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The latest news from Iraq, that American media outlets seem in no rush to broadcast, involves two US soldiers accused of premeditated murder for the killing of three Iraqis, then attempting to make it look as though the civilians were killed in combat by placing guns next to the bodies.

A statement from the military announced this is:

“merely an accusation of wrongdoing. The soldiers are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of any alleged offense.”

Obviously, these guys are fighting in a different world from those Middle Eastern detainees, presumed guilty and held indefinitely without hope of trial, in various US facilities throughout Iraq, Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo Bay.

Story link HERE.

US news channels were less loathe to broadcast the story that troops overnight killed twenty-six “militants” and captured seventeen in raids on the Sadr City district of Baghdad.

A glorious victory? Perhaps, if the US military’s account is to be believed.

One thing is certain, these “militants” were definitely not members of al Qaeda. There are no al Qaeda in Shia Sadr City.

Which begs the question: who were they?

Iraqi hospital officials and police put the death toll at only eight, and say civilians were killed while in their homes. According to AP, one resident Basheer Ahmed, who lives in Sadr City’s Habibiya area said:

“”At about 0400, a big American convoy with tanks came and began to open fire on houses – bombing them……….What did we do? We didn’t even retaliate – there was no resistance.”

Of course, we know from experience that US military reports are always one hundred percent accurate, and the Iraqis are just a bunch of lying bastards who deserve everything they get, even when what they get is Abu Ghraib style abuse, torture, rape, and similar atrocities imposed by the US military.

Link HERE.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan – (where?) – the steady and regular slaughter of innocents continues, with a report today suggesting possibly fifty to eighty civilians, including women and children, were killed when US-led forces bombed an area in Helmand province on Friday.

Link HERE.

There is some confusion regarding NATO’s role in Afghanistan – confusion often conveniently utilized by the US news media. More than once, the term “NATO-led forces” has been heard when describing incidents of civilian deaths. In fact, there are two separate forces in Afghanistan – NATO-led Isaf, or International Security Assistance Force, charged with providing security and assistance to the Afghan people, rebuilding roads and infrastructure – and the US-led (and dominated) coalition originally charged with finding Osama bin Laden. In almost all instances of civilian deaths, it has been the US-led coalition who were responsible, not the NATO-led Isaf.

Such was the case in this latest incident, which occurred only one week after another twenty-five civilians were killed in the same area by the US-led coalition. An incident that brought a stiff rebuke from Afghanistan’s President Karzai.

Just three months ago, in March 2007, a supposedly “elite” US Marine Corps unit was ordered to leave Afghanistan after:

“……Afghan witnesses said the Marines fired recklessly at passing vehicles and pedestrians along the crowded road flanked by shops. The U.S. military initially said 16 civilians were killed but later changed that estimate to eight. An official at a local hospital said 14 people had died. The military said 35 people were wounded, among them a coalition service member. Afghan President Hamid Karzai criticized the U.S. military reaction, and the incident sparked large anti-American protests.” Washington Post 03/24/2007 & 04/15/2007.

The US military investigation later updated the figures to ten dead and thirty-three wounded.

While accepting that many US service personnel are decent, humane individuals trying to do their best under the the most severe conditions, the evidence for a large-scale mindset of trigger-happy arrogance and egotistical superiority in the US military – including amongst high-ranking officers – leaves little doubt there are serious shortcomings in the training and discipline of US military personnel of all ranks.

Americans are consistently led to believe their military is the best in the world. Best armed; best trained; most disciplined. Once again, the American people are being hoodwinked by their politicians.

The US military is renowned throughout the rest of the world as the most undisciplined, badly trained and inefficient organization, only able to function at all through sheer force of numbers and equipment.

The record the US military will eventually leave behind in Iraq and Afghanistan will confirm beyond doubt the accuracy of that assessment.

Filed under: US militarism

It’s hardly news to announce two cars bombs were found on London streets today. Virtually everyone in the western hemisphere must be aware of it by now. Neither exploded, no-one was injured, though motorists were “inconvenienced” by road closures as police searched for evidence of the perpetrators.

The ‘car bombs story’ was led by the BBC; twenty of its allotted thirty minutes were spent dissecting the event and its potential consequences. NBC News also led with the story and covered it in depth. CNN spent much of the day analyzing and theorizing about it.

No-one was killed. No-one was injured. Motorists were “inconvenienced”.

In Iraq today:

1. a mortar attack killed four civilians and injured ten in Baghdad.
2. the US military killed a civilian in Baghdad.
3. gunmen executed one man and three women, one of whom was pregnant.
4. a further seven dead bodies were found in Baghdad.
5. in the Askari district of Diyala Province, gunmen bombed the Khalil al-Saleh mosque, which totally collapsed.
6. in Haswa, a bomb exploded under a pipeline causing a huge oil fire.
7. in Kut, a woman was injured by a roadside bomb.
8. in Kut, the body of a university lecturer was found, one day after he was kidnapped.
9. in Kut, a roadside bomb went off near the al-Zahraa public hospital.
10. in Basra, all British bases came under attack from mortars and rockets.
11. in Balad, three unidentified bodies were found with gunshot wounds.
12. in Tikrit, a roadside bomb was detonated injuring three civilians.
13. in Mishada, a suicide car bomber blew himself up destroying an Iraqi army post. Casualties unknown.
14. in Kirkuk, an Iraqi policeman was killed by an unknown gunman.
15. in Kirkuk, in a separate incident, another Iraqi policeman was seriously injured by an unknown gunman.
16. in Kirkuk, a civilian Iraqi was shot and seriously injured by a group of unknown gunmen in a car.
17. in Kirkuk, gunmen kidnapped four Iraqi civilians and took them to an unknown place.

Today was a quiet day in Iraq, which is probably why the western media decided nothing was newsworthy.

Or, is it that we consider our safety and our “inconvenience” a damned sight more important than the suffering of a load of Arab foreigners?

Filed under: Priorities

Once again blogging pal Al Devito at Vineyard Views has come up trumps with a short item revealing that Amnesty International claims the CIA is holding the sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Yousef al-Khalid and Abed al-Khalid were nine and seven years old respectively when they were initially captured by Pakistani forces in 2002, but were flown to a secret address in the US in September 2003, according to a report of the time in the British newspaper, Daily Telegraph.

According to Amnesty International:

“In September 2002, Yusuf al-Khalid (then nine years old) and Abed al-Khalid (then seven years old) were reportedly apprehended by Pakistani security forces during an attempted capture of their father, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was successfully apprehended several months later, and the U.S. government has acknowledged that he was in the U.S. Secret Detention Program. He is presently held at Guantánamo Bay. In an April 16, 2007 statement, Ali Khan (father of Majid Khan, a detainee who the U.S. government has acknowledged was in the U.S. Secret Detention Program and is presently held at Guantánamo Bay) indicated that Yusef and Abed al-Khalid had been held in the same location in which Majid Khan and Majid’s brother Mohammed were detained in March/April 2003. Mohammed was detained by Pakistani officials for approximately one month after his apprehension on March 5, 2003 ………. Ali Khan’s statement indicates that:

Also according to Mohammed, he and Majid were detained in the same place where two of Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s young children, ages about 6 and 8, were held. The Pakistani guards told my son that the boys were kept in a separate area upstairs, and were denied food and water by other guards. They were also mentally tortured by having ants or other creatures put on their legs to scare them and get them to say where their father was hiding.

After Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s arrest in March 2003, Yusuf and Abed Al Khalid were reportedly transferred out of Pakistan in U.S. custody. The children were allegedly being sent for questioning about their father’s activities and to be used by the United States as leverage to force their father to co-operate with the United States. A press report on March 10, 2003 confirmed that CIA interrogators had detained the children and that one official explained that:

“We are handling them with kid gloves. After all, they are only little children…but we need to know as much about their father’s recent activities as possible. We have child psychologists on hand at all times and they are given the best of care.”

Yusef and Abed are now fourteen and twelve years respectively. Where are they? Are they still being held by the CIA? Have they been returned to their mother in Pakistan?

No-one seems to have answers to those questions. Or, if they have, they’re choosing not to reveal them.

In a so-called “civilized society”, it is unacceptable to use and abuse young children to obtain information about a parent.

In the case of Yusef and Abed Al Khalid it would seem America is happy to conform to Exodus 20:v5 and visit the iniquities of the father upon the children.

Filed under: Child abuse