Legal Notices 1 2 and 3

Legal Notice 1 The following link is to disturbing imagery intended for individuals 18 years of age or older. Access to explicit material is prohibited to minors! You must be 18 years of age or older to access explicit material. Misrepresenting your age in order to gain access to this explicit material may be a violation of local, state and federal law. If you are not 18 years of age or older, then you may NOT continue and you MUST PRESS YOUR BACK BUTTON NOW! BY CLICKING THE FOLLOWING LINK YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND ELECTRONICALLY 'SIGNED' THE FOLLOWING CERTIFICATION IN ORDER TO ACCESS the explicit imagery. I, the undersigned, under penalties of perjury solemnly declare and affirm the following : By clicking the link and entering this site I certify that I am 18 years of age or older, and that the above statements are true. Please note all participants in this explicit material were 18 or over at the time of PHOTOGRAPHING them engaged in explicit acts. (Certificates Available) I am an adult, being at least 18 years of age. I am not accessing this material for any illegal or improper use. I subscribe to the principle that free adults have the right to decide for themselves what they will read and view without governmental interference. It is legal to view explicit material in my country. I will not let people under the age of 18 take a look at this explicit material. I will not redistribute this explicit material in any manner whatsoever. Link (1) Legal Notice 2 The following link is to disturbing imagery intended for individuals 18 years of age or older. Access to explicit material is prohibited to minors! You must be 18 years of age or older to access explicit material. Misrepresenting your age in order to gain access to this explicit material may be a violation of local, state and federal law. If you are not 18 years of age or older, then you may NOT continue and you MUST PRESS YOUR BACK BUTTON NOW! BY CLICKING THE FOLLOWING LINK YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND ELECTRONICALLY 'SIGNED' THE FOLLOWING CERTIFICATION IN ORDER TO ACCESS the explicit imagery. I, the undersigned, under penalties of perjury solemnly declare and affirm the following : By clicking the link and entering this site I certify that I am 18 years of age or older, and that the above statements are true. Please note all participants in this site were 18 or over at the time of PHOTOGRAPHING. (Certificates Available) I am an adult, being at least 18 years of age. I am not accessing this material for any illegal or improper use. I subscribe to the principle that free adults have the right to decide for themselves what they will read and view without governmental interference. It is legal to view explicit material in my country. I will not let people under the age of 18 take a look at this explicit material. I agree that President George W. Bush is a dangerously deranged murderous little cocksucker who looks and behaves like a rabid chimpanzee and I promise to redistribute this explicit material in every manner whatsoever available to me. Link 2 Legal Notice 3 If you want to use any of the graphics linked to in this posting I'd be pleased if you'd specify that you first saw them either at: http://gorillasguides.blogspot.com/ or at my other blog http://markfromireland.blogsome.com/ But it's absolutely NOT obligatory. This posting was inspired by this posting at watertiger's place. markfromireland

Hey Karl It's Friday

and we're waiting for you ... soon soon our little pretty ... you will be ours ...

Murtha - Marines killed Iraqis ‘in cold blood’

"WASHINGTON - A Pentagon probe into the death of Iraqi civilians last November in the Iraqi city of Haditha will show that U.S. Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood," a U.S. lawmaker said Wednesday. From the beginning, Iraqis in the town of Haditha said U.S. Marines deliberately killed 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women and three children. Full story here Here's how Time broke the story back in March: One Morning in Haditha U.S. Marines killed 15 Iraqi civilians in their homes last November. Was it self-defense, an accident or cold-blooded revenge? A TIME exclusive I wrote about this here: Children of Abraham - Death in the Desert A few things need to be said about this disgusting disgraceful barbaric episode: This crime was committed by a group of men completely and totally out of control - they literally went berserk. It proves yet again as though proof were needed that American troops are exactly same as anyone else and given the right circumstances they'll behave as barbarically as everyone else. I am not even slightly surprised by this. I wasn't even slightly surprised at the time and I'm unsurprised now. Disgusted outraged infuriated yes I'm all those things what I amn't is even slightly surprised. This filth is done by soldiers in all wars. It is particularly common in colonial wars and it is particularly common in civil wars. The war being waged by America in Iraq is both. The only difference between this particular act of barbarity and all the other acts of barbarity is that this group of men instead of sub-contracting the murder and mayhem to a mercenary firm or to one of their local hired killers decided spontaneously to do the job themselves. That's the only difference. NO not quite the only difference: As to this from Rep. Murtha: "There was no firefight. There was no IED (improvised explosive device) that killed those innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them. And they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. That is what the report is going to tell." [Emphasis mine - markfromireland] Murtha and everyone else who peddles this line are at best being somewhat naive. This was not an "overreaction" this was the inevitable result of bad training, being on the losing side, and of having been indoctrinated for years that the people who live in the country in which you are fighting, man, woman, and child, are subhumans without honour, dignity, or rights. It is the inevtable result of being taught for years that you are the "good guy" and that you are entitled to behave as you will because you're the "good guy." The other difference between this and the other numerous warcrimes being committed in Iraq on all sides is that this pack of murderers got caught. There is one last thing to be said - the blood of the people murdered in Haditha is on those mens hands. But they have American blood on their hands too. Their wantonly savage behaviour has served only to deepen the hatred and the contempt in which the people in whose country American soldiers routinely commit crimes regard all American soldiers. By serving as recruiting sergeants for those fighting against them those men have directly contributed to the deaths of the Amercian and allied armed forces personnel killed in Iraq since the massacre at Haditha. markfromireland

Melanie's Feelings

I got an email this morning, my email address is easy enough to find if you're prepared to put a bit of effort into to looking for it, from a total stanger in Phoenix Arizona who wanted to tell me how hurt her feelings were at my criticism of what her country is doing in Iraq. That it would all work out in the end, that America had brought freedom to Iraq and that Americans cared, really they care about the terrible things going on and that was why America had sacrificed and would continue to sacrifice so much in Iraq. I wrote back asking her what she personally had done or had sacrificed I asked if for example she had emailed her Senators or Congresspeople or if she had ever donated to a charity for relieving the suffering in Iraq. Melanie wrote back saying no she hadn't done any of those things and she wasn't going to vote in the next election either because "they're all the same" and she doesn't think any of them will do anything about "these people" "overruinning (sic) my country". Feelings: Pain Grief and Dread Haider Ali is 11 years old he was injured yesterday Tuesday, May 16th, 2006 in the bus terminal bombing in Baghdad and treated at Yarmouk hospital. The hand holding his is that of his father Swadi Ali. The grief striken teenage boy being led away from Yarmouk hospital has just identified his father's body - killed in the same bombing. The woman gesturing anxiously is on her way to the Kindi hospital in Baghdad. Her son Ali was at the bus terminal when the bombing and shooting attack was committed. According to another email I got this morning. She wasn't able to find him. Meanwhile in Basra .... "One person is being assassinated in Basra every hour, as order in Iraq's second city disintegrates, according to an Iraqi Defence Ministry official. And a quarter of all Iraqi children suffer from malnutrition, a survey of 20,000 households by the Iraqi government and Unicef says. The number of violent killings in Basra is now at a level close to that of Baghdad, and marks the failure of the British Army's three-year attempt to quell violence there. Police no longer dare go to the site of a murder because they fear being attacked. The governor of Basra, Mohammed Misbahal-Wa'ili, is trying to sack the city's police chief, claiming that the police have not carried out a single investigation into hundreds of recent assassinations. The collapse of government authority in Iraq is increasing at every level and leaders in Baghdad have yet to form a cabinet, five months after parliamentary elections on 15 December. Insurgent attacks on American and British troops are also proving more lethal, with 44 US soldiers and seven British killed so far this month, and with daily losses exceeding anything seen for more than a year. Majid al-Sari, an adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Defence, describing the situation in Basra to the daily al-Zaman, said that on average one person was being assassinated every hour. Militiamen and tribesmen are often the only real authority. When Sheikh Hassan Jarih al-Karamishi was killed by men dressed in police uniforms at the weekend, Mr Sari said his heavily armed armed tribesmen stormed one police station in south Basra, killing 11 police, and burnt down two other buildings, headquarters for a political party." UK Independent Today Wed May 17, 2006 the bodies of the two Attey brothers - Abbas who was aged 12 and his brother Hussein who was aged 8, both of whom were murdered yesterday in the bombing in Baghdad were put into a single coffin and tied down to the roofrack of a bus bound for Najaf so that they could be buried in the Wadi-us-Salaam ("Valley of Peace") cemetary. Najaf is dedicated to Imam Ali, the Wadi is where Imam Ali is buried it's probably the largest cemetery in the world, because most Iraqi Shi'i ask that they be buried there. Now it holds two more bodies scythed down in their innocent blood at the behest of the United States the country which has invaded, occupied, and is now breaking up Iraq the country which was their home. In related news the most emailed stories on Yahoo News As I was writing this posting were: Feelings: Pain, Grief, Dread, Indifference, Contempt. Dear Melanie, I don't give a flying fuck about your feelings. Yours sincerely, markfromireland

President George W. Bush described militias as one of Iraq's main challenges

"Roger Wright, UNICEF’s Special Representative for Iraq, lamented that children were confirmed as the major victims of food insecurity. “The chronic malnutrition rate of children in food insecure households was as high as 33 per cent, or one out of every three children malnourished,” he stated. Chronic malnutrition affects the youngest and most vulnerable children, aged 12 months to 23 months, most severely. “This can irreversibly hamper the young child’s optimal mental and cognitive development, not just their physical development,” he said. Acute malnutrition was also of concern, with nine per cent of Iraqi children being acutely malnourished. The highest rates (12-13 per cent) were again found in children aged under 24 months. [Translation: Most of those children are likely to die very young because they haven't enough food to develop a properly functioning immune system. You do the arithmetic 12-13% means one child in eight. Take a group of 8 Iraqi children one of them will be acutely malnourished] Continuing food insecurity in Iraq cannot be attributed to any one factor, but stems from several causes, including the lingering effects of war and sanctions, plus the ongoing conflict and insecurity. Their protracted and complicated interactions have resulted in increased unemployment, illiteracy, weakened infrastructure – power and water and sanitation in particular – and the direct loss of wage-earners for many families. Iraq’s food insecurity is thus not simply due to lack of production of sufficient food nationally for the population, but more a failure to ensure access to sufficient food at the household level, the study suggests. [Translation: Between sanctions, war, the war crime of deliberately bombing things like water purification plants, the current day to day killing of principal food earners, and the occupiers' ongoing campaign directed at breaking up Iraq a lot of people are in dire need. Unfortunately even distributing food relief is becoming a difficult and dangerous job.] The PDS ration has represented by far the single most important food source in the diet and is still a major factor in stabilizing food security in Iraq, where 15 per cent of households are classified as Extremely Poor. Coping mechanisms that have had to be used by such households include consuming cheaper and poorer quality foodstuffs, reducing the number of daily meals and/or buying food on credit. [Translation: Without the food handouts people will literally work for food of course there's not much work which is why I've previously published pohots of women and children combing the garbage dumps for food. It's also why in Baghdad you find kids prostituting themselves quite literally for a handful of potatoes.] Educational levels have an impact on accessibility to food, with the more educated generally having greater ability to cope with difficult situations and a higher probability of employment. The study raises concerns about a growing drop-out rate among students under 15 years of age – 25 per cent of students under 15 who lived mostly in rural areas and were identified as extremely poor had dropped out of school, the main reasons for this being that households could no longer afford the expenses of schooling, that the schools were located too far away from home and that some children had to be sent to work to supplement household incomes." [Translation: Do I really have to translate that? Of course another factor is that schools are closing all over the place because the teachers fear for their lives.] Source: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) I've added the caption provided by AFP to the photo let's translate that: A displaced Iraqi .... = She's been driven out her home. a bag of ration ... = What's in the bag is what she has to feed herself and her children with. She has to make it last at least a day. Also in the caption was this little gem: "President George W. Bush described militias as one of Iraq's main challenges" - Words fail me. It's not just the militias George. ELEANOR HALL: So you're saying that it's not just the militias, it's not just the gangs that are creating problems for doctors, it is the authorities who are making life difficult? SALAM ISMAEL: Exactly. Exactly. The American coalition forces, they are making retirement of some of the head seniors of doctors. This is exactly after the invasion, and they are forcing them to retire and leave the country because accordingly they are from background of Ba'ath party. And, you know, the Ba'ath party people are joining it because of their need of money at that time. Anyway, the other part of it is after that the accusing of doctors of treating insurgents is one of the major cruels that's played in affecting doctors in themselves. In many areas doctors have been arrested, detained, told, I mean torched by… and beating inside their own clinics, and that's happened several times in the west of Iraq. ELEANOR HALL: You're saying that's by coalition forces? SALAM ISMAEL: Yes, by coalition forces. And we have evidence. Read the whole thing here markfromireland

You are not alone and you are not powerless - Guest Posting by Siun

Introduction: I regularly get asked "What can I as an American do about what the Bush administration is doing to my country and Iraq?" in this guest article by my regular reader and commenter Siun I hope those who ask this question find some useful suggestions, resources, and some encouragement. (The links in Siun's posting all open in a new window or tab depending on how your browser is set up.) It's easy as Siun says to fall into despair. Don't, you are not alone, and you are not powerless. The corrupt and incompetent Bush administration and their corrupt thieving political allies want you to believe that there is nothing you can do. As with so much else they say it's a lie. You are not alone, and you are not powerless. markfromireland It's pretty easy to fall into despair these days - we are all horrified at the apparent Bush plans to attack Iran and at the daily devastation of the war in Iraq. Yesterday's news about NSA spying didn't surprise many of us but once again it made us ask "what can we do to stop them?" While I'm normally an optimistic soul, these days it's hard to find the answer. I know we can't ever do enough to repay the sufferings of the Iraqi people - but we can try to stop the horror from increasing - and along with demonstrations and letters and calls, we have some tools that you may not have realized -- We all know that big money has a big influence on government policies and since we're not the big money folks, we think we're outside that loop. Think again - the really large investors or "institutional investors" often represent us. If you're a taxpayer, part of your taxes are used to fund pension funds for state employers. If you're affiliated with a university, you have an interest in the investment of the endowment. If you're a teacher, your pension is most likely invested through a large fund such as TIAA - CREF (http://www.tiaa-cref.org/) or CalPers (http://www.calpers.ca.gov/) . These funds have a "fiduciary duty" (Tiaa - fiduciary_respons.html) to invest wisely and to avoid unnecessary risk. This is where you come in - for example in the case of the NSA spying, you can call or write your state treasurer (http://www.nast.net/#YourTreasurer) and ask if the state pension funds have any holdings in the telecom companies who handed over your privacy to the Bush regime. Let them know that these companies face massive class action suits due to their illegal actions. Tell them that you are very upset that the portion of your tax dollars invested on behalf of state pensions are being placed in such high risk investments. Do the same with your pension fund. Institutional investors get big notice - and they are big because they invest on behalf of so many people like you. And because they invest for you, they have a fiduciary responsibility to you. You can do the same thing if you are in a mutual fund - check the companies your fund invests in (they are listed in your prospectus) and ask why they are risking your money. We're just past annual meeting season so it's too late for shareholder resolutions but a wave of calls questioning these investments can have a big impact. These strategies are being used more and more frequently by environmental activists and human rights activists. Take a look at what's being done to push investment funds and corporations to address the risks of climate change for example through Ceres http://www.ceres.org/investorprograms/ -- or remember the effectiveness of the divestment campaigns which fought apartheid. There's great information in this article about the current campaign directed at companies that benefit from business in the Sudan: "Doing good by voting with your dollars" http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/21/yourmoney/mdivest22.php. And we can look for similar ways to influence Bush's forever war - a good start would be to check whether your pension or mutual fund invests in Halliburton or Bechtel or any other of the war profiteers. If you're an individual investor, you might consider changing your portfolio to reflect your beliefs. Take a look at the socially responsible investment funds - Calvert (http://www.calvert.com/digest.html) or Pax World Funds (http://www.paxworld.com/) are just two examples - but don't stop there. I noticed that Calvert has holdings in some of the telecom companies involved in the NSA spying - and they do listen to their fund members on issues like this. A great source of information on ethical investing and shareholder activism is SocialFunds.com (http://www.socialfunds.com) and the Corporate Watchdog Radio broadcasts (http://www.corporatewatchdogradio.org/). While the above ideas point to US resources, the ethical investment movement is worldwide. For European information, a good place to start is Eurosif http://www.eurosif.org/ , for Asia, ASRIA http://www.asria.org/ and this article about the 9th International Islamic Finance Forum in Dubai describes growing interest amongst Middle Eastern financial professionals http://www.ameinfo.com/81123.html . The move to replace the old bottom line with a "triple bottom line" (people, planet, profits) is taking hold in places you would not expect. At the end of April, the UN announced the UN Principles for Responsible Investment http://www.unpri.org/principles/ and by May 1, these principles had been endorsed by holders of $4 Trillion in assets. This is a hopeful sign and one which we can participate in by demanding that our own money is not paying for the crimes we protest against. Two other ways to participate in making a difference have grown out of blog communities: First, the Netroots campaign (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/21/125817/793) launched by Firedoglake (http://www.firedoglake.com) , Glenn Greenwald (http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/) and Crooks and Liars (www.CrooksandLiars.com) is organizing people into state groups who then work together to lobby congress. To get involved with your state's group, simply email with your state only in the subject line to: stateproject at gmail dot com and Pachacutec and the Netroots team will hook you up. The other is to attend the YearlyKos Convention (http://www.yearlykos.org) - it's not just for 'Kossacks' - and is an independent, all volunteer effort to bring together the blog community to "amplify your online voice - saying what YOU have to say to these politicians, leaders, thinkers and writers in person …This is an event to help build important, politically active communities that can make a real difference in the public sphere." Siun Afterword: Other than to format the article and to add the following links I have left Siun's article completely unchanged. Firedoglake has a list of articles dealing with the netroots project and citrizen activism. The movement is growing impressively and already people inside the beltway. The smug consultants and the "beltway bandit" are taking alarmed notice: Citizen Action Netroots Project If you have further links or suggestions please leave them in a comment here or at the same article as this at my other blog. I guarantee that Siun and the people beginning to take back America for her citizens will take note. You are not alone, and you are not powerless. markfromireland Update: Second link if Afterword fixed. Thanks Shez. mfi

Bombing of Imam Abdullah Ali al-Hadi shrine

Thre's really nothing much to say here that you can't read elsewhere. It's very bad news, the shrine is very important to the Shia. The bad news is alleviated only slightly by the fact that apparently nobody was killed. Baqoubah (بعقوبه) is the capital of the Diyala Governorate (province) well within what the Western Media insist on calling the "Sunni Triangle." Despite being heavily occupied and having both an airfield and an army base (which used to be called Camp Boom - you can guess why) it has never been completely subdued and the US army have repeatedly lost control of it. The main thing that this bombing proves is that somebody or somebodies in Iraq are determined to ensure the breakup of Iraq provoking the majority into all-out civil war. markfromireland