micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links |
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Welcome to the musings and notes of a Cadillac, Michigan based writer named Micah Holmquist, who is bothered by his own sarcasm. Please send him email at micahth@chartermi.net. Holmquist's full archives are listed here.
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Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution) Aljazeera.Net English Blogs that for one reason or another Holmquist would like to read on at least something of a regular basis (always in development) Thivai Abhor |
Thursday, August 12, 2004
America's heroes have some fun with Afghans and other notes for August 12 In today's edition, The Age writes about more good fun GI Joe is having: American authorities have reportedly launched an inquiry into allegations of sexual and physical abuse by US marines against 35 villagers in central Afghanistan.*** "Basra Deputy Governor Salam Uda al-Maliki has said he is to announce the separation of some Iraqi southern governorates from the central Baghdad government," Aljazeera writes in an August 10 story. "Informed sources told Aljazeera that al-Maliki said the breakaway province would include Basra, Misan and Dhi Qar governorates." This could lead to regional instability, writes Erich Marquardt in a January 28 piece for The Power and Interest News Report . *** "Ordinary Iraqis, who have been suffering for decades due to the consequences of wars and UN sanctions, were more than willing to give Allawi's US-appointed government a chance to restore stability and end military occupation... However, given the fact that the US forces' military operations in Iraq have not substantially changed since the "handover of sovereignty", many Iraqis have again raised the vital question: Has sovereignty really been restored and the occupation ended?" Ahmed Janabi writes in an Aljazeera story from yesterday. "On the ground, US military deployment has not changed; the number of foreign troops is increasing and recent statements by US officials - since the so-called handover of authority on 28 June - that the US military is staying in Iraq for years to come, have led citizens to doubt whether a new life is on the horizon." *** "At least 165 people were killed and more than 600 wounded in heavy fighting across Iraq over the past 24 hours as US marines moved to wipe out Moqtada al-Sadr's militia forces in the holy city of Najaf," Nicolas Rothwell writes in an August 13 piece for The Australian. *** Patrick Cockburn says the corruption doesn't end with the Chalabis (CounterPunch, August 10). *** *** "Hands Off Najaf," says Voices in the Wilderness (August 11). *** "[T]he inspector general tasked with investigating what led to the Army's abuse of prisoners in Iraq [Vice Adm. Albert Church]... is questioning – under oath – all Army military intelligence (MI) personnel who interrogated prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gitmo, signaling that responsibility for the Torturegate scandal is creeping up the chain of command," Paul Sperry writes in an article published on antiwar.com today. "And he's asking them some fairly pointed and relevant questions, including some regarding the use of stress positions and unmuzzled dogs during interrogations, and whether commanding officers pressured them into applying such harsh tactics on prisoners in Iraq." I'm sure there's nothing to this and it was all a bunch of bad soldiers. *** "The head of Iraq's nuclear programme under Saddam Hussein has said Iraq destroyed its nuclear weapons programme in 1991 and never restarted it," says an August 11 BBC piece. "Jafar Dhia Jafar told the BBC sanctions and inspections worked in stopping the reconstitution of the programme." Well at least we got them before they got us. *** Since the hawks were wrong about Iraq, they shouldn't be trusted on Iran, says Martin Sieff in a salon.com piece published yesterday. *** The Star nails Kerry (August 11, 2004): Rising to Bush's bait, Kerry said he would have cast the same Yes vote in Congress that he did on Oct. 11, 2002, to authorize the president to launch a pre-emptive war that began March 19, 2003, even if Kerry had known that Saddam Hussein had no ties with Al Qaeda terrorists, no weapons of mass destruction and posed no real threat to the world.*** "Iran's defense ministry said on Wednesday it had carried out a field test of the latest version of its Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile which defense experts say can reach Israel or U.S. bases in the Gulf," writes Paul Hughes of Reuters (August 11). "Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said last week Iran was working on improvements to the range and accuracy of the Shahab-3 in response to Israel's moves to boost its anti-missile capability." *** Otto Reich has said he wants to get rid of Hugo Chavez, Philip Stinard of VHeadline.com reports in a June 24 story. *** From the "Team Bush doesn't care about our safety file, "European terrorism analysts acknowledge that the U.S. and its allies are under threat by Al Qaeda, but some suggest that the White House is unnecessarily adding to public anxiety with vague and dated intelligence about possible attacks. Some in Western Europe suspect the administration is using fear to improve its chances in the November election," Jeffrey Fleishman writes in a story yesterday's Los Angeles Times. "Terrorism experts say too much publicity about possible plots and raids of Islamic extremist networks, including the arrest of 13 suspects in Britain last week, could hurt wider investigations. American politicians have called for an examination of that contention. Officials in Pakistan reportedly said Tuesday that Washington's recent disclosure of the arrest of a suspected Al Qaeda operative, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, allowed other extremists under surveillance to disappear." *** Criminal photographer Ian Spiers has a blog, brownequalsterrorist.com. |