Blogging on Meds

Inside a half-finished five star hotel in Djibouti this past July, several hundred foreign dignitaries, investors and journalists gathered for the first look at an ambitious plan to unite continents. Dubai-based Al Noor Holding Investment Company hopes to build a bridge — to be the world’s largest suspension structure, at points boasting 800-meters-tall pilings — between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The bridge, spanning 29 kilometers of the Red Sea between Djibouti and Yemen, will be anchored by brand new cities on each side bearing the same name, Al Noor City, or City of Light. The estimated cost of the whole venture is somewhere around $200 billion. The visionary of this project, Tarek bin Laden, Saudi oligarch and brother-in-law of the notorious Osama, hopes in 15 to 20 years time to see his dream of the bridge and both cities become reality. But just how realistic is it?

Perhaps Djibouti’s only real asset today is its location at the junction of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It has one of Africa’s smallest populations, estimated at around 500,000, and its land size is comparable to the US state of Massachusetts. It is also bordered by Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia — three nations who are embroiled in multiple conflicts and whose names have long generated images of famine, despotism and anarchy.

Along the road between the Djibouti-Ambouli Airport and the hotel hosting the project launch, people wandered between single-storey concrete buildings and shacks — some carried jerrycans or bundles of sticks, but most walked empty handed. Less than a kilometer away from the hotel, a naked child squatted beside a wall while groups of shirtless men slept in ditches beneath the shade of trees.

The “Bridge of the Horn” is to have a six-lane highway and three light rail lines for passenger and commercial traffic, with a goal of one day handling 100,000 cars and 20,000 rail passengers per day. There are also plans for a natural gas pipeline to run the length of the bridge from Djibouti into Yemen and onto the Persian Gulf.

If completed, the bridge will cross the aptly named Bab el Mandeb, the Gateway of Tears. It is the shortest point between Yemen and Djibouti and is named after the treacherous waters made famous for centuries of taking ships and lives. There is also the deadly threat of Somali pirates operating in the area, enough to warrant the permanent basing of an international pirate task force and several thousand French Foreign Legion and US military troops. Europe’s supply of oil from the Gulf passes through these straits making security here all the more vital.

And just as the Suez Canal controls sea traffic at the northern end of the Red Sea, the Gateway of Tears owns the shipping lanes of the south. Not far from the hotel there was a sight common to every port city from Buenos Aires to Shanghai: shipping containers. Stacked like a multi-colored set of Legos, rows of metal boxes waited to be filled with goods, loaded onto ships and sent out across the globe. This is the Horn of Africa. (more…)

RELATED POSTS:

• music video for SAMIAM is DONE!!!
• THIS IS NOT A FILM FESTIVAL AT A TRADE SHOW!
• Program:Repeat is coming!
• Guitar Hero / Gibson Charity Art Auction at SXSW
• Program:Repeat films

Update: 2 bottles of wine + a late-night read of Henry Kissinger = A long rant.

All Hail Henry Kissinger, master of falsehoods and ridiculous conclusions. This is a long post; most of it is just directly from Kissinger’s op-ed in the Washington Post, which happens to be a big supporter of the war in Iraq. I’m sorry the post is so long, but it will take a while to work through and rebut all of Kissinger’s ludicrous assumptions and conclusions. Also, I will try to add all the relevant links tomorrow or over the weekend, but it’s 2 AM and I’ve got an early wake-up call, so you’ll have to do with it as is for now.

(more…)

RELATED POSTS:

• Program:Repeat films
• next racist to be kicked off the air, please.
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads

Best news of the day! NYT says Blackwater to end “security contracting” “business.” Steroid sales in Iraq and North Carolina to plummet 40%…

Blackwater is giving up on the business that put them in the crosshairs of an astonishing array of parties, from the insurgents it expected to face in Iraq to the Iraqi government itself, along with the American public, Democratic members of Congress and investigators from several agencies in Washington.

Gary Jackson, Blackwater’s president, described plans for a withdrawal from security contracting in an interview published last night by The Associated Press:

In 2005 and 2006, security jobs represented more than 50 percent of the company’s business. The security business is down to about 30 percent of Blackwater revenue now and Jackson said it will go much lower.

“If I could get it down to 2 percent or 1 percent, I would go there,” he said, adding that the media have falsely portrayed much about that aspect of the company. “If you could get it right, we might stay in the business.”

This comes a day after SecDef Gates wondered, “Why have we come to rely on private contractors to provide combat or combat-related security training for our forces? Further, are we comfortable with this practice, and do we fully understand the implications in terms of quality, responsiveness and sustainability?”

RELATED POSTS:

• The Explosion implodes
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads

The Taliban Summer

Today: Jamaat-i-Islami protest US “War on Muslims” in Lahore, Pakistan—note the “Stop Bombardment on Muslims” posters

Breaking: Western Ignorance and Idiocy in Pasthuland

Hot off the wires:

DVCM) 09:58 DJ Pakistan Tribesmen Say NATO Forces Massing On Afghan Border

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP)–Tribal elders on Tuesday raised the alarm over a buildup of hundreds of NATO-led troops on the Afghanistan side of the border, but Pakistan’s military downplayed fears of any intrusion.

“We have heard there is a buildup of foreign troops,” said Malik Mohammad Afzal Khan Darpakhel, a local tribal leader in North Waziristan who isn’t affiliated with the Taliban.

“We want to warn them that 3 million tribesmen will rise against them if they try to move in,” Darpakhel told a news conference held by five elders in Miranshah, the main town in the region. Intelligence sources said some 300 NATO soldiers equipped with tanks, armored vehicles and heavy weaponry have been moved very close to Lwara Mundi, a border village in North Waziristan.

Meanwhile, the Times gets the story on what happened at the American base where nine troops were killed Sunday, when 200 Taliban launched a surprise attack. In short, the insurgents were likely retaliating for civilian deaths caused by an airstrike on July 4, which killed 47 mostly women and children. The base was less than a kilometer from the bomb site. (I noted here that the entire UK press was covering that story as the US media ignored it.) “Insurgents have been present in the area for months, including Pakistani militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group that was originally formed to fight in Kashmir,” the Times reports.

I’ve long been calling for a regional, US-brokered Kashmir summit. The respective Jihads in Afghanistan and Kashmir against the US and India are one in the same, ie ISI and MMA supported.

Hassna Chop writes…

[Sunday's attack on the US base] may or may not be true that it was a response to the air strikes. Militants have been hitting these small NATO outposts more regularly in the last few months. These outposts are small and usually only house a couple of dozen soldiers, and they’re in brutal terrain that gives the militants an edge, since they know the area better and have plenty of cover.

I wasn’t surprised to read that they were able to get inside the walls of the NATO outpost, especially since there were about 200 of them.

My guess is that this story about NATO building up troops along the border has more to do with having a larger force around to help protect these outposts and respond more quickly to attacks than invading Waziristan…because that would be suicidal.

RELATED POSTS:

• next racist to be kicked off the air, please.
• Ian MacKaye = Jesus?
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads

Sketchy dead Taliban

Unprecedented Violence Makes Afghanistan Deadliest Front Yet in War on Terror

Damn, nine soldiers were killed in a Taliban assault Sunday. Besides the downing of a chopper in 2005, this is the single deadliest attack on American troops of the war. It comes a week after the war’s Kabul biggest Kabul bombing, on the Indian Embassy, which killed 40 and injured 200. A few weeks earlier, the Taliban staged a crazy-bold prison break which freed 400 fighters. Last month 46 US soldiers died in Afghanistan, by far the highest tally of the war. Exhale…

How bad is it? Well, applied to Iraq, where there’s more than four times as many troops, last month’s Afghanistan death total would have topped 170. By comparison, the worst month in Iraq, November 2004, saw 141 killed. Therefore, Afghanistan right now the most violent front per capita of the War on Terror.

To think, seven years in, things are worse than ever—maybe worse than ever imagined. That quagmire Johnny Apple q-headed back in 2002 is fully upon us, even though he was ridiculed for writing it at the time.

Today, the NYT shows why it’s the most important news organization in the world (by a factor of like five), featuring both an intrepid cover story from Pakistan’s tribal areas and an oped by Barack Obama on the War on Terror. The two Times’ stringers were detained for three days in the Tribal Areas after reporting on a Taliban-held marble quarry. And Barry O says he would send two combat brigades, about 10,000 more troops, to Afghanistan.

Here’s some copy about yesterday’s battle the AP report:

Militants with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars attacked the remote base in the village of Wanat in the mountainous northeastern province of Kunar at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday, with insurgents firing from homes and a mosque.

An unknown number of militants got inside the outpost, the reason the fighters were able to inflict such high casualties…

Ok, so the US Army, the most sophisticated and heavily armed fighting force in world history, somehow had a base breached by a bunch of illiterate AK-47-toting kids? I’m shocked. I’m angry and depressed.

There’s no question that this Taliban 2.0 is more powerful, organized, and well-funded than the one that took Afghanistan in the late 90s. That’s right folks, we invaded Afghanistan to remove the Taliban only for a stronger Taliban to emerge. “Regime change” actually helped the Taliban mobilize popular support. And years of battling the US have forced the Talib to become smarter, better fighters.

Is there a solution? The Taliban are hardly moderates, but as rulers they were isolationists. Unfortunately, the Taliban are Pushtu and follow a super-duper strict code of hospitality—one so deep that they’d never consider turning on their Al Qaeda guests. The world could live with the Taliban were Al Qaeda not living on their land. No negotiated settlement would erase Al Qaeda’s dedication to global jihad. Sadly, there is no near-term solution. Still, the occupation is failing…

Here’s Juan Cole on Obama’s Afghan plan:

I don’t know whether Senator Obama really wants to try to militarily occupy Afghanistan even more than is now being attempted. I wish he would talk to some old Russian officers who were there in the 1980s first…

If the Afghanistan gambit is sincere, I don’t think it is good geostrategy. Afghanistan is far more unwinnable even than Iraq. If playing it up is politics, then it is dangerous politics…

Search and destroy in Afghanistan is an even worse example of going overboard. My advice to his campaign team is to give more thought to how he can take a strong enough position on an issue to win on it, without giving away the whole store.

We who admire him don’t want Afghanistan to become an albatross around the neck of a President Obama.

Afghan tribes are fractious. They feud. Their territory is vast and rugged, and they know it like the back of their hands. Afghans are Jeffersonians in the sense that they want a light touch from the central government, and heavy handedness drives them into rebellion. Stand up Karzai’s army and air force and give him some billions to bribe the tribal chiefs, and let him apply carrot and stick himself. We need to get out of there. “Al-Qaeda” was always Bin Laden’s hype. He wanted to get us on the ground there so that the Mujahideen could bleed us the way they did the Soviets. It is a trap.

Beware.

RELATED POSTS:

• Program:Repeat films
• next racist to be kicked off the air, please.
• Ian MacKaye = Jesus?
• Police brutality against skateboarders, AGAIN.
• Today’s Reads

Citizens on patrol

Sunni vs Sunni

Two bombs killed at least 30 people today in Baghdad and Mosul respectively. And three more US troops died in combat, bringing the total to 11 since Friday, and 29 for the month. Last month saw the lowest troop death total, 19, of the war. AP:

The bombings extended a pattern of multiple-casualty attacks in recent days that are clearly intended to kill local leaders, in particular the so-called Awakening Councils of Sunni tribal chieftains who have worked with U.S forces against Sunni insurgents.

Anyone else feel like it’s Groundhog Day? It’s so fucking depressing. Every time there are modest security gains, a month passes and the violence returns. Remember in January 2008 when everyone said the war was won? Violence picked up in February and exploded in March and April. Now, as 20,000 US troops prepare to leave Iraq, power moves are being made once again. It’s been like this for too long. Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near over.

I just finished Patrick Cockburn’s excellent bio “Moqtada,” about Shia cleric Moqtada al Sadr. Right now Sadr’s Mahdi militia is under a cease-fire (like 20th of the last five years). In the context of Sadr’s family history, the Mahdi will certainly rise-up again. For almost three decades, Sadr I-III have been rallying then retreating, each time amassing more power. Most likely, their next uprising will occur between August and November, as both the US and Iraqis prepare to vote.

But today’s violence was Sunni on Sunni, making me worry that a new front may yet open. A war between the US-backed Sunni Awakening council and hard-line Sunni al Qeada would add another layer to Iraq’s multi-front cluster fuck (Sunni vs Shia, US vs Sunni, Shia vs Shia, Turkey vs Kurds, Iran vs US, US vs Shia, Iran vs Kurds). Were this to happen, it too would likely occur as the Surge ends and elections approach. 

Last week there was all this hubbub about how, with violence declining, the media was focusing on human interest stories, but nobody wanted to run them. Well, the violence is back. Where’s the media?

RELATED POSTS:

• Ian MacKaye = Jesus?
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads

Kerrada car bomb today kills 3, pic Loay Hameed/AP

2004 Redux: GOP Spinning the War, Again

Ah, Iraq. How many times can we win this damn war?

Last week, everyone seemed to be touting security gains in Iraq as evidence of some miracle Surge victory. But Friday began a spate of bombings that killed scores in Baghdad and Diyala. Then, on Saturday, The Times ran a long story explaining how the truces in Iraq’s three largest cities—Baghdad, Basra, Mosul—were in fact tenuous and negotiated, and not victories at all. And on Sunday further reporting showed that security gains have been overestimated by the DoD, mainly—and shockingly—by not reporting on Iraqi civilian deaths or counting missed attacks on “coalition forces”:

“A murder of an Iraqi is not necessarily counted as an attack. If we cannot determine the source of a sectarian attack, that assault does not make it into the database. A roadside bomb or a rocket or mortar attack that doesn’t hurt U.S. personnel doesn’t count.”

The ISG report said that U.S. officials reported 93 attacks or significant acts of violence on one day in July. “Yet a careful review of the reports for that single day brought to light more than 1,100 acts of violence,” it said.

Obviously, I’m not saying the decline in violence since May is a bad thing. Maliki’s power has expanded and it looks like Sadr’s has decreased. Rather, it’s important we not not forget that April and May were among the most violent of the war. 1000 were killed over four weeks in one Baghdad neighborhood, Sadr City; 600 in 10 days in Basra. Yes, the Iraqi Army has since moved into both areas, but only after a settlement was reached. No insurgents turned in their guns, and there’s been no reconciliation.

So, here we are. It’s not even July yet and 8 soldiers and two US officials are killed in six days. I say this because next month two combat brigades are leaving Iraq. Sometimes it gets lost that, of the 160,000 US troops in Iraq, only about 70-80,000 are actual combat troops. Losing over 7,000 combat troops will certainly affect Iraq’s security. Combat troops clear and hold territory. The big question is, who will hold the territory that our troops cede?

As the Surge comes to an end, a vacuum is about to open up—just in time for fall, when both the US presidential and Iraqi parliamentary elections are scheduled. It’s impossible to predict what will happen, but don’t think Moqtada al Sadr’s played his last hand. Also, look for Sunni nationalists, aka the Sons of Iraq/Awakening Councils, to make a power move. The war is far from over, nor is it close to being won, no matter what the GOP are trying to spin.

RELATED POSTS:

• Guitar Hero / Gibson Charity Art Auction at SXSW
• Ian MacKaye = Jesus?
• Neighborhood Festival fun in LA September 9th
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads

Holy shit. Kandahar is Taliban central and 400 hardened insurgents are now free:

Militants have attacked the main prison in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar with a car bomb and rockets, killing an unspecified number of police officers and setting prisoners free, Afghan officials said Friday.

A car bombing outside the prison’s gate happened around 10 p.m. local time and killed all police officers in the vicinity, several sources said.

RELATED POSTS:

• Program:Repeat films
• Ian MacKaye = Jesus?
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads

US troops train the Ethiopian Army who then wage a scorched earth campaign against their own people.

America is the China of the Horn of Africa

A new Human Rights Watch report claims the US is complicit in Ethiopian war crimes. For some reason, the NYT did not mention this story today. The Boston Globe picked it up from AP:

Ethiopia’s government is committing war crimes in its military campaign against rebels in the Ogaden region, a rights group charged Thursday in a report that complained the U.S. and other Western governments willfully ignored abuses.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said Ethiopian troops are beating and strangling civilians, staging public executions and burning villages in Ogaden. It said the allegations were based on more than 100 eyewitness accounts.

Washington looks to Ethiopia for help in the fight against Islamic extremists in East Africa, where al-Qaida has claimed responsibility for several attacks, including the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people. Ethiopia is helping the U.N.-backed government in neighboring Somalia against Muslim insurgents.

“The silence of the U.S. government is not a silence based on ignorance,” said Peter Bouckaert, the emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. “They are ignoring the information available to them.”

Ethnic Somalis have been fighting for more than a decade seeking greater autonomy in the desolate Ogaden, which is being explored for oil and gas. Ethiopian forces stepped up operations after rebels attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration field in April 2007, killing 74 people.

“The Ethiopian army’s answer to the rebels has been to viciously attack civilians in the Ogaden,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director for Human Rights Watch.

The group also said the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front has violated humanitarian law by conducting the oil attack and by setting land mines along roads. Ethiopia accuses the rebels of being financed by its archenemy, Eritrea.

Gagnon chided Ethiopia’s leading donors, including the United States, Britain and the European Union, accusing them of ignoring what is happening in Ogaden.

“These widespread and systematic atrocities amount to crimes against humanity,” she said. “Yet Ethiopia’s major donors, Washington, London and Brussels, seem to be maintaining a conspiracy of silence around the crimes.” Gagnon said Western governments and institutions give at least $2 billion in aid to Ethiopia every year.

“Influential states use many excuses, such as lack of information and strategic priorities, to downplay the grave human rights concerns in Somali Region,” she said. “But crimes against humanity can’t be swept under the carpet.”

The US provides some $500 million in military to Ethiopia. This money surely contributes to the Ogaden scorched earth campaign, but it is mainly to be used for the occupation of Somalia by Ethiopian troops.

Complain all you want about China’s complicity in Darfur. Changing Beijing and and Khartoum’s minds isn’t going to be easy. However, America is the China of the Horn, and we can most definitely stop the Ethiopians by withholding aid. Dead Ogaden children are no less tragic than Darfuri children, and this is a case where you, the American taxpayer, is footing the bill.

RELATED POSTS:

• “Burning New York” is off the presses
• Guitar Hero / Gibson Charity Art Auction at SXSW
• FOUND! my mentor!
• the Wrench
• little Jake is all grown up

Mosul looks like a city of the dead. American and Iraqi troops have launched an attack aimed at crushing the last bastion of al- Qa’ida in Iraq and in doing so have turned the country’s northern capital into a ghost town. Soldiers shoot at any civilian vehicle on the streets in defiance of a strict curfew. Two men, a woman and child in one car which failed to stop were shot dead yesterday by US troops, who issued a statement saying the men were armed and one made “threatening movements”.

Why is this being reported in the UK but not the US? Patrick Cockburn of the Independent:

Mosul, on the Tigris river, is inhabited by 1.4 million people, but has been sealed off from the outside world by hundreds of police and army checkpoints since the Iraqi government offensive against al-Qa’ida began at 4am on Saturday.

(more…)

RELATED POSTS:

• Ian MacKaye = Jesus?
• The Explosion implodes
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads

The battle for Sadr City grinds on…

Last night araging debate broke out on this site over the use of AC-130 gunships in Sadr City, Iraq…

Drew Says:
May 5th, 2008 at 8:19 pm e
The action of using AC-130U Spooky gunships in the limits of populated areas in Iraq and elsewhere is an action of calling for extremely precise, direct firepower. The AC-130U has the most advanced weapon’s software and the most extensive lines of software code of any aircraft on the planet — more than the space shuttle. The AC-130U uses those computer programs to precisely attack — within 36 inches — a specific and discriminate target with a range of weapons including the 25mm, 40mm, and 105mm howitzer, all of which are extremely accurate. The AC-130U is used mostly to protect elite U.S. special operations forces in combat, and provide surgical firepower in a danger-close manner in relation special forces. The AC-130 was used in Sadr City recently as an alternate to a guided bomb from an F-16, F-15, or B-1 bomber, which would have most likely caused mass collateral damage.

The AC-130U is always, ALWAYS used as a tool to lessen collateral damage while protecting allied troops. That is why it is being used in Iraq, that is why the collateral damage is so low, and that is why the enemy neutralization is so effective.

Azriel Says:
May 6th, 2008 at 1:18 am e
Mr. Drew seems to know a lot about the AC-130U, and maybe it is the most precise weapon for us to be using… But I have to ask if anyone really thinks collateral damage is low in Iraq. Is it really? We blew up a fucking hospital this week didn’t we? What scale do we measure collateral damage at, to reach the conclusion that it is low? At the lowest estimate possible, Iraqi civilians have died at around 15x that of U.S. troops… I’m not saying more of ours should be dying, but I think we can do better at keeping the people we are “liberating” alive before we claim to be inflicting low collateral damage.

Melinda Says:
May 6th, 2008 at 2:18 am e
Yay, Drew! God bless you for what must be obvious service for our great country and for clarifying the ignorance posted previously.
God bless and protect our American and Iraqi heroes!

Jeff Says:
May 6th, 2008 at 2:52 am e
“Collateral damage”…such a nice human term to use for kids killed walking to school, mother’s killed shopping in markets, etc.
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
–and these are LOW estimates. But I guess death ain’t nothing but a number.

lissa-moon Says:
May 6th, 2008 at 3:23 am e
Exactly Jeff, exactly. God bless murder as long as you give it a fancy technological term.

Drew, have you been to Iraq? Have you fired a Howitzer on Sadr City from the air? Yes, the AC-130 is the most “accurate” flying tank in the world—with the biggest airborne gun ever! My post, however, was not about the technological prowess of a gunship. It was about using this “precision” weapon on one the most densely popultaed places in Iraq.

Overall strategic goals for the ongoing battle in Sadr City remain unclear. The only objectives I’ve heard are lessening mortar fire on the Green Zone and “loosening the grip of special groups.” The second of which means absolutely nothing: There’s been no way to determine the difference between the Mahdi Army and the “special groups.” The more likely US goal is weakening the Mahdi Army before combat troops start leaving Iraq next month. It’s widely believed that the drawdown of US troops to pre-surge levels (from 160k to 140k) this summer will lead to a Mahdi power grab.

Now, in regards to replacing the use of F-16s, F-15s, and B-1s with AC-130s, we were dropping, what, five or so 500-1000 pd bombs per day on Sadr City for past month? If that. Plus, we were using helicopter gunships w/ hellfires too. This wasn’t some sustained campaign over Sadr City.

But an AC-130 gunship, which stays above the battlefield for 12-hours, is used for sustained attack.

Despite all the computers, there’s no way to accurate in Sadr City, even if you used a robot with a knife stabbing arm, never mind a plane thousands of feet in the air firing shells and bullets the size of basketballs onto a ghetto. See NYT today: “The reality is that when forces go after insurgents in urban areas, it is impossible to avoid hitting some innocents as well.”

Finally, if the AC-130 is only employed to lessen civilain casualties, why did the US wait until now—after a month and 1000 killed—to use it? Oh, because the US is losing in Sadr City and the AC-130 is a sign of expanded battle. As AP reports: “On Monday, the U.S. Air Force unleashed one of its most potent weapons, the AC-130 gunship, against Shiite militants in Baghdad.” Note the wording: AC-130 “most potent” not “accurate” weapon.

I’m not even going to acknowledge the “enemy neutralization is so effective.” Just kidding! Of course I am…If we were effectively neutralizing the enemy in Sadr City, mortars wouldn’t still be raining down on the Green Zone.

Azy and Jeff accurately questioned the supposed low “collateral damage” quotient. I wouldn’t say 1000 killed in a month is a low figure—it’s one third of 9/11. Killing civilians with accurate weapons is just as much a crime as using crude weapons.

RELATED POSTS:

• Ian MacKaye = Jesus?
• Police brutality against skateboarders, AGAIN.
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads

Left, image of Moqtada Sadr at clinic in Sadr City, by Wathiq Khuzle. Right, victim of a bombing that killed 40 in Baquaba today.

Refugees International released a new report…Reuters:

The anti-U.S. movement of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is now Iraq’s main humanitarian organisation helping needy Iraqis, a relief group said in a report that is certain to cause concern in Washington.

“Through a Hezbollah-like scheme, the Shi’ite Sadrist movement has established itself as the main service provider in the country,” said the report. “This sustainable programme provides shelter, food and non-food items to hundreds of thousands of Shi’ites in Iraq.”

“Not only do these militias now have a quasi-monopoly in the large-scale provision of assistance in Iraq, they are also recruiting an increasing number of civilians to their militias — including displaced Iraqis.”

This comes on day when Sunni insurgents took advanatage of a lull in fighting between the US-Iraqi Army and Sadr’s Shiite militia to launch a new assult.

From another Reuters report:

NEW CAMPAIGN?
Two car bombs killed more than 50 people in Sunni Arab areas of Iraq on Tuesday, a sudden spasm of violence in places which had been comparatively quiet while battles raged in the Shi’ite south.

Tuesday’s attacks could signal a new campaign of strikes by Sunni Arab militants. On Monday, a suicide attacker and two car bombs killed 18 people in northern areas where al Qaeda is active.

RELATED POSTS:

• Ian MacKaye = Jesus?
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads

Following reports that an Iraqi judicial panel ordered authorities to free photographer Bilal Hussein, who is part of the team that won the 2005 Pulitzer for Breaking News Photography, one of the jurors who awarded that prize stressed press freedoms and said it’s “wrong and inappropriate for anyone” to “imprison, restrain, punish or kill journalists.”

Eric Newton, vice president of the journalism program at the Knight Foundation, helped judge the Pulitzer category won by the Associated Press for its coverage of combat inside Iraq’s cities. Speaking by phone Wednesday, he told Medicine Agency, “It’s essential to the world’s solving its problems that journalists need to be able to operate freely. It’s totally wrong and inappropriate for anyone — a government, organized crime, military forces, corporations, any group — to imprison, restrain, punish or kill journalists or anyone else who’s merely playing an honest or straightforward role in helping news and information flow freely.”

Hussein has been held for nearly two years by the U.S. military — and much of that time without charge. On Wednesday, a new Iraqi judicial committee on amnesty dismissed several of the claims against him and ordered his release.

Good news for the photog, but he’s not out of jail yet, nor quite yet out of the woods.

The story notes that U.S. authorities have said that, under a U.N. mandate, they’re allowed to further detain anyone believed a security risk, no matter what the Iraq court says. The report also says the panel may still be considering another allegation against Hussein.

But the committee rejected several U.S. allegations against Hussein, including “claims he was in possession of bomb-making material, conspired with insurgents to take photographs synchronized with an explosion and offered to secure a forged ID for a terrorist evading capture by the military,” the report stated.

Hussein was still being held at Camp Cropper, near the Baghdad airport, the report stated.

RELATED POSTS:

• Program:Repeat films
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads

While minuscule compared to the orchestrated muddling of Middle Eastern factions in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, further botching by a presidential front-runner of the clear divisions that exist between “insurgent elements” and “rogue states” in the area is not something we need.

The Washington Post reports today: “Sen. John McCain, in the midst of a trip to the Middle East that he hoped would help burnish his foreign policy expertise, incorrectly asserted Tuesday that Iran is training and supplying al-Qaeda in Iraq, confusing the Sunni insurgent group with the Shiite extremists who U.S. officials believe are supported by their religious brethren in the neighboring country.”

Rad. As the rhetoric against Iran increases, linking the Ayatollah-led state to Al-Qaeda [in Iraq] is not only stupid, but dangerous.

McCain said: “We continue to be concerned about Iranian [operatives] taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back.” (WP)

He continued, saying it is “…common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran; that’s well known.”

Bush said in 2004: “The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda [is] because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.”

Sounds like a blatant effort to drum up support for military action against Iran to me.
Note: On the campaign trail last summer, McCain thought it appropriate to perform his own rendition of the Beach Boys song “Barbara Ann”, substituting the chorus with “Bomb Iran”.

Vote Obama.

RELATED POSTS:

• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads

A bloody week in Iraq trudges along. News of a stalemate came yesterday, with attacks on US troops stalled at April 2005 levels, though AFP reported overall violence was up 33% last month. 12 US troops have died in this week. Yesterday US troops killed an Iraqi girl. Now AP reports:

The bombing took place off a bridge in Tahrir Square, a district of clothing shops just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government…

The insurgency shows it can still strike the heart of the capital.

Spencer Platt in Baghdad:

RELATED POSTS:

• Ian MacKaye = Jesus?
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads
• Today’s Reads

(Spencer Platt in Baghdad yesterday.)

So, 8 US troops were killed in Iraq yesterday. Five died by suicide bomb in Baghdad’s affluent Mansuor neighborhood, in the deadliest single attack since the Surge’s peaked this past summer. Three more were killed in Diyala Province, a lush sectarian battle zone sandwiched between Baghdad and Iran. Juan Cole adds:

Sunni Arab Iraqi guerrillas launched a four-pronged attack on their enemies on Monday.

They killed eight US troops in two separate bombings…

They set off two bombs targeting Shiites in east Baghdad, taunting the so far quiescent Mahdi Army, the local militia that patrols those neighborhoods.

They bombed a hotel, leaving over 30 wounded, in the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniya, stronghold of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

And, a female suicide bomber blew up a Diyala tribal sheikh, Ghadhban al-Karkhi, who had thrown in with the Americans, along with two of his family members and a guard.

As much as the Surge has improved security in Anbar and Baghdad, Iraq remains the deadliest war in the world. The Surge was a temporary solution, despite what William Kritol says (”the most important foreign policy decision of the last couple of years”—not so fast, Bill, the Surge could prove to be a minor speed bump). Iraq’s wounds are far from healed. Violence increased 33% last month. The Surge’s reality: All that’s really happened is we’ve armed 80,000 Sunnis who used to hate us enough to kill us but now merely hate us and take our money, and we put 30,000 combat troops in the capital—after it had been ethnically cleansed and partitioned.

With Bush a lame duck, the Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias are watching the US elections, trying to figure out what hand to play. Don’t think they aren’t going to try and influence events here. In fact, yesterday’s events are timed to coincide with US benchmarks.

Here are three American events the Iraqi insurgents are paying attention to.

1. Happy Fifth Birthday Iraq War!
March 17th marks the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war. Insurgents know this—duh—and grasp that worldwide attention will mark the occasion. Plus, March sees the beginning of the spring fighting season. Sunni insurgents hope to derail Surge-happy talk in the run-up to Bush’s baby’s 5th b-day.

2. Only 17 and counting until 4000th Troop Death
Another Iraq milestone is upon us. So far, 3983 US troops have been killed in Iraq. Nothing would be better for the Sunni insurgents than a double whammy—5 years and 4000—coming days apart.

3. PA Primary Factor
Per capita, more soldiers died from Pennsylvania than any other state—it’s the sixth most populous state but lost the third most soldiers, after CA and TX. Iraq is an issue in PA more than any place in America. Combine 5 Years with 4000 Dead and 4/22 and we should be having a full-on Iraq debate in America. Especially considering Hillary and Obama’s Iraq plans are misleading and unrealistic. McCain, on the other hand, is tethered to the Surge. If it unravels, John’s going to have to change his Iraq stance. These next few weeks are vital…

Let’s see how it plays out. And don’t think our boy Moqtada Al Sadr is just going to sit back and retire. Iraq’s Kingmaker is making moves as we speak…

US troops going house-to-house, aka fighting a war, in Baghdad. 3/10. Spencer Platt.

RELATED POSTS:

• Guitar Hero / Gibson Charity Art Auction at SXSW
• Ian MacKaye = Jesus?
• I Got My Uzi Back - You Dudes Is Wack
• Neighborhood Festival fun in LA September 9th
• Today’s Reads

Today’s Reads
1. Spencer Platt in Diyala, Iraq
According to Iraq’s former #2 commander LT Gen Raymond Odierno, about 50% of attacks on US soldiers in Iraq come from Shiite militias linked to Iran. The other half come from Sunni extremists. Odierno claims Iraqi Shiites are traveling to Iran to receive training. Iranian President Ahmadinejad, in Baghdad, denies any collusion: “It is the American practice to present others as guilty wherever they are defeated. Is it not funny that those with 160,000 forces in Iraq accuse us of interference?”

Nowhere in Iraq do both Sunni and Shitte extremists thrive like Diyala Province. Located right to the east of Baghdad Province and connecting to the Iranian border, Diyala’s capital, Baquba, is an ethnically mixed warzone. And the rest of the province—a lush breadbasket—is tough terrain for battle.


2007 WPP winner Spencer Platt was in Diyala with US forces over the weekend.

US literally trying to “smoke out” insurgents.

Two IEDs found.

We come in peace.

2. Chavez is a Dick
On Saturday the Colombian military struck FARC guerillas in Ecuador, killing it’s #2 leader Raul Reyes. (The US annually gives Colombia $600 million in military aid.) Colombia’s sovereign violation rightly outraged Ecuadorian officials, who promptly removed their ambassador from Bogota and mobilized troops. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s President Chavez said:

”Mr. Defense Minister, move 10 battalions to the border with Colombia for me, immediately — tank battalions, deploy the air force,” Chavez said during his weekly TV and radio program as loyalists in the crowd applauded. “We don’t want war, but we aren’t going to permit the U.S. empire nor its lapdog to come weaken us.’”

Chavez defends FARC, calling them “freedom fighters” despite the group’s use of child conscription, targeted killing and kidnapping of civilians, and drug running for some 30 years. Of course, the Miami Herald (above link) offers the best coverage. A war between Colombia and Venezuela would send oil prices ever higher, and the US would obviously be involved whether outright or by proxy.

3. Hank Steinbrenner: World Class Shit Talker
All baseball fans should check out Jonathan Mahler’s Yankees story from the Times’ PLAY Magazine. Mahler perfectly details the rise and end of The Boss Era. He calls the new Yankee Stadium “Red Sox Nation’s version of hell.” It sure sounds like earth’s toilet to me:

If the stadium’s exterior, with its limestone and granite façade, is self-consciously retro, the interior will be thoroughly modern. Trost might as well have been talking about a new themed hotel in Las Vegas as he described what would become of one drafty concrete chamber after another: the New York Yankees martini bar, a steakhouse (NYY Steak), a grill room, a Yankees museum, a year-round banquet hall and a conference center. The team’s interlocking “NY” logo will be everywhere, from the door handles to the latticework. Lining the so-called Great Hall that runs from home plate to the right-field foul pole will be huge two-sided banners, with Yankee legends in black-and-white on one side and more recent superstars in color on the other.

Ever since A-Rod’s WS Game 4 opt out, Hank Steinbrenner’s been an amazing asshole. Mahler’s story turns him into an outsized and (almost) sympathetic figure. Hank’s from the horse racing world, and his gambling trash talk is great. The story’s last words:

“Red Sox Nation?” Hank says. “What a bunch of [expletive] that is. That was a creation of the Red Sox and ESPN, which is filled with Red Sox fans. Go anywhere in America and you won’t see Red Sox hats and jackets, you’ll see Yankee hats and jackets. This is a Yankee country. We’re going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order.”

Hmm…I’d say the Nation was more a Dan Shaughnessy creation than ESPN’s, like the Curse of the Bambino. Responding to Hank in the Globe, Shaughnessy the Carrot of Wisdom says:

Entitled Sox fans have virtually forgotten about the hated Pinstripers. It’s been months since a hearty “Yankees Suck” chant broke out at a New England wedding or bar mitzvah. And in Tampa, the hound-dog Yankees now acknowledge they are the ones doing the chasing.

Welcome back to the fight, Mr. Steinbrenner. This is reminiscent of the good old days when your dad regularly lobbed verbal grenades at the feet of Boston baseball fans.

A lot of Sox fans hate Dan S, but I think he’s the best baseball columnist in America, always getting scoops and often LOL funny.

Hank, how do you stop this man?

Two time World Series winner and full time Rastaman Manny Ramirez, by Stan Grossfield, Globe.

RELATED POSTS:

• music video for SAMIAM is DONE!!!
• “Burning New York” is off the presses
• Program:Repeat films
• FOUND! my mentor!
• the Wrench

Today’s Reads
Sorry for overlong header…
1. Hey Times, Remember Iraq?

US made Turkish owned Blackhawks prepare for assault. Northern Iraq. AFP.

Between 3-10,000 Turkish troops invade Northern Iraq and the New York Times doesn’t even run an Iraq story in its Sunday edition. Oh, and 10 rockets also struck the Green Zone on Saturday. No mention of that either.

The NYT spends $3 million of its $200 million dollar news budget on the Iraq bureau alone. Editors should make sure every Sunday we get a report. As of today, 3,963 Americans have been killed in Iraq. In about 30 days we’ll be hit 4000 killed. I hope we honor that depressing milestone with proper dignity.

Today, Iraq returns to the Times in the form of a catch all by former LA Times reporter Solomon Moore (when did he even leave the LAT, with Alissa Rubin?). Weird, Iraq’s still at war. On Sunday, 40 civilians died in a suicide bombing and two US soldiers were killed.

Meanwhile, yesterday The Washington Post ran an amazing story about Iraq’s chaotic northern city Mosul. A city of 1.7 million, Mosul, Iraq’s second largest, has seen attacks increase four-fold since the surge—to 80 per week. Of those 80 attacks, a quarter result in death.

Llike Baghdad, Mosul is ethnically mixed. Unlike Baghdad, Mosul hasn’t seen a surge of US soldiers. Up there the Iraqi forces are largely Kurdish, and the Sunni-Shia-Turkmen population is hostile. I remember in April 2004, when the US first invaded Fallujah, hearing stories of caravans of insurgents leaving town for the north. A journalist friend was up along the Syrian border when the insurgents arrived—and attacked. A similar thing happened with the Baghdad-based Surge: Sunni insurgents moved north to Mosul and east to Baquba, and Shiite militia’s headed south to Basra. The WaPost illustrates what we’re facing in Mosul:

The worst transgression occurred Dec. 26, when a group of American soldiers were inside a building they had chosen for an outpost in northwest Mosul. Suddenly an Iraqi soldier raised his gun and shot five of the Americans at point-blank range. Two of them, Sgt. Benjamin Portell, 27, and Capt. Rowdy Inman, 38, were killed. The Iraqi soldier ran out of the room and tried to appear nonchalant by shaving, but he was quickly captured, said Maj. John Oliver, who was shot in the hand in the attack. “It was a complete surprise. Nobody was expecting it,” Oliver said. But he added that the attack “did not change the plan” to continue working with the Iraqi army.

Further north in Iraqi Kurdistan, 15 Turkish troops and 100 PKK (Turkish-Kurdish guerillas) have died since Friday. And it’s not slowing down:

Last night the Turkish army said it had sent another 25 tanks across the border to help the hunt for PKK fighters, whom Turkey accuses of launching attacks on its forces from bases in the sparsely populated mountains along the Turkish-Iraqi border.

The “Surge Isn’t Working.” Two recent stories, by Michael Kinsley in Slate and Nir Rosen in Rolling Stone respectively, make that case. It’s an overreaching assessmnet. Violence is down and security has improved in the capital and Anbar, which were not only Iraq’s worst warzones but also the stated initial goals of the Surge. But Rosen points out that success has come with arming former insurgents, aka the Awakening Councils. Kinsley points out, “Can there be any doubt that they would go for a reduction to 100,000 troops—and claim victory—if they had any confidence at all that the gains they brag about would hold at that level of support?”

The Surge is not a complete failure. Yet. If the US can keep the Mahdi Militia at bay and merge the Awakening Councils into the government, then progress in the north and west (Diyala) could come next. Gates said troop levels will remain above 130,000 at least through the summer. Still, so many factors are at play that “success,” ie a stable Iraq, remains an uber-long-shot bet. And rapid withdrawal certainly won’t save any lives.

The Democrats need to come back to Earth on Iraq. As we approach the 4000th American death, Iraq should come back into media focus. If Hillary does in fact win Ohio and Texas, the race for PA will be in full effect when 4k dies. Pennsylvania has lost 182 soldiers in Iraq, third after Texas (365) and California (425). Our sixth biggest state, PA’s per capita loss is the highest in the Union. The war will be an issue there.

So, Bam and Hill, if all goes as expected on March 4th, you both better be ready to talk Iraq. Specifically, both your plans call for rapid withdrawal—Bam even promises to be fully out in 16 months. Read the news guys. That’s not realistic. What are your real plans for Iraq? Suppose you remove a brigade from Dora and Western Baghdad and ethnic slaughter breaks out, then what? Both the humanitarian costs and Iraqi peoples opinion of US withdrawal must become part of the debate. To quote R Kelly, REAL TALK…

2. Hand This Bitch an Award Already!
The Times did cover Afghanisatn yesterday, and amazingly so. Elizabeth Rubin continues to be the best journalist covering the Afghanistan war. Her two-part story on the Taliban last year was as good as nonfiction gets. She got the Times Magazine’s cover yesterday. Focusing on air power and counterinsurgency in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, Rubin’s story illustrates those contradictory forces effects on a local population. Bombs are so imprecise that collateral damage (dead women and children) is imminent. Rubin reports that, “The sheer tonnage of metal raining down on Afghanistan was mind-boggling: a million pounds between January and September of 2007, compared with half a million in all of 2006.” And we’ve killed hundreds of civilians. Read the rest of Rubin’s PTSD-filled piece. The US seems to be losing.

The photos were taken by Lyndsay Addario, whose war photojournalism is top notch. Above pic came with this quote:

Capt. Dan Kearney bows his head in frustration after the denial of his request for an air strike against men walking nearby with weapons. Above his head, the laser of an AC-130 plane tracks a potential target.

3. From Lohan to Chelsea, NY MAG loves the ladiesLast week it LiLo nude. Now Chelsea Clinton’s on the cover, and Lloyd Grove calls her a flirt. I agree. In NH, I was videotaping the whole Clinton family pressing flesh at a fundraiser. To Chelsea, I yelled: “Hey, saw you at Starbucks in Manhattan!” Referring to the pic of her sitting on the floor of a midtown ‘bucks…She turned and says to the camera, “That was you? Bad boy…” A few weeks later, in CT, I saw her speak and she was again flirty like Bill, slyly making eyes in the room. Her political DNA is about the best in US history, and Grove’s piece shows she how might use it.