from the aclu

a document proving (as if we needed FURTHER proof...well some like that asshole bishop who denies the holocaust are sticking their heads in the sand on this one as well) THE UNITED STATES TORTURES PEOPLE

Unredacted documents reveal prisoners tortured to death
Stephen C. Webster
The American Civil Liberties Union has released previously classified excerpts of a government report on harsh interrogation techniques used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. These previously unreported pages detail repeated use of "abusive" behavior, even to the point of prisoner deaths.

The documents, obtained by the ACLU under a Freedom of Information Act request, contain a report by Vice Admiral Albert T. Church, who was tapped to conduct a comprehensive review of Defense Department interrogation operations. Church specifically calls out interrogations at Bagram Air base in Afghanistan as "clearly abusive, and clearly not in keeping with any approved interrogation policy or guidance."........

huh?

no effing way. ok, this is somewhere president obama MUST step in and put his foot down. kbr should NEVER EVER be awarded an electrical contract by ANYONE much less the pentagon. no. this MUST be reversed and now

KBR wins contract despite criminal probe of deaths
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – Defense contractor KBR Inc. has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The announcement of the new KBR contract came just months after the Pentagon, in strongly worded correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, rejected the company's explanation of serious mistakes in Iraq and its proposed improvements. A senior Pentagon official, David J. Graff, cited the company's "continuing quality deficiencies" and said KBR executives were "not sufficiently in touch with the urgency or realities of what was actually occurring on the ground."

"Many within DOD (the Department of Defense) have lost or are losing all remaining confidence in KBR's ability to successfully and repeatedly perform the required electrical support services mission in Iraq," wrote Graff, commander of the Defense Contract Management Agency, in a Sept. 30 letter.

Graff rejected the company's claims that it wasn't required to follow U.S. electrical codes for its work on U.S. military facilities in Iraq. KBR has said it would cost an extra $560 million to refurbish buildings in Iraq used by the U.S. military, including Saddam Hussein's palaces, which among other problems are based on a 220-volt standard rather than the American 120-volt standard...........

i'm actually surprised they're

making this public. why? because of all the prior lies lies and more lies we've had to hear

our brave men and women COULD HAVE been better protected (and still can of course)

but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

we're fucking worrying about wall street and ceo salaries and cars NOT human lives

NOTE: THEY KNEW BEFORE the war started. BEFORE

and we're not just talking deaths here either. we're talking traumatic brain injuries and amputations and more. with the competence of the medics in the field now more of our troops are living BUT AT WHAT COST?

Report: Marines slow to get protective vehicles into Iraq
By Mike Mount
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Marine Corps knew of the threat posed by roadside bombs before the start of the Iraq war, yet did nothing to buy protective vehicles for troops, according to a report to be released by the Pentagon.

Additionally, Marine leaders in 2005 decided to buy up-armored, or reinforced, Humvees instead of Mine Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles to shield troops in Iraq from mines and other explosives -- a decision that could have cost lives, according to the report obtained Tuesday by CNN.

The report by the Department of Defense inspector general was requested by the Marine Corps in early 2008 after a civilian employee with the service complained that bureaucratic delays undermined the program to develop the armored vehicles.

Inspectors found that the decision not to buy MRAP vehicles in 2005 stopped the Marine Corps Combat Development Command, the agency in charge of finding the best protective vehicle from troops in Iraq, from "developing a course of action ... to attempt to obtain funding for [MRAPs]," according to the report.........

and the domestic violence

continues. in many cases with NO consequences to the perpetrator.

do you think it's a good idea to continue to arm this type of person and keep sending them into combat? i don't

Despite Army’s Assurances, Violence at Home
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
On Christmas Day two years ago, Sgt. Carlos Renteria, recently back from his first tour in Iraq, got drunk and, during an argument, began to choke his wife, Adriana. He body-slammed her. He threw her onto the couch, grabbed a cushion and smothered her, again and again — until, finally, he stopped, she told the police in San Angelo, Tex. He was arrested and charged with assault, and she went to the hospital for her injuries, which included bruises and a severely swollen knee. It was his second domestic violence arrest. Assured by an Army officer that the military would pursue the case, the Texas prosecutor bowed out.

Yet Sergeant Renteria has faced no consequences. Instead, since his arrest, he has been redeployed to Iraq and promoted to staff sergeant. ........

monday morning humor

by the way, i filled my car up yesterday (only 1/2 tank give or take) and i have a lil' subaru, it was approximately $23.00. oh, and i didn't torture anyone either. just an fyi

Chevron adds former Pentagon legal chief to legal staff
East Bay Business Times - by Mavis Scanlon
Chevron Corp. has hired as its chief corporate counsel William Haynes II, who until February was general counsel for the Department of Defense. Haynes, who will report to Chevron General Counsel Charles James, replaces former chief corporate counsel William Buck, who retired, according to Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson.
As reported in Newsweek, Harper's and elsewhere, Haynes, who was general counsel at the Pentagon from 2001 until his resignation in February, is under Senate scrutiny for his role at the Pentagon, specifically for his role in crafting policies that led to alleged abuses of detainees and terror suspects at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
In an April 5 article, Newsweek reported that Haynes had requested a memo from the Justice Department that concluded that federal laws against torture, assault and maiming would not apply to suspects interrogated overseas. "The memo's disclosure raises new questions about the role that Haynes and other Bush administration lawyers played in crafting legal policies that critics say led to abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere," Newsweek wrote. Haynes has hired criminal defense attorney Terrence O'Donnell and has agreed to be interviewed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to Newsweek.
In his new role at Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Haynes, who is 50, will supervise Chevron's staff of more than three dozen attorneys.
Haynes is considered an ally of Vice President Dick Cheney and a longtime supporter of President George Bush; he even volunteered to make calls on Bush's behalf when Bush was up for election in 2000, according to a Senate questionnaire Haynes submitted when he was nominated in 2003 to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va. ...........

i don't know if you've read about the death of col. ted westhusing

or not. i have and i've posted on it. col westhusing was alleged to have committed suicide. the HIGHEST ranking officer in iraq to have died. well now, there may be doubt about the CAUSE of death. it might very well be MURDER
A Death Reconsidered
Was Col. Ted Westhusing's death in Iraq something more sinister than suicide?
Robert Bryce
Since last March, when I wrote a story about the apparent suicide of Col. Ted Westhusing in Iraq, I had believed there was nothing else to write about his tragic death.
But in December, I talked to a source in the Department of Defense who met Westhusing in Iraq about three months before his death. The source, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, was investigating claims of wrongdoing against military contractors working in Iraq. After a short introduction, I asked him what he thought had happened to Westhusing. “I think he was killed. I honestly do. I think he was murdered,” the source told me. “Maybe DOD didn’t have enough evidence to call it murder, so they called it suicide.” I contacted the source through Larry C. Johnson, a former employee of the CIA who specializes in terrorism and security issues, and who writes the “No Quarter USA” blog. Johnson and other bloggers have written extensively about Westhusing’s death.
Two other factors led me to look into the story again: First, some members of Westhusing’s family—in particular his mother, Terry Clark—refuse to believe that the career Army officer, who was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head at Camp Dublin on June 5, 2005, took his own life.
Second, the curiosities about Westhusing’s death are getting attention on Capitol Hill. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by California Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman, has interviewed members of Westhusing’s family and some of the investigators who met with Westhusing in Iraq in 2005. A spokesperson for the committee confirmed that it is “looking into the matter.”..........

another catch-22 moment

DoD Flip-Flop: YouTube Banned, But Watch It
US Mil Calls on Troops to Watch Its YouTube Channel After Nixing YouTube Access

One day after the Pentagon banned US military personnel worldwide from accessing the wildly popular YouTube Web site via DoD computers and networks, the weekly electronic newsletter of the US-led Multi-National Forces-Iraq (MNF-I) today makes a banner appeal for US forces and others to watch MNF-I's new YouTube channel.
Oops................

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

the department of state vs the department of defense

at odds over how to rebuild iraq. i'm sitting here stunned. why does ANY branch or organization of the united states decide how to BEST "rebuild" iraq? hey peeps, IT AIN'T OUR COUNTRY. WE have NO power there (well we should NOT have any power there). what are we going to do? do the same thing we've done in other countries? put some sort of puppet government in place - whereupon they too eventually turn against us.

i'm waiting for the rest of the united states to wake up and DEMAND from their congress people and senators an END TO OUR OCCUPATION OF IRAQ

Defense Skirts State in Reviving Iraqi Industry


By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 14, 2007; Page A01
Paul Brinkley, a deputy undersecretary of defense, has been called a Stalinist by U.S. diplomats in Iraq. One has accused him of helping insurgents build better bombs. The State Department has even taken the unusual step of enlisting the CIA to dispute the validity of Brinkley's work.
His transgression? To begin reopening dozens of government-owned factories in Iraq.
Brinkley and his colleagues at the Pentagon believe that rehabilitating shuttered, state-run enterprises could reduce violence by employing tens of thousands of Iraqis. Officials at State counter that the initiative is antithetical to free-market reforms the United States should promote in Iraq...............