Winter Soldier
Testimonies
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In the Other Press...
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[Account login has been removed in this static archive of the site.]
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To alleviate the problem of articles from other press sources being reposted on this IMC site, this section allows users to link to articles published elsewhere, and to contribute and read comments on those pieces. [Posting a new item has been removed in this static archive of the site.] |
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News: War and Militarism |
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The Global War On Terror Has Ended. |
Submitted by: brad / 04 Apr 2007
Publisher: Military Times
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No more GWOT, House committee decrees
The House Armed Services Committee is banishing the global war on terror from the 2008 defense budget.
This is not because the war has been won, lost or even called off, but because the committee’s Democratic leadership doesn’t like the phrase.
A memo for the committee staff, circulated March 27, says the 2008 bill and its accompanying explanatory report that will set defense policy should be specific about military operations and “avoid using colloquialisms.â€
The “global war on terror,†a phrase first used by President Bush shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., should not be used, according to the memo. Also banned is the phrase the “long war,†which military officials began using last year as a way of acknowledging that military operations against terrorist states and organizations would not be wrapped up in a few years.
Committee staff members are told in the memo to use specific references to specific operations instead of the Bush administration’s catch phrases. The memo, written by Staff Director Erin Conaton, provides examples of acceptable phrases, such as “the war in Iraq,†the “war in Afghanistan, “operations in the Horn of Africa†or “ongoing military operations throughout the world.â€
“There was no political intent in doing this,†said a Democratic aide who asked not to be identified. “We were just trying to avoid catch phrases.â€
Josh Holly, a spokesman for Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, the committee’s former chairman and now its senior Republican, said Republicans “were not consulted†about the change.
Committee aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said dropping or reducing references to the global war on terror could have many purposes, including an effort to be more precise about military operations, but also has a political element involving a disagreement over whether the war in Iraq is part of the effort to combat terrorism or is actually a distraction from fighting terrorists.
House Democratic leaders who have been pushing for an Iraq withdrawal timetable have talked about the need to get combat troops out of Iraq so they can be deployed against terrorists in other parts of the world, while Republicans have said that Iraq is part of the front line in the war on terror. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the armed services committee chairman, has been among those who have complained that having the military tied up with Iraq operations has reduced its capacity to respond to more pressing problems, like tracking down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
“This is a philosophical and political question,†said a Republican aide. “Republicans generally believe that by fighting the war on terror in Iraq, we are preventing terrorists from spreading elsewhere and are keeping them engaged so they are not attacking us at home.â€
However, U.S. intelligence officials have been telling Congress that most of the violence in Iraq is the result of sectarian strife and not directly linked to terrorists, although some foreign insurgents with ties to terrorist groups have been helping to fuel the fighting.
“You have to wonder if this means that we have to rename the GWOT,†said a Republican aide, referring to the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medals established in 2003 for service members involved, directly and indirectly, in military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world.
“If you are a reader of the Harry Potter books, you might describe this as the war that must not be named,†said another Republican aide. That is a reference to the fact that the villain in the Harry Potter series, Lord Voldemort, is often referred to as “he who must not be named†because of fears of his dark wizardry. |
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News: Human Rights |
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"FBI, JOCC advises that...anarchists in the vicinity" |
Submitted by: @ / 03 Apr 2007
Publisher: Washington Post
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Aparently, evening "looking like an anarchist" is reason enough to be held and interrogated by an FBI Intel Unit:
A secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain a group of war protesters in a downtown Washington parking garage in April 2002 and interrogated some of them on videotape about their political and religious beliefs, newly uncovered documents and interviews show.
For years, law enforcement authorities suggested it never happened. The FBI and D.C. police said they had no records of such an incident. And police told a federal court that no FBI agents were present when officers arrested more than 20 protesters that afternoon for trespassing; police viewed them as suspicious for milling around the parking garage entrance…
The probable cause to arrest the protesters as they retrieved food from their parked van? They were wearing black — a color choice the FBI and police associated with anarchists, according to the police records… |
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News: War and Militarism |
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The botched US raid that led to the hostage crisis |
Submitted by: @ / 02 Apr 2007
Publisher: The Independent
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A failed American attempt to abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that 10 weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and Marines.
Early on the morning of 11 January, helicopter-born US forces launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. They captured five relatively junior Iranian officials whom the US accuses of being intelligence agents and still holds.
In reality the US attack had a far more ambitious objective, The Independent has learned. The aim of the raid, launched without informing the Kurdish authorities, was to seize two men at the very heart of the Iranian security establishment.
Better understanding of the seriousness of the US action in Arbil - and the angry Iranian response to it - should have led Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence to realise that Iran was likely to retaliate against American or British forces such as highly vulnerable Navy search parties in the Gulf. The two senior Iranian officers the US sought to capture were Mohammed Jafari, the powerful deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to Kurdish officials... |
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Announcement: GLBT/Queer |
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Should corporations be promoting homosexuality? |
Submitted by: COCOINTELPRO / 02 Apr 2007
Publisher: AFA ActionAlert <contact@afamail.net>
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I've for some time been subscribing to conservative email lists as a bit of turn about is fair play. AFA is currently (among other things) trying to get companies to deny rights to homosexuals and end marketing in GLBT publications, they are happily loosing this battle and currently have an online poll they're going to submit to "Corporate" america to try and push their views:
http://www.afa.net/petitions/businesses/businesses.asp
Let's flood them with responses they don't like :)
Oringinal posting follows:
AFA ActionAlert
*AFA Online Polling*
*Where the grassroots are heard*
_A project of American Family Association_
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*Should corporations be promoting homosexuality?*
*Take our poll. We will send the results to the largest corporations
in America.*
Several corporations are now supporting the homosexual agenda. These
companies have been convinced by homosexual activists and the
mainstream media that in order to be "fair and tolerant", companies
must make special rules for homosexuals and provide company money and
resources to help promote their lifestyle. Many companies, including
Ford Motor Company and Eli Lilly and Company, have begun to support
same-sex marriage.
*Click here to take the Poll
<http://www.afa.net/petitions/businesses/businesses.asp>*
Please forward this poll to your friends and family. Corporations need
to know how Americans feel about companies promoting homosexuality.
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Manipulating the Oz Masses |
Submitted by: nano / 01 Apr 2007
Publisher: Cleaves Publishing
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It's confirmed, total panic grips Howard government over Hicks scandal! The novice Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has weighed in on the Hicks debate with a wild accusation inferring that Hicks was ".. seeking to destroy our civilisation." -- what next? Turnbull's statement follows hot on the heels of the stratospheric logic (see link) displayed by the Federal Treasurer in his effort to save the government -- who's next? |
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Hicks case becomes Quicksand for Oz Government |
Submitted by: budgie / 01 Apr 2007
Publisher: Cleaves Publishing
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When things are a bit slow we can always rely on the Australian conservative government to entertain us -- their now very desperate (divorced from reality) attempts to come out of the Hicks "saga" smelling roses are entertaining if nothing else. The impossibility of the Howard government looking good over any issue relating to Hicks hasn't dampened the enthusiasm of the Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello. The Treasurer has very unwisely waded into the debate with characteristic miscalculated comments. Try as Costello might to incriminate Hicks and brand him a murderer, the facts speak for themselves. |
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News: International |
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Brazil rabbi accused of tie theft hospitalized |
Submitted by: @ / 31 Mar 2007
Publisher: AlterNet
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RIO DE JANEIRO, March 30 (Reuters) - Brazil's best-known rabbi, who was charged with shoplifting in Florida last week, entered hospital on Friday for what doctors called a mood disorder after using drugs that may cause confusion and amnesia.
Rabbi Henry Sobel asked for a suspension from his duties as chief of Sao Paulo Rabbinate on Thursday after media reports he had been charged with stealing expensive ties during a trip to Florida... |
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News: Human Rights |
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Suit alleges police did strip searches in public |
Submitted by: @ / 31 Mar 2007
Publisher: SFGATE
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In the latest of several suits over strip searches, seven men have filed a $5 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Oakland, saying officers conducted invasive and illegal strip searches of them in public.
In the suit filed Wednesdayin U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the plaintiffs said police officers pulled down their pants and exposed their genitalia or buttocks on the street during incidents from 2005 to 2007... |
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