Bob Morris @ May 5th 2004 09:59 - Category: Unfiled ;
No apology from Dubya
President Bush told a skeptical Arab world on Wednesday that the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by some members of the U.S. military was “abhorrent” and does not represent “the America that I know.” He stopped short of apologizing.
Bob Morris @ May 5th 2004 00:17 - Category: Unfiled ;
US: Iraqi prisoners “murdered” by Americans
Even I didn’t think it was this bad. The Pentagon, no doubt under extreme pressure, has admitted at least two Iraqi prisoners were murdered by US military or contractors. That’s their word, not mine, “murdered.”
For them to disclose this, well, things must be tongue-chewing chaos inside those five walls, and one wonders what new ugly truths will soon be crawling out from under the rocks to greet a stunned world.
Two Iraqi prisoners were murdered by Americans and 23 other deaths are being investigated in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States revealed on Tuesday as the Bush administration tried to contain growing outrage over the abuse of Iraqi detainees.
Army officials said the military had investigated the deaths of 25 prisoners held by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and determined that an Army soldier and a CIA contractor each murdered a prisoner. Most of the deaths occurred in Iraq.
“The prisoner abuse is so disgusting, so degrading, that I think humanity has been hurt broadly,” said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican.
I keep coming back to the prisoner photos, especially the ones with the little pixie woman soldier degrading the naked male prisoners.
A seventh suspect, Private Lynndie England, was reassigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after becoming pregnant.
The photographs tell it all. In one, Private England, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, is giving a jaunty thumbs-up sign and pointing at the genitals of a young Iraqi, who is naked except for a sandbag over his head, as he masturbates. Three other hooded and naked Iraqi prisoners are shown, hands reflexively crossed over their genitals. A fifth prisoner has his hands at his sides. In another, England stands arm in arm with Specialist Graner; both are grinning and giving the thumbs-up behind a cluster of perhaps seven naked Iraqis, knees bent, piled clumsily on top of each other in a pyramid.
Why was a woman allowed in a prison with naked men? While she may have been born a despicable person, I doubt it. Someone told her and her fellow soldiers these specific ways to degrade Arab men, who have a culture of modesty and being uncomfortable around other naked men or women not their wife. They were trying to break the prisoners by degrading them. And someone told them to do it. (And let’s not forget that 60% of the prisoners were non-combatants.)
Now we learn prisoners have been murdered. Also on orders from someone. Enlisted soldiers don’t kill without orders.The rot goes to the top. Let’s be out there on June 5th in huge numbers to protest this insane war, the tortures, and the murders.
And here’s the report that started it all: ”Complete text of Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba”
Bob Morris @ May 5th 2004 00:08 - Category: Unfiled ;
Update: photos of Iraqi women apparently being raped (have been posted on IndyMedia)
On Monday I posted a link to alBasrah.net which had photos of Iraqi women apparently being raped by soldiers. Could the photos be fake? Sure. However they don’t look particularly faked to me.
Moreover, this site only came to light because someone emailed MediaChannel.org and saying, hey Iraq prisoner photos are all over the press, but these photos have been on alBasrah for days and no one has noticed. Seems to me if you wish to hoist fake photos, there would be many faster ways of getting them across cyberspace than by emailing a website who then happened to mention it in their newsletter.
As I write this, the entire alBasrah site is down. Maybe 1) hits from all over the world slowed their server to a crawl, 2) someone hacked the site or otherwise deliberately disabled it, 3) reasons unrelated to the photos are the reason it’s down.
However, It IS odd alBasrah went down about 18 hours after news of the photos hit cyberspace, eh? Actually, I assumed this might happen, so I downloaded all the photos and posted them on LA IndyMedia, where those with a strong stomach can view them. And I mean strong stomach.
PS The New Yorker magazine has posted photos of the Iraq prisoner abuse. Click “View the images ” in the upper right box.
Update: A posting on LA IndyMedia say the photos show people resembling those in photos from a violent hardcore porno site, yet when you go to the URL referred to, the photo links are dead.
Bob Morris @ May 5th 2004 00:06 - Category: Unfiled ;
Bob Morris @ May 5th 2004 00:04 - Category: Unfiled ;
Freedom of speech, just watch what you say
Disney Has Blocked the Distribution of My New Film… by Michael Moore
May 5, 2004
Friends,
I would have hoped by now that I would be able to put my work out to the public without having to experience the profound censorship obstacles I often seem to encounter.
Yesterday I was told that Disney, the studio that owns Miramax, has officially decided to prohibit our producer, Miramax, from distributing my new film, “Fahrenheit 911.” The reason? According to today’s (May 5) New York Times, it might “endanger” millions of dollars of tax breaks Disney receives from the state of Florida because the film will “anger” the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush. The story is on page one of the Times and you can read it here (Disney Forbidding Distribution of Film That Criticizes Bush).
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