Iraq

MinnPost and "The Burqa Effect"

Filed under: Iraq

I've spent a lot of time in Iraq. Most of it before the invasion, some of it after. I was last there on assignment for a small newspaper out of Kansas City just two weeks after Baghdad fell. I flew into Amman, Jordan and stopped in at a hotel that had become a sort of staging ground for journalists heading into Iraq. I dropped by a lobby bookstore--which, in 2003, was filled with a shockingly useful collection of scholarly books on the Middle East. I asked the kind middle-aged woman who staffed the counter which of these books were selling best. They weren't selling, came the reply. The overnight war reporters, it seemed, were in too much of a hurry to be curious. And, with clear and honorable exceptions, it showed in their reporting.

I stopped reading much of the "on-the-ground" reporting from Iraq two years ago (again, with some exceptions) at about the time that much of the reporting reporting became painfully redundant--narrowed as it was to the reporter reporting on the trials of reportage.

Worse than the articles were (are) the endless radio and TV interviews, where reporters are given ample opportunity to reveal their ignorance of the country they were (are) covering, a country that just happened to be among the most misunderstood in the world.

We need all the help we can get to know Iraq and Iraqis better, and we just aren't getting it. I call it "The Burqa Effect"--because of all the American reporters in Iraq who have seen the abayas or hijabs worn by many Iraqi women and called them burqas. The problem? That's Afghanistan, friends, where they speak a different language, have acclimated to a different climate, and were bombed and invaded in a different calendar year.

A few recent examples of the burqa problem: Dina Temple-Raston reporting from Baghdad in March, 2008 speaks of "burqa-clad" Iraqi women. In February 2008, ABC's Chris Cuomo speaks of a female suicide bomber "hiding a bomb under her burqa" in a report aired on Good Morning America.

Let me break it down...

You'll never see this in Iraq:

Photo by BabaSteve

You'll see this:

Photo by James Gordon

Or this:

Photo by James Gordon

And you'll also see this:

Photo by Chris Kutschera

Got me?

Which brings me to MinnPost, whose guiding credo--"a thoughtful approach to news"--I wholeheartedly endorse (first person who says hair metal gets a swift flick to the ear).

I've already explained my allergy to American "on-the-ground" coverage, so it should come as no surprise to you that it took me a few months to get around to MinnPost's Iraq coverage. I finally went for it recently, and hit the brakes at the caption to the lead photo.

The photo is of a really big mosque. Specifically, it is a photo of what was going to be called the Saddam Grand Mosque until Hussein was ousted and all of his megalomaniacal plans thwarted.

What is it about the caption? MinnPost calls the mosque, which is hardly an obscure feature of Baghdad's landscape, a temple.

It's the burqa problem all over again. Buddhist worshipers have temples. Hindu and Jewish worshipers too. But Muslims--they have mosques. This is no small thing. While Iraq is not a Muslim country only, the mosque is central to the infrastructure and the culture of Iraq.

I have all but given up hope for any constructive end to this war, but I am certain that there is some tiny sliver of hope to be had in the media's ability to educate its readers, listeners and viewers on the base nuances of one of the most talked about and misunderstood nations (Iraq) and religions (Islam) of this young century.

MinnPost, you are not the problem. Far from it. But you have stumbled into one, and in doing so have provided a good opportunity to step out of the fog of headlines and deadlines and reassess our point of departure in covering Iraq, its people, and this five-year-old war.

What the MinnPost coverage did extremely well was document the American experience of war. But when Iraq appeared as a character in John Camp's dispatches, it was from a speeding Blackhawk helicopter and he had little more to say about the Iraq found beyond the fortified walls of American military encampments than his observation that the country is quite "tan" from above.

This is a shame. In an interview before heading off to Iraq, Camp told MinnPost that "after reading Iraq war stories for several years, I really, in my mind's eye, don't know what it looks like, or smells like, or sounds like..."

Of course, the challenges and dangers to a reporter hoping to know the sights, smells and sounds of Iraq are many--but it is not impossible. Too often reporters head to Iraq with an authentic ambition to know the place better, but fall back instead on something much less complicated.

And it is with that in mind that I humbly offer my two cents (and I'm not just offering said cents to the good people at MinnPost):

Don't stop trying, but do try harder.

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at May 5, 2008 6:37 AM | Comments (6)

 

Follow the story: The wars on Terror and PTSD

Filed under: Iraq

The L.A. Times reported on a RAND study released this month discussing the psychological impact of guerrilla warfare on soldiers and the failure of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to keep pace in the wake of the wars on terror. The study shows one in five veterans suffer from psychological problems and that many are not getting adequate care.

An estimated 300,000 veterans among the nearly 1.7 million who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan are battling depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. More than half of these people, according to the study conducted by the Rand Corp., are slipping through the cracks in the bureaucratic system, going without necessary treatment.

The Rand study underscores one of the lessons of modern counterinsurgency conflicts: Such wars may kill fewer troops than traditional fighting but can leave deeper psychological scars.

Besides the personal and often devastating social repercussions to soldiers and their families dealing with combat related mental health issues, (See City Pages' piece on soldier suicides last month and its online post about Minnesota veteran Noah Pierce.) the Rand report also delves into the economic costs associated with not providing adequate health care for veterans with PTSD who, without treatment, are likely to turn to drugs and alcohol, and fall into homelessness or legal trouble. (See our story on local vet Tony Klecker who killed a 16-year-old girl while drunk driving.)

Failure to adequately treat disorders can cost the government billions of dollars, said Lisa H. Jaycox, one of the study's authors. "We make the case that investing in treatment early would prevent some of the negative consequences from unfolding and save money," Jaycox said.

Unfortunately, despite the lessons learned in Vietnam, the VA has entered into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unprepared, a complaint many associate with a lack of funds and trained expertise.

The VA maintains that it is doing everything possible to increase quality of care, especially after a Washington Post investigation last year found wounded Iraq war veterans living in ramshackle housing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Nonetheless, according to the Dallas News, portions of a Texas VA had to close this week, after 4 mentally ill patients were able to commit suicide while on the hospital’s grounds.

Bryan Catherman, a former staff sergeant in the Army Reserve, quoted in the La Times' story says he sank into a depression and abused alcohol after returning from overseas.

At first resisting his family's pleas to get help, he later encountered frustration in dealing with Veterans Affairs. Today, he credits the VA for the help he needed, but thinks the government misread the problem.

"The system is overburdened," Catherman said. "We should have learned from Vietnam. I feel, as a veteran, that once I got home from Iraq, I wasn't much of a concern anymore."

Posted by Beth Walton at April 18, 2008 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

 

Shouts of wrongdoing: will veterans's protests against the wars be heard?

Filed under: Iraq

Hundreds of veterans will travel to Washington, D.C. this weekend to speak out against the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan in an effort to expose what Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and other peace groups are calling “the human consequences” of failed U.S. military strategy and war policy in the Middle East.

“We broke it, we bought it,” says former army specialist Steve Mortillo in a graphic IVAW video released this week. “But, we’re buying it with American lives. Just what do you think the purchase price is for that damage?"

"There is no forgiveness in my book for someone who sits here in America and orders Americans into battle to die and makes money off of it and profits hand over fist and lies through their teeth to keep it going. I mean at some point it becomes enough.”

IVAW has posted online a short, graphic film that includes video and photographs of the war taken by active duty soldiers to generate interest. It’s worth watching--if you can stomach the gore. Fair warning: by "graphic," we mean a realistic depiction of war, including bloody children, blown apart heads, screaming, grieving crowds and the dead bodies of Iraqis and U.S. soldiers.

In the words of former Marine Corporal Jason Washburn, who was instructed to evaluate a town considered an insurgent stronghold after a U.S. military air strike:

We rolled through there and I didn’t see anything that I could identify as an enemy combatant. There were dead women, children, men all over the place, homes completely destroyed… One of the things that stood out in my mind was the torso that was hanging from a street sign. It was just some kid, you know. Nobody had weapons; there was nothing like that anywhere. We basically reported it as total destruction, but a victory on our side.

I just couldn’t understand how that could be so when we were supposed to be there to liberate these people and we were just destroying them.

Winter Soldier testimony, including sessions on “Corporate Pillaging and Military Contractors,” “the Dehumanization of the Enemy” and “Aims of the Global War on Terror: the Political, Legal, and Economic Context of Iraq and Afghanistan” will be streamed online and broadcast on radio outlets starting Thursday, March 13, continuing through the weekend.

Winter Soldier Two is modeled after a Vietnam G.I. resistance movement in 1971. Initially ignored by the mainstream media, soldier testimony at the time brought legitimacy to the antiwar movement and eventually led to a congressional investigation, helping bring the Vietnam War to an end, says history professor Scott Laderman, who holds a doctorate from the University of Minnesota.

Some 37 years later, it will be interesting to see what happens this time.

Ten members of the local Iraq Veterans Against the War chapter are attending Winter Soldier Two. City Pages profiled one of them--a former guard at Camp Bucca, a U.S. military holding facility in southern Iraq-- last week.

"What I saw hasn’t been on television," says Iraq war veteran and IVAW member Brandon Day, 29, of Saint Paul, who worked with other veterans to fact-check soldier testimony prior to Winter Soldier to ensure military records and eyewitness accounts could substantiate the soldiers’ claims.

“This will be the war stories with the PR stripped from them,” he says.

Posted by Beth Walton at March 13, 2008 2:20 PM | Comments (0)

 

Reporter's Notebook: Abbas Mehdi

Filed under: Iraq

A helmeted Abbas Mehdi with his South African security guards in Baghdad (Photo courtesy Abbas Mehdi)

As St. Cloud State sociology professor Abbas Mehdi moved into his Green Zone office last year--the beginning of his six months of service in a cabinet-level position in the Iraqi Government, General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker were preparing for testimony before congress and a leaked U.S. Embassy report was bouncing around the internet, first obtained and published by The Nation.

The draft--over 70 pages long--reviews the work (or attempted work) of the Commission on Public Integrity (CPI), an independent Iraqi institution, and other anticorruption agencies within the Iraqi government. Labeled "SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED/Not for distribution to personnel outside of the US Embassy in Baghdad," the study details a situation in which there is little, if any, prosecution of government theft and sleaze. Moreover, it concludes that corruption is "the norm in many ministries."

The report depicts the Iraqi government as riddled with corruption and criminals--and beyond the reach of anticorruption investigators. It also maintains that the extensive corruption within the Iraqi government has strategic consequences by decreasing public support for the U.S.-backed government and by providing a source of funding for Iraqi insurgents and militias.

"Of course I had heard about the corruption," Mehdi told me in his office at St. Cloud State. "But really, I had no idea."

Mehdi was in Iraq to imagine and implement Iraq's shift from a public sector economy to one dominated by the private sector. It was a tall order and after six months he resigned. At his Minnetonka house, he says it was all too much--it was taking a toll on his health. Still, he thinks constantly about going back.

In our conversations, Mehdi always returned to Iraq's critical infrastructure--all but disintegrated. Whatever frustration he voiced--with the Iraqis or the Americans--ended with: "People are dying!"

Iraq's hospitals come up often with Mehdi. Already hurting after a decade of international trade sanctions that blocked the delivery of critical medical equipment and medicines, the post-invasion looting was a death knell for Iraq's health care system. There have been few portrayals of the situation in Iraq's hospitals less filtered than a short film shot by a doctor at Baghdad's Al-Yarmouk Hospital. It's a well done piece and be warned, it is not easy to watch.

Much of what haunts Mehdi now that he is back home, he says, is having seen the situation for himself--the bad and the good. In that vein, I've gathered a few more clips, each shot by Iraqis in Iraq.

The four short pieces below are part of a documentary project called Hometown Baghdad.

In the first video, a college-age Iraqi man films his brother talking about a traumatizing event in the street. In the second, young Iraqis talk about dating in wartime Iraq. The third video focuses on the endless blackouts in Iraq and the final installment shows the preparation for the departure of a friend--one of millions of Iraqis to flee the conflict.

"Mentally fucked up..."

Kiss and Tell

Powerless

Abdullah Leaves

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at February 12, 2008 3:56 PM | Comments (0)

 

Just Shoot Me

Filed under: Iraq

The Minnesota National Guard was a key component of the "surge" in Iraq. 2,600 of them recently wrapped up a 22-month tour. On paper, 1,161 of them were serving a 729 day tour, extended for the surge to 22 months. A 730-day tour would have triggered the GI Bill and earned the soldiers money for school back home. But the Pentagon's not paying. Deployments were written for 729 days, and that's that. Now some of the soldiers are speaking out.

The soldiers are "victims of a significant injustice" Minnesota Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Kevin Olson told NBC.

"I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership... once again failing the soldiers," said 1st Lt. Jon Anderson, who explained to NBC that soldiers would have been getting $500 to $800 more each month.

More from the story:

Now, six of Minnesota's members of the House of Representatives have asked the Secretary of the Army to look into it -- So have Senators Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman.

Klobuchar said the GI money "shouldn't be tied up in red tape," and Coleman said it's "simply irresponsible to deny education benefits to those soldiers who just completed the longest tour of duty of any unit in Iraq."

Anderson said the soldiers he oversaw in his platoon expected that money to be here when they come home.

"I had 23 guys under my command," Anderson said. "I promised to take care of them. And I'm not going to end taking care of them when this deployment is over, and it's not over until this is solved."

National Guard soldiers, if you're out there, do pipe up in the comments section below.

College students, if you're out there, City Pages declares the month of October 'Take a Soldier to Class Month.'

Somebody's got to support the troops, no? At least that's what the President says.

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at October 7, 2007 8:49 AM | Comments (3)

 

Did the rose-colored glasses come with the kevlar helmet?

Filed under: Iraq

Earlier this month Rep. Michele Bachmann, visited Iraq. This was particularly newsworthy because the freshman Republican had previously made waves by announcing that Iran had a secret plan to take over our Middle East colony. This revelation was either a serious breach of classified military information or delusional speculation.

Since returning from Iraq, Bachmann has been spouting sunny rhetoric about the country. "(Gen. Petraeus) said al-Qaida in Iraq is off its plan and we want to keep it that way," she told the St. Cloud Times.

But Bachmann may as well have been reporting her opinions about this year's soybean crop on Pluto. As Daily Kos pointed out earlier this week, the freshman congresswoman was in the region for less than day. She never left the Green Zone. And she never spoke with an actual Iraqi.

But she did get to wear one of those cool kevlar helmets throughout her stay.

Posted by Paul Demko at July 20, 2007 5:00 PM | Comments (2)

 

The Queen of the Lakes goes to war

Filed under: Iraq

A queen trades her gown for camo | courtesy of Jessica Chayer

When Jessica Chayer (née Gaulke) was crowned Queen of the Lakes at the 2006 Aquatennial, she anticipated that her year-long reign would culminate at the Ten Best Days of Summer celebration where she would pass on her crown to her successor. Her service to the Aquatennial Ambassador Organization came to a halt however when her National Guard unit was called up for a different type of service in Iraq. After representing the Aquatennial in the Rose Bowl and turning her crown over to Jenna Berhhardson, Chayer headed to Fort Sill, Oklahoma where she will be stationed until her deployment in August. She took a few minutes out of her training to talk to City Pages.

CP: How did you start doing pageants?

JC: My sister had run the year before me for Ms. Robinsdale and got crowned the Robbinsdale princess. I saw that she was meeting a lot of friends and having a good time and it just opened her to a whole world and I figured I would try it out and I did. I guess they're not really considered pageants, they're more scholarship programs.

CP: What was the highlight of your time as Queen of the Lakes?

JC: I would definitely say it was just meeting people. The Commodore [the Queen of the Lake's escort] also gives his award to volunteers at all of the coronations and festivals we went to. And just the amazing things that people do for each other and their community and the state, it's just unbelievable. So I think meeting those people and learning what they do for the city and the state was probably the most rewarding.

CP: What skills do being Queen of the Lakes and a member of the National Guard have in common?

JC: Definitely working with people from all over. As Queen of the Lakes, you're going around to different communities and communicating with different people. Here a unit from Washington joined our National Guard unit from Minnesota and also a group of people from Hawaii is joining us and when we ship overseas, we're joining a unit from Germany. We have a whole mesh of people that are from all over the place. And just working together as a team also is something that's in common. Not only was there a queen, but there were two princesses and then we each had kind of an escort. I had the commodore and then there were the captains that escorted the princesses.

CP: Did your fellow Queen of the Lakes contestants give you a hard time about being in the National Guard?

JC: No. I mean, I think people were kind of taken aback when they didn't know and then they found out. I think they were kind of like, "wow." I think that's why this has become huge publicity—because it's two ends of the spectrum of, as you say, beauty queen and army woman or whatever. I hope I put the word out that it's doable and you can be involved in whatever as long as you give it a hundred percent.

CP: How did being Queen of the Lakes prepare you for your training and deployment?

JC: I would say more so the Guard prepared me for Queen of the Lakes. I've been in the Guard for almost 6 years now. In the Guard when you learn things and you go to school for things, then you go back and you teach your unit those tasks. So I would say getting up in front of large crowds and speaking and also just being an individual because going away to basic training when I was 17 years old was kind of a huge shock to me—as I'm sure it would be to many people—going somewhere where you know nobody and a new environment, so I think that's kind of prepared me for a lot in my life.

CP: What's been the toughest thing about your National Guard training?

JC: I would say just being away from home, friends, and family. It's physically demanding and mentally and emotionally and everything—everyone has a difficult time being a way from home. And just the luxuries of home, things that you don't think of as being luxuries of just being able to eat when you want and being able to go to sleep when you're tired and the privacy and things like that.

CP: What will your duties in Iraq be?

JC: As of right now I will be a generator mechanic.

CP: What is it about serving as a National Guardswoman or serving in Iraq that's so important to you that you'd be willing to make those sorts of sacrifices?

JC: That's probably one of the hardest questions to answer. I don't know. I think people either have it or they don't. It's so hard to explain the feeling. It means so much that we have the freedoms we do and can wear we want and say the things we want. I think freedom is why I do it..

CP: Do your fellow guardsmen and woman give you a hard time about being a "beauty queen"?

JC: Yeah. I get my fair share. If you ask me, it's good ‘cause then I push myself more and kind of prove myself back to them.

CP: What is going to be the hardest part about leaving for Iraq?

JC: I mean, obviously it's going to be difficult going into a war zone. I don't know. I would say again being away from home. My love is growing for the state of Minnesota, that's for sure—just the climate and the familiarities. You're kind of going into a whole new world of not just surroundings but people. It'll definitely be a change.

The Aquatennial History exhibit at the Hennepin History Museum will feature Chayer (and her gown) during the Aquatennial celebrations. $4; free Saturday July 14. 2303 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612.870.1329. Through July 22.

Posted by Rhena Tantisunthorn at July 13, 2007 2:53 PM | Comments (6)

 

Twin Cities grandmothers take to Nicollet Mall to protest the war

Filed under: Iraq

As downtown suits, shoppers, and workers flooded onto the streets for their lunch breaks late Thursday morning, a group of some 50 people (mostly women, many grandmothers) from Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) marched down Nicollet Mall to protest against the war in Iraq. Their goal, according to organizer Carol Masters, was to "bring attention to the war." The group chose downtown at lunchtime, hoping to make the pro-peace movement more visible to people they may not typically meet.

They chanted as they walked, ("No more death. No more dollars. Bring the troops home now!") and banged on drums, pots, and Tupperware containers. The response on the street was, according to marcher Mary Ellen Halderson, "very positive. There were no insults, no middle fingers. It confirms that they're thinking 'pro-peace.'" Many on-lookers accepted the yellow leaflets the women were handing out, and when WAMM founding member Polly Mann stopped to tell teenaged boys the reason for the protest was so youngsters wouldn't have to serve in the military, some said "I know" and nodded their heads. By-stander David Wright thought the protest was effective. "It's the most basic thing that people can do—to get together and make noise. It's a good place to start."

Mann compared the role that the women were playing to a mother duck flapping her wings at her chicks. The mother duck is "going crazy," Mann explained. "And you don't know why and then you look over there and there's a fox. We're trying to save the world from corporations. We're not sure [if it's going to work] but we have to do something." She paused to hand WAMM cards to a group of men in suits outside of Masa, but they shook their heads. "Don't you want to be enlightened?" she asked. "I'm enlightened in my own way," one responded. Mann shrugged and walked away, a mother duck momentarily defeated by a fox, before spotting another group of diners to enlighten.

Posted by Rhena Tantisunthorn at July 13, 2007 12:45 PM | Comments (1)

 

Local vets advocate wheels across America

Filed under: Iraq

"Hang on, there's a big tractor going by," says the Dutchman, speaking over his cell phone from his electric wheelchair on Highway 12, somewhere between Eau Claire and Black River Falls, Wisconsin. In a journey that has so far resembled a cross between a walkathon and The Straight Story, the Dutchman (Robert William Van Vranken II) has been wheeling across Minnesota since June 1, raising money and awareness for injured war veterans through his website. He's headed for Chicago, and ultimately New York, pitching a tent at campsites along the way.

"I'm in Augusta, Wisconsin, and I'm cruising down the highway and you know what?" he says. "I've got the quietest vehicle on the road."

The Dutchman made it as far as Menomonee last month in a manual wheelchair before he gave up that business. "My foot looked like hamburger," he says. He's been using wheels since a city bus ran over him last year, and his left leg had to be amputated above the knee. A longtime local musician—he played the first guitar chord in the 7th St. Entry as part of Wilma and the Wilburs—the Dutchman got the idea for his trek from watching the news. "I see all these kids coming back that are missing an arm, missing a leg," he says, "These kids come home and they don't get nothing, and they gave everything."

The Dutchman bought his power chair last week at a thrift store in Eau Claire. "It may sound like cheating, but nobody could do it manual," he says. While in town, he made the local news, and was given a police escort to 4th of July fireworks. Though he has numbers to call in case of emergency, at the moment he's by himself on the road with his phone and two 12-volt batteries lasting six hours each. "I don't want to be caught in some Stephen King cornfield," he says.

"Hey, before you go, what do you say to a one-legged hitchhiker?" He pauses for the punch line. "Hop in." UPDATE Monday: Leader-Telegram story in Eau Claire.

UPDATES: Watch this space for links to periodic updates at Complicatedfun.com.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 9, 2007 11:10 AM | Comments (4)

 

Local Muslims, Franken, Minnesota Libertarian Chair Respond to Bush Speech

Filed under: Iraq

Minnesota Monitor has a trio of reaction pieces regarding President Bush's announcement last night to increase troops in Iraq. The response from the two Muslim leaders and Franken are eminently predictible. Minnesota Libertarian Party Chair Lee Brennise's take, on the other hand, isn't your standard-issue punditry.

Posted by Britt Robson at January 11, 2007 2:38 PM | Comments (1)

 

Dispatches from the flat earth society

Filed under: Iraq

Obfuscation and half-truths have been the norm from the outset with regards to the U.S. military's assessment of what's happening on the ground in Iraq. But the quotes from Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, as reported by Knight Ridder today, would seem to set some kind of new standard for disingenuousness.

Here's the money quote:

"We're not seeing civil war igniting in Iraq. We're not seeing 77, 80, 100 mosques damaged. We're not seeing death in the streets."

The problem is that this is not true--as evidenced by the horrific incidents reported by Knight Ridder further down in the story. Here's a sample:

While some residents hid in their homes, fearing mob violence, others grabbed AK-47s and set off to protect their mosques and streets.

In one case, 47 mostly Sunni workers traveling on a bus were stopped at a checkpoint, dragged out of the vehicle and killed northeast of Baghdad, police said. Their bullet-ridden bodies were found on the side of the road.

The bullet-riddled bodies of Atwar Bahjat, a widely known Sunni correspondent for the Arab satellite television station Al-Arabiya, and two journalists working with her were found Thursday a few miles from Samarra.

Gunmen in a pickup truck shouting, "We want the correspondent!" killed Bahjat along with her cameraman and engineer while they were interviewing Iraqis about the bombing of the mosque in Samarra, her hometown. ...

In Amariyah, a majority Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad, loudspeakers at Sunni mosques were broadcasting "Allah Akbar" -- "God is great" -- which some took as a call to arms. The neighborhood was wracked by gunfights that moved from block to block by evening.

Call me a cynic, but does that not sound a bit like "death in the streets?" Why do reporters bother quoting people when it's demonstrably obvious that they are lying?

Posted by Paul Demko at February 24, 2006 12:03 PM | Comments (1)

 

Norm Coleman backs off recent Aussie accusations involving the oil-for-food investigations

Filed under: Iraq

ABC News is reporting Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) has backed away from earlier accusations that Australian officials were involved in or sought to cover up suspected illicit payments to the regime of ex-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein by the Australian Wheat Board, the main exporter of food to Iraq in the 1990s. Coleman is now giving kudos to the Australian government for their aggressive probe into the controversy. "At this point, all the responses that we have been getting [from Australia] have been thorough, have been very positive, and I anticipate we will continue walking down that path," the senator stated. Australian Prime Minister John Howard emphatically denied complicity by the government and didn't appreciate the junior senator's accusations. "Let's not get starry-eyed about the Americans," Howard harrumphed. "They're going in hard to protect their commercial wheat interests." Read the full story here.

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 8, 2006 4:35 PM | Comments (0)

 

John Lesch's Iraq adventure

Filed under: Iraq

The Pioneer Press and Checks & Balances both had stories yesterday reporting the departure of state Rep. John Lesch on a two-week backpacking trip to Iraq and Syria. But what exactly the St. Paul legislator hopes to accomplish on this journey remains somewhat murky.

"While it is true that most folks would choose more stable settings for their vacation, I believe the Iraq war is the seminal conflict for our age," Lesch wrote in announcing his departure. "What happens there today will affect many generations of Americans and Iraqis, and I seek to learn as much as possible in a short amount of time."

As both articles noted, Lesch's mission sounds a wee bit like that of Farris Hassan, the 16-year-old Florida rich kid who traveled to Iraq by himself and turned up at the Associated Press office inside the Green Zone.

Whatever Lesch's motives, you can follow his progress on his blog, Down the Rabbit Hole.

Posted by Paul Demko at January 31, 2006 12:41 PM | Comments (15)

 

LAT: The Pentagon secretly pays Iraqi papers to print "news" it supplies

Filed under: Iraq

"As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

"The articles, written by U.S. military 'information operations' troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country.

"Though the articles are basically factual, they present only one side of events and omit information that might reflect poorly on the U.S. or Iraqi governments, officials said.... The operation is designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military."

Read the LA Times story.

Posted by Steve Perry at December 1, 2005 9:22 AM | Comments (0)

 

Soldiers to Minnesota: Give us jerky!

Filed under: Iraq

KTTC-TV out of Rochester is reporting on "Operation Hometown Gratitude," a project whereby local high school students assemble care packages for soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the students need some assistance from hunters to fulfill one popular request: jerky! Area hunters are being asked to donate some of their deer cuts, and Ye Olde Butcher Shop is donating up to three smokehouse loads of jerky processing for the project. Hunters are being asked to contact the butcher shop for more information on how they can donate.

Posted by Corey Anderson at November 21, 2005 2:15 PM | Comments (0)

 

Ahmad Chalabi to star in "Say Anything" sequel

Filed under: Iraq

He's a charming conversationalist, the kind of irresistible manchild who never takes responsibility for his rakish misstatements. And gets away with it. Men know better than to believe him; women--especially women journalists--can't help but take him at his word.

He's John Cusack, star of Being John Malkovich.

No wait--he's Iraq's deputy prime minister, Ahmad Chalabi.

In one of those improbable postmodern moments that could only come about after Nixon and Elvis shook hands, forever tearing the polyester fabric of space and time, Ahmad Chalabi and John Cusack shared a late dinner Sunday night at a Japanese restaurant in Tribeca.

Ahmad Chalabi was returning from his Washington charm offensive, where he inexplicably won entry into the offices of Rumsfeld, Cheney, and the vice president's Gullibility Working Group. (For the administration, this invite seems to be the equivalent of asking the guy who just pissed your bed whether he'd like to have another sleepover and wipe himself on your pillowcase.) Cusack was coming off a luncheon at the Council on Foreign Relations. (Neither of those itineraries seem like they could be true; both of them are.)

The panderer for this sashimi summit was none other than Arianna Huffington, who wrote about the meal the next day. Succumbing at least partly to the same Chalabi seduction that wooed Judith Miller out of a job, Huffington describes the politician as "a man in full." By which, perhaps, she actually meant, "a man who's full of it."

The dinner party lasted until 3:30 a.m., and did not end before Chalabi invited his erstwhile critic to call on him at his Baghdad villa. History will remain forever ignorant of what happened when the silver tongues of Cusack and Chalabi traded honeyed words. But it's probably safe to say that both gentlemen are familiar with the workings of Serendipity--and the perils of The Sure Thing.

Posted by Michael Tortorello at November 15, 2005 1:46 PM | Comments (0)

 

Army says it will investigate gore-for-porn site

Filed under: Iraq

Possibly the hottest story in blogdom this week involves the disclosure that soldiers are trading pictures of Iraqi corpses for access to porn at the site nowthatsfuckedup.com. Today a very brief wire dispatch says the Army will investigate.

It all started with this story by Chris Thompson in last week's East Bay Express.

Posted by Steve Perry at September 28, 2005 11:31 AM | Comments (1)

 

U.S. forces fight Zombie army in Iraq: How many "top lieutenants" can a man have?

Filed under: Iraq

When it comes to fighting the Iraqi insurgency, U.S. forces are discovering that there is a lot of Number Two.

On a steady basis, U.S. and Iraqi officials boast that they have captured or killed a "key aide" to Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The associates are rounded up in raids, shot during showdowns, bombed in hideouts. Yet a new "lieutenant"--or at least a new nom de guerre--seems to materialize almost instantly to take his place.

The news accounts listed below chronicle the monthly liquidation of Zarqawi's entourage. While the U.S. Army struggles to refill its ranks, Zarqaqi's Al Tawhid group--like McDonald's--seems to have no shortage of fresh applications.

U.S. Kills al-Qaida Suspect's Key Aide

U.S. troops killed a key lieutenant to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a militant with suspected ties to al-Qaida, the military said Tuesday.
Abu Mohammed Hamza, believed to have been a bombmaker for al-Zarqawi, was killed Thursday in Habaniyah after U.S. troops came under fire while distributing leaflets, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said.
The troops returned fire, killing Hamza, he said. --Associated Press, February 24, 2004

Top Zarqawi aide killed in US attack near Baghdad

A top aide to suspected Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi has been killed in a US attack near Baghdad, an internet site and a Jordanian newspaper reported Wednesday.
"Abu Anas al-Shami, who heads Tawhid wal Jihad's Sharia (Islamic law) department, was killed a week ago in an American attack on his car in Abu Ghraib," west of the capital, according to the website http://arab.moheet.com/.
In Amman, Al-Ghad newspaper quoted the family of Jordanian-born Shami, whose real name is Omar Yussif Jumaa, as saying he had been killed in a US rocket attack Friday and that he was considered Zarqawi's number two in Iraq. --Agence France Presse, September 22, 2004

U.S. Military: Al-Zarqawi Aide Killed

The U.S. military said Tuesday that an aide to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in an airstrike in the militant stronghold of Fallujah.
The 3 a.m. strike hit a known safehouse being used by al-Zarqawi's terrorist network, killing a "known associate," a military statement said....
"Recent strikes and raids targeting the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi network have severely degraded its ability to conduct attacks," the U.S. statement said. --Associated Press, October 26, 2004

Al-Zarqawi Aide Caught In Chemical Bomb Lab Discovered During Fallujah Sweep

Iraqi officials Thursday announced the capture of a key aide to Jordanian terrorist suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and said soldiers had discovered a "chemical bomb" factory in Fallujah, even as insurgent rocket attacks brought death to a camp of Nepalese security contractors in the center of Baghdad.
The U.S. military announced troops discovered a huge weapons cache in a mosque compound in Fallujah and said another 81 insurgent suspects had been arrested during an ongoing sweep of an area south of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, Basra's police chief said his men had captured several foreign fighters who had fled Fallujah.
Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem Dawoud identified the seized al-Zarqawi lieutenant as Abu Saeed and said he had been captured in Mosul in northern Iraq a few days ago. But he declined to say whether Saeed was Iraqi and what role he played in al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida-affiliated organization, which has claimed credit for several beheadings and car bombings. St. Paul Pioneer Press, November 26, 2004

Iraq says aide to Zarqawi killed, two arrested

An aide to Iraq's most-wanted man, Jordanian Islamist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in Iraq and two others captured, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Tuesday.
"I have been told that an individual by the name of Hassan Ibrahim Farhan Zyda from Zarqawi's group has been killed and that two of his deputies have been arrested," Allawi told the interim national assembly. --AFP, December 14, 2004

Iraqis Report Seizure of 2 Aides To the Most Wanted Militant

Security forces in Iraq have captured two senior aides to the most wanted militant in Iraq, his top bomb-maker and his propaganda chief, a government spokesman said Monday.
The captured bomb-maker, Sami Muhammad Ali Said al-Jaaf, was seized in Baghdad on Jan. 15. He is believed to have taken part in three-quarters of the car bombings in the capital since the war began, the spokesman, Thaier al-Naqib, said in a written statement....Mr. Naqib said Mr. Jaaf also used the name Abu Omar al-Kurdi and is considered to be a lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant who has a $25 million bounty on his head.
Mr. Naqib also issued a later statement saying that on Jan. 14 security forces captured Mr. Zarqawi's chief of propaganda, Hasam Hamad Abdullah Muhsin al-Dulaimi, known as Dr. Hassan. Mr. Dulaimi had not served long in the post; he took the job after American-led forces killed the former propaganda chief, Hassan Ibrahim, in a Baghdad raid on Dec. 13, Mr. Naqib said. --New York Times, January 25, 2005

Iraq announces arrest of two top Zarqawi aides

The Iraqi government said Friday it had arrested two close aides of Al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of whom was described as his Baghdad commander.
Salah Salam Dubaig al-Ubaidi, also known as Abu Saif, and Ali Mohamed Yassin Al-Isssawi were captured in Baghdad on January 15 and 17 respectively, Iraq's National Security Advisor Qassem Daoud told reporters.
Daoud identified Abu Saif as the main commander for Zarqawi in the Baghdad area.
"The guy you see on the screen was named by Zarqawi his emir in Baghdad. He met with Zarqawi more than 40 times over the last three months," Daoud said.
"He was arranging (Zarqawi's) meetings and providing (him) logistical and financial support." --AFP, January 28, 2005

Zarqawi Aide Held, Iraq Says; Suspect allegedly was a key deputy in charge of logistics for the Jordanian militant

The Iraqi government said Friday that its soldiers had captured a key aide to Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi, the leader of an insurgent network suspected of killing more than 500 people in a wave of car bombings, assassinations and beheadings.
The capture is the latest made in a string of raids conducted in Baghdad, Mosul and western Iraq that have reportedly netted top Zarqawi lieutenants and soldiers. Iraqi and U.S. military authorities say they have caught or killed more than half a dozen of his operatives since January, including the network's top bomb maker and its website designer.
In a statement Friday, the government said Iraqi forces had captured Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman Dulaymi, responsible for "arranging safe houses and transportation as well as passing packages and funds to Zarqawi."
"Abu Qutaybah was responsible for determining who, when and how terrorist network leaders would meet with Zarqawi," the government said. "His extensive contacts and operational ability throughout western Iraq made him a critical figure in the Zarqawi network." --Los Angeles Times, February 26, 2005

Zarqawi aid captured in 2004 in Baghdad

The Pentagon said Friday a top aide to Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi was captured in Baghdad in late 2004.
The man, a Jordanian who lived for 20 years in the United States and became a naturalized American citizen, is believed to have been a personal emissary for Zarqawi to several Iraqi cities, according to a U.S. government official.
When he was captured by coalition forces last year in his Baghdad residence he was found with bomb-making equipment and other weapons. --UPI, April 1, 2005

Zarqawi Top Aide Bagged--Hit Plot Foiled

A deputy of al Qaeda's chief in Iraq has been captured while preparing to assassinate an Iraqi bigwig, officials announced yesterday.
Ammar al-Zubaydi, an aide to terror boss Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was seized in Baghdad on Thursday, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
Al-Zubaydi, also known as Abu Abbas, was the emir, or leader, of the Baghdad cell of Zarqawi's operation. --New York Post, May 9, 2005

U.S. and Iraqi Troops Capture a Top Militant Leader in Mosul

Mohammed Sharkawa, the militant leader who leads Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's operations in northern Iraq, was seized Tuesday afternoon in a home in western Mosul after aerial reconnaissance and a tip from a local resident helped pinpoint his whereabouts, American military officials in Mosul and Baghdad said Thursday....
The impact of his capture ''will be significant,'' Lt. Gen. James T. Conway added. ''He has been in charge of the operation up there for a long time.'' --NYT, June 16, 2005

Suspected leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq captured

U.S.-led coalition forces have captured two alleged leaders of the insurgent group al Qaeda in Iraq, including a man suspected in the death of an Egyptian envoy, an American military spokesman said Thursday.
Troops caught Khamis Farhan Khalaf abd al Fahdawi, also known as Abu Seba, on Saturday in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, after intelligence led them there.
Abu Seba reportedly is a senior lieutenant for` Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and is suspected in this month's attacks on Bahraini and Pakistani diplomats and the killing of Ihab al-Sherif, who came to Iraq to be Egypt's ambassador....
In addition, forces detained Abdulla Ibrahim Muhammed Hassan al Shadad, also known as Abu Abdul Aziz, on Sunday in Baghdad. He reportedly is the leader of al-Zarqawi's operations in the Iraqi capital and a key officer for the insurgent group. --CNN, July 14, 2005

U.S. military says al-Qaida lieutenant killed in Mosul

A lieutenant of al-Qaida terror boss Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed by Iraqi security forces in Mosul, the U.S. military said Sunday.
Mohammed Salah Sultan, also known as Abu Zubair, was killed Friday, the U.S. statement said.
The statement said Abu Zubair was a "known member of al-Qaida in Iraq" and an al-Zarqawi lieutenant who was sought for his role in a July suicide bombing of a police station in Mosul in which five Iraqi police were killed. --AP, August 14, 2005

U.S. Says It Has Killed No. 2 Qaeda Operative in Iraq

"Two American officials said in Washington on Monday that Abu Azzam, a top lieutenant to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, had been killed in an operation involving Central Intelligence Agency officers. A senior military official said Abu Azzam was a senior financier in Mr. Zarqawi's network, and was killed Sunday." --NYT, September 27, 2005

Update: Yesterday, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, answered questions about the recent killing of Zarqawi "number two" Abu Azzam. As reported in the A.P.:

"The nation's top military officer said Tuesday that the killing last weekend of a senior leader of the al-Qaeda in Iraq organization will hurt the terrorists but perhaps only in the short term. "'It will have some effect, but over time they will replace people,' Myers said. "'There are others, foreign fighters, marching to the guns on a regular basis,' who can be promoted to leadership roles,' he added."

Coincidentally, it was Myers' last press conference in uniform, coming a few days before the general's retirement.

Posted by Michael Tortorello at September 27, 2005 3:11 PM | Comments (5)

 

The outer limits of empire

Filed under: Iraq

Mother Jones interviews Howard Zinn

Here's a link to a long Q&A by Tom Engelhardt with the historian who wrote "A People's History of the United States," in which the two discuss dissent, anti-war movements then and now, American exceptionalism, and empire. His vision is so clear and his voice so appealing, Zinn is always a pleasure to hear from.

TD: Stepping back from the catastrophe in Iraq, what do you make of the Bush administration's version of the American imperial project?

Zinn: I like to think that the American empire has reached its outer limits with the Middle East. I don't believe it has a future in Latin America. I think it's worn out whatever power it had there and we're seeing the rise of governments that will not play ball with the United States. This may be one of the reasons why the war in Iraq is so important to this administration. Beyond Iraq there's no place to go. So, let's put it this way, I see withdrawal from Iraq whenever it takes place -- and think of this as partly wish and partly belief [he chuckles at himself] -- as the first step in the retrenchment of the American empire. After all we aren't the first country in history to be forced to do this.

I'd like to say that this will be because of American domestic opposition, but I suspect mostly it will be because the rest of the world won't accept further American forays into places where we don't belong. In the future, I believe 9/11 may be seen as representing the beginning of the dissolution of the American empire; that is, the very event that immediately crystallized popular support for war, in the long run -- and I don't know how long that will be -- may be seen as the beginning of the weakening and crumbling of the American empire.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at September 19, 2005 4:02 PM | Comments (1)

 

From Fargo to Baghdad

Filed under: Iraq

The Associated Press reports that impending Minnesota National Guard deployments in the Middle East could have an unlikely consequence: diminished police presence in Fargo, North Dakota. The town is expected to lose some 10 officers in the coming months--or nearly 10 percent of its entire squad. The Fargo Police Department has an authorized force of 124 officers, and 10 of those slots are currently unfilled.

Might be a good time for Fargo residents to start working on their meth labs.

Posted by Paul Demko at August 22, 2005 12:38 PM | Comments (0)

 

Overwhelmed

Filed under: Iraq

A word from--and about--Cindy Sheehan

One of the stranger facets of modern reporting is the advent of the media teleconference. A press release shows up in a reporter's e-mail inbox, usually putting forth an expert on an issue of the day. There's a 1-800 number to call at a designated time, with a password to gain access to the "press conference," and the dutiful reporter skims the release and promptly deletes it.

But when the name of the available source is Cindy Sheehan, the dutiful reporter calls the number, gives his name and the name of his dutiful news organization to an operator, and starts tapping his fingers along to some 10 minutes of hold music. Eventually a moderator comes on the line, and introduces the main source and a couple others--in this case, Sheehan calling in from Crawford, a war widow, and a veteran of Iraq.

It's a strange world, one that affords a certain amount of anonymity and imagination, since there's no visual connection. And, in the case of Cindy Sheehan, Tuesday's teleconference allowed the dutiful reporter to observe closely what is (or isn't) going on inside the head of America's latest headline maker.

The cell phone connection was pretty lousy, and Sheehan dropped off the line a number of times. That didn't stop a bevy of reporters--from the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Salon.com, The Los Angeles Times, CNN and the like--from lining up in a little tele-queue to throw some questions at Sheehan. (The dutiful reporter from the local news and arts rag did not get in line.)

But first, there was the opening statement from Sheehan that was not much of a statement at all. "Can you hear me guys?" she asked, and it garbled. All that was clear was that Sheehan used the word "overwhelmed" three times before concluding: "I'm just overwhelmed with emotion right now. That's my statement."

For whatever's been said about Cindy Sheehan--activist, opportunist, patriot, traitor--it needs to be said more often and more clearly that she is, at her core, a grieving mother. One who, understandably, doesn't sound to be in very good shape. At times during the teleconference, she would spew out train-of-thought recollections of her dead son, with more melancholy than bitterness. This is to be expected from a parent who has lost a child. What is not to be expected is that the parent suddenly becomes a political symbol for one side or the other during war time.

Sheehan is, at least superfically, aware of this. She repeatedly said that her particular cause was "apolitical," wondering at one point who could possibly be opposed to candlelight vigils and "memorials for fallen heroes."

But she also recounted some rather political talking points. "There's a peaceful paradigm in this country," she said at another point. "The president says he wants to spread peace, and I've got news for him. You don't spread peace by killing people."

So is she political or not? Sheehan herself doesn't seem to know anymore. A reporter from the Dallas Observer sensed this, asking, "Is it easier for [the right] to marginalize you as left-leaning activists affix themselves to you?"

Sheehan responded that her point was to "focus on the message" before again expressing bewilderment that people could take issue with a candlelight vigil. She nevertheless concluded by saying, "I'm a democrat, I'm a liberal." (Small "d"? Capital "D"? You decide.)

None of this would be notable is it weren't for the fact that Sheehan is not just unpolished--many great leaders and change agents have been, if we count Sheehan as one, which we shouldn't--but quite possibly someone who shouldn't have thrust herself into such a polarizing spotlight.

"The scrutiny against me, I'm willing to take it," the 48-year-old said in response to questions about her not paying taxes and her husband recently filing for divorce, before adding in the same breath: "I don't have a thick skin, I'm very sensitive, and I don't take it very well."

For further contradiction, Sheehan had just said, minutes earlier, that the right-wing attacks on her were "despicable." "They already took my son from me, there's not much else they can do," Sheehan said. "Why are they smearing me? I'm not running for office, I'm a mother with a broken heart."

I recently spoke with an acquaintaince who had just lost her child to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The topic was nominally about Sheehan, but also about this person's own grieving process. She said that most of "the many, many crazy things" she's done and said since the tragedy had to do with trying to go back in time, out of denial and delusion, and recreate her child's life before death. Even if parts of the recreation never happened while her child was alive.

It is, the acquaintance concluded, natural, but not necessarily helpful in the long term. She wondered if the scene in Crawford was allowing Sheehan to continue doing similar things with Casey.

This theory played out during the teleconference in the form of Sheehan's bizarre bitterness for her son's recruiter. Casey had enlisted and re-enlisted, she barely acknowledged, but mostly because his recruiter had lied to him. The recruiter promised Casey a $20,000 signing bonus, but it amounted to $4,500, Sheehan said. The recruiter, who she did not name, told Casey he could finish college--but he never took a class. Casey, Cindy claimed, wanted to be a Chaplain's assistant, but was told he could be a Humvee mechanic or a cook.

"We could have babies and grandchildren, and Casey could be teaching elementary school," Sheehan blurted, "if his recruiter hadn't lied."

And maybe this is all true. But maybe it's at this point that we should all tune out the "controversy" surrounding Cindy Sheehan and think about that last comment. Whether she's "aware" "politically" of what she is doing, it's probably not clear to her at all exactly what she is doing--that is, grieving very publicly, in a way that no one finds particularly unsavory. But we should find it squeamish, and we should consider the possiblity of distasteful voyeurism here.

Toward the end of the teleconference, Sheehan chastised the reporters who had listened to this over the phone for more than an hour. We had, she said, missed out on the big story, about how the U.S. invasion of Iraq was predicated not just on lies to the American public, but also to those who served.

The "Peace Movement" has been "overwhelming," she pointed out, but unfairly ignored, saying that war prostestors "have been doing the media's job," whatever that is.

Sheehan continued, "We have been a low priority because of Scott Peterson, Terri Schiavo and Michael Jackson," before her voice trailed off. Maybe it's because she realized the next name in that succession was her own.

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at August 19, 2005 3:02 PM | Comments (3)

 

Rumsfeld on Iraq: Can we get a little help around here?

Filed under: Iraq

A thousand spin cycles have passed since the Bush administration touted the lend-a-hand, can-do spirit of the coalition of the willing. Since the heady, happy days of the fall of Baghdad, the reconstruction of Iraq has stumbled.

What we have in Iraq, according to Donald Rumsfeld, is a failure for everyone to help out a little. So who isn't doing his fair share of the liberating?

The Iranians
"It's notably unhelpful for the Iranians to be allowing weapons of those types to cross the border," --Donald Rumsfeld, Pentagon press conference, August 8, 2005

The Syrians
"There's no question that insurgents are being paid and so are criminals being paid. That's a fact, and it's also true that a lot of people are coming through the border of Syria. That's notably unhelpful." --Donald Rumsfeld on Fox News Radio, June 21, 2005

Muqtada al Sadr
"[Muqtada al Sadr] has been almost uniformly unhelpful, unconstructive and somewhat mercurial. You follow it. One day talking cooperation and then another day inciting riots." --Donald Rumsfeld on Fox News, August 10, 2004

The media of the middle east
"I think that there is a focused, precise, directed campaign against the United States in the media in parts of the world. That is unhelpful to us, but we'll survive." --Donald Rumfeld at the International Institute for Strategic Studies' "Shangri-la Dialog," June 4, 2004

Al Jazeera
"No one wants to get up in the morning and do something that's unwise or unhelpful, unless you've got that bias and you decide that's what you want to do for a living, and clearly that's what Al Jazeera is doing. There is just no question about it." --Donald Rumsfeld at a roundtable with journalists in Munich, February 6 2004

The U.S. Senate
"I think that it is unfortunate when things become so polarized or so politicized, and you've heard some of that here today. It isn't helpful." --Donald Rumsfeld in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the war in Iraq, June 23, 2005

The Iraqi people
"The Iraqi people have to decide where they stand, where they are….The overwhelming majority of them are committed to a free Iraq, to an Iraq that's governing itself. And standing on the sidelines during a period like this is certainly not something that is going to be to their credit. When the day ends and when we are successful, those who have been helpful have been helpful, and those who have not been helpful have not been helpful, and people have memories. Iraqis have memories." --Donald Rumsfeld, Department of Defense briefing, April 7, 2004

Posted by Michael Tortorello at August 10, 2005 3:09 PM | Comments (0)