1,000 dead in stampede
ABC News: Iraqi officials see 1,000 dead in stampede
This is horrible! A thousand people dead in a panicked stampede? A thousand people?
Things are really deteriorating.
Animation of Bush Speech 2-6-03
This animation by Scott Bateman is make up of actual excerpts from Bush’s speech of 2/6/03 (about six weeks before we invaded Iraq) and comments on the statements he makes…
As he says in his blog… “the pauses are REAL.”
Expanding Prison Camps and Adding Troops
Rolling in more troops for prison security, taking in more prisoners, building yet another prison camp.
As the insurgency continues, there are now nearly 11,000 prisoners in major US-run detention centres – twice as many as last September. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last month he would like to give Iraq’s government full responsibility for detainees as soon as was feasible. But the US has offered no timetable for such a handover.
A Pentagon spokesman, Air Force Lt-Col John Skinner, said detention operations in Iraq were expanding. The battalion, from the division’s 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, will be deployed to Iraq over the next two months, Pentagon officials said on Wednesday. It has already served once in Iraq, from September 2003 to April 2004, and before that in Afghanistan. The troops are being prepared to perform duties such as providing security around prison compounds and for transportation of prisoners.
Abu Ghraib – expanded to house 4,000
Camp Bucca – 6,000, to take an extra 1,400
Camp Cropper – 100, to take 2,000 more
Fort Suse – to take 2,000A fourth facility at Fort Suse in the Kurdish city of Suleimaniya, 330km (205 miles) north of Baghdad, is expected to be completed next month. The three older prisons are being expanded.
The $50m (£28m) construction programme, announced in June, will eventually allow the US to hold 16,000 prisoners.
NION – Bush Crimes Against Humanity
No election, whether fair or fraudulent, can legitimize criminal wars on foreign countries, torture, the wholesale violation of human rights, and the end of science and reason.
Not in Our Name has announced that they will be sponsoring an International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration.
As the charter for the commission states, “When the possibility of far-reaching war crimes and crimes against humanity exists, people of conscience have a solemn responsibility to inquire into the nature and scope of these acts and to determine if they do in fact rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
The commission will meet in New York in October and will consider evidence on four specific issues:
- Wars of Aggression, with particular reference to the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Torture and Indefinite Detention, with particular reference to the abandonment of international standards concerning the treatment of prisoners of war and the use of torture.
- Destruction of the Global Environment, with particular reference to systematic policies contributing to the catastrophic effects of global warming.
- Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights, with particular reference to the genocidal effects of forcing international agencies to promote “abstinence only” in the midst of a global AIDS epidemic.
Murderous Dispute Over War
Man Kills Another in Dispute Over War — Press Calls It a First
Kentucky, August 6, 2006 at a flea market. Two firearms dealers, friends, standing outside a “snack shed.” The one who backs the war shot and killed the one who opposed the war. No charges as yet: he claimed self-defense.
“I’m sorry this has happened,” Moore, a retired railroad worker, said. “But then what’s done can’t be undone.” Moore told the Lexington reporter he thinks Smith and his family knew him well enough “to know what my thoughts are, his family does, because me and Harold was friends. That’s all I’ll say.”
The daughter of the dead man said the two men were friends and had discussed Iraq before. She said her father “had different opinions than everybody. He felt it was wrong that all of these young people were losing their lives over what was going on. It was just a political disagreement, like a whole lot of people have.”
(Thanks to San Francisco Liberal)
Crawford Vigil Goes On
Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, California, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, traveled to Crawford, Texas with hundreds of anti-war activists to confront President Bush at his Crawford ranch. Sheehan wants to ask Bush, “Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?” and demand a speedy withdrawal of troops in Iraq. During their march in the 100 degree heat, the protesters were forced into a ditch teeming with fire ants. Sheehan, who co-founded Gold Star Families for Peace, refuses to leave until the President comes out to speak with her.
She would like President Bush to explain this noble cause to her. “We deserve and expect him to welcome us with answers to as why our loved ones are dead.” On Thursday Rice and Rumsfeld visit the ranch, and Friday is a fundraiser event for the haves and the have mores.
Mr Bush did not know her son’s name when she and her family met him in June 2004. Mr Bush, she said, acted as if he were at a party and behaved disrespectfully towards her by referring to her as “Mom” throughout the meeting.
Her site is at http://www.meetwithcindy.org/
Daily Kos has lots of information and links to help Cindy Sheehan in Crawford Texas. Join Code Pink in a fast, write letters, send funds, show up and join the protest if you can. Code Pink, Gold Star Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out are helping, and there is a thread at DU with the latest information.
For more background, see her 2004 interview at Buzzflash, her testimony at the Downing Street Memo hearings, her ad for RealVoices.org, and the story according to CNN – as well as some excellent photos of what’s going on at the Lone Star Iconoclast.
Get a Google daily alert for news on Cindy Sheehan
Thanks to Gentle Breezes for the update.