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Friday, May 13, 2005
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Sgt. Benderman goes to court. Report by Debbie ClarkOn Thursday, May 12, 2005, I attended the new Art. 32 investigative hearing at Fort Stewart, Georgia of the case against Sgt. Kevin Benderman, a soldier who requested conscientious objector status subsequent to serving in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and refused a second deployment. I had traveled from Atlanta to Fort Stewart thinking I was attending Sgt. Benderman's court martial, which began Wednesday afternoon, May 11, 2005, and was scheduled to continue on May 12 at... [Antiwar.com Blog]
Here's a detail which I think deserves more attention:
The new hearing began with testimony by Sgt. Benderman's company commander, Cpt. Gary Rowley, who is currently serving in Tikrit, Iraq and was brought back in order to testify. Cpt. Rowley described the circumstances surrounding Sgt. Benderman's request for conscientious objector status, which he was notified about on December 31, 2004, and what occurred around the time frame that Sgt. Benderman refused second deployment to Iraq on January 7. He stated that on on January 7, he was getting his unit ready for deployment to Iraq and was very busy with that, complicated by the attempted suicide that day of one of the soldiers in his unit. Cpt. Rowley stated that he was not able to meet with Sgt. Benderman that day at the planned time of 1500, but met with him at 1700 and talked with Sgt. Benderman for about 20-30 minutes. Cpt. Rowley stated that he did not give Sgt. Benderman permission to not deploy to Iraq and that he was still on the "manifest," which is the roster of the soldiers who are to deploy to Iraq and which included everyone in the unit except for those not fit, such as those with medical profiles. (It was noted by the defense that the name of the soldier who attempted suicide and was admitted to the psychiatric ward was still on that roster along with Sgt. Benderman's.)
So the CO had trouble finding time deal with Sgt. Benderman not wanting to go back because another of the men under his command--the men whose lives he is responsible for--had tried to kill himself rather than go back!
Still, at least the soldier who tried to kill himself is (apparently) not being court martialed. I guess that's what Busheviks mean by "support our troops."
6:39:15 PM 
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not the way to win hearts and minds. Juan Cole:
The Guardian reports that news (from Newsweek) that US soldiers desecrated the Koran--and at one point flushed pages of it down the toilet as a technique for humiliating and breaking detainees at Guantanamo--has provoked a second day of protests and then rioting in Jalalabad, this time with loss of life. On Tuesday, 2000 students had demonstrated. On Wednesday, 5,000 to 10,000 university, medical and K-12 students came out, and then they went on the attack, including against US troops. Four died and 70 were injured...
...In secular American society, I suppose the shock value here could only be hinted at if we imagined someone flushing a small American flag down the toilet. But probably we can't imagine it at all.
The technique of humiliating Muslims as a way of "breaking" them for interrogation has often veered toward torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, and it wasn't effective as a technique. The Israeli flag was also used at one point, apparently. The US military has a tradition of such humiliations, going back to treatment of the Filipino Muslim rebels in the early 20th century. But there is a difference between humiliating Muslim prisoners and humiliating Islam.
Whatever goddam military genius came up with the bright idea of flushing the Koran down the toilet at Guantanamo should be court-martialed, and Bush had better get out there apologizing before this thing spirals further out of control.
Can we at least agree to not desecrate sacred religious texts and scriptures? When Americans says "it's not a war on Islam", people look at things like this and they take that as so many lies.
Added: The protests and riots are spreading. There isn't a lot of goodwill left for America in the Muslim world, but this will probably destroy most of what's left. [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs]
They take it as a lie for good reason. While I believe that Bush is being honest about that much, there are plenty of Americans who are in fact openly saying just that it is a war on Islam, and Bush certainly hasn't done anything to discourage them.
I also note that this secular American wouldn't find anything shocking about flushing a small American flag down the toilet--given what that flag has come to represent, I think that would be an appropriate method of disposal. That's why I fly (or hang on the wall) the Gadsden flag.
6:09:33 PM
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THE DISPENSABLE PRESIDENT — AND REVISITING “AN INTERESTING DAY”. It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for Scott McClellan:
Q: Scott, yesterday the White House was on red alert, was evacuated. The first lady and Nancy Reagan were taken to a secure location. The Vice President was evacuated from the grounds. The Capitol building was evacuated. The continuity of government plan was initiated. And [...] [The Light Of Reason]
The question and answer session definitely makes the Feds look silly. I still think the Feds should have hired Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf (the former Iraqi Minister of Information) to be the White House Press Secretary. He was much better at telling ridiculous lies with a straight face.
It's too bad the reporters' names aren't given, because I suspect they won't be going to any more White House press conferences.
2:34:57 PM
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A Terrorist Comes Home to Roost. The sudden and untimely arrival on U.S. territory of a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asset and admitted terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles, poses an embarrassing challenge to the credibility of the Bush administration's war on terrorism.
Posada, who in an interview with the New York Times seven years ago admitted to organising a wave of bombings in Cuba in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist and injured 11 others, is best known as the prime suspect in the bombing of a Cubana Airlines flight shortly after it took off from Barbados in October 1976.
The incident, in which all 73 crew members and passengers including teenaged members of Cuba's national fencing team were killed, was the first confirmed mid-air terrorist bombing of a commercial airliner...
..."This is a real test of (President) George W. Bush's commitment to fighting terrorism," said Peter Kornbluh, a Latin American specialist at the non-governmental National Security Archive (NSA). This week, the organisation released a series of declassified U.S. documents that detailed Posada's terrorist history and his previous association with the CIA.
"Already, U.S. credibility has been eroded in the six weeks since Posada apparently arrived in the United States without the government doing anything about it," Kornbluh told IPS Thursday...
...Posada, who is rumoured to be suffering from cancer, now hopes to gain asylum in the United States, posing a particularly delicate problem for a president whose family has long courted anti-Castro militants in the Cuban-American community but who himself has sworn that neither terrorists nor the governments that harbour them should escape punishment. (link)
Or are some terrorists more equal than others? [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs]
Yes. Consider, for example, another terrorist formerly employed by the CIA (and now by the Pentagon): Iyad Allawi.
I have to disagree with the idea that US credibility has been eroded, though. That would require that the US have some credibility in the first place.
2:09:56 PM
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Iraq's Flirtation With the ICC. So when the Azzaman, an independent daily in Baghdad, reported in February that Iraq had joined the "nearly 100 countries that have so far signed the court's treaty," the Bush administration found two of its policies on an apparent collision course.
On the one hand, the administration was touting Iraq's transition to democracy as a model for the Arab world. On the other hand, the Iraqi transitional government was embracing a multilateral treaty that Washington has resisted for years. Worse yet, Iraq's decision raised the possibility that Washington would have to take its diplomatic campaign against the ICC to Baghdad, where the question of responsibility for war crimes is a live issue.
The decision was made at a meeting of interim President Ayad Allawi's cabinet in early January and announced in mid-February, according to translations of Iraqi government documents provided by ICC supporters. Not only was Iraq's joining the ICC "received with glee particularly from local human rights groups" in Iraq, according Azzaman. The French Foreign Ministry was also expressing "satisfaction" with the decision, which it portrayed as an endorsement of French foreign policy.
Iraq's decision, said a Foreign Ministry spokesman, "contributes to the universality which we are seeking for the ICC's statute and attests to Iraq's confidence in the ICC. "
Joining the ICC also made Iraq technicially ineligible for U.S. military assistance. The American Servicemembers' Protection Act forbids U.S. military assistance to countries that join the ICC but also gives the president has the right to waive the ban on military assistance. Since 2002, the United States has asked most the countries of the world to sign what is known as an Article 98 agreement. These bilateral pacts forbid the surrender of U.S. soldiers to ICC jurisdiction. Countries that don't sign risk losing U.S. military assistance.
The United States is not shy about publicizing Article 98 agreements. The State Department announced last week that Angola had become the 100th country to sign one. But the U.S. campaign against the ICC has proven controversial in some countries. In Kenya, for example, the government is now balking at U.S. demands. (link)
I guess I must still have some idealism left because the way the U.S. is acting about the ICC (withdrawing military assistance from countries that sign up to it, for God's sake!) is a shameful commentary on America today. [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs]
An amusing story, but unfortunately I don't think there's much chance that the Feds will withdraw their "military assistance" from Iraq.
Of course, not being a socialist, I don't see any problem with withdrawing military assistance. In fact, I'd like to see "military assistance" withdrawn from all other countries, not just those that join the ICC.
2:06:04 PM
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© Copyright
2006
Ken Hagler.
Last update:
2/15/2006; 2:05:14 PM.
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