Clipmarks | Iraq war Clips

Everybody but US netting oil contracts in Iraq

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:51:11 GMT

clipped by: nuttyriv3r

November 06, 2009

Ahmed Rasheed and Muhanad Mohammed

The 20-year contract is part of a raft of deals Iraq is close to formalizing in a bid to catapult itself to the world’s third largest oil producer after decades of war and economic decline.

ExxonMobil, partnering Royal Dutch Shell, beat Russia’s LUKOIL – which had teamed up with US oil-major ConocoPhillips – and two other groups led by France’s Total and China’s CNPC.

“This is better for us,” the Iraqi oil official said.

The pact on West Qurna comes after British oil major BP Plc. and China’s CNPC on Tuesday signed an agreement for the Rumaila oil field: Iraq’s first major new oil deal since the 2003 US-led invasion.

A group led by Italian oil major Eni also signed an initial agreement on Monday to develop the Zubair oilfield, and Iraq said it also expected to ink an agreement with Nippon Oil Corp on Nassiriya in the coming days.

The sleazy advocacy of a leading "liberal hawk"

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:43:15 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: What Galbraith kept completely concealed all these years was that a company he formed in 2004 came to acquire a large stake in a Kurdish oil field whereby, as the NYT put it, he "stands to earn perhaps a hundred million or more dollars." In other words, he had a direct -- and vast -- financial stake in the very policies which he was publicly advocating in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and countless other American media outlets, where he was presented as an independent expert on the region. As Cobban wrote:

Galbraith has never expressed any such regrets, and last November, he was openly scornful of Bush's late-term agreement to withdraw from Iraq completely. The revelation that for many years Galbraith had a quite undisclosed financial interest in the political breakup of Iraq may now further reduce the clout, and the ranks, of the remaining liberal hawks.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

The New York Times today details the unbelievably sleazy story of Peter Galbraith, one of the Democratic Party's leading so-called "liberal hawks" and a generally revered Wise Man of America's Foreign Policy Community. He was Ambassador to Croatia under the Clinton administration in the mid-1990s and, in March, 2009, the Obama administration (specifically, Richard Holbrooke, Galbraith's mentor) successfully pressured the U.N. to name Galbraith as the second-in-command in Afghanistan. The NYT does a good job today of adding some important details to the story, but it was actually uncovered by Norwegian investigative journalists and reported at length a month ago in pieces such as this one by Helena Cobban. In essence, this highly Serious man has corruptly concealed vast financial stakes in the very policies and positions he has spent years advocating while pretending to be an independent expert.

Tags: iraq, war, empire, conquerst, neomercantilsim, theft, hawks

No Dogs Left Behind

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:07:28 GMT

clipped by: jkrabbit

Clip Source: www.peoplepets.com

TV's 'No Dogs Left Behind' Follows Rescued War Dogs on Journey to U.S.

While he was in Iraq, Staff Sgt. Bryan Spears and his company found a scrappy puppy and named him Moody. But due to military regulations, they were prohibited from caring for the animal, and the soldiers said their goodbyes to their new friend.

Fast-forward a few weeks later, and tragedy strikes: Five members of Spears's team are killed in an attack by a suicide bomber. That same day, Moody returns — and it was that turn of events that Spears says saved him from losing all morale. The dog had helped him cope with the loss of his fellow soldiers.

Tags: k9

The voice of broken soldiers

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:27:03 GMT

clipped by: gppixelworks

Clip Source: russiatoday.com

The voice of broken soldiers

In 2006, British soldier Martin Webster hit the headlines after being involved in a media scandal when he filmed British troops in Iraq beating up Iraqi youths

“Once the children started using grenades and firing RPGs, they certainly became a threat to our lives. Our underlying issue as infantry soldiers is to preserve life – our lives and civilians around. So once you pick up a weapon and you are going to use it – you become a target for us to either be captured, arrested or killed.”

“When video cameras became widely available I do not think that the [British] government accounted for the fact that the public is going to see how horrific the war is,” remembers Webster. “You’re fighting kids [in Iraq]. People find it very hard that their Western boys are fighting children. That is the horrible fact of war. Those bombers were in their teens.” He added that the notorious clip with British soldiers beating up Iraqi youth destroyed his life.

Tags: soldiers, war, iraq, children, rpg, grenades, teens, weapons, video

Dogs greet those returning from war

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:33:11 GMT

clipped by: jkrabbit

Clip Source: weblogs.baltimoresun.com

Happy Vets Day: Dogs greet those returning from war

In honor of Veterans Day, the Mental Floss blog posted a series of videos showing servicemen and women returning from Afghanistan and Iraq being greeted (extremely enthusiastically) by their dogs who missed them. Here's one. Find more here. Get your tissues ready....

[Video]

Tags: k9, vets, troops

Our Tax Dollars At Work-Blackwater

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:30:53 GMT

clipped by: mcsmithblack
clipper's remarks: More from the article as follows:
"The Nisour Square shooting was the bloodiest and most controversial episode involving Blackwater in the Iraq war. At midday on Sept. 16, 2007, a Blackwater convoy opened fire on Iraqi civilians in the crowded intersection, spraying automatic weapons fire in ways that investigators later claimed was indiscriminate, and even launching grenades into a nearby school. Seventeen Iraqis were killed and dozens more were wounded."
"Those responses deeply worried Blackwater officials. Before the Nisour Square shootings, the company had operated in Iraq without a license largely because the Iraqi government had never enforced the rules. Being blocked from the country would have been costly — the State Department deal was Blackwater’s single biggest contract. From 2004 through today, the company has collected more than $1.5 billion for its work protecting American diplomats and providing air transportation for them inside Iraq."

"

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Blackwater Said to Pursue Bribes to Iraq After 17 Died

Gary Jackson, left, then the company president, approved bribes for Iraqi officials, former executives say. When Cofer Black, then the vice chairman, center, learned of the scheme, he reportedly confronted the chairman, Erik Prince, right.

WASHINGTON — Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

Since 2001, Blackwater has undergone explosive growth, not only from security contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also from classified work for the Central Intelligence Agency that included taking part in a now defunct program to assassinate leaders of Al Qaeda and to load missiles on Predator drones.

Obama Ally Code Pink Targets Children of Military Families for Psychological Abuse

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:29:56 GMT

clipped by: Jacob173

Clip Source: biggovernment.com

Obama Ally Code Pink Targets Children of Military Families for Psychological Abuse

This is not the first time Code Pink has waged psychological warfare on our troops and military families. Four years ago the group initiated a weekly protest at the main entrance to Walter Reed Army Medical Center where Code Pink held signs reading, “Maimed for a lie” and “Enlist here and die for Halliburton.” One Veterans Day, Code Pink protesters called the wounded warriors at Walter Reed war criminals and on other occasions have called them terrorists.

Benjamin, whose work prolonging the insurgency in Iraq with humanitarian aid and political support for the terrorists is believed by many military families to have led to the maiming and killing of thousands of American soldiers in Iraq, has now focused her energies on helping our terrorist enemies defeat America in Afghanistan by propagandizing against reinforcements for our troops.

[Video]

Obama's wars are just like Bush's

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:36:26 GMT

clipped by: jasonkelly

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

On Iraq, the new president has faithfully followed the policy of George W. Bush, and now Iraq threatens breakdown.

Obama ran on a promise to fight the “right war” in Afghanistan. This policy rests upon the monumental assumption that victory can be found in a military campaign meant to alter the character of Central Asian political and religious society so as to remake it in the American image—what Condoleezza Rice defined a year ago as the Bush administration’s policy, and what is now apparently the Obama policy.

In the time-honored bureaucratic fashion, the president’s military advisers have offered him three troop options—one impossibly high, one suicidally small, and one, the one they actually want, in between, and “just right.”(In poker games, this is known as “forcing” the card onto the patsy.) The troops are already on the move. It will be some time before we see them again.

the military disaster that is now in the course of manufacture in the “Af-Pak” theater of unwinnable wars.

Tags: politics, war

IN these wars, there are no unwounded soldiers.

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:37:32 GMT

clipped by: beanz

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

At Army Base, Some Violence Is Too Familiar

Fort Hood is still reeling from last week’s carnage, in which an Army psychiatrist is accused of a massacre that left 13 people dead. But in the town of Killeen and other surrounding communities, the attack, one of the worst mass shootings on a military base in the United States, is also seen by many as another blow in an area that has been beset by crime and violence since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began. Reports of domestic abuse have grown by 75 percent since 2001. At the same time, violent crime in Killeen has risen 22 percent while declining 7 percent in towns of similar size in other parts of the country.

The stresses are seen in other ways, too.

Since 2003, there have been 76 suicides by personnel assigned to Fort Hood, with 10 this year, according to military officials.

Clip Source: graphics8.nytimes.com

In War There Are No Unwounded Soldiers

Tags: afghanistan

We Need To Do Better For Our Military

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:26:16 GMT

clipped by: sahara
clipper's remarks: Much of the study focused on 4th Brigade, home unit to most of the violent crime suspects.

4th Brigade was compared head-to-head with 3rd Brigade, which recently returned from Iraq.

The 4th Brigade, now in Afghanistan, has suffered a higher casualty rate than other units its size in two deployments, the Army found, losing lives at a rate more than eight times that of 3rd Brigade.

Along with the deaths came intense combat that took a mental toll on troops, the Army found. Soldiers in 4th Brigade were more likely than other soldiers to suffer mental illness.

The study also found, though, that soldiers feel their careers can be damaged by seeking mental health help and too often feel that enlisted leaders don't support troops with mental illness.

Read the entire article here:

http://www.gazette.com/articles/soldiers-58520-report-army.html

Clip Source: www.gazette.com

Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle, the Army's top personnel officer, said a wider study of all Army violent crime shows that 65 percent of 2,726 cases since 2001 were committed by soldiers who hadn't been to war.

Most Fort Carson soldiers who came home from war to commit murder had lives that were broken by combat stress, mental illness and drug and alcohol problems, a report released by the Army today says.

The report, commissioned by commanders last year after six 4th Brigade Combat Team soldiers were charged in murders in a 12-month period, says combat stress, and mental health issues found in the bulk of soldiers-turned-killers combined with a cocktail of substance abuse issues, including drug and alcohol abuse, that wasn't consistently addressed.

Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army's surgeon general, said while no one factor accounts for the violence, several causes contributed to the cluster, including substance abuse, mental illness and failures of leadership.

The toxic mix left a death toll

10 suicides at Fort Hood this year, 76 since 2003

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:20:57 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

FORT HOOD, Tex. — Staff Sgt. Gilberto Mota, 35, and his wife, Diana, 30, an Army specialist, had returned to Fort Hood from Iraq last year when he used his gun to kill her, and then took his own life, the authorities say. In July, two members of the First Cavalry Division, also just back from the war with decorations for their service, were at a party when one killed the other.

That same month, Staff Sgt. Justin Lee Garza, 28, under stress from two deployments, killed himself in a friend’s apartment outside Fort Hood, four days after he was told no therapists were available for a counseling session. “What bothers me most is this happened while he was supposed to be on suicide watch,” said his mother, Teri Smith. “To this day, I don’t know where he got the gun.”

Tags: army, united states

10 Suicides a Month at Fort Hood

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:51:55 GMT

clipped by: leevardi

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

10 Suicides a Month at Ft. Hood -- War Stress Is Taking Soldiers to the Brink

The shooting tragedy at Fort Hood on Friday points to a much larger problem of combat stress and overdeployment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

PHOENIX, Arizona - While investigators probe for a motive behind the mass shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas last Thursday, in which an army psychiatrist killed 13 people, military personnel at the base are in shock as the incident "brings the war home".

Tragically, Fort Hood has also born much of the brunt from its heavy involvement in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Fort Hood soldiers have accounted for more suicides than any other army post since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. This year alone, the base is averaging over 10 suicides each month - at least 75 have been recorded through July of this year alone.

How war profiteers are raping Iraq

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:18:01 GMT

clipped by: aperiozar
clipper's remarks: First invade them, kill more than 100 000 of their civilians, then profit from all the killings...

Clip Source: www.businesspundit.com

The 25 Most Vicious Iraq War Profiteers

Clip Source: www.businesspundit.com

The Iraq war is many things to different people. It is called a strategic blunder and a monstrous injustice and sometimes even a patriotic mission, much to the chagrin of rational human beings. For many big companies, however, the war is something far different: a lucrative cash-cow. The years-long, ongoing military effort has resurrected fears of the so-called “military-industrial complex.” Media pundits are outraged at private companies scooping up huge, no-questions-asked contracts to manufacture weapons, rebuild infrastructure, or anything else the government deems necessary to win (or plant its flag in Iraq). No matter what your stance on the war, it pays to know where your tax dollars are being spent.

Following is a detailed rundown of the 25 companies squeezing the most profit from this controversial conflict.

1. Halliburton

2. Veritas Capital Fund/DynCorp

3. Washington Group International

4. Environmental Chemical

5. Aegis

Obama's Unnecessary War

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:46:29 GMT

clipped by: WhatAreWeDoing

Clip Source: www.americanthinker.com

Obama's Unnecessary War

Before it became his cross to bear, President Barack Obama redefined the war in Afghanistan as a war of necessity. In contrast, he also preemptively labeled the other, less popular war which was grandfathered into his term as a war of choice.

Presumably, a war of necessity confronts us with an imperative that leaves no reasonable option but to engage. To wit, the war in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda and The Taliban is a conflict in which we must be engaged. By contrast, Iraq is a war that we really do not need to be engaged in, which suggests that as a free nation, we were once afforded the opportunity to weigh our options on whether or not we should commit to this struggle.

'US Foreign Policy is Straight Out of the Mafia'

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:19:33 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Noam Chomsky: 'US Foreign Policy is Straight Out of the Mafia'

by Seumas Milne

But he is surprised so many people abroad, especially in the third world, are disappointed at how little Obama has changed. "His campaign rhetoric, hope and change, was entirely vacuous. There was no principled criticism of the Iraq war: he called it a strategic blunder. And Condoleezza Rice was black - does that mean she was sympathetic to third world problems?"

The veteran activist has described the US invasion of Afghanistan as "one of the most immoral acts in modern history", which united the jihadist movement around al-Qaida, sharply increased the level of terrorism and was "perfectly irrational - unless the security of the population is not the main priority". Which, of course, Chomsky believes, it is not. "States are not moral agents," he says, and believes that now that Obama is escalating the war, it has become even clearer that the occupation is about the credibility of Nato and US global power.