Coming Soon: Military To Break Silence On Wikileaks Video

By GottaLaff

Greg Sargent is reporting that the military will be commenting as early as today, about the combat video that came out yesterday:

The military will publicly address the veracity of the notorious Wikileaks video, which apparently depicts an American helicopter killing two Reuters journalists during a July 2007 attack in Baghdad, as early as today, a Centcom spokesman confirms to me.

Separately, a military official confirms (as he did to several other news orgs) that they’ve concluded the footage is genuine.

This video makes me wonder what else is out there, and of course, what isn't. Hopefully, once the acknowledgment by the military is announced, there will be a real discussion about the wars in which we're engaged in general, about incidents like this one specifically, and maybe even what's in store for the future.

COMBAT VIDEO: Wikileaks posts video from Iraq showing civilian casualties

By GottaLaff



WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO. GRAPHIC VIDEO. GRAPHIC VIDEO.

Via the Rachel Maddow Blog:

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.

No words.

Commenter in "New Yorker" seeks info on tortured, murdered uncle/detainee's body

By GottaLaff

The Salt Pit

Jane Mayer has a piece out in the New Yorker that is a must-read. It concerns the death of a detainee, and includes a revelation about the unintended identification of the detention C.I.A. officer who was allegedly responsible:

In an apparent oversight, however, the identity of the manager of the Salt Pit at the time of Rahman’s death appeared recently in a public document. The officer, who continues to work for the C.I.A., is mentioned by name in a footnote in the October, 2009, legal response to allegations of unprofessional conduct filed by lawyers for Jay Bybee, the former head of the Office of Legal Counsel. The Bybee document was released last February by the Justice Department. Apparently unnoticed at the time, it revealed both the surname of the Salt Pit manager and the identity of the victim, Rahman.

[UPDATE, April 1, 6:40 P.M.: In an interesting disappearing act, unspecified government officials have now mysteriously redacted the name of the C.I.A. officer in charge of the Salt Pit from the public record described above. The document is easily accessible on the House Judiciary Committee’s Web site (pdf). But where footnote No. 28 previously identified the surname of the Salt Pit manager, as of April 1st, the name has been blacked out. The victim’s name, however, is still visible. It was evidently too late to keep that out of the public eye after the A.P. story.]

The story is horrendous, the deeds unspeakable. But something on that page caught my eye in Comments:

can you please tell us about the death body of rehman from where we can get it i am his nephew

Posted 3/31/2010, 11:32:10pm by sulimankhail

Think about that for a moment.

A news story about the death of a detainee at a black site causes a person who identifies himself as family, as the nephew of the victim, to try to locate the body after eight years... in a comment under the post.

He is asking for help in getting the body of a family member back. In Comments.

Assuming "sulimankhail" is who he says he is, what does this tell you? How does it make you feel that torture and murder has been done in our name... and now a prisoner's relative has to leave a comment under a story in the New Yorker in order to find the remains of his uncle?

I'm ashamed, and I am sickened.

A related story drives the point home:

Michael Sulick, head of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, told a student audience last week that the spy agency has seen no fall-off in intelligence since waterboarding was banned by the Obama administration.

Be proud, BushCo.

****

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is a military attorney who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari in the Military Commission process and in no way represents the opinions of his home state. When not on active duty, Colonel Wingard is a public defender in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

VERDICT: Tiller Killer GUILTY

By GottaLaff

Via an e-mail alert:

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Jurors reach verdict in murder case involving Kansas abortion provider's slaying.

Per MSNBC just now, a nearly instantaneous, 15-minute verdict:

First degree murder.

As if there was ever a doubt, reasonable or otherwise.

"Pro-Life". Right.

UPDATE via an e-mail from the L.A. Times:

In a trial that never became the referendum on abortion that some abortion foes wanted, a Wichita, Kan., jury today convicted Scott Roeder of murdering George Tiller, one the nation's few physicians who performed late-term abortions.

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for only 37 minutes.

Whether Roeder shot Tiller at point blank range in the forehead in the foyer of Tiller's church in Wichita last May was never at issue; Roeder had admitted it to reporters, in court filings and finally to a jury on Thursday. He also said he had been stalking Tiller since at least 1999.

More soon at: http://www.latimes.com

UPDATE, via MSNBC: Prosecutors asking for life with no parole for 50 years. He'll be 101.

Update on Washington cop killer

By GottaLaff

Here's a quick MSNBC update on the Washington cop killer:

He was shot dead earlier, as has been reported. On his body was one of the policemen's guns. More have been arrested for aiding and abetting him, helping him get away.

Meanwhile, the punditiots are insinuating that Mike Huckabee is toast.

Census worker hanged with 'fed' on body

Man oh man. As WaterTiger points out, some people have been demonizing the Census workers with a passion lately. I mean, if you think the Federal Census worker is going to put you in a Internment camp similar to the ones we put the Japanese in, well, what would you expect?

WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery. A law enforcement official says the word "fed" was scrawled on his chest.

The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found Sept. 12 in the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky.

Investigators have said little about the case. A law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, tells The Associated Press the word "fed" was written on the dead man's chest.

FBI spokesman David Beyer said the bureau is helping state police determine if Sparkman's death was the result of foul play, and if so, whether it was related to his census work.

Obama Calls Shooting of Anti-Abortion Activist 'Deplorable'

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Unlike many of his Rushpublic counterparts, the Head Dem knows that shooting people who disagree with you is wrong:

President Obama is calling the shooting of an anti-abortion activist "deplorable."

The White House on Sunday released a statement from the president on the shooting of James Pouillon. Obama says that "whichever side of a public debate you're on, violence is never the right answer."

He might want to clue in these people:

Back story here.

Kentucky GOP Pol Found With Slit Wrists After Shooting Death Of Ex-Fiancée

By GottaLaff

Steve Nunn and Amanda Ross at the Governor's Ball on Dec. 11, 2007, for newly elected Gov. Steve Beshear. (The Courier-Journal)

Via TPM:

Steve Nunn, a former Kentucky GOP lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate was found by police this afternoon with slit wrists in the cemetery where his parents lie buried. Hours earlier, Nunn's former fiancée had been found shot to death in a Lexington parking lot.

According to the local sheriff, Nunn, 57, placed mementos on his parents' graves, moved several feet away, then cut his wrists. [...] Nunn was taken via ambulance to the hospital.

Nunn's former fiancée, Amanda Ross, was found dead this morning. A neighbor told reporters she heard five shots and screams at 6:11 a.m. in a courtyard outside Ross's condominium. [...]

Nunn was arrested after being taken to the hospital, for allegedly violating a protective order against Ross, by carrying the handgun. [...]

Steve Nunn -- who spent what he has called his "formative years" in the governor's mansion -- received just 13 percent of the vote running against [Ernie] Fletcher in the gubernatorial primary that year. He is also a former state legislator. [...]

Nunn and Ross had a deeply troubled relationship. [...]

But they stayed in contact, and in February he was at her home for dinner. That night, Ross later charged in a domestic violence complaint, he struck her four times in the face, threw her against a hallway lamp, breaking it, then threw a cup of bourbon in her face. [...]

An order of protection was placed on Nunn, ordering him to have no contact with Ross for a year. Nunn was placed on administrative leave from his job as deputy secretary of the state's health and human services department, and resigned soon after.

In July, a judge found Nunn in contempt of the protection order, after Ross alleged that Nunn had published "tampered photographs" of her. [...]

Late Update: The Herald-Leader now adds:

Police have not charged Nunn, Kentucky State Police Trooper Charles Sweeney said. Police officers will question Nunn upon his release.

Lexington police Lt. Doug Pape said Nunn is "a guy we want to talk to" in reference to the fatal shooting of his former fiancée, Amanda Ross.

As Zachary Roth says in his post, the story suggests "a son struggling to live up to the accomplishments of his father, it's almost a modern-day Southern Gothic."

Sad, shocking, nothing to snark about here.

H/t: Cody