WHAT ABOUT THE VIOLENCE FIGURES FOR MARCH, SENATORS?

Ignoring Uptick In Iraq Violence, Lieberman And Graham Accuse War Critics Of ‘A Crisis Of Credibility’

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/07/graham-lieberman-iraq-credibility/

Writing in the Wall Street Journal today, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) accuse critics of the Iraq war of facing “a crisis of credibility” because they “confidently predicted the failure of the surge.” But in their effort to argue that anti-war critics have “been proven decidedly wrong,” Lieberman and Graham undermine their own credibility on the issue by ignoring recent developments in the war-torn country.

As proof of the surge’s success, the two hawkish senators cite statistics that they say show “dramatic improvements in security”:
No one can deny the dramatic improvements in security in Iraq achieved by Gen. Petraeus, the brave troops under his command, and the Iraqi Security Forces. From June 2007 through February 2008, deaths from ethno-sectarian violence in Baghdad have fallen approximately 90%. American casualties have also fallen sharply, down by 70%.


The fact that Lieberman and Graham only cite statistics through February — even though numbers for March 2008 are available — undercuts their argument. Perhaps they ignored March because there was “a 25 or 30 percent increase in the number of civilian casualties” from February to March:

Overall, Iraqi deaths rose from a low of 568 in December and 541 in January to roughly 721 in February to more than 1,082 in March, according to statistics compiled by Iraq’s ministries of health, interior, and defense and confirmed by Smith. The vast majority were civilians.

“There was somewhere on the order of a 25 or 30 percent increase in the number of civilian casualties when you consider March compared to February,” Smith said, although “the numbers are still nowhere near what they had been last summer.”
Lieberman and Graham also claim that “the critics in Washington have been proven wrong” about political progress in Iraq, citing the passage of “de-Baathification, amnesty, the budget and provincial elections” legislation by the Iraqi government. But this too is not an honest assessment of what has occurred in Iraq. In a report to be released today, the experts who advised the original Iraq Study Group call political progress “superficial“:
A new assessment of U.S. policy in Iraq by the same experts who advised the original Iraq Study Group concludes that political progress is “so slow, halting and superficial” and political fragmentation “so pronounced” that the United States is no closer to being able to leave Iraq than it was a year ago.

Before accusing their political opponents of “a crisis of credibility,” Lieberman and Graham should make sure their arguments don’t undermine their own credibility.

UpdateThe AP reports today that "internal strife" in Iraq has been "underscored by a rise in ethno-sectarian violence between Iraqis in March, the first such monthly increase since last July."

HUFFINGTON POST: TV'S RESPONSE TO PENTAGON PROPAGANDA? NEVER HAPPENED

TV's Response to Pentagon Propaganda? Never Happened

Posted April 24, 2008 11:31 AM (EST)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-silver/video-tvs-response-to-pen_b_98417.html
Click on link to see video.

Last week, it was a mudslinging debate hosted by ABC. This week, it's revelations of pro-war propaganda on nearly every major television news outlet.

The quest for quality journalism and for the truth about the fast sell on the Iraq war just hit a new low. And today, in the ensuing days, our loyal Bush lapdog news outlets are either dismissing the damning revelation or pretending it never happened.

Sunday's New York Times' article exposing a secret Bush administration campaign to infiltrate the media with pro-Iraq war "analysts" is enraging and is likely illegal. Trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of casualties later, we learn that the drum beat to war was led by a choir lip-synching the Pentagon's talking points.

And no one - not the network officials, not the military analysts, and certainly not the White House - can walk away from this scheme with clean hands. Of course, propaganda has always played a role in the government's wartime strategy. But the extent to which the American people were duped into trusting military officials in the build-up and ongoing pursuit of the Iraq war -- aided and abetted by the largest news outlets -- is as devious as it gets.

We need more than an empty reprimand of these propaganda pundits. Congress must investigate the Pentagon's "hidden hand" in driving war coverage, and the defense contractors, military analysts and national news media who went along for the ride.

The Department of Justice must launch an investigation to determine if the Pentagon broke the laws prohibiting government sponsored covert propaganda. But don't hold your breath. As Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said in a Capitol Hill hearing this week, Bush-appointed DoJ officials are so MIA on government accountability, they should all be "on the side of milk containers".

This is not a partisan issue. Democrats, Republicans and everyone else are the victims. Public interest groups have launched an effort to pressure our lawmakers to act; to send a resounding message that the American people will no longer tolerate government lies, half-truths, and manipulations in the media.

Many of the network officials interviewed by the Times "acknowledged only a limited understanding of their analysts' interactions with the administration" and said analysts were not expected to disclose their financial conflicts before being broadcast as an expert.

Shame on the media for their irresponsible and shoddy reporting, for their unwillingness to vet sources, and for being compliant lapdogs when we needed snarling watchdogs.
Welcome to a familiar refrain. America's media system is dominated by a handful of giant corporations obsessed with making money, and terrified of upsetting the apple cart. Problem is, critical, accountable journalism questions authority, stirs the pot, and almost always spills more than a few apples. It even scares away a coveted advertisers and pisses off politicians who would otherwise hand over policy favors, earmarks and tax breaks worth millions.

Every time you see the media fail to inform and enlighten - a failure you can witness every time you turn on your TV or radio - don't get mad, join the ranks of Americans who are realizing that the fight for media reform is perhaps the most important political fight of our time. A fight who's outcome will determine whether our nation will continue its Orwellian slide into propaganda and falsehood, or become the enlightened democracy we so desperately want to live in.

Correction: The video refers to CNN's Rick Sanchez as a morning host. His show appears evenings.

YOU TUBE VIDEO: EXPOSING THE PENTAGON PUNDITS SCANDAL

http://freepress.net/node/38880

Most of the TV military analysts have ties to the defense industry and this video explores exactly who the military are that appear on cable news and how they have raked in a lot money "selling the war" to the American public.

AMERICANS SHOULD BE OUTRAGED. BUSH ADMIN AND PENTAGON USE "MILITARY ANLYSTS" TO SELL AMERICANS A BILL OF GOODS ON THE IRAQ WAR

The citizens of America should be outraged over the fact the Bush Administration and the Pentagon along with the three cable news networks have been lying to them for over five years with phony "military analysts" appearing all over TV when the New York Times has now revealed ALL of the "TV military analysts" are on the payroll of defense contractors or work as lobbyists for the defense industry.

The cable news stations are unfazed by the revelation the TV military analysts are "hired guns" working for defense contractors as witnessed how FOX NEWS' Brit Hume earlier this week feature TWICE former General Robert Scales on his "Special Report" show when it has been revealed by the NY Times that Scales has ties to the defense industry through an organization called Colgen, Inc.

Scales' online Fox News bio states that "General Scales is the president of Colgen, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in issues relating to land power, war gaming and strategic leadership." According to its website, Colgen "[a]ssists the landpower Services in creating future warfighting doctrine and operational concepts" and "[t]ranslates these concepts into useful strategies and actions for industry, the media, and the congressional and executive branches of government." Colgen also "provides products targeted to these marketing elements including: media commentary, congressional testimony, advice to the executive branch, published works, seminars and conferences."

Colgen's "growing list of satisfied clients" includes defense contractors such as General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, as well as multiple elements of the Department of Defense, such as the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.


Pentagon Propaganda: So Much Worse Than We Thought

By John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, PR WatchPosted on April 25, 2008, Printed on April 25, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/83541/

David Barstow of the New York Times has written the first installment in what is already a stunning exposé of the Bush Administration's most powerful propaganda weapon used to sell and manage the war on Iraq: the embedding of military propagandists directly into the TV networks as on-air commentators.

We and others have long criticized the
widespread TV network practice of hiring former military officials to serve as analysts, but even in our most cynical moments we did not anticipate how bad it was. Barstow has painstakingly documented how these analysts, most of them military industry consultants and lobbyists, were directly chosen, managed, coordinated and given their talking points by the Pentagon's ministers of propaganda.

Thanks to the two-year investigation by the New York Times, we today know that Victoria Clarke, then the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, launched the Pentagon military analyst program in early 2002. These supposedly independent military analysts were in fact a coordinated team of pro-war propagandists, personally recruited by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and acting under Clarke's tutelage and development.

One former participant, NBC military analyst Kenneth Allard, has called the effort "psyops on steroids." As Barstow reports, "Internal Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to the military analysts as 'message force multipliers' or 'surrogates' who could be counted on to deliver administration 'themes and messages' to millions of Americans 'in the form of their own opinions.' … Don Meyer, an aide to Ms. Clarke, said a strategic decision was made in 2002 to make the analysts the main focus of the public relations push to construct a case for war."

Clarke and her senior aide, Brent T. Krueger, eventually signed up more than 75 retired military officers who penned newspaper op/ed columns and appeared on television and radio news shows as military analysts. The Pentagon held weekly meetings with the military analysts, which continued as of April 20, 2008, when the New York Times ran Barstow's story.

The program proved so successful that it was expanded to issues besides the Iraq War. "Other branches of the
administration also began to make use of the analysts. Mr. Gonzales, then the attorney general, met with them soon after news leaked that the government was wiretapping terrorism suspects in the United States without warrants, Pentagon records show.

When David H. Petraeus was appointed the commanding general in Iraq in January 2007, one of his early acts was to meet with the analysts."
Barstow spent two years digging, using the Freedom of Information Act and attorneys to force the Bush Administration to release some 8,000 pages of documents now under lock and key at the New York Times. This treasure trove should result in additional stories, giving them a sort of "Pentagon Papers" of Iraq war propaganda.

Click on link above to finish reading this story.

NEW VIDEO: REAL NEWS REPORTS VIOLENCE IN IRAQ DISRUPTS EVERYDAY LIFE

Baghdad violence disrupting everyday life
Clashes between Iraqi, US forces and militiamen kill 13 as UK freezes troop withdrawals
Friday April 25th, 2008

View The Real News Network video here:

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1404&thisview=item&renewx=2008-04-25+11%3A59%3A33

The headmistress of a girls' school in Sadr City was forced to send her students home because of an upturn in violence in the Baghdad neighborhood on Thursday. As fighting rages on in the Iraqi capital, Britain announced it would halt the withdrawal of its 4,500 troops from the Basra area because of clashes with Shiite militias.

Transcript:VOICE OF ZAA NKWETA, PRESENTER: At least 13 people were killed in Baghdad on Thursday in ongoing fighting between Shiite militiamen and Iraqi- and US-led forces. The threatening upturn in violence prompted the headmistress of a local school in Sadr City to send her female students home.

BATOOL RASHEED, SCHOOLGIRL (SUBTITLED TRANSLATION): We cannot complete our studies. We hope that the prime minister listens to our voices, and works towards a solution. Services are so bad. We wake up and sleep to bangs and explosions that makes us absent minded and unable to focus on our studies.NKWETA: Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, held closed-door meetings with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad. Britain announced on Thursday it would put a freeze on troop withdrawals from Iraq, due to an upsurge in fighting with Shiite militias. Around 4,500 British troops are based in Iraq, most of them at an airport camp near the southern city of Basra. Britain suspended plans to withdraw about 1,500 troops this spring after fighting broke out last month between Iraqi forces and Shiite militiamen. Britain's Defense Secretary, Des Browne, on Thursday acknowledged Iraqi soldiers being trained by British troops are months away from being ready to deploy.

DISCLAIMER:Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.

DEATH AND MAYHEM GOES ON IN IRAQ: 14 KILLED AND 75 WOUNDED IN PAST 24 HOURS

Baghdad, Apr 25, (VOI) – 14 people were killed, 75 others were wounded, while security forces arrested five persons in violent acts that took place throughout Iraq during the last 24 hours, security source said on Friday.

http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=77403&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

In Baghdad, a medical source from Sadr city, eastern Baghdad, said that "the Imam Ali hospital in Sadr City received during the past few hours nine corpses and 39 wounded people while the al-Shahid al-Sadr hospital received two killed and 35 others wounded."

"The number of deaths is most likely to rise due to the serious condition of some of the wounded," he said, adding the two main hospitals in Sadr City and other nearby hospitals are acting in a limited pace due to the continued bombardment.Sadr City, a stronghold of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militias, has been witnessing armed clashes since Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced last month the commencement of a security operation codenamed Saulat al-Forsan (Knights' Assault) in the port city of Basra, Iraq's second largest province and an oil-hub, 590 km south of Baghdad, which he said targeted "outlaws".

US IS PAYING FOR THOUSANDS OF DEAD IRAQIS STILL ON IRAQI ARMY PAYROLL

The situation in Iraq just got even worse---if that could be humanely possible. It is now being reported by AP that the US is paying Iraq for Iraqis who have been killed but supposedly are working in the Iraqi security forces.

WASHINGTON - Iraq's government has kept thousands of dead, injured or absent policemen and soldiers on the payroll as a way to compensate or care for their families, an audit found.
The practice is just one example of why there are no reliable numbers on how many Iraqi forces are on the job at any given time, says the report being made public Friday by Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

Dead kept on Iraqi military payroll U.S. audit also finds discrepancies in how troops are counted The Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24302718/

"There are continuing uncertainties about the true number ... who are present for duty at any one time,'' Bowen said of Iraqi policemen, soldiers, border guards and other forces.
Bowen said another part of the problem is that Iraqi ministries lack automated accounting systems needed to keep good data.

"I would not call it a damning report. I would say it's reflective of the difficulty of assessing troop strength ... and, more importantly, capabilities,'' Bowen said in an interview Thursday.

Bowen had been asked to assess last month's Defense Department report on Iraq, one in a series of quarterly documents required by Congress to measure progress toward military and political security there.

The $20 billion U.S. program to train Iraqis to provide their own security is key to when U.S. troops levels can be reduced in Iraq. And the problem of assessing the Iraqi forces is not new.
Iraqi forces short on officers Bowen noted that efforts have been made to improve the quarterly report's data on the number of Iraqis forces that have been authorized, trained, are being paid and are on duty.

MORE US DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3 US SOLDIERS, 42 IRAQIS KILLED; 38 IRAQIS WOUNDED

The war in Iraq rages on with more US deaths. On Thursday 3 US soldiers were killed along with 42 Iraqis. Another 38 Iraqis were wouded.

At least 42 Iraqis were killed and 38 more were wounded in the latest attacks. Three American soldiers were killed as well, but in separate accidents. Also, Britain is canceling its drawdown of troops for the time being.

http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=12737

Two American soldiers were killed and one was wounded during a vehicular accident in Salah ad Din. One Iraqi interpreter was also wounded. Another American soldier was killed in a separate accident in Kuwait. Meanwhile, the MNF denied capturing former Vice President Izzat al-Douri.


Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has announced that all political factions will soon be returning to the government. The groups, both Shi'ite and Sunni, walked out last year. One of the groups is connected to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, but reconciliation is unlikely unless al-Maliki hold up his end of a cease-fire between Iraqi forces and al-Sadr's Mahdi army. Instead, al-Maliki says he will continue with his crackdown. Meanwhile, Shi'ite lawmakers are warning that al-Sadr is considering disconnecting the Mahdi army from it's political wing and declaring an end to the cease-fire.


In Baghdad, three dumped bodies were found. Three people were killed and 15 were wounded during a market bombing in Mansour; three Iraqi soldiers were injured in a separate bombing. Iraqi and U.S. forces killed nine suspects in Husseiniyah. As many as seven others were killed in air strikes across the city. Three people were injured in a bomb blast in west Baghdad.

Two more were injured during a bombing in Shabb. Sixteen Katyusha rockets were confiscated. Mortars struck the Polish Embassy, injuring a security guard. A car bomb at the entrance to the Green Zone killed one person and wounded three others. An IED was found in Zayouna and disposed of. A bomb at the Ghadeer Bridge killed one and wounded six others.

Mortars in Karrada left no casualties. Two people were injured when mortars fell in Adhamiya. Also, Iraqi and U.S. forces raided a hospital in Rashad, where they arrested staff and patients; four suspects were killed during the operation.

Two policemen and a civilian were killed during a roadside bombing in Kirkuk.

In Mosul, one civilian was killed and three people were wounded when a roadside bomb blasted them. One policeman was shot and killed. Also, eight suspects were captured.

Iraqi forces arrested a Sadrist cleric in Basra.
In Samarra, reconstruction of the Askariya Mosque is uniting both Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.
Three suspects were detained near Arbil.

In Karbala, three suspects were arrested.

U.S. forces killed six suspects near Lake Thar Thar.

A roadside bomb in Khalis killed an Iraqi security officer and wounded two others.
Three public servants driving an ambulance were arrested in Fallujah.

In Wajihiyah the district commissioner and his driver were injured during and armed attack.
Also, Turkish troops reported firing upon a group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels attempting to cross into Turkey. The PKK said that intense clashes took place, with losses on the Turkish forces side.

MUQTADA AL-SADR SHIFTS FROM POLITICS TO FIGHTING US FORCES

The rebel cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr has decided to focus all of his attention on fighting US forces in Iraq rather than seek political reconciliation with the struggling Iraqi government.

Al-Sadr shift: away from politics and favoring fight
By HAMZA HENDAWI and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writers Thu Apr 24, 9:37 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080425/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_sadr_s_path

BAGHDAD - Muqtada al-Sadr is considering setting aside his political ambitions and restarting a full-scale fight against U.S.-led forces — a worrisome shift that may reflect Iranian influence on the young cleric and could open the way for a shadow state protected by his powerful Mahdi Army.
A possible breakaway path — described to The Associated Press by Shiite lawmakers and politicians — would represent the ultimate backlash to the Iraqi government's pressure on al-Sadr to renounce and disband his Shiite militia.
By snubbing the give-and-take of politics, al-Sadr would have a freer hand to carve out a kind of parallel state with its own militia and social services along the lines of Hezbollah in Lebanon, a Shiite group founded with Iran's help in the 1980s.
It also would carry potentially disastrous security implications as the Pentagon trims its troops strength and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki finally shows progress on national reconciliation.

GATES ACCUSES IRAN OF KILLING US SOLDIERS: PRELUDE TO WAR?

The US Defense Secretary blames Iran for the killing of US troops in Iraq as the Bush administration steps up rhetoric against Tehran.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=52941&sectionid=351020101

"What the Iranians are doing is killing American servicemen and women inside Iraq,'' Robert Gates told a press conference on Wednesday.

The Defense Secretary denied the reports that senior US military officials including General Raymond T. Odierno, General David Petraeus and Admiral William Fallon are at odds over Iran, saying they have no disagreement about the need to confront Iran "over its conduct in Iraq". "General Odierno and General Petraeus and Admiral Fallon were all in exactly the same position when it came to their views of Iranian interference inside Iraq,'' Gates claimed.

The United States accuses Iran of supporting insurgents inside Iraq. Tehran, however, dismisses the allegations saying Washington has failed to provide any concert evidence to prove its claims.

BRIT HUME AND FOX NEWS' "SPECIAL REPORT" STILL USE MILITARY ANALYST EVEN AFTER NY TIMES EXPOSED HIM AS ON THE PAYROLL OF DEFENSE CONTRACTORS

FOX NEWS' Special Report aired quotes from military analyst Robert Scales -- but has not mentioned he was in Times' exposé on military analysts

http://mediamatters.org/items/200804240006?lid=257634&rid=7275876

Summary: In two separate reports since The New York Times published an exposé on the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon, Fox News' Special Report aired quotes from Fox News military analyst Robert Scales without mentioning that Scales was named in the Times article and addressing Scales' relationship with the Defense Department and defense contractors.

Since The New York Times published an exposé on the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon on April 20, Fox News' Special Report has aired quotes from retired Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales, a Fox News military analyst, in two separate reports without mentioning that Scales was named in the Times article and addressing Scales' relationship with the Defense Department and defense contractors. Indeed, as Media Matters for America has documented, Special Report has yet to mention the Times piece at all. Times investigative reporter David Barstow reported that "the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform" media military analysts, many of whom have clients with an interest in obtaining Pentagon contracts, "into a kind of media Trojan horse -- an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks."
Barstow wrote that "[s]ome e-mail messages between the Pentagon and the analysts reveal an implicit trade of privileged access for favorable coverage. Robert H. Scales Jr., a retired Army general and analyst for Fox News and National Public Radio whose consulting company advises several military firms on weapons and tactics used in Iraq, wanted the Pentagon to approve high-level briefings for him inside Iraq in 2006. 'Recall the stuff I did after my last visit," he wrote. 'I will do the same this time.' " Barstow also reported that Scales was one of several analysts who "pointed out, accurately, that they did not always agree with the administration or each other." Barstow quoted Scales as saying, "None of us drink the Kool-Aid."
On the two occasions he appeared on Special Report since April 20, Scales addressed recent actions by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. On the April 21 edition, Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported that Gates "chastised members of the Air Force and other services" and urged them to "deploy[] more unmanned aerial systems, such as the Air Force's Predator drones." Griffin aired a video clip of Scales saying, "Frankly, there isn't anywhere near the number of unmanned drones necessary to fulfill this mission to the degree that the ground commanders think that the mission should be done." Griffin then stated, "The Air Force says such criticism is unfair." Likewise, on April 23, during Griffin's report on Gates' announcement that he had chosen Gen. David Petraeus to head U.S. Central Command, and Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, corps commander, to replace Petraeus, Scales is shown saying: "There are plenty of generals who are good at counterinsurgency. The real issue is the desire of the secretary of defense to restore that strategic operational chemistry, if you will, between two generals -- Petraeus, who is the strategist, and Odierno, who is the classic operator -- and those combinations don't come along very often, and they're extremely rare."


Scales' online Fox News bio states that "General Scales is the president of Colgen, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in issues relating to land power, war gaming and strategic leadership."

According to its website, Colgen "[a]ssists the landpower Services in creating future warfighting doctrine and operational concepts" and "[t]ranslates these concepts into useful strategies and actions for industry, the media, and the congressional and executive branches of government." Colgen also "provides products targeted to these marketing elements including: media commentary, congressional testimony, advice to the executive branch, published works, seminars and conferences." Colgen's "growing list of satisfied clients" includes defense contractors such as General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, as well as multiple elements of the Department of Defense, such as the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.

In an April 21 article following up on the Times' story, The Washington Post reported that "Marty Ryan, a Fox News executive producer, said yesterday that the analysts are hired not just for their expertise but also as people 'who have access to and know what the thinking of the Pentagon is. That makes them valuable to us.' " The Post further reported that "[w]ith so many military commentators retained in wartime, 'it's a little unrealistic to think you're going to do a big background check on everybody,' Ryan said. 'Some of the business ties aren't necessarily relevant when you're asking them about a specific helicopter operation.' "

From the April 23 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:
[begin video clip] CLICK ON THIS LINK TO VIEW VIDEO: http://mediamatters.org/items/200804240006?lid=257634&rid=7275876

GRIFFIN: In a hastily arranged news conference, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced he is filling the open position of CENTCOM commander with the Army's most well-known and admired general, the commander of Multi-National Forces in Iraq, David Petraeus.
GATES: I recommended him to the president because I am absolutely confident he is the best man for the job.
GRIFFIN: Petraeus would serve in one of the nation's top military command posts, responsible for 26 countries, including the entire Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and East Africa.
GATES: The kinds of conflicts that we're dealing with not just in Iraq, but in Afghanistan, and some of the challenges that we face elsewhere in the region, and the Central Command area, are very much characterized by asymmetric warfare. And I don't know anybody in the United States military better qualified to lead that effort.
GRIFFIN: General Petraeus will exit Iraq in the late summer or fall, after the last surge troops leave. He will go to CENTCOM in Tampa, Florida. Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, who just returned from Iraq in February, where he served as corps commander and Petraeus' right hand, will go back.
He is currently on leave with his family at Fort Hood in Texas. Lieutenant General Pete Corelli, now the senior military adviser to Secretary Gates, will remain in the Pentagon, becoming the Army's vice chief, a position Odierno was supposed to take.
SCALES: There are plenty of generals who are good at counterinsurgency. The real issue is the desire of the secretary of defense to restore that strategic operational chemistry, if you will, between two generals -- Petraeus, who is the strategist, and Odierno, who is the classic operator -- and those combinations don't come along very often, and they're extremely rare.
GRIFFIN: The changes must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Gates said today after consulting with Armed Services Committee Chairman Democrat Carl Levin [MI], he did not anticipate any problems, but it may not all be smooth sailing. Democratic Senator Russ Feingold [WI] reacted to the nomination, describing the administration's focus on Iraq as, quote, "myopic" at the expense of the war in Afghanistan. Quote: "General Petraeus must answer the most important question we face, which is not whether we are winning in Iraq, but why we are not defeating Al Qaeda.
[end video clip]
GRIFFIN: In his job as commander of forces in Iraq, General Petraeus was not supposed to look beyond Iraq. Now, he will be charged with balancing troop needs in two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan. At the Pentagon, Jennifer Griffin, Fox News.
From the April 21 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:
[begin video clip]
GRIFFIN: Shock and awe brought the Air Force glory five years ago at the beginning of the Iraq war, but today's Iraqi insurgents weren't shocked or awed, it appears. And now, the U.S. military finds itself adapting its doctrine to a new enemy -- the insurgent -- a likely foe for decades to come.
Today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a speech at Maxwell Air Base, chastised members of the Air Force and other services. Quote: "My concern is that our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield. I've been wrestling for months to get more intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets into the theatre. Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it's been like pulling teeth."
Gates was referring to deploying more unmanned aerial systems, such as the Air Force's Predator drones, the eyes in the sky for the military since 9-11 for tracking Al Qaeda leaders and insurgents. He recalled how, as head of the CIA in 1992, he couldn't convince the Air Force to co-fund a vehicle without a pilot.
Today, there are 5,000 unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance vehicles, a 25-fold increase since 9-11, by Gates' own estimates. "While we've doubled this capability in recent months, it is still not good enough," Gates told the Air officers.
SCALES: Frankly, there isn't anywhere near the number of unmanned drones necessary to fulfill this mission to the degree that the ground commanders think that the mission should be done.
GRIFFIN: The Air Force says such criticism is unfair. Of the 110 Predators it has, 74 are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, 88 percent of the force. The Pentagon asked the Air Force to field 21 combat air patrol teams, each with about four to five Predators to CENTCOM by 2010. The Air Force is already two years ahead of schedule.
BRIG. GEN. BLAIR HANSEN (Director of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Capabilities, U.S. Air Force): We're deathly serious about not only pushing what we have today, but being able, six months from now, to continue to grow that while we strengthen the capability to, in fact, be engaged as a partner.
[end video clip]
GRIFFIN: Gates wants the Air Force to train drone teams faster. Right now, there simply aren't enough pilots. Unlike the Army, the Air Force insists on using trained fighter pilots, arguing that even though the pilot sits thousands of miles away, this is not a video game. At the Pentagon, Jennifer Griffin, Fox News.

US TROOPS KILL 800 IN ONE WEEK IN SADR CITY--MANY WOMEN AND CHILDREN

U.S. occupation forces have killed more than 800 people, most of them innocent civilians, in their three-week long military campaign to subdue the Mahdi Army in Sadr City, the leader of Sadr movement in Baghdad said.

By Laith Jawad
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2008-04-24\kurd.htm

Sheikh Salaman al-fariji said the troops have also injured more than 1,800 people and caused large-scale destruction of private property and the city’s rickety infrastructure.

Fariji made the remarks as he accompanied a delegation of 20 members of parliament on a tour of the impoverished city home to more than 2 million people.

U.S. troops have imposed a tight embargo on the city and bombing by war planes and helicopter gun ships in the densely populated Baghdad neighborhood continued even during the MPs’ tour.

Falah Shanshal, an MP, said the group would write to the parliament to lift the siege of Sadr City and reach a peaceful solution to the standoff with Mahdi Army.

Mahdi Army is the military wing of Sadr movement which has 30 deputies in parliament.

“The MPs were shocked by the scale of damage,” said Fariji.

Shanshal said: “The people of Sadr City undergo horrific humanitarian conditions as a result of U.S. military operations and embargo.”

LATEST LIST OF NAMES AND HOMETOWNS OF US CASUALTIES

Here is the most recent list of US casualties including names and hometowns. Click on part in "BLUE" for further details.

Latest Coalition Fatalities

04/24/08 DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
1st Lt. Matthew R. Vandergrift, 28 of Littleton, Colo., died April 21 from wounds he suffered while conducting combat operations in Basrah, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary...

04/24/08 MNF: MND-N Soldiers die in non-combat related incident in Salah ad Din
Two Multi-National Division – North Soldiers were killed when their vehicle rolled onto its side during movement to a combat outpost in Salah ad Din Province, April 23. Another Soldier and one interpreter were injured in the incident...

04/23/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Pvt. Ronald R. Harrison, 25, of Morris Plains, N.J., died April 22 at Forward Operating Base Falcon near Baghdad, Iraq, of a non-combat related injury. He was assigned to the 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team...

04/23/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualties (part 2 of 2)
Spc. Steven J. Christofferson, 20, of Cudahy, Wis...died April 21 in Bayji, Iraq, of wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry ...

04/23/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualties (part 1 of 2)
Sgt. Adam J. Kohlhaas, 26, of Perryville, Mo...died April 21 in Bayji, Iraq, of wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team...

04/23/08 MNF: MND-B Soldier attacked by small-arms fire Multi-National Division
A Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldier was killed when he was attacked by small-arms fire while his patrol was conducting operations in eastern Baghdad at approximately 2:20 p.m. April 23.

04/22/08 DoD Identifies Navy Casualty
Petty Officer 1st Class Cherie L. Morton, 40, of Bakersfield, Calif., died April 20 in Galali, Muharraq, Bahrain. She was assigned to Naval Security Force, Naval Support Activity Bahrain.
04/22/08 DoD Identifies Navy Casualty

Airman Apprentice Adrian M. Campos, 22, of El Paso, Texas, was found dead in Dubai on April 21 due to a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Support Squadron 22, which was attached to the USNS Arctic.

U.S. Confirmed Deaths Reported Deaths: 4051 Confirmed Deaths: 4045 Pending Confirmation: 6 DoD Confirmation List

AP REPORTS: POLAND'S EMBASSY IN GREEN ZONE HIT BY MORTAR ATTACK

Poland says its embassy in Iraq hit by rocket or mortar
Polish foreign minister says embassy in Iraq hit by rocket or mortar, wounding 1 person

StaffAP News
Apr 24, 2008 09:59 EST
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=141157

Poland's foreign minister says a rocket or mortar has hit the country's embassy in Baghdad. One embassy worker was lightly wounded in the attack.
Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski says one mortar or rocket round hit the roof of the building housing the embassy's security staff. The living quarters are next to the embassy's main building in the Iraqi capital's Green Zone.
He says the attack will not affect Poland's mission in Iraq. Poland plans to withdraw its some 900 troops from Iraq by the end of October.

PETRAEUS PROMOTION FREES CHENEY TO THREATEN IRAN

The nomination of Gen. David Petraeus to be the new head of the Central Command not only ensures that he will be available to defend the George W. Bush administration's policies toward Iran and Iraq at least through the end of Bush's term and possibly even beyond.

POLITICS-US: Petraeus Promotion Frees Cheney to Threaten IranAnalysis by Gareth Porter*WASHINGTON, Apr 23 (IPS)
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42101-

It also gives Vice President Dick Cheney greater freedom of action to exploit the option of an air attack against Iran during the administration's final months. Petraeus will take up the CENTCOM post in late summer or early fall, according to Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

The ability of the administration to threaten Iran with an attack both publicly and behind the scenes had been dramatically reduced in 2007 by opposition from the former CENTCOM commander, Adm. William Fallon, until he stepped down from the post under pressure from Gates and the White House last month.

Petraeus has proved himself willing to cooperate closely with the White House policy lines on Iraq and Iran, arguing against any post-surge reduction in troop strength policy and blaming Iran for challenges to the U.S. military presence. Along with the deference to Petraeus in Congress and the media, his pliability on those issues made him the obvious choice to replace Fallon. But Petraeus had already effectively taken over many of the powers of the CENTCOM commander last year.

Click on link for full story

JUST ANOTHER DAY OF PEACE AND SERENITY IN IRAQ EXCEPT 2 GIS KILLED, I US CONTRACTOR KILLED, 50 IRAQIS KILLED, 114 IRAQIS WOUNDED

Except for these few "minor" incidents, Iraq was a calm and peaceful country, or at least that is what the Bush administration and FOX NEWS wants Americans to believe.

Wednesday: 2 US Soldiers, 1 US Contractor, 59 Iraqis Killed; 114 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 12:27 a.m. EDT, April 24, 2008
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=12733

At least 59 Iraqis were killed and 114 more were wounded in the latest violence, much of it involving continued fighting between the Mahdi army and Iraqi security forces. Exact figures are difficult to obtain due to the nature of the clashes. One American soldier was killed during combat operations in Baghdad, while the DOD reported the death of a U.S. soldier from non-combat injuries. The remains of an American contractor who was kidnapped in 2006 were positively identified. Also, a former Iraqi Vice President under Saddam Hussein, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has possibly been captured.

Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, second in charge of U.S. forces, says he hopes Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will stop his followers from conducting attacks. This is unlikely to happen unless Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki meets the conditions set forth in recent negotiations, which he has refused to do so far. The fighting began last month after al-Maliki targeted al-Sadr's followers in Basra under the guise of a security crackdown. The Sadrists and many Western analysts believe the operation was initiated in order to undermine al-Sadr's political base ahead of elections. The crackdown was a failure, and fighting mostly ended when al-Sadr ordered his followers to observe a unilateral cease-fire he imposed on them last summer.

Sadr City has mostly been shut off from the rest of Baghdad due to the clashes. The casualty counts often conflict, but authorities believe that at least 400 civilians have been killed in Shi'ite suburb. Another 1,720 people were injured. Water, food, medical supplies and other essential items are running dangerously low, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
In Baghdad, clashes in Husseiniyah left seven people were killed and 20 were wounded, including civilians.

U.S. forces killed 15 suspects in separate events across Baghdad. Five people were wounded during a roadside bombing in Karrada. Two civilians were wounded during a roadside bombinb in Zaafaraniyah. In Shurta, a roadside bomb injured six people.

A roadside bomb in Doura targeted a U.S. patrol, but no casualties were reported. Three civilians were injured during a bombing in Yarmouk. Two gunmen were killed. Also, four bodies were recovered.

In Sadr City, authorities reported that eight civilians were killed and 44 more were wounded.
A coordinated attack in Mosul left four dead and nine injured. First, a suicide bomber detonated his vest. When first responders arrived and car bomb blasted them. In other incidents, another bomb killed one person and injured four others. Nine were injured in yet another bombing.. Three dumped bodies were found. A water employee was shot and killed. A policeman was killed during clashes. Gunmen shot at a private car, killing a man and wounding his wife. Four people were wounded during a mortar attack. Also, U.S. forces killed an al-Qaeda suspect and arrested five more.

The bodies of two oil security personnel were discovered next to oil pipelines near Tikrit.
A roadside bomb in Kirkuk injured two policemen, one an officer.

In Diyala province, 38 detainees were released.

Three dumped bodies were located in Mahmuhdiya.
U.S. forces conducted several raids in the Shurqat region. One suspect was killed, 25 were arrested and a large amount of cash was confiscated.

One suspect was killed and seven were arrested during U.S. raids in al-Jazeera.
Gunmen injured a teacher in Dhulwiya.
Four bodies were found in Muqdadiyah.

In Basra, clashes between the Mahdi army and Iraqi forces continued. Three suspects were arrested.
Mortars in Balad Ruz wounded four people.
Also, Turkish forces bombed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) locations in northern Iraq.

BREAKING NEWS: AP IS REPORTING 3 US SOLIDERS KILLED IN IRAQ

3 US soldiers killed in vehicle accidents in Iraq and Kuwait military says
StaffAP News
Apr 24, 2008 03:24 EST

http://wiredispatch.com/news/print/?id=140823

The U.S. military says two of its soldiers in Iraq died when their vehicle rolled onto its side north of Baghdad.
A third American soldier died in a road accident in neighboring Kuwait.
The two soldiers died Wednesday in Iraq's Salahuddin province. The military said in a statement released Thursday that another soldier and an interpreter also were injured.
The military says the highway accident in Kuwait involved a single vehicle and that another soldier was injured.
The cause of both crashes were under investigation.
Kuwait is a major logistics base for American and other coalition troops serving in neighboring Iraq.
Source: AP News

IRAQ'S PUPPET GOVERNMENT DOESN'T EXIST OUTSIDE THE GREEN ZONE

The whole idea that there is some kind of functioning Iraqi government in Iraq is a myth perpetrated by the Bush administration and their puppet news organization, FOX NEWS.

The al-Maliki government, which is a puppet government set up by the United States, has zero functions outside of the Green Zone.

Why Does the Bush Regime Want to Rule Iraq?

By Paul Craig Roberts 23/04/08 "ICH"

The Bush regime has quagmired America into a sixth year of war in Afghanistan and Iraq with no end in sight. The cost of these wars of aggression is horrendous. Official U.S. combat casualties stand at 4,538 dead.

Officially, 29,780 U.S. troops have been wounded in Iraq.On April 17, 2008, AP News reported that a new study released by the RAND Corporation concludes that "some 300,000 U.S. troops are suffering from major depression or post-traumatic stress from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 320,000 received brain injuries."

On April 21, 2008, OpEdNews.com reported that an internal e-mail from Gen. Michael J. Kussman, undersecretary for health at the Veterans Administration, to Ira Katz, head of mental health at the VA, confirms a McClatchy Newspaper report that 126 veterans per week commit suicide. To the extent that the suicides are attributable to the war, more than 500 deaths should be added to the reported combat fatalities each month.

Turning to Iraqi deaths, expert studies support as many as 1.2 million dead Iraqis, almost entirely civilians. Another 2 million Iraqis have fled their country, and there are 2 million displaced Iraqis within Iraq. Afghan casualties are unknown.Both Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered unconscionable civilian deaths and damage to housing, infrastructure, and environment. Iraq is afflicted with depleted uranium and open sewers.

Click on ICH link to read the full story.

CNN REPORTS: RED CROSS SAYS THEY ARE RUNNING OUT OF FOOD AND DRUGS IN SADR CITY

NEW: U.S. soldier killed in small-arms attack; U.S. death toll at 4,047
Fighting in Shiite neighborhood leaves main market in ruins, agency says
Hospitals in area run out of anesthesia and dressing supplies
Red Cross supplies 10,000 liters of drinking water daily to Sadr City

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/23/iraq.main/index.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Weeks of fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood have destroyed the main market and isolated civilians from supplies of food and water, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Wednesday.

In addition, several hospitals in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood have run out of basic medical supplies, including anesthesia and dressings, the Red Cross said.

The Red Cross said Sadr City's largest market, al-Jamila, "used to provide enough supplies to cover everyday needs" before it was destroyed in the recent fighting.
"People are now short of food, especially as prices of fresh vegetables have increased considerably," it said.

The Red Cross managed to deliver 24,000 ready-made meals to Sadr City on Wednesday, as well as stock Sadr City General Hospital and two other hospitals with three tons of medical supplies, including anesthetics and intravenous infusion equipment. The relief agency continues to supply 10,000 liters of drinking water daily to the city.

Click on link to read full CNN story.
There was a brief lull in fighting Saturday, the Red Cross said, but it was not enough time to allow residents to stock up on basic supplies or seek medical care.

ONE US SOLDIER KILLED AS US DEPUTY COMMANDER PLEADS WITH AL-SADR TO STOP ATTACKS

BAGHDAD - A top American general urged radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday to rein in his fighters as a U.S. soldier was killed during a gunbattle in a militia stronghold in Baghdad.

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq;_ylt=AvvqZ5HyLd0teTd7uI4BsXdX6GMA

Two bombings also struck the northern city of Mosul within 30 minutes, killing four people and wounding 12 amid concerns that al-Qaida in Iraq is regrouping.

The U.S. soldier died from a bullet wound in a clash in New Baghdad, a stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in an eastern section of the capital, according to Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a military spokesman.

A rocket also slammed into a closed school as teenagers were playing soccer outside, killing two youths and wounding three amid sporadic fighting in the sprawling Sadr City district, a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad that is home to 2.5 million people.

Fighting that began a month ago in response to an Iraqi government crackdown on militia violence has put a severe strain on a cease-fire called in late August by al-Sadr. The anti-U.S. cleric threatened this weekend to unleash his militia in "open war" if the operations persist.
Despite heightened rhetoric by al-Sadr and his followers, U.S. commanders have been careful not to directly link the cleric to the fighting, instead blaming Iranian-backed Shiite fighters who have broken with his movement
.
"We do not attribute what we've seen to JAM," said the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, using the Iraqi acronym for the Mahdi Army.
But he suggested al-Sadr could stop the attacks.

Click on link to read full story.

E-MAILS SUGGEST VA HID SUICIDE RISK OF VETERANS

In federal court Monday in San Francisco, attorneys for veterans' rights groups accused the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs of nothing less than a cover-up - deliberately concealing the real risk of suicide among veterans."The system is in crisis and unfortunately the VA is in denial," said veterans rights attorney Gordon Erspamer.

E-Mails Suggest VA Hid Suicide Risk
By Armen Keteyian,CBS News

http://news.aol.com/health/story/ar/_a/e-mails-suggest-va-hid-suicide-risk/20080422095809990001

Watch Video: Suicide Risk Among Veterans Questioned

The charges were backed by internal e-mails written by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's head of Mental Health.In the past, Katz has repeatedly insisted while the risk of suicide among veterans is serious, it's not outside the norm."There is no epidemic in suicide in VA," Katz told Keteyian in November.But in this e-mail to his top media adviser, written two months ago, Katz appears to be saying something very different, stating: "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our medical facilities."Katz's e-mail was written shortly after the VA provided CBS News data showing there were only 790 attempted suicides in all 2007 - a fraction of Katz's estimate."This 12,000 attempted suicides per year shows clearly, without a doubt, that there is an epidemic of suicide among veterans," said Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense.

Click on link above to read full story.

VA SUED OVER CARE, HIGH SUICIDE RATES OF VETERANS

SAN FRANCISCO - Roughly 18 U.S. veterans commit suicide every week, advocates told a federal judge April 21 in San Francisco, blaming the United States government for doing such a bad job of caring for wounded war veterans.

VA Sued Over Care, High Suicide Rates
April 23, 2008Inter Press Service
http://www.military.com/news/article/va-sued-over-care-high-suicide-rates.html?col=1186032310810

"The suicide problem is out of control," said Gordon Erspamer, an attorney representing the groups Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth in a class action lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs. "Our veterans deserve better."

Erspamer's comments came in opening arguments for what is expected to be a week-long trial, the first class action brought on behalf of 1.7 million Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

Early arguments were punctuated by allegations that top government officials deliberately deceived the U.S. public about the number of veterans attempting suicide.

An e-mail made public during the trial revealed that the head of the VA's Mental Health division, Dr. Ira Katz, advised a media representative not to tell reporters that 1,000 veterans receiving care at the VA try to kill themselves every month.

"Shh!" the e-mail begins.
"Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?" the e-mail concludes.
According to CBS News, Katz's email was written shortly after the VA provided the network with data showing there were only 790 attempted suicides in all of 2007 -- a fraction of Katz's estimate.

Earlier this month, the city of Dallas, Texas, closed its psychiatric unit after the hospital experienced its fourth suicide of the year.
"On April 4, a man fastened a bed sheet to the bottom corner of a door frame, draped a noose over the top, and hanged himself," the Dallas Morning News reported last week. "Before that, a veteran hanged himself on a frame attached to his wheelchair. And in January, two men who met in the psychiatric ward committed suicide in Collin County days after being released."

"The system is in crisis, and unfortunately the VA is in denial," Erspamer told the court, urging U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti to appoint a special master to oversee the troubled agency. The veterans groups are also seeking a judge's order forbidding the VA from turning away any veteran who shows up at a facility seeking mental health care.
In a number of high-profile cases, Iraq war veterans have killed themselves after being turned away from the VA.

Lawyers for the government disagreed strongly with the veterans, claiming that the VA runs a "world-class health care system." Multiple times during his opening statement, Justice Department lawyer Richard Lepley portrayed the veterans' groups as "special interests" and argued the changes the groups seek in their lawsuit -- better and faster mental health care, and more rights for veterans appealing denials of benefits -- are beyond the judge's authority.
"You have no standards to judge," Lepley told Conti. "This court shouldn't be trying to be a substitute for what the medical professionals at the VA decide."

No veterans are set to testify at the trial, which focuses on the nature of the Byzantine bureaucratic system that veterans must navigate to receive health care and disability benefits. According the Department of Veterans Affairs, the average time a veteran must wait to learn if his or her disability claim has been approved is 185 days, or about six months.
Veterans' groups have asserted that the real wait is much longer, noting that if a veteran appeals the disability ruling, the appeals process can drag on for years. According to internal VA documents provided by the plaintiffs, 526 veterans have died this year while their disability claims were being reviewed.

None of this surprises Kelly Conklin of Chunchula, Ala.
Her husband Manuel became wheelchair-bound after experiencing a negative reaction to an anthrax vaccine administered as he was preparing to deploy to Iraq with the U.S. Navy in 2003. Military doctors pumped him with steroids and other medicine in hopes that he would recover, Conklin said, but in 2005 she came to realize that a recovery was unlikely, so she filed a claim with the VA for disability compensation.
After three years, the family is still waiting.
"It's an every day battle," Kelly Conklin said. "We're having grits and eggs for supper tonight and a lot of nights. Sometimes we don't eat anything but lima beans for supper -- it depends on what we have."

In the absence of a regular paycheck or a disability check, Conklin said her family of four is now living almost completely off charity, with much of the food they eat coming from the local food bank.
She said she used to be proud of her husband for his service in the Navy but has now forbidden her youngest son from joining the Armed Forces.
"If it sounds like I'm down -- yes I am down," she said. "If I sound like I'm bitter, you got that right. They've taken everything away from me. The only thing left for them to take from me is my birthday."
"When we give them our spouses, we give them whole," she said. "And if you can't make him whole [again], then you make sure he's taken care of."

Click here for more information on PTSD.

ROUGHLY 18 US VETS COMMIT SUICIDE EVERY WEEK

Roughly 18 U.S. veterans commit suicide every week, advocates told a federal judge April 21 in San Francisco. "The suicide problem is out of control," said Gordon Erspamer, an attorney representing the groups Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth in a class action lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs. "Our veterans deserve better." "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities."

(Ed. Note: click on part in "BLUE" to read full story.)

US CASUALTY REPORT AND HOUR-BY-HOUR ACTS OF VIOLENCE WEDNESDAY IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

While the media in the United States dissects the results of the primary in Pennsylvania yesterday, there were more US casualties in Iraq and we also have an hour-by-hour report of acts of violence carried out Wednesday, April 23 in Iraq and Afghanistan.


War News for Wednesday, April 23, 2008

US CASUALTY REPORT: (Click on part in "BLUE" for additional details)
Source: http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

Casualty Reports:Lt. Col. Ray Rivas, of New Braunfels, was presented with a Purple Heart on Tuesday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Incoming mortars and indirect fire left Rivas with a serious brain injury on October 12, 2006 while he was working as a civil affairs officer at the Tallil Forward Operating Base in Iraq, according to an Army release. Rivas says he doesn’t remember the details of the incident, or what he was doing that moment he was wounded.In fact, Rivas — who then was employed as an Army engineer — returned to work immediately. That day in October, “he wasn’t even taken in immediately for treatment, but as the brain started to swell, his behavior got more and more bizarre,” his wife Colleen Rivas said. Soon, others began to notice Ray behaving strangely, and medical personnel gave him an MRI. The scan revealed serious brain injuries. Then, en route to Germany, his heart stopped.“He was down for four minutes,” Colleen said. “They were going to pronounce him dead, but they brought him back.”

Captain Martin Hewitt, aged 27, is still recovering from serious injury, having been shot in the right arm last July. The bullet severed the nerves in his arm, leaving him with dramatically impaired mobility in the limb. Martin joined the army in 2004 and is a platoon commander in the Parachute Regiment.

The DoD is reporting the death of a sailor, Airman Apprentice Adrian M. Campos was found dead in a non-combat related incident in Dubai on Monday, April 21st. No other details were released and the incident is under investigation.

The DoD is reporting the death of a sailor, Petty Officer 1st Class Cherie L. Morton who died in Galali, Muharraq, Bahrain on Sunday, April 20th. The details on her death weren't released and the cause of death is under investigation.

Roughly 18 U.S. veterans commit suicide every week, advocates told a federal judge April 21 in San Francisco. "The suicide problem is out of control," said Gordon Erspamer, an attorney representing the groups Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth in a class action lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs. "Our veterans deserve better." "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities."

Security incidents:Baghdad:#1: U.S. forces said on Wednesday they had killed 15 gunmen overnight in Shi'ite areas of Baghdad, where fighting has raged for weeks between militiamen loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and security forces. In a statement, the U.S. military said ground forces and aircraft had been involved in several attacks. The first began around dusk on Tuesday, the military said.One hospital in Sadr City, the cleric's stronghold in eastern Baghdad, said it had received five bodies overnight from clashes and air strikes. It said 22 people had been wounded.

#2: In eastern Baghdad, US and Iraqi troops launched more security sweeps in Sadr City, the enclave of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia. Explosions and an exchange of fire were heard in the slum area, where government troops backed by US forces are launching a crackdown on followers of al-Sadr. At least seven people were killed and 16 injured, most of them Iraqi troops, during operations against armed groups in Baghdad over the last 24 hours, according to an Iraqi military statement.

#3: Fierce fighting broke out during a military operation late Tuesday in Husseiniyah, a mainly Shiite area that sits to the north of Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district. U.S. and Iraqi troops were backed by helicopters as they fought until Wednesday morning with suspected Shiite militiamen who dominate the area, police said. Women and children were among 20 people who were wounded, they said.

#4: Police and hospital officials, who all spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information, also said eight civilians were killed and 44 others wounded in fighting in Sadr City, a sprawling district in northeastern Baghdad.

#5: A seriously wounded man died as an ambulance speeding him to the hospital was caught in the crossfire, and an elementary school was damaged, police said.

#6: U.S. soldiers responded after they were attacked by rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire, killing 12 "criminals" in three separate incidents Tuesday in eastern Baghdad, the military said.

#7: A man planting a roadside bomb in northeastern Baghdad also was shot to death by American soldiers in northeastern Baghdad, while two others spotted with a mortar tube were killed in an airstrike, according to the military statement.

#8: Almost 700 rockets and mortar rounds were fired from various locations in Baghdad in the past month, 114 of which hit at the highly fortified Green Zone, a US commander said on Wednesday.Colonel Allen Batschelet said that a total of 697 rockets and mortar bombs were fired in the Iraqi capital between March 23 and April 20.Of these 114 hit the Green Zone, also known as the International Zone (IZ), where the Iraqi government and US embassy are based, he said."Eighty-two percent of the rockets and mortars that hit the IZ originated from Sadr City," said Batschelet.

#9: Around 8am, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol at Al-Butil at Zafaraniyah neighborhood (east Baghdad).Two civilians were injured with no information on the American’s side.

#10: Around 2 pm, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol on the high way of Mikanik in Dora (south Baghdad). No casualties reported.

#11: Around noon, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol at Nafaq Al-Shurta neighborhood (west Baghdad) .Six people were injured including two policemen.

#12: Around 2 pm, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol at Qahtan intersection near Yarmouk neighborhood (west Baghdad).Three civilians were injured in that incident.

Diyala Prv:#1: update A woman suicide bomber killed 18 people and wounded two in an attack on a police station in Iraq's Diyala province, the US military said Wednesday. Eleven Iraqi civilians and seven policemen were killed in the attack on Monday evening, the military statement said.

Tikrit:#1: Iraqi police found two bodies near oil pipelines close to Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad. They said the dead were guards of the pipeline facility, police said.

#2: In the morning, An American squad raided Albu Marouf village at Al-Jazira area (25 km south west Tikrit) .One person was killed and seven others were arrested by the American squad who are from one family .Also six cars were damaged in that incident. We have no confirmation of that incident from the MNF-I at the time of this report.

Hawija:#1: In the morning, gunmen injured the teacher Jalal Khorsheed in Hawija Bahriyah in Dhulwiya (south of Tikrit and 80 km north of Baghdad).

Kirkuk:#1: Five unidentified bodies were buried on Wednesday in southern Kirkuk, the head of the religious committee said.

Mosul:#1: In Mosul, which has become a hotbed of Sunni insurgency, a bomb blast killed a civilian and injured four others in the northern Rashidiya district, Major Fadil Kuran from the city police told the Voices of Iraq news agency.

#2: In the centre of Mosul, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up inside a currency exchange office in Dawasa, killing two people, one of whom was an army officer, and injuring six, according to Brigadier General Khalid Abdel-Sattar, the spokesman for the Nineveh operations command.

#3: Shortly after the suicide bombing, a car bomb detonated by remote control went off, also in the centre of the city, injuring three people, including a policeman, Abdel-Sattar said.

#4: A policeman was killed in clashes between gunmen and police in western Mosul, police said.

Afghanistan:#1: In Kandahar province, a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a vehicle carrying intelligence agents in the border town of Spin Boldak, killing three civilians, Kandahar Gov. Assadullah Khalid said. Two children and three intelligence agents were among the 14 hurt, Khalid said. A 16-year-old boy who was wounded in the explosion said police shot at the bomber before he detonated explosives. "Police opened fire at the man after he ran toward a group of civilians. He then threw his shawl and then there was a big explosion," said Rehmat Ullah.

#2: In neighboring Helmand province, a suicide bomber struck a police convoy, killing two officers and wounding three, said district police chief Khairudin Shuhja. Shuhja was in the convoy but was not injured in the attack. As the bomber approached the car, guards opened fire, wounding the attacker, who then blew himself up, Shuhja said.

#3: In eastern Kunar province, Taliban militants attacked a police border post, killing five officers and wounding seven others, said provincial police chief Abdul Jalal Jalal.

#4: Separately, a border police patrol in northwestern Badghis province hit a mine, killing three officers riding in the vehicle, regional police chief Gen. Khalil Andarabi said.

VA COVERING UP VETERAN SUICIDE RATE

VA covering up veteran suicide rate Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:34:43

Dr. Ira Katz, VA deputy chiefUS Sen. Patty Murray has called for the resignation of Dr. Ira Katz, a chief mental health official of US Department of Veterans Affairs. Murray, the senior member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, called for the resignation of Katz on Tuesday, saying he, and other VA officials, tried to cover up the rising number of veteran suicides and deliberately withheld crucial information on the true suicide risk among veterans.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=52769&sectionid=3510203

Murray said, "Dr. Katz's irresponsible actions have been a disservice to our veterans and it is time for him to go. The number one priority of the VA should be caring for our veterans, not covering up the truth." Murray made the comment after she and other Democratic senators said they were shocked when they found emails showing that Katz and other VA officials tried to conceal the number of suicides by veterans.

One email which was revealed at a lawsuit this week started with 'Shh!' referring to the 12,000 veterans per year who attempt suicide while under the VA Department treatment. Another email revealed at the trial said that an average of 18 military veterans kill themselves each day, with five of them being under the VA care when they commit suicide.

According to the VA facilities record, at the moment, the numbers of suicide deaths and attempts show an increase from 492 in 2000 to 790 in 2007, but do not record how many veterans overall take their own lives.

5 US SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomb and roadside bombings have killed five US troops, including three marines, the American military announced on Tuesday.

The latest deaths bring the US military's overall toll since the March 2003 invasion to 4,044, according to a tally based on independent website www.icasualties.org. The military has lost 32 troops since the start of this month.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=25489

Two marines were killed and three others wounded when a bomber slammed his explosives-laden car into a checkpoint near the western Iraqi city of Ramadi at around 7:30 am (0430 GMT), the military said.

Two Iraqi policemen and 24 civilians were also wounded in the attack near the city, the capital of Anbar province, which was once the symbol of Sunni Arab insurgency against US forces.
A third marine was killed and another wounded in a separate roadside bomb attack in Basra on Monday, the military said in a separate statement.

This is the first US military loss in Basra since Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched a crackdown against Shiite militiamen there on March 25.

US forces have been sent to Basra to support Iraqi troops after fierce clashes broke out in the port city following the crackdown.

Basra and southern Iraq were under the overall command of British troops who late last year moved into one base near the city airport after handing over the province to Iraqi forces.
Another roadside bomb attack killed two US soldiers and wounded another two, as well as three Iraqis, in north-central Salaheddin province on Monday, the US military said.
The bomb detonated "during operations" in the province, the statement said without elaborating.

The Iraqis injured comprised two members of an "Awakening" anti-Qaeda front and an interpreter.

WASHINGTON POST: IRAQI WOMEN TAKE ON ROLES OF DEAD OR MISSING HUSBANDS

Iraqi Women Take On Roles Of Dead or Missing Husbands
For One Mother, Bedside AK-47 Signified Change

By Ernesto LondoñoWashington Post Foreign ServiceWednesday, April 23, 2008; A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR2008042203239.html

BAGHDAD, April 22 -- Sabriyah Hilal Abadi began sleeping with a loaded AK-47 by her bed shortly after the war began.

It was a comforting possession for a woman who had lost her home, her husband and, last weekend, a room in a dilapidated building she shared with 27 squatter families, most headed by women.

The mother of four fought mightily to stay in the sparse, two-story building in the Zayouna neighborhood of Baghdad that once belonged to Hussein's Baath Party, but soldiers forced her out.

Iraq's government is intent on proving it can enforce the law. But in its determination to rid the party building of its squatters, the women say, the government has plunged them deeper into homelessness and may have pushed others toward violence.

Thousands of Iraqi women have in recent years embraced new roles as violence has claimed their men. For Abadi, 43, the turning point came when she accepted the powerful assault rifle from friends concerned about her welfare.

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US FLAWED "SURGE" POLICY IS DUPLICATE OF ISRAEL'S FLAWED OCCUPATION STRATEGIES

Surging Towards Gaza: How the U.S. is Reproducing Israel's Flawed Occupation Strategies in Iraq

By Steve Niva, Foreign Policy in Focus
Posted on April 23, 2008, Printed on April 23, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/83169/

The new "surge" strategy in Iraq, led by General David Petreaus, has been heavily marketed as an example of the U.S. military's application of the "lessons of history" from previous counterinsurgencies to Iraq, foremost among them the need to win the population over from insurgents through cultivating human relationships, addressing popular grievances and providing security.

Yet one glance at the realities on the ground in Iraq today reveal that the cornerstone of current U.S. military strategy is less about cultivating human relationships than about limiting them, primarily through concrete walls and checkpoints. And it has been less about minimizing violence than containing Iraq's population and redirecting the battlefield from the streets to the skies above Iraq.

While the coffee klatches between Marine commanders and Sunni tribal sheikhs may garner all the publicity, the real story on the ground in Iraq is that from Baghdad to Mosul, the U.S. military has been busy constructing scores of concrete walls and barriers between and around Iraqi neighborhoods, which it terms "Gated Communities." In Baghdad alone, 12-foot-high walls now separate and surround at least eleven Sunni and Shiite enclaves. Broken by narrow checkpoints where soldiers monitor traffic via newly issued ID cards, these walls have turned Baghdad into dozens of replica Green Zones, dividing neighbor from neighbor and choking off normal commerce and communications. Similar walls are being erected in other Iraqi cities, while the entire city of Falluja remains surrounded by a razor-wire barrier, with only one point of entry into the city. Moreover, the U.S. military has doubled its use of unmanned aerial drones and increasingly relies upon aerial strikes to quell insurgent activities, often through bombings and targeted assassinations.

While there is no question that overall levels of violence have temporarily decreased, Iraq has become virtually caged in a carapace of concrete walls and razor wire, reinforced by an aerial occupation from the sky. Reporting from a recent visit to the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, the seasoned journalist Nir Rosen noted in Rolling Stone that:
Looming over the homes are twelve-foot-high security walls built by the Americans to separate warring factions and confine people to their own neighborhood. Emptied and destroyed by civil war, walled off by President Bush's much-heralded "surge," Dora feels more like a desolate, post-apocalyptic maze of concrete tunnels than a living, inhabited neighborhood.
The Israeli Laboratory

The explosion of walls and enclaves reinforced by aerial violence across Iraq suggest that the primary counterinsurgency lessons being followed by the U.S. military in Iraq today derive less from the lessons of "Lawrence of Arabia" than from Israel's experiences in the Occupied Palestinian Territories over the past decade.

Over the past decade, Israel has developed a pacification strategy against Palestinian resistance to its military occupation by erecting separation walls and checkpoints across Palestinian territory that has enclosed Palestinians within a proliferating archipelago of ethnic enclaves to separate them from each other and from illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. This wall and enclave strategy is maintained under a blanket of aerial Israeli surveillance and deadly unmanned drones, which target the frequent airborne assassinations and strikes. This strategy reached its apotheosis in Gaza following Israel's withdrawal of its soldiers and settlements in 2005. In Gaza, 1.5 million Palestinians are now living within an enclosed cage, while Israel controls access to the essentials of life through high-tech border terminals and unleashes "penetration raids" and airborne "targeted killings" when resistance is offered.
Iraq, it seems, is surging towards Gaza.

This fact is not missed by average Iraqis. Visiting the Sunni bastion of Amriya in Baghdad, Nir Rosen in The Nation recounts how his Iraqi driver pointed to a gap in the concrete walls with which the U.S. occupation forces have surrounded Amriya: "We call it the Rafah Crossing." He was referring to the one gate from besieged Gaza to Egypt that the Israeli army occasionally allows to open.

The U.S. military's virtual reproduction of distinctively Israeli counterinsurgency tactics in Iraq reveals that claims about applying the "lessons of history" of counterinsurgent warfare to Iraq are largely beside the point. The actual application of counterinsurgency on the ground in Iraq has a distinctly Israeli DNA, born of very recent lessons from Israel's own urban warfare laboratory in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

This should not be surprising. The Israeli DNA in the new "surge" strategy is only the latest manifestation of a widely overlooked but unmistakable American predilection to increasingly draw from Israel's urban warfare laboratory and its flawed efforts to devise fresh tactics in the service of rebooting its own military occupation of Palestinian lands. What we are seeing in Iraq today has much less to do with the declared shift in U.S. military doctrine than with a deeper and more far-reaching "Israelization" of U.S. military strategy and tactics over the past two decades that was only heightened by America's misadventures in the Middle East after September 11, 2001. In the search for new means to confront urban insurgencies in predominately Arab and Muslim lands, there has been a complex institutional and cultural harmonization between these two militaries under the banner of fighting "the war on terror," though the traffic is mostly in one direction. In light of the real lessons of counterinsurgency history, however, mimicking Israel is a recipe for failure.

The "Israelization" of U.S. Military Doctrine and Tactics
This "Israelization" of U.S. military doctrine and tactics can be traced back to the early 1990's, especially the "Black-hawk down" debacle of 1993 in Somalia, which led U.S. military strategists to rethink their approach to fighting urban warfare in poor Third World "battle spaces." In the following years, according to urban theorist Mike Davis in his 2004 article, "The Pentagon as Global Slum Lord," Israeli advisors were brought in to teach Marines, Rangers and Navy Seals the state of the art tactics against urban insurgencies that Israel was using to ruthlessly suppress Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

This tactical "Israelization" of U.S. combat doctrine was accompanied by what Davis terms a deeper strategic "Sharonization" (referring to Israeli militarist and later Prime Minister Ariel Sharon) of the Pentagon's worldview in which U.S. military strategists began to envision the capacity of high-tech warfare to contain and possibly defeat insurgencies rooted in third world urban environments. Sharon is known to have kept by his bedside a well-thumbed Hebrew edition of Alistair's Horne's A Savage War of Peace, an account of the failed French effort to defeat the Algerian insurgency against French colonial occupation. While many viewed the French defeat as proof of the futility of military solutions to anti-colonial insurgencies, Sharon's belief was that Israel could learn from Algeria to get right what the French did not. In 2001, the journalist Robert Fisk reported, Sharon told French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac in a phone conversation that the Israelis were "like you in Algeria," the only difference being that "we [the Israelis] will stay."

The "Israelization" of U.S. military doctrine and tactics since the attacks on September 11, 2001, has gone so far as to create what the Palestinian academic Marwan Bishara, writing in Al-Ahram Weekly, has termed a new "strategic cult" in which Israel's "asymmetrical war" against the Palestinians became seen as a continuation of the U.S. "war on terrorism" in both theory and practice. Learning from Israel's experiences centered on the need for new precision weaponry and a tactical emphasis on aerial assassinations and armored bulldozers, as well as other elements of Israel's fighting style in the new "asymmetrical" and urban battle spaces. According to The Independent's Justin Huggler, Israel's unprecedented assault on Palestinian cities and the refugee camp in Jenin during "Operation Defensive Shield" in April 2002 was keenly observed by foreign militaries, particularly the United States and UK as they geared up to invade and occupy Iraq.

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