Clipmarks | jklugman's 'civilian-killings' clips

In defense of William Ayers

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:30:57 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks:

Wonderment said:

But to call Ayers a "terrorist" and throw him in the Osama bin Laden pile is a reach for the moral high ground by the very people and political establishment that secretly carpet bombed Cambodia, murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians.

...Ayers is no martyr, and he's no role model. But he doesn't deserve to be the punching bag of the moral cretins who still celebrate lying wars of aggression and the pointless slaughter of untold thousands.

Clip Source: bloggingheads.tv

Ayers makes the claim that the use of violence, particularly with the aim of zero loss of life, was justified as a form of protest and pressure to end the Vietnam and Cambodian War. If you look at the crimes of the Johnson and Nixon administrations in their historical context (napalming civilians, Agent Orange, torture, starvation, mass murder, carpet bombings, persecution of dissidents in the US, including the murder of college students by the National Guard, pro-war police riots, disproportionately race-based conscription of 18-year-olds, etc. etc.), there is a case to be made that taking up arms against such a regime is justified.

Now you may argue that the prospects of achieving success in ending the war through "revolutionary" violence were slim to none. I agree.

Tags: william ayers, vietnam, cambodia, hypocrisy, war, civilian-killings

Iraqi Dead May Total 600,000, Study Says

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:36:29 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

October 11, 2006

Iraqi Dead May Total 600,000, Study Says

By SABRINA TAVERNISE and DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

BAGHDAD, Oct. 10 — A team of American and Iraqi public health researchers has estimated that 600,000 civilians have died in violence across Iraq since the 2003 American invasion, the highest estimate ever for the toll of the war here.

The figure breaks down to about 15,000 violent deaths a month, a number that is quadruple the one for July given by Iraqi government hospitals and the morgue in Baghdad and published last month in a United Nations report in Iraq. That month was the highest for Iraqi civilian deaths since the American invasion.

But it is an estimate and not a precise count, and researchers acknowledged a margin of error that ranged from 426,369 to 793,663 deaths.

It is the second study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It uses samples of casualties from Iraqi households to extrapolate an overall figure of 601,027 Iraqis dead from violence between March 2003 and July 2006.

The findings of the previous study, published in The Lancet, a British medical journal, in 2004, had been criticized as high, in part because of its relatively narrow sampling of about 1,000 families, and because it carried a large margin of error.

The new study is more representative, its researchers said, and the sampling is broader: it surveyed 1,849 Iraqi families in 47 different neighborhoods across Iraq. The selection of geographical areas in 18 regions across Iraq was based on population size, not on the level of violence, they said.

Tags: iraq, statistics, civilian-killings, suffering, fubar, bush administration, incompetence, civil war, civil-war

Hezbollah Hoax Story Goes Up in Smoke

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 17:06:58 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: marccooper.com

Hezbollah Hoax Story Goes Up In Smoke

The five days of shameless, nauseating speculation by the right side of the 'sphere that the massacre in Qana was somehow staged now comes to a crashing halt.

The official Israeli inquiry into the gruesome murder of dozens of civilians has now concluded and the IDF takes responsibility for the tragedy. At least, sort of. There's the usual verbiage about Hezbollah using civilian shields, but the IDF doesn't fudge the basic facts. The Israeli Air Force attacked the building in which the hapless civilians were taking shelter and that is what killed them.

Tags: hezbollah, qana, israel, lebanon, civilian-killings

33 Civilian Deaths Per Day

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:30:17 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight
clipper's remarks: Welcome to.....Venezuela. The socialist/communist paradise.

Clip Source: www.ibdeditorials.com

Quick, which nation shows average civilian deaths at 33 a day in the last third of 2007? Now name the one where civilian deaths average 19 a day? If you guessed Iraq and Venezuela, you'd have it backward.

Shocking? Of course. But true. With even Venezuelan officials admitting their country clocked 12,249 murders in 2007, Hugo Chavez's socialist "sea of happiness" resembles a war zone. In December alone, Venezuela had 670 murders while Iraq had 476 — and that number is falling fast.

Meanwhile, night travel is strongly discouraged and no one wears jewelry openly. Security guards pack big firepower to guard tiny businesses like bakeries, and bulletproof cars are common.

Cuban doctors sent for propaganda purposes to help the poor often flee for their safety, leaving boarded up "free" health care kiosks in Caracas slums like Petare and Catia.

willingness to fight and to win is the difference between the brave Iraqi and American war effort and the festering mess in Chavez's chaotic Venezuela.

Tags: venezuela, iraq, murder, civilian-killings, war, death, crime, drugs

My Lai marks massacre's 40th anniversary

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:52:39 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Lawrence Colburn returned to My Lai on Saturday and found hope at the site of one of the most notorious chapters of the Vietnam War.

On the 40th anniversary of the massacre of up to 500 unarmed Vietnamese villagers, the former helicopter gunner was reunited with a young man he rescued from rampaging U.S. soldiers.

On March 16, 1968, Colburn found 8-year-old Do Ba clinging to his mother's corpse in a ditch full of blood and the bodies of more than 100 people who had been mowed down. Nearly all the victims were unarmed women, children and elderly.

Seymour Hersh, the journalist who exposed the massacre, said he sees parallels between My Lai and a more recent story that he has he reported on, the 2005 images of torture from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But he says the public furor unleashed by My Lai was far greater.

The company's soldiers began shooting in My Lai that day even though they hadn't come under attack. It quickly escalated into an orgy of killing.

Tags: war, vietnam, civilian-killings

Bush admin considering allying with Iraqi Shiites

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:49:29 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Laura Rozen reports on a secret mission [EDIT: meeting, not mission] where Stephen Hadley advocated the US drop its posture as a "neutral referee" in the Iraqi civil war and align with the Shiites to crush Sunni insurgents.

This strikes me as a very, very bad idea.

Via Kevin Drum

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Unleash the Shiites?

The U.S. may be forced to choose sides in Iraq's civil strife.

By Laura Rozen, LAURA ROZEN, a senior correspondent for the American Prospect, writes about foreign policy issues from Washington.
November 16, 2006

This past Veterans Day weekend, according to my sources, almost the entire Bush national security team gathered for an unpublicized two-day meeting. The topic: Iraq. The purpose of the meeting was to come up with a consensus position on a new path forward. Among those attending were President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, national security advisor Stephen Hadley, outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.

Numerous policy options were put forward at the meeting, which revolved around a strategy paper prepared by Hadley and drawn from his recent trip to Baghdad. One was the Shiite option. Participants were asked to consider whether the U.S. could really afford to keep fighting both the Sunni insurgency and Shiite militias — or whether it should instead focus its efforts on combating the Sunni insurgency exclusively, and even help empower the Shiites against the Sunnis.

So what's the logic behind the idea of "unleashing the Shiites"? It's the path of least resistance, according to its supporters, and it could help accelerate one side actually winning Iraq's sectarian conflict, thereby shortening the conflict, while reducing some of the critical security concerns driving Shiites to mobilize their own militias in the first place.

But such a strategy brings with it significant dangers. Washington might pick the wrong leaders on the side it chooses to back. Should it, for instance, continue to back Iraq's Shiite prime minister, Nouri Maliki, or tilt in favor of his Shiite rival, Abdelaziz Hakim, and his party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq? Either choice could lead to more intra-Shiite infighting and violence.

Tags: bush administration, iraq, civil war, civil-war, fubar, civilian-killings, incompetence, stephen hadley

Media focus on Hamas Mouse, neglect occupation

Mon, 14 May 2007 20:43:34 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: As many of you are aware, the news (and Clipmarks) have been deluged with stories about a children's show produced by Hamas that features a Mickey Mouse-type character who allegedly espouses hatred toward Jews. Tom Wallace points out that the media have been ignoring the reality of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Clip Source: electronicintifada.net

While all of this air-time was being devoted to the mouse, some real news about the region with genuine political implications was completely ignored:

1. World Bank criticizes Israel over Palestinian economy: Describing a system of apartheid that has devastated the Palestinian economy without naming it as such, the World Bank warned of the consequences if this continues.

2. Israel plans new Jerusalem settlement: In response to the report, Israel announced the approval of plans to further Judaize Jerusalem, bringing the number of settlers living illegally on Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank to 570,000.

3. Shot West Bank woman 'loses baby': During an Israeli army raid in the West Bank, a pregnant woman was shot in the stomach and lost her baby.

Does anyone really believe that it takes propaganda to teach Palestinian children to hate the occupiers?

They don't need a cartoon to teach them hate, they have the Israeli army.

Tags: israel, palestine, occupation, civilian-killings, settlements, media

'If they pay we kill them anyway' - interview with a Shia death squad leader

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:54:47 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

'If they pay we kill them anyway' - the kidnapper's story

In the second of two remarkable dispatches from behind Baghdad's front lines, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad meets the commander of a Shia death squad

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

Saturday January 27, 2007

Guardian

Fadhel is a slim, well-muscled 26-year-old Mahdi Army commander with a thin goatee beard and smoothed down hair that looks like a flat cap. One day last month he described how he and his men seized a group of three Sunni men suspected of killing his fellow Shia. "I followed the group for weeks and then one of them crossed the bridge to Karrada [a Shia district]. We first informed a nearby Iraqi army checkpoint that we were arresting terrorists then we attacked them and put them in the boots of the cars. We only have six to seven minutes when we grab someone - we have to act quickly, if he resists we shoot him."

In this case, he said, the men were taken to Sadr City, the Shia slum to the north-east of Baghdad, where they were interrogated by a "committee" which ordered their execution. "We ask the families of the terrorists for ransom money," said Fadhel. "And after they pay the ransom we kill them anyway."

Tags: iraq, civil war, civil-war, civilian-killings, war, news

Validity of Charges on Haditha Marine Questioned

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:37:59 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: "Our position is that if this had not been Haditha and everything around it, he never would have been charged." - Attorney for defendant, Joseph Casas

Clip Source: nctimes.com

A military hearing officer said Saturday he has serious doubts over the validity of criminal charges filed against a Marine lieutenant

The hearing officer, Col. Robert Stahlman, said that if 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson was guilty of dereliction of duty for not ordering an investigation into the slayings, numerous other members of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment command staff should have been similarly charged.

Testimony during the hearing showed that Grayson had ordered the destruction of 70 photographs taken by a member of the intelligence team he led at Haditha. The order, however, was in keeping with a military policy that photographs deemed not to have any intelligence value be destroyed.

The man in charge of intelligence gathering for the 3rd Battalion at Haditha, Maj. Jeffrey Dinsmore, testified Saturday that he considered the photos "extraneous" and that Grayson and his team were responsible for developing intelligence leads and not probing civilian killings.

Tags: haditha, iraq, marines

3rd marine cleared of Haditha charges

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:37:10 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks:

Officials close to the Haditha case said they think prosecutors dismissed the charges in order to pursue Wuterich aggressively at trial. The cases against three of the Marines accused of shooting civilians have fallen apart, and Wuterich remains the only one left for prosecutors to target for accountability. Wuterich led the Marine squad and allegedly told his troops, as they approached a group of civilian homes that day, to shoot first and ask questions later.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

The Marine Corps yesterday dismissed all charges against one of the Marines accused of killing women and children in the Iraqi town of Haditha in late 2005, the third time a Marine linked to the slayings has been exonerated

Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum, who has admitted shooting civilians inside their homes as part of a pursuit of insurgents, was cleared and granted immunity to testify in further hearings related to the investigation. The move leaves only Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich to face charges in connection with the shootings on Nov. 19, 2005.

Although the Marines were at first accused of going on a rampage, the case has evolved into a far more complex examination of the Corps' rules of engagement and the general conduct of wartime operations in hostile residential areas.

Tags: haditha, marines, iraq, war, civilian-killings, stephen tatum, frank wuterich

Military knew killer had homocidal tendencies

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 20:26:56 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: See also this clip for more info on Green.

Via Talk Left

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

Soldier Diagnosed With Mental Problems

U.S. Soldier, Accused of Murder, Had Been Diagnosed 3 Months Earlier With Homicidal Ideas

By RYAN LENZ

The Associated Press

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - An Army private charged with the slaughter of an Iraqi family was diagnosed as a homicidal threat by a military mental health team three months before the attack.

Pfc. Steven D. Green was found to have "homicidal ideations" after seeking help from an Army Combat Stress Team in Iraq on Dec. 21, 2005. Green said he was angry about the war, desperate to avenge the death of comrades and driven to kill Iraqi citizens, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.

The treatment was several small doses of Seroquel a drug to regulate his mood and a directive to get some sleep, according to medical records obtained by the AP. The next day, he returned to duty in the particularly violent stretch of desert in the southern Baghdad suburbs known as the "Triangle of Death."

On March 12, 2006, Iraqi police reported a break-in at the home of a family in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles from Baghdad. The intruders shot and killed the father, mother and two young daughters. The older girl, 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, was raped and her body set afire.

The carnage first was assumed to be the work of insurgents. That changed in late June when two members of Green's unit told their superiors of suspicions that soldiers were involved in the killings. Now the Army believes Green and four other soldiers are responsible. One of them has confessed and provided information to prosecutors; in testimony at his court-martial, the soldier identified Green as the ringleader.

If the charges are true, the attack would be among the most horrific instances of criminal behavior by American troops in the nearly four-year-old war. It also would represent a worst-case scenario for the military's much-criticized practice of keeping mentally and emotionally unfit personnel in the killing fields of Iraq.

Tags: steven green, military, iraq, incompetence, war, abeer qassim hamza, civilian-killings, news

The value of Lebanese lives

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 06:09:12 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: www.davidcorn.com

Lebanese Blood and Israeli Tears

Today's lead story in The New York Times contains a moving quote from Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora:

"Is the value of human life less in Lebanon than that of citizens elsewhere? Are we children of a lesser god? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?"

He knows the answer to that; it's yes. With Condi Rice diminishing the value of a temporary cease-fire--which would save the lives of some Lebanese civilians--Washington is clearly saying that there is no value in protecting these civilians killed in Israel's attacks on Hezbollah. Let's be honest here. If you believe Israel is justified in its current military campaign against Hezbollah, you have to acknowledge that it's okay for Israel to inflict collateral damage (that is, kill civilians). And that means--if we are indeed being honest--that you are willing to say that the lives of those Lebanese civilians are not worth all that much. I doubt the prime minister can sway the supporters of Israel and its current military actions with his angst-ridden words. (And, in a perfect world, he would blast Hezbollah for targeting civilians as well.) But Washington ought to at least not insult him with hypocrisy: claiming regard for human life and doing nothing to stop (even temporarily) the killing of his citizens.

Tags: israel, lebanon, civilian-killings, fouad siniora

Paralyzed for Life

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 04:33:11 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Gideon Levy's editorial about the Aman family, some of whom were killed, others maimed by an Israeli targeted assassination two weeks ago. The 3-year old girl, Maria, is paralyzed for life.

A couple of points:

* As Levy says, "An army that fires missiles at busy streets and tank shells at a beach cannot claim there was no intent to harm innocent civilians."
* The IDF/IAF has done pretty much nothing about this family. No investigations. NO APOLOGIES GIVEN. The Israeli hopsital was set to discharge Maria and her uncle home to Gaza, where they would die of their injuries, were it not for the activities of Physicians for Human Rights who demanded the Israel approve & cover their hospitalization in the country.

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

_{Last update - 10:48 11/06/2006}

Paralyzed for life

_{By Gideon Levy}

The tangle of tubes and the artificial respirator attached directly to her windpipe cannot hide her beauty. A little 3-year-old girl lying in the pediatric intensive care unit at Sheba Medical Center, Maria Aman's sad, brown almond eyes are wide open, her lips murmur in a whisper: "Food, I want to eat," but all her limbs are paralyzed, forever. Not far from there, in an intensive care unit at Ichilov Hospital, lies her uncle Nahed, age 33 and father of two, who is in even worse condition: He is not only on a respirator and completely paralyzed, he is being kept asleep.

No, these are not the victims of this weekend's operation, but their predecessors - victims of an airborne assassination in Gaza three weeks ago yesterday, an operation that shocked almost nobody here in Israel. The events of this past weekend should not come as a surprise to anyone: The deterioration has been going on for weeks, and the question that should be asked is not what Israel is doing to counter the Qassams, but what it is not doing. An army that fires missiles at busy streets and tank shells at a beach cannot claim there was no intent to harm innocent civilians.

Tags: israel, palestine, civilian-killings, iaf

Israeli security forces killed 660 Palestinians in 2006

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 18:33:53 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Via Amal A at Improvisations: Arab Woman Progressive Voice

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

_{Last update - 21:16 28/12/2006}

B'Tselem: Israeli security forces killed 660 Palestinians during 2006

_{By Haaretz Service}

According to an annual B'Tselem report, from the beginning of 2006 to December 27, Israeli security forces have killed 660 Palestinians, a figure more than three times the number of Palestinians killed in 2005, which was 197.

The data compiled by the human rights organization also indicated a significant decrease in Israeli casualties. Palestinians killed 23 Israelis in 2006 - 17 civilians, among them one minor, and six Israel Defense Forces soldiers. The figure constitutes less than half of the 50 Israelis killed in 2005.

B'Tselem also listed the overall figures for casualties since the beginning of the intifada, with Palestinian casualties at 4005 and Israeli casualties at 1017, 701 of which were civilians.

Tags: israel, palestine, civilian-killings, killings, news, politics, war

Gunmen Kill Afghan Women’s Advocate

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 23:53:56 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

September 25, 2006

Gunmen Kill Afghan Women’s Advocate

By CARLOTTA GALL

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept. 25 — A senior Afghan official specializing in women’s rights was gunned down here on her way to work Monday morning by suspected Taliban gunmen. It was the highest-level assassination of a woman in Afghanistan in the five years since the Taliban were ousted from power.

Safia Amajan, 65, had served as chief of the Woman’s Affairs department in Kandahar for five years, working to improve women’s rights and opportunities for education and vocational training. A former teacher and high school principal, she was well known and much liked in Kandahar.

A spokesman claiming to speak for the Taliban took responsibility for the killing in a telephone call, Reuters reported.

telephone

Tags: afghanistan, taliban, women, gender, islam, fubar, civilian-killings