Antiwar.com Blog

Well, well, well. I can’t wait to see what Bruce has to say about this report:

A missile fired by insurgents from the ground probably destroyed an RAF Hercules C-130 cargo plane in Iraq with the loss of 10 British special operations servicemen, an interim report by Ministry of Defence accident investigators has revealed.

The findings, outlined to MPs by Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, raised fears within the MoD that the insurgents could possess a new missile capable of hitting aircraft flying above 15,000 feet.

The board of inquiry ruled out the possibility that the Hercules, which was supplying a special-operations base north of Baghdad, was blown up by an on-board bomb or an explosion caused by an accident with bombs or ammunition on board.

The inquiry team will now have to determine whether the plane was brought down by a heat-seeking missile designed to reach aircraft at high altitude or was a lucky strike by insurgents using a Sam (surface-to-air) missile which normally has a range of less than 10,000 feet.

It’s a mystery!

UPDATE: Bruce comments on the Independent article.

Read his whole post, but here’s the essential line: “The Janes expert quoted beats me to the obvious conclusion… that the plane was flying at low altitude for some reason.“

Justin Raimondo’s column today inspired me to do this illustration of one of his points:

The pictorial representations of the “Cedar Revolution” that have so far appeared in the Western media have mostly been close-up shots of the comelier females waving flags and smiling coquettishly for the cameras, although this one shot of “pro-democracy” demonstrators dancing ’round a bonfire of what the caption describes as “pro-Syrian newspapers” has certain unfortunate historical connotations. We will doubtless see the Hezbollah/pro-Syria demonstrators depicted in an entirely different manner: no comely lasses and fearless lads here.

Oh, that liberal Western MSM Justin describes is so out of step:

Good thing we have the warbloggers to show us what the media won’t. Notice the date that Instamonger began pointing out that Lebanese pro-democracy demonstrators are all cute little hotties and pro-Syrian demonstrators are all thuggy guys. And the beat goes on! Check out Sunday’s installment.

Must read post on the Sgrena shooting:

More Anti-Military Slurs from the MSM

And, a question about the US account of the shooting. From a US military statement, quoted in Jeanne D’Arc’s post on the shooting:

About 9:00 pm, a patrol in western Baghdad observed the vehicle speeding towards their checkpoint and attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car. When the driver didn’t stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others.”

Sgrena describes this as a “hail of bullets.”

However, Signora Sgrena, who was hit in the left shoulder, said that “300 to 400” bullets had been fired “without any justification” by a US patrol as the unmarked car approached Baghdad airport, where American and Italian intelligence officers were waiting for them.

Surely the US military took a picture of the car. Shouldn’t they release the photos of the car?

My friend Arthur Silber points me toward the ravings of one Kay Arthur, a popular “Christian Zionist” author and minister, at the convention of the National Religious Broadcasters:

“Perhaps the most startling moment of the morning was an appearance by popular Christian Zionist author, Kay Arthur of Precepts Ministries. ‘I love America,’ Arthur said, her voice quivering with emotion. ‘But if it came to a choice between Israel and America, I would stand with Israel.’ While the crowd applauded tepidly, I looked around and saw more than a few faces cringing with embarrassment. Arthur went on to read excerpts from the Book of Revelations, painting a surreal image of Jesus seated in a throne floating above Jerusalem, rapturing all the world’s true believers up to Heaven. She left the fate of unreconstructed Jews to the imagination.”

Israel’s amen corner in the U.S. is going to be doing a lot more cringing if David Corn, columnist for The Nation, is right. He cites a Washington Post report by David Ignatius that “more than a half-dozen officials in the Bush administration who are apparently suspected of leaking classified information to AIPAC have had to retain defense lawyers,” and writes:

“Six Bushies on the run? That sounds like major news. But no details have leaked out. So let me contribute in my own small way. A reliable source of mine reports that he recently chatted with one of the principle figures in the investigation and that this fellow said the AIPAC scandal was about to “blow up,” meaning there would be new, noteworthy developments that presumably would generate headlines. The person talking to my source was in a position to know and in a position to hope for the opposite. Consequently, I would assign a fair degree of confidence to this person’s prediction. If that comes to pass, perhaps the Washington media will finally get around to providing more thorough and penetrating coverage of this potential scandal.”

Here, at the intersection between religion, ideology, and treason, is where American politics gets truly … weird. One thing I have to wonder is how and why anyone who is genuinely and sincerely pro-Israel would want to get mixed up with such nutballs. Kay Arthur is the Ward Churchill of the pro-Israel Right, and yet she is intimately connected with all sorts of pro-Israel coalitions and action groups. The Israeli government sent an official representative to the NRB convention.

The sadists at the Pentagon can always be counted on to explore exciting new ways to kill and torture people;

The weapons involve Pulsed Energy Projectiles (PEPs), which fire a laser pulse that in turn generates a burst of expanding plasma when it hits something solid. It can cause temporary paralysis and knock a person off their feet. But documents uncovered by the Sunshine Project, a biotechnology watchdog, also reveal that the same technology could be used to kill a person.

Supposedly, it’s only being explored as an option in its non-lethal version, but in a time of great need I’m sure the lethal variety would be developed and deployed.
The report goes on to say;

A 2003 review of non-lethal weapons by the US Naval Studies Board, which advises the Navy and Marine Corps, said PEPs produced “pain and temporary paralysis” in tests on animals. The $500,000 (£260,000) study looks to optimise this effect and discover how to generate a pulse which triggers pain nerves without damaging tissue. The contract adds: “Pain is a primary component of all non-lethal weapons.”

I’m all for testing this weapon on two conditions;

• It must never go beyond the testing phase,
• Rather than testing on animals, the tests must be conducted on politicians

Q: How is a Hate Crime by Muslims in New Jersey Like WMD in Iraq?

A: Neither of them exist, but right-wing nutbags believe every erroneous report that they do.

Mithras, via Atrios

Reading Mithras’ post brought to mind this example from the now-infamous GOPUSA website, home of ex-White House Bureau Chief Jeff James Gannon Guckert, which also hosts a…well, writer, whose bio reads like a Who’s Who of righty piety:

Barbara Stock is a working registered nurse with 24 years of experience.

She is the mother of two grown sons and two grandchildren.

Barbara will be contributing editorials and articles to her local Women’s Republican Party for the upcoming election cycle.

Barbara is a regular contributor to AmericanDaily, ReNewAmerica, Bushcountry, RepublicanDailyNews, The Judson Cox Newsletter, and Prudent Politics. She has also been published on Intellectual Conservative, TownHall, New Republic, Israeli News, and even the Retired NYCFD website.

Barbara has her own webpage called Republican and Proud, thoughtfully linked by GOPUSA.com. Notice the lovely little graphic in the lower left that Barbara uses to decorate her website: