TALIBAN ATTACKS PRISON IN AFGHANISTAN: 1000 PRISONERS ESCAPE

Taliban attacks Afghan prison
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/83E27E89-F204-41CA-95B5-B78F0401CF10.htm

Virtually all of the inmates in Kandahar prisonare said to have escaped in the attack [File: EPA]
Taliban fighters have attacked the main prison in Kanadahar, southern Afghanistan, blasting through its entrance and engaging in a gun battle with police.Nearly all of the estimated 1,150 prisoners, including some 400 Taliban, have escaped, Afghan officials have said.

Fighters attacked the main prison in Kandahar on Friday with a car bomb and rockets, killing police and freeing prisoners, according to the officials.

A suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle at the gates of the prison, Sarwar Danish, the Afghan justice minister said.

Officials with Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said they were aware of the attack but did not have any details.

YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS: IRAQ CONDEMNS U.S. DEMANDS

Never in the history of the United States as an occupier of a foreign country has the foreign country told the United States what they could and could not do---but Iraq is doing just that and dictating to the United Stats where U.S. troops can go in their country and how many bases the U.S. military can have in Iraq.

Iraqis Condemn American DemandsSides Negotiating U.S. Military Role

By Amit R. Paley and Karen DeYoungWashington Post Foreign ServiceWednesday, June 11, 2008; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008061003415.html

BAGHDAD, June 10 -- High-level negotiations over the future role of the U.S. military in Iraq have turned into an increasingly acrimonious public debate, with Iraqi politicians denouncing what they say are U.S. demands to maintain nearly 60 bases in their country indefinitely.

Top Iraqi officials are calling for a radical reduction of the U.S. military's role here after the U.N. mandate authorizing its presence expires at the end of this year. Encouraged by recent Iraqi military successes, government officials have said that the United States should agree to confine American troops to military bases unless the Iraqis ask for their assistance, with some saying Iraq might be better off without them.

"The Americans are making demands that would lead to the colonization of Iraq," said Sami al-Askari, a senior Shiite politician on parliament's foreign relations committee who is close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "If we can't reach a fair agreement, many people think we should say, 'Goodbye, U.S. troops. We don't need you here anymore.' "

MARINE CORP TIMES: MARINE RECRUITING AD ACCUSED OF BEING RACIST: ACCUSES BLACKS OF NOT BEING ABLE TO SWIM

Racist recruiting? Ad draws fire

Staff reportPosted : Friday Jun 13, 2008 13:06:25 EDT
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/06/marine_swim_061208w/

The Marine Corps’ newest recruiting commercial aimed at targeting minorities tackles a long-running and often-controversial debate involving black American youth: swimming ability.

Called “Leap,” the commercial shows a young black man standing at a high diving platform overlooking a swimming pool.

“I faced one of the toughest challenges of my life right here,” the narrator says. “I couldn’t swim.”

Encouraged by his drill instructor’s urging not to give up, the man goes for it.
“So I jumped in,” he says. “Unsure, apprehensive and scared out of my mind. But I came up a Marine.”

The man emerges not from a swimming pool, but from open water, in face paint and combat gear. A rubber boat filled with Marines zooms by and pulls the man inside.
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The ad reflects the real-life story of Staff Sgt. Thomas Hill, a senior drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., according to a Marine recruiting Web site, our.marines.com.

Hill volunteered to tell his story when he heard the Corps was looking for ideas for a new commercial, according to the site. “He wants others who approach life the way he did to understand what being a Marine can do for them.”

The popular blog Gawker.com, however, derided the ad as “subtle stereotyping.”

“The Marines send a simple, straightforward message: ‘Hey, black people. We know you can’t swim. That’s okay! We’ll teach you how, and then let you ride in a cool boat, if you just sign up for the Marines now. Okay?’ ”

In 1993, then-Commandant Gen. Carl E. Mundy Jr. launched a storm of controversy by telling an interviewer on “60 Minutes” that whites outperform blacks in objective military tests, including swimming.

“In the military skills, we find that the minority officers do not shoot as well as the non-minorities… They don’t swim as well. And when you give them a compass and send them across the terrain at night in a land navigation exercise, they don’t do as well at that sort of thing.”

More recently, a retired Army reserve officer running for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 was videotaped at a Christian Coalition making similar comments: “I grew up in Alabama and I understand and I know this from my own experiences that blacks aren’t the best swimmers or may not even know how to swim.”

The comments cost Tramm Hudson his shot at winning the Republican nomination for Florida’s 13th District.

TALKS BETWEEN U.S. AND IRAQ ARE AT AN IMPASSE

Republican Presidential candidate John McCain is so out of touch with what is going on in Iraq it borders on senility.

It doesn't mean a damn thing how many "victories" the "surge" is bringing when the U.S. and the Iraqi government can't come to terms on how long U.S. troops should be in Iraq.

This whole mess just keeps getting worse, and the the horrible and pathetic excuse for journalism called the mainstream media in the United States are as much to blame as anyone for misleading the American public and in turning sellout the 160,000 troops in Iraq.

There is not a single reporter in the news business in the United States who has a clue what is going on in Iraq. Not one.

All these meatheads care about is what McCain said about Obama or what Obama said about McCain and mean while while they fiddle around with the mundane topics not even suited for a high school newspaper, the situation in Iraq with the Iraqi government is going from bad to worse.

How in GOD's name these so-called "journalists" can collect a paycheck is beyond this blogger when they wouldn't know a news story if it hit them right between the eyeballs.

The ENTIRE press corps in the United States is a total joke and it is no wonder newspaper circulation is plummeting and nightly news is a laugh while cable news sinks deeper and deeper into tabloidism of the worst kind.

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE AND RETIRED REPORTER AND COLUMNIST.


Iraqi PM says security talks with US at impasse

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080613/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister said Friday that talks with the U.S. on a long-term security pact are at an impasse over objections that Iraq's sovereignty is at stake, but he held out hope that negotiators could still reach a compromise.

In his strongest comments yet on the debate, Nouri al-Maliki echoed concern by Iraqi lawmakers that the opening U.S. proposals would give Washington too much political and military leverage on Iraqi affairs. He left open room, however, that a deal could be hammered out.

"The first drafts presented left us at a dead end and deadlock," he told reporters in Amman, Jordan. "So, we left these first drafts and the negotiations will continue with new ideas until the sides reach a formula that preserves Iraq's sovereignty.

Click on link for full story.

TWO MORE GIS KILLED IN IRAQ BRINGS TOTAL TO 14 FOR JUNE

U.S. fatalities in June rise to 14 as 2 soldiers die

Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Friday , 13 /06 /2008 Time 12:11:26
http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=82309&NrIssue


Baghdad, Jun 13, (VOI)- Two U.S. soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in Iraq, raising the U.S. fatalities in June to 14, the U.S. army said on Friday.

“A Multi-National Force – West Marine died as the result of a non-combat related incident June 11,” the army said in a statement received by Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq (VOI).“The incident is under investigation,” it added.“

A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier was killed from wounds sustained when the Soldier’s vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in west Baghdad at approximately 3:30 p.m. June 12,” the army said in another statement.

The deaths raise the death toll of U.S. troops at 4098 since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.Of this number, 14 troops were killed in June, and 19 in May 2008, the lowest number of U.S. fatalities since the U.S. invasion. A total of 29 soldiers were killed in February 2008, while 40 were killed in January 2008.November 2004, which witnessed fierce battles between U.S. forces and armed groups in Falluja city, Anbar province, remains the month that witnessed the highest U.S. death toll with 137.April 2004 comes second with 135, followed by May 2007 during which 126 U.S. soldiers were killed.