England, 22, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, four
counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent
act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count.
The jury of five male Army officers took about two hours to reach
its verdict. Her case now moves to the sentencing phase, which will be
heard by the same jury beginning Tuesday.
England tried to plead guilty in May to the same counts she faced
this month in exchange for an undisclosed sentencing cap, but a judge
threw out the plea deal. She now faces a maximum of nine years in
prison.
England, wearing her dark green dress uniform, stood at attention
Monday as the verdict was read by the jury foreman. She showed no
obvious emotion afterward.
Now tell me exactly what's any different about these photos? Other than the victims are dead.
The Hotline, a VERY influential inside-the-beltway publication in DC political circles, reports today that US soldiers appear to be posing for photos with dead Iraqis (and
their body parts) and then trading the photos for porn online. The
Hotline coverage is important because it helps establish this as a
"real" story for Washington types, including reporters and politicos.
Hopefully it will get some traction so we can get some answers here,
but also inform people, as I explain in my earlier post, what the cost
of war really is. It's not all Xbox-style smart bombs.
The Human Rights Watch Report
about the beatings and torture by the 82nd Airborn does not feature the
sexual humiliation and torture, but rather the good old fashioned kind.
The chickenhawks can claim that it is perfectly acceptable to support a
war that they have no intention of fighting. But they cannot claim that
it is just fine to support a war in which our troops have behaved in an
immoral and indecent fashion, which the military has covered up and
which was implicitly condoned by the highest reaches of our government.
If they supported this they should have to share in the trials of
conscience that afflict these poor bastards from the 82nd airborn who
came forward (and the ones who did not.) They should have to share in
the visions of blood and gore that we see on thay sick porn site and
they should have to live with what has been done in their name.
If you haven't read Billmon's incredible post on this subject, you need to.
Cindy Sheehan, the grieving California mother of a soldier
slain in Iraq, was arrested today while protesting the Iraq war outside
the White House.
Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son
Casey was killed last year, and several dozen other protesters staged a
sit-in on the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue after marching along the
pedestrian walkway, the Associated Press reported. Police warned them
three times that they had to move along before making arrests, the news
agency said.
"The whole world is watching," protesters chanted as Sheehan was led to a police vehicle.
Sheehan
and some 200 other protesters sat in circles on the sidewalk,
apparently courting arrest. Hundreds more people rallied in Lafayette
Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue.
Sheehan's arrest
came after a massive antiwar demonstration Saturday in Washington which
drew more than 100,000 people -- the largest such demonstration since
the Iraq war began in spring 2003. A demonstration supporting the war
drew roughly 500 people Sunday.
Sheehan, 48, first
attracted wide attention in August when she established the antiwar
Camp Casey outside of President Bush's Texas ranch. As part of the
26-day protest in Crawford, Sheehan asked for a meeting with Bush,
which he declined.
Sgt. Scott Fear, spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said about 370
protesters were arrested over four and a half hours. All but one were
charged with demonstrating without a permit, a misdemeanor. One person
faced a charge of crossing a police line.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush is "very much
aware" of the protesters and "recognizes that there are differences of
opinion" on Iraq.
"It's the right of the American people to peacefully express their
views. And that's what you're seeing here in Washington, D.C.,"
McClellan said. "They're well-intentioned, but the president strongly
believes that withdrawing ... would make us less safe and make the
world more dangerous."
We are still in the phase of finding out, after Rita's landfall, exactly what the level of damage will be. Today's MMS report
has 100% of the oil shut down with 81% of the platforms still evacuated
and 68% of the rigs. The 17-miles of road leading to the LOOP terminal
are still underwater. One can take the Valero comment that it will take between two weeks and a month for repairs to be completed at their refinery at face value.
Further it is not unreasonable to expect that there may be serious off-shore damage
Energy
Industry analyst Jon Kilduff of FIMAT told CNN there are reports of
some missing semi-submersible offshore rigs, but no details were
available.
Kilduff said that, even in the best case scenario, it will take "10 to
14 days" days to return refineries to full operations. He warned that
structural damage is not the only concern; refineries depend on
electrical power that may have been affected by the storm.
The news from the Houston Chronicle that tankers were being brought in to ensure that
existing gasoline supplies get distributed is encouraging.
The north Houston and Pasadena terminals that supply Shell stations
were open again today with enough gasoline to fill up at least 30
tankers with 270,000 gallons of fuel. The tanker drivers have
instructions to start with gas-needy I-45, I-10 and Highway 290.
Exxon Mobil was bringing in tanker trucks from as far away at New
Jersey and Illinois. Company officials said they delivered 531,000
gallons of gasoline to 14 retail stores in the Houston area on
Saturday, the equivalent of the normal daily demand for the entire
Houston market.
If the refineries are down for a month then the already weakened stock positions will get worse. And further, as the Guardian points out, the supplies are not reaching everyone:
The
principal problem was a petrol shortage in an area that is usually the
hub of the US oil industry. Long lines of cars formed outside Houston
petrol stations yesterday. The shortage also affected salvage work. In
Port Arthur, where the levees stood up to the storm surge but
torrential rain left extensive flooding, a policeman said the local
force was hamstrung by shortages.
"We've got no gas. We're just about ready to burglarise some of the
transport businesses to get some," said the officer, who did not want
his name used.
"We're attempting to find fuel wherever we can," a police spokeswoman,
Wendy Billiot, said, confirming that petrol could be commandeered. "If
it's necessary, we are considering that option."
We should now be seeing the refineries starting to produce the heating
oil for the winter. If a significant part of that possible production
has to be redirected to the production of gasoline then that heating
oil stock build-up will not take place.
And in this regard I think I would rather be called wrong by suggesting
that there may be a problem with heating oil this winter as a result,
than sit complacently saying that there won't be a problem, The United
States is, I believe, the only nation that stores most of its fuel in
crude form, rather than as refined product, and that means that if the
refineries can only produce at a certain rate, if the reserve stocks
aren't there then it is going to be a cold winter. I think it might be
better to know that now, that when calling the fuel oil salesman in
December, only to be told that there isn't any.
