AND NOW THE APOCALYPSE!

    HOW MASSACRES BECOME THE
    NORM (Yet More Crimes Against
    Humanity & War Crimes Committed
    by the United States Government)
    By Dahr Jamail, Journalist
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Tuesday, 04 April 2006
    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org),
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    and/or DahrJamailIraq.com.
    All rights are reserved.]

     US soldiers killing innocent civilians in Iraq is not news. Just as it was not news that US soldiers slaughtered countless innocent civilians in Vietnam. However, when some rare reportage of this non news from Iraq does seep through the cracks of the corporate media, albeit briefly, the American public seems shocked. Private and public statements of denial and dismissal immediately start to fill the air. We hear, “American soldiers would never do such a thing,” or “Who would make such a ridiculous claim?”

     It amazes me that so many people in the US today somehow seriously believe that American soldiers would never kill civilians. Despite the fact that they are in a no-win guerrilla war in Iraq which, like any other guerrilla war, always generates more civilian casualties than combatant casualties on either side.

    OPERATION SWARM OF LIES
    (Crimes Against Humanity and War
    Crimes by the U.S. Government)
    By Dahr Jamail
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Monday, 20 March 2006
    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. & Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org),
    Dahr ...'s Iraq Dispatches
    and/or Dahr Jamail.
    All rights reserved.]

     The stated mission of Operation Swarmer, launched late last week in an area just northeast of Samarra, in Iraq, was to “break up a center of insurgent resistance” and to disrupt “terrorist activity,” according to the US military.

     Comprised of over 1,500 US and Iraqi soldiers, 50 US attack and transport helicopters airlifted the bold force into a flat area of farmland filled not with fighters belonging to the “center of insurgent resistance,” but with impoverished farmers, cows, goats and women baking bread. The first drop of soldiers onto the ground from this air-operation doubled the meager population of 1,500 souls living in the 50 square-mile area.

     US troops acted bravely, snatching up 48 “suspected insurgents,” then promptly releasing 17 of them. They were precise in their operations, and did not detain a single cow or goat.

     What did the military say about why no resistance was met?

    IRAQ: PERMANENT U.S. COLONY
    (The U.S. Government is Building At
    Least Four Permanent Bases in Iraq)
    By Dahr Jamail
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Tuesday, 14 March 2006

    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or Dahr Jamail.
    All rights reserved.]

     Why does the Bush Administration refuse to discuss withdrawing occupation forces from Iraq? Why is Halliburton, who landed the no-bid contracts to construct and maintain US military bases in Iraq, posting higher profits than ever before in its 86-year history?

     Why do these bases in Iraq resemble self-contained cities as much as military outposts?

     Why are we hearing such ludicrous and outrageous statements from the highest ranking military general in the United States, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace, who when asked how things were going in Iraq on March 5th in an interview on “Meet the Press” said, “I’d say they’re going well. I wouldn’t put a great big smiley face on it, but I would say they’re going very, very well from everything you look at.”

    THE NEW CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
    (Despite the Curbing of Dissent,
    It Is Increasing Exponentially)
    By Marjorie Cohn
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Friday, 31 March 2006

    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or Marjorie Cohn.
    All rights reserved.]

    In a wave of mass protest not seen since the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand justice for the undocumented. An unprecedented alliance between labor unions, immigrant support groups, churches, and Spanish-language radio and television has fueled the burgeoning civil rights movement.

    The demonstrations were triggered by the confluence of a draconian House bill that would make felons out of undocumented immigrants and HBO’s broadcast of Edward James Olmos’s film, “Walkout.” But the depth of discontent reflects a history of discrimination against those who are branded “illegal aliens.”

    Since September 11, 2001, immigrants have become the whipping boys for the “war on terror.” Calls for enhanced militarization of the southern US border – including a 700-mile-long Sisyphean fence – reached a crescendo in the bill passed by the House of Representatives.

    SUPREMES CONSIDER KANGAROO
    COURTS (Will Anyone Have
    Any Rights Soon?)
    By Marjorie Cohn
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Tuesday, 28 March 2006

    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or Marjorie Cohn.
    All rights reserved.]

    Today the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in the most significant case to date on the limits of George W. Bush’s authority in his “war on terror.” In the first two cases it heard, the high court reined in Bush for his unprecedented assertion of executive power. It held in Rasul v. Bush that the Guantanamo prisoners could challenge their confinement in US federal courts. In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, the Court said that “a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to rights of the Nation’s citizens.”

    Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s chauffeur, is facing trial in one of the military commissions that Bush created on November 13, 2001. The case pending in the high court will determine the legality of those military commissions, and will decide whether Hamdan and other Guantanamo detainees can challenge their detention in US federal courts.

    APOCALYPTIC PRESIDENT
    (Even Some Republicans
    Are Horrified By Right-
    Wing-Extremist Bush!)
    By Sidney Blumenthal
    The Guardian, U.K.
    Thursday, 23 March 2006
    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. & Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or Sid Blumenthal.
    All rights reserved.]

    Even some Republicans are now horrified by the influence Bush has given to the evangelical right.

    In his latest PR offensive President Bush came to Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday to answer the paramount question on Iraq that he said was on people’s minds: “They wonder what I see that they don’t.” After mentioning “terror” 54 times and “victory” five, dismissing “civil war” twice and asserting that he is “optimistic”, he called on a citizen in the audience, who homed in on the invisible meaning of recent events in the light of two books, American Theocracy, by Kevin Phillips, and the book of Revelation. Phillips, the questioner explained, “makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the apocalypse. Do you believe this? And if not, why not?”

        BLAMING THE MEDIA FOR
        BAD WAR NEWS
        (If At First You Are Silenced,
        And Then You Tell The Truth…)
        By Norman Solomon
        t r u t h o u t | Perspective
        Thursday, 23 March 2006
        [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
        U.S.A. & Internationally
        by t r u t h o u t (.org),
        www.Normon Solomon.com
        and/or Normon Solomon.
        All rights are reserved.]

    Top officials in the Bush administration have often complained that news coverage of Iraq focuses on negative events too much and fails to devote enough attention to positive developments. Yet the White House has rarely picked direct fights with US media outlets during this war. For the most part, President Bush leaves it to others to scapegoat the media.

    Karl Rove’s spin strategy is heavily reliant on surrogates. They’re likely to escalate blame-the-media efforts as this year goes on.

    A revealing moment – dramatizing the pro-war division of labor – came on Wednesday, during Bush’s nationally televised appearance in Wheeling, West Virginia. On the surface, the format resembled a town hall, but the orchestration was closer to war rally. (According to White House spokesperson Scott McClellan, the local Chamber of Commerce had distributed 2,000 tickets while a newspaper in the community gave out 100.) It fell to a woman who identified herself as being from Columbus, Ohio, to give the Wheeling event an anti-media jolt.

    ISRAEL,  AL Q’AEDA  AND  IRAN
    (The Same Drumbeats for War)
    By Marjorie Cohn
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Thursday, 23 March 2006

    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or Marjorie Cohn.
    All rights reserved.]

    Since George W. Bush gave his “axis of evil” speech, he invaded Iraq, changed its regime, and created a quagmire reminiscent of Vietnam. His administration is now sending clear signals that Iran is next in line for regime change. The raison d’etre: Iran’s nuclear program, an al Qaeda connection, and protecting Israel.

    First, for months, Bush has been pressuring the Security Council to sanction Iran for its nuclear development, but the council is moving slowly. According to Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Nobel Peace Prize winner, we must “stop thinking that it’s morally unacceptable for certain countries to want nuclear weapons and morally acceptable for others to lean on them for their defense.”

    PART II: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO CONGRESS?
    Interview with Chalmers Johnson
    By Tom Engelhardt
    TomDispatch.com

    Wednesday, 22 March 2006

    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org),
    TomDispatch (.com) and/or
    Tom Engelhardt. All
    Rights Reserved.]

    In Part 1 of his interview, Chalmers Johnson suggested what that fall-of-the-Berlin-Wall, end-of-the-Cold-War moment meant to him; explored how deeply empire and militarism have entered the American bloodstream; and began to consider what it means to live in an unacknowledged state of military Keynesianism, garrisoning the planet, and with an imperial budget — a real yearly Pentagon budget — of perhaps three-quarters of a trillion dollars. Tom

Tomdispatch: You were discussing the lunacy of the 2007 Pentagon budget…

Chalmers Johnson: What I don’t understand is that the current defense budget and the recent Quadrennial Defense Review (which has no strategy in it at all) are just continuations of everything we did before. Make sure that the couple of hundred military golf courses around the world are well groomed, that the Lear jets are ready to fly the admirals and generals to the Armed Forces ski resort in Garmisch in the Bavarian Alps or the military’s two luxury hotels in downtown Seoul and Tokyo.

    PART I: COLD WARRIOR IN A STRANGE LAND
    Interview with Chalmers Johnson
    By Tom Engelhardt
    TomDispatch.com

    Tuesday, 21 March 2006

    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org),
    TomDispatch (.com) and/or
    Tom Engelhardt. All
    Rights Reserved.]

    As he and his wife Sheila drive me through downtown San Diego in the glare of mid-day, he suddenly exclaims, “Look at that structure!” I glance over and just across the blue expanse of the harbor is an enormous aircraft carrier. “It’s the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan,” he says, “the newest carrier in the fleet. It’s a floating Chernobyl and it sits a proverbial six inches off the bottom with two huge atomic reactors. You make a wrong move and there goes the country’s seventh largest city.”

    Soon, we’re heading toward their home just up the coast in one of those fabled highway traffic jams that every description of Southern California must include. “We feel we’re far enough north,” he adds in the kind of amused tone that makes his company both alarming and thoroughly entertaining, “so we could see the glow, get the cat, pack up, and head for Quartzsite, Arizona.”

        WHY ARE WE HERE?
        (The Reasons & Non-Reasons
        for Our Existence)
        By Norman Solomon
        t r u t h o u t | Perspective
        Monday, 20 March 2006

        [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
        U.S.A. & Internationally
        by t r u t h o u t (.org),
        www.NormonSolomon.com
        and/or Normon Solomon.
        All rights are reserved.]

    On Saturday, during her national radio response to the president, Senator Dianne Feinstein accused the Bush administration of “incompetence” in the Iraq war.

    What would be a competent way to pursue the war in Iraq? How would you drop huge bombs on urban neighborhoods in a competent way? How would you deploy cluster munitions that shred the bodies of children in a competent way? How would you take hundreds of thousands of people from their home land and send them to a country to kill and be killed – based on lies – in a competent way?

    How do you ravage the housing and health care and education of communities across the United States, while war-profiteering corporations post bigger profits – how would you do that in a competent way?

        WAR-LOVING PUNDITS
        (Propagandizing the
        Mostly Lies)
        By Norman Solomon
        t r u t h o u t | Perspective
        Thursday, 16 March 2006

        [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
        U.S.A. and Internationally
        by t r u t h o u t (.org),
        www.NormonSolomon.com
        and/or Normon Solomon.
        All rights are reserved.]

    The third anniversary of the Iraq invasion is bound to attract a lot of media coverage, but scant recognition will go to the pundits who helped to make it all possible.

    Continuing with long service to the Bush administration’s agenda-setting for war, prominent media commentators were very busy in the weeks before the invasion. At the Washington Post, the op-ed page’s fervor hit a new peak on February 6, 2003, the day after Colin Powell’s mendacious speech to the UN Security Council.

    Post columnist Richard Cohen explained that Powell was utterly convincing. “The evidence he presented to the United Nations – some of it circumstantial, some of it absolutely bone-chilling in its detail – had to prove to anyone that Iraq not only hasn’t accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them,” Cohen wrote. “Only a fool – or possibly a Frenchman – could conclude otherwise.”

    BUSHIES IN WONDERLAND
    (The Bush-Mafia Fantasy World)
    By Marjorie Cohn
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Monday, 20 March 2006

    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or Marjorie Cohn.
    All rights reserved.]

Curiouser and Curiouser

    On May 1, 2003, George W. Bush swaggered across an aircraft carrier deck and declared “Mission Accomplished.” Yesterday, his proclamation was a little more understated. He said it marked “the third anniversary of the beginning of the liberation of Iraq,” and claimed to be “implementing a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq.” So far, that victory appears as elusive as a greased pig.

    While Bush talks victory, the rest of us are debating whether civil war in Iraq is inevitable or whether it has already begun.

    Iraq’s former interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, noted that 50 to 60 people, “if not more,” had been killed daily in Iraq since the attack on the Samarra shrine last month. “If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is,” Allawi told the BBC.

For background, see:
Marjorie Cohn | Getting Away With Murder

    WAR CRIMES: GOOSE AND GANDER
    (The War Criminal US Government)
    By Marjorie Cohn
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Monday, 13 March 2006

    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or Marjorie Cohn.
    All rights reserved.]

    Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was found dead in his jail cell at The Hague Saturday. Since 2001, he had been on trial for genocide in Bosnia, and war crimes and crimes against humanity in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Although many have already adjudged him guilty, we will never hear the official verdict of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

    We will also never see a trial in the ICTY for Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright or Wesley Clark for the 1999 US-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Nor will George W. Bush, Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld be prosecuted by an international tribunal for their war crimes in Iraq.

For background, see:
Marjorie Cohn | US Force-Feeding Prisoners in Torture Camp

    HUMAN RIGHTS HYPOCRISY
    (What Bolton Wants, Bolton Gets?)
    By Marjorie Cohn
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Monday, 27 February 2006

    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or Marjorie Cohn.
    All rights reserved.]

    Last week, the President of the United Nations General Assembly announced a new proposal to revamp the UN Human Rights Commission and rename it the UN Human Rights Council. The product of months of negotiations between the 53 member nations of the Commission, the proposal will be voted on by the General Assembly next month. The United States, however, immediately denounced the compromise. John Bolton, US ambassador to the United Nations, said it has too many “deficiencies” and should be renegotiated.

    Bolton stated last month, “Membership on the Commission by some of the world’s most notorious human rights abusers mocks the legitimacy of the Commission and the United Nations itself.” But Bolton was not referring to the United States, which invaded Iraq in violation of the UN Charter, killed thousands of innocent Iraqis, and tortured and abused prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay.

    U.S. Force-Feeding Prisoners
    In Torture Camp
    By Marjorie Cohn
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Monday, 20 February 2006

    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or Marjorie Cohn.
    All rights reserved.]

    Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Commission reported that the violent force-feeding of detainees by the US military at its Guantanamo prison camp amounts to torture.

    More than a third of the prisoners held there have refused food to protest being held incommunicado for years with no hope of release. They have concluded that death could not be worse than the living hell they are enduring. Attorney Julia Tarver’s client Abdul-Rahman told her “of his determination to die and said that, ‘now, after four years in captivity, life and death are the same,’” Tarver wrote in a sworn declaration filed in federal district court.

    SPINNING FEAR
    (Bush Administration Redbating)
    By Marjorie Cohn
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Monday, 13 February 2006

    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or Marjorie Cohn.
    All rights reserved.]

The terror’s in the room.
— CBS Journalist Edward R. Murrow, “Good Night and Good Luck,” 1954

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
— President Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

    During the 1950s, our government succumbed to the fear of Communism hyped by Senator Joseph McCarthy. People lost their jobs, lives were ruined, and many committed suicide in response to the “red scare.” Fear pervaded every facet of life, leading neighbors to inform on one another. CBS newscaster Edward R. Murrow was one of the few journalists who had the courage to stand up to the fear-mongering and bring the truth to the American people. Describing the omnipresent fear that the government was fostering, Murrow told his colleagues, “The terror’s in the room.”

    It’s deja vu with the Bush administration ensuring that terror is always in the room. Since September 11, 2001, George W. Bush has successfully manipulated the memory of the terrorist attacks to maintain power and mute effective criticism of his dangerous and illegal policies.

    TOMGRAM: BUSHWHACKED
    IN BUSHWORLD
    ”Beam Me Up, Scottie!”
    By Tom Engelhardt
    TomDispatch.com
    Sunday, 05 February 2006

    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org),
    TomDispatch (.com) and/or
    Tom Engelhardt. All
    Rights Reserved.]

    Just in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re in a Bushworld too absurd for words. But that hasn’t stopped this administration from yakking its collective head off.

    Over the last week: The President came out for an ethanol-powered globe — that’s corn on the cob to you, buddy — while his Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld announced that our poor planet had somehow gotten more terroristically dangerous since George took the helm. (No fault of his, natch.) Last Tuesday night, of course, the Great Helmsman stood on the congressional deck of state — perhaps confusing it with the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln (Didn’t anyone hear me? Mission accomplished!) — and declared that we were on nothing less than the “road to victory” in Iraq. (Unfortunately, the message seems not to have gotten through to Iraqis lining that road with IEDs, possibly due to power outages in that country.) Intelligence “Tsar” John Negroponte visited Congress to deliver the news that Earth was virtually swarming with terrorist groups which already had their hands on WMD. (Sleep well, Virginia.) At the same time, multitasking like mad, the administration continued its noble war on T-shirts; the Pentagon put political cartoonists on notice that the military high command wasn’t going to take a pen jab lying down (no sir!); and KBR, one of two subsidiaries of the Halliburton Corporation (the other being the U.S. government), received an almost $400 million dollar contract to build emergency “detention facilities” in the homeland (after much practice at Guantanamo). Oh yes, and in their spare time, the President and his closest advisors happily continued to exercise another of those handy prerogatives of the Commander-in-Chief in wartime by essentially amending the Constitution to wipe out the odd check or balance.

    TRAPPED LIKE A RAT
    (Bush Cornered with
    Criticism)
    By William Rivers Pitt
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Thursday, 9 Feb. 2006
    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or William Rivers
    Pitt. All rights reserved.]

    The funeral for civil rights leader Coretta Scott King on Tuesday was quite a sight to see. The depth of sadness in the room could not be overcome by the happiness that came with the celebration of her life and accomplishments. It was the measure of Mrs. King’s impact upon our society that four presidents – Carter, Bush, Clinton and Bush – sat before her flower-draped casket and spoke of her life.

    And then, of course, the foolishness began. The nattering nabobs of network nonsense blithered into their cable news studios to deplore all the political statements that were served up before the appreciative crowd in that church. It was the Wellstone funeral all over again.

    Let’s be clear. The life of Coretta Scott King was one that involved politics from every angle. Any lifelong struggle against poverty, racism and war is going to be a life immersed in politics. That is simply the way it is; because so many politicians and political ideologies center around statements and legislation that directly add to the burdens of the poor and minorities, any person choosing to fight poverty and racism is going to wind up dealing in politics.

    THE STATE OF THE UNION
    (Time for Bush to Lie
    Some More)
    By William Rivers Pitt
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Tuesday, 31 Jan. 2006
    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or William Rivers
    Pitt. All rights reserved.]

i knew that i was dying.
something in me said, go ahead, die, sleep, become
them, accept.
then something else in me said, no, save the tiniest
bit.
it needn’t be much, just a spark.
a spark can set a whole forest on
fire.
just a spark.
save it.

– Charles Bukowski

    ”He shall from time to time,” reads the Constitution, “give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” And so it shall be. George W. Bush will be speaking tonight from the podium in the House of Representatives. Before him will be arrayed Senators, Representatives, generals and judges. The balconies will be filled with observers, luminaries, reporters and a few so-called “special guests” whose presence will be used to reinforce some argument or another.

    THE NEW FASCISM
    (Bush, Modern Day Hitler,
    And Just As Psychotic)
    By William Rivers Pitt
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Tuesday, 17 Jan. 2006
    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or William Rivers
    Pitt. All rights reserved.]

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

– Abraham Lincoln

    Say “fascism” to anyone you meet, and you will conjure images of coal-scuttle helmets, of Nazi boot-heels clicking in terrible unison down Berlin streets during dark days that only a few remaining among the living remember. Each day, members of the generation that heard those heels for themselves go into the ground, taking with them whispered words of warning. I saw it for myself, they whisper before they pass. See this tattooed number? See this scar? It happened. It was real.