Tuesday July 15, 2008, 2:40 pm
I saw a documentary on how the medical staff performed in Iraq - the other night. It was the most amazing doc - showing their lives over there - what they did - how they helped to give medical aid and care to EVERYONE - not only their soldiers but Iraqi people and their children as well - this was an amazing story and to the Medical Staff of the US in Iraq - I can only say they deserve commendations for their marvellous, humane work they are doing in the dreadful conditions over there. Bless Them All!!!
Thanx Michael C

Thursday July 17, 2008, 11:13 am
"When they were pulling into this intersection at Nisour Square, a convoy of heavily armored vehicles was driving down the wrong side of a one-way street. And when the men in armored vehicles saw Ahmed and his mother, they decided that they were potential bombers or terrorists. And they decided to shoot Ahmed Haithem Ahmed in his forehead.

Once those shots rang out and Ahmed was hit, his mother began screaming, "My son, my son, help me, help me," and she was grabbing on to her son's body. Some Iraqi police officers were in the square that day. They were traffic cops, and they had been scrambling to cut off traffic when they saw this convoy of armored vehicles come in--not for the protection of the armored vehicles, but for the protection of Iraqi civilians whose only crime has been to pull too close to these vehicles and risk being shot.

So when they heard the gunfire and realized that a driver had been shot, they ran over to try to respond. When they arrived at that white Opel sedan being driven by this young man, they saw his mother inside, and she was screaming and calling out. They were trying to convince her to get out of the vehicle, because the men in the armored cars were there, and they still had their guns pointed at the vehicle. The officers described how the grip that Mohassin had on her son's body was so tight that they couldn't get her out.

The police officers put their hands in the air toward the men in the armored vehicles, trying to indicate that they shouldn't shoot--that they were trying to get this woman out. It became clear to the cops that more shots were going to be coming, and so they got out of the way of the car, and then a barrage of bullets rained down on that vehicle. According to witnesses, the car burst into flames and exploded, burning Mohassin and her son inside of it.

That kicked off 15 minutes of sustained gunfire, during which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed. One of the early victims was a 9-year-old boy named Ali, who was shot as he sat in the back seat of a van next to his cousins. His father was in the front seat; he heard the gunshots ringing out, and then some of Ali's cousins cried out from the back, "Ali is dead, Ali is dead." The father grabbed his son and could still hear his heart beating, and so he tried to rush him to a hospital, but it was too late.

And the father of Ali, whose name was Mohammed, came back the next day to the square to try to gather pieces of his son's skull--to take as much of his body as he could to the Iraqi holy city of Najaf to bury him.

People were shot in the back as they tried to flee that shooting. The Iraqis didn't know who was doing the shooting. They just knew that shots were being fired, and they did what I think a lot of people would do--they tried to run. One Iraqi lawyer was shot four times in his back, and he survived. He recently gave testimony to the UN in Geneva about this crime.

And the men, of course, who did the shooting that day, who killed these 17 people, were not members of Moktada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. They weren't members of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia. And they weren't members of the United States Marine Corps. They were private soldiers who were deployed by Blackwater, under orders from the Bush administration.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

WHAT HAPPENED after this shooting in Nisour Square--which became known in some circles as Baghdad's Bloody Sunday--was that the Iraqi government was under the mistaken impression that Nuri al-Maliki was actually the prime minister of Iraq. What they did is say that Blackwater needs to leave this country, and the men who did this shooting would be prosecuted in Iraqi courts as criminals.

Of course, things are not as simple as that. Nuri al-Maliki is not the prime minister of Iraq; Condoleezza Rice apparently is. Jalal Talabani is not the president of Iraq; George Bush apparently is.

For three days after this shooting, Blackwater's operations were halted, as Washington and its puppet regime in Baghdad discussed this diplomatic crisis. And for those three days, no U.S. officials could go anywhere outside the Green Zone. They were trapped with the Cinnabons and the Burger Kings and the Pizza Huts. One Iraqi friend said it was as though the Green Zone had been turned into the Green Zoo--because they were all trapped inside of it.

But this was a very vivid symbol of how deeply embedded Blackwater is in the U.S. occupation apparatus, and how central to occupation activities the company had become. Behind the scenes, an extraordinary story was playing out, but publicly, what we witnessed was two versions of events that were floated in the media.

On the one hand, you had the Iraqi government, which was very forcefully and firmly saying that this was a slaughter of civilians, that there was no provocation, and that all of the Iraqis who were killed were killed as a result of gunfire that was offensive in nature.

Blackwater's version of events was that its men were nobly defending American lives in a hostile war zone, that they had been victims of an armed ambush by enemies and insurgents, and that possibly there was involvement of the Iraqi police or military in this ambush of Blackwater's convoy.

While this was going on, behind the scenes, the Bush administration was beginning to take steps toward covering up for the actions of Blackwater and preventing any effective prosecution of the men who did the shooting that day.

One of the things that happened is that some of Blackwater's allies in the media picked up their spin and started to say that you can't trust anything the Iraqi government says. Mind you, this is a government that the United States put in place, and there's no such thing as independence in this Iraqi government. They tell Nuri al-Maliki to jump, and he says how high. They tell him to do jumping jacks, and he says how many. So when the Blackwater allies in the media started spinning, it was quite ironic when they said you can't trust anything that comes out of the Iraqi Interior Ministry because it's controlled by Moktada al-Sadr, and it's a "hotbed of sectarianism," in the words of one "journalist."

There were U.S. liaisons and advisers working within the Iraqi Interior Ministry. I guess they have to be members of the Mahdi Army as well, and probably should be investigated for their ties to nefarious criminals like Moktada al-Sadr.

Then, one day, there was the leak of a document to the media. This happened as Blackwater was saying that we need to see what the State Department comes up with. Mind you, Blackwater is working for the State Department, keeping State Department officials alive.

This document that gets leaked to the media was referred to as a first-blush report from the State Department--a sort of first version of events. It was on official State Department stationary, with the stamp of the U.S. government, and it backed up everything Blackwater said.

There were a number of problems with this document, but the most glaring of them was that it was, in fact, written by a Blackwater contractor named Darren Hanner and presented as the State Department's first-blush report to the media.

But while aspersions were being cast on the Iraqi government's claims, and Blackwater was spinning its version of events, something that got almost no attention whatsoever was that there was a third force that had an opinion on this, which actually had arrived on the scene 20 minutes after the last shots were fired. This force did a crime scene investigation, interviewed witnesses, examined shell casings and pieced together what it believed happened that day. That was the U.S. military.

In the words of Lt. Col. Mike Tarsa from the 1st Cavalry Division, this had been a "criminal event" that had every indication of "excessive shooting." He said that there was no provocation and no evidence of any enemy fire or fire from any units of the Iraqi police or the Iraqi military, as Blackwater contended. His men expressed shock at the caliber of weapons that were being used in the square that day, saying that it was inconsistent with weapons that would be used, even by the U.S. military, when going into that kind of a crowded civilian area at noon on a Sunday.

Yet that report got almost no attention whatsoever. The whole situation was portrayed in the media like the investigation still needed to play out. Now if the U.S. military identified soldiers involved with something that was labeled a criminal event, there would have been a procedure to begin court-martial proceedings. They would have been prosecuted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

There haven't been enough prosecutions under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but there have been at least 70 on murder-related charges alone in Iraq. But the men who did this in Nisour Square--who committed actions that were labeled a "criminal event" by Lt. Col. Mike Tarsa--to this moment walk around as free individuals.

The top law enforcement entity in the United States is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Bush administration did not send the FBI over to investigate for two full weeks. Instead, the investigation was left in the hands of the very people that depended on Blackwater to keep them alive.

Now, if you or I were accused of committing this kind of a crime, or a much lesser crime, if we were lucky, we would be read our Miranda Rights when the police came around. We would be told we have a right to remain silent, anything we say can and will be used against us in a court of law. When the Blackwater men were questioned by State Department investigators, they were given what I call the reverse Miranda Rights. They were told that nothing they said can and will be used against them in a court of law, and nothing they say can be used to bring charges against them in any court.

It's incredible, but true. They were offered something called limited-use immunity in return for saying what happened. Now usually, when limited-use immunity is granted, it's given not to the suspects, but to people close to the suspects, in an effort to get them to say something about what the suspects did. It's very rare, according to legal experts, that you actually give this immunity to the very people you suspect of committing the crime. But that's what happened in this case.

To put this in a historical context, this is how Oliver North got off after Iran-contra. He was given limited-use immunity, protecting him for his testimony in front of the Congress, and then his lawyers effectively argued that without information gleaned from his testimony, charges would not have been possible against him.

So this was very serious obstruction of justice committed by the State Department investigators at the behest of the Bush administration. Combine that with the fact that the FBI didn't go over for two full weeks. It's Criminology 101--you seal off a crime scene, you investigate it, you look at the evidence, you interview witnesses. None of that was done by the FBI right away. For two weeks, it was the State Department--being guarded by Blackwater--that was investigating Blackwater.

And when the Justice Department finally did begin an investigation, two weeks after the fact, we found out that the FBI was going to be sending a team over to Iraq to investigate, and they were going to be guarded by Blackwater. Only after Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont raised a ruckus about this did the FBI say, "Okay, we'll protect our own men and not have Blackwater protect us while we're going to investigate Blackwater."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

BACK HERE in the United States, all of a sudden, this became a front-page story. Many corporate media outlets were completely asleep at the wheel on this for a long time, and the overwhelming majority of the Democrats in the Congress were either doing nothing about this, or they were part of the problem.

But then, Henry Waxman, who was the leading investigator in the Congress, called on Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, to testify in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Now, Waxman has been investigating this company, digging deep into its operations, for years. So I decided to go down to Washington last October, because I wanted to see this. The last time Waxman had called Erik Prince to testify was in February 2007, and Erik Prince didn't show up--he sent his lawyer instead. But this time, he would have to appear himself.

The night before Erik Prince was set to testify, I got hold of his prepared testimony. It was abundantly clear that Erik Prince believed that he was going to be asked questions about Nisour Square. That was what brought him there that day.

But the next morning, I get a tip-off that the Justice Department just announced its investigation, and that the White House was asking Henry Waxman not to take testimony on Nisour Square so as to not contaminate the investigation into Blackwater. I fully thought that Waxman was going to say, "Hey, we represent a third of the government, we have an independent right to investigate these matters, and the Bush administration needs to back off."

So we go there, and Erik Prince enters the hearing room. He's wearing his blue suit and his Navy SEAL haircut, and he's surrounded not by an army of bodyguards, but an army of p.r. people and lawyers and his advisers. And throughout that day, they would huddle around, like Erik Prince was the quarterback, and they were calling their plays. As he walks in the room, there's this paparazzi-type camera action on him, and Prince later said that the first thought he had when he walked in and saw all the cameras was, "My days as a covert operator are over."

Anyway, he sits down at the table, and before Prince gets up to be sworn in, Waxman says the Justice Department has asked us not to take testimony on Nisour Square, that we assert the right of the Congress to conduct its own investigations, but we're going to respect the wishes of the Justice Department, so we will take no testimony on Nisour Square.

I was astonished when I heard those words come out of Henry Waxman's mouth. Because I have tremendous respect for Waxman. I think that he's been one of the great people investigating Blackwater up until now.

But it wasn't just that. The Democrats on that committee had been provided by Waxman's staff of crack investigators with a very detailed report about Blackwater's activities. A responsible legislator would have read that report and come prepared to ask questions--and more importantly, ask follow-up questions when something is floated that's not true or is suspicious.

But what we discovered was that the Democrats were studying the report while the testimony was taking place. They were sitting there reading while Erik Prince was testifying. On multiple occasions, I would hear Erik Prince say something, and wait for one of them to respond. But no, it just didn't happen.

There was one moment when Rep. Danny Davis of Illinois asked Erik Prince, "Are you saying, sir, that your forces have never killed innocent civilians?" And, paraphrasing, what Erik Prince said was: Yes sir--well, maybe in traffic accidents or ricochet bullets. This man's forces were accused of gunning down 17 Iraqi civilians in an incident the military called a "criminal event," and he's talking about ricochet bullets and traffic accidents. It must have been the largest incident of fatalities from jaywalking in the history of the universe.

Meanwhile, multiple congresspeople thanked Blackwater for keeping them alive when they were in Iraq, because Blackwater has the contract to guard Congress when they go over. How on earth are you going to investigate this kind of company when you go over to Iraq and you're protected by this company?

And the Republicans on this committee came up with this line. They said that we've heard a lot of statistics thrown around about Blackwater today and shootings and other things, but the number that matters is zero--zero Americans under Blackwater's protection have been killed or seriously injured in Iraq. And they thanked Blackwater for their patriotism and service to the United States.

But there's something to what the Republicans are saying that cuts across both of the two parties, which is really one party. This is the sort of dirty open secret: that Blackwater has done exactly what it's supposed to do in Iraq. Blackwater's number one job--their only job--is to keep alive the most important people in Iraq by any means necessary, and the most important people in Iraq are not Iraqis. They are U.S. occupation officials.

So if your car comes too close--bam, your medical career is over, and your mother's dead next to you. If you happen to be driving in a van with your cousins in an area where Blackwater decided that they were going to do some shooting that day--bam, you're dead, and your father has to go back the next day to look for pieces of your skull. And the men who did this walk around as free individuals today, and they're thanked by people in the Congress for their service to this country."

************

Thanks Michael. Now for all you Obama fans.

Obama has pledged to bring the troops home - and KEEP BLACKWATER IN IRAQ. Obama = McCain = tyranny and mass murder = the nightmare continues. You want to call Obama the lesser of two evils? Really? So who do you think the Iraqis would prefer, McCain's strengthened military (for 100 years if necessary) or Obama's Blackwater occupation forces?

Getting uncomfortable yet? You d*&n well should be.

Vote for Obama in November and you will be agreeing to this.

Vote for McCain and you will be agreeing to the same thing.

Is anyone getting this yet. You are responsible for putting war criminals into power. So get involved. Start thinking about the power vested in your vote, your mandate your right to dissolve and reconstitute your government according to the will of the people.

NO in November is not a watsed vote or throwing away your power like the liars in government want you to think. It is taking *back* your power - your agreement to be represented by them, the mandate by which they rule *us*. It is actually a vote for peace, real democracy and a new America. It no more *them*. Just *us*. We. The People. Amen.

Thursday July 17, 2008, 11:14 am
Thanks Michael. Now for all you Obama fans.

Obama has pledged to bring the troops home - and KEEP BLACKWATER IN IRAQ. Obama = McCain = tyranny and mass murder = the nightmare continues. You want to call Obama the lesser of two evils? Really? So who do you think the Iraqis would prefer, McCain's strengthened military (for 100 years if necessary) or Obama's Blackwater occupation forces?

Getting uncomfortable yet? You d*&n well should be.

Vote for Obama in November and you will be agreeing to this.

Vote for McCain and you will be agreeing to the same thing.

Is anyone getting this yet. You are responsible for putting war criminals into power. So get involved. Start thinking about the power vested in your vote, your mandate your right to dissolve and reconstitute your government according to the will of the people.

NO in November is not a watsed vote or throwing away your power like the liars in government want you to think. It is taking *back* your power - your agreement to be represented by them, the mandate by which they rule *us*. It is actually a vote for peace, real democracy and a new America. It no more *them*. Just *us*. We. The People. Amen.

Thursday July 17, 2008, 12:24 pm
As has been pointed out, many will vote and then later come to realize that either their vote wasn't counted or that they voted for someone that really had their own agenda and will continue the war on Iraq (and Afghanistan) regardless of mandate. At that time, it will become much more clear why not voting en masse, is the only way to insure drastic changes in both our election system and the actual mechanics of our voting.

Unfortunately, that may very well be too late. Blackwater will still be running amuck with our Governments blessing, we will have killed God only knows how many more people in our quest to control oil and shore up the U.S. Dollar and we may well trigger World War III.

Thank you Michael (and Sara).

Thursday July 17, 2008, 4:23 pm
JUST HORRIBLE!! I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT HUMANS ARE ACTING LIKE THIS. ARE THESE PEOPLE UNDER MIND CONTROL? NOONE I KNOW WOULD ACT LIKE THIS. THIS IS SO INSANE. THIS IS NOT PATRIOTIC. THIS IS BARBARIC.

THESE ARE CRIMINALS NOT SOLDIERS. WHEN AMERICANS START CONDONING THIS TYPE OF BEHAVIOR THEN WE KNOW WHERE WE ARE HEADING HERE. WILL THIS TYPE OF TREATMENT SOON BE HERE? WHO WILL BE THE NEXT ENEMY? CHRISTIANS? PAGANS? CATHOLICS? PROTESTANTS? WHO? AND WHEN IT DOES COME HERE WHO WILL HELP THOSE THAT ARE TARGETED AS TERRORIST? YOU COULD BE NEXT. WILL YOUR NEIGHBOR VOICE OPPOSITION AGAINST THESE TYRANTS?

WE LIVE IN A VERY MESSED UP WORLD. WHEN THE MEDIA SPOUTS OFF HATE AGAINST A COLOR, A CULTURE, A GENDER, A RELIGION, ETC. WE ARE IN TROUBLE. THIS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW. FOR EXAMPLE, ANYONE HEARD OF ANN COULTURE (MS)? YOU KNOW THE ONE THAT STATED SHE WANTS TO KILL ALL OF THE MIDDLE EASTERN LEADERS IN THE NAME OF CHRISTIANITY. YEAH, THAT ONE. SICK, HUH? THIS IS WHO THE MEDIA PLACES OUT IN FRONT OF YOU TO MOLD YOUR OPINIONS ON WAR WITH IRAN AND IRAQ. NOTICE THEY (MEDIA) SURELY WOULD NOT PUT AN OPPOSER OF WAR IN FRONT OF A CAMERA WITHOUT MAKING THAT PERSON LOOK LIKE AN ANTI-GOV'T FREAK OR A TERRORIST. WHEN YOU HEAR PEOPLE LIKE RONALD REAGAN'S SON SPOUT OFF THAT THE USA SHOULD KILL ALL THOSE THAT OPPOSE THERE IS A PROBLEM. WHEN DID DISSENT AND PEACE BECOME A TERRORIST ACT? WHEN?

I SERVED THIS COUNTRY TO PROTECT THE CONSTITUTION. WHEN IS IT A CRIME TO SAY THAT OUR GOV'T LIED? HAVE WE FORGOTTEN THAT WE HAVE FREEDOMS OF SPEECH? HAVE WE FORGOTTEN THE PROTECTIONS GIVEN TO US BY THE CONSTITUTION?

WHEN DID GOD BECOME OUR ENEMY? IN 2005 OUR CONGRESS TRIED TO MAKE ANYONE THAT BELIEVED THAT JESUS WAS THEIR SAVIOR AN ANTI-SEMITIC AND A CRIMINAL AND A POTENTIAL TERRORIST. I AM APPALLED. WHERE IS ALL THE HATE COMING FROM? T.V., NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, ETC. FREEDOM OF RELIGION IS A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT. I HAVE NEVER BULLIED ANYONE INTO BELIEVING MY BELIEFS AND I HAVE NEVER BEEN PERSUADED BY ATHEIST. WHY HAVE WE BECOME SO INTOLERANT OF EACH OTHER? BECAUSE DIFFERENCES MAKE FOR DIVISIONS AND THIS IS HOW THEY CONQUER US. DIVIDE AND CONQUER.

SO WHAT DO WE LEARN FROM THIS? THAT EACH OF US SHOULD EMBRACE THESE DIFFERENCES WITH TOLERANCE AND UNITE TO FIGHT THIS EVIL THAT IS LEADING OUR COUNTRY INTO A PATH OF DESTRUCTION.

I LOVE ALL PEOPLE. WHAT A GREAT FEELING! IT IS NO WONDER WHY THE MEDIA IS FULL OF NEGATIVE STUFF BECAUSE HATE IS A MUCH EASIER FEELING TO MANIPULATE. THINK ABOUT THAT THE NEXT TIME YOU GET MAD. IT IS HARDER TO LOVE BECAUSE WE MAKE OURSELVES APPARENT TO ALL, HOWEVER, I WOULD RATHER BE AN OPEN PERSON FULL OF LOVE AND EMPATHY THAN AN EVIL PERSON WITH SOMETHING TO HIDE. WHAT AN EMPTY LIFE! NO WONDER WHY THESE IDIOTS HAVE ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD AND ARE STILL SO POOR AND EMPTY. I AM RICH. I WILL DIE RICH BECAUSE I KNEW HOW TO LOVE AND HOW TO GIVE IT.

GOD BLESS THE WHOLE WORLD...

Thursday July 17, 2008, 7:44 pm
Does anyone still buy the lie. that one objective of this war, is the liberation of the Iraqui people!?
Even in terms of military coherency,Blackwater appears to be coming into conflict with US forces perssonel more and more,which tactically undermines the objectives of those troops.Furthermore the raison d etre of Blackwater undermines the safety of US military personnel,and acts as a recruiting campaign for Islamic militia.Saddest of all Blackwaters SWANT approach (Special Weapons And No Tactics..except to kill all perceived potential opponents..a growing list of people ),results in the cruel devastation misery and waste of life,described above.
Blackwater exists as a shadowy ,sinister neo-facist paramilitary unit..beyond the control of the military,and waaaayyyy beyond the control of the US people.These appear to be the pinnacle moments, in Bush's embracing of his families nazi past.
Obamas acceptance and support of the role of this modern SS,undermines any humanistic credentials.
The Iraqui scenario described brilliantly and clearly above, provides an enormous plank to the arguments outlined by the No in November movement.

Thursday July 17, 2008, 9:15 pm
I completly agree voting for "the lesser of two evils" is still voting for evil. Both presidental candidates want war with Iran. SO either way you will vote for war for oil.

I will not vote for any sort of evil. Boycott the fixed american "elections"

Mercenaries have only one agenda. MONEY so why would we let them represent us half way across the world in a war we shouldn't even be in. Oh thats right we have "leaders" in the white house, senate, and every other government agency that only care about money that are completly moraly bankrupt as well so to the BUSH REGIME this is normal.

Saturday July 19, 2008, 11:12 am
The Iraqi government, which was very forcefully and firmly saying that this was a slaughter of civilians, that there was no provocation, and that all of the Iraqis who were killed were killed as a result of gunfire that was offensive in nature.