Wikileaks has just released what it describes as classified video from U.S. Apache helicopters in a July 12, 2007 attack on the suburb of New Baghdad, Iraq. The U.S. military has said that the dozen or so casualties were "anti-Iraqi forces" or "insurgents."
You can be sure Rachel will be covering this tonight. Via Wikileaks:
WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff. Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. For further information please visit the special project website www.collateralmurder.com.
I've been out for a day or two, and Paddy has been covering like a champ. While I catch up on the mounds of e-mails and tweets, and Paddy takes a well-deserved break, we all benefit from a very welcome guest post.
TPC has generous, talented friends in high places who offered to lighten the load a little: The sharp as a tack radio/TV personality/blogger Shannyn Moore (you've seen her on Countdown with Keith Olbermann) and the very accomplished writer/investigative journalist Allen McDuffee (who has been a consistently wonderful supporter of this blog).
Here is their very welcome contribution, and we are honored to be able to include their excellent work on TPC:
Hats off to Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo III for taking the heat off McChrystal and Petraeus on Afghanistan by telling women (and the men who impregnate them) that if they get pregnant on his watch in Northern Iraq, it will be a punishable offense, which may include jail time.
Yesterday, Amanda Terkel at Think Progress cleared up one of the immediate misconceptions about Cucolo’s policy: pregnancy by sexual assault.
To ensure a consistent and measured approach in applying this policy, I am the only individual who passes judgment on these cases. I decide every case based on the unique facts of each Soldier's situation. Of the very few cases handled thus far, it has been a male Soldier who received the most severe punishment; he committed adultery as well. Though there have not been any cases of sexual assault, any pregnancy that is the product of a sexual assault would most certainly not be considered here; our total focus would be on the health and well-being of the victim and justice for the perpetrator.
Cucolo is reportedly backing off his policy, according to an ABC news report today, saying “I see absolutely no circumstance where I would punish a female soldier by court martial for a violation ... none…I fully intend to handle these cases through lesser disciplinary action."
Whether or not the policy is legal, implemented or not implemented, here are 8 ways this shows how wrong-headed the Army is on pregnancy and a whole lot more.
1) Fornication, ok. Pregnancy, not ok. This one kind of speaks for itself.
2) The new military directives include the dismissal and possible criminal charges against becoming pregnant, or impregnating a service member. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander…that’s fair…but what if the gander is a Blackwater contractor? How many times have you seen a successful prosecution of a military contractor?
3) Speaking of contractors, which one will win the Pentagon contract for providing $10 condoms, $200 diaphragms, $25 contraceptive sponges or whatever else? Seems like Halliburton territory. They’re the ones with the biggest Dick in their past, after all.
4) Controlling and punishing pregnancy in the military has become a priority over, you know, actual criminal behavior. We all know how badly sexual assault escalated since the Iraq invasion, but nearly 7 years later not much has changed. This month, a military task force reported its findings after a year-long survey. Not good, according to The Virginian Pilot, saying that the report concluded “too often the perpetrators go free and the victims do not get the assistance they deserve.”
5) After lowering the standards for the US military to include felons, including rapists can we really afford to lose more service people? Think about it. If you’re gay…pack your bags. If you’re pregnant, you are out of there. If you got someone pregnant…well, you’re out too. If you’re a convicted rapist…sign here.
6) So many questions about abortion…
Who supports this? The Anti-Choice groups? What are the chances of a back door barrack abortion to save a job? Will military docs provide Plan B or an abortion? Will abortions be recommended (read: coerced)? Will the Pentagon find a way to federally fund abortion to SUPPORT THE TROOPS killing THE TERRORISTS? What will it take to get a front row seat to watch Sen. Ben Nelson blow a gasket when he finds out.
And what will conservatives do when their two favorite pastimes collide: dropping bombs and controlling women’s bodies?
7) War is hell. Is it hell enough that you’d get pregnant for a “Get Out Of War Free” card?
8) It’s got to be difficult to feel pretty and pregnant in camouflage…nothing quite like strapping a gun on a baby bump. Can’t imagine there’s anything much more life affirming after a long day of death and destruction than human contact…in a good way.
Ok, ok—in all seriousness, there must be some cases of female service members getting pregnant intentionally to get out of combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But there must be better ways of addressing that concern of Cucolo’s. Let’s hear your ideas below.
Let me know if the video shows up for you. It's not showing up on my computer, and I have no idea why.
A Yale Law School faculty member and military law expert said he is disturbed by allegations that Fort Lewis employeda civilian who spied on an Olympia-based anti-war organization.
Eugene R. Fidell, a former judge advocate for the Coast Guard and the president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said such a practice appeared to violate the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that prohibits the use of the Army for conventional law enforcement activities against civilians.
Last week, members of Olympia Port Militarization Resistance presented evidence that John J. Towery, a civilian employee of Fort Lewis Force Protection, infiltrated the group using an assumed name and conducted surveillance of its members for about two years.
OlyPMR member Brendan Maslauskas Dunn said that after the information came to light, Towery admitted that he was spying on members using the name John Jacob. As John Jacob, Towery was one of five administrators of OlyPMR’s listserv e-mail list, giving him names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of all members.
OlyPMR opposes the Iraq war. [...] OlyPMR member Drew Hendricks has said that Towery was privy to members’ observation strategies and operations before the group conducted protests at local ports.
Hendricks said OlyPMR is committed to nonviolence and has never threatened or tried to harm soldiers. [...]
“What you’ve told me is enough to think that there’s a domestic spying program at Fort Lewis,” [Fidell] said. “And if there is, that’s a big deal.”
Yeah, that's a big deal. The sad thing is, it's not all that surprising any more.
Attorney Larry Hildes of the National Lawyers Guild has made numerous attempts to get information from the military and federal agencies for court cases and civil suits connected to the port protests, only to run into the repeated refusal of Brian Kipnis from the US Attorney’s Office in Seattle to give this information to Hildes and other defense attorneys. Kipnis explicitly told the US Army not to give information to Hildes and others. Kipnis is also the same lawyer that prosecuted Lt. Ehren Watada and was involved with a number of Guantanamo cases. This information is perhaps the beginning of a larger network of surveillance across the nation.
Wasn't the blowback from Blackwater-- or Xe or Pee or whoever they are-- enough?
The U.S. military command is considering contracting a private firm to manage security on the front lines of the war in Afghanistan, even as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says that the Pentagon intends to cut back on the use of private security contractors.
On a Web site listing federal business opportunities, the Army this month published a noticesoliciting information from prospective contractors who would develop a security plan for 50 or more forward operating bases and smaller command outposts across Afghanistan.
Although the U.S. military has contracted out security services to protect individuals, military bases and other facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, this contract would award a commercial company unusually broad "theater-wide" authority to protect forward operating bases in a war zone.
"The contractor shall be responsible for providing security services, developing, implementing, adequately staffing, and managing a security program," the notice said, adding that the contractor would have to be available "24 hours a day, seven days a week."[...]
The intent of the proposed contract is to bring all "disparate and subordinate contracts" under single, theater-wide management at a time when the U.S. forces are expanding [...]
The Army has not issued a formal proposal for a contract, but the notice says that interested companies should reply by Wednesday and that a formal request for proposals should follow. The "anticipated award date" for a contract is Dec. 1, according to the notice.
The request for information comes as Gates is moving to put soldiers back in charge of security roles that contractors have filled in recent years. [...]
Lawmakers, too, have raised concerns about the cost of contractors and about outsourcing what have traditionally been government roles. [...]
Meanwhile, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), chairman of the Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight, said her panel had "revealed major concerns about the use of private security contractors in Afghanistan." [...]
"We don't want to waste scarce Afghan army and police, so we must be creative," said Michael E. O'Hanlon, a senior fellow and military expert at the Brookings Institution.
But O'Hanlon also said he is concerned that if contractors were to take over security at forward operating bases, they would be the first to see hostile fire, and they -- not soldiers -- would have to decide whether to employ weapons against an enemy.
Instead of hiring a private firm, O'Hanlon said, the Americans and Afghans could create a local version of Iraq's Facilities Protection Service, the modestly trained but government-paid guard force that was pulled together to provide protection for government ministries in Baghdad and the oil fields.
Privatizing another war doesn't sound like a wise move to me.
U.S. forces shot down an Iranian drone aircraft that ventured inside Iraq several weeks ago, a senior Iraqi military official said on Monday, an incident that could highlight deep U.S.-Iranian tensions.
"An unmanned Iranian plane crossed the border and it was discovered by multi-national forces' radar. They intercepted it and brought it down ... an American plane brought it down," Major-General Abdul Aziz Mohammed Jassim, head of military operations at the Iraqi Defence Ministry, told Reuters.
The U.S. military in Iraq has declined comment. It has accused Iran of arming militants and meddling in neighbouring Iraq, where tens of thousands have died in sectarian violence since the U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003.
"According to the report received by multinational forces, this drone entered Iraq mistakenly at a point 100 km (60 miles) from Baghdad. It crossed 10 km (6 miles) into Iraq. It's most likely that its entrance (into Iraq) was a mistake," Jassim said.
As unemployment in the US rises, old War on Terror appeals to national security are taking a backseat to economic justifications. The US military industry has adjusted to this new reality by crafting its requests for government funding on the basis of its capacity to provide employment. This despite evidence that military spending is one of the least effective means of job creation.
Who will scream the loudest about this? Names! I want names:
Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become United States citizens in as little as six months.
Immigrants who are permanent residents, with documents commonly known as green cards, have long been eligible to enlist. But the new effort, for the first time since the Vietnam War, will open the armed forces to temporary immigrants if they have lived in the United States for a minimum of two years, according to military officials familiar with the plan.
Recruiters expect that the temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans who enlist, helping the military to fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis. [...]
A preliminary Pentagon announcement of the program last year drew a stream of angry comments from officers and veterans on Military.com, a Web site they frequent. [...]
The military does not allow illegal immigrants to enlist, and that policy would not change, officers said. Recruiting officials pointed out that volunteers with temporary visas would have already passed a security screening and would have shown that they had no criminal record. [...]
Military officials want to attract immigrants who have native knowledge of languages and cultures that the Pentagon considers strategically vital.The program will also be open to students and refugees. [...]
To enlist, temporary immigrants will have to prove that they have lived in the United States for two years and have not been out of the country for longer than 90 days during that time. They will have to pass an English test. [...]
Commenters who vented their suspicions of the program on Military.com said it could be used by terrorists to penetrate the armed forces.
A New Zealand man who bought an MP3 player from a thrift shop in Oklahoma found 60 U.S. military files, including names and phone numbers for soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, TV One News reported today.
Chris Ogle said he found the files when he linked the device to his computer. Details of equipment at bases in Afghanistan and a mission briefing were found too, the report said.
In 2006, the Los Angeles Times found stolen flash drives containing secret military data for sale at Afghan shops.
"There were cheers, whoops of joy and loud applause at US military bases in Afghanistan today as soldiers welcomed in their new commander-in-chief, President Barack Obama."
I've never understood the trolls who insist that the military are anti-Obama after report after report to the contrary.
The astounding thing is, Bubble Boy Bush is oblivious to the disdain that the entire world feels for him.
Within 24 hours of Barack Obama’s election, an Army career counselor sent out a recruiting e-mail promising that the new president would “get us out of Iraq,” reports VetVoice’s Brandon Friedman. “What are you waiting for?” the e-mail asks, arguing the election of Obama makes now the perfect time to join up:
Though it’s not clear whether this recruiter is acting alone, it signals that President Obama might be used as a new, forceful recruiting tool. “If so, this would symbolize a stunning — if not totally rational — renunciation of the Bush administration and its handling of the military,” Friedman writes. “If this becomes an Army policy, it represents a true ‘ding-dong the witch is dead’ moment for the service.”
That would be ironic, wouldn't it? The rough, tough, bullying tactics of the War Chimpenfuhrer causes recruiting numbers to drop. The Liberal Commie Peace and Love Hippie Muslim newbie strengthens the military within 24 hours of his election.
And just now on the Rachel Maddow radio show, she said that the Iraqis, who have been resisting an agreement with Bush, are now changing their tune because of Obama. "We trust him enough to negotiate with him on this subject."
U.S. military helicopters attacked an area along Syria's border with Iraq on Sunday, causing casualties, Syrian state TV and witnesses said.
The television report quoted unnamed Syrian officials and said the area is near the Syrian border town of Abu Kamal. It gave no other details.
Local residents told The Associated Press by telephone that two helicopters carrying U.S. soldiers raided a farm in the village of Hwijeh, 10 miles inside Syria's border, killing seven people and wounding five. One of the witnesses said five of the dead were from a single family.
The residents refused to allow their names to be given because they feared they would be harassed by authorities.
The U.S. military in Baghdad had no immediate comment.
Gramm-pa McCain should be thrilled. More war! Weeee!
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