Antiwar.com Blog

Classicist Peter Jones imagines how Pericles would have responded to 9/11:

Had Pericles been George Bush on 9/11, he might well have reasoned as follows: ‘If my policy is to ensure that America is never attacked like this again (and it is), and if one of the root causes of the attack is the Palestinian problem (and it probably was), the rational policy is to fix it. Since Israel would not survive without us, it is to Israel that we must look for co-operation. If we do not get it, our support for Israel ends.’ True, had Bush argued like that and kept his word, one wonders what Mossad would have done to him; and what the implications would be for an Israel entirely devoid of American aid. But so what, if it ensured America’s security?

Read it.

If any of you read Alan Bock’s column this morning and thought something was missing, well, you were right: the beginning. Please check it again. You’ll be glad you did.

Sibel Edmonds, an FBI whistleblower who is fighting a gag order in order to testify on behalf of 9/11 families who are suing the government, sends this along:

Judge Reggie Walton cancelled/postponed the hearing on June 14, 10:00 AM, with no reason cited and no future date scheduled. This is the fourth time he’s done this in past two years!!! However, Dan Ellsberg & I are still on. We’ll be in front of the Court (3rd & Constitution Ave.) on Monday, June 14, at 9:30 AM, to hold our press conference and to deliver speeches Re: Gagging the Congress, blocking IG report, hindering court proceedings, and 9/11 cover ups. We would love to see as many people as possible to gather there for support.

Mahdi Army guerillas appear to be making a concerted effort to destroy Iraqi police stations in hit and run attacks:

Police in this Euphrates river town, 10 miles south of Baghdad, called for help from American forces when they came under attack. But the Americans didn’t reach the town until about five hours after the attack, police Lt. Satpar Abdul-Reda said.

Abdul-Reda said the attackers arrived in seven cars, surrounded the station and opened fire with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. The 10 policemen inside were armed only with Kalashnikov rifles and pistols and fled the station after realizing they were outgunned, Abdul-Reda said.

The gunmen entered the building, rigged it with explosives and blew it up, the lieutenant said.

It was the fourth attack on police stations across the country in the past week. On June 5, gunmen killed seven policemen before blowing up the police station in Musayyib. The following day, gunmen believed loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr blasted a police station in the Sadr City area of Baghdad. Al-Sadr’s followers overran a police station Thursday in Najaf and ransacked the building.

This is why it is ridiculous to say that a guerilla army is “defeated,” as Brigadier General Mark Hertling foolishly announced last week.

And they lead you on to war:

A Fake War in the Himalayas?

by Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI (IPS) – This week’s stunning confessions by two Indian soldiers that they helped stage fake encounters with Pakistani troops on Siachen, often called the world’s highest, coldest and costliest battlefield, has renewed calls for demilitarizing the Himalayan glacier.

On Monday, rifleman Shyam Bahadur Thapa told a military court that he not only demolished a fake “enemy-held” objective with a rocket launcher in August 2003 but also acted the part of a Pakistani soldier killed in the action as video cameras whirred away.

Thapa said he did this at the behest of a company commander, Maj. Surinder Singh. “He asked me to remove my jacket and cap and lie there (near the demolished objective).”

Thapa is one of four soldiers who have testified before a court of inquiry to say that they had been forced by their officers, including a colonel and two majors, to participate in fake military encounters on Siachen in August and September 2003.

“Obviously this scandal involves the top brass, perhaps even generals – there is no use victimizing middle-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers,” a well-known writer on military affairs, N. Kunju, told IPS in an interview.

Kunju, a former army man himself, is among analysts who believe that the whole Siachen conflict, now running into its 20th year, is actually a huge fraud being played on the Indian people by successive governments and one mirrored by the generals in military-dominated Pakistan.

Read the whole thing, but by no means ever doubt that your own government — wherever you may live — is on the up and up. Don’t be paranoid.

AP reports:

Addressing advice the White House got suggesting torture might be allowed for some terrorist interrogations, President Bush said Friday he ordered U.S. officials to act consistent with law and international treaties.

“What I authorized was staying within U.S. law,” Bush said at the conclusion of the G-8 summit meeting here. The president said he doesn’t recall seeing Justice Department advice about the conditions for such torture.

Asked repeatedly about it, Bush sidestepped a question about whether he thought torture was immoral, saying that his instructions were “to adhere to law. … We’re a nation of law” and “you might look at those laws.”

The direction he provided was to “conform to U.S. law” and to act consistent with international treaty obligations, Bush said.

Sounds a little on the nervously evasive side, doesn’t he? Almost as evasive as Ashcroft.