conducting missions in scantily armored, much dated and pathetic humvee trucks. Our doors were made of plastic, and a well lofted stone could shatter our windows. A stray bullet had the potential to pierce anywhere on the truck, leaving us very concerned about how well our trucks would hold up against the insurgency’s favorite means of destruction, the roadside bomb, or the Improvised Explosive Devise (I.E.D.). Finally the day came when we were given heavily armored trucks to do our fighting in. The arrival of these brand new, state-of-the-art trucks was perceived by many as a God-send. To be able to sit in a truck feeling fairly confident that a bomb could do you no harm was indeed a wonderful feeling.

This was very important to many soldiers I knew, as we were not too keen on getting killed for some bullshit reason. In time, at any given location in our sector, an armored truck was hit almost everyday. The well hidden bombs dug into the road would completely fold the eight inch thick door and splinter the glass of the window like a glittering spider web. But in most cases, the soldiers within would survive relatively unharmed. As a gunner on a truck, this was the only solace I had. The only fear that crossed our minds was that of the shape-charge. As mentioned in the above article, a shape-charge serves as a huge loaded shotgun buried in the ground just waiting to destroy whatever stands in its blast. The shape-charge is no new technology, as it has been used many times in many other wars. We knew about it then, and we know about it now. Many times, we attended classes and briefs learning to how to identify a shape-charge and understanding the gruesome details of how it worked. Once we were told that shape-charges were becoming quite popular in Baghdad. With one blast from this horrible bomb, we were told, a whole truck crew was slain as the explosion penetrated through one door and out the other, bringing with it nails and jagged pieces of the mortar round needed for the explosion. This ominous briefing was concluded as the commander told us, “Make no mistake about it, this particular brand of IED can cut through an Up-Armor truck like a hot knife through butter.” During the year that I was in Iraq, many soldiers were permanently injured or killed by a variety of insurgent attacks. Although it was quite common to be shot at by small arms fire or rocket-propelled grenades, the most popular menaces were car bombs and IED’s. Throughout our rotation, we were seeing the insurgency using more elaborate means of planning attacks, of hiding bombs, and packing more and more destructive power into an explosion. Likewise, our US forces attempted to stay one step ahead of the insurgents with our own assorted tactics. These included night raids on suspected bomb factories, staggered truck formations speeding mercilessly down city streets, or gunners attentively manning machine guns with the intent to kill. In the end, all we learned was that if a guerrilla fighter wanted to hit you, he would. We conducted patrols through the streets of Iraq much like moving paper-ducks at a carnival game. We would never see the first attack coming, but we held onto our belief that if we were nestled safely within an Up-Armor humvee, we could at least stand a chance. The growing and adapting cleverness of the insurgency and their advanced means of bomb making have blown the Up-Armor theory out of the water.

This war has always been, and always will be, nothing more than a tug of war between both sides. The sad truth is that the insurgency usually beats US forces to the punch with more ingenious ways of killing our soldiers. Sadder still is that our military’s tactics seldom change until enough soldiers have been killed to make such changes necessary. The shape-charge IED confirms this theory, as we’ve known about its devastating effects and its usefulness for the insurgency for quite some time now. A simple formula concerning guerrilla warfare always states that as long as the motivation for resistance remains strong, the ill-equipped and much deprived guerrilla fighters will continue in their endeavors, constantly surprising the occupying force with new tactics and amazing resiliency. It is yet to be seen how advanced this Iraqi insurgency will become in the near future. Only through morbid statistics and a growing number of flag-draped coffins will the analysts in Washington be able to tell. J. D. Engelhardt aka hEkLe www.ftssoldier.blogspot.com 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.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Soldier Killed In “Industrial Accident” Sep. 08, 2005 JACOB SILBERBERG, Associated Press The American military announced the death Wednesday of a soldier assigned to the 2nd Force Service Support Group in an industrial accident at Camp Taqaddum near Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

At least 1,895 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Navy Hospitalman From Arizona Killed In Rollover Crash

September 8, 2005 Associated Press PHOENIX - A 20-year-old Navy hospitalman from Arizona who was serving with the 2nd Marine Division near Baghdad has been killed in Iraq, authorities said. Robert "Nathan" Martens, 20, of Queen Creek, died Tuesday after he was injured in a Humvee rollover crash in Al Qaim, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Wednesday. More than 50 soldiers with ties to Arizona have been killed in Iraq. Martens attended Hospital Corpsman school in Great Lakes, Ill., before he trained at the Field Medical Service School in Camp Lejeune, N.C., and was then assigned the 2nd Marine Division in December 2004. He is survived by his wife, Erin, and their 10-month-old daughter, Riley Jo, and several other family members in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

U.S. Official Confirms Two Bradleys Destroyed At Tal Afar, One Soldier Dead

September 8, 2005 By JACOB SILBERBERG, Associated Press Writer Early Thursday, a militant Web site carried a videotape showing the destruction of a U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Tal Afar. The video, emblazoned with the logo of al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed the armored vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. A U.S. military official said two Bradleys had been hit by roadside bombs in recent days and a soldier was killed.

Two U.S. Soldiers Wounded By Car Blasts

Sept 8 (KUNA)

Two multinational forces troops, were injured in two separate booby-trapped car blasts in Baghdad on Thursday. The wounded soldiers are Americans, said a government official statement circulated here today, indicating that the first explosion took place in Rashid area south of the capital while the other happened on the airport road west of here.

REAL BAD PLACE TO BE: BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

A US soldier of Delta Company, Task Force 4-64 Armor secures a lane linking to the main road during a traffic control mission, as part of Operation Thunder in Karadah district in Baghdad. (AFP/Liu Jin)

Bangladeshi Slave Killed; “Monu Was Later Sold To A Iraqi

Company And Engaged For Cleaning Work”

8 Sep 2005 By UNB, Dhaka An expatriate Bangladeshi was gunned down in Iraq in mid-August, allegedly by Iraqi guerillas, according to a delayed report. The body of the victim, M Akbar alias Monu, 32, arrived here by Qatar Airways from Kuwait on Thursday morning.

Monu, son of M Akhter, was a resident of House-10, Line-2, Road-10, Block-C of Mirpur Section-11 in Pallabi thana of the city. He went to Kuwait in January this year and worked at a tailoring shop. Md. Sadakat Khan alias Fakku, president of Stranded Pakistani Youth Rehabilitation Movement (SPYRM), quoting family members of the victim, told UNB that Monu was later sold to a Iraqi company and engaged for cleaning work. Twenty days back, the victim's family received an information from Kuwait that Monu was wounded in gun attack by Iraqi guerillas. Later, they came to know that he succumbed to his injuries on August 16. On Wednesday, they were informed that the body of Monu would arrive at Zia International Airport on Thursday morning. Family members of the victim appealed to the Foreign Ministry and the Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry to take initiative so that they could receive compensation from his foreign employers.

TROOP NEWS

Sgt. Kevin Benderman, Prisoner of Conscience

September 5, 2005 Monica and Kevin Benderman, Dissident Voice From Sgt. Kevin Benderman: “I will not compromise my integrity, nor my moral courage.”

These words come directly from the NCO creed, which I swore to uphold as a member of the US Army. When I filed for Conscientious Objector status, it was after careful consideration of my duty to my wife, my step-children, my country and the soldiers I served with. But before I could consider all of this, I had to consider myself. I had to ensure that my actions did not compromise what I believed in and what I stood for. I had served in Iraq, and I had seen the destruction war brings. After careful thought, I knew that I did not believe in war as an answer, and I would not participate in it any longer. People told me that I abandoned soldiers. I did not. I chose to no longer fight in wars, because wars will never save lives, and they will never bring peace. I stand for soldiers that their lives and service be given the respect they deserve. People told me that I was a coward. They can believe that, but I know what it takes to stand on my principles against the tide, with the only certainty being that my wife stood with me. People told me that I was letting my country down. I disagree. I am standing to defend what our constitution was founded on -- moral principles. We are learning hard lessons this week. The devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina is teaching us something important. As a country, we cannot take care of others until we have taken care of ourselves. As a soldier, to continue to participate in war would have violated my own principles. I would have destroyed myself and others if I had not chosen to maintain MY integrity as my first consideration. To continue on the destructive path of war would have made me unable to help anyone to grow in positive ways, because I was not growing in positive ways. I believe that we, as a country, need to return to our constitution, the foundation of America. This country has compromised its integrity and lost its moral courage. We can't help others until we have fixed ourselves.” -- Sgt. Kevin Benderman, Conscientious Objector to War. By Monica Benderman: Not long ago, two American soldiers were confined in prison for two months for having abused detainees in Afghanistan. A member of the US Army took the life of an innocent Iraqi civilian struggling in a river and received no confinement at all for what he had done. The US Army has a regulation that allows soldiers to follow their conscience, and the oath that Sgt. Benderman took when he became an NCO dictated that he “not compromise his integrity nor his moral courage.” Sgt. Benderman was given 15 months confinement for refusing to compromise his integrity and for maintaining his moral courage by filing for Conscientious Objector status against the wishes of his command.

When Sgt. Benderman asked the officers in his unit to uphold their oath and follow the Army regulations, they would not. His commander violated the regulation and said that he would recommend disapproval, admitting in court that he did not even know what the regulation for Conscientious Objection was. He stated that this was “one soldier in his unit, and he had 181 more to worry about. I don’t have time to worry about this one.” They did not respect the regulations, they did not respect this soldier’s service, and they did not respect this soldier’s humanity. What were they afraid of? What was it that these officers could not face? One officer was an Army chaplain, a “man of God.” For almost a year, Sgt. Benderman tried to meet with this man to discuss his feelings about war and his desire to file for conscientious objector status. This man should have been the support, the facilitator for the entire process. Instead, this Army chaplain disregarded all of my husband’s requests, giving lip service to everything my husband asked. At one point, in an email discussion of my husband’s feelings about war, rather than try to counsel him and assist him with his application, this chaplain said, “Now I am not a Yes man, I will mix it up with anybody. If you would like to meet to debate with me, we can. We can talk about abortion and the atrocities that are committed every day in our country. I love debate.” He saw his position as one in which he should try to change my husband’s beliefs, not accept them. But for SIX months leading up to deployment, this man would never meet with Sgt. Benderman. In a letter to Sgt. Benderman this Army chaplain wrote regarding my husband’s application for conscientious objection, and decision to no longer participate in war; “I am ashamed of the way you have conducted yourself. I hope you will see your misconduct as an opportunity to upgrade your character and moral behavior for your own good and the good of your fellow man.” That chaplain is still serving in Iraq, with many young soldiers seeking answers to their own questions, and facing death every day. How will he counsel them? The commander who said that he “did not have time to worry about this soldier” is still in Iraq, with many young soldiers expecting him to lead them, and to keep them safe. How many more does he not have time for? Sgt. Kevin Benderman did think about his country, the soldiers he served with and his commitments. He gave it careful consideration, and he did so for over a year. He tried to seek counsel from the one man who should have understood and supported him as he developed his beliefs. His commander didn’t think this soldier mattered.

Almost 2000 American soldiers and thousands of uncounted innocent civilians have died in this conflict. When will “integrity and moral courage” begin to matter? Kevin Benderman is currently serving his sentence at Ft. Lewis, WA. He has been declared a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International. To learn more about his case, including how you can support Sgt. Benderman, please visit his website at: www.BendermanDefense.org . Monica and Kevin may be reached at: mdawnb@coastalnow.net .

Army Times 9.5.05

Pedophiles In Uniform September 2, 2005 Carla Binion, Online Journal Associate Editor Bush sits in his ivory tower playing war president, eyeing the children of the poor as potential war game pawns. He sits there knowing he lied to the troops about WMD, knowing he pushed the CIA to fix the intelligence to fit his already-determined Iraq policy, and knowing he’ll continue to mislead soldiers and potential recruits with more false claims about his rationale for never-ending war. Americans rightly bristle and grow outraged against pedophile predators, and should experience similar feelings when their children are preyed upon by the military.

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

The Political Economy Of New Orleans:

Without Its Ability To Function As Key Export-Import Hub,

The Foundations Of The U.S. Economy Are Shattered

The Ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic. On its own merit, POSL is the largest port in the United States by tonnage and the fifth-largest in the world. It exports more than 52 million tons a year, of which more than half are agricultural products -- corn, soybeans and so on. A large proportion of U.S. agriculture flows out of the port. Almost as much cargo, nearly 17 million tons, comes in through the port -- including not only crude oil, but chemicals and fertilizers, coal, concrete and so on. 09.01.2005 By George Friedman, STRATFOR GEOPOLITICAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT The American political system was founded in Philadelphia, but the American nation was built on the vast farmlands that stretch from the Alleghenies to the Rockies. That farmland produced the wealth that funded American industrialization: It permitted the formation of a class of small landholders who, amazingly, could produce more than they could consume. They could sell their excess crops in the east and in Europe and save that money, which eventually became the founding capital of American industry. But it was not the extraordinary land nor the farmers and ranchers who alone set the process in motion. Rather, it was geography -- the extraordinary system of rivers that flowed through the Midwest and allowed them to ship their surplus to the rest of the world. All of the rivers flowed into one -- the Mississippi -- and the Mississippi flowed to the ports in and around one city: New Orleans. It was in New Orleans that the barges from upstream were unloaded and their cargos stored, sold and reloaded on ocean-going vessels.

Until last Sunday, New Orleans was, in many ways, the pivot of the American economy. During the Cold War, a macabre topic of discussion among bored graduate students who studied such things was this: If the Soviets could destroy one city with a large nuclear device, which would it be? The usual answers were Washington or New York. For me, the answer was simple: New Orleans. If the Mississippi River was shut to traffic, then the foundations of the economy would be shattered. The industrial minerals needed in the factories wouldn't come in, and the agricultural wealth wouldn't flow out. Alternative routes really weren't available. The Germans knew it too: A U-boat campaign occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi during World War II. Both the Germans and Stratfor have stood with Andy Jackson: New Orleans was the prize. Last Sunday, nature took out New Orleans almost as surely as a nuclear strike. Hurricane Katrina's geopolitical effect was not, in many ways, distinguishable from a mushroom cloud. The key exit from North America was closed. The petrochemical industry, which has become an added value to the region since Jackson's days, was at risk. The navigability of the Mississippi south of New Orleans was a question mark. New Orleans as a city and as a port complex had ceased to exist, and it was not clear that it could recover. The Ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic. On its own merit, POSL is the largest port in the United States by tonnage and the fifth-largest in the world. It exports more than 52 million tons a year, of which more than half are agricultural products -- corn, soybeans and so on. A large proportion of U.S. agriculture flows out of the port. Almost as much cargo, nearly 17 million tons, comes in through the port -- including not only crude oil, but chemicals and fertilizers, coal, concrete and so on. A simple way to think about the New Orleans port complex is that it is where the bulk commodities of agriculture go out to the world and the bulk commodities of industrialism come in. The commodity chain of the global food industry starts here, as does that of American industrialism. If these facilities are gone, more than the price of goods shifts: The very physical structure of the global economy would have to be reshaped. Consider the impact to the U.S. auto industry if steel doesn't come up the river, or the effect on global food supplies if U.S. corn and soybeans don't get to the markets.

The problem is that there are no good shipping alternatives. River transport is cheap, and most of the commodities we are discussing have low value-to-weight ratios. The U.S. transport system was built on the assumption that these commodities would travel to and from New Orleans by barge, where they would be loaded on ships or offloaded. Apart from port capacity elsewhere in the United States, there aren't enough trucks or rail cars to handle the long-distance hauling of these enormous quantities -- assuming for the moment that the economics could be managed, which they can't be. The focus in the media has been on the oil industry in Louisiana and Mississippi. This is not a trivial question, but in a certain sense, it is dwarfed by the shipping issue. First, Louisiana is the source of about 15 percent of U.S.-produced petroleum, much of it from the Gulf. The local refineries are critical to American infrastructure. Were all of these facilities to be lost, the effect on the price of oil worldwide would be extraordinarily painful. If the river itself became unnavigable or if the ports are no longer functioning, however, the impact to the wider economy would be significantly more severe. In a sense, there is more flexibility in oil than in the physical transport of these other commodities. There is clearly good news as information comes in. By all accounts, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which services supertankers in the Gulf, is intact. Port Fourchon, which is the center of extraction operations in the Gulf, has sustained damage but is recoverable. The status of the oil platforms is unclear and it is not known what the underwater systems look like, but on the surface, the damage - though not trivial -- is manageable. The news on the river is also far better than would have been expected on Sunday. The river has not changed its course. No major levees containing the river have burst. The Mississippi apparently has not silted up to such an extent that massive dredging would be required to render it navigable. Even the port facilities, although apparently damaged in many places and destroyed in few, are still there. The river, as transport corridor, has not been lost. What has been lost is the city of New Orleans and many of the residential suburban areas around it. The population has fled, leaving behind a relatively small number of people in desperate straits. Some are dead, others are dying, and the magnitude of the situation dwarfs the resources required to ameliorate their condition. But it is not the population that is trapped in New Orleans that is of geopolitical significance: It is the population that has left and has nowhere to return to. The oil fields, pipelines and ports required a skilled workforce in order to operate.

That workforce requires homes. They require stores to buy food and other supplies. Hospitals and doctors. Schools for their children. In other words, in order to operate the facilities critical to the United States, you need a workforce to do it -- and that workforce is gone. Unlike in other disasters, that workforce cannot return to the region because they have no place to live. New Orleans is gone, and the metropolitan area surrounding New Orleans is either gone or so badly damaged that it will not be inhabitable for a long time. It is possible to jury-rig around this problem for a short time.

soon,

omplex and ongoing process - one that requires physical e that

ent

eapon went off in New the

tion is the crisis that New Orleans faces.

is also a national crisis, because the largest port in the United States cannot

he physical and business processes of a port cannot occur in a ghost town, and

ut the fact is that those who have left the area have gone to live with relatives and B

friends. Those who had the ability to leave also had networks of relationships and resources to manage their exile. But those resources are not infinite -- and as it becomes apparent that these people will not be returning to New Orleans any time they will be enrolling their children in new schools, finding new jobs, finding new accommodations. If they have any insurance money coming, they will collect it. If they have none, then -- whatever emotional connections they may have to their home -- their economic connection to it has been severed. In a very short time, these people will be making decisions that will start to reshape population and workforce patterns in the region.

city is a cAinfrastructure to support the people who live in it and people to operatphysical infrastructure. We don't simply mean power plants or sewage treatmfacilities, although they are critical. Someone has to be able to sell a bottle of milk or a new shirt. Someone has to be able to repair a car or do surgery. And the people who do those things, along with the infrastructure that supports them, are gone -- and they are not coming back anytime soon.

is in this sense, then, that it seems almost as if a nuclear wItOrleans. The people mostly have fled rather than died, but they are gone. Not all offacilities are destroyed, but most are. It appears to us that New Orleans and its environs have passed the point of recoverability. The area can recover, to be sure, but only with the commitment of massive resources from outside -- and those resources would always be at risk to another Katrina.

he displacement of populaT Itfunction without a city around it. Tright now, that is what New Orleans is. It is not about the facilities, and it is not about the oil. It is about the loss of a city's population and the paralysis of the largest port in the United States.

Let's go back to the beginning. The United States historically has depended on the Mississippi and its tributaries for

ansport. Barges navigate the river. Ships go on the ocean. The barges must offload

ing that port has been, from the time of the Louisiana Purchase, a ndamental national security issue for the United States.

ng

ex, ut also the utility of its river transport system -- the foundation of the entire

ust exist. ith that as a given, a city will return there because the alternatives are too devastating.

aq, premiums will be paid to people prepared to endure the hardships of working in

the way they teract with political life.

dents to obsess over its safety. And rrection, even if it is in the worst imaginable

trto the ships and vice versa. There must be a facility to empower this exchange. It is also the facility where goods are stored in transit. Without this port, the river can't be used. Protectfu Katrina has taken out the port -- not by destroying the facilities, but by renderi

e area uninhabited and potentially uninhabitable. th That means that even if the Mississippi remains navigable, the absence of a port near

e mouth of the river makes the Mississippi enormously less useful than it was. th For these reasons, the United States has lost not only its biggest port complbAmerican transport system. There are some substitutes, but none with sufficient capacity to solve the problem. New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. It is a terrible place for a city to be located, but exactly the place where a city mW The harvest is coming, and that means that the port will have to be opened soon. As in IrNew Orleans. But in the end, the city will return because it has to. Geopolitics is the stuff of permanent geographical realities andin Geopolitics created New Orleans. Geopolitics caused American presi

eopolitics will force the city's resugplace.

OCCUPATION REPORT

No Electricity In Baghdad?

Who Cares? Electricity Minister, A U.S. Citizen

8.1.05 Thawabit.com

he Iraqi minister of electricity Muhsin Shlash has extravagant s.

re exempt by an order issued by the head of the CPA Paul

ty of the minister):

ister

Canada with the Prime Minister (the visit

and they bear the costs of the visit)

ith his friends from

ces. (order number 10462 date 7/8/2005; the

onth.

(!) Too Busy Stealing To Worry About That

It was revealed that t

ills for his expenseb It has been suggested that he will escape prosecution because he is an American

itizen (all US citizens acBremmer) Here is a flavour of the expenses of the useless minister: author of the report: Salam

azaz (depuQ 1) Appointed on 15th May 2005 : expenses claimed on the day $10 000 2) Invited by Turkey for an official visit (they bear the costs), yet the min

eeded $5 000 n 3) The ministry’s visit to Syria cost $10 000 4) Withdrew $15 000 claiming he will visit

id no take place). d 5) claimed $30 000 for expenses for his official visit to Iran and Germany (both

ountries invited himc 6) $130 000 to rent a house for himself (order no 10206) 7) claiming $12 540 for his security expenses (orders 8320, 5406) 8) Sacked hard working people in his ministry and replaced them w

e time he was appointed as a general manager in the military industry sector by thHussein Kamil, Saddam’s hated cousin. There is even an allegation of posting a woman engineer away from the ministry’s main

ffice after her declining his sexual advanowoman in question has submitted a complaint). 9) Over stepping his authority by issuing order no. 9921 appointing general managers in

e ministry with salaries that exceed $2000 a mth

10) sacking Mr Salam Qazaz after his raising questions on the high expenses bills. There was also allegations against the governor of Najaf who issued an order

giving himself sufficient funds to spend two months of the summer in Finland!

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

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

Israeli Soldiers Tell Of Butchering

[Thanks to M

ssaf is not alone. In recent months dozens of soldiers, including the son of an

Children, Other Civilians ax Watts, who sent this in.]

AIsraeli general, all recently discharged, have come forward to share their stories of how they were ordered in briefings to shoot to kill unarmed people without fear of reprimand. September 6, 2005 Conal Urquhart in Tel Aviv, Guardian Unlimited From a distance of 70 metres and through the sight of his machine gun, Assaf

, unarmed and ying to get away from an Israeli tank. But the details didn't matter much,

ts as few seconds. He

ll. I was a machine. I fire. I leave and that's that. We never spoke about it

nter of Dir al Balah following the firing of mortars into nearby Jewish

ettlements.

t, kill would just do it."

egan to think about the things he did.

could tell that the Palestinian man was aged between 20 and 30trbecause Assaf's orders were to "fire at anything that moved". Assaf, a soldier in the Israeli army, pressed the trigger, firing scores of bullethe body fell to the ground. "He ran and I started shooting for afeafterwards." It was the summer of 2002, and Assaf and his armoured unit had been ordered to ethe Gaza town s His orders were, he told the Guardian, "'Every person you see on the streehim'. And we It was not the first time that Assaf had killed an innocent person in Gaza while followingorders, but after his discharge he b

"The reason why I am telling you this is that I want the army to think about what they are asking us to do, shooting unarmed people. I don't think it's legal." Assaf is not alone. In recent months dozens of soldiers, including the son of an Israeli general, all recently discharged, have come forward to share their stories of how they were ordered in briefings to shoot to kill unarmed people without fear of reprimand. The soldiers were brought into contact with the Guardian with the assistance of Breaking the Silence, a pressure group of former soldiers who want the Israeli

ublic to confront the reality of army activities. The group insisted on anonymity of

s group

'Tselem.

cond one and what rules exist are kept secret. This leaves a wide scope for

terpretation for officers and soldiers," she said.

been civilians and 654 minors.

stimonies received by the Guardian and Breaking the Silence, army prosecutors are

not use their weapons and

rce to harm human beings who are not combatants or prisoners of war, and will do all

y lawful orders and shall refrain from obeying

latantly illegal orders."

e duty.

As part of his sergeant's training course, he and his llow trainees were ordered to set up ambushes in Jenin in May 2003. He said there

ets also included children and teenagers who habitually

pits witnesses to protect the soldiers from persecution and prosecution. Although those speaking out are a tiny proportion, their testimonies reflect a widespreadculture of impunity, according to Sarit Michaeli of the Israeli human rightB "During the first intifada, there were printed rules of engagement. In the sethere are nin According to B'Tselem, 3,269 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces in almost five years. About 1,700 are believed to have According to the army, over the same period it has investigated 131 cases of soldiers misusing firearms, resulting in 18 indictments and seven convictions. As a result of the telooking at a further 17 cases of alleged criminal activity. The death toll, the testimony of the soldiers and the small number of convictions appearto contradict the Israeli army's stated aims. "Soldiers will foin their power to avoid causing harm to their lives, bodies, dignity and property," the Israeli Defence Forces website says. The doctrine of the IDF clearly places the rule of law above military expediency. "IDFsoldiers will be meticulous in giving onlb Despite his qualms about legality, Assaf says he would carry out the same orders again when he returns to reserv Another soldier, Moshe, told the Guardian he and his colleagues came under pressure to obey illegal shoot-to-kill orders. fewas "pressure to get kills". Before the operation, the soldiers were briefed that they were on the lookout for armed men. But their targ

climbed on armoured personnel carriers as they lumbered through the narrow streets. On a few occasions, machine guns had been stolen from APCs. "We were expressly told that we were just waiting for someone to climb on an APC, and

rdered to shoot to kill," said Moshe.

imbed on one of the APCs. There were a lot of

o "After a day or two, a 12-year-old clguesses about his age. First they said he was eight, later that he was 12. In any case, he climbed on an APC, and one of our sharpshooters killed him. The neighbouring company also had an incident with a kid or teenager who was killed." The statistics collected by the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group show that on

ay 14, Diya Gawadreh, 13, was killed by a live bullet. Kamal Amjad Nawahda, 13, was

ere were several incidents hen children and teenagers were killed after bullets aimed at their legs hit their

nd inflict collective punishment on Palestinians.

Gaza. Four soldiers were blown to ieces when their explosive-laden APC hit a roadside bomb in Gaza City. As the army

y

died, of hom between a quarter and a half were civilians. According to Rafi, an officer in

the round, as if they might be placing a roadside bomb, or anyone seen on a roof or

ed, 13, were shot as they went to ollect clothes from a rooftop washing line. The Israeli army insisted the children

rgue

by an Israeli soldier following clear rders to shoot anyone on a roof regardless of their role in the conflict.

Mshot by Israeli soldiers on May 22. He died on May 27. After Moshe returned to his paratroop unit, he said thwchests. The attitude was, he said, "so kids got killed. For a soldier it means nothing. An officer can get a 100 or 200 shekel [£12.50-£25] fine for such a thing." A common theme in the soldiers' testimony was the desire to avenge Israeli casualties a May 2004 was a bad month for the Israeli army in ptook over, another seven soldiers were killed in a similar incident in Rafah, at the other end of Gaza. In response the army launched an operation "to secure the neighbourhoodalong the Philadelphi Road (the border between Gaza and Egypt) and to make sure theare clean from terrorists," said Major General Dan Harel, the local commander. Thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homes, and around 50 wthe Shaldag, an elite unit connected to the air force, the whole mission was about revenge. "The commanders said kill as many people as possible," he said. He and his men were ordered to shoot anyone who appeared to be touchingga balcony, as if they might be observing Israeli forces for military reasons, regardless of whether they were armed. Asma Moghayyer, 16, and her brother Ahmchad been blown up by a roadside bomb. However, journalists visiting the mosaw only single bullet wounds to the head. The truth, said Rafi, was that they were shot o

Rafi says that his overriding impression of the operation was "chaos" and the

Gaza was considered a playground for sharpshooters."

li, a staff sergeant in the paratroopers, was sent on an arrest mission to Askar refugee

n

hey also saw this object he was carrying and feared it was a bomb. (They) shot him "

he man, 24-year-old Jihad Mohammed al-Natour, was carrying a drum with which

he wave of suicide bombings that began in 2001 made many soldiers feel that their y

testimony to the group, Avi recounted how a soldier in his unit was allowed to get ,

he soldier denied shooting, but was contradicted by a film made by an intelligence unit.

ear-

he man was Mansur Taha Ahmed, 21, a coffee merchant, who left a wife and

sh

ll the soldiers, with the exception of Assaf, were shocked by their experiences but l to

o check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation by a foreign

"indiscriminate use of force". " Ecamp in Nablus on November 27 2002, during Ramadan. He saw another squad of troops notice a man on the street in the early morning. "They shouted, 'Wakef' (stop iArabic). The man started running away; they started shooting at him, chasing him. "Tand verified the kill - threw a grenade at him, and then shot him once more in the head,he recounted. Tto wake the camp before dawn so that they could eat before beginning their fast. It is a traditional role. The drummer is known as the musaharati. "No one bothered telling us and for that the guy died," Eli told Breaking the Silence. Tfamilies and country were under serious attack and helped create a culture where armcrimes were not questioned. Inaway with the murder of an innocent Palestinian. A staff sergeant in the paratroopersAvi was serving in Hebron on October 13 2000 when he heard one of his men firing fromthe lookout position above him. "We knew the man was crazy ... out of his mind," he said. T"You see a live video recording of someone shooting towards the square - towards someone who was just unloading some stuff from his vehicle. A twentysomething-yold ... The man is being hit in the back. A day later we were told he died." Tthree children. Avi said: "We keep our dirty laundry inside, so the company commander decided to silence this event. He made the (video) cassette vaniand the soldier had to do 35 days of chores ... after which he came back to the company." Auncertain of how to act. "The belief in the ethics of the Israeli army is so fundamentaIsraeli society," said Rafi. "People do not want to hear the reality." [Tpower, go to: www.rafahtoday.org The foreign army is Israeli; the occupied nationis Palestine.]

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

Failure September 08, 2005 From Ward Reilly via Anna Bradley Dear All, This one is too good!!! This is why people say Google is the best search engine. It’s not only fast; it’s accurate and shows only the truth. Type "failure" in Google and search See what the “first” match.......is Peace from Ward

The Horror

An unidentified woman pleads for Air Force security personnel to take a baby in need of medical attention in New Orleans on Sept. 2. A witness said the baby had been handed forward by “body surfing” over the crowd, which was hundreds deep and shoulder to shoulder. — M. Scott Mahaskey / Military Times September 08, 2005 By Joseph R. Chenelly, Army Times staff writer National Guard soldiers stood between the surging mob and the buses there to evacuate the desperate out of the abject misery of New Orleans. The troops were processing some 25,000 refugees spilling out of the squalor of the Louisiana Superdome on Sept. 2, working to keep families intact as they worked their way up the line of thousands. “For God’s sake, please don’t separate yourself from your children,” screamed Air Force Capt. John Pollard of the Texas Air Guard’s 149th Security Squadron into a microphone. Pollard screamed numerous times. “Keep your families together. You need one another.” But his amplified voice only reached a few rows into the mob. [Asshole reporter. Take a look at the photo. Does that look like a “mob” to you? Oh, I get it, it’s because they’re black. More than twenty black people at the same place at the same time has to be a mob.] As desperation and uncertainty grew, however, parents who wanted to ensure survival for their infant children starting passing them forward. The crowd moved

them ahead, hand over hand, and presented them to the Guard members at the metal barricades separating them from the buses. Pollard said he saw “thousands” of babies passed forward that way over two days of evacuations, despite urgings not to do so. The soldiers and airmen had no idea what to do with the babies, so they would order the crowd to pass them back to the parents. But the crowd would often respond saying that they didn’t know which direction the babies came from. Nonetheless, the infants would be passed back over the mob, eventually disappearing out of the troops’ view.

NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER 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. http://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)

Traitor Bush Demands Control Of What Press Can Photograph

08 September 2005 By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout Perspective [Excerpt] An edict has come down from the federal government banning press photographers from taking any pictures of the dead as they lay waiting for removal. Echoes of the ban on photographs of American soldiers in flag-draped caskets returned from Iraq are present, as are echoes of a ban on the new photos taken from within Abu Ghraib. Perhaps, it is thought, that if the American people cannot see death, they will come to believe it does not exist.

Evil? Yes; Spineless? No: The Democrats And The War

[If you’re ready to puke every time you hear that stupid, pathetic whine, “Why won’t the Democrats fight?” this one is for you.]

A sorry example is Cindy Sheehan's effort. Not a single major Democrat has shown up at Camp Casey. They are blowing off Sheehan just like Bush. August 31, 2005 By JOHN WALSH, CounterPunch [Excerpt] Standard fare in the mainstream media as well as in both Left and Libertarian blogs, web sites and magazines, is that the Democrats are spineless. But this view simply does not fit the facts, and it is dangerous to boot, because it leads us to underestimate one of our most sinister and cynical pro-war adversaries, the Democratic Party establishment. The conventional wisdom is that the Dems are afraid to stand up to Bush's war, because they fear the accusation of being "soft on terrorism" or downright treasonous. And, we are told by the liberal punditocracy, this sort of charge will prevent our poor Dems from winning elections and ending the war which, deep down, they really oppose. So what's a poor Dem to do? Obviously call for "staying the course." This analysis is ever so convenient for the Dems. It gets the likes of Kerry, H. Clinton, Dean, Biden, Cleland and the rest, marvelously off the hook, bringing them the support of the anti-war forces. These are good men and women, we are told, just trying to win elections in the face of the ignorance of the benighted masses so as to bring us peace! Thus are hawks transmogrifed into doves, even as they cry out for more bloodshed, more troops and more death and destruction. This whole whacko analysis cannot stand up to reality. First, the country, by a significant majority according to the polls, is against the war and long has been even before the last presidential election. Now 60% want some or all troops withdrawn at once. The least popular option, the one favored by leading Democrats, is to send more troops, an option that draws the support of less than 10%, with 57%, saying they would be "upset" at such a move. Why would anyone wanting to win an election champion a view which hardly anyone favors and is even less popular than Bush's? Second, take as an example a senator like California's Diane Feinstein who is not planning to run for president and comes from a solidly anti-war state, so an anti-war position is no danger for her. And yet she calls for "staying the course." No, the idea of the spineless but virtuous Democrat does not hold up. The real reason has to be that the Dems do not give a damn about the electorate. The Dem establishment must in fact favor the war.

And the reason is not hard to find. They play to the same real but hidden constituencies as the Republicans the oil tycoons, AIPAC, the barons of the military industrial complex and those who make their fortunes from empire, ranging from the banks to Bechtel. This is their class and if one of the pols dares play traitor to his class, he or she will soon be an outcast. Ask Ted Kennedy. When Kennedy called for immediate withdrawal from Iraq last January, he was virtually denounced by the rest of the Dem leadership. And although the media is afflicted with many and mortal problems, do not tell me that the media makes it impossible for the Dems to take a strong anti-war position. When Kennedy did so, it was all over the media from the front pages of the dailies to the Sunday morning TV talk shows. The Dems know full well there is an enormous anti-war constituency out there. If they used their considerable resources to organize it and give voice to it, then it would quickly prevail. A sorry example is Cindy Sheehan's effort. Not a single major Democrat has shown up at Camp Casey. They are blowing off Sheehan just like Bush. In fact far from being cowardly, the Dems are showing considerable spine in standing up to the anti-war constituency that routinely does the leg work and contributes the dollars to elect them. Here their courage and resolve befit heroes of Homeric proportions. In the face of powerful anti-war sentiment from their loyalists, the Dems resolutely call for "staying the course" in the war for which they voted. Now there is spine. There is fortitude, both testicular and ovarian. But the Dems have now been exposed and about the last excuse they have for "staying the course" is to "help" the Iraqis. Of course they uttered no such sentiment when Clinton was imposing sanctions that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi kids, a price Madeline Albright famously said was worth it to pressure Saddam Hussein. So the Dems either cry crocodile tears over the fate of the Iraqis, or avoid all mention of the war or else, like Russ Feingold, call for endless discussions of "exit strategies." I prefer the sentiment splashed across the cover of the paleocon American Conservative which proclaimed: "We do not need an exit strategy. We need an exit." So next time you hear that the problem with the Dems is their spinelessness, do not believe a word of it. They are quite courageous in facing down their voting base to peddle death and destruction. To view them otherwise is to underestimate a potent, treacherous and insidious adversary of the anti-war movement.

THERE IT IS:

''Democratic Presidents Roosevelt and Truman led America to victory in World War II because they laid out a clear plan for success to the American people, America's allies, and America's troops," said Howard Dean, Democratic Party chairman. ''President Bush has failed to put together a plan, so despite the bravery and sacrifice of our troops, we are not making the progress that we should be in Iraq. The troops, our allies, and the American people deserve better leadership from our commander in chief." August 31, 2005 Jennifer Loven, Associated Press

08.09.05: Steve Bell on George Bush's Hurricane Katrina inquiry

[Thanks to NB, who sent this in.]

CLASS WAR REPORTS

Capitalism At Work: U.S. Wages Fall

People In Poverty Up For Fourth Year

8.31.05 By ROBERT GUY MATTHEWS, Wall St. Journal WASHINGTON—Although the U.S. economy grew robustly last year, the income of the median household slipped a bit, wages of full-time workers fell, the number of Americans living below the poverty line rose and more Americans went without health insurance, the Census Bureau said in its annual report on consumer income. Across the country, the Census Bureau said, median earnings for full-time workers employed year-round dropped significantly last year. Men’s earnings declined by 2.3% to $40,798 and women’s 1.0% to $31,223. The data, which don’t reflect employer-provided health benefits, measure pretax income. The fraction of Americans living below the official poverty line—$19,307 for a family of four last year—rose for the fourth consecutive year to 12.7% in 2004 from 12.5% the year before, the bureau said. Last year, 37 million Americans were living in poverty, about 1 million more than the year before and 5.4 million more than in 2000 when poverty bottomed out as the economy peaked. The Census Bureau also said that the percentage of Americans without health insurance remained stable at 15.7% in 2004. The number lacking insurance increased by 800,000 to 45.8 million while the number with public or private health insurance increased by two million to 245.3 million.

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