After the recent revelations of a Pentagon-led plan to twist US media coverage of the “war on terror”, Wikileaks uncovers a 2006 document titled, “Media is the Battlefield: Tactics, Techniques and Procedures“. Produced for those in the US military, typical statements include: You do not have to regurgitate the Secretary of Defense’s responses, but you…
Showing all posts tagged Iraq
Time to find new friends
How Bush and his mates are increasingly irrelevant in the Middle East. (Though this doesn’t stop many Western NGOs still supporting the worst aspects of Israeli occupation policies.)
Ditching politeness
Ken Silverstein, Harpers, May 23: Mark Slouka has a terrific piece in the June issue of the magazine that convincingly argues against political politeness. “In the long term, it is [the] tilt toward deference, this willingness to hold our tongues and sit on our principles, that truly threatens us, even more than the manifold abuses…
US soldiers are starving
Behold the crumbling American occupation of Iraq: Shiite Cleric al-Sistani forbids Iraqis from selling food to Americans. Trouble is brewing, according to Juan Cole: Last I knew, the US military in Iraq does not buy its food from Iraqis but rather imports it, for fear that Iraqi nationalists might poison it. But I’m told US…
How much guilt can one country handle?
Clive Stafford Smith, attorney, Democracy Now!: …According to the most recent official figures, the United States is currently holding 27,000 secret prisoners around the world…
Kiddies behind bars
America, home of the illegally incarcerated (and something noble to export to the world): The U.S. military is holding about 500 juveniles suspected of being “unlawful enemy combatants” in detention centers in Iraq and has about 10 detained in Afghanistan, the United States has told the United Nations. A total of 2,500 youths under the…
The personal cost of our war
The endless violence in Iraq continues. One recent victim was Iraqi blogger Ahmed from BlogIraq. His friend Abu Aya writes: Yes. Ahmed (BlogIraq) is dead. He was killed in Baghdad on April 11th, 2008. He went back to Baghdad to take his family out, but he did not have enough time to do so. He…
Our boys trashing Iraq
The war in Iraq continues to destroy the country. However, we rarely hear the voices of American soldiers and their impressions of the conflict (a notable exception was the recent, largely unreported, Winter Soldier hearings.) Kristofer Shawn Goldsmith gave the following testimony to Congress on May 15. A returned soldier, he tells harrowing tales of…
What we have brought
If You are Not Muslim in Iraq, You are Trash. A compelling essay co-written by friend and author of American Torture, Mike Otterman.
As the wheels start to fall off
The Islamic Republic may soon be targeted by the Bush administration: There is considerable speculation and buzz in Washington today suggesting that the National Security Council has agreed in principle to proceed with plans to attack an Iranian al-Qods-run camp that is believed to be training Iraqi militants. The camp that will be targeted is…