Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Julian

 Dr. Binoy Kampmark (Counter Currents) writes:

 

The highlights of the second day of Julian Assange’s extradition proceedings at the Central Criminal Court in London yielded an interesting bounty.  The first was the broader public purpose behind the WikiLeaks disclosures, their utility in legal proceedings, and their importance in disclosing instances of US extrajudicial killings, torture and rendition.  The second involved a discussion about the practice of journalism and the politicised nature of the prosecution against Assange.

Human rights attorney Clive Stafford Smith and founder of Reprieve, an organisation specialising in investigating instances of US detention, rendition and disappearances, was called by Mark Summers QC for the defence.  The disclosures by WikiLeaks, he claimed, had been important in the issue of challenging the legitimacy of US drone strikes in Pakistan.  Successful litigation conducted in that country found such strikes “criminal offences and that criminal proceedings should be initiated against senior US officials involved in such strikes.” A high court in Pakistan had found that they constituted a “blatant violation of basic human rights”.  Stafford Smith noted how the drone assassination program “leaked over to narcotics … they were targeting people for death for their involvement in drug trade because it was seen as funding terrorism.  I could go on…”

The statement submitted to the court by Stafford Smith also emphasised how the WikiLeaks material disclosed on the treatment of detainees in Guantánamo were “the top of a very important discourse that would seem to be important in the public interest, about the abysmal intelligence used to detain prisoners and make important public policy decisions.”  Stafford Smith’s statement also volunteers a twist: that the material published by WikiLeaks on the subject seemed to be “the best face that the US government could put on the crimes it had committed against the Guantánamo prisoners.”

REUTERS notes:

 

[. . .] the court heard on Tuesday from Clive Stafford Smith, founder of the London-based charity Reprieve, who argues that the Wikileaks disclosures had been instrumental in challenging the U.S. on illegal drone strikes and the secret detention of suspects. 

Stafford Smith, a dual US-UK national, said the leaked information had contributed to court findings that criminal proceedings should be taken against senior U.S. officials.

“I say this more in sadness than anger. I would never have believed that my government would do what it did,” he said. “We are talking about criminal offences of torture, kidnapping, rendition, holding people without trial.”

 Here's M.I.A.'s "CTRL" which she's dedicated to Julian.



 Pamela Anderson Tweeted:

I care deeply, and am hopeful.. despite The state of the world- Today, we must Pray for Justice - for Julian, and for his sweet, family - I

Folded hands
for #fairness- during these cold weeks ahead - #strength, #love, #resilience - #nevergiveup #staytuned #assangetrial



Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

 Wednesday, September 9, 2020.  More troop reductions in Iraq, military suicides continue in the US, Iraq grapples with redistricting, and much more.


The term for the day is "drawdown."  Not "withdrawal."  I wish withdrawal were the term for the day.  But what the press is talking about is a drawdown.  AP notes:

The Trump administration will announce Wednesday that it is withdrawing additional troops from Iraq, as President Donald Trump tries to make good on his campaign promise to disentangle the country from “endless wars.”

A senior administration official discussed the draw-down with reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday night, on condition of anonymity. The official said the administration is also looking to announce the withdrawal of additional troops from Afghanistan in the coming days.

The planned announcements come as the president has been trying to make the case that he has fulfilled the promises he made four years ago as he tries to secure a second term.


CNN reports that it's been announced this morning by US Gen Frank McKenzie that the number will fall from 5,200 troops to 3,000.  Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) observes, "The decision follows a meeting between Mr Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi in August, in which the two sides discussed the status of the remaining forces in Iraq."  BBC Tweets:


US to withdraw more than a third of its troops from Iraq within weeks, its top Middle East commander says



AFP notes, "British, French and US special forces are expected to remain deployed in undisclosed locations around the country, diplomatic sources said."

Already, there are drive-by e-mails in the public account from Trump supporters insisting this or that.  Donald is reducing the number.  We have noted that.  This is not a withdrawal, it's a drawdown.

I lost respect for Danny Schechter for many things -- including his defense of Ike Turner beating Tina Turner, terrorizing her -- but when he was long past the point of return to sanity, he posted this nutty, long-winded post at his NEWS DISSECTOR site where he defended Barack Obama's drawdown.  He called it a withdrawal and offered all these nutty notions that if Barack went further the CIA would kill him, that the NSA had all this dirt on him, that . . . 

I don't whore for politicians.  I also don't create scripts to justify their actions.  Barack promised to end the Iraq War and bring all the troops home -- he did not do that.  Even when the bulk were removed, special forces remained in Iraq -- and see AFP above for how that will be happening again.  

The number will drop.  I have noted that and he has credit for that.  But the number dropping is not withdrawal.  Nor does it mean that more US forces can't be sent in at any time.

That happened in 2014, remember?  (Actually, it happened in the fall of 2012 -- as Tim Arango reported -- but no one wanted to pay attention then.)  

And keeping 3,000 on the ground may well be the recipe for sending in more should anything go wrong.

I will give him credit for reducing the numbers.  I will not pretend that this is a withdrawal or offer up excuses for why a president of the United States is unable to withdraw troops.


I don't live in the land of crazy, I don't visit it.  But I think we can all see it from our front porch on a clear day.  Matt Yglesias is a permanent resident in the land of the crazy.  He has a new book of slobbering ravings where he fears that China will overtake the US in something.  First off, isn't his book a little late?  Secondly, his solution is for the US population to increase to one billion.

Why in the world would you advocate that?  The earth is already overpopulated.  The US offers no Medicare For All, what remains of a safety net is nearly non-existent.  We're in the midst of a pandemic.  Why would you --

Oh, that's right.  You want cannon fodder.  

Matt pimped the Iraq War and he's ready for the US to go to war with China -- provided it's far enough ahead in the future where he won't have to enlist himself.  People like this should be shunned.  Matt is responsible for the deaths of many.

Ellen Killoran (CRIME DAILY) reports on an apparent death:

An Iraq war veteran reportedly took his own live during a Facebook live video that spread to multiple social media platforms.

Citing the Daily Star, the New York Post reports that 33-year-old Ronnie McNutt fatally shot himself in the head while recording a Facebook live stream on August 31. An online obituary appears to confirm McNutt’s death. According to the obituary, McNutt is a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq. He lived in New Albany, Mississippi, at the time of his death and worked at a Toyota plant. He was also involved in theater.

The video of McNutt’s death has reportedly been seen on multiple social media platforms, including TikTok. According to the Daily Star report, some have used social media to warn others who might encounter the disturbing video.


Alexis Tangman Tweets:

IMMINENT TRAUMA/PTSD WARNING: My friend Ronnie McNutt committed suicide via hunting rifle on a FB livestream in front of myself and 200 others. The video is now making its rounds on

@tiktok_us

. If you see a video of a bearded man at a desk on TikTok, CLICK AWAY AND REPORT IT.


Iraq War veteran Adam Kokesh offers his take in the video below.



The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 800-273-8255.


David Roza (TASK AND PURPOSE) reports:

The second-most senior officer in the U.S. armed forces on Tuesday called on military leaders to help end an ongoing suicide epidemic by checking in with their subordinates and removing the stigma around seeking treatment for mental health issues.

“There are no negative consequences to your career and only positive results for you personally, for your family and your friends,” said Air Force Gen. John Hyten, about seeking professional mental health treatment, in a video tweeted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Tuesday. 

“It’s important that the US military brings light to this complex issue of suicide because regardless of which uniform we wear, we’re not immune from life’s challenges, including thoughts of suicide," he added.


Though much time has been spent trying to reduce the number of military suicides, the effort has not reached success.  It probably doesn't help, for example, when a service member reaches out for help through a hotline and the son-in-law of a sitting Secretary of Defense -- Timonthy Heaphy whose father-in-law is Eric Shineski -- tries to put him in jail for seeking help.  That happened in 2012.  There are many obstacles but when someone is seeking help, seeking help should never be one of those obstacles.  THE CT MIRROR notes:

Sgt. William Davidson had been struggling with mental health problems since his deployment to Afghanistan. When he didn’t attend at least one of his Connecticut National Guard drill weekends, the Guard declared him AWOL (absent without leave) and discharged him with a “bad paper” separation. Four months after his discharge, Davidson, 24, fatally shot himself.

Davidson, who had two younger sisters, is one among thousands of veterans who die by suicide each year. Despite national goals to prevent veteran suicides, they occur at disproportionately higher rates than in the general population.

More than 78,000 veterans died by suicide between 2005 and 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Veteran suicide deaths rose from 5,787 in 2005 to 6,139 in 2017. In the active military, the National Guard, with a suicide rate of 30.6 per 100,000, has the highest rate of any branch, according to the most recent Department of Defense Annual Suicide Report. The overall rate among all active military components was 24.8. This is occurring against a backdrop of rising suicides among all Americans.

“The numbers don’t do anything but grow,” said Davidson’s mother, Donna Chapman of Suffield. “We’re continuing to fail. I’m sick of it. Everyone’s sick of it,” she said.



In Iraq today, the Cabinet of Ministers issued the following:

The Cabinet held its weekly meeting on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.

The Cabinet agreed to hold a special meeting early next week to discuss the 2020 Federal Budget which was delayed because of the circumstances and events in the country.

The Cabinet discussed the implementation of the e-government project. The Prime Minister underscored the importance of this project and directed that a progress report be submitted to him within a week.

The Cabinet received a briefing from the Minister of Health on Covid-19 related developments and the ongoing national efforts to combat the coronavirus.

The Cabinet received an update from the Minister of Electricity on the current state of the grid, and on plans to improve the generation and transmission of power in Iraq.

Following discussions, the Cabinet agreed to:

  • Authorise the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to coordinate with the Ministry of Youth and Sports on the implementation of the National Project for Youth Employment
  • Approve the financial conditions of two loans from the Saudi Fund for Development, and to authorise a representative of the Ministry of Finance to sign the necessary contracts for the construction of a silo for wheat storage in Diwaniyah and the Saqlawiya Hospital in Anbar
  • Authorise the Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority to negotiate and sign a draft air transport agreement between the Republic of Iraq and the Kingdom of Bahrain, as amended by the State Council

The Cabinet discussed other items on its agenda and agreed a number of measures.


Iraq is planning to hold parliamentary elections in June of next year.  There are new issues coming up.  ARAB WEEKLY explains:

A fierce political battle is taking place in Iraq over electoral districts, which will eventually have to be finalised and documented in the annexes of the election law approved by parliament in an amended form, at the request of the angry Iraqi street, with the aim of preventing the domination of the Shia parties loyal to Iran.

In previous elections, Iraq adopted the proportional representation method while treating each governorate as a single constituency and using the system of closed and open lists, which allowed candidates with few votes to nevertheless win just because the lists supporting them got many votes.

When Iraqis took to the street early October 2019, in the largest popular protests the country has ever seen that lasted several months, one of their top demands was the adoption of a system of multiple districts in the election law, which was actually approved by the Iraqi parliament a few months later.

The multi-district formula stipulates that each governorate be divided into as many districts as the number of its seats in parliament, and the winner of the seat be the candidate with most votes, regardless of that candidate’s ranking on the nomination list.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad al-Halbousi has been very busy since last month trying to mobilise the necessary political support for the multi-district formula. However, he faces fierce opposition from prominent Shia political figures and parties, led by the State of Law coalition of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who wants to maintain the single-district formula for each governorate, regardless of the number of its seats.


In the US, the presidential election is scheduled for November.  Luke Savage (JACOBIN) observes of Joe Biden, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate:

Much like Hillary Clinton did in 2016, Biden is aiming to win the presidency by motivating conservative-leaning suburban voters and some Republicans — with more traditional (and liberal- and progressive-minded) Democratic constituencies turning out in sufficient numbers where it counts. The former group was largely the target audience for this year’s DNC, which  pandered endlessly to the sensibilities of anti-Trump Republicans and rich suburbanites. The latter, meanwhile, gets lectures about how they need to be more enthusiastic while young voters get virtual Biden/Harris lawn signs in Animal Crossing instead of Medicare For All.

Centrist Democrats do want the support of young and left wing voters, of course. But they uniformly want it on their own centrist terms.

All this may be a strategic choice on Biden’s part, but it’s also a feature endemic to the faction that controls the Democratic Party as a whole. Biden’s nomination, which party power brokers ultimately did everything they could to ensure, represented a very conscious repudiation of the alternative course offered by Bernie Sanders — one which was decidedly less interested in the votes of suburban conservatives and, perhaps more importantly, which pledged to reject the dictates of the donor class that Democratic elites have long embraced.

As such, there is simply no incentive structure in place to shift Biden from his current course.


The following sites updated:






Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)