>Wow.
The Hersh story I posted goes into more detail. Must be true; they're denying it:
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2004/nr20040515-0793.html
Statement from DoD Spokesperson Mr. Lawrence Di Rita
"Assertions apparently being made in the latest New Yorker article on Abu Ghraib and the abuse of Iraqi detainees are outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture.
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Here's another yummy 'wow':
Iraq 'power play' behind leaking of jail abuse report
<...>
An official of the International Committee of the Red Cross expressed deep discomfort about the leaking of the prison abuse report, and pointed the finger of suspicion at the American administration in Iraq.
See full text of the ICRC Report http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/Opinion2.asp?ArticleID=120957
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Also, anyone know anything about this guy, Patrick Seale? He says, "Boot Bush. Vote Kerry. USuk Out!" I know he's a Brit journalist and author, but I was wondering about his politics, reputation, etc.
Patrick Seale: An Iraq exit strategy for the United States 14/05/2004
<...> The best, perhaps the only, hope is that Bush's discredited Administration will be thrown out next November leaving a new team to clean up the catastrophic mess. Because of his experience in Vietnam and his thoughtful, compassionate personality, John Kerry, the democratic presidential candidate, may be the right man to heal the wounds from America's colonial war in Iraq and lead his country to greater moral maturity.
<...> Instead, they invented the fiction that "Islamic terror" was the product of "failed states", of authoritarian regimes, of anti-Israeli incitement. It followed that, for the US and Israel to be safe, Arab regimes had to be "changed" and their societies "reformed", if necessary by force.
This was the ultimate rationale for the war: it was to be the first step in a wholesale remodelling of the region to suit US and Israeli strategic interests.
<...> Beyond argument
It seems beyond argument that the US and Britain should leave Iraq without delay and hand the future of Iraq back to the Iraqis, with help from the UN. The argument that Iraq will fall apart if US forces leave is as fraudulent as the arguments used to justify the war.
Iraqis are a mature people who long for security and political independence free from foreign control. They have capable military and civilian cadres ready to assume responsibility for their country and determined to avoid either a return to dictatorship or inter-communal strife.
The one thing they want from the US is money to repair the damage of war and thirteen years of punitive sanctions. The US should get out and pay up. http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/Opinion2.asp?ArticleID=120949
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Complaint by Holden triggers Army inquiries
By KIT WAGAR The Kansas City Star
JEFFERSON CITY — Gov. Bob Holden's complaint that Missouri National Guard soldiers were being used to provide cheap labor for a private contractor in Iraq has sparked two military investigations, the Army said Wednesday.
Lt. Col. Mike Negard, a spokesman for the U.S. Army chief of staff, said his office and the Central Command in Iraq were looking into Holden's complaint to President Bush and similar complaints to military officials by the adjutant general of the Missouri Guard.
Holden wrote to Bush on Tuesday, saying that soldiers from the 1221st Transportation Company from the Missouri National Guard were ordered to work for Kellogg, Brown & Root, a civilian contractor that hauls water, food and other supplies in support of U.S. troops.
Such a situation would put the soldiers at risk because they are trained to respond to an attack as a unit, not while driving or riding with civilians, Holden said.
<snip>
"How can I answer the outcry of loved ones and families of these dedicated soldiers who charge that we have mobilized and deployed a National Guard unit as a cheap source of labor for a rich defense contractor?" Shull wrote.
more http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/world/8652982.ht...