"Army Pfc. Lynndie England, seen worldwide in photographs that show her smiling and pointing at naked Iraqi prisoners, said she was ordered to pose for the photos, and felt "kind of weird" in doing so. In an exclusive interview with Brian Maass of Denver CBS station KCNC-TV, England also confirmed that abuses worse than those depicted in the photos were carried out at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, but she declined to discuss them." (thanks Julie)

I can be heard on Flashpoint this afternoon at 5:00PM (Pacific Time). You can listen live or taped. I taped it earlier. I was not good (I was distracted during the interview).

For those who care (AND live in Ireland): I will be interviewed live on Irish National Radio in Dublin at 9:08AM (Pacific Time) today.

The Jesus Factor and "Bush"

U.S. probes Afghan abuse claim

Military Dogs (but not Iraqi police) Get Bulletproof Vests

The U.S. Army general under investigation for anti-Islamic remarks has been linked by U.S. officials to the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, which experts warned could touch off new outrage overseas.

I received the link which has the horrible disgusting video. I did not want to watch the gruesome scene, and did not. And no, I will not post the link. A friend of mine who watched it was disturbed for hours later. I listened to the speech read by that man (whose voice sounded like Abu Mus`ab Az-Zarqawi’s voice on that previous audio tape that I wrote about below) and the Arabic and sentence structure and delivery was also close to that previous speech. When it reached the point when he was about to behead his victim, I turned the other way, and heard the voices and noises. You could hear death, I learned. You really could hear death. I heard it. I told my friend that the young American (the age of my students in California) stayed very strong and well-composed throughout given the circumstances. He told me that he (the victim) did not know what was coming. He told me (having watched the actual scene) that when the screaming of Allahu Akbar (God is Greater) began, the guy turned around (although he was tied around the hands and feet) only to be butchered by that masked murderer kook, whoever he is. The speech was your typical fanatical kooky fundamentalist statements that one associates with Al-Qa`idah and like-minded groups. He (the speaker) did not miss the opportunity to share his misogyny, along with his hatred, with the audience. He was attacking Muslim clerics (presumably those who do not share the kooky Ben Ladenite agenda) as “women-like who wail and weep” without joining their struggle. The young victim was dressed in an orange suit, and my friend thought it was symbolically similar to the orange suits that are worn by inmates at Guantanamo. It sounded as if there were other hostages in the room; I heard noises and screams (one was distinctively female) and that made the whole scene so nightmarish for the viewer, or even the listener in my case. Of this I am certain: “Bush” wanted a war between “us and them” , and “Bin Laden” wanted a war between “us and them” and they both got what they wanted, and for that we all suffer, and will suffer. Of this I am certain: we have entered a perpetual path of revenge, counter-revenge, wars, and counter-wars, and more revenge and counter-revenge, and on and on and on.
* “Bush” refers not to the man necessarily but to the phenomenon of the ruling ideology at the helm of the US Empire.
* “Bin Laden” refers not to the man necessarily but to the phenomenon of kooky Islamic fundamentalist militancy represented by Al-Qa`idah and similar groups.

"For Huda Shaker, the humiliation began at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Baghdad. The American soldiers demanded to search her handbag. When she refused one of the soldiers pointed his gun towards her chest. "He pointed the laser sight directly in the middle of my chest," said Professor Shaker, a political scientist at Baghdad University. "Then he pointed to his penis. He told me, 'Come here, bitch, I'm going to fuck you.'"

A female Army soldier in the notorious 320th Military Police Battalion meted out "vigilante justice" on Iraqi prisoners she believed had raped former POW Jessica Lynch, according to a letter from her battalion commander obtained by The Associated
Press.

"We've already had two prisoners die ... but who cares?" the soldier says on the tape. "That's two less for me to worry about."

In the silly US press, there are always laudatory articles in praise of the Jordanian dictator, like this silly one in Slate. Now in fairness, the king is valuable: he attends a barbecue at Sharon's ranch while Israeli forces were (and are) killing Palestinians, he is willing to torture Arab prisoners for the US--not that the US is not doing its own torture of Arab prisoners, he hosts US troops on their way to their invasions, and he is one of the most submissive rulers in the region as far as the US is concerned. This is why you will not read in the US press that this dictator (not to be confused with America's other dictators in the region) has just ordered the arrest of a Jordanian journalist (who is a secularist, not a fundamentalist), Fahd Ar-Rimawi, because he criticized--merely criticized in an article--Saudi Arabia's relations with the US. That will not disturb the human rights champions of this administration. They are busy perfecting the democratic order in Iraq, of course.

Only in Donald Rumsfeld's mind there is a distinction between the Geneva Convention and what he calls "the spirit" of the Geneva Convention. Next time I am stopped for speeding, I will tell the police that I was adhering to the "spirit" of the law, but not to the law itself.

Apartheid-era Killers Hired by U.S. Firm to Protect Iraqi Oil

A year ago, just 17 percent of Iraqis wanted the troops gone, according to Dulame's respected research center in Baghdad. Now, the new results mirror what most Iraqis and many international observers have said for months: Give it up. Go home. This just isn't working.

Few details emerge from inquiry of Iraqi, Afghan prisoner deaths

Iraq's first human rights minister launched a blistering attack yesterday on America's chief administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, saying that he had warned him repeatedly last year that US soldiers were abusing Iraqi detainees.

Why torture must lead to defeat

The Israeli Torture Template

Racism & Torture as Entertainment: From Hollywood to Abu Ghraib, by Robert Fisk.

UN Forum: Indigenous Women Need Rights, Health Care

Secret World of U.S. Interrogation: Long History of Tactics in Overseas Prisons Is Coming to Light

Problems in the U.S.-run detention system in Iraq extended beyond physical mistreatment in prison cellblocks, involving thousands of arrests without evidence of wrongdoing and abuse of suspects starting from the moment of detention, according to former prisoners, Iraqi lawyers, human rights advocates and the International Committee for the Red Cross.

Rape survivor educates Pakistan: Victim of tribal sentence pushes for justice, builds school to fight status quo

A Double Ordeal for Iraqi Women: "BAGHDAD, Iraq -- One woman told her attorney she was forced to disrobe in front of male prison guards. After much coaxing, another woman described how she was raped by U.S. soldiers. Then she fainted.
A U.S. Army report on abuses at Abu Ghraib prison documented one case of an American guard sexually abusing a female detainee, and a Pentagon spokesman said Monday that 1,200 unreleased images of abuse at Abu Ghraib included "inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature."

You know what? The recent US torture scandal in Iraq only confirms the validity of the arguments of radical feminists. Liberal feminism argues for legal equality and representation; it does not seek to overthrow the patriarchal power structure. It merely calls for representation and equality within its walls. Radical feminism aims at the very overthrow of patriarchy, and all its vehicles. When you see those abusive women participating in the torture and humiliation of prisoners you realize that they are part of the patriarchal power system. They are acting as servants of violent patriarchy.

From the land of milk, honey, and $billions of US aid: the number of poor families in Israel apparently grew last year by more than five percent and stood at 18.5 percent of the families in the country. This means that some 15,000 families joined the cycle of poverty to bring the number to approximately 340,000.

"British and American soldiers yesterday faced further accusations of abuses against Iraqi prisoners in a report on human rights violations released by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The report details incidents of pistol whippings and beatings as well as threats to send prisoners to America's military detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

"I, too, was tortured in Abu Ghraib"

Everywhere I turn in the US (movies, books, popular culture), I see celebration of god, family, and homeland. I grew up in Lebanon where the fascist party in Lebanon (the Phalanges Party) summed up its ideology (and any fascist party's ideology) by its motto: god, homeland, and family. What does that say?

Coalition military intelligence officials estimated that 70 percent to 90 percent of prisoners detained in Iraq since the war began last year "had been arrested by mistake," according to a confidential Red Cross report.

This is from a piece by Evan Thomas (one of the few serious journalists) "Donald Rumsfeld likes to be in total control. He wants to know all the details, including the precise interrogation techniques used on enemy prisoners. Since 9/11 he has insisted on personally signing off on the harsher methods used to squeeze suspected terrorists held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The conservative hard-liners at the Department of Justice have given the secretary of Defense a lot of leeway. It does not violate the spirit of the Geneva Conventions, the lawyers have told Rumsfeld, to put prisoners in ever-more-painful "stress positions" or keep them standing for hours on end, to deprive them of sleep or strip them naked." In other news, Bush Lauds Rumsfeld For Doing 'Superb Job'. And he said so after viewing more pictures of prisoners'abuse.

I will be interviewed on Syrian TV live (via phone) at around noon (Pacific Time)today. Like other Middle East media, Syrian TV also assumed (when they called at 6:00AM) that the US is under one time zone (Eastern Time Zone to boot). We need to do something about that.

For those who care, and are in the area: I shall be speaking at Merced College tonight at 6:00PM at Library 1.

The new movie Van Helsing has a clear Christian message and theme. It is the season, it seems. I, for one, did not know that "holy" water (or is it a "holy" beverage?) can defeat "evil" forces. Who knows? Maybe US armies will now have to sprinke "holy" water over the heads of Arabs/Muslims, in addition dropping bombs and rockets over their heads.

CHAIN OF COMMAND, by SEYMOUR M. HERSH

"Sometimes they pretended to kill me"

As Insurgency Grew, So Did Prison Abuse

Official U.S. Reaction Compounds the Rage (thanks Abbas--excellent piece)

This is an example of the moral bankruptcy of liberal arguments. This reminds me of Tikkhun magazine's argument that Israel should leave (some of) the West Bank and Gaza (and only the West Bank and Gaza) not because of what occupation is doing to the Palestinians, but because it is bad for the Israeli soldiers, that it causes them "anguish" and "nightmares." Read this on Iraq: "The arrogance of power that spawned the "shock and awe" of military might one short year ago has been humbled by the dismay and disgust over these revelations of abuse. It is time for all Americans to reflect on the justification for continuing the war in Iraq that is killing, maiming, and demeaning our young men and women who have been put in harm's way for spurious reasons."

"American soldiers subjected a 16-year-old Iraqi prisoner to a mock execution inside an American detention centre and made his brothers watch, one of the brothers alleged yesterday."

"With troop commitments growing, the cost of the war in Iraq could top $150 billion through the next fiscal year — as much as three times what the White House had originally estimated. And, according to congressional researchers and outside budget experts, the war and continuing occupation could total $300 billion over the next decade, making this one of the costliest military campaigns in modern times."

People say that Arabs have no right to be outraged over the torture in Abu Ghrayb prison because torture is commonplace in the Middle East. Now it is true: Arab governments and Israel (but not Cyprus, the only democracy in the Middle East) have a long pattern of killing of civilians and of torture of people. I have noticed that Arab governments have been largely silent (even the governments that are critical of US) over the abuse in Iraqi prison. They do not want to remind their own citizens of their own long record of torture, as if their people need reminders. But what is particularly jarring about US torture and abuse are: 1) that the US decided, having failed to find WMDs--although the search continues, to base its invasion of Iraq on an ostensible defense of human rights in that country; 2) that the US, unlike Arab governments which all but concede that they are torturers and killers, designates itself as "the beacon of freedom." The US now, NOW, wants to tear down the Abu Ghrayb prison as if that will be sufficient to erase Bush's shame. I say, keep it standing, as a monument to the victims tyranny, abuse, and human rights violations, and as a reminder that abuse can occur at the hands of indigenous and foreign tormentors. Iraqis know that first hand now.

I was reading the text of the last Bin Laden letter. Again, his statements are largely ignored in the Middle East, although I am told that he has a cult following in Saudi Arabia. (But I should also add that Bush is really pushing people in the Middle East to the ranks of radicalism and militancy by his words and actions. I was recently told of an Arab Christian who works at a major company in London and who is now a cheerleader for Bin Laden becuase he believes that he is effective against US.) But I found it ironic that Bin Laden is in full agreement with Harvard professor Samuel Huntington. Here is what Bin Laden said: "The conflict is an ideological-religious conflict, and the clash is a clash of civilization..." I also noticed that Al-Quds Al-`Arabi (the editor of which is an Arab nationalist who manages to combine admiration for Saddam and Bin Laden simultaneously) did not print a particularly sinister and nasty threat contained in the full text of the Bin Laden message. Among the fanatical fundamentalist circles of Egypt--the branch headed by Ayman Adh-Dhawihiri, they sometimes rule that an enemy''s blood is "spillable" (mahdur ad-dam--which unfortunately is the Islamic legal rule on Baha'ism) and his money is made available for all. Bin Laden used that same fanatical rule against his Muslim enemies. And he adds that their wives can be divorced from them. I have received from an anonymous source via email a recording of the message by none other than Abu Mus`ab Az-Zarqawi. I have never heard his voice before, and there are not even recent pictures of him. I was surprised how theatrically staged and choreographed the message was. A man comes and introduces Zarqawi as the head of the organization of Tawhid and Jihad in Iraq, and then Zarqawi proceeds to read his message. From the standpoint of communication, Zarqawi has a strong speaking voice and effective oratorical skills. I do not know whether he wrote his own message (as Bin Laden and Saddam do--Saddam began writing his own speeches after the defeat of 1990, and it shows. He is a lousy and boring writer of Arabic, and has the most annoying nasal voice to boot) but he produces the typical fanatical fundamentalist line, although there is none of the anti-Shi`ism that was contained in the statement that US had attributed to Zarqawi. Zarqawi mostly railed against the Jordanian government, and disputed its version of event regarding a plan for chemical bombing in Amman. He insisted that his plan was directed against the mukhabarat (intelligence) headquarters. He also denied the intention of harming innocent civilians. I find that latter point surprising especially if he is truly responsible for the series of car bombings in Iraq. I also find that surprising because Al-Qa`idah kooks never even apologize for their killing of innocent people. Is that yet another indication that Abu Mus`ab's organization is separate from Al-Qa`idah? He, however, did call Abu Zubayda (of Al-Qa`idah) a "brother" but that is not unusual. I must once again remember what Anis Naqqash had told me (see below somewhere): that there is Al-Qa`idah, and then there is a parrallel organization of experts and civilians who aid Al-`Qa`idah. I say that because I have noticed that political literature of Al-Qa`idah (and even of Zarqawi) have become very aware and attuned to international press, and seem to have a wide and sophisticated intelligence network. You will find them referring to articles in a German magazine, or a French daily, and Zarqawi even identified the loads of trucks from Jordan to Iraq.

Is this man (Bush) for real? He actually said this (full text below somewhere) in his last week's interview with Al-Arabiyya: "Iraqis are sick of foreign people coming in their country and trying to destabilize their country, and we will help them rid Iraq of these killers."