A selection of letters sent by the playwright but never printed:
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 15:20:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Ron Brynaert" | Add to Address Book
Subject: Alessandra Stanley's Defense of Terrorism
To: letters@nytimes.com
To the editor,
Alessandra Stanley's attack on Oliver Stone ("A Noted Filmmaker in a Tense Land," June 5) continues the Embedded Media's crusade to defend the brutal
regimes that control the 'Axis of the Good' - US,Britain and Israel. Any time a lone, brave soul from the left raises their voice in dissent he or she is
branded with a mark as "famous", "simple" or "foolish."
In one horrifying sentence, Ms. Stanley describes an Israeli soldier shooting at rock-throwing Palestinians as merely "arrogant", but still
"innocent." Perhaps she can reapply these descriptions in a future story concerning the NYPD's applications of concussion grenades, plungers and US
Post Office uniforms.
While it's true that Ms. Stanley doesn't sink as low as a "Foxified" cheerleader, this piece is as one-sided as her typical 'bipartisan' media critiques. But then this "fair and balanced" television reviewer has also written on the "proliferation of television choices" for frustrated antiwar groups that this reader is never able to find in the TV listings.
I'm not surprised by anything the Times prints while still publishing Judith Miller's Pentagon de-briefed WMD deceptions. This despite her violation of the Times' policy that bars its writers from belonging to public political groups, as in her alliance with the recent government hire - the
repugnant Daniel Pipes.
Meanwhile, the last open 9-11 Commission hearing provided nothing "fit to print," even though collateral bombshells were dropped in testimonies by
the FAA and NORAD. Thank the heavens, at least, for Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich and Paul Krugman who compose the only liberal unit within the Times' mostly yellow pages.
Thanks for taking down my 'bleeding heart' medicine,
Many of the thousands of people who have been looking toward the internet for more believable coverage of the Iraqi Invasion have been turning to sites that are supposedly fed information by Russian intelligence services. Alternative news sites such as WhatReallyHappened.Com, NYC.IndyMedia.Org, Rense.Com and Buzzflash.Com have all linked daily updates from a site called Aeronautics.Ru which purports to gather information collected from intercepted radio and satellite transmissions from Coalition forces and embedded journalists. Many times during this illegal war, stories straight from the mouths of Pentagon chickenhawks have been refuted at this site including several accounts of Coalition (of 2) occupation of the cities Basra and Umm Qasr and the nondowning of helicopters and tanks by Iraqi troops. Also, Aeronautics.Ru's casualty stats are triple those so far provided by Centcom. They believably explain this discrepancy by claiming that the Coalition waits until after an investigation is completed and the so-called toe is tagged before reporting deaths, a process that can take anywhere from several days to a week. Their numbers of Coalition wounded seem more accurate, as well, since they are at the more common triple-the-deaths rate no matter what Donald Rumsfield says.
Today, a site called Iraq.Ru reports about alleged coalition criminal activities. "But apart from clear marauding of “peshmerga”, the coalition command has more and more problems with keeping the decent moral level of their fighting soldiers. Spite and irritability are growing even in British troops, which were always “correct enough” towards the civilians on the occupied territories. In increasing frequency British soldiers show violence and rudeness towards civilians. At a recent consultation at the British HQ, a representative of the military police command pointed at the fact that even actions of arresting people suspected in underground activities occur with unnecessary violence and publicity, and resemble rather intimidation than special police operations. The command issued a special order regarding the required behavior in the occupied regions, but even after it had been published a few analogous incidents were registered. An event that had happened 5 days before also received publicity at the coalition HQ. During a night “cleanup” in one of suburban houses near An-Nasiriya three marines shot a man and afterwards raped and shot his wife. The command got information about this accident from one of its informers. After interrogation the marines were sent to Qatar for additional investigations. In increasing frequency commanders find things belonging to Iraqis in their soldiers’ rucksacks. The soldiers are discontent of their commanders attempting to cease this practice, and call those items “war salvage”. Currently the command is preparing a special order regarding this issue.
In an interview with Dr. Gene Bolles, a 66 year old civilian neurosurgeon at a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, Colorado's Boulder Daily Camera reports that young men, aged 18, 19, and 20, with "horrific injuries", including lost arms, legs and hands, and significant brain injuries have been arriving by plane load regularly. Up until April 4, the hospital had admitted 281 wounded from the war. Officially, the USA lists 75 dead; Britain, 27 killed. Iraq has not reported their number of military dead, but estimates civilian casualties at 1,252 killed and 5,103 injured.
posted by Ron Brynaert 10:12 PM
Bush and his daddy, Cheney, Rumsfield etc. War Crimes
"To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
-- International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, 1946
"All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state..."
-- U.N. Charter (Chapter I, Article 2)
"It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as ...
drinking water installations and supplies."
-- Geneva Conventions (Additional Protocol I, Article 54)
In 1991: "By disabling electricity and water, the U.S. intended to pressure the Iraqi leadership by imposing widespread suffering on the civilian population. Brig. Gen.
Buster Glosson, the architect of the U.S. air war, stated that one purpose of the bombing was to 'put every household in an autonomous mode and make them feel they were isolated... I wanted to play with their psyche.'
Another U.S. Air Force planner explained that 'we wanted to let people know, "we're not going to tolerate Saddam Hussein or his regime. Fix that and we'll fix your electricity."'"
Professor of international law at Ohio State University, John Quigley said on April 4, "Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, an occupying power has the obligation of 'ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population.'
If news reports of the U.S. military conditioning the delivery of food supplies on Iraqis providing information are true, that is a violation of international law."
President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner said April 4, "This war is an aggressive war and is flatly contrary to international law. It is neither in self-defense nor has it been authorized by the Security Council.
That makes it a crime against peace."
The massacre of eleven women and children in a van at a checkpoint outside of Najaf on March 31 was described a bit differently than the Pentagon's version by inbedded purporter William Branigin of the Washington Post. But leave it to the media to mostly roll with the 'official' version. Although the Government claimed that warning shots were fired, it appears that they were fudging. In the April 1st edition, Branigin wrote of U.S. Army Captain Ronny Johnson's radio instruction.
"Fire a warning shot," he ordered as the vehicle kept coming. Then, with increasing urgency, he told the platoon to shoot a 7.62mm machine-gun round into its radiator. "Stop [messing] around!" Johnson yelled into the company radio network when he still saw no action being taken. Finally, he shouted at the top of his voice, "Stop him, Red 1, stop him!" That order was immediately followed by the loud reports of 25mm cannon fire from one or more of the platoon's Bradleys. About half a dozen shots were heard in all.
"Cease fire!" Johnson yelled over the radio. Then, as he peered into his binoculars from the intersection on Highway 9, he roared at the platoon leader, "You just [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough!"
Before the Post article and after the Pentagon fairy tale, Fox TV's John Gibson told the public, "We warn these cars to stop. If they don't stop, fire warning shots. If they don't stop then, fire into the engine. If they don't stop then, fire into the cab. And today some guys killed some civilians after going through all those steps."
Some U.S. papers printed both versions, but the New York Times only presented the propaganda with the headline, "Failing to heed warning, 7 Iraqi women and children die."
Let's not also forget that they also initially lied about how many women and children were killed (10 at first but one died later in the hospital) and that there weren't any men in the van.
1. March 20 - Saddam Hussein may have been killed in the first night's surprise assassination attack.
2. March 22 - Even if Saddam wasn't killed, Iraqi Command and control was no doubt "decapitated."
3. March 22 - Umm Quasr has been taken.
4. Morch 22 - Most Iraqi soldiers will not fight for Saddam and instead are surrendering in droves.
5. March 22 - Iraqi citizens are greeting Americans as liberators.
6. March 23 - An entire Iraqi division, 8,000 strong, surrendered en masse near Basra.
7. March 23 - Several Scud missiles, banned weapons, have been launched against U.S. forces in Kuwait.
8. March 23 - Saddam's Fedayeen military are few in number and don't pose a serious threat.
9. March 23 - Basra has been taken.
10. March 23 - Umm Quasr has been taken.
11. March 23 - A captured chemical plant likely produced chemical weapons.
12. March 23 - Nassiriya has been taken.
13. March 24 - Umm Quasr has been taken.
14. March 24 - The Iraqi Government faces a "major rebellion" in Basra.
15. March 25 - A convoy of 1,000 Iraqi vehicles and Republican Guards are speeding south from Baghdad.
16. March 19 - Tariq Aziz has defected to Bulgaria.
17. March 27 - Ali G is dead.
18. March 27 - Two British soldiers (Luke Allsop) were executed.
19. April 5 - Lt. Gen Michael Mosely says the Republican Guard doesn't really exist anymore.
20. April 1 - Pfc. Jessica Lynch was stabbed and shot during the rescue attempt.
21. April 4 - Saddam Airport is under coalition control.
22. April 4 - White powder that may be WMD found in Ali G's
posted by Ron Brynaert 9:22 PM
You say Demonopolise, I say Demon police
Even though der pretzel fuhrer has declared Iraq's oil for the Iraqi people, it seems that the Kurds have other ideas. They seek to put an end to the state's 'monopoly' of the oil and open the door to international companies (as long as they're based in Texas). Darra Attar, an Iraqi Kurd oil consultant said "We are going to demonopolise the oil" at US backed policy meeting (that included nobody from Iraq, of course). He promised to up production of oil from 2.2 million barrels a day to the OPEC quota of 3.2 million. "The national interest will be the most important thing." Which is why of course he's opening the door to only those international companies that have Iraq's best interests at heart (Russia, France, Germany and Syria [huh] need not apply thanks to the actions of the United States House of Representative who passed a resolution forbidding them to take part in the Redestruction).
Meetings of the state department backed Oil and Energy Working Group take place behind closed doors with unknown participants (come in, dick cheney). This was the fourth meeting, the first held outside of Washington.
posted by Ron Brynaert 8:25 PM
The Heart of Baghdad
The southern suburbs of Baghdad was transformed into the center of Baghdad today according to US officials. After claiming that the coalition (of 2) had entered at will into the heart of Baghdad after taking over Saddam Airport, unilateral journalists still left in the city could not find hide or hair of them. Major General Gene Renuart had this to say, "I'm pretty confident that in some parts of downtown London you can't see what is going on in other parts of London. I can't give you any better answer than that." I guess the truth is not an appropriate answer for Centcom.
Meanwhile, Operation Iraqi Freedom continued its shocking awesome destruction of the regime's statues and mosaics while bypassing all of the cities. The commander of the first regiment of marines, Colonel Joe Dowdy, was stripped of his command yesterday in an almost unprecedented occurence (even in peacetime). No explanation was given for the regime changer's change but the new commander was deemed "more aggressive." Perhaps Col. Dowdy suggested that it was time to wait for fresh troops before committing to a siege in Baghdad and Pres Bush/Rumsfield overruled him. Col. Dowdy, the self-proclaimed "point of the spear", had this knowledgable soundbite before he shipped out from Camp Pendleton, San Diego, "It's a big thrill for all of us to be here to support the war on terrorism." Yeah, that's the ticket.
posted by Ron Brynaert 8:09 PM
Friday, April 04, 2003
Fotog Fired for Faking Foto
Brian Walski, an award winning photographer for the Los Angeles Times since 1998, lost his job on Tuesday, April 1st after admitting to doctoring a photograph which was available on the national wires last weekend. He did it supposedly to improve the composition.
He used a composite of two photographs which he claimed to have snapped moments apart near the Al Zubayr Bridge outside of Basra. The photo depicts a British soldier directing the movement of civilians who were supposedly being shot at by the Iraqi military. Some of the Iraqis in the picture appear to be amateurishly duplicated. Also, the soldier's arm has been doctored to make it seem like he is guiding them when in reality he has both hands on the weapon with a finger on the trigger.
The 25 year veteran wrote a 200 plus word apology to his former co-workers in which he claimed, "that this was after an extremely long, hot and stressful day but I offer no excuses here." What day isn't extremely long, hot and stressful during a war in the desert?
The photo ran on the front page of Connecticut's Hartford Courant. Oddly enough, according to Editor and Publisher Magazine, both newspapers are on the short list of finalists for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for feature photos. The Chicago Tribune also prominently featured the photo on Monday.
posted by Ron Brynaert 8:14 PM
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Myweigh another liberal blog http://myweigh.blogspot.com
Tatooine Iraq In his Dispatch from the Front column (Sunday, New York
Post - March 30, 2003), inbedded purporter Vince Morris writes about
134 Iraqi prisoners of war processed in the Al Diwaniyah Region of
Central Iraq. "They are tagged - with a note card and information
written in indelible ink on the back of their neck...kept in a
culvert dug by the Iraqis more than a decade ago to stop any advance
on Baghdad."
Surely, writing on human being's necks constitutes humiliation, which
is a violation of the Geneva Convention in regards to POWS. And what
is the meaning of indelible ink. Will these Iraqis bear these marks
forever? This practice seems very reminiscent of the manner in which
the Nazis tattooed the prisoners of their concentration camps.
But let's not forget that Nazi stands for Nationalist Socialist and
when the Supreme Court's selected President speaks of saving the oil
for the Iraqi people (pure socialism) one has to
wonder. http://myweigh.blogspot.com
Will there be an investigation into the actions of Gunnery Sgt. John Merriman and Sgt. Eric Schrumpf for evidence of war crimes committed in the illegal war in Iraq?
The New York Times published a cover story (Saturday, March 29,2003), about American snipers being used in Iraq, which featured a number of disturbing quotes from Sgt. Schrumpf. "We had a great day. We killed a lot of people." "I'm sorry, but the chick was in the way." Those two quotes appeared in a number of different places across the web in the mainstream and alternative universe but it was another, not as widely cited quote which struck me the most. "We dropped a few civilians but what do you do?"
Another account widely viewable on the web (The Times of London - the marines ruminated on what they had done) quotes a gunnery Sgt. John Merriman who is a veteran of the first gulf war. He talks about an incident that occurred while he was busy shooting. A woman with a child started to walk calmly so he put a pause to his fusillade. "I was shooting down a street when suddenly a women came out and casually began to cross the street with a child no older than 10. At first, I froze on seeing the civilian woman. She then crossed back again with the child and went behind a wall." Suddenly, an Iraqi soldier materialized and began releasing rounds just as the woman popped out of sight behind a wall. "Within less than a minute, a guy with an RPG came out and fired at us from behind the same wall." Sgt. Merriman evidently came to the conclusion that this was not a coincidence. "Ok, I get it. Let her come out again," he warned. "She did, and this time I took her out with my M-16."
"The Iraqis are sick people, and we are the chemotherapy," said Ryan Dupre. "I am starting to hate this country. Wait 'til I get hold of a friggin' Iraqi. No, I won't get hold of one. I'll just kill him."
First off, I was anxious to get going so I did not afford a tremendous amount of time to the title of my bloggery. My apologies to Paul Anka and the former Chairman of the Board for my feeble punning, but it seems an okay fit. My intent is to weigh in on topical events and such, and since it's my space, the opinions expressed may be a tad bit tyrannical.
Speaking of tyrants...
Ahhhh, since I started my first blog with the word peace, I'm going to hold off on talking about the warmonger until tomorrow. Incidently, tomorrow, Monday, March 31 will be the date of the first open to the public meeting of the 9-11 Commission. I'll be weighing in on that as well tomorrow.
Peace.
letters, comments, hate mail - edkranepool@yahoo.com
