This Is Starting To Stink

I saw an AP report on this earlier today. The Army is now investigating several soldiers for allegedly raping an Iraqi woman and killing her family. Now the Washington Post has picked up the story.

No charges have yet been filed in the case, which the official said was "in the very early stages."

Maj. Gen James D. Thurman, commander of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, to which the 502nd is attached, ordered the investigation into the killings more than a week ago, according to a terse statement released by the military Friday. A preliminary inquiry "found sufficient information existed to recommend a criminal investigation into the incident," the statement said.

Also Friday, the military reported the deaths of three soldiers in insurgent attacks Thursday. One was killed by a roadside bomb while on foot patrol in Baghdad. Another died in a roadside bomb attack in Balad, north of Baghdad. The third was killed by small-arms fire in the northern city of Mosul. No further information was provided.

The case in Mahmudiyah, a rural town in a Sunni Arab region dubbed the Triangle of Death for the insurgent attacks and crimes that are common there, was the latest in a string of allegations of unlawful killings — and subsequent coverups — by U.S. forces in recent months, beginning with reports in March that Marines killed 24 unarmed civilians in the western town of Haditha. Investigations continue into that case.

This month, seven Marines and a Navy corpsman were charged with murder and other crimes related to the shooting death of a crippled man in Hamdaniya, west of Baghdad. Residents there said the soldiers planted a rifle and a shovel near the victim's body to make it look as if he had been burying roadside bombs.

Later in June, three soldiers were charged with murdering three Iraqi detainees in U.S. custody and threatening to kill another soldier who saw the incident. And last week, two Pennsylvania National Guardsmen were charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed man in the western city of Ramadi and with trying to cover up the crime.

At least 14 U.S. service members have been convicted of crimes related to the deaths of Iraqi civilians or detainees, according to the Associated Press. Investigations have intensified in recent months following the high-profile Haditha allegations, pressure from the Iraqi government on military commanders to curtail excessive force by soldiers, and an initiative by Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the top U.S. ground commander in Iraq, to cut down on civilian casualties.

But the prospect that soldiers may have committed rape could make the Mahmudiyah allegations particularly incendiary. Charges that U.S. forces have killed civilians come as little shock to many Iraqis, but sex crimes — especially those perpetrated against Muslim women by someone outside the faith — can generate greater outrage in the Islamic world. The 2004 Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal inflamed passions in large part because of the sexual humiliations detainees suffered.

Ammar Jabouri, a spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party, Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political organization and a frequent critic of U.S. actions against Iraqi civilians, said he was unaware of previous charges of rape against American soldiers.

Jabouri said that when he and others have spoken to U.S. officials about abuses by troops, the officials "explain it as 'reckless behavior by soldiers under stress.' They promise to investigate, but nothing comes out of that."

The unit in Mahmudiyah had attributed the deaths of the four civilians to "insurgent activity, which is common in the area," until two soldiers from the 502nd came forward June 23 to say U.S. troops were responsible, the military official said. An investigation began the next day. Three of the soldiers are still in Iraq, and one has been discharged for reasons unrelated to the case, he said. None is under confinement.

I am beginning to get a bit suspicious about this onslaught of allegations and media attention.

Are there going to be some bad actors in any military, at any time or in any place? Sure. There is always a percentage of people who break laws.

But the vast majority of Americans who wear the uniform are decent, honorable and would not - ever - commit an offense against a civilian. Yet there is suddenly a rash of these reports. One after another after another. Something smells bad about this.

I don't think it's the troops, either.

UN “Reforms”

The UN made a huge show of reforming it's Human Rights Council. It's first order of business was to re-institute the habit of the old council to bash Israel first at every meeting.

 The new UN Human Rights Council voted Friday to make a review of alleged human rights abuses by Israel a permanent feature of every council session.

The resolution, which was sponsored by Islamic countries, was passed by a vote of 29-12, with five abstentions. It effectively revives a practice of the UN's dissolved Human Rights Commission, which also reviewed alleged Israeli abuses every time it met.

Israel protested Friday's vote, calling it a perpetuation of "the old infamous habits" of the widely discredited commission.

The resolution requires UN investigators to report at each council session "on the Israeli human rights violations in occupied Palestine."

The resolution also said the council "decides to undertake substantive consideration of the human rights violations and implications of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and other occupied Arab territories at its next session and to incorporate that issue in its following sessions."

One of the United States' main criticisms of the 53-nation Human Rights Commission that was replaced this year by the council was that it spent one week of its annual six-week session criticizing Israel and made other frequent attacks on the Jewish state.

"Voting in favor of this draft resolution will lead you directly to the old infamous habits of the commission," Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Levanon told the council. "Voting yes essentially means that no lessons have been drawn. It means that there is no fresh beginning."

Well, it seems they are off to a thrilling start. It would, of course, mean a bit more if the first thing they reviewed at every meeting was the member nations record.

As if.

UPDATE: Others: Liberty and Justice, Meryl Yourish, JoshuaPundit,

Well, it seems they are off to a thrilling start. It would, of course, mean a bit more if the first thing they reviewed at every meeting was the member nations record.

As if.

UPDATE: Others: Liberty and Justice, Meryl Yourish, JoshuaPundit,

Brainster In A Book!

Our good blog buddy Pat over at Brainster's Blog has been mentioned in a book about bloggers acting on a check to the MSM! Pat wrote a takedown on a Paul Krugman article that caused Krugman to actually issue a correction. The book is by Marshall University Professor Stephen D. Cooper, entitled, Watching The Watchdog; Bloggers as the Fifth Estate.

Way to go, Pat!

The Moose Waxes Rhapsodic

The Bull Moose has quite an interesting take on Hamdan.

That was the response the Moose had to the Supreme Court's Hamdan decision. It was quite remarkable. In America, extraordinary rights are accorded even to our enemies who would use all means necessary to kill us and our families. How many countries in the history of civilization would give these rights to killers who refuse to abide by the rules of war and who don't exactly adhere to international treaties?

What a country!

The Moose does not agree with the ruling. As the Moose has made clear, he is a Hamiltonian who is deferential to Presidential power during wartime. But it is not the end of the world. Its impact is limited.

Now, it is Congress' turn. While this decision is a clear setback for Presidential prerogatives, the GOP welcomes a Congressional deliberation on legislation authorizing tribunals. Analysis that suggests that this is a political setback for the GOP has it exactly wrong. Republicans would like nothing better than a pre-election debate over whether Osama's buddies should receive ACLU approved rights. It is likely that many Democrats will join Republicans in supporting tough guidelines for military commissions. This is the law and order issue of our time.

This is in line with the post I linked yesterday from Andrew Cochran that said this decision will force Congress to act. Because, at the end of the day, something has to be done. There are deep problems with the decision by the Supreme Court, not the least of which is their intrusion into treaty-space, which is unprecedented. But there will have to be Congressional action on this issue - and soon. Congress will have to go on record and will no longer be able to blame everything on Bush.

It should be rather interesting to watch.

Food For Thought On This Holiday Weekend

From Bruce Kesler at Democracy Project.

Like Groucho Marx, I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me.

To me, that’s a most American statement of principle, and I think applies to most Americans. The 4th of July is Independence Day. That independence includes from most cant and credo.

Americans are essentially iconoclastic. We don’t pay obeisance to any organization’s doctrine and enjoy puncturing the pompous and self-righteous. Our views are not ideologically consistent. Polls repeatedly confound commentators to show majorities holding views that on the surface of the questions or demographics conflict or contradict imposed categorization.

Ideologues say that this demonstrates confusion, or pernicious effects of their opposition’s propaganda, and call for more intense organizing and education. But, the apparent contradictions persist.

Read the rest. It's quite a good take on America and Americans.

101st Blog Of The Day

Today my seemingly endless mission to visit one member of the Fighting 101st each day brought me over to Useless Drivel. Off Route 75 has an important list of points to ponder on this, the start of the long 4th of July weekend. And comic book heroes!

Immigration Compromise

Some Republican Senators have finally appeared to figure out that the disastrous mish-mosh of a comprehensive immigration reform bill they passed will not work. There are hints that a compromise can be reached with the House bill that would stress enforcement first, then later address all the other issues.

They could have saved a lot of headaches by reading this blog, in other words.

Republican Senate leaders are considering how to revive immigration legislation and cut a deal with the more hard-line House, a sign of increasing GOP concern that inaction on the emotionally charged issue could hurt the party with voters in November.

For months, House and Senate Republicans have steadfastly defended their respective positions. The House has insisted on tougher border and deportation provisions only. The Senate, allied with President Bush, has demanded that a crackdown be coupled with an overhaul of immigration laws, including a broader guest worker program and a pathway to legal status for the estimated 12 million people who live in the United States illegally.

House leaders appeared to be winning the standoff. They announced this month that they would hold field hearings on immigration throughout the summer, all but guaranteeing that a bill could not be completed until after the election.

But in recent days, senators and the White House have dropped hints that they are willing to move closer to the House's position — perhaps by agreeing to a two-phase plan that would begin with construction of triple-layer walls, deployment of surveillance aircraft and other means of tightening the border with Mexico.

When those measures are fully funded and operational — a process that could take as much as two years — debate on some version of the Senate's broader proposals would begin.

Which is what we have maintained here for a long time - enforce the border first and a lot of other things are possible.

Recon

Now the animal uprising is sending agents to recon the area before sending the invasion forces. And some humans just think it's cute! Fools! A California man looked out in his backyard and tough he saw a squirrel hanging around the back fence. When he went out to look, he found the advance agent scoping the area out. It was a marmoset, a monkey from the rainforests of Central America.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Andrew Padilla first saw the monkey in the backyard of his Palo Alto home, hanging out by a fence. He thought it must be a squirrel.

It turned out to be a marmoset — and one that was a long, long way from its native home in the rain forests of South and Central America.

"I wanted to adopt him," Padilla said. "He was so cute and friendly."

Padilla said he fed the stray monkey bananas and crackers before calling the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA to report him.

"We thought, 'Sure. What have you been drinking?' But when our officer arrived, there he was," said Scott Delucchi, spokesman for the animal care agency.

Sure, they all think he's just a cute little fellow. You won't be laughing when the troops of marauding murderous marmosets arrive. There won't be enough bananas to save you!

What Freedom Of Speech Isn’t

Here's a story that illustrates wrong thinking on what the constitution guarantees.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced Thursday that it would launch a review of an instructor who argues that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks for its own benefit.

The instructor, Kevin Barrett, is co-founder of an organization called the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance, which claims the Bush administration planned the attacks to create a war between Muslims and Christians. He argues that members of the faiths must work together to overcome the belief that terrorists were to blame.

"The 9/11 lie was designed to sow hatred between the faiths," Barrett has written on the organization's Web site.

"Either we discuss the compelling evidence that 9/11 was an inside job, or there is precious little to talk about."

Barrett, who did not return calls Thursday and an e-mail seeking comment, has taught a class on cultural folklore and is scheduled to teach an introductory class on Islam this fall in Madison. He has said he discusses his views on Sept. 11 in the classroom.

In a written statement Thursday, Provost Patrick Farrell said the university would conduct a 10-day review of Barrett's plans for the fall course and his past teaching performance. He said Barrett's syllabus, reading list and past evaluations by supervisors and students would be examined.

"Mr. Barrett's statements regarding the events of Sept. 11 have raised some legitimate concerns about the content and quality of instruction in his planned fall course," Farrell said.

"Mr. Barrett is entitled to his own personal political views. But we also have an obligation to ensure that his course content is academically appropriate, of high quality, and that his personal views are not imposed on his students," the statement says.

….

Barrett has shared his views in letters to The Capital Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education and has discussed them on Wisconsin Public Radio.

But it wasn't until he spoke on a conservative talk show hosted by Jessica McBride on WTMJ-AM (620) Wednesday night that Barrett prompted a public outcry in Wisconsin. He talked openly about his Sept. 11 beliefs and said he discussed them in the classroom.

….

Mir Babar Basir, a recent graduate of UW-Madison who served as president of the Muslim Students Association, said he knew Barrett and agreed with his take on the attacks. He said Griffin drew hundreds of supportive observers when he spoke at the university.

"This is not just Kevin Barrett's idea," Basir said. "It's legitimate to think that the U.S. government was involved."

"When David Ray Griffin spoke, it was packed," Basir added. "Madison is fairly liberal. It's not surprising that a lot of people agreed with him."

David Walsh, president of the UW System Board of Regents, said Barrett should be able to share his views in the classroom.

"Unless he's yelling fire in a crowded theater, we need to be careful to protect his academic freedom," Walsh said.

A point that appears to be missed by the supporters of this guy. This is not, in fact, a free speech issue. It is an employment issue. Mr. Barrett was hired to teach a given subject. To the extent he is espousing his political theories in class, he is not meeting the requirements of the job he was hired to do. Does he have a right to his opinions? Of course. Does he have a right to force them on students trying to learn a subject? No he does not.

A thought experiment: If Mr. Barrett were discussing an opinion to keep, bear and cut loose at random with automatic weapons, would his support be as strong? If he were to spend his class time discussing his opinions on the relative merits of the sport of curling or showing his vacation slides during his introductory cultural folklore class would anyone be talking about academic freedom?

Having It Both Ways

Election year mantra: "Cut dependence on foreign oil". Typical election year hijinks: Propose end to ban on drilling in certain areas. Count on people calling for ending dependence on foreign oil to vote against lifting ban.

It's just the best of both worlds, isn't it?

WASHINGTON - Congress has taken a major step toward allowing oil and gas drilling in coastal waters that have been off limits for a quarter-century.

Still, a battle looms in the Senate over the issue. And the Bush administration's support for the legislation, which was approved Thursday by a 232-187 vote in the House, is lukewarm.

The House bill would end an Outer Continental Shelf drilling moratorium that Congress has renewed every year since 1981. It covers 85 percent of the country's coastal waters — everywhere except the central and western Gulf of Mexico and some areas off Alaska.

A filibuster by Florida Senators is a possibility.

No Win Situtation

A Florida judge has tossed out the confession of a man who admitted kidnapping, raping then murdering a 9-year old girl by burying her alive. The detectives who interviewed him erred by not getting him a lawyer when he asked for one. The judge did allow the discovery of the little girl's body to remain as evidence.

…a 47-year-old convicted sex offender, gave the confession to detectives, but also told them that he wanted to consult a lawyer. He wasn't given the opportunity to do so.

"Such a police misconduct is not a mere technicality. A technicality is signing an order in the wrong color ink," Circuit Judge Ric Howard said in issuing the ruling Friday. "This is a material and a profound violation of one of the most bedrock principles of criminal law."

Howard agreed with prosecutors, however, that investigators would have found Jessica's body anyway.

Jessica (Lunsford) had been missing for a month when she was found in March 2005 kneeling and clutching a stuffed animal, hands tied with speaker wire and fingers poking through the garbage bags in which she was buried alive in (the accused's)* yard. Two days earlier, (the accused) told detectives he had kidnapped, raped and killed the girl, who lived 150 yards from him, and he told them where to find the body.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for (the accused), who has pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, burglary, kidnapping and sexual battery. Jury selection for his trial is expected to start July 10.

….

Prosecutor Ric Ridgway said he wouldn't appeal the decision, but defended the deputies.

"If they'd have gotten him a lawyer and he'd never have talked, and she turned out to have been alive somewhere and wasn't found in time because of that, they would've been vilified here too. They were in a no-win situation," he said.

Lewan had also asked the discovery of Jessica's body be inadmissible in court because (the accused) told authorities where to find her.

The prosecutor believes there is sufficient evidence to get a conviction even without the confession. I understand why the judge felt he had to throw out the confession, I am very glad he saw the discovery of the body as inevitable.

* My policy is not to mention the names of people who rape and kill children. Their names should be expunged from history. 

Dutch Government Falls

The government of the Netherlands has fallen over the row about Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Michael van der Galien at Liberty and Justice writes:

At 4.00 PM today leader of D66 in the lower chamber, Lousewies van der Laan, said that D66 now decided to withdraw all support for the Cabinet. A long debate followed in which VVD and CDA made quite clear that they wanted to continue, but in the end Balkenende felt, rightfully so, that he had to offer the Queen the resignation of his second Cabinet.

He will do so tomorrow.

We will wait and see when new national elections will be organized. It could be quite quickly but it could also take a while.

Verdonk can be proud of herself. She damaged our reputation, made life impossible for one of our most famous citizens and she blew up our government coalition.

There's a good thing about all of this though; it could very well be the end of Verdonk's political career.

USA Today And Semi-Retractions

All the way back in May, USA Today reported their "blockbuster" revelation that three giant telecommunication companies had turned over calling records to the NSA to build a monster database. They told the world that AT&T, Bellsouth and Verizon had all cooperated.

Today they sort of, in a way, almost, kind of admitted that they were a teensy bit off. Like by about  2/3. Neither BellSouth nor Verizon participated.

On May 11, USA TODAY reported that the National Security Agency, with the cooperation of several of America's leading telecommunications companies, had compiled a database of domestic phone call records in an effort to monitor terrorist activity.

Several days later, BellSouth and Verizon specifically denied that they were among the companies that had contracted with the NSA to provide bulk calling records.

The denial was unexpected. USA TODAY had spoken with BellSouth and Verizon for several weeks about the substance of the report. The day before the article was published, the reporter read the sections of the article concerning BellSouth and Verizon to representatives of the companies and asked for a denial before publication.

At the time, BellSouth did not deny participation in the program, but it issued a statement saying the company “does not provide any confidential customer information to the NSA or any government agency without proper legal authority.” Verizon said that it would not comment on national security matters and that it acts “in full compliance with the law” and with respect for customers' privacy.

On May 15, BellSouth said it could not categorically deny participation in the program until it had conducted a detailed investigation. BellSouth said that internal review concluded that the company did not contract with the NSA or turn over calling records.

So those darn folks at BellSouth wouldn't issue a strong enough denial for the folks at USA Today? The killer is this passage:

USA TODAY also spoke again with the sources who had originally provided information about the scope and contents of the domestic calls database. All said the published report accurately reflected their knowledge and understanding of the NSA program, but none could document a contractual relationship between BellSouth or Verizon and the NSA, or that the companies turned over bulk calling records to the NSA.

Based on its reporting after the May 11 article, USA TODAY has now concluded that while the NSA has built a massive domestic calls record database involving the domestic call records of telecommunications companies, the newspaper cannot confirm that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the NSA to provide bulk calling records to that database.

There has been an enormous amount of outrage over this story from the left. But it turns out that at least 2/3 of the what the story is based on is either false, misleading or not credible. Now a rational person might begin to wonder how much other reporting that stirs great outrage is actually true. Some folks might wonder if anything in this story is, in fact, correct. This blasé non-retraction retraction should make you wonder who exactly you trust to get good information from.

So those darn folks at BellSouth wouldn't issue a strong enough denial for the folks at USA Today? The killer is this passage:

USA TODAY also spoke again with the sources who had originally provided information about the scope and contents of the domestic calls database. All said the published report accurately reflected their knowledge and understanding of the NSA program, but none could document a contractual relationship between BellSouth or Verizon and the NSA, or that the companies turned over bulk calling records to the NSA.

Based on its reporting after the May 11 article, USA TODAY has now concluded that while the NSA has built a massive domestic calls record database involving the domestic call records of telecommunications companies, the newspaper cannot confirm that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the NSA to provide bulk calling records to that database.

There has been an enormous amount of outrage over this story from the left. But it turns out that at least 2/3 of the what the story is based on is either false, misleading or not credible. Now a rational person might begin to wonder how much other reporting that stirs great outrage is actually true. Some folks might wonder if anything in this story is, in fact, correct. This blasé non-retraction retraction should make you wonder who exactly you trust to get good information from.

UPDATE: It's all about quality of content.

Sticky Situations

Scientists have resumed excavations - if that's the right term exactly - at the La Brea Tar Pits. Regarded as one of the richest deposits of Ice Age fossil sites. This is an annual thing that has been done continuously since 1969 from July through September.

LOS ANGELES - Scientists went back to work Thursday at one of the world's richest Ice Age fossil sites, digging the tooth of a five-foot dire wolf and the toe of a sabertooth tiger from the sticky prehistoric asphalt near Wilshire Boulvard. (sic)

About 10,000 years before the arrival of mammoth traffic jams, the two beasts likely got stuck in the goo at La Brea Tar Pits while hunting a camel, horse or ground sloth, said John Harris, chief curator and head of vertebrate studies at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, which oversees the site.

Thousands of other animals made the same fatal mistake, leaving a treasure trove of well-preserved bones, plant remnants and microorganisms.

Excavation work began in 1915 and has been done every summer since 1969 to the delight of children and other visitors who watch from a glass-enclosed area overlooking the 14-foot deep pit.

"It's one of the, if not the, richest Ice Age excavation sites in the world," Harris said.

The work lasts from July 1 to Sept. 10. During the rest of the year, visitors to the nearby Page Museum can watch scientists behind a glass window scrub fossils found during the excavation.

The site is a favorite among children who let their imaginations wander as they watch tar-covered excavators move along gangplanks. s Through a fence at the park, 7-year-old Ben Guerra and his 9-year-old sister Rhemy got a peek at the dig.

"I like to imagine how the animals attacked the other animals who were stuck in the tar," Ben said. "Maybe they thought it was water and went to get a drink."

I remember reading about the La Brea Tar Pits when I was a kid. I was fascinated by fossils back then and really enjoyed reading all about them. If you're interested, here's the homepage for the Page Museum at Rancho La Brea. Here's a bit of history from Berkeley.edu. And here is a photo tour of the pits.

Pump It Up-Date!

Well, it seems that the judge accused of using a penis pump during trials has been convicted and will be spending a year behind bars.

BRISTOW, Oklahoma (AFP) - A US jury has sentenced an Oklahoma judge to one year in prison for using a penis pump on the bench during three murder trials and a civil case in 2002 and 2003.  

Donald D. Thompson, 59, was convicted Thursday and fined 10,000 dollars for each count. Thompson told the jury he would also lose his 90,000-dollar-a-year pension.

The verdict, which exposed the judge's behind-the-bench secrets, capped a bizarre and awkward chapter in the state's judicial history.

Thompson's longtime court reporter, Lisa Foster, wept on the stand as she recalled how she discovered the source of a "sh-sh" sound in the courtroom. She said she spied Thompson's penis inside the pump through a small gap between a drawer and a door.

Foster said she later saw Thompson's penis 15 to 20 times over the course of three years. She also saw him shave his scrotum and urinate into a trashcan behind the bench.

"I was really shocked and kind of scared, because it was so bizarre," Foster said. "I didn't know what to do."

The defense maintained that the charges were part of a vendetta by local police to overthrow Thompson.

The judge denied ever using the pump — a device used in the hope of enlarging the penis or combatting erectile dysfunction — saying it was a joke gift from his best friend in 2001.

He said he moved the pump back and forth between his bench and chambers but never used it on his penis.

We aren't really sure about what the local political situation is in Bristow, so we have no way of - er - judging the judge so to speak. But we are curious as to why the defense didn't make the obvious point that perhaps the judge was merely trying to adhere to the highest judicial standards.

You know- by trying to go blind.