Antiwar.com Blog

Because you need some of both to handle the present reality without losing your mind.

First, the funny, from Mike Gerber and Jonathan Schwarz.

Now, the serious, from Arthur Silber.

Former Army Sgt. Sam Provance, featured in the HBO documentary “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib,” talks about his experience [.pdf] as a computer expert at Abu Ghraib prison, the fake investigations into the tortures that took place there and the betrayal of Senator Lindsey Graham.

MP3 here. (34: 13)

Former Army Sgt. Sam Provance was one of the heroes of the Abu Ghraib scandal, the only uniformed military intelligence officer at the Iraqi prison to testify about the abuses during the internal Army investigation. When he recognized that the Pentagon was scapegoating low-level personnel, he also gave an interview to ABC News.

For refusing to play along with the cover-up, Provance was punished and pushed out of the U.S. military. The Pentagon went forward with its plan to pin the blame for the sadistic treatment of Iraqi detainees on a handful of poorly trained MPs, not on the higher-ups who brought the lessons of “alternative interrogation techniques” from the Guatanamo Bay prison to Abu Ghraib.

The Congress, which was then controlled by the Republicans, promised a fuller investigation. Provance submitted a sworn statement. But Congress never followed through, leaving Provance hanging out to dry.

Award-winning investigative reporting team Donald Barlett and James Steele, both contributing editors to Vanity Fair, talk about their new article, “Washington’s $8 Billion Shadow,” about Military Industrial Complex welfare recipient Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), their political connections, incompetence, propaganda, and the impunity with which they operate.

MP3 here. (36: 23)

Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele are one of the most widely acclaimed investigative reporting teams in American journalism. They have worked together for more than three decades, first at The Philadelphia Inquirer, (1971-1997) where they won two Pulitzer Prizes and scores of other national journalism awards, then at Time magazine, (1997-2006) where they earned two National Magazine Awards, becoming the first journalists in history to win both the Pulitzer Prize for newspaper work and its magazine equivalent for magazine reporting, and now at Vanity Fair as contributing editors. They also have written seven books.

Minister and LewRockwell.com regular Bill Barnwell explains the corrupt doctrine behind “Pastor” John Hagee‘s War Party ministry.

MP3 here.

Bill Barnwell is a pastor and writer from Michigan. He holds both a Master of Ministry degree and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies degree from Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana.

Chris Floyd discusses the rendition of an American citizen to Ethiopia until he admits he’s al Qaeda, the nearly unremarked-upon proxy war for the Warlords in Somalia, the arrogant ignorance of America’s political establishments and the distracted apathy of the American people.

MP3 here. (28: 35)

Chris Floyd is an award-winning American journalist, and author of the book, Empire Burlesque: High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Regime. For more than 11 years he wrote the featured political column, Global Eye, for The Moscow Times and the St. Petersburg Times in Russia. He also served as UK correspondent for Truthout.org, and was an editorial writer for three years for The Bergen Record. His work appears regularly CounterPunch, The Baltimore Chronicle and in translation in the Italian paper, Il Manifesto, and has also been published in such venues as The Nation, the Christian Science Monitor, Columbia Journalism Review, The Ecologist and many others. His articles are also featured regularly on such websites as Information Clearing House, Buzzflash, Bushwatch, LewRockwell.com, Antiwar.com, and many others. His work has been cited in The New York Times, USA Today, the Guardian, the Independent and other major newspapers.

Floyd co-founded the blog Empire Burlesque with webmaster Richard Kastelein, who created the site using open-source software. Floyd is also chief editor of Atlantic Free Press, which was founded and designed by Kastelein. loyd has been a writer and editor for more than 25 years, working in the United States, Great Britain and Russia for various newspapers, magazines, the U.S. government and Oxford University.

Joshua Kors discusses his article for the Nation “How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits,” about a decorated soldier who has been thrown in the garbage can by the government he served, the paper-thin “personality disorder” excuse that has been used to deny 22,500 disabled soldiers their benefits in the last six years (after lying to them of course) and how much money the DoD will save.

MP3 here. (17:34)

Joshua Kors is a freelance journalist based in New York. Research support was provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute.