Barbara's Sharebook 

The following is the statement of Mutadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi who threw his shoes at George Bush gave this speech, on his recent release from prison.

In the name of God, the most gracious and most merciful.

Here I am, free. But my country is still a prisoner of war.

Firstly, I give my thanks and my regards to everyone who stood beside me, whether inside my country, in the Islamic world, in the free world. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act.

But, simply, I answer: What compelled me to confront is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot.

And how it wanted to crush the skulls of (the homeland's) sons under its boots, whether sheikhs, women, children or men. And during the past few years, more than a million martyrs fell by the bullets of the occupation and the country is now filled with more than 5 million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. And many millions of homeless because of displacement inside and outside the country.

We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shiite would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ, may peace be upon him. And despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than 10 years, for more than a decade.

Our patience and our solidarity did not make us forget the oppression. Until we were invaded by the illusion of liberation that some had. (The occupation) divided one brother from another, one neighbor from another, and the son from his uncle. It turned our homes into never-ending funeral tents. And our graveyards spread into parks and roadsides. It is a plague. It is the occupation that is killing us, that is violating the houses of worship and the sanctity of our homes and that is throwing thousands daily into makeshift prisons.

I am not a hero, and I admit that. But I have a point of view and I have a stance. It humiliated me to see my country humiliated. And to see my Baghdad burned. And my people being killed. Thousands of tragic pictures remained in my head, and this weighs on me every day and pushes me toward the righteous path, the path of confrontation, the path of rejecting injustice, deceit and duplicity. It deprived me of a good night's sleep.

Dozens, no, hundreds, of images of massacres that would turn the hair of a newborn white used to bring tears to my eyes and wound me. The scandal of Abu Ghraib. The massacre of Fallujah, Najaf, Haditha, Sadr City, Basra, Diyala, Mosul, Tal Afar, and every inch of our wounded land. In the past years, I traveled through my burning land and saw with my own eyes the pain of the victims, and hear with my own ears the screams of the bereaved and the orphans. And a feeling of shame haunted me like an ugly name because I was powerless.

And as soon as I finished my professional duties in reporting the daily tragedies of the Iraqis, and while I washed away the remains of the debris of the ruined Iraqi houses, or the traces of the blood of victims that stained my clothes, I would clench my teeth and make a pledge to our victims, a pledge of vengeance.

The opportunity came, and I took it.

 

Please Note and get all your friends to Note this!

Why I Threw My Shoes At Bush: Iraqi Journalist Released From Prison, Speaks

Why I Threw My Shoes At Bush: Iraqi Journalist Released From Prison, Speaks

US Politics & Gov't  (tags: bush, bushadministration, abuse, war, iraq )

BMutiny  - alternet.org

"And to my beloved country I say: If the night of injustice is prolonged, it will not stop the rising of a sun and it will be the sun of freedom."

Photos Show Rape of Iraqi Women
by US Occupation Forces

[Note: FAKE photos, PROVED fakes, are being used by the govt in an attempt to DIS-CREDIT the REAL photos that have surfaced, and will surface in future.] [The following photograph, horrifying and disgusting as it is, appears to be a FAKE, a mere pretense; as the uniforms on the soldiers are all wrong, etc.] [So, if you are going to be offended, then be offended for the right reasons! At least good taste, rather than someone's Human Rights, are the standards being violated here!] [The gross anti-Semitism of the following paragraph, is something that the govt, and not any other entity, appears to be responsible for, in its propaganda department. It would under ordinary circumstances be a huge turnoff, unsympathetic; and that is in fact its purpose, strategically placed by the photographs. Makes the ordinary person think even more, "There is something fishy about these pics." That is what you are supposed to think: "These pics are FAKE." Which, of course, they are. But, next, you are being sub-consiously MANIPULATED to think, "Well, if these awful rape pictures are fake, showing fake American troops; then, therefore ALL pictures of American troops committing rapes, torture and atrocities, must be fake, too! Wow! Whatta relief! To "know" that American troops never commit no rapes and no atrocities never!!!!! ] [This makes for a real "Mind-fu*k"!] [It is of course entirely possible, that many of the sources picking up on these fake photos, did so not catching on to the fact that as journalists, they were being USED to spread U.S.govt DIS-INFORMATION! The more that happened, the happier the govt psy-ops got!]

(Please Note: Many of the photographs showing the rape of Iraqi women and the sodomization of Iraqi POW's at the Abu Ghraib prison are now at USA pornographic websites pointing to the possibility of collusion between the depraved US soldiers in the pictures and US based Jewish pornographers. Many of these photographs were also freely disseminated to US occupation forces, perhaps to inflame their nefarious desires and to motivate them to strike out against the Iraqi populace in these perverse ways.)

by Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan

-----------------
"The suggestion that the photos are real is, of course, ludicrous. While some of the select still shots appear dramatic and disturbing, the videos from which the still shots were taken give ample evidence that all participants were willing and that this was a porn shoot replete with high-school level acting skills and, in one case, a pseudo-disco porn soundtrack.

The only English spoken in the movies is the obligatory, "Oh, yeah." Two of the films feature "soldiers" speaking phrases in French and German. In addition, the uniforms have no insignia, the "soldiers" wear jungle camouflage and face paint, instead of desert camouflage. The helmets are not authentic, nor are the T-shirts or shoes.

One Internet blogger laughingly pointed out that one soldier's weapon was a paintball gun, and another one noted the ever-present "porn blanket" that appeared in every scene. One observer commented that the acrobats from Cirque du Soleil would have difficulty figuring out the moves involved in these multiple-partner performance shots.
The films are set in Budapest, not Iraq.
Some of Marchand's still shots were carried on an American site called "Iraq Babes."

133

Photos Show Rape of Iraqi Women

World  (tags: Rape Iraqi Women US troops pictures )

Uhoud
- 17 days ago - aztlan.net

Photos Show Rape of Iraqi Women

Whether those photos are real or faked; the RAPES described in WORDS, are REAL.
Whether THOSE photos are real or faked; they are LIKE photographs members of Congress have actually SEEN, that have NOT BEEN RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC, YET. ASK your Members of Congress, about them! {They probably aren't allowed to tell!}

Whether those photograph are real or fake, Members of the American Military, yes, the Former Boy or Girl Next Door, as young and guileless as Lynndie Englund, ARE PARTICIPATING IN RAPES AND TORTURES, ORDERED BY THE HIGHER-UPS; all the way up to the SECRETARY OF DEFENSE.

American soldiers ARE INDEED, RAPING, IMPREGNATING, AND IN SOME CASES MURDERING, their own female fellow-soldiers.
They ARE deliberately torturing and destroying helpless ANIMALS.
You are only getting a TINY TIP OF THE ICEBERG, of what is REALLY going on!

Yes, there ARE Iraqi women, children, and young boys, IN AMERICAN-RUN PRISONS in Iraq. Yes, they ARE being tortured -- often, to "soften up" their menfolk and parents, to force them to "talk".
THIS HAS BEEN DOCUMENTED. RELEASED PRISONERS HAVE TALKED ABOUT IT. There appeared last week, on the TV show FRONTLINE -- INTERVIEWS with former prisoners -- many of whom are EDUCATED and SPEAK PERFECTLY GOOD ENGLISH, and don't need translators! They have HEARD WOMEN SCREAMING thru their cell walls......NOT FAKE! and have NIGHTMARES about it STILL....... wouldn't YOU?

I believe that the FAKE SITE, could have been SET UP BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, on PURPOSE in order to DISCREDIT the REAL STORIES. Together with that fake anti-Semitism. To discredit the site even more. The site, I believe, was SET UP IN THAT WAY, with the FAKE AND INACCURATE COSTUMES; so that, in future, when the REAL pictures were FINALLY shown, people in ADVANCE, would HAVE A REASON FOR DIS-BELIEVING THEM.

The U.S. Government, will do ANYTHING, just ANYTHING, to GET THEMSELVES OFF THE HOOK.
World Opinion, however, KNOWS, that, U.S. Govt-sponsored FAKE PORN SITE or no Fake Porn Site; the U.S. Govt. IS GUILTY AS SIN.
This slimey little trick of theirs, setting up THEIR OWN GOVT INTERNET OBVIOUSLY-FAKED WILLING-TO-BE-DISCOVERED-FAKE PORN SITE, will NOT WORK, NEVER, NEVER, EVER, in the eyes of the ENTIRE WORLD.

I believe that with OBAMA now as President, THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT WILL STOP SPENDING TAXPAYERS' MONEY TO SET UP ITS OWN FAKED RAPE PICTURE SITES TO COVER UP THE REAL PRISON RAPE PICTURES. I believe we are COUNTING on Obama, to SHUT DOWN THE PRISONS WHERE THE RAPES AND HUMILIATIONS OF IRAQIS ARE BEING COMMITTED, ENTIRELY. Unlike Bush did, we DO NOT EXPECT PRESIDENT OBAMA TO TRY TO DENY OR TO "JUSTIFY" THE EXISTENCE OF THESE PRISONS AND THESE ATROCITIES. Only the TRUTH, and not FAKERY and LIES, will set us, and the world, free from this nightmare!!!

=============================

Uhoud, it is NOT YOUR FAULT that you were TAKEN IN by this CLEVERLY-FAKED U.S. GOVERNMENT PORN SITE evilly crafted to DISCREDIT YOUR TRUE STORIES. Just be careful from now on -- and WATCH OUT FOR THAT FAKE ANTI-SEMITISM. You are a BRAVE SOUL; keep on reporting TRUTH, my Sister!!!!!

FURTHERMORE: KNOW, THAT I CANNOT PROVE THIS; THAT THE PICTURES IN QUESTION WERE TAKEN FROM A U.S. GOVERNMENT-MANUFACTURED DELIBERATELY-FAKED PORN SITE. HOWEVER, IT IS CONSISTENT WITH OTHER GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED DIS-INFORMATION ACTIVITIES AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE "BLACK OPS". FOR EXAMPLE, THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HAS SET UP MORE-THAN-ONE FAKE "9/11 TRUTHER" INTERNET SITE, COMPLETE WITH THE SAME ANTI-SEMITISM AND OBVIOUSLY-PROVING-FAKE PHOTOS. THE PURPOSE CLEARLY BEING, TO MAKE 9/11 TRUTHERS LOOK LIKE GULLIBLE FOOLS! AND SMEAR THEM ALL, AS BEING MOTIVATED BY RABID ANTI-SEMITISM!

I furthermore believe, that the "Angel H." person who posted SO OFTEN and at SUCH LENGTH under that picture thread, whose logo is a "Pirate Skull" {odd for an "Angel"!}; could be someone who has shilled for the govt here on Care2 before, quite a while ago, under other names, but with a JESTER'S SKULL LOGO. I seem to recognize that person's STYLE characteristics!! It is "intellectual sweet reasonableness" and "being 'willing' to look at both sides", etc. Yeah, insisting on giving "Equal Time" to govt LIES! The govt figures that that is how to "disarm" us "Liberals" -- sneak in the NeoCon agenda, but NEVER ADMIT you are going by a NeoCon script!!!!!!!! Also, the "Walkadelic" person on that thread, seems to be a govt shill. They both try to put forward "sweet reasonableness" and "looking at both sides" and "being fair" and "objectivity". Their statements do not hold up under scrutiny. And, they seem AWFULLY EAGER to REFUTE any Peace point-of-view!!!!!! at great, great, length -- as if they had nothing better to do! {They are BEING PAID.}

This trick of the govt's, DID NOT WORK WITH CARE2 MEMBERS, THE WAY THEY WANTED IT TO!!! We didn't CARE if the pictures were fake, or not! WE KNEW FROM OTHER SOURCES, THAT THE STORIES OF RAPES, WERE REAL! We Care2 members ARE NOT SO EASILY FOOLED!!!!!! into thinking "Well, if these pictures are fake, then, of course, ALL stories of 'our wonderful troops' doing bad things, must also be faked!" WE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US KNEW BETTER THAN THAT; AND SAID SO!

Watch out for that "Pirate Skull" "Angel", and "Walkadelic", on other threads. That "Skull" person, whatever his real name is, and he has gone by Randy and David and other names, seems to associate that "Death's Head" with a kind of a MOCKING SUPERIORITY, as if he is "taking us all in"............

BMutiny T     Barbara

The story of U.S. Army interrogator Tony
Lagouranis

By John Conroy

He tortured detainees for information he admits they rarely had. Since
leaving Iraq he’s taken this story public, doing battle on national television

against the war’s architects for giving him the orders he regrets he obeyed.

03/13/07 "Chicago Reader"
 -- TONY LAGOURANIS DOESN’T fit the profile of a person likely to go
wrong by following orders. He’s lived a footloose life unconstrained by a
desire for professional advancement, for the approval of superiors, even for a comfortable home.

A freethinker, he read the great works of Western civilization in college and mastered classical languages. It was his desire to learn Arabic as well that took him to Iraq.

And there, as an army interrogator, he tortured detainees for information he admits they rarely had. Since leaving Iraq he’s taken this story public, doing battle on national television against the war’s architects for giving him the orders he regrets he obeyed.

http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/871/2/

===============

Lagouranis says the MPs were “willing and enthusiastic participants in all this stuff. A lot of the guys that we worked with were former prison guards or they were reservists who were prison guards in their civilian life. They loved it. They totally wanted to be involved in interrogations. It actually was a problem sometimes. I remember I would be standing guard at three in the morning outside of the shipping container with a prisoner inside and people would come by and they would know what was going on because they could hear the [loud] music and maybe see the [strobe] lights. And they’d want to join in. So I’d have four sergeants standing around me, and I’m a specialist, and they want to go and %#&!*% the guy up, and I would have to control these guys who outrank me and outnumber me and they have weapons and I don’t—because I’m guarding a prisoner I don’t have a weapon. It got really hairy sometimes and I couldn’t call for help because there was nobody around. I remember at one point the MPs came over from the facility and they were banging on the shipping container, one guy got on top and he was jumping up and down, they were throwing rocks at it, they were going inside and yelling at the guy. And I was like, ‘How do I control this situation?’”

==========================

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PASS THIS ARTICLE AROUND TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW, BOTH ON AND OFF OF CARE2, EVERYWHERE ON THE ENTIRE INTERNET.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES IS UNDER FIRE RIGHT NOW FOR THE POLITICAL FIRING OF PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS THAT DIDN'T CARRY OUT THE REPUG PARTY LINE.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES SHOULD EQUALLY BE UNDER FIRE FOR ALLOWING, ENCOURAGING, INSTIGATING THE TORTURE OF MEN AND OF WOMEN AND OF CHILDREN, THE SODOMIZING OF YOUNG BOYS, AS CAUGHT ON TAPES THE PUBLIC HASN'T SEEN YET.

GONZALES IS RESPONSIBLE. HE SHOULD LOSE HIS JOB, THEN BE TRIED IN AN INTERNATIONAL COURT JUST AS THE NAZI TORTURERS AND MURDERERS WERE.

PLEASE READ AND FORWARD THIS ARTICLE. EVERYWHERE. THEN WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPEOPLE AND BRING THE FULL WEIGHT OF JUSTICE DOWN ON BUSH'S PAL, ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES.

BMutiny T

September 11th, 2001 - 9/11 - was the ONLY time in THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, that NORAD, our Air Defence System, was put on STAND DOWN. That is UNPRECEDENTED.

There was ANOTHER UNPRECEDENTED THING about NORAD on that day. NORAD WAS NOT UNDER MILITARY CONTROL. NO General, no officer, no-one at the Pentagon, was IN CHARGE OF OUR AIR DEFENCE SYSTEM ON SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001! NORAD had just recently been put under non-military control -- under WHOSE control, then? UNDER DICK CHENEY'S CONTROL, THAT'S WHOSE CONTROL.

THIS MAKES DICK CHENEY DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR NORAD NOT RESPONDING AS IT USUALLY DOES TO HIJACKED PLANES, OR TO ANY PLANE THAT STRAYS AN IOTA FROM ITS FLIGHT PATH. This is something that actually happens SEVERAL times a year, that fighter jets are sent to intercept or guide aircraft that strays just a teeny bit from the pre-set flight path. ESPECIALLY if it is near the Pentagon! The fighter jets can be SCRAMBLED IN JUST A FEW MINUTES -- and, they ROUTINELY ARE, EVERY SINGLE DAY OF EVERY SINGLE YEAR BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER SEPT 11 2001. 9/11 WAS THE ONE SINGLE DAY IN ALL OF HISTORY THAT NORAD WAS ORDERED TO STAND DOWN.

AND, IT WAS BY ORDERS OF DICK CHENEY, WHO HAD TAKEN OVER FROM THE MILITARY THAT WOULD NORMALLY BE IN CHARGE -- DUH, WHO ELSE? -- OF OUR AIR DEFENSE.

AS ANYONE CAN SEE, 1] THIS MAKES DICK CHENEY ONE OF THE CRIMINALS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LOSS OF 3000 LIVES ON 9/11.

2] 9/11 HAD TO HAVE BEEN PLANNED IN ADVANCE. IT WAS NOT A MERE MIS-ADMINISTRATION RESPONSE TO SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED FORTUITOUSLY. IT HAD TO HAVE BEEN SET UP SO THAT DICK CHENEY WAS IN CHARGE ON THAT PARTICULAR DATE; AND NOT THE MILITARY OFFICERS WHO WOULD NORMALLY AND ROUTINELY HAVE BEEN IN CHARGE.

3] DICK CHENEY IS TORTURING PRISONERS TO MAKE THEM "CONFESS" TO SOMETHING HE HIMSELF DID.  IT IS, FROM DICK CHENEY'S POINT OF VIEW, THE PERFECT COVERUP.

It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for all of us on the anti-Bush front to be clear, that the "War on Terror" is a COMPLETE FRAUD; just like 9/11 WAS A HOAX ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, who were made to believe in the "19 guys with boxcutters" fairy tale.

Dick Cheney is very smart, in getting us to discuss whether torture is torture, etc., RATHER THAN THAT "TERRORISTS" ARE NOT AND NEVER WERE GUILTY OF 9/11; BUT THAT DICK CHENEY {among others} IS guilty of 9/11.

The slightest amount of real research, will bear out this contention. NO FOREIGNER IS OR EVER WAS OR EVER WILL BE ABLE TO GIVE ORDERS TO AMERICAN ARMED FORCES SUCH AS NORAD, AMERICA'S AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM.

NO CIVILIAN OTHER THAN DICK CHENEY, HAS EVER IN ALL OF UNITED STATES HISTORY, GIVEN ORDERS OF ANY KIND TO NORAD. UNTIL THE DATE OF 9/11.

Therefore, NO ARAB OR ANY OTHER SORT OF "TERRORISTS" ORDERED NORAD TO STAND DOWN ON SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001. If NORAD had behaved in the routine way that NORAD all other times behaved, any airplanes deviating from a flight path would have been intercepted within MINUTES. That is how NORAD has behaved every single other day of its existence, EXCEPT on the day of 9/11. The ONLY EXCEPTION EVER. And DICK CHENEY HAD JUST PUT HIMSELF IN CHARGE. ANTICIPATING WHAT WOULD OCCUR.

I know this is psychologically hard for many people to accept. I was once on that wavelength too. BUT THE FACTS ARE OVERWHELMINGLY CONVINCING; AND ALLOW OF ONLY ONE CONCLUSION.

If there is any other possible conclusion, I would like to know what it is.

I repeat, DICK CHENEY IS TORTURING HELPLESS PRISONERS, IN ORDER TO COVER UP HIS OWN TRACKS AND BAMBOOZLE THE PUBLIC STILL MORE; TO GET THE TORTURED PRISONERS TO "CONFESS" TO EXACTLY THOSE CRIMINAL ACTS AND MURDERS THAT DICK CHENEY HIMSELF HAS COMMITTED.

B Mutiny T