kpfa's flashpoints tonight dealt with war crimes and haditha. to talk on haditha, they had the ultimate un-embed, a reporter who's always spoken the truth - some 1 who wasn't part of the 'we were all wrong' crowd. dahr jamail spoke of how this could play out, like abu ghraib, as an isolated incident when it is fact part of the occupation. people need to stop kidding themselves.
dahr spoke about falluja, the 2nd seige. an iraqi ngo estimates that between 4,000 and 6,000 people were slaughtered. the 2nd seige is the one in november of 2004, the 1st was in april of 2004.
those who commit the crimes, those who cover it up, those who fail to report it in a timely manner, going all the way up the chain of command, are guilty of war crimes - dahr explained.
they played a speech from berkeley (a tribunal) and i wish had the man's name but i don't. want to know it? listen to the show. he said he liked bob herbert's work (herbert's a columnist for the new york times) but was very bothered by the idea that we just accept that we've got 2 and 1/2 more years of the bully boy.
paraphrase: we can't afford to wait 2 and 1/2 years for bully boy to use nukes on iran.
then we heard from craig murray who had a lot to say. including that the so-called war on terror was nothing but an attempt to exploit resources and markets. murray kept stating that he didn't have a prepared speech. he didn't need 1. he was funny when it was called for and serious when it was required. he spoke of torture, the bully boy and who are we becoming?
dahr jamail was also on democracy now today and i think c.i. already grabbed the most important thing there:
AMY GOODMAN: Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist based for more than eight months in Iraq. Your response to this latest news?
DAHR JAMAIL: Well, two responses really. First is that this type of situation, like Haditha, is happening on almost a daily basis on one level or another in Iraq, whether it's civilian cars being shot up at U.S. checkpoints and families being killed or, on the other hand, to the level of, for example, the second siege of Fallujah, where between 4,000 and 6,000 people were killed, which I think qualifies as a massacre, as well. But even that number hasn't gotten the attention that this Haditha story has.
And the other really aspect of that, I think is important to note on this, is the media coverage, again, surrounding what has happened around Haditha simply because Time magazine covered it, and thank heavens that they did, but this has gotten so much media coverage, and in comparison, so many of these types of incidents are happening every single week in Iraq. And I think that's astounding and important for people to remember, as well.
elaine's written a powerful 'mini-essay' - please read it. and read c.i.'s 'other items' because it had me cracking up this morning. and read ava & c.i.'s tv commentary because it's wonderful.
that's it for me. i'm tired. fly boy and i got back this evening. i came in just minutes before i turned on kpfa. i'm going to unpack, take a shower and then go to sleep.
