Religion as a Tool of Repression

Freedom of speech and dissent are always curtailed in times of war. Whenever soldiers occupy foreign nations, rational thinking is proscribed in favor of nationalistic hubris. Minority opinions, although grounded in ethics and reason, are repressed, often brutally. The majority becomes intolerant of dissenting views. Thoughtful dialog is suspended and irrational ideology gains ascendancy. Civil [...]

Study: Occupied Baghdad is least livable city on planet

The Iraq war is still being touted by Washington and the Pentagon as a war for progress and stability in the region. A study released May 26, however, reveals a radically different reality. The Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranked Baghdad last in a list of “most livable cities.” The study took into account political, [...]

Marine Corps Major accused of taking reconstruction funds

OCEANSIDE, Calif. – A Marine Corps fighter pilot accused of stealing $440,000 in Iraq reconstruction funds turned himself in on Monday, federal officials said. Maj. Mark R. Fuller, 42, of Yuma, Ariz., is facing 22 counts under an indictment issued by a federal grand jury, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix. An arrest [...]

Fallujah birth defects investigated

An investigation of a rise in birth defects in Fallujah is underway, which is being attributed to the use of chemical weapons by British and American soldiers. Public Interest Lawyers, representing Iraqi families, has requested that the Ministry of Defence release information regarding whether any British soldiers were involved in the fighting or helped to [...]

US army captain convicted of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars allocated to humanitarian work

Michael Dung Nguyen, 28, was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Monday after pleading guilty to theft and money laundering charges in December. The Oregon man, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, admitted to stealing more than $690,000 from Commander’s Emergency Response Program funds entrusted to him. The currency [...]

Washington Finally Feeling Drone War Backlash

Back in early 2009, when guys like David Kilcullen and Andrew Exum warned that the American drone war in Pakistan could create more terrorists than they kill, they were pilloried by the national security establishment for their views. Since the failed Times Square bombing — a terror attack allegedly in response to the drone strikes [...]

US confronts its reputation abroad

New name for Iraq war: Operation New Dawn

Effective Sept. 1, the War on Iraq will acquire a new official moniker: “Operation New Dawn.” Defense Secretary Robert Michael Gates announced the move Wednesday in a memo to Gen. David Howell Petraeus, chief of United States Central Command, that was first reported by ABC News. In the brief, one-paragraph memo, a copy of which [...]

United Nations report blasts US over human rights abuses

A United Nations report says the US has been violating basic human rights by kidnapping and holding terrorism suspects in secret detention centers during the past nine years. The US is among dozens of countries that have kidnapped suspects, four independent UN rights investigators said in a year-long study based on flight data and interviews [...]

‘Bomb detector’ maker Jim McCormick arrested

The director of a company which sold a bomb-detecting device to 20 countries, including Iraq, has been arrested. ATSC‘s Jim McCormick, 53, was detained on Friday on suspicion of fraud by misrepresentation, Avon and Somerset police said. He has since been bailed. It comes after a BBC investigation alleged the ADE-651 did not work. Earlier, [...]

Psychiatric disorders spiral among US troops

A new study indicates US troops who were withdrawn from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for medical reasons were increasingly evacuated for psychiatric reasons. Psychiatric disorders rose from 2004 to 2007, despite an increased focus on treating mental health problems, the research study revealed on Friday. Only 14 percent of troops taken out of combat [...]

Troops admit to abusing prescription drugs

About one in four soldiers admit to abusing prescription drugs, most of them pain relievers, in a one-year period, according to a Pentagon health survey released Wednesday. The study, which surveyed more than 28,500 U.S. troops last year, showed that about 20 percent of Marines had also abused prescription drugs, mostly painkillers, in that same [...]

Army General Adds Pregnancy to List of Reasons to be Court-Martialed

A U.S. Army general in northern Iraq has added pregnancy to the list of reasons a soldier under his command could be court-martialed. The new policy, outlined last month by Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo and released Friday by the Army, would apply to both female soldiers who become pregnant on the battlefield and the male [...]

Capturing Osama Bin Laden Is the Last Thing That Americans Want

Where is bad guy Osama bin Laden? This question still takes the minds of US political and military elite. US National Security Advisor James L. Jones believes that the prime suspect of 9/11 attacks is hiding in Pakistan. Defense Secretary Robert Michael Gates later said that the Pentagon did not have the information to confirm [...]

US exports ‘violence’ to Latin America, says Fidel

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro says the US has never ceased its “exceptional cynicism” towards the revolutionary nations in Latin America over the past 50 years. In an article titled “Is there any margin for hypocrisy and deceit?” Castro investigates Washington’s approach toward the Latin American nations especially those that opt to challenge its hegemony [...]

Lawyers: Green should have had military trial

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A former Army soldier who raped a girl, 14, and killed her and three family members in Iraq challenged his convictions Monday, saying he was wrongly tried in a civilian court and should have faced a military trial. In a 71-page appeal filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the [...]

‘Multi-National’ to drop from U.S. unit names in Iraq

BAGHDAD — One of the last vestiges of the “coalition of the willing” in Iraq will soon be retired. As part of a consolidation of its command structure ahead of next year’s planned troop reductions, the U.S. military will drop the “Multi-National” name from its unit designations starting in January. The last non-U.S. troops, from [...]

500 Million New Terrorists!

The world is becoming less safe by the day. Before the end of November, half a billion new terrorists will be added to the list kept by the US government. On November 30, one day before the Treaty of Lisbon is scheduled to take effect, the ministers of justice of the European Union‘s 27 member [...]

US lawmakers call for ending Cuba travel ban

Two key American lawmakers say that Washington should allow its citizens to travel to Cuba to help promote ‘democratic reforms’ in that country. Veteran Republican Senator Richard Lugar and Democratic Congressman Howard Berman insist that the Cuba travel ban has been obsolete and should be discarded as a foreign policy measure. Lugar, the top Republican [...]

15-fold rise in birth defects in Fallujah

There has been a 15-fold rise in birth defects and early childhood cancers in the war-ravaged enclave of Fallujah, the site of two major battles after the Iraq invasion, doctors say. Dr. Ayman Qais said that before the war began in 2003, there were sporadic numbers of deformities in babies, but now the frequency of [...]

America Owned by Its Army

Paris, November 3, 2009 – It is possible that the creation of an all-professional American army was the most dangerous decision ever taken by Congress. The nation now confronts a political crisis in which the issue has become an undeclared contest between Pentagon power and that of a newly elected president. Barack Obama has yet [...]

Military Children in Crisis

A seven-year-old second-grader attempted suicide while his father was serving yet another tour in Iraq. Seven years old. Seven. His mother was one of half a dozen military spouses I have spoken with about soldiers’ kids who have attempted suicide during their fathers’ deployments. When I was seven, it was 1972, and there were 69,000 [...]

US soldiers shoot and kill Iraqi shoe thrower

American soldiers have killed an Iraqi civilian after he hurled his shoe at their military convoy in the central city of Fallujah. Witnesses say US troops opened fire on Ahmed Latif, who was mentally disturbed, after he insulted the soldiers as they patrolled in the centre of the city. US troops, however, claim that they [...]

US military pulls plug on largest prison in Iraq

The American army has decided to shut down Camp Bucca in the southern Iraqi port city of Basra as it moves to release thousands or transfer them to Iraqi custody before the year end. All the remaining 180 detainees of the facility, located just north of the Kuwaiti border, were transferred to US military’s two [...]

Ex-captain pleads guilty to $39 million fuel theft plot

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Federal prosecutors say a former U.S. Army captain has pleaded guilty to taking part in a plot to steal $39 million worth of fuel from the Army in Iraq. Robert Young, 46, a U.S. citizen who lived in the Philippines, pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy and theft of government property. He [...]

2008 DHS Stats on Refugees and Asylees Available

Refugees and Asylees: 2008 “The United States provides refuge to persons who have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution through two programs: one for refugees (persons outside the U.S.) and one for asylees (persons in the U.S.). This Office of Immigration Statistics Annual Flow Report provides information on the number of persons [...]

Some Reports from the Congressional Research Service

“Mexico’s Drug-Related Violence,” May 27, 2009. “The 2009 Influenza A(H1N1) ‘Swine Flu’ Outbreak: U.S. Responses to Global Human Cases,” May 26, 2009. “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11,” updated May 15, 2009. “USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives After 15 Years: Issues for Congress,” May 27, 2009. “Airport [...]

Soldiers plead guilty in theft operation

Two logistics soldiers assigned to a military transition team in Iraq pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing about $1.2 million in U.S. equipment and selling it to a local businessman. Capt. Elbert George, 36, and Sgt. 1st Class Roy Greene, 32, admitted in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., to stealing equipment from a [...]

U.S. holds journalist without charges in Iraq

Reuters cameraman Ibrahim Jassam has been held since September. The U.S. military rejected a court order to release him, saying he is a ‘high security threat.’ No evidence has been presented. Reporting from Baghdad — The soldiers came at 1:30 a.m, rousing family members who were sleeping on the roof to escape the late-summer heat. [...]

Onward, Christian Soldiers

Does finding out that a top military intelligence official was sending Donald Rumsfeld briefings emblazoned with religious crusader talk about the invasion of Iraq, like “open the gates so that the righteous may enter” fit “the left’s narrative that the Iraq war must have been conceived with an ulterior motive — war for oil, war [...]

Abeer means “fragrance of flowers”

See also: US Army media brief for rape and murder of 14 year old Iraqi girl and family by 101st soldiers, 2006 Green trial prosecutors tell of gruesome scene Jury set for Steven Dale Green, charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family

US Army media brief for rape and murder of 14 year old Iraqi girl and family by 101st soldiers, 2006

Download document here. See also: Green trial prosecutors tell of gruesome scene Jury set for Steven Dale Green, charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family

Green trial prosecutors tell of gruesome scene

PADUCAH, Ky. — A former U.S. Army soldier accused of raping an Iraqi girl and killing her and her family was upset after losing multiple friends in combat but didn’t appear to struggle more than anyone else in the unit, one of his commanding officers said. Steven Dale Green, 23, of Midland, Texas, faces more [...]

“Don’t enlist, resist”

Minnesota saw a wave of dramatic anti-war protests at military recruitment centers, April 23. The call of the Twin Cities based Anti-War Committee for April 23 to be Zero Recruitment Day was taken up by a host of anti-war groups that joined together, visibly opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, exposing recruiter lies and [...]

US suicidal veterans surpassing KIAs

At least 13 American soldiers have committed suicide in March as post traumatic syndrome is increasing suicide tendency among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. The latest figure has brought to 56 the number of US soldiers’ suicide cases in 2009, according to figures released by the US Army, a press TV correspond reported on Monday. [...]

The Weapons That Kill Civilians — Deaths of Children and Noncombatants in Iraq, 2003–2008

Armed violence, such as that in the ongoing conflict in Iraq, is a threat to global health.1 It causes serious injuries and deaths of civilians, makes orphans of children, traumatizes populations, and undermines the ability of communities to provide adequate medical care even as it dramatically increases health care needs. Moreover, indiscriminate or intentional harm [...]

Jury set for Steven Dale Green, charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family

PADUCAH, Ky. — The case of a former soldier charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family was ready to go to trial after a jury of 15 women and three men was seated Friday. Former Pfc. Steven Dale Green, 23, is the first ex-soldier to be charged as a [...]

Soldier gets life for murder, conspiracy

VILSECK, Germany — An Army master sergeant convicted of murder in the 2007 killings of four bound and blindfolded Iraqis has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. A jury of eight Army officers and noncommissioned officers handed Master Sgt. John Hatley the sentence on Thursday. The 40-year-old soldier will also [...]

US opens another prison for Iraqis

The American military has inaugurated a 27-million-dollar prison in northern Iraq which is capable of holding 3,000 detainees. According to an American military statement on Sunday, the jail was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers at Chamchamal in the autonomous Kurdish region, 70 kilometers south of Sulaimaniyah, in the space of two years. [...]

Bragg soldier gets 35 years in 4 deaths

VILSECK, Germany — A second U.S. soldier was convicted Monday of murder in the execution-style slayings of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi detainees in 2007 and sentenced to 35 years in prison after he pleaded guilty at his court-martial. Wearing his dress uniform and speaking crispy and confidently, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Mayo of Fort [...]

US flag-burning marks war anniversary

BAGHDAD (AP)– American flags were set on fire Friday to chants of “no, no for occupation” as followers of an anti-U.S. Shiite cleric marked the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war. In five other Iraqi cities, supporters of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr also either marched or stood in protest after prayers to demand the release of [...]

U.S. Military Contractor Allegedly Hacked Teens to Extort Nude Photos from Them

An army contractor who worked on a U.S. military base in Iraq hacked into the computers of teenage girls to harass and extort sexually explicit images from them, authorities allege. Police say he and an accomplice targeted some 4,000 young women around the world, including six Florida teens — one of whom he cyber-stalked for [...]

US forces in Iraq kill 12-year-old girl

American troops stationed in Iraq have justified the killing of a girl by saying she was in close vicinity of an accelerating vehicle. The 12-year-old girl was standing 100 meters behind a vehicle accelerating toward an Iraqi police station in Hurriya in Nineveh province, according to a US military news release. The girl died on [...]

CBS will not have to hand over Hadithah tapes

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — CBS News has won a battle with Marine Corps prosecutors who wanted unaired footage of a “60 Minutes” interview with the key defendant in the killing of 24 Iraqis in 2005. The North County Times reports on its Web site that a military judge at Camp Pendleton on Thursday denied a [...]

Major RAND study with 300 interviews: Intelligence Operations and Metrics in Iraq and Afghanistan, Nov 2008

This major November, 2008 RAND Corporation study on intelligence operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, conducted 300 interviews at all levels with US, UK and Dutch intelligence officers and diplomats. The 318 page document could be described as part of the “Pentagon Papers” for Iraq and Afghanistan. It was confidentially prepared for the Pentagon’s Joint Forces [...]

Blackwater founder, CEO resigns

(CNN) – Erik Prince, founder of the Blackwater Worldwide security firm, announced Monday he has resigned as head of the company, recently renamed Xe. Prince, in an e-mail to employees and independent contractors, said Danielle Esposito will become chief operating officer and executive vice president. Esposito has worked for the firm and its partners for [...]

Officer gets 25 years in detainee’s death

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — A military jury in Kentucky has sentenced an Army officer to 25 years in prison for shooting and killing an Iraqi detainee during an interrogation. A spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division says the panel sentenced 1st Lt. Michael Behenna of Edmond, Okla., on Saturday. Behenna was convicted a day earlier [...]

Marine suicide rate up, prompting more prevention training

Reporting from San Diego — Alarmed by a rising suicide rate among their troops, Marine officials announced Friday that all Marines, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan, will receive a two-hour suicide-prevention presentation next month. Commanders have been ordered to record three- to five-minute videos as part of the presentations. The sessions will remind troops [...]

Not Blackwater, but Xe, as in Xena Warrior Princess

Blackwater has gone to ground–sort of.  In a move to apparently distance itself from its image as reckless cowboys that was etched into the world’s mind from the September 2007 Baghdad Nisoor Square shoots, Blackwater USA is once again rebranding itself.  It has changed its name (and presumably legal structure) to Xe.  (Pronounced, “Z” as [...]

Soldier convicted in gang beating death

BERLIN — A U.S. soldier has been found guilty of participating in gang initiation rituals that caused the beating death of another soldier near a base in Germany. Pvt. Bobby D. Morrissette was also convicted on charges of impeding an investigation, impeding a trial by court-martial and willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, the military [...]