War on Iraq

News and analysis on Sunni, Shiites, Kurds, oil, Blackwater, terrorism, anti-war protests, and troop withdrawal debates. Comprehensive coverage available here.

U.S. Contractor in Iraq, KBR, Accused of Slavery
Posted by Satyam, Think Progress on August 29, 2008 at 7:27 AM.

A Washington law firm filed a lawsuit yesterday against Iraq contractor KBR, "alleging that the company and its Jordanian subcontractor engaged in the human trafficking of Nepali workers," the Washington Post reported today. The suit states that 13 Nepali men were recruited for kitchen work in Jordan only to have their passports seized upon arrival and "told they were being sent to a military facility in Iraq." TPM Muckraker notes that the complaint calls these actions "slavery":

160. Defendants' actions as set forth above constitute the torts of trafficking in persons, involuntary servitude, forced labor, and slavery.

161. Trafficking in persons in a modern day form of slavery, and along with
involuntary servitude and forced labor constitutes a tort in violation of the law of nations and/or in violation of treaties of the United States.

In Wake of Deadly U.S. Airstrike, Jeremy Scahill Questions Dems on Obama's Afghanistan Policy
Posted by Jeremy Scahill, Democracy Now! on August 28, 2008 at 8:00 AM.

The mood inside the Pepsi Center on night two of the Democratic National Convention was jubilant. Hillary Clinton brought people to thunderous applause as she called for a unified party to defeat John McCain.

But while the Democrats celebrated, a half a world away grief and sorrow continue to plague a village in western Afghanistan that was victim to a stunningly lethal air strike by U.S. forces last Thursday. This week, a United Nations team released the findings of its on-the-ground investigation. And what they found was horrifying.

Some ninety Afghan civilians were killed. Among the dead, as many as sixty children between the ages of three months and sixteen years. It’s believed to be the single deadliest US strike against Afghan civilians since the US first attacked the country in 2001.

Here in Denver, the horror of this story could not be further from the hallway discussions of those inside the Pepsi Center ... But Afghanistan will play a major role in the general election, where Barack Obama will make his plan to increase the US military deployment in Afghanistan by several thousand troops a centerpiece of his foreign policy vision. The Obama campaign is painting Afghanistan as the good war.

Read the rest of the transcript here.

The Maliki Surge: Iraq's PM's Power is Growing
Posted by Staff, Think Progress on August 27, 2008 at 12:13 PM.

The past several months have seen a new assertiveness by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Beginning in March 2008, Maliki launched a series of offensives against rival militias and political movements, projecting government authority in formerly lawless areas as well as consolidating the power of his Shi'a ruling coalition. Maliki has also held a hard line against the United States in negotiating a status of forces agreement, insisting that any agreement contain a firm date for an eventual withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq. After years of condemning timelines, the Bush administration now seems ready to acquiesce, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicating that the U.S. has agreed to an "aspirational timetable" for withdrawal. Reuters reports that "the United States asked Iraq for permission to maintain a troop presence there to 2015," but Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said that "U.S. and Iraqi negotiators agreed to limit their authorization to 2011." Lawrence Korb writes, "While American officials argue that these timetables for withdrawing American combat forces depend on conditions on the ground" the Iraqis "do not see it as conditional." Having extracted such a guarantee from his U.S. benefactor, Maliki looks to have co-opted one of the few issues upon which there is a strong consensus among Iraqis -- getting the U.S. out. Questions remain, however, as to how he will use this new political capital.

A SECOND CHOICE:

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Obama: Tell IVAW "Yes We Can"
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on August 26, 2008 at 2:00 PM.

Watching Nancy Pelosi as she began her address to the attendees at the Democratic National Convention last night, it was hard not to feel a twitch of sympathy. It must be hard to be the one charged with getting up and listing, as she did, the achievements of this Democratic controlled Congress, even before an audience as pumped up as the crowd at Denver's Pepsi Center. Nearly two years after a midterm election that saw them trounce Republicans on a wave of antiwar sentiment, the war in Iraq drags on, costing thousands upon thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, on the homefront, the Democrats recently helped pass the FISA Amendments Act, which, in addition to codifying Bush's illegal wiretapping scheme, insulated telecoms from accountability from spying on Americans (a fact that was must be hard to glass over in Denver, given AT&T's corporate logo on convention goody bags.) Pelosi herself has been dogged by protesters in the past several months, thanks to revelations late last year that she, along with a small group of legislators, was secretly briefed on the administration's torture tactics, way back in 2002. As the Washington Post reported:

"For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk. Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised."

But back to Denver: Pelosi's speech was laden with patriotic paeans to the troops. "Every chance we get, we must honor our veterans and our men and women in uniform for their courage, patriotism, and the sacrifice they and their families are willing to make," she said. "Because of them, America is the land of the free and the home of the brave." Whatever that last line has to do with our current military misadventures is unclear, but Americans, brave or not, are fairly fed up with meaningless pledges to the troops that are made while Congress continues writing checks for the war. In a recent appearance on "Meet the Press," Pelosi was shown Congress's recent approval ratings. According to the latest Gallup poll, 14 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing -- and 75 percent do not. "That's the lowest number that Gallup has ever reported," Tom Brokaw pointed out.

Today all questions regarding Congressional haplessness and enabling are met with one response: Barack Obama. Whether in the name of unity or an unwillingness to own responsibility for failing to fulfill its mandate, more than any other accomplishment, Democratic legislators appear content to celebrate their bestowing of Obama on the country as our best hope for change. That includes ending the war.

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Iraq Veterans Against the War Call on Obama to Endorse Their Goals
Posted by IVAW Media, Iraq Veterans Against the War on August 25, 2008 at 4:30 PM.

Denver, CO -- Today, during the morning of Aug. 25, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) delivered a letter to Senator Barack Obama's DNC campaign headquarters asking that he endorse the organization's three points of unity:

1. The immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq.

2. Full and adequate health care and benefits to all returning service members and veterans.

3. Reparations made to the Iraqi people for the destruction caused by the U.S. war and occupation.

The letter states, "A Presidential candidate dedicated to an anti-war platform should have no objections to the goals of our organization." For a full copy of the letter, please visit IVAW's website.

IVAW has requested a response from Senator Obama by 3pm Wednesday Aug. 27. The letter goes on to state, "In the spirit of grassroots democracy that praise as the means of change in American society, we will be marching non-violently [following Rage Against the Machine's performance at the Denver Coliseum]. Our march will hold accountable the Democratic Party for their initial and continued support for the illegal occupation of Iraq."

*Members of IVAW will be available for comment from Noon-1pm at Civic Center Park on Tuesday Aug. 26, 2008 during their enactment of Operation First Casualty (OFC).

OFC is an action where veterans reenact situations commonly encountered while deployed in the modern conflicts in the Middle East. The action is treated like a military operation with participants in full military uniform, however, there are no weapons used at any time. OFC illustrates what daily life is like for the citizens of occupied countries. OFC has already taken place in five major cities around the country since June 2007.

Two U.S. Marines Held in Contempt in Fallujah Killings Civil Trial
Posted by Steve Czajkowski, Jurist Legal News and Research on August 24, 2008 at 6:32 PM.

A judge for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found two U.S. Marines in contempt of court Friday after the two declined to testify against their former squad leader in a trial over the killing of Iraqi detainees during the Multinational Force-Iraq's November 2004 offensive in Fallujah. Judge Stephen Larson held Sgt. Ryan G. Weemer and Sgt. Jermaine Nelson in contempt after the two invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked to testify against former Marine Sgt. Jose Nazario in his civil trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerry Behnke asked Larson to sentence the men to six months in jail in order to compel their testimony, but the judge refused even though he had previously sentenced the men to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury about the same events. A hearing is set for September 29 on the contempt charges. The Associated Press has more. The Los Angeles Times has local coverage.

In July 2007, the Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) announced investigations of at least 10 Marines after Weemer admitted in a job interview with the U.S. Secret Service that he had seen indiscriminate killings in Fallujah. Both Weemer and Nelson face court-martial on charges of murder and dereliction of duty as active members of the military in connection with the same incident as Nazario. They were indicted in March and December respectively.

Michael Moore Dares to Ask: What's So Heroic About Being Shot Down While Bombing Innocent Civilians?
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on August 21, 2008 at 11:35 AM.

This post originally appeared in PEEK's blog.

Confession: I have not yet read all six (short, illustrated, large type) chapters of Mike's Election Guide 2008, Michael Moore's, latest work of jaunty political opinion. Am I supposed to discuss it with him on "Meet the Bloggers" tomorrow? Yes. But I'm not worried. It's a breezy read, has already made me laugh out loud, and besides, I may have already found the best part in Chapter One.

The title is "Ask Mike!" and, in it, ordinary voters, old and young, pose questions about politics and current events. Some are more serious than others ("If Iran has weapons of mass destruction, we should invade, right?"), which does not make Moore's answers any more subtle. ("Excuuuuuse me? Did you say the words, 'weapons of mass destruction?' Take it back. I SAID TAKE IT BACK!") Of course, the "questions" are really satirical jabs at the media -- "When a Republican wears a little American flag lapel pin, what is he trying to say?" "If Obama can't bowl, can he govern?" -- but there's one in particular that is worth paying attention to -- especially if you happen to be a member of the press and have been utterly unwilling to take McCain's supporters and opponents alike to task for perpetuating a narrative that would be central to a McCain victory, and which has already become a dominant theme in this election: The McCain as War Hero canard.

The "question" is posted thusly:

"Why did the Vietnamese shoot down John McCain and put him in prison for five years? He seems like such a nice guy."

ANSWER: I'm guessing, in spite of his anger management issues, he is a nice guy. He has devoted his life to this country. He was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of our nation. And for that, he was tortured and then imprisoned in a North Vietnamese POW camp for nearly five-and-a-half years.

That's the set-up. It gets better. Moore proceeds, not to question, as Wesley Clark recently did to so many shrieks of criticism, whether McCain's capture really makes him qualified to be president of the United States -- the answer, any thinking person realizes, is "no" -- but whether the Vietnam war was a conflict that can really be said to have produced the breed of "American hero" McCain is so often celebrated as.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Bush Capitulates, Troop Withdrawal in 2011?
Posted by Spencer Ackerman, Attackerman on August 21, 2008 at 10:36 AM.

After years of telling the country that setting a date for withdrawal from Iraq would lead to total disaster -- "I believe setting a deadline for withdrawal would demoralize the Iraqi people, would encourage killers across the broader Middle East, and send a signal that America will not keep its commitment," said George W. Bush on May 1, 2007 -- an out-of-options Bush may be about to capitulate to a 2011 withdrawal of combat troops, according to the Wall Street Journal.

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators reached agreement on a security deal that calls for American military forces to leave Iraq's cities by next summer as a prelude to a full withdrawal of combat troops from the country, according to senior American officials.

The draft agreement sets 2011 as the goal date by which U.S. combat troops will leave Iraq, according to Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Haj Humood and other people familiar with the matter. In the meantime, American troops will be leaving cities, towns and other population centers by the summer of 2009, living in bases outside of those areas, according to the draft.

It's possible that this report is wrong: the New York Times is reporting Humood said the deal doesn't have timetables in it, which is confusing to say the least. But if the Journal is right, so much for "demoraliz[ing]" the Iraqi people. That plan is right out of the Center for American Progress' "Strategic Redeployment" paper of 2005 -- get out of the cities, get less visible, move from a combat mission to a training mission, and then go. The left won the Iraq debate. Period.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

DOJ Preparing to Charge Six Blackwater Guards in Nisour Square Massacre
Posted by Nick Fiske, Jurist Legal News and Research on August 19, 2008 at 8:46 AM.

The U.S. Justice Department has sent so-called target letters to six Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in the September 16 killings of 17 Iraqi civilians, the Washington Post reported Sunday. Sources told the Post that the letters, which provide an opportunity for the recipients to contest grand jury evidence, indicate the Justice Department will likely seek indictments against at least some of the guards under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA). Indictments against the Blackwater employees under the MEJA would mark the first time that State Department contractors were prosecuted under the Act, which allows criminal charges to be filed against contractors working for the Department of Defense. The sources explained that a final decision on whether to indict the men may not be made until October. The Washington Post has more.

The Blackwater incident caused domestic outrage in Iraq and has prompted legal controversy in the US. In November, the New York Times and the Washington Post reported that an FBI investigation into the incident concluded that the shootings were unjustified and last month Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari announced that private security contractors operating in Iraq may be stripped of their immunity from prosecution under a U.S.-Iraqi agreement currently in negotiations. Advocacy group Human Rights First issued a report in January asserting that existing federal law is sufficient to prosecute private contractors using excessive violence in their overseas capacities, and that the U.S. government is to blame for failing to "develop a clear policy with respect to the accountability of private contractors for crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan." The report says that the MEJA could be extended to State Department contractors, but that the U.S. has failed to do so.

New Bill Would Lift Ban on Journalists Photographing Returning Military Dead
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on August 15, 2008 at 10:03 AM.

A new bill would require the Department of Defense to "grant journalists access to ceremonies honoring fallen military personnel."

Introduced by Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) last month, the bill has six co-sponsors and won the endorsement of the National Press Photographers Association this week. The bill states:

The Secretary of Defense shall grant access to accredited members of the media at military commemoration ceremonies and memorial services conducted by the Armed Forces for members of the Armed Forces who have died on active duty and when the remains of members of the Armed Forces arrive at military installations in the United States.

The current Defense policy, which was updated in 2003, states that there shall be no "media coverage of" the returning war dead.

Bush Administration Putting Immunity For Blackwater Over The Lives Of Our Troops
Posted by Blue Texan, Firedoglake on August 9, 2008 at 11:17 AM.

While McSame runs around accusing Obama of wanting to "forfeit" Iraq, the Bushies are finalizing the negotiations for forfeiting Iraq by 2011. But the negotiations have hit a snag.

The sticking point?

The U.S. officials said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with al-Maliki on Wednesday to try to resolve the issue of legal immunity for U.S. contractors working in Iraq.

The officials described the phone call as tense.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Darcy Burner Can End the Iraq War Responsibly
Posted by ZP Heller, Meet the Bloggers on August 9, 2008 at 7:00 AM.

When it comes to the Iraq war, the question is no longer whether the U.S. should end it, but how.  On yesterday's Meet the Bloggers, special guest Darcy Burner made the case for A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, which she co-authored earlier this year.  This plan calls for the removal of U.S. troops rapidly and safely, while increasing diplomacy and foreign aid to rebuild Iraq. 

According the Burner, we're already beginning to see the Responsible Plan in action.  Any recent "success" in Iraq is NOT due to the military surge, despite what the Bush adminstration, John McCain, and the corporate media would have us believe.  Rather, the progress we've made in Iraq is due to new diplomatic, economic, and political efforts to foster stability.  What's more, the recent attempts by Congress to reform our interrogation policies, to hold private contractors in Iraq accountable, and to create the GI Bill for the 21st Century were all specifics initially recommended by the Responsible Plan, not to mention calls for a troop withdrawal timetable. 

But ending the Iraq war is only part of the Responsible Plan.  The show's panel of bloggers David Goldstein (HorsesAss.org), Joan McCarter (Daily Kos), and Matt Stoller (Open Left) pointed out that we must also repair the structural problems that led us into Iraq in the first place.  Failures across the board, from our branches of government to our media, must be fixed in order to prevent a quagmire like this from happening again.  Stoller suggested a crucial first step would be for the Bush administration to admit this war was all for oil, and that we cannot be intimidated by right-wing media, Big Oil executives, and conservatives who attempt to smear us for connecting Iraq with oil and our economy. 

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

KBR/Haliburton Worker Raped, Locked in Shipping Container
Posted by Cara , Feministe on August 8, 2008 at 12:51 PM.

KBR, the defense contractor doing a lot of heavy lifting in the upholding of our occupation of Iraq, has banned the use of personal cell phones by its employees. KBR and its previous parent company Halliburton are notorious for many things. One of those things is the rape and cover up of rape committed by its male employees against its female employees.

How are the two related? Well, the first and most widely-known woman to come forward with an allegation of rape and cover up is Jamie Leigh Jones. Jones was gang raped by her coworkers, then locked inside of a shipping container for days in order to prevent her from reporting the attack. The Justice Department never brought charges against her assailants, and extremely important evidence in the case was "lost" by KBR. But the relevant part is how Jones escaped: through the use of a cell phone. A "sympathetic guard" loaned the phone to her, which she used to call her father in the United States. Her father subsequently called his congressperson, who ended up securing Jones' release. If that "sympathetic guard" (you know, the one who didn't set her free) hadn't handed her that cell phone, god only knows where Jamie Leigh Jones would be today. But it just might not be alive, let alone acting as a major anti-rape and anti-KBR activist.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Kucinich Fights for Iraq Against U.S. Oil Companies
Posted by Dan Graeber, Iraq Oil Report on August 7, 2008 at 10:02 AM.

The Oil for Iraq Liberation bill, introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, will prevent U.S. based oil companies from development of and investment in petroleum resources of Iraq.

"Recently we have seen evidence of a concerted effort to pressure the Iraqi government into privatizing Iraqi oil fields against the will of its citizens. We have also heard that certain high level architects of the Iraq war stand to gain financially. This bill will ensure that the Iraqi oil money stays out of the hands of U.S. oil companies who would otherwise benefit from the US attack on and occupation of Iraq."

Despite intense U.S. pressure, Iraqi legislators Sunday failed to reach an agreement to solve an increasingly bitter dispute over the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, Leila Fadel and Sahar Issa write for McClatchy.

Kirkuk sits on Iraq's northern oil fields and also on a fault line between the Sunni Muslim Kurds who dominate most of northern Iraq and the Sunni Arabs who occupy the center of the country.

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Baghdad 5 Years On: City of Walls
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on August 7, 2008 at 8:22 AM.

This video drops a major asterisk on the so-called "success" of the surge in Iraq touted by John McCain, George Bush, and many other conservatives.  If violence has declined, it is largely because the U.S. military has carved up cities like Baghdad with miles of 12-foot tall concrete walls.  So while there may be stability at the moment, these barriers have separated Sunnis and Shias without improving their living conditions, isolating them in a desperate situation.  Which leads me to ask how long such stability can possibly last?

Part 2 of this report that looks at a makeshift cemetery and victims of militia violence.

And part 3 focuses on the lost generation of Iraqi children who have been affected by this war.