Author: Jason Ditz

Here’s an interesting form letter that was brought to my attention. Seems like Blackwater is in damage control mode and sent the following to people on their mailing list:

—-

A Request for Your Support

The Blackwater family is comprised of dedicated and active service
providers that work vigorously to support the American nation. In this
tumultuous political climate, Blackwater Worldwide has taken center
stage, our services and ethics aggressively challenged with
misinformation and fabrications. Letters, e-mails and calls to your
elected Congressional representatives can and will create a positive
impact by influencing the manner in which they gather and present
information.

While we can’t ask that each supporter do everything, Blackwater asks
that everyone does something. Contact your lawmakers and tell them to
stand by the truth. Correspondence should be polite and professional.
We don’t support generating negative messages. Tell the Blackwater
story and encourage your representatives to seek the truth instead of
reading negative propaganda and drawing the wrong conclusions.

Suggested themes:

–

Cost efficiency of Blackwater – saving the US taxpayer millions of
dollars so that the US Government doesn’t have to take troops from
their missions or send more into harms way
– Professional population of service veterans and mature law
enforcement personnel

–
Sacrifice in lives lost by Blackwater saving US diplomats without one
single protectee harmed

If you see a lawmaker speaking good things about Blackwater, contact
their offices and let them know that they have your support. Find and
contact your federal, state, and local officials by visiting www.congress.org.

Expanding our communications effort starts with you. Pass the word –
pass the truth.

Christian Science Monitor dug deep into their archives to find a very cool article from 1957. Here we are, 50 years later, and the weaponization of space continues to be a bone of contention between the United States and Russia.

Picture this: you’re an Iraqi civilian, perhaps one of the ever growing number of internally displaced persons, roaming the streets of Baghdad. You come upon a piece of seemingly abandoned US military equipment. Desperate for money, you approach the item, intending to sell it to one of the many vendors dealing in lost, abandoned, and stolen military surplus.

Bang

You just fell victim to the newly uncovered US military practice of “baiting”, and are now officially part of the “insurgents killed” count that is being touted as proof of how swimmingly the surge is going.

This practice has apparently been going on for quite some time, and while we may never know for sure how many innocent lives were taken in the name of inflating the military’s kill count to sell the war to the American public, we do know that the practice was so widespread and acceptable that, according to court documents, soldiers were planting “baits” on the bodies of people they’d killed illegally and, like magic, the problem would just go away.

This gruesome new trend of padding body counts with actual bodies almost makes one long for the days when they were just flat out lying to us about their numbers.

As you may or may not have already heard, the United States Senate has passed a non-binding resolution condemning Moveon.org over a September 10th advertisement in the New York Times. This is fresh off Rep. Thomas Davis III’s call for an “investigation” into whether the discounted rate the Times gave them violates election laws (which apparently were expanded enough to cover criticism of an unelected General in a non-election year). We could ask what sort of chilling effect this will have on freedom of speech, but frankly I think the days where anyone takes Congress seriously are long over.

Plus, I have to admit I’m a little jealous. Antiwar.com has been around longer than Moveon.org, and has certainly been criticizing wars longer than they have. Where’s our non-binding resolution? After all, what are our tax dollars going for if not to pay Senators to complain to us about our lack of patriotism?

On June 10-11, United for Peace and Justice is taking part in a rally in DC urging an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. You can read all about the rally here.

Now, have a look at this article from ynet, and keep in mind, they’re talking about the same rally. Classy take, right? I especially like the cropped AP stock photo with swastikas prominently displayed in the background.

Living just an hour and a half from the Canadian border, stories about border incidents are always of keen interest to me. To be sure, we get stories about the mistreatment of Muslim citizens at the northern border on a regular basis, so much so that it’s really old news at this point.

It’s troubling to me how uncontroversial this policy has become, and doubly so because I’m finding myself less and less surprised by stories of multi-hour detentions, long interrogation sessions, and shocking hostility towards American citizens attempting to re-enter the country at a border which I recall during my college days as being essentially open.

But these hassles apparently do not begin and end with people of Muslim faith or Middle Eastern ethnicities. I was listening to the Toronto Vegetarian Podcast while working this afternoon, and was surprised when the conversation, normally centered around cuisine, books, and dining locations, turned to border crossings.

The idea that they’re detaining (however briefly) vegetarians at the border is to me quite a surprise, and the questions they were asked are simply scandalous. What business is it of the US border patrol what reason a random Canadian citizen has chosen for not eating meat? What possible consideration should that be given in entering America and, perhaps most importantly, is there some “wrong answer” that would cause them to be denied entry?