Showing posts with label iraq war crimes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iraq war crimes. Show all posts

Friday, November 14, 2008

Old Blackwater, keep on rollin'

New Blackwater Iraq Scandal: Guns, Silencers and Dog Food

A federal grand jury in North Carolina is investigating allegations the controversial private security firm Blackwater illegally shipped assault weapons and silencers to Iraq, hidden in large sacks of dog food, ABCNews.com has learned.

Under State Department rules, Blackwater is prohibited from using certain assault weapons and silencers in Iraq because they are considered "offensive" weapons inappropriate for Blackwater's role as a private security firm protecting US diplomatic missions.

"The only reason you need a silencer is if you want to assassinate someone," said former CIA intelligence officer John Kiriakou, an ABC News consultant.
[...]
Two other former employees tell ABCNews.com they also witnessed the dog food smuggling operation. They say the weapons were actually hidden inside large sacks of dog food, packaged at company headquarters in North Carolina and sent to Iraq for the company's 20 bomb-sniffing dogs.
[...]
A Blackwater spokesperson, Anne Tyrrell, said certain arms shipmens were sent to Iraq surrounded by dog food "to secure them on the airplane and not to smuggle them."
Yeees, we had to put the illegal weapons in dog food to 'secure' them. Gee, I wonder what the cargo manifest said? (Actual reporters might have, you know, tried to find that PUBLIC INFORMATION out.)

While it isn't proof, it's indicative that it wasn't just a few 'bad apples', but a coordinated effort by a mercenary corporation to subvert the laws of the US and Iraq.

But what do you expect from a company that rapes women and shoots civilians?



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Headlying of the day

Stevens's Reputation 'Sterling,' Powell Says

Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell told jurors in the corruption trial of Sen. Ted Stevens yesterday that the powerful Alaska Republican had a "sterling" reputation among the nation's military and political leaders.

"He was someone whose word you could rely on," said Powell, who also is a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Yep, that's the colon Powell who lied to the world and helped bring about the Iraq war.

Here are some excerpts from his speech to the UN on Thursday, February 6, 2003:
One of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on Iraq's biological weapons is the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological agents.

Let me take you inside that intelligence file and share with you what we know from eye witness accounts. We have firsthand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails.

The trucks and train cars are easily moved and are designed to evade detection by inspectors. In a matter of months, they can produce a quantity of biological poison equal to the entire amount that Iraq claimed to have produced in the years prior to the Gulf War.
[...]
We know that Iraq has at lest seven of these mobile biological agent factories. The truck-mounted ones have at least two or three trucks each.

[...]
Ladies and gentlemen, these are sophisticated facilities. For example, they can produce anthrax and botulism toxin. In fact, they can produce enough dry biological agent in a single month to kill thousands upon thousands of people.
[...]
There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more. And he has the ability to dispense these lethal poisons and diseases in ways that can cause massive death and destruction. If biological weapons seem too terrible to contemplate, chemical weapons are equally chilling.
[...]
Iraq could use these small UAVs which have a wingspan of only a few meters to deliver biological agents to its neighbors or if transported, to other countries, including the United States.
He accompanied his presentation with bogus US English translations and bogus sat photos.

These were all lies. Even colon Powell admits in 2005 his presentation was lies. But he just considers them a "blot on his record."

Excuse me, but a 'blot' is an ink stain, what he did was an atrocity, leading to more atrocities, leading to 4,180+ American deaths and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths.

But what would you expect from a guy who was supposed to investigate the My Lai massacre said "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."*

Later, in 2005 this colon told Larry King "I was in a unit that was responsible for My Lai.[...] So, in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they are still to be deplored."

By his own words he was in the unit responsible for My Lai, and he was charged to investigate it. Hmm, no wonder an underling was charged for those murders.

So why should we trust him later when by his own words he knew he'd lied to the UN.

Gosh Mr. Powell, if I'm ever a defendant in a trial? Please, please, don't volunteer to be a character witness!

Addendum one: The wrongwingers talk about the 'angry left', you're g'dam right we're angry! Even at the time we knew it was lies, we were proven right, and every day, 5 1/2 years later, we still have our patriotism being questioned for pointing out the obvious!

Addendum two: Senator Obama, if you get elected, the first thing you should do is bring the country together to solve our, and now the world's, economic crisis.

The second thing you should do is bring all these war criminals to justice.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Friday, August 08, 2008

Little boxes made of ticky tacky

U.S. segregates violent Iraqi prisoners in crates

The U.S. military is segregating violent Iraqi prisoners in wooden crates that in some cases are not much bigger than the prisoners.

The military released photos of what it calls "segregation boxes" used in Iraq.

Three grainy black-and-white photos show the rudimentary structures of wood and mesh. Some of the boxes are as small as 3 feet by 3 feet by 6 feet tall, according to military officials.
The can't lie down or sit down and they're held in little boxes for up to 12 hours in 100+ degree heat.

Boss Kean would be proud.

"We don't torture", yeah, right.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak