Iraq War Vet Accused of Baby Rape

By Cernig

WTF? Yes, I know this is an isolated instance - but even one isolated instance of such a crime, coupled with persistent reports of other problems, suggests there's a huge job of work to be done on returning vet's PTSD and mental health issues.

A former Army paratrooper who served two tours of duty in Iraq has been ordered tried on charges of raping and critically injuring a 3-month-old girl.

Kirk Coleman is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and first-degree child abuse, charges that carry up to life in prison.

Authorities say the then-27-year-old Coleman attacked the baby Sept. 14 in Jackson County's Blackman Township, about 65 miles west of Detroit.

The girl sustained brain damage and 17 broken bones and is undergoing therapy. District Judge R. Darryl Mazur ruled Tuesday there's enough evidence to warrant a trial.

Coleman remains free on a $100,000 bond.

For too long, America as a whole and the pro-war Right in particular has had it's colective head in the sand over these pressing issues of veteran care. You can't "support the troops" by dropping them like broken puppets when their usefulness is over.

And another thing - does anyone doubt that if this allegation concerned a Muslim or an illegal immigrant the Malkinites would already be all over it like flies on s**t? And accusing Lefties of being friends of barbaric criminals if they didn't follow suit.

Is Zeal For Interventionism Right Or Wrong?

By Cernig

Simon Jenkins in the Guardian today argues that "This zeal for intervention is imperialism in new clothes" championed by those, like UK Foreign Secretary David Milliband, who are "part of a political generation with no experience of war and little sense of history". He argues that democracy, while a superior method of governance, can only be shown and not imposed and his comments are at least as relevant to the current American political debate as they are to Britain's foreign policy.

David Miliband loves democracy. We all love democracy. We also love capitalism, social welfare, child health, book learning and leatherback turtles. We would like the whole world to love them too, and we stand ready to persuade it so. But do we shoot anyone who refuses?

It is hardly credible that two centuries since Immanuel Kant wrestled with this oldest of ethical conundrums, a British government still cannot tell the difference between espousing a moral imperative and enforcing one.

Yesterday in Oxford the foreign secretary decided to update the 1998 Chicago speech of his then mentor, Tony Blair, in which Blair tore up the UN's sovereignty provisions in favour of the new "liberal interventionism". He proposed a doctrine of international community, which he claimed, like St Teresa, to have "witnessed". This required Britain to attack sovereign states unprovoked if this would end a violation of human rights.

...Miliband brushes aside the blundering into Iraq and Afghanistan as errors of implementation rather than principle and takes the Blair doctrine into new territory. He wants his pan-democratic world to be achieved by peaceful means, by trade, multilateral action and - his new soundbite - a "civilian surge".

Should soft power fail, Miliband wants to use sanctions and send in troops, for instance through offering security guarantees to regimes that "abide by democratic rules". Such measures would need to embrace internal and external security, and be of universal application if, as Kant warned, they are to go beyond opportunism and carry moral force. They would have guaranteed Dubcek's Czechoslovakia against the Soviet Union, and Allende's Chile against America. The regimes in Baghdad and Kabul would need guarantees indefinitely, as would an elected regime in Pakistan - guaranteeing it against insurgent Taliban and lurking generals.

...There is no text in international law that justifies ramming a system of government down the throats of others. Self-determination, warts and all, has been the defining essence of the nation-state throughout history, which is why the UN charter qualified it only in cases of cross-border aggression and humanitarian relief. The robustness of this doctrine is shown in half a century of relative peace worldwide. Collapsing it has been disastrous.

Democracy everywhere has emerged when individuals give or withhold consent and rulers are confident enough to accept their verdict. Besides western Europe in 1945 (when democracy was not created but restored), there is almost no example of democracy imposed by external force. Russia, with no experience of it, appears to be rejecting it. The concept of consent in countries such as Egypt, Pakistan and Iran is hesitant, but western pressure, soft or hard, aids the reactionaries.

...The west can invite the world to witness the virtues of democracy. It can deploy the soft power of education, exchange, publicity and aid. But a true democrat cannot abandon Voltaire's respect for the autonomy of disagreement, let alone seek to crush it. Britain can shine its beacon abroad but it cannot impose its values on the world. It has tried too often, and has failed. This is not isolationism. It is fact.

Milliband would call Jenkin's argument a "retreat into realpolitik", and perhaps it is. There's certainly a powerful body of argument to say that standing by and watching a crime makes one a complicit accessory to that crime, and guilty of a crime thereby. Much of Western law is built on that precept.

Yet over the past seven years we've seen where a lack of real-world connection and an ideologically driven interventionist policy can turn what appears moral into a worse crime. If someone tries to fight fire with fire, they better know exactly what they are doing or the conflagration will blow up out of their control. Surely, those who lose their loved ones or livelihoods in that wider fire would have only the misguided or incompetent interventionist to blame for their woes.

In a purely utilitarian sense, the question is a variant of "who watches the watchers". Who checks the interventionists if their intervention is already doing or will do more harm than good? Unfortunately, if international law and international bodies are sidestepped and sidelined then in the case of powerful Western nations the answer is "no-one". That's why the UN and international agreements which set out the limits of interventionist policy were drawn up in the first place. It is itself a flawed system plagued by competing national interests and maybe would have been better if Churchill's ideas hadn't been watered down by American and Soviet leaders intent on preserving their own power, but it's the best system we have.

So what do Newshoggers readers think? Is interventionism always right, always wrong or a bit of both? And if the latter, what's the best way to ensure we select for the good but leave out the bad?

Update on the Tornado relief blogswarm

Monkeyfister, in comments is passing along the following update:

I'm shocked, awed, and overwhelmed tonight!

At least a HUNDRED blogs from every aspect of the political spectrum have taken part in this swarm of goodness. I want to take a moment to thank Chuck Adkins, a blogger at the Town Hall Blog Community and other places for picking up my plea, and spreading it far and wide through the Conservative 'sphere. He's right-- this isn't about politics, but I had to somewhere.

It will be days before I get everyone thanked properly. But, I'm starting right now, and every day, I will post another set of Thank Yous, until either my fingers fall off and my eyes go blind, or I get to the end of the list. Let's hope for the latter.

In the past 24-hours, we raised between $13,000 (minimum) to somewhere in the neighborhood of $92,000 for the Mid-South Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Mid-South Chapter of United Way.

I thank each and every one of you who participated in this immense act of Kindness-- Bloggers and Donors alike. We made an enormous difference between HOPE and Despair today.

Damn, I'm proud of you all. I've never been so impressed and touched like this in my life. If there is a Statistician in the house, I'd LOVE for you to put the calipers on my numbers.

You can see how I derived this large range-spread at my place:

Monkeyfister

I don't think that I am far off.

PLEASE pass this around, as there is no way in hell that I can reach everyone we has participated in this action in any sensible way.

All of my love, and two scoops of IOU to each and every one of you.

Your Friend, Fan and Admirer,

~Monkeyfister~

Okay, here is the donation information again for the American Red Cross:

American Red Cross
Mid-South Chapter
1400 Central Avenue
Memphis, TN 38104
901-726-1690

CPAC And The Tornados

By Cernig

I find myself very curious to see whether Cheney or any of the GOP nomination candidates mention the crisis much of the mid-South is in today after tornados and storms created wide devastation. Will they adapt their speeches to show some compassionate conservatism for people in their voting heartland, or will they reveal themselves as heartless bastards too focussed on their big day to care about the little people? How many of the bloggers there today will take a moment from politics for a simple humanitarian appeal to their readers to send some aid donations to the affected areas? They're being put to shame by left wing bloggers on this.

Oops - Darth Cheney couldn't care less.

Update Nothing from Romney either. He was too busy licking McCain's boots as Teh Decider In Waiting.

Update And McCain makes it the trifecta of uncompassionate conservatism. Too busy ass-kissing.

A Plea For the Tornado-Stricken Mid-South

By Cernig

By now you've all heard about the tragic loss of life in the mid-South due to storms and tornados yesterday. At least 50 dead, 100 injured and large areas of five states looking like disaster zones.

Our good buddy Monkeyfister is right in the middle of it, and is shouting out to Blogtopia for some help. He suggests:

American Red Cross
Mid-South Chapter
1400 Central Avenue
Memphis, TN 38104
901-726-1690

And:
United Way of the Mid-South phone in a donation at (901) 433-4300.

They take DIRECT donations, so you can skip all the National-level waste and delay, AND they serve nearly every community in the effected radius.

I don't ask for much from my readers, but I sure would appreciate some link love on this post-- or better yet-- if you'd work-up something of your own linking to the Mid-South Red Cross Chapter to help this area get back on it's feet, re-building, and healing. It'd mean an awful lot to many. A bit of a small-blog swarm would be a mighty thing.

Thanks in advance.

and adds:

As the area affected is so broad and detached, and everyone in the Country was distracted by politics last night, as yet, there is no central assistance hub set-up. [These are] the two agencies with the broadest radius to help the area right now. Both take DIRECT donations.

A small-blog swarm on that post (or this comment) would be greatly appreciated by more people than just me. I can't describe how wide-spread the damage is down here. It's enormous. The Media, per usual, is only just now waking up to the situation, after their Super-Duper-Let's-All-Wet-Our-Pants-Together- Tuesday Political Hangover. Like NOLA, these are REALLY poor folks down here, and have nothing, and nowhere to go.

A short post about this at YOUR Blog, linking either to my post, above, or directly to the two Orgs mentioned in the post above, would sure be a big help, and would be greatly appreciated by many people who are relying on help. They are all that we have right now.

I just donated a deer's worth of ground venison, along with the 100 pounds of rice and quart-sized ziplock bags that they said that they needed at the United Way Mid-South Food Bank, when I phoned them this morning. Their pantry is BARE, and I'll be loading them up with all the potatoes, rice, veggies, bags, and other staples that I can fit in my truck tomorrow.

I'll echo MF's plea- if you've a blog, link his post and send a shout out to your readers for some help for these poor folks. If you are a reader, pass on the links to MF's posts by email, please. Let's get the word around and help.

My donation to the Red Cross is already on its way.

More Iraqis Going To Syria Than Returning To Iraq - UN

By Cernig

Remember all the noise about how Iraqis were returning home because their country was so much safer now? Not true says the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees.

Iraqis are once again leaving Iraq for Syria in greater numbers than are returning, despite the lower level of bloodshed in their homeland, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday.

A report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, citing Syrian immigration officials, said that in late January an average of 1,200 Iraqis entered Syria every day compared with around 700 who returned.

Most of those Iraqis who return say they are doing so because their Syrian visas have expired or because they have run out of money, rather than because conditions in their homeland have improved, the report said.

..."According to an Iraqi Red Crescent report issued in January 2008, some 46,000 refugees returned home from Syria between September and December 2007, a much lower figure than that given by the Iraqi government," the report said.

The Iraqi government had given a figure of 60,000 returnees and invited reporters to homecoming ceremonies at which officials presented the refugees with gifts and boasted of the achievements of the Baghdad security plan.

But according to a survey of refugees carried out by the UN refugee agency in Syria, 46 percent of those seeking to return said they could no longer afford to live in Syria and 25 percent had seen their visas expire.

"Most refugees interviewed do not agree with the idea that security has sufficiently improved in Iraq. Refugees discussing returning to Iraq cite financial pressures as the driving reason for return," the report said.

Like so much official "good news" about Iraq, this story appears to have been blatant spin.

Let Them Breathe Poison

By Cernig

The offhand phrase "let them eat cake" uttered by the King of France' mistress, Marie Antionette, when told the poor didn't have enough bread to eat has ever since been the touchstone of elitist contempt for the common people. But imagine how much worse the impact of her words might have been if she had suggested the homeless should just breathe poison.

Our tireless researcher Kat has flagged up some reports that suggest the Bush administration - in particular FEMA, did exactly that. CNN, on January 29th:

Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Texas, said Tuesday that Federal Emergency Management Agency tried to control the outcome of a scientific study on formaldehyde in trailers used to house victims of Hurricane Katrina.

"Someone from one of the agencies, the CDC, came to our committee and reported that he had information that indicated that good science wasn't followed when a decision was made to allow people to live in basically travel trailers that were not designed to be lived in," said Lampson, chairman of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology.

In addition, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee -- Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Mississippi -- cited medical experts who said prolonged exposure to high levels of formaldehyde can cause ailments ranging from respiratory irritation to cancer.

The committee recently obtained internal CDC e-mail which showed that "despite the efforts of CDC professionals to bring these health risks to the public's attention, those concerns were thwarted by CDC leadership for roughly eight months," Thompson said.

The Clarion-Ledger expanded upon the story the following day:

The House Committee on Science and Technology this week released e-mails from Christopher DeRosa, a CDC scientist analyzing test results on unoccupied trailers in 2006. The e-mails said FEMA repeatedly requested "we specify safe levels of exposure."

"We should be very cautious about the use of the word 'safe' in reference to formaldehyde," De Rosa wrote. "Since it is a carcinogen, it is a matter of science policy that there is no 'safe' level of exposure."

And Salon's Sheila Kaplin had even more:

In May 2006, FEMA asked ATSDR to compose a "health consultation" on the FEMA trailers. Dr. Christopher De Rosa, chief of toxicology for ATSDR, told FEMA that any report on health risks of exposure to formaldehyde would have to include information on the risk of cancer and other potential long-term problems. At that point, De Rosa was cut out of the loop. Internal ATSDR documents show that FEMA contacted two of De Rosa's staffers, who then prepared the misleading consultation. When, nine months later, De Rosa learned ATSDR had omitted the key health information in its advisory, he drafted a letter to FEMA trial attorney Patrick Edward Preston.

"I am concerned that this health consultation is incomplete and perhaps misleading," De Rosa wrote. "Formaldehyde is classified as 'reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.' As such, there is no recognized 'safe level' of exposure. Thus, any level of exposure to formaldehyde may pose a cancer risk, regardless of duration. Failure to communicate this issue is possibly misleading, and a threat to public health."

De Rosa also wrote to [chief of the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Dr. Howard] Frumkin, noting "FEMA's initial contact came directly to me nine months ago on this issue." "I reviewed the proposed statement and specified that they had neglected to address longer term risk including cancer." After eight months of tense negotiations, a revised report included references to the potentially harmful effects of formaldehyde. But other health information, including the likelihood of other toxic gases, such as toluene, being present, was omitted, as was De Rosa's insistence that ATSDR call for the government to take immediate action to end formaldehyde exposure to trailer residents and monitor them for long-term harmful effects. Records show that following his protests, De Rosa in October 2007 was "reassigned" out of his long-term post as director of ATSDR's divison of toxicology and environmental medicine. De Rosa was not available for comment.

Following on the back of repeated reports of Bush administration "fixing the science around the policy" on such matters as global warming, abstinence advocacy and stem cell research, this really is the most outrageous one of all. In this case, covering up the true science behind their policy put the lives of U.S. citizens who had already experienced enough tragedy at risk.

Is it too much to call this a crime against humanity? Maybe. But I'd hate to argue the moral distinctions between deliberately using poison gas on your own people and knowingly providing a means for your own people to breath poison fumes in front of even a first year philosophy class.

No Evidence Marines Attacked During Afghan 10-Mile Massacre

By Cernig

Does anyone recall the most under-reported alleged atrocity of the War on Terror to date, the case of a Marine unit in Afghanistan which the Afghani government and human right's groups in the country accuse of going on a ten mile rampage, massacring civilians? It happened in March last year but there's only now a Court of Inquiry to see if courts martial should be in the offing.

Authorities found no evidence that a Marine unit was responding to an ambush last year when troops allegedly opened fire indiscriminately on Afghan civilians, killing as many as 19, a Navy investigator testified Monday.

But, Navy authorities did not arrive on the scene until two months later and had only an hour to look at the site of the shooting, Marine Chief Warrant Officer Robert O'Dwyer cautioned.

"From a law enforcement standpoint, that's ludicrous," O'Dwyer said. He said that while one investigation later determined two civilians died and 23 were wounded, another concluded 19 died and 50 were wounded.

O'Dwyer's testimony opened the second week of a Court of Inquiry, a rarely used administrative fact-finding proceeding investigating the actions of two officers involved in the shootings: Company commander Maj. Fred C. Galvin, 38, of the Kansas City area, and Capt. Vincent J. Noble, 29, of Philadelphia, a platoon leader.

The court will recommend whether any charges should filed against the officers, and whether any training should be changed.

O'Dwyer said Navy Criminal Investigative Service agents interviewed Afghan police and civilians, and members of an Army military police unit that arrived on the scene less than an hour after the shooting. He said none confirmed the Marine unit's story that there was a coordinated ambush.

...Citing witness accounts, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission concluded last year that the Marines fired indiscriminately at pedestrians and people in cars, buses and taxis in six different locations along a 10-mile (16-kilometer) stretch of roadway.

A Marine riding in the convoy testified last week that the convoy was shot at twice and Marines fired back over a span of roadway about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) long. Navy investigators said the firing occurred over about six miles (10 kilometers), O'Dwyer said.

Six miles is still a heck of a long way, and 19 to 23 dead easily puts this incident in the realms of the Blackwater incident in Iraq which has garnered so much press coverage.

Of course, it might be easier to tell what exactly happened if the on-scene Marine commander hadn't confiscated and destroyed photos and video taken by freelance journalists working for AP at the time, who captured much of what occured.

The justification used back then?

..."Investigative integrity is one circumstance when civil and military authorities will reluctantly exercise the right to control what a journalist is permitted to document," Col. Victor Petrenko, chief of staff to the top U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan, said in a letter Friday.

He added that photographs or video taken by "untrained people" might "capture visual details that are not as they originally were."

Or, indeed, capture visual details at all.

The current article notes that the Marine unit in question was sent out of Afghanistan after the incident. What it doesn't say is that it was sent to Iraq. Although the Army has apologised for civilain deaths during the incident on the Marine Corp's behalf, the Corps insists that the apology was "premature".

Is It A Cover-Up? (Updated)

By Cernig

Remember the story about the Iraqi soldier who shot and killed two US servicemen just after Christmas? I posted a couple of days ago about the Sunni Iraqi media saying he had reacted to US troops beating a pregnant woman during a house search.

Well, Siun at Firedoglake, with help from some FDL regulars, has been chasing up this one and it certainly seems there's more to it than meets the eye. There seems to be an awful amount of detail on the beating tale if it's fictitious, and some gaps in the mainstream account that would tend to corroborate it. Her regular "Dubhaltach", who served with MNF-I in Iraq, writes:

The incident took place during a search operation being carried out in Al-Siha (that is a district where the invaders are unpopular to put it mildly, Al Siha is on the right side of the river bank.) However the report says they were conducting operations prior to establishing a combat outpost. You do not establish combat outposts in unpopulated areas in or around a city you are attempting to subdue. I find it difficult therefore to believe that the area was "void of civilians" (via email)

Moreover, Siun writes that the Iraqi shooter was highly likely connected to the Sunni Awakening as well as insurgents - and that hardline Sunni groups are now calling on others to think of him as a role model. That could be a problem whether the underlying beating tale is true or not.

I'm still sticking to my original statement that what we know so far is inconclusive either way - but it seems to me the mainstream media could do a much better job of reporting on this one.

Update Siun at FDL also pointed me to this from IPS:

Conflicting versions of the killing have arisen. Col. Hazim al-Juboory, uncle of the attacker Kaissar Saady al-Juboory, told IPS that his nephew at first watched the U.S. soldiers beat up an Iraqi woman. When he asked them to stop, they refused, so he opened fire.

"Kaissar is a professional soldier who revolted against the Americans when they dragged a woman by her hair in a brutal way," Col. Juboory said. "He is a tribal man, and an Arab with honour who would not accept such behaviour. He killed his captain and sergeant knowing that he would be executed."

Others gave IPS a similar account. "I was there when the American captain and his soldiers raided a neighbourhood and started shouting at women to tell them where some men they wanted were," a resident of Mosul, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS on phone. "The women told them they did not know, and their men did not do anything wrong, and started crying in fear."

The witness said the U.S. captain began to shout at his soldiers and the women, and his men then started to grab the women and pull them by their hair.

"The soldier we knew later to be Kaissar shouted at the Americans, 'No, No,' but the captain shouted back at the Iraqi soldier," the witness told IPS. "Then the Iraqi soldier shouted, 'Let go of the women you sons of bitches,' and started shooting at them." The soldier, he said, then ran off.

The Iraqi authorities seem to be pushing the idea that there are more like Caesar/Kaissar within the Iraqi Army and, especially, within the new Awakening forces. that's very probably true, but you can just hear them preparing the way for refusing to take on more Awakening types on the basis of this incident. On the other side of the coin, this incident seems to have struck an anti-occupation chord in Sunni hearts and minds. (Which is why I said the Western media should have been on top of the whiff of subterfuge, of not being entirely forthcoming, that the story had from word one.)

Sheikh Juma' al-Dawar, chief of the major al-Baggara tribe in Iraq, told IPS in Baghdad that "Kaissar is from the al-Juboor tribes in Gayara -- tribes with morals that Americans do not understand."

The tribal chief added, "Juboor tribes and all other tribes are proud of Kaissar and what he did by killing the American soldiers. Now he is a hero, with a name that will never be forgotten."

Many Iraqis speak in similar vein. "It is another example of Iraqi people's unity despite political conspiracies by the Americans and their tails (collaborators)," Mohammad Nassir, an independent politician in Baghdad told IPS. "Kaissar is loved by all Iraqis who pray for his safety and who are ready to donate anything for his welfare."

Col. Juboory said Kaissar who had at first accepted collaboration with the U.S. forces "found the truth too bitter to put up with." The colonel said: "I worked with the Americans because being an army officer is my job and also because I was convinced they would help Iraqis. But 11 months was enough for me to realise that starving to death is more honourable than serving the occupiers. They were mean in every way."

Independent sources have since told IPS that Kaissar was captured by a special joint Iraqi-U.S. force, and he is now being held and tortured at the al-Ghizlany military camp in Mosul.

From which he will no doubt emerge, in time, having suitably confessed to being in the pay of Al Qaeda, the Awakening, Iran, Gaddaffi's Great Aunt or whoever else is the enemy de jour. Whether or not the story of US servicemen beating a pregnant women is true - and there should be a full investigation of those accusations - it is now, thanks to the US military's obsessive secrecy leaving the clear impression that something was being hidden, firmly fixed in the minds of exactly those who the military least wants to antagonize.

The Smearing Of Jamie Leigh

By Cernig

And so the serious smearing begins of a 22 year old Houston girl, Jamie Leigh Jones, who was gang raped by KBR contractors in Iraq. Bob Owens of the Pajamahedeen and Confederate Yankee is on the case.

He finds that ABC hyped their story some but doesn't knock a single hole in Jamie's testimony. The rape kit wasn't handed to KBR, it was State ineptitude that lost and found it again. It wasn't a shipping container, it was a living container (with air conditioning) she was imprisoned in. Both these findings are consistent with Jamie's own account and court filings, if not with ABC's. Yet Owens at no point makes it clear that this is the case, deliberately blurring the lines between the ABC story and Jamie's own account to make it appear - without a shred of proof - that Jamie is complicit in ABC's tabloid reporting of actual facts.

But Jamie Leigh's website has removed her journal page, probably because the woman who experienced this traumatic experience is sick of it being poured over feverishly by rightwing "gotcha" seekers like Owens. It is implied with weasel words that this points to Jamie Leigh having something to hide.

And so, although Owens carefully doesn't quite say so in his Pajama's Media post, the mass of wingnut black helicopter theorists catch his intent - that Jamie Leigh is making the whole story up. One commenter opines that: this is their way of avoiding the good news of Iraq and instead focus on "the evils of President Bush's war." The rest aren't far behind.

Over at his own blog, though, Owens has a CYA for his hatchet-job.

For those of you who might expect me to be trying to debunk the case... don't.

Though there are some inconsistencies with certain aspects of the case and the way it has been reported, absolutely nothing seems to contradict the key claim that she was savagely, brutally raped. Nothing contradicts the fact that she has not be able to find justice for 2 years.

I think she's a brave young woman, and hope that she can find both emotional and physical healing.

Bob Owens should be ashamed of himself for not putting those exact words in his PJM post. At the very least, he should go back and put them in comments to that post. Better still if he amended the post.

Update In an added twist -

One of the charges being levelled at Jamie Leigh Jones by prospective "debunkers" is that she alleges she was held under armed guard by KBR but KBR doesn't have it's own armed security.

They're correct. KBR is meant to get all its security details from the US military...but KBR is under a cloud because it might have to pay back $400 million because it sub-contracted other companies to provide it with private armed guards anyway. The Army has admitted that KBR did this in violation of its contract already.

Can you guess who the biggest contractor to provide armed guards for KBR is?

I'll give you a hint. It begins with "B" and ends with "water".

When peace becomes a dirty word...

I've been meaning to get to this story that I picked up at Crooks and Liars a while ago. It's rather horrifying.

Students at Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High School are waging a war on peace.Recently, sophomore Skylar Stains decided to hold Peace Shirt Thursdays at the school. Skylar and her friend, Lauren Lorraine, started wearing peace shirts and soon recruited more friends to wear them. Now, the “Peace Shirt Coalition” as they call themselves, has close to 30 students from all grades.

Students started approaching the group members, yelling obscene things at them, said Lauren.

And then it got worse. The posters they left on their lockers were being torn down or being defaced with swastikas and ‘white power’ slogans. Then ‘I Love Bush’ and ‘I Love America, Because America Loves War’ were taped over them. But even that wasn't the end of it.

Soon, a second group started to wear Confederate flag shirts to oppose the peace group, Skylar said. She saw shirts with sayings such as “This is America, get used to it,” and “If peace is the answer; it must be a stupid question.”

“Now there are even ’support our troops’ kids who don’t like us because I guess they think you can’t say peace and support the troops at the same time,” Lauren said.

The school responded by punishing the peace kids for causing trouble and denied them the right to have a peace club even though they submitted a written proposal and had a sponsor as required. Now all they have left is a My Space page where their detractors continue to leave threatening comments.

These kids weren't trying to make any kind of political statement other than supporting the concept of peace so what would cause such a violent reaction to their little club? I hear David Gregory blames blogs for creating such a polarizing public environment, but I doubt the student body of this little school is spending its waking hours poring over either Kos or Power Line. No, there's a simpler explanation.

The GOP spent years accruing power by planting hate in their base via their wedge politics. This sort of ugliness is simply the fruit of that poison tree.

Update: From racrecir in comments, more kids who hate peace because they've heard it has 'a liberal bias.' How sad.

Powerline - Huckabee "Too Moralistic"

By Cernig

There are probably many reasons to think Mike Huckabee shouldn't be president of the U.S.

But saying he wants to stay in Iraq to fix a broken nation, not just kill terr'ists, or his being too Christian to torture and detain people indefinitely without fair trial? Only the most morally bankrupt would suggest those as reasons, surely? I mean, wtf??

There Are Damn Few Moonbats In Surrey, Michelle (And Sister Toldjah)

By Cernig

My colleague Shamanic already noted the shameful tale of locals abusing disabled veterans at a swimming pool in Leatherhead, UK. The story has been carried by the two most conservative newspapers in Britain - the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph - perhaps as reminders to their affluent, middle-class, conservative readers that they shouldn't be too open in their contempt for the lower-class "Tommies" of the armed forces.

Michelle Malkin writes that the story shows that "Britain has a potent strain of moonbat virus going around". I've news for Michelle - there are damn few moonbats in Surrey.

The Mole Valley parliamentary constituency has been staunchly conservative since its creation in the 80's and has been the sinecure of exactly two conservatives with very safe majorities in all those years - both cronies of Margaret Thatcher, a Conservative warmonger praised by the U.S. extreme Right who always treated the Tommies exactly as described by Kipling.

At the last local election, Surrey County Council returned an overwhelmingly conservative majority - as it has in every election in living memory. The local council, Mole Valley, that takes in the town of Leatherhead where this incident took place is also staunchly conservative and always has been. Leatherhead itself is the kind of "caring conservative" place where most of the local Royal School for the Blind has been sold off as private apartments.

The story, as presented in the press, notes that the main complainer's argument was that "the soldiers did not deserve to be there when she had paid." With such a fixation on money coming before humanity, this is yet another textbook case of wingnut "I'm alright, Jack" thinking.

Update: Sister Won't-Tell-Ya.

U.S. Republican blogger Sister Toldjah heads her post on this story: “Compassionate liberalism” rears its ugly head again. I dropped a comment pointing out that Leatherhead, Surrey is staunch conservative heartland, linking to this post, and wrote that if she would like to condemn the conservative NIMBY attitude that leads to stuff like this I'd be happy to join her in doing so.

She deleted the comment.

Another Wingnut Bush Nominee

By Cernig

Bush has nominated his new ambassador to the Vatican - Harvard University law professor Mary Ann Glendon.

She is, needless to say, an anti-abortion crusader who is against same-sex marriage (and for you conspiracy fans out there, a member of Opus Dei). One of those occasions where administration, nominee and hosts can be in perfect medievalist harmony, all cleaving to bigotry and the continuation of miserable poverty in the Third World.

I'm sure some Congressional Dems will be as quick to defend her as they have Mukasky. Shaun Mullen shines a glaring logical light on Schumer's panderings.

And yes, Schumer and Feinstein have joined Republicans to pass Mukasky's nomination to the full Senate by an 11-8 vote.

Oh, THAT Immunity!

By Cernig

ABC has the exclusive - the text of the immunity that State Dept. officials were denying giving to Blackwater employees suspected of gunning down innocent iraqi civilians.

The wording of the immunity is included at the beginning of the Blackwater guards' sworn statements, which have been obtained by ABC News.

In each of the statements, the guards begin by saying "I understand this statement is being given in furtherance of an official administrative inquiry," and that, "I further understand that neither my statements nor any information or evidence gained by reason of my statements can be used against me in a criminal proceeding, except that if I knowingly and willfully provide false statements or information, I may be criminally prosecuted for that action under 18 United States Code, Section 1001."

It isn't just Colonels who can issue lying denials, it seems.

I guess the U.S. has finally reached the point immortalized two decades ago by the Brit political comedy Yes, Minister - "never believe a rumor until the official denial has been issued".

Hat tip to Macswain, who snarkily observes:

The State Department is placing a myopic and exaggerated emphasis on the fact that the deal does not provide a complete blanket of immunity. This does not, however, equate to an ability to prosecute and provide accountability for any wrongdoing as they are suggesting. Once the statements are out, it is extremely difficult for any prosecutor to convince a federal judge (especially the ton of such judges appointed by Republicans) that the evidence being used was not in some way obtained as a result of or influenced by the protected statements.

Remember how Conservative Judges used a broad reading of limited use immunity to get North and Poindexter out of their Iran Contra convictions?

Indeed.

That's A Good Question

By Cernig

Shaun Mullen: Why Is Gay Hating James Dobson Still Licensed As a Therapist in Colorado?

Damn good question.

(This has been today's installment of "Blog Like An Insta-Atrios", an occasional Newshoggers series.)

Collective Punishment

By Cernig

Yet again, the double standard that says the US and its allies can get away with thumbing their noses at international law will be applied:

Israel's defence minister has approved sanctions against Gaza, including cuts in the supply of electricity and fuel to try to halt rocket attacks.
Ehud Barak authorised the cuts, which are expected to follow immediately after rocket attacks are launched.

Palestinian leaders say the measure amounts to collective punishment.

Israel supplies 60% of the electricity for Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants - but last month Israel declared Gaza a "hostile entity".

By formally declaring Gaza "hostile", Israel argues it is no longer bound by international law governing the administration of occupied territory to supply utilities to the civilian population.

But the position accepted by the international community is that Israel remains legally responsible for the coastal strip, despite withdrawing two years ago, because it still controls Gaza's borders, airspace and territorial waters.

I'm betting there will be no condemnation from the Bush administration of this contravention of laws concerning the actions of occupying powers and collective punishment - a clear war crime. Just as there was no condemnation of a unilateral attack on Syria which at the very best was years ahead of being justifiable and at the worst was aggresive warfare without cause - another war crime.

Making Up The Death Count

By Cernig

Reuters reports an Iraqi Interior Ministry announcement of a dramatic drop in deaths in Iraq.

Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf told reporters that there had been a 70 percent decrease in violence countrywide in the three months from July to September over the previous quarter.

Which leads some cheerleaders to suggest the war is won.

But that 70% figure is BS.

Iraq Body Count, as reported by the BBC, says that they have confirmed figures for approximately 6400 Iraqi deaths in the quarter from April to June. The Iraq Body Count confirmed totals for July and August so far amount to approximately 3750 - 58.6% of the previous quarter's total. The August total is expected to rise. In September, IBC have already tallied 873 reported deaths and that total will also rise considerably. Back when I went to school 4,600 was nowhere near 30% of 6400.

IBC has already tallied far more deaths for the quarter than the Iraqi Interior Minister's "70% decrease" says have occurred.

This is why the Interior Ministry makes these pronouncements, but has for some time now refused to make either the raw data or methodology public. It's something they hold in common with General Petraeus at MNF-I, who also hasn't released the basis for his infamous Congressional graphs yet. There's lies, damned lies, statistics - and "official" casualty counts in Iraq.

Panty Raid!

By Libby

I love this protest action against the Burmese government. Nothing like underwear to send a message.

Activists exasperated at the failure of diplomacy to apply pressure on Burma's military regime are resorting to a new means of protest against the regime's recent crackdown: sending female underwear to Burmese embassies. [...]

The manoeuvre is a calculated insult to the junta and its leader, General Than Shwe. Superstitious junta members believe that any contact with female undergarments - clean or dirty - will sap them of their power, said Jackie Pollack, a member of the Lanna Action for Burma Committee.

This reminds me of the The Great Prison Panty Rebellion of Alabama from back when I was mostly doing drug policy reform blogging. The protest was spontaneously launched back when my friend Loretta Nall was running for governor of 'Bama. It's a long story told in full at the link, including an extended exchange of emails between myself and the bureaucratic hack in charge of excuses at the prison.

Short version: Loretta took her elderly mother to see her brother in prison. It was a long drive and when they arrived they were denied visitation because they weren't wearing panties. I'd note they were wearing slacks. They were treated terribly and the upshot was they never got to see the brother. The story was eventually picked up by Blogtopians and the story so outraged so many women that they began sending panties to the jail. It wasn't organized in any way. They just started sending them. I understand the prison ended with hundreds of undies.

I doubt that it changed the policies at the prison anymore than it will instill a sense of humanity in the Burmese regime, but you know, sometimes it just feels good to do something tangible. At least they got the point.

CNN smears with a smile

By Libby

Sigh. Do you remember when Ted Turner started CNN and we were so relieved to finally have a station that you could depend on for news? As in facts presented dispassionately that were put into context by research and live footage? I used to leave it on almost 24/7. I miss that station.

It's been a long time since I even bother to tune it in and drivel like this is why. Of all the sorry displays of mass stupidity that has surrounded the Frost family this week, this is perhaps the most egregiously imbecilic. Their resident talking head "experts" not only fail to treat the wingnut ragers as the irrelevant fools they are, but have the audacity to blame the Democrats for inciting their inhumane attacks by putting a human face on an abstract policy. According to CNN's "reasoning" it's the Dems fault because they allowed a deserving beneficiary of a widely supported program to tell his all too common story.

CNN in this segment tacitly implies that this is first time in the history of politics that a child has been used to illustrate a point. They completely fail to give any context by noting the numerous examples of the GOP doing the same or acknowledging that when they did so, the Democrats and the bloggers who support their policies didn't stoop so low as to swarm to attack the messenger. They neglect to mention that the emerging facts prove the Frosts are exactly the sort of working poor Americans that deserve the health coverage. This isn't reporting. It's pure partisan spin and it's woefully dishonest to boot. For that we could dial in Fox News.

I forget what CNN was supposed to stand for but clearly what it means right now is Certainly Not News. This is what media consolidation has wrought. We're never going to get honest reporting until we take the ownership of our entire media out of the sole grip of six or eight rich white Republicans. In the meantime, you might want to contact CNN and let them know what you think about their coverage.