A Tableau Of Incompetence, Greed And Disastrous Planning

"Unlike many American reconstruction officials, Mr. Bowen and his staff members routinely leave the security of Baghdad's fortified Green Zone to visit the project sites. His engineers open the doors on electrical panels and check that the wires are carrying electricity. His auditors read receipts and see if the figures add up. [snip] The office has issued 97 audit and inspection reports, many of them sharply critical, while starting 177 investigations that have led to at least five arrests and two convictions of Americans on fraud and other charges. Seventy to 80 of those investigations remain open. What emerges is a tableau of incompetence, greed and disastrous planning tempered by a slate of well-run projects that Mr. Bowen's reports are careful to highlight. [emphasis added - mfi]" Source: NYT 'The Watchdog - In a War Zone, Battling to Keep the Contractors Honest and on Track '

The Perspective of Power

The Perspective of Power Two words - "go read." markfromireland

They Look At You In Mild Surprise

Saudi fighters 'are leading the surge in attacks on British troops' By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent, and Max Benitz (Filed: 31/05/2006) Foreign terrorists, led by fighters from Saudi Arabia, are behind an upsurge in attacks against British troops in Basra, military sources said yesterday. [snip] The Saudi influence on terrorism in Shia-dominated Basra has not been previously reported but has caused concern among military commanders because of their training, technology and finance. Although the majority of Saudi Arabians are Sunni, the minority Shia have taken part in terrorist attacks. [snip] Commanders are concerned that Saudi and other foreign fighters are co-ordinating the attacks in a "consensual environment", in which the locals will not tell the military where roadside bombs have been planted. "The concern is that support for our presence is going down," a defence source said. There is also a strong belief, particularly among the Americans, that Iran is continuing to ferry bombs to Baghdad via Basra. Source: You can read the whole farago from the Daily Telegraph here. OK here goes and with apologies to Hilaire Beloc's ghost: "They look at you in mild surprise And offer other kinds of lies." markfromireland

Me Too! Me Too!

From today's comments at Today In Iraq "This is the typical crap that liberial will spill forward. They never mention the good things that are accomplished or how in a ratio to population more people die in DC than in Iraq. If we judged wars on lives lost then every war is worse than this one and we shouls be under Nazi rule because that was a wrong war to fight as well." Same guy same place: "You people are so busy hating Bush that even if the good things of the war were brought to your face (not hard to find them) you would say they are wrong...If you were actually debating someone in person, they would easily rip your ideas on the war apart. By the way, ready for your lame come backs and more posts on bad things. Democrats are easy to predict, been predicting their movements since 1992. Dumb people. J0kerr | Email | Homepage | 06.01.06 - 7:42 am | # " There's really only one response a civilised human being can give: I hope all the good things of war come to you and your loved ones very, very soon, JOkerr. I hope they come with the same abundance that the current US government has brought to Iraq. And I hope you and yours get the exact same level of medical care as the Iraqi people get. And I mean that sincerely. Susan | Email | Homepage | 06.01.06 - 8:39 am | # (((((Susan))))) markfromireland

Troubled and Humble

One of his brothers was shot dead today Thursday June 1st 2006, the other was seriously wounded. He's sitting outside al-Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad. According to American news sources, the man who is the commander in chief of the armed forces occupying this boy's country and the main source of it's descent into anarchy is "troubled" and adopting a "humbler tone" Bush's change in tone did not signal a change in policies, however. He and Blair refused to set a timetable for withdrawing troops and Bush said conditions on the ground would dictate future decisions about troop levels and commitments in Iraq [snip] Bush was unusually frank in discussing his mistakes in a war that has killed more than 2,400 Americans and thousands of Iraqis, saying he regretted the "Bring 'em on" challenge he issued to Iraqi insurgents in July 2003. He said the remark was the "kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong message to people." Bush also said the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal was "the biggest mistake" in Iraq and had fueled anti-American sentiment in the Middle East. "We've been paying for that for a long period of time," he said. This is of course the same "troubled" and"humbler Bush" who learned of Haditha from the media. No Mr. Bush your biggest mistake was believing you could launch an illegal and racist war and get away with it. And now you think that pretending to be "troubled" and "humble" and coming close to snivelling openly at the memorial day ceremony will somehow rescue you. It won't: This child is sitting in the back of a car carrying his uncle's coffin. His uncle was killed in a drive-by shooting in the Sadiyah neighborhood of Baghdad yesterday. The body is being taken away from al-Yarmouk for burial. Readers might remember hearing of al-Sadiyah, it's where some people were killed, apparently because they were wearing western dress just the other day. Tennis shorts to be precise. It's the place were Umm Saad a 70-year-old lady who ran a small grocery was killed a while back. It's the place where a family were gunned down as they fled the neighbourhood, their mistake was to make it obvious they were leaving by hiring a furniture removal van. How could this happen? Very easily - it's what always happens when a society is deliberaterly collapsed. As these children's society was collapsed, and is still being collapsed, by the government of the United States of America. At whose door should be these barbarities be laid? At the people who did the disgusting deeds? Certainly, but also at the door of the government, the breathtakingly corrupt government of the USA, headed by one George W. Bush. The government that launched an illegal racist and brutal war and is escalating its attempts to foment civil war. Whatever price Bush and his corrupt cronies have to pay, whatever retribution is exacted against them, is nothing compared to the price these childrem and their families are paying - and will continue to pay for their rest of their lives. It's nothing compared to the price that the families of US service personnel killed and wounded in Iraq are paying - and will continue to pay for their rest of their lives. "Troubled?" "Humble?" Neither of those things, simply more manoeuvring by a cynically corrupt liar heading a government of cynically corrupt liars leading a party of cynically corrupt and increasingly openly racist liars, too arrogant to realise that decent people in America and everywhere else are no longer prepared give them benefit of the doubt. What Bush is really troubled by is that it is becoming blatantly obvious even to the most naive American that the "rotten apples" aren't just the American soldiers and their terrorist blood brothers who commit attrocities that the rottenest apples of all are in the Whitehouse, the Senate, and Congress. markfromireland

What Was That We're All Meant To Be "Pro" Again?

The caption for this photo reads as follows: A young boy riding a bicycle looks across at a newly-erected warning sign put up Wednesday, May 31, 2006 on a road around 100 metres from the maternity hospital which Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, a pregnant woman and her 57-year-old cousin Saliha Mohammed Hassan, were driving to for Jassim to give birth when they were killed in Samarra, Iraq Tuesday, May 30, 2006. U.S. forces apparently shot to death two Iraqi women, one of them pregnant, when they fired at a vehicle that failed to stop at an observation post in the town, Iraqi officials and relatives said. [Emphasis added by me, pay particular attention to that figure 100 metres, 100 m = 328' - 1" (feet, inches and tenths-of-an-inch) or to round it off 100 metres is a little bit over 109 yards. - mfi] Now a few points have to be made: There's no apparently about it. They've admitted it. BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women — one of them about to give birth — when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in a city north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials and relatives said Wednesday. Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, was being raced to the maternity hospital in Samarra by her brother when the shooting occurred Tuesday. Jassim, the mother of two children, and her 57-year-old cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassan, were killed by the U.S. forces, according to police Capt. Laith Mohammed and witnesses. The U.S. military said coalition troops fired at a car after it entered a clearly marked prohibited area near an observation post but failed to stop despite repeated visual and auditory warnings. [The image below shows the car in which Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, who was aged 35 was shot to death, along with her 57-year-old cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassan. As Nabiha was being raced to the maternity hospital to give birth to her third child. "Shots were fired to disable the vehicle," the military said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. "Coalition forces later received reports from Iraqi police that two women had died from gunshot wounds ... and one of the females may have been pregnant." Jassim's brother, who was wounded by broken glass, said he did not see any warnings as he sped his sister to the hospital. Her husband was waiting for her there. "I was driving my car at full speed because I did not see any sign or warning from the Americans. It was not until they shot the two bullets that killed my sister and cousin that I stopped," he said. "God take revenge on the Americans and those who brought them here. They have no regard for our lives." He said doctors tried but failed to save the baby after his sister was brought to the hospital. The shooting deaths occurred in the wake of an investigation into allegations that U.S. Marines killed unarmed civilians in the western city of Haditha. The U.S. military said the incident in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, was being investigated. The city is in the heart of the so-called Sunni Triangle and has in the past seen heavy insurgent activity. "The loss of life is regrettable and coalition forces go to great lengths to prevent them," the military said. [Again emphasis added by me - mfi.] The women's bodies were wrapped in sheets and lying on stretchers outside the Samarra General Hospital before being taken to the morgue, while residents pointed to bullet holes on the windshield of a car and a pool of blood on the seat. Khalid Nisaif Jassim, the pregnant woman's brother, said American forces had blocked off the side road only two weeks ago and news about the observation post had been slow to filter out to rural areas. He said the killings, like those in Haditha, were examples of random killings faced by Iraqis every day. [snip] Now take a closer look at this photo: How clear is the language on that sign? How likely is that child to be able to read it? What has been obscured? Now take a second look at the photo: What does this Iraqi boy have on his handle bars? Do you remember this? I'm starting to wonder when we can expect to read about some kid on a bike being shot dead for failing to dismount, slow down, sing "The Star Spangled Banner" (in English natch) .... Hearts and minds are so important after all. But let's get back to the woman shot dead as she was being rushed to give birth in the local maternity hospital. You see there are some other things I'm wondering about: I wonder if the soldier who shot a pregnant woman dead as she was being rushed to a maternity hospital to give birth would describe himself as "pro-life...." I wonder if that soldier's commanders would describe themselves as "pro-life...." I wonder if it occurred to those commanders that putting a check point 109 yards away from a maternity hopsital made a killing of a pregnant woman being rushed into that hospital at night inevitable.... I wonder why it is that these checkpoint "incidents" are always at checkpoints that are very hard to see. In this case late at night by a worried man driving his sister about to give birth to the maternity hospital I wonder if they cared, no I don't wonder about that at all ... the US "regrets" the death ... they're not sorry, and they certainly haven't apologised, they merely "regret" the killing of a woman who according to the press statement the emailed to AP "may have been pregnant." re·gret ( P ) Pronunciation Key (r-grt) v. re·gret·ted, re·gret·ting, re·grets v. tr. To feel sorry, disappointed, or distressed about. To remember with a feeling of loss or sorrow; mourn. v. intr. To feel regret. n. A sense of loss and longing for someone or something gone. A feeling of disappointment or distress about something that one wishes could be different. regrets A courteous expression of regret, especially at having to decline an invitation. I wonder if they realise what it says about them that the dead woman, one usually refers to female adult humans as "women," that in their press release they used the word "female" which one commonly uses when referring to non-humans … … No I don't have to wonder about that either … … I wonder if her two children, her husband, the husband of her cousin who was shot along with here, and the rest of their families are feeling something somewhat stronger than "regret." No that's another thing I dont have to wonder about … … There's something else I don't have to wonder about, I don't have to wonder whether this is what President George W. Bush and his puppet master Richard Cheney mean when they talk about a "culture of life" … … at least when it comes to Iraqi "females" who have two "young" … … (not "children" I mean hey she was a brown person let's keep the language consistent here) … … and who "may" be pregnant. I don't have to wonder about that at all. markfromireland

Hi Garth!

In another town, Iraqis say US killed civilians 31 May 2006 14:55:33 GMT Source: Reuters SAMARRA, Iraq, May 31 (Reuters) - U.S. forces denied on Wednesday a new accusation, from Iraqi officers, that American troops killed unarmed civilians in their home this month. ["Well they would wouldn't they.] [snip] Iraqi army and police officers and several people who said they were witnesses and relatives of the dead said U.S. soldiers killed two women, aged 60 and 20, and a mentally handicapped man in their home on May 4 after insurgents fired on the troops. Spokesmen for the 101st Airborne Division, which controls Samarra and Salahaddin province north of Baghdad, said soldiers from its 3rd Brigade Combat Team killed two unnamed men and a woman in a house who had "planned to attack the soldiers". [snip] [Jeez the US has telepathic troops in Iraq. Who Knew? ] In an initial statement on May 5, the unit had said troops killed three people who had already fired on them from a roof. [snip] [Ah not telepaths just killers trying a coverup with a pack of lies.] A senior Iraqi police officer from the province's Joint Coordination Center (JCC), a unit that liaises between the U.S. and Iraqi security forces, said: "There was shooting outside the house. Samarra police told us that American soldiers went inside and shot three people, including a mentally handicapped man. "They were not armed and there were no gunmen in the house," said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by insurgents who routinely kill policemen. [snip] [Do I really have to point out it's not only the inurgents he's worried about …] There are frequent disputes over incidents between U.S. military and Iraqi officials in Salahaddin, where the Sunni Arab revolt against occupation and the Shi'ite-led government has been strong. U.S. officers have complained of "disinformation" from police as part of an insurgent campaign to discredit them. [Yah brown people are funny that way they don't like the US propping up a murdering dictator, then deciding he's too uppity, then starving their country and preventing things like food and medicine to treat cancer from coming in, then making up a pack of lies so they can declare war, then bombing the place, then looting the place, then killing any civilian who they don't like the look of.... ] RELATIVES' STATEMENTS Army Colonel Fadhil Muhammed, [snip] described the dead as "martyrs", indicating the authorities believed them innocent. [Of course he's a brown person so we mustn't believe him. 'Cos ummmmm he's brown .... ] In his family home in the Sikaak district of Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, Zedan Khalaf Habib told a Reuters reporter that the soldiers killed his 60-year-old wife, Khairiya Nisiyif Jassim, his son Khaled Zedan Khalaf, 40, who was mentally handicapped, and daughter Anaam Zedan Khalaf, 20. Habib, 66, said he was hit in the arm when soldiers fired from a doorway into a room where 15 people had taken refuge in his house after a gunfight broke out nearby. Another daughter said soldiers placed a rifle next to her brother's body and took photographs to suggest he had been armed when killed. [snip] [this is called "planting"] "STAGED EVIDENCE" Shireen, his 36-year-old daughter, said: "After they killed my brother Khaled they shot him three more times in the chest and they put a rifle between his legs to show he was armed and they took a photograph of him." [like I say it's called planting. They do it with people they shoot out in the open too. Dump a shovel next to the and you've got an an instant dead terrorist who's was shot while planting a bomb.] Asked to comment on the allegation, Master Sergeant Terry Webster of the 101st Airborne said the soldiers came under fire from a rooftop after arresting three people nearby who were suspected of planting roadside bombs: "The troops suppressed the rooftop fire, entered and cleared the home. Three people in the home, one woman and two men, were killed in the ensuing firefight. A second woman was injured and transported to a nearby hospital," Webster wrote in an e-mail. "The injured woman confessed that the three people killed had planned to attack the soldiers as they drove by the house. [snip] [What did I tell you?] The unit's initial statement on May 5 said that the three dead were those who had opened fire from the roof: "As the soldiers began to leave the area with the detainees, they came under attack with small arms fire from a nearby rooftop. [Sure enough that's what it says] [snip] markfromireland [PS: Hi Garth! (waves) - see I told you I visit Centcom - that's 'cos I'm a truthful gorilla - mfi ]

Much Ado About Nothing

"Local Tory chief says 'PM's suicide would cheer us up'[snip] Full story here. "In all misfortunes of our friends We first consult our private ends While nature ever keen to ease us Points out some circumstance to please us" (Jonathon Swift) If I were Yankee Poodle Tony I'd be far more worried about the links that were on that page in Today's UK Independent Also in this section Tax credits overpaid for second year running Blair tells beleaguered Prescott: 'We leave office at the same time' Reid returns for dawn raid on foreign suspects Liberal Democrats call for Primarolo to resign Harman to 'break taboo' and back double burials "People in politics can be vicious bollixes " (markfromireland)

No Civilised Army Takes Children Hostage Until Their Father Surrenders

It doesn't matter what their father did or is suspected of doing, no civilised army takes children hostage until their father surrenders. I'm not going say anything further because to express my feelings I'd have to use language that would require me to ban myself permanently from my own blog. And no I'm not even slightly surprised after all American soldiers have openly admitted using Iraqi children as human shields: "The first time he saw them, Mayer admits that he was making the calculations of a man in the midst of a war. He was tired, he was battered, and he was back at a Hit street corner that he had patrolled many times before. In Iraq, repetition of any sort could be an invitation of the wrong sort - an event for which insurgents could plan. So Mayer and Schuller took out some of the candy they carried, thinking that if children were around, perhaps the terrorists wouldn't attack." and instead of being courtmartialed for it and thrown out of the army in disgrace they get approving articles written about them on Military.com. markfromireland

Lost In Land That Cannot Provide - Yet Another Update.

I meant to write this posting yesterday but ran out of time. Yesterday's Khaleej Times published a feature article entitled "Dozens of women widowed each day in Iraq struggle to survive" Since I started this blog I've written repeatedly about the plight of widows and orphans in Iraq and the desperate poverty many of them face. I have a horrid feeling that I'll be revisiting this topic often. markfromireland

Family Outing

I've written before on the significance of Najaf. It's the location of the Imam Ali Mosque, (the Meshed Ali/the Tomb of Ali.) as such it is venerated as a holy site by all Muslims but particularly by Shiites, most of whom believe that Imam Ali is buried there. It was bombed on August 29 2003 and determined measures are in place to prevent a repetition — the consequences are too horrific to contemplate. This photo taken today Tuesday May 30th 2006 illustrates one of them. At this time of year Iraqi children have school exams. They'd just about be over by now. This group of kids have finished theirs and as a treat are being taken to visit the Meshad to be followed by a picnic. To prevent car bomb attacks cars are forbidden in the neighbourhood — so other means of transport have to be found. markfromireland

Because nothing says “I’m sorry” like snipers

I missed this telling little detail .... "An American unit attended the funeral to apologise, but not before it had positioned snipers around the mourners, " Because nothing says “I’m sorry” like snipers Respectful knuckling of my gaelic gorilla's brow to today's posting by Zig at Today in Iraq markfromireland

One of many war-loving old bastards

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer again bumbles into old news and proudly reports it. He’s shocked, shocked, that Marines in Haditha murdered as many as 24 Iraqi civilians in cold blood last November and then tried to cover it up. Also shocked is Senator John Warner, one of many war-loving old bastards residing comfortably in the US Capitol. Warner, icon of the aging, do nothing and morally challenged Senate that has cursed this country throughout the late 20th and early 21st century, looked very serious today after being briefed by the Pentagon brass on a horrendous bit of terroristic brutality committed by US Marines in the name of freedom, democracy, human rights, and anti-terrorism. [snip] Instead, modern American military leaders, like trained dogs, sit silently alert. They are not alert to the physical, psychological and moral damage to Americans in uniform brought on by enforcing a wrongheaded police state in a shattered Iraq. Instead, they are alert only to any sign that their political masters may be displeased. Barring that, our great military leaders are as silent as the tombs in which nearly 2,500 Americans already rest. No emperor or king, no Stalin or Pol Pot, could be more delighted with the state of our current military leadership. [snip] We ought to set our sights a bit higher, and begin in a serious way to politically destroy those people in Washington who placed our young men and women in Iraq, on such a frivolous and insincere mission. Those worthy of a criminal punishment include much of the Senate, many in the House, and of course, our great decider, his untrustworthy Vice President, and their Pentagon senior staff. Read the entire article here.

A Perfect Metaphor

If ever there were a perfect metaphor for what's going on in Iraq because the Bush administration decided to launch an illegal and racist war on Iraq with the intention of carving it up, this photo is it. As I sit and type this Monday May 29th 2006 17:25, the reports coming in put the number of killed as at least 33 and "dozens" wounded. ..... Correction make that 35 .... BAGHDAD, Iraq - CBS News said Monday that two of its crew members were killed in an attack on a U.S. military unit in Iraq. Correspondent Kimberly Dozier was seriously wounded, the network said markfromireland Update: as of 19:22 29/05/2006 60 confirmed dead today. mfi

Sunday Afternoon Poodle Quisling Blogging

Quisling (1940) A word Norwegians are not very proud of having given to the world: it derives from Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945), a Norwegian politician who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. He established his name as a synonym for "traitor", someone who collaborates with the invaders of his country, especially by serving in a puppet government. The Right Honourable. Anthony Charles Lynton Blair MP Quisling (born 6 May 1953), is the Prime Minister of Britain, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, George Bush's ally poodle collaborator, Quisling, and MP Quisling for Sedgefield Crawford, Texas. Discussing the deployment of British troops to Iraq in a 2006 interview he said he considered himself ultimately accountable to President George W. Bush and nobody else for his actions. He lists his role model in "Who's Who" as Neville Chamberlain, and his greatest pleasure as hearing Richard Cheney calling him a "good boy." Has there ever been so cravenly, abjectly, blatantly, traitorous a British Prime Minister as Tony Blair? Even that misguided appeaser Neville Chamberlain genuinely loved his country and wanted to keep her strong. As I wrote and re-wrote this posting my overwhelming emotions were pity and embarassment for my British friends and relations, and pity and embarassment for the British Servicemen, the British Servicewormen, and British Officers that they should have to risk their lives on behalf of this man. Blair doesn't even have the bad excuse that his country has been violently overrun by foreign troops. Some people choose of their own free will to degrade themselves, to completely and abjectly abase themselves and their country before somebody else. Tony Blair brings quislingdom to previously unimaginable lows. To my British readers, friends, and family, all I can say is that I pity you and that I'm embarassed for you, and that today Sunday May 28th 2006 I thank God that I'm not British. Quisling Blair (1940) 2006 A word Norwegians the British are not very proud of having given to the world: it derives from Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945), Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) a Norwegian British politician who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II the Bush régime in it's wars of agression. He established his name as a synonym for someone who eagerly abets the crimes the invaders of his country of a corrupt foreign government, by serving in running a puppet government in a previously independent country that for all its faults had retained a sense of the importance of freedom and decency. markfromireland

Site News: Site(s) Search Added

I've added two site search forms to the side bar as the blog search provided by blogger.com's blogger bar at the top of the screen is woefully inadequate. Strange really as it's a modified Google search and blogger.com is a division of Google but there you go. . Each of the searches use google to the sidebar. Each confines the search to the site in question, here, or markfromireland. The form which searches my other blog — markfromireland has been included at Ali's, Hussain's, and Peder's, suggestion. At some point I'll create a search page with a clustered search and link to it in the side bar when I get some spare time … … … "spare time" … … … fascinating concept I wonder what it means … … … :-) markfromireland