At least nine Iraqis were killed and nine more were wounded in today’s attacks. The worst focused on Diyala province where an entire family was killed. Meanwhile, Iraq is denying allegations that two more bodyguards working for fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi died while in detention. Yesterday, the vice president’s office issued a statement claiming the two men were tortured to death.
Bradley Manning Support Network member David House was returning to the country from a vacation last year when he was detained by agents from the Department of Homeland Security. They confiscated his laptop, camera and USB drive (all of which they kept for seven weeks), and questioned House about his political beliefs before sending him …
Continue reading “The Freedom 7 and You”
The story of Robert Bales, mass murderer, has pretty much disappeared from the headlines: news of the grisly killing spree, during which he slaughtered nine children and eight adults, has been displaced by the sudden “discovery” that 100,000-plus US soldiers are heavily medicated with anti-depressants and other drugs, as well as much talk of “PTSD” …
Continue reading “Robert Bales: Mass Murderer
and PTSD Poster Boy”
Take off your hat. Taps is playing. Almost four decades late, the Vietnam War and its postwar spawn, the Vietnam Syndrome, are finally heading for their American grave. It may qualify as the longest attempted burial in history. Last words — both eulogies and curses — have been offered too many times to mention, and …
Continue reading “The Afghan Syndrome”
According to Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi’s office, two of the vice president’s bodyguards were tortured to death while in Iraqi custody. An independent human rights commission, now being organized, could eventually look into the matter. Meanwhile, the United Nations is reporting that over 600 Iraqi civilians have died this year. Including the two bodyguards who died weeks ago, at least seven Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded in new reports.
When is the last time you heard from a civilian victim of the CIA’s secret drone strikes? Sure, most of them can’t speak because they’re deceased. But many leave behind bereaved and angry family members ready to proclaim their innocence and denounce the absence of due process, the lack of accountability, and the utter impunity …
Continue reading “Obama Administration Silencing Pakistani Drone-Strike Lawyer”
Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi today arrived in Turkey, the third stop in a multi-country tour. Back in Iraq, at least seven Iraqis were killed and six more were wounded in new violence.
The world can be a luckless place, but every now and then serendipity just knocks you off a cliff. In what passed for my real life before TomDispatch intervened, I was (and remain, on a part-time basis) a book editor in mainstream publishing. The “slush pile” in a publishing house is normally the equivalent of …
Continue reading “Joining the Whistleblowers’ Club”
On a recent trip to Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid down the law: America must threaten the Iranians with war if Tehran insists on pursuing its nuclear energy program. We are supposed to take seriously Netanyahu’s threats to strike Iran himself, in spite of the fact that Israel has neither the means nor …
Continue reading “US to Iran: Surrender Dorothy!”
Kurdish President Massoud Barzani has once again charged Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with moving Iraq towards a new dictatorship. Meanwhile, at least seven Iraqis were killed and five more were wounded in new violence, including a rare attack in Kurdistan.
