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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (253147)	9/30/2005 7:38:03 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1570917

Insurgents Kill Nine in Baghdad Market By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago Sunni-led insurgents killed at least nine people with a car bomb in a crowded vegetable market on Friday, the Muslim day of worship, in the second blast against Shiite civilians in as many days, police said. The death toll rose to nearly 100 from the previous day's attacks in another Shiite town. Elsewhere, in the southern city of Basra, an Iraqi police convoy was ambushed late Thursday, killing four policemen and wounding one, said police Capt. Mushtaq Khazim. The new surge of violence before an Oct. 15 referendum on Iraq's constitution has killed at least 194 people, including 13 U.S. service members, in the past five days. more - news.yahoo.com

To: i-node who wrote (253147)	10/1/2005 2:59:41 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1570917

Hmmmm........you have a degree in accounting, right? Well maybe Bush could find you a job as Undersecretary of Defense. You would be perfect for the job. ;~) *************************************************** Shades of FEMA's Brown in Bush Pick** By Ken Silverstein, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON — Less than a month after the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped down amid accusations of cronyism and incompetence, the Bush administration is being assailed for nominating another political ally to head a key agency for responding to foreign disasters. One leading international relief group is publicly opposing the appointment of Ellen Sauerbrey to the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, and others have expressed private concerns over her lack of experience in emergency response work. Sauerbrey, a former member of the Republican National Committee who was Bush's Maryland state campaign chairwoman in 2000, is the U.S. representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. If confirmed by the Senate, which has not set a date for a hearing, Sauerbrey would head an agency with a $700-million annual budget that has responsibility for coordinating the U.S. government's response to refugee crises during natural disasters and wars. The bureau coordinates with private and international organizations, such as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, to help set up refugee camps and to ensure sufficient food and other aid. It has helped confront refugee crises around the globe, including in war-torn Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as in southern Asia after the December tsunami. CONTINUED latimes.com

To: i-node who wrote (253147)	10/1/2005 4:32:19 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1570917

Well it looks like the rumors are true........Bush is drinking again. ******************************************************** "One of the few measures the Pentagon has offered the public to judge the capabilities of Iraqi security forces has been the number of battalions that can go into combat with insurgents without the help of the U.S. military. During congressional testimony on Thursday, Gen. George Casey, top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Gen. John Abizaid, top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said the number of such battalions had dropped since July to one from three, out of the roughly 100 Iraqi battalions. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sought to play down the new estimate on Friday, saying, "Its relevance is minimal." Bush also sought to repair any damage. He said on Saturday the U.S. military and its allies are "constantly adapting our tactics to the changing tactics of the terrorists." Bush 'encouraged' despite report on Iraqi troops** washingtonpost.com

To: i-node who wrote (253147)	10/2/2005 2:58:47 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1570917

Torture of Iraqis was for ‘stress relief’, say US soldiers By Neil Mackay, Investigations Editor FOR the first time, American soldiers who personally tortured Iraqi prisoners have come forward to give testimony to human rights organisations about crimes they committed. Three soldiers – a captain and two sergeants – from the 82nd Airborne Division stationed at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Mercury near Fallujah in Iraq have told Human Rights Watch how prisoners were tortured both as a form of stress relief and as a way of breaking them for interrogation sessions. These latest revelations about the torture of Iraqi detainees come at a time when the Bush administration thought it could draw a line under the scandal of Abu Ghraib following last week’s imprisonment of Private Lynndie England for her now infamous role in the abuse of prisoners and the photographing of torture. The 82nd Airborne soldiers at FOB Mercury earned the nickname “The Murderous Maniacs” from local Iraqis and took the moniker as a badge of honour. The soldiers referred to their Iraqi captives as PUCs – persons under control – and used the expressions “f*ing a PUC” and “smoking a PUC” to refer respectively to torture and forced physical exertion. One sergeant provided graphic descriptions to Human Rights Watch investigators about acts of abuse carried out both by himself and others. He now says he regrets his actions. His regiment arrived at FOB Mercury in August 2003. He said: “ The first interrogation that I observed was the first time I saw a PUC pushed to the brink of a stroke or a heart attack. At first I was surprised, like, ‘This is what we are allowed to do?’” The troops would put sand-bags on prisoners’ heads and cuff them with plastic zip-ties. The sergeant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said if he was told that prisoners had been found with homemade bombs, “we would f* them up, put them in stress positions and put them in a tent and withhold water … It was like a game. You know, how far could you make this guy go before he passes out or just collapses on you?” He explained: “To ‘f* a PUC’ means to beat him up. We would give them blows to the head, chest, legs and stomach, pull them down, kick dirt on them. This happened every day. To ‘smoke’ someone is to put them in stress positions until they get muscle fatigue and pass out. That happened every day. “Some days we would just get bored so we would have everyone sit in a corner and then make them get in a pyramid. We did that for amusement.” Iraqis were “smoked” for up to 12 hours. That would entail being made to hold five-gallon water cans in both hands with out-stretched arms, made to do press-ups and star jumps. At no time, during these sessions, would they get water or food apart from dry biscuits. Sleep deprivation was also “a really big thing”, the sergeant added. To prepare a prisoner for interrogation, military intelligence officers ordered that the Iraqis be deprived of sleep. The sergeant said he and other soldiers did this by “banging on their cages, crashing them into the cages, kicking them, kicking dirt, yelling”. They’d also pour cold water over prisoners and then cover them in sand and mud. On some occasions, prisoners were tortured for revenge. “If we were on patrol and caught a guy that killed our captain or my buddy last week … man, it is human nature,” said the sergeant – but on other occasions, he confessed, it was for “sport”. Many prisoners were completely innocent and had no part in the insurgency, he said – but intelligence officers had told soldiers to exhaust the prisoners to make them co-operate. He said he now knew their behaviour was “wrong”, but added “this was the norm”. “Trends were accepted. Leadership failed to provide clear guidance so we just developed it. They wanted intel [intelligence]. As long as no PUC came up dead, it happened. ” According to Captain Ian Fishback of the 82nd Airborne Division, army doctrine had been broken by allowing Iraqis who were captured by them to remain in their custody, instead of being sent “behind the lines” to trained military police. Pictures of abuse at FOB Mercury were destroyed by soldiers after the scandal of Abu Ghraib broke.** However, Fishback told his company commander about the abuse and was told “remember the honour of the unit is at stake” and “don’t expect me to go to bat for you on this issue if you take this up”. Fishback then told his battalion commander who advised him to speak to the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) office, which deals with issues of military law. The JAG told Fishback that the Geneva Conventions “are a grey area”. When Fishback described some of the abuses he had witnessed the JAG said it was “within” Geneva Conventions. Fishback added: “ If I go to JAG and JAG cannot give me clear guidance about what I should stop and what I should allow to happen, how is an NCO or a private expected to act appropriately?” Fishback, a West Point graduate who has served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, spent 17 months trying to raise the matter with his superiors. When he attempted to approach representatives of US Senators John McCain and John Warner about the abuse, he was told that he would not be granted a pass to meet them on his day off. Fishback says that army investigators were currently more interested in finding out the identity of the other soldiers who spoke to Human Rights Watch than dealing with the systemic abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Colonel Joseph Curtin, a senior army spokesman at the Pentagon, said: “We do take the captain seriously and are following up on this.” Fishback has now been removed from special forces training because of the army investigation. 02 October 2005 sundayherald.com

To: i-node who wrote (253147)	10/2/2005 3:48:56 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1570917

Colonel blames Blair over Iraq 'catastrophe' By Andy McSmith, Political Editor Published: 02 October 2005 Lack of political leadership from Tony Blair is putting British troops at risk in Iraq, according to a former commander of the British invasion force. Britain could lose the war against Iraqi insurgents and risks being driven into neighbouring Iran. Colonel Tim Collins - famed for the speech he delivered to his men in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment hours before they went into action in March 2003 - described the situation in Iraq now as "a right rollicking cock-up". He accused the US and Britain of having "blundered" into Iraq without an adequate plan for postwar reconstruction, and claimed that personal rivalry between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown is now preventing the Government from forming a strategy for getting British troops out. The colonel's attack came at the end of a week during which Mr Blair's efforts to keep Iraq out of the news misfired spectacularly. Stewards at Labour's annual conference forcibly evicted Walter Wolfgang, an 82-year-old protester, for heckling the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. Mr Wolfgang later received an apology from the Labour Party, a promise that he would be welcomed back to next year's conference, and an invitation to lunch with the party chairman. At the conference, Mr Blair acknowledged that there were "good people" who opposed the Iraq war, but insisted that: "The way to stop the innocent dying is not to retreat but to stand up for their right to decide their government in a democratic way." But Colonel Collins told the Morgan and Platell show last night that British policy in Iraq is "directionless" and that if it ended in a military catastrophe, the blame "would ultimately land on the Prime Minister's desk". He added: "We blundered into Iraq, relying on pure military force and brute instinct to remove the regime and then step back and think that would solve it. "We didn't have a plan to remove the Baathist regime. We created a vacuum in which the insurgency thrived. We are now living with the consequences of that mistake. And we are compounding the mistake by not giving any direction. We could pay a price for this [with] the Army being chased over the border into Iran," he warned. "It's pointless having armies deployed overseas unless there's prudent counsel at home. There appears to be no prudent counsel. The only thing on the political agenda here in the UK seems to be the spat between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown." Lack of political leadership from Tony Blair is putting British troops at risk in Iraq, according to a former commander of the British invasion force. Britain could lose the war against Iraqi insurgents and risks being driven into neighbouring Iran. Colonel Tim Collins - famed for the speech he delivered to his men in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment hours before they went into action in March 2003 - described the situation in Iraq now as "a right rollicking cock-up". He accused the US and Britain of having "blundered" into Iraq without an adequate plan for postwar reconstruction, and claimed that personal rivalry between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown is now preventing the Government from forming a strategy for getting British troops out. The colonel's attack came at the end of a week during which Mr Blair's efforts to keep Iraq out of the news misfired spectacularly. Stewards at Labour's annual conference forcibly evicted Walter Wolfgang, an 82-year-old protester, for heckling the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. Mr Wolfgang later received an apology from the Labour Party, a promise that he would be welcomed back to next year's conference, and an invitation to lunch with the party chairman. At the conference, Mr Blair acknowledged that there were "good people" who opposed the Iraq war, but insisted that: "The way to stop the innocent dying is not to retreat but to stand up for their right to decide their government in a democratic way." But Colonel Collins told the Morgan and Platell show last night that British policy in Iraq is "directionless" and that if it ended in a military catastrophe, the blame "would ultimately land on the Prime Minister's desk". He added: "We blundered into Iraq, relying on pure military force and brute instinct to remove the regime and then step back and think that would solve it. "We didn't have a plan to remove the Baathist regime. We created a vacuum in which the insurgency thrived. We are now living with the consequences of that mistake. And we are compounding the mistake by not giving any direction. We could pay a price for this [with] the Army being chased over the border into Iran," he warned. "It's pointless having armies deployed overseas unless there's prudent counsel at home. There appears to be no prudent counsel. The only thing on the political agenda here in the UK seems to be the spat between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown." news.independent.co.uk