Antiwar.com Blog

AFP reports that US troops score another own goal in Iraq.

I don’t have the time for a full rebuttal of this “exposé” of Antiwar.com by Stephen Schwartz, but I’ll pick out a few of its more deceitful/asinine points:

* “If, as Mary McCarthy said, every word written by the Stalinist Lillian Hellman was a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the,’ Raimondo is a prevaricator down to the placement of commas, periods, and semicolons. One of his favorite tricks is the mendacious use of hyperlinks, giving the impression that his statements are backed by other sources. These are usually his own articles, immodestly declared by him to be ‘classics,’ which in fact have little or nothing to do with his latest ravings, but lead to more lies through more links.”

Mendacious use of hyperlinks??? Schwartz (who once threatened to sue Antiwar.com over a hyperlink!) apparently avoids mendacity by having a grand total of one link in his screed, but I’ll try to explain the practice to him anyway: hyperlinks give the reader an opportunity to judge for himself the accuracy of the writer’s claims. I will guarantee you that Justin Raimondo has NEVER quoted or paraphrased Schwartz without providing a hyperlink or other citation to an original source. And anyone can look at any of Raimondo’s columns at random and judge the veracity of Schwartz’s claim that his hyperlinks “are usually [to] his own articles.”

* “Raimondo’s website consistently published propaganda generated by Randall (Ismail) Royer, a former CAIR employee now doing a 20-year federal sentence for terrorist activities.”

Consistently is an odd adverb to use there; I’ll infer that it’s a mendacious synonym for “frequently.” Again, no link. But do a Google search on the infamous “paintball terrorist” and you’ll find that exactly one article by Royer has appeared on this site. As Jim Henley once joked in relation to the Royer smear,

New Republic Writer Jim Henley is how I’d like to be referred to from now on. After all, I sold them a single article back in 1993. In Andrew Sullivan’s world (scroll down to “FIFTH COLUMN WATCH”), ever publishing a single article with a venue makes you a “[that venue] writer,” and – hey how about that – Andrew Sullivan was TNR’s editor when my article was published.

Maybe I’ll get new business cards.

* “Sometimes Raimondo posts other leftwing fascists to do his slandering for him. He has done this with Kevin Keating, infamous for hoisting a banner during the anti-Iraq demonstrations in San Francisco that read: ‘We Support Our Troops When They Shoot Their Officers.'”

A link perhaps? Nope. Here’s the only reference to Kevin Keating on Antiwar.com, again via Google.

Perhaps Schwartz, like many folks his age, just needs a remedial course on surfing the Web?

A roadside bomb went off this morning next to the motorcade of Kosovo “president” Ibrahim Rugova, reports AP/The Guardian. Rugova was on his way to meet the EU Commssar Javier Solana, to discuss the next Albanian occupation government after the resignation and surrender of “Prime Minister” Ramush Haradinaj. Solana’s message of support to the Albanians is in itself very interesting, but that’s a topic for another time.
“Unfortunately there are still people who want to destabilise Kosovo. I condemn this act and the people who do things like this should be stopped,” Rugova is quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Continue reading “Roadside bomb targets Rugova”

Our friends at the Stop the War Coalition in Britain asked me to post this appeal:

The British antiwar movement, the Stop the War Coalition is holding a national demonstration on Saturday 19 March 2005, in London, as part of the international day of protest action on the second anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq.

The London demo’s themes are: ‘Bring the Troops Home’, ‘End the Occupation of Iraq’,’No more Bush Wars’.

The coalition is ‘broke’. It has spent every last pound on the event – but wanted to fly out a key speaker from the USA – former UN Arms Inspector Scott Ritter. Ritter is warning of US plans for the invasion of Iran, which he believes could be in June 2005.

The UK protest will be a focus for world media, after the success of the Feb 2003 London anti-war demonstration which mobilised around 2 million people in London in the greatest protest in British history. This protest includes speakers from Military Families Against the War.

UK Stop the War Coalition can find some expenses but not the key travel costs such as airfare. Want to help?

We have two days to raise the airfare. If you donate and the total raised is not enough, the Stop the War Coalition will invite Ritter to a UK speaking tour this spring, and any funds raised from US supporters will be used to make that happen.

Get Ritter to London and the world’s media!

One-off donations to UK Stop the War Coalition
(NB the donations are listed in UK pounds. £1 = approx $1.83).

Here is a report from Michele Naar-Obed, who recently returned from Iraq with a Christian Peacemaker Team:

I have recently returned from a two week fact finding delegation in Iraq with the Christian Peacemaker Teams. CPT has maintained a continuous presence in Iraq since October 2002. The main office is located in Chicago IL (www.cpt.org).

Our delegation consisted of 6 US citizens and 1 citizen of the UK. Half of our delegation, of which I was a part, was based in a residential neighborhood in Baghdad. The other half stayed in Kerbala. Although it was quite difficult and dangerous to move around Baghdad, our group was able to meet with quite a few Iraqis as we tried to get a broad understanding of events and life in Iraq.

The topic of most concern during our stay was the November 2004 invasion of Fallujah. We interviewed a young Iraqi man who was in Fallujah City during the Nov. invasion, survived and was then taken into US custody for over 2 months. He was finally released after it was determined he was not part of the “insurgency”.

He reported seeing numerous examples of human rights abuses starting with the fact that men between the ages of 16 and 50 were not allowed to leave Fallujah when residents were told to evacuate. He told us about execution style killing of civilians by US soldiers, killing of women and children carrying white flags, and dead bodies with massive burns and unusual injuries indicating the use of white phosphorus (napalm) and other chemical weapons.

Similar reports on Fallujah were given by 2 Iraqi Human Rights workers, and a representative of the Muslim Scholars Board who had received information directly from Fallujan citizens during the invasion. We were told that the Muslim Scholars Board representitives tried to hold press conferences during that time but were silenced and sometimes slandered.

We were also told that about 75% of the city’s infrastructure was destroyed. At present, there is no piped water available and the water that is being brought in by government sources is inadequatly chlorinated. There are no functioning hospitals and the closest medical aid station is outside the city limits. In order to leave and re-enter the city, residents go through numerous check points which can take up to 6 hours. There is a military base in the city of Fallujah and Iraqis are often intimidated and humiliated by the soldiers. There is pretty much across the board hatred for Americans at this time.

Additionally, we spoke with 2 UN representatives who confirmed all of these reports. One representative told us that they have spent weeks negotiating with the multinational forces to get access into Fallujah to begin investigation and documentation but have so far been denied.

Without a full investigation, abuses such as these are likely to continue and spread. In fact, while we were collecting information on Fallujah, we learned that “Operation River Blitz” was going on in the city of Ramadi and its surrounding villages along the Euphrates River. At present, there has been a media black out on this operation, but the UN representative told us that “spin off” was beginning to occur. Residents of this area have begun to flee and talk about what is happening..

Our soldiers are paying a hefty price. The ones who make it back are coming home severely damaged from carrying out orders they believe are immoral and in some cases, illegal. As one Marine who was in Fallujah summed it “you have to be psycho to kill like we do”. Many who refuse to follow orders or try to escape are hunted down and treated like criminals when the real criminals are the ones in the Pentagon who create these policies.

On the positive side, we met representatives from grassroots Iraqi based organizations who believe in the power of nonviolence. Some of them were involved in serious negotiations with the multinational forces that led to the diversion of further violence. It seems there are many from all sides of this conflict, ours included, who are quite skilled in diplomacy as we learned that negotiation and diplomatic solutions have been employed behind closed doors routinely. We met with the fledgling Muslim Peacemaker Teams and Women’s Will, both rooted in the teachings of nonviolence.The UN, whose work of diplomacy and nation building is often overlooked and underestimated, is slowly regaining the trust of the Iraqi people. They are steadily persevering on a course they hope will soon disentangle Iraq from foreign occupation.

The war and daily violence is taking its toll on everyone. For ten days I learned what it was like to worry that the vehicle I was in could be blown up. I stiffened when our driver got near a military convoy. Soldiers have been known to shoot at cars that get too close. The possibility of kidnapping was real and it changed to way we related to people causing even more stress on the fragile bonds of human friendship. The longer this cycle of violence continues, the more fear, distrust and despair will deepen.

This administration has put in a request for another $81 billion to fund the war. I’d like to propose we use that money to train our young people in diplomacy and negotiation and utilize nonviolent means to solving conflict. Worldwide democracy and freedom may actually have a chance despite Mr. Bush’s policies.

This is Michele Naar-Obed ‘s third trip to Iraq since December 2002. She is a member of the Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker in Duluth, MN and has been involved in the peace movement for over 13 years. She has participated in numerous acts of nonviolent resistance to militarism including 2 “plowshare actions” resulting in over 3 years of incarceration.

Antiwar.com Editorial Director Justin Raimondo will be speaking at Whittier Law School tomorrow, Tuesday, March 15 from 12-2 p.m. His topic will be the media’s responsibility to report the truth. The speech will be free and open to the public.

Directions: Whittier Law School is located at 3333 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Justin is speaking in Room 1 of the Main Building (which houses the classrooms and library). For more information about the location, contact Whittier at 714-444-4141, ext. 0 during business hours.