Debunking Muqtada Al-Sadr
For those of you who are "passionate" about Muqtada Al-Sadr, you may want to consult my other blog -- Arab Woman Newsbytes -- for the latest from your "idol".
Endless Beginnings...
For God's sake, tell me where to begin? I was set out to write about Father's day and the thousands of fatherless Iraqi children.The thousands of killed fathers, the thousands of fathers trying desperately hard to feed their families, daily putting their lives at great risk, in a country gripped by demonic violence. The exiled fathers, selling scraps in Amman and Damascus, bearing the brunt of daily insults. Or the unemployed fathers, feeling torn inside watching their kids go hungry. Or maybe the head bent down father, slouched posture, hiding scars beneath a worn out shirt. The father that has been imprisoned, humiliated, tortured and sodomized, unable to look his children in the eyes... Or maybe I should write about sexual torture and sodomy instead... The further horrors emerging from Abu Ghraib and the Taguba report... More reports of "abuse". And I am sure Abu Ghraib is not over. I am certain that more Abu Ghraibs are taking place in Iraq, in those shadowy deten
Comments
http://denunciacoimbra2.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/al-jazerra-shows-portugal/
A lie Muqtada, a blatant lie...
I personally know of at least 12 families..drilled..."
Maybe he tells the truth, but since he lost control of many men, they run amok.
How did he lose control? He preaches fire. When you light a fire, it can become uncontrollable. The US has been fire fighting for 5 years.
Layla, 5 years from now which fires will you wish you had not started?
Greg from USA
I don't see how images of all the rotten attacks against the West are offensive to Muslims.
I don't see how a woman who jumps to escape the flames of the WTC is offensive to Muslims.
In my mind, that woman is still falling, never able to reach the ground and find her peace...
Close your eyes and try to imagine the thunder of her crashing into the ground. Too bad you can't feel it. Maybe you would have an awakening. Maybe cure you of all the panic attacks you are having. Maybe you would swallow your lump and begin a new life.
Greg from USA
please. please. c'mon, just go home. the baseball season's just started.....
just go home.
yestarday the driller-in-chief ordered his drillers off the streets and today there isn't a single Mahdi thug in the iraqi street.
Should we believe that al-Sadr doesn't control his mass murderers when they torture , rape and slaughter tens (or hundreds) of thousands of innocent people, ethnic cleans iraq, drill half of Baghdad and force hundreds of thousands (or millions) of sunnis and secularists into exile, whilst he fully control everyone of them when he orders his thugs to stop fighting the puppet government and to withdraw from the streets? Is THIS what you are claiming?
1) Iraq and Iraqis had nothing to do with her and, therefore, she is not on its/their conscience.
2) IF, and that's a BIG IF, the Muslims had anything to do with it, it is as a result of what the US has been doing in the Middle East for such a long time - bloodshed and genocides. Given that, USans have got away pretty easy so far.
3) What the US has done in Iraq is so great a crime in magnitude, what the Germans did pales in comparison.
4) In case you'd like to know this, since you seem quite dense, these are the views of the entire world - you are loathed in every corner of this planet.
5) The entire world is waiting with bated breath for the fall of the despicable nation called US. Starts with the uselessness of its filty dollar. Wait for it, Greg.
That is very astute observation...God ! Why does the obvious almost always elude me?
#2 - That's the problem with the "Muslim Nation" - they don't take responsibility for themselves or the terrorists. I personally believe that when you say things like "BIG IF", this is simply "taqiyya".
#4 - The world may hate the US, but they laugh at the ineptitude and corruption of the Mideast
Sadr - he has lost control of half his men. He has been stirring their hatred, and now it burns out of control. The only reason all of JAM are off the streets is to stay alive. They will only engage in pitched battle if they have the manpower. His truce enrages half of them because they would rather be out there drilling.
#5 You will have to wait a lot longer before the dollar crashes, little dork. If you live in an oil rich nation, enjoy it while it lasts, because oil is headed south within 1 year. If you are in Iran, too bad - all that money down the tubes.
Greg from USA
Too true. No one likes Arabs. Hell, Arabs don't even like Arabs! Your hatred for and distrust of each other would be even more obvious were it not for the Jews and the current occupation which has been somewhat of a distraction. It's hard to invade your Arab neighbors when you've got big, fat Americans and Brits to shoot at.
to them no matter how much you try, which is very depressing. One very good thing about your blog is that you expose those like greg (small "g" intended) who represent the ugliness of mainstream America. Thank you.
layla: "oh anonymous, I love you too" There ya go, was that so hard?
doug, "You can never get through
to them" Sure you can, you just have to get past my bullshit detector. I have it set on medium.
For all you Saddam lovers out there.
Tour of prison reveals the last days of Saddam Hussein
"Dear nation: Get rid of the hatred, take the clothes of hate and throw it into the ocean of hatred," he wrote. "God will save you and you will start a clean life, with a clean heart."
Saddam the poet. After 30 years of murder and mayhem, that got right through.
Greg from USA
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/20080403_counting_on_one_hand/
That dawn, naked, covered in blood and feces, bleeding from her anus, she found a US soldier she did not know lying naked in the bed next to her: his gun lay on the floor beside the bed, she could not rouse him and all she could remember of the night before was screaming and screaming as the soldier anally penetrated her while a colleague who worked for defense contractor KBR held her hand--but instead of helping her, as she had hoped, he jammed his penis in her mouth.
Over the next few weeks Smith would be told to keep quiet about the incident by a KBR supervisor. The camp's military liaison officer also told her not to speak about what had happened, she says. And she would follow these instructions. "Because then, all of a sudden, if you've done exactly what you've been instructed not to do--tell somebody--then you're in danger," Smith says.
danger of what greg? wouldn't the authorities help her?
The morning after the incident, Smith says, she was called into the office of her supervisor, who was Camp Harper's KBR manager; he appeared to know--at least in part--what had happened. She would later learn from an Army investigator that her supervisor had been in the room where the drinking and alleged rape had taken place at least twice that evening. Smith, who appears to have blacked out, has no direct knowledge of his participation--or indeed of who else among the crowd initially gathered in the room may have been involved. "He was one of the people involved in saying, 'Don't say anything,'" Smith says of her conversation with the KBR camp manager the morning following the incident. "Then he said, 'This will never happen again.'"
another KBR rape case
as we all know...
while KBR was still a Halliburton subsidiary, her case is covered by an extralegal Halliburton dispute-resolution program implemented under then-CEO Dick Cheney in 1997. The program has all the hallmarks of the Cheney White House's penchant for secrecy. While Halliburton declared the program's aim was to reduce costly and lengthy litigation (and limit possible damage awards in the process), in practice it meant that employees like Jones signed away their constitutional right to a jury trial--and agreed to have any disputes heard in a private arbitration hearing without hope of appeal. (While two lower courts declared the tactic illegal, in 2001, the Texas Supreme Court overturned those rulings.)
Accordingly, Jones faces two major roadblocks in the fight for justice. The first is the battle to have the perpetrators prosecuted in criminal court--which, because of Order 17, may be nearly impossible. According to the order, imposed by Paul Bremer, US defense contractors in Iraq cannot be prosecuted in the Iraqi criminal justice system. While they can technically be tried in US federal court, the Justice Department has shown no interest in prosecuting her case. In fact, for more than two years now, the DOJ has brought no criminal charges in the matter. Representative Ted Poe, a Texas Republican.. reports that federal agencies refuse to discuss the status of the investigation; meanwhile, in December, the DOJ refused to send a representative to the related Congressional hearing on the matter.
Even more appalling, the Justice Department, which can and should prosecute most of these cases, has declined to do so. "There is no rational explanation for this," says Scott Horton, a lecturer at Columbia Law School who specializes in the law of armed conflict. Prosecutorial jurisdiction for crimes like the alleged rape of Jones is easily established under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act and the Patriot Act's special maritime and territorial jurisdiction provisions. But somebody has to want to prosecute the cases.
Horton wonders what the 200 Justice Department employees and contractors stationed in Iraq do all day, noting that there has not been a single completed criminal conviction against a US contractor implicated in a violent crime anywhere in Iraq since the invasion.
"We have a complete process in place for solving military criminal violations when soldiers commit crimes, but for the 180,000 employees of private contractors over there, there is nothing," says Horton. "It's like Texas west of the Pecos in 1890 over there!" It's just common sense that you're going to have some violent crimes when you throw this many people together, he says. "Think about it. You have 180,000 people over there, you're going to have a few crimes. I don't know how anybody could fairly view this as a partisan issue. Crimes happen when you bring people together anywhere, and in a war setting, without adult supervision, crimes are going to increase. That is just a fact. And if you eliminate law enforcement, the crimes are going to get worse because people will quickly learn they can get away with it."
aren't iraqis lucky we are over tthere teaching them about how civil society can be, if they just change and be more like us?
here's another interesting point from the article..
A few days later, when she knew that the Employee Assistance person for KBR would be back, Smith called her on the phone. The Employee Assistance woman was a friend of hers and, without getting too specific about the details of the incident, Smith sought her advice. "We had worked other situations together in the past, and I talked to her and she was like, 'I don't know if I'd report that. You know what happens when you report things.' And I did. I'd seen it."
seen what? do you think maybe they kill people when they speak up? or rape them again, a little friendly fire, like tillman? or what do you think she meant.
inquiring minds want to know?
annie
"If you are so gullable (gullible) and ignorant(,) then your country truely (truly) is doomed,(.) (D)doomed forever, and only a nuke and wal mart (Wal-Mart) will save it."
The irony of this statement is having me rolling around on the floor with laughter. A U.S. Ph.D. in English wrote this, no doubt.
And when I see some of the posts on this blog, I wonder if it's possible to collectively get any stupider. I mean, some people think we did the former rather secular, well maintained, high standard of livinged (sarcasm), educated Iraq a favour by bombing them into the stone age?
Okayyyyyyyy. And my nose is so big it contains the entire universe in the right nostril.
Do we believe that too?
I don't know what to tell you. If the authorities prove corrupt, when there is no system of justice, the citizens duty is to create justice. It took the Sunnis a year to stand up to evil, but they did it and now life has hope. Now it's the Shia's turn.
Justice is an imperative, but OJ trials are a fantasy in a war zone. I am for a merciful solution. But letting him go is not merciful for anyone. Rather than drag the rapist (and the victim) through a public trial, she should find some family or tribal members to help. If done right, the rapist would never know what hit him - the goal being to deter others, remove the danger, and banish their soul from the earth without reciprocating torment. If possible, a letter and picture would be sent to the parents saying their son died in a tragic accident and that the body was cremated. After the execution, using just the torso, a sign is left saying "rapist". This is the best possible solution in a wartime situation.
Annie, your problem is that you are a perpetual victim. It's all Bush, Cheney, or Halliburton's fault. Look in the mirror and make your own changes. Do what you must to seek justice.
But justice is not the collective punishment of 5 soldiers and 20 children by detonating a bomb while they hand out candy.
Greg from USA
No, but almost. It's everybody's in the US , but it's their script. Greg it's your fault for supporting this abomiNation. It's my fault for not being good enough to stop it . It's the media's fault for going along with thenarrative, and not having the guts or intellect to do otherwise.It's our fault for not demanding better. It's the fault of everybody , going way back , before all of us were born. This is just a continuation. We're still following the script, it but they authored this chapter, especially Cheney.
Search P.N.A.C. .It's still up and running . They, including Cheney, wrote this chapter in 1992!. Sept.11/01 was just an (irrelevant)excuse. They were going to do it anyway , somehow, some way .
Do you want to know what they(we) are about ? Here's a representative sample .
http://takomagardener.typepad.com/tg/2008/01/where-its-illeg.html
( & Cheney has, indisputably, numerous connections with Bechtel) Greg, you're defending the indefensible .Why? Give it up . What exactly do you owe "them" (anybody?) , that makes you go through all these contortions?
greg, this is your reaction to an american female contractor getting gang raped and sodomized by an american soldier and other contractors from the american company she works for. true, there is apparently no system of justice for these companies working in iraq. the american occupation saw to that by requiring amunity from prosecution in iraq, and by the american justice system denying rights in our courts to deal w/crimes in iraq.
Rather than drag the rapist (and the victim) through a public trial, she should find some family or tribal members to help. If done right, the rapist would never know what hit him - the goal being to deter others, remove the danger, and banish their soul from the earth without reciprocating torment.
really? how illuminating. so the way to deal w/american contractors and american military who go on gang bangs in iraq is to find a tribal member (tribe as in other officer or contractor? or are you thinking we should find an iraqi citizen or tribal member since the crime happened in iraq? also recall these are rapists, not a rapist.
After the execution, using just the torso, a sign is left saying "rapist". This is the best possible solution in a wartime situation.
really? gee greg, do you think it would be appropriate to place this torsoe in the front yard of the rapists community back home in nebraska or tulsa to deter other americans from considering committing crimes in iraq, or should they leave the torso near the base?
Annie, your problem is that you are a perpetual victim.
really? another illuminating factoid from greg. lol. gee after i finish writing the woman who was gang banged and advising her to implement the torso revenge, i guess i will chew on this allegation of yours.
It's all Bush, Cheney, or Halliburton's fault.
she got raped? or that she cannot get the US justice system to implement her rights as a US citizen, to trial and jury of her peers?
But justice is not the collective punishment of 5 soldiers and 20 children by detonating a bomb while they hand out candy.
i'm not sure how that relates to the gang bangers. but i would say i agree w/you here.
this has been extremely illuminating. it's not everyday we get a pro war freak suggesting we chop up bodies of US contractors and US military personel after they commit crimes later to display their bodies as a warning to other contractors not to commit an more crime.
talk about taking responsibility! i can more fully understand why you think you have a right to lecture people on being victims! i liked the touch about sending the family of the criminals a letter and picture saying their son died in a tragic accident. frankly i don't think your 'tribal solution' would go over too well in america, most people don't realize justice here is not metered out proportionately.
annie
I am glad you found my post illuminating, a lot of people on these forums have been thinking in the dark for some time.
If the contractor is American, then there is a path to justice using our system - has the Supreme Court heard this case?
My solution is imperfect and has drawbacks.
A lot of Americans would be horrified by it, such a barbaric response in "civilized times".
However, those same people are not living in a war zone. It is very simple - given an unjust situation, you must use your judgment to restore a state of justice and civility. While the solution appears to perpetuate that which we cannot bear, if I thought it would not be effective I would not recommend it.
As for those who carry out such an act, they have to ask God for forgiveness and hope it comes. Those who do not believe in God would find the logic of the solution that much more appealing.
You can poke holes in anything I have to say. I could do the same, if you would grace us with your solutions.
You can argue all day about what is the right thing to do, and there are an infinite set of better solutions, but refusing to participate, maintaining a negative mindset, and fantasizing about killing every last American - which is my interpretation of Layla's rants - will get you and your offspring where?
Greg from USA