Col. Ted Westhusing, West-Point trained, a straight arrow, the best and the brightest, went to Iraq. He either killed himself or was murdered after learning of possible corruption and human rights violations by private contractors to the US.

So it was only natural that Westhusing acted when he learned of possible corruption by U.S. contractors in Iraq. A few weeks before he died, Westhusing received an anonymous complaint that a private security company he oversaw had cheated the U.S. government and committed human rights violations. Westhusing confronted the contractor and reported the concerns to superiors, who launched an investigation.

Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military.

His suicide note said:

“I cannot support a msn [mission] that leads to corruption, human rights abuse and liars. I am sullied,” it says. “I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored.

“Death before being dishonored any more.”

The military, in a particularly stomach-turning piece of sleazy propaganda, blamed the victim because he was so inflexible as to put moral values before money. I am not making this up…

(A psychologist) said that Westhusing had placed too much pressure on himself to succeed and that he was unusually rigid in his thinking. Westhusing struggled with the idea that monetary values could outweigh moral ones in war. This, she said, was a flaw.

Your tax dollars at work. Making the elite wealthier, blaming the victims, accepting no responsibility ever.

Update: “Trophy Video” of civilian shootings by contractors emerges

Crooks and Liars has the video

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Ramsey Clark arrives to assist Saddam defense

Clark has been advising nearly a dozen international lawyers on Saddam’s defense team. He has contended that Saddam’s rights have been violated in the legal process following his capture.

But a U.S. government official close to the court said the defense team had not filed the proper paperwork to have a non-Iraqi lawyer in the courtroom.

Shouldn’t what happens in Iraqi courts be decided by Iraqis, not interfered with by the US? (Whoa, you don’t think Dubya is thinking of bombing Ramsey Clark too, do you?)

Some history: Clark co-founded the International Action Center which, with other groups, founded the ANSWER Coalition three days after 9/11 because they knew what was coming. And they were quite correct. (IAC is no longer a coalition partner of ANSWER.)

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Don’t Bomb Us, a blog by al-Jazeera staffers

Photo. Note the “Don’t bomb the messenger” placards

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Bloggers: Sign up here! at Blair Watch and join bloggers worldwide who are volunteering to publish the al-Jazeera memo.

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Monthly Review says

At a conservative estimate, (Tookie Williams) has saved hundreds of lives over the past few years. Because of his extraordinary work, Stan was nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize by a group of Swiss parliamentarians, after his anti-gang message helped to defuse a violent gang conflict in that country.

From Blue Rage, Black Redemption a memoir by Tookie Williams

I was beginning to understand that my experiences with the dysfunctional status quo of the prison culture - as well as drug addiction, poverty, gangsterism, racism, and other roadblocks - had become the excuses that defined my life. But no longer would my life, my being, be dictated by blind ignorance. Nor would I ever again allow the excuse of circumstance to dictate who I should be. It was daily studying and questioning that prompted my soul searching. I began to develop a sense of critical reasoning from which sprang the first stirrings of conscience. This was the moment when redemption infused itself into my life.

Meanwhile, Williams’ attorneys try to stay execution

Attorneys for Stanley Tookie Williams, co-founder of the Crips gang, implored the California Supreme Court on Wednesday to grant them access to a broad array of trial evidence as part of an effort to show that his 1979 conviction for four Southern California murders was unconstitutional.

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In one astonishing escapade, even by jaded Washington standards of palm greasing, Abramoff is accused of receiving big money to help a tribe reopen its casino shortly after taking money from rival tribes to close it.

He lobbied members of Congress to urge the Interior Department on behalf of the Coushatta tribe in Louisiana to close a casino owned by the Tigua tribe in Texas, according to Senate documents, then shifted gears to charge the Tiguas $4.2 million to lobby Congress on their behalf to reopen the gambling operation.

But, the real scandal of representing and wildly overcharging two opposing Indian tribal clients is that it may not have violated any existing laws.

Who writes the laws that lobbyists must follow? Congress. Who benefits most from the money and influence lobbyists toss around? Congress. It’s no surprise the loopholes are huge. This isn’t just a few bad apples rather, the entire orchard seems poisoned by an elite few lining their pockets at the expense of the rest of us.

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Tony Blair has been accused of undermining decades of British campaigning for international human rights by using the war on terror to give a “green light” to torture.

A day earlier, Mr Blair had told MPs: “We do not agree with the use of torture.” Pressed over whether that was an absolute rule, Mr Blair added: “I mean absolute in this sense, that you say ‘Look, it is simply the civil liberties of the suspect, or simply the liberties of freedom from terrorism’. You have to balance those two things.”

And just who determines who gets tortured, and why? The police? The military? Is there a review process? Or is it let’s just torture away and hope we find some info? Also, if someone is tortured and has no information to give or just makes stuff up to stop the pain, what then, Mr. Prime Minister?

What if you torture someone you later determine was blameless? “So sorry we broke your kneecaps and that you’ll have nightmares for years. But we thought you might be a terrorist, whoops, guess we were wrong.”

Also, Blair implies that authorities would know in advance precisely who to torture in order to stop an imminent attack, an argument that is patently ridiculous.

Thus, Blair, despite his words, does believe in the use of torture. And y’know, once governments start doing something, it tends to snowball and spread, and then gets quite hard to stop or reverse.

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Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country’s first Prime Minister after the fall of Saddam’s regime.

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Why is the world’s most powerful man so worried about a TV station?

The one indisputable fact, though, is that part of the memo - 10 lines to be precise - concerns a conversation between Bush and Blair regarding Al Jazeera.

But whether said in jest or not, the memo reveals Bush’s profound obsession with Al Jazeera.

Note that the two above sentences indicate the author has read the memo.

And the article suggests Bush actually believes al Qaeda has infiltrated al-Jazeera. Take the tinfoil hat off, George.

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The head of Al-Jazeera has asked British Prime Minister Tony Blair to release a memo that reportedly shows President Bush talking about bombing the network.

And now a hint of the British government backing down

British newspapers and broadcasters say they have been warned that publishing the memo might be a violation of the Official Secrets Act. The attorney general now says he was only suggesting that they get legal advice before publication and not trying “to gag” them.

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Ocean levels are rising twice as fast as they were 150 years ago, providing further evidence of man-made global warming.

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