May 28, 2004
TORTURE
An Iraqi who was in prison under Saddam Hussein
weighs in on Abu Ghraib:
Ibrahim Idrissi has mixed feelings about the recent uproar caused by the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib under the US occupation. "As a humanitarian organization, we oppose this," he says. "But these are soldiers who have come to Iraq to fight, not to be prison guards. It was to be expected. Of course, if there are innocent people in there ... it is possible, I guess, that some of them are innocent."
If Idrissi seems a bit callous about the fate of the Iraqis in US-run jails, he has probably earned the right to differ. He recalls a day in 1982, at the General Security prison in Baghdad:
"They called all the prisoners out to the courtyard for what they called a 'celebration.' We all knew what they meant by 'celebration.' All the prisoners were chained to a pipe that ran the length of the courtyard wall. One prisoner, Amer al-Tikriti, was called out. They said if he didn't tell them everything they wanted to know, they would show him torture like he had never seen. He merely told them he would show them patience like they had never seen."
"This is when they brought out his wife, who was five months pregnant. One of the guards said that if he refused to talk he would get 12 guards to rape his wife until she lost the baby. Amer said nothing. So they did. We were forced to watch. Whenever one of us cast down his eyes, they would beat us."
"Amer's wife didn't lose the baby. So the guard took a knife, cut her belly open and took the baby out with his hands. The woman and child died minutes later. Then the guard used the same knife to cut Amer's throat." There is a moment of silence. Then Idrissi says: "What we have seen about the recent abuse at Abu Ghraib is a joke to us."
(Thanks, Hud.)
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Wouldn't it be ironic if Amer al-Tikriti's guards were the recent 'film stars' from Abu Ghraib?
Posted by: Glenmore at May 28, 2004 06:18 PM (Aoxux)
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May 27, 2004
INTERVIEW
Amritas pointed out a
great interview. I don't even know who Jon Schaffer -- or Iced Earth -- is, but I really like him.
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May 26, 2004
May 25, 2004
MISLEADING
If you didn't see Iraq Now's comparison of
misleading media quotes on Instapundit, you should read it.
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ANONYMOUS
It has been a while since I first read the
Americans Anonymous webpage, but thanks to
Amritas I returned to it this evening. What a great site.
(Oh and yes, despite what I said before about using my French to read things in the original, I'd give anything to not speak French today so I wouldn't be able to understand this magazine cover.)
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May 24, 2004
TIM
Look, we may not get
Tim's research and voice for much longer, so if you're not spending a few minutes every day scrolling through everything he unearths, you're missing out.
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SUSPENSE
Wanna feel your heart pound? Read
this soldier's story, via
Belmont Club.
Posted by: Sarah at
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Thanks for linking to this tale of a horrible waste of life in the mess that is Iraq. A military fiasco if there ever was one.
The REAL military hero of the day is General Anthony Zinni, who has come out to reveal how senior officials at the Pentagon are guilty of dereliction of duty -- and that the time has come for heads to roll.
Posted by: florian at May 24, 2004 09:13 AM (v5x9Y)
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Ah, Florian. I love to read your comments. What do you call this alternative universe of yours? Where black is white, and EVERYONE finds a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Oh, to have such naive certainty.
Let me guess, you probably believe that the American gov't had CIA Arab agents fly planes into the WTC to get us involved in the Middle East?
Posted by: Oda Mae at May 24, 2004 12:15 PM (kNDty)
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If listening to Gen.Zinni and Gen.Taguba when they report on the disaster that is the Iraqi occupation is "naive certainty", I will take my chances.
By the way another American miliary hero, Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey, has further elaborated on the war crimes and massacres of civilians he participated in. Click on the name. It is the whistleblowers and those soldiers speaking the truth that have the real guts.
Posted by: florian at May 24, 2004 02:02 PM (vcCTr)
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"EVERYONE finds a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."
Everyone, Oda Mae? Not Bush. No rainbows for dictators!
Posted by: Amritas at May 25, 2004 04:55 PM (otoZW)
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May 23, 2004
NOPE
No wedding party. Thanks, Oda Mae.
(No time to blog: I have been slacking majorly this morning and still have 11 final papers to read.)
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Your link doesn't work. Mine does. It was a wedding party, with bride, groom, children, a wedding singer. They even have the wedding video. After the massacre a soldier walked up and kicked women's bodies, seeing if they were alive, and laughing while he was doing it.
Posted by: florian at May 24, 2004 09:37 AM (v5x9Y)
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May 22, 2004
WMDs
(Via
Hud) No one really
cares about the WMDs after all.
(For those who get rap references, there's a WMDeezNuts joke out there somewhere...)
Posted by: Sarah at
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i have been a soldier for nearly 5 years now and have never been in a combat situation.I we should have finished what we started in the first war but that is yesterdays news i also will soon be joining my brothers in arms and i am anticipated going to do my part as a U.S.soldier but the reason i am writing is in regards to my beautiful wife who my being absent from will be so hard to deal with she is so strong and supports me like no one ever has and for that i am grateful after my first divorce i thought if the army wanted me to have a wife they would have issued me one but i would want no one else to stand by myside besides her now for all the soldiers who are enroute to war or hell same thing keep your dam head down remember there are people who believe in what we are doing and never forget what you are
I AM A SOLDIER FIGHTING IN THE FORCES WHICH GUARD MY COUNTRY AND OUR WAY OF LIFE
GO LIONS
Posted by: mark at May 22, 2004 12:38 PM (NczNv)
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Godspeed and good luck!
Posted by: James Hudnall at May 23, 2004 01:50 AM (FV8Tp)
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HORSE
The newest installment in my segment called
Dead Horse Beating is from
James Hudnall; he says everything that I learned this morning about prison scandals in one succinct post.
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May 21, 2004
BLAME
And here I thought we couldn't
blame anything else on President Bush...
(Thanks, Dave.)
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This brings up the previous topic -- you send people out to kill civilians, and the violence comes back home. Whatever the facts of this particular case, that is the horrible blowback that America has got to expect.
Remember, Sgt. Massey's CO told him that killing civilians was "good".
Today's military hero: Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, brave enough to say "hell no", to stand up for what is right in the face of a war that is wrong.
Posted by: florian at May 21, 2004 06:01 AM (2/SUC)
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There is no CO in the military who would ever tell his troops killing civilians is good...except maybe John Kerry.
I wonder if his affair was with Lynndie?
Posted by: Mike at May 21, 2004 08:20 AM (cFRpq)
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Mike, check the Sacrement Bee article by clicking on my name for the source, Sgt. Massey telling about how his CO told me killing civilians was good, and how cluster bombs and depleted uranium are hurting US soldiers as well as Iraqis.
Turning this issue into partisan politics is pathetic.
Posted by: florian at May 22, 2004 06:14 AM (VbjXZ)
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May 19, 2004
SCROLLING
It was a red-letter day at Tim's: he's got loads of
feel-good stories. Heroes who fight back despite holes in their arms, soldiers from our post who capture the bad guy instead of shooting him, Iraqis who can tie their shoes, and so on. Go start scrolling...
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May 18, 2004
DEAD HORSE
I was walking through the blogosphere and I came upon a dead horse. I thought I'd
beat it again, just to make sure the message got through. But this time it's really worth it...
Oh, and this was in the paper version of the Stars and Stripes yesterday: Something That Didn't Make The News
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PACKAGES
Thinking of sending a package down range? A
Kim du Toit reader has some advice...
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May 17, 2004
KNEE-JERK
Beth found a great
article about a teacher's reaction to anti-Americanism abroad. I found myself nodding while reading most of it. I too was a teacher on September 12, and I endured my own share of knee-jerks in my ESL class that day.
Posted by: Sarah at
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I can't wait to hear what you think of Dark Star Safari. I love the way Mr. Theroux travels, his mind set. I just keep wondering if his travels would be possible for a single woman. Maybe. Maybe language skills make the difference.
Posted by: Beth at May 18, 2004 01:05 AM (1e9RN)
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GRRRRR
Grrrrr. Heart. Rate. Rising. Must look at the
puppy. Or read
Lileks; he makes me laugh out loud. "DonÂ’t eat the cup this time." -- HA!
MORE:
But then I went to Merde in France and started scrolling down through all the political cartoons. Clenched teeth. However, the last cartoon puts everything in perspective:
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...which is why I keep WTC photos on my site.
Posted by: Mike at May 17, 2004 05:58 PM (sndyE)
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Because an Iraq/Al Qaeda connection has been found by...
Oh, wait. There is no connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
And the ICRC reports that up to 90% of the prisoners in Abu Ghraib are probably completely innocent.
So, what's the perspective again?
Posted by: Not Brainwashed by FOX at May 18, 2004 12:56 PM (rPNPr)
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Because neither an Iraq/Al Qaeda connection nor a pair of spectacles have been found by the WMD inspection team ...
Oh, wait. The media never corrected their mistatements that there is no connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
And the ICRC reports that up to 90% of the prisoners in every prison in the world claim they are probably completely innocent.
So, what's the perspective again?
Posted by: Shawn at May 18, 2004 03:22 PM (QghFP)
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Let's not forget also that Iraq represented absolutely no threat to us at all, since they didn't have ICBMs. The only thing that could convince me otherwise would be if someone based overseas were to kill lots of Americans WITHOUT using missles, gas, etc. Nevermind.
Posted by: Dave Munger at May 20, 2004 11:49 PM (jLTpM)
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CROSSFIRE
I think the world of Mark Steyn. His new
article was almost too good to pull out one quote, but I managed to pick one:
Back before 9/11, real crossfire was long ago and far away. Not anymore. And that's the problem: We still have a ''Crossfire'' culture in an age of real crossfire. We have the ersatz warriors, the ham actors of Washington -- Senators Kennedy, Levin, Leahy, Harkin and others too fond of seeing their names in print to mention -- ''calling for Rumsfeld's head'' at a time when America's enemies have already got Nick Berg's, and they're swinging it around on camera for the snuff video they'll be distributing as a recruiting tool.
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