.Common Sense

LinkBlog Latest items

Thomas Friedman: The New Cold War

05-15-08
US (and allies) vs Iran, why we're not winning, and thoughts on losing Lebanon, temporarily.

Maureen Dowd: Is She a Trojan Rabbit?

05-12-08
Should Obama punish Hillary by asking her to be VP or by ignoring her?

Bob Herbert: Seeds of Destruction

05-11-08
The Southern Strategy in Democrat Clothing? Bob Herbert and others are understandably pissed about the Clintons' lack of class.

Maureen Dowd: Butterflies Aren't Free

05-08-08
Is Obama the young, idealistic Hillary?

MyDD Jo R: John McCain's Cabinet - Just Like Bush's

05-08-08
I also would like to state that we have to watch out for the losers who got out of McCain's way early in the race so he could run nearly unopposed to pop up. Romney at Treasury? Guiliani at State?

Thomas Friedman: Who Will Tell the People?

05-08-08
Friedman says he's for the candidate who will tell Americans the truth

Nicholas Kristoff: A Prison of Shame, and It’s Ours

05-05-08
Information and books are coming out on the horrors of Guantanamo.

Democrats Enlarge Majority In House of Representatives

05-05-08
Another long term Republican district goes to a Democrat. This time in Louisiana!

tabacco blog: American Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia -- Why Torture is Okay by Him.

05-04-08
Tabacco is on my list of blog-city neighborhood blogs below. I had dropped allowing b-c to put their latest titles, but I think I'll reverse that. They may be low on the site, but still someone might get down there.

Bob Herbert: Overkill and Short Shift

05-03-08
Mr. Herbert note the overkill on the Reverend Wright controversy (as the news media does all it can to help John McCain and Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile they spend little time on grilling candidates over energy policy, the economy, ways to resolve the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Bloomberg News: Joseph Andrew Jumped From Clinton to Obama in Part Because of Hillary's Pandering With Call For Gas Tax Moritorium

05-03-08
The former DNC Chairman (nominated by President Clinton) also says it's time to end the battle, which is hurting the party.

Krugman: Republicans are the Party of Denial

05-03-08
Krugman notes that Republicans only have two solutions to every problem, tax cuts, and deregulation. If those solutions can't solve a problem they ignore it, from acid rain to global warming to health care. (I disagree. They invade other people's nations too. But still. Mr. K makes a good point there, and a minor one about Obama giving the Republicans too much credit. Darn that Senator Obama instead of focus grouping issues 5 ways to Sunday and then passing them out to selected loyal pundits, he just says what he thinks! How dare he. Doesn't he know there's a campaign going on?

Thomas Friedman: Dumb As We Want to Be

05-01-08
Our insane approach to an energy policy.

Ruth Marcus: Candidates like to play fantasy budget

05-01-08
I know what the writer means. I listen to Hillary promising people wads of money and I almost wonder if I'm turning libertarian. You can't throw those billions of dollars at people just to get them to vote for you and still manage our national debt. But it turns out the candidate that would cost the US the most is John McCain and that's before he wades into Iran to grab more oil for Exxon and it's buddies. This election will take the most from us taxpayers if we aren't careful

Paul Krugman: McCain's Tax Plans Could Endanger Solvency of US Government

04-29-08
I agree with Krugman again. It's been a long time no see, Bro! Besides the danger if McCain is telling the truth (So now we are don't to hoping the candidate is lying?) The many ridiculous proposals he is floating shows he is willing to pander to anyone and everyone on the right. Krugman says the most obvious example of this pandering is his call to do away with gas taxes for the summer. That's how I've felt about calls for a moratorium too, even when La Clinton does it. It is true though that we need to start focusing on McCain and his insane promises and 'plans' instead of fighting among ourselves.

Nobel Economic Prize Winner: Bush and Greenspan Responsible for US Economic Problems

04-28-08
A short article at Reuters explains what Joseph Stiglitz tells the European magazine "profil".

Andrew Sullivan -- Daily Dish: What is Wrong with McCain's Use of Hamas' Remarks About Obama.

04-27-08
After gray backed excerpt of letter, Sullivan notes: ...honorable campaigns do not allow foreign agents, especially terrorist organizations, to insert themselves into American presidential politics. No respectable foreign governments do such a thing; and the gambits of al Qaeda, Hamas, or any other grouping to play one candidate against another should in general be ignored, not exploited. More good thoughts by Mr. Sullivan at other end of link.

Democracy Now: US Globalism Policies Responsible for Haiti Hunger Riots

04-27-08
In the early 80s Haiti could feed itself with rice and even exported, but globalist policies pushed on Haiti during the Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43 made them dependent on US rice which has skyrocketed in price recently.

Equal Time -- Mumia: When Courts Go Wrong

04-25-08
This is a link to a page with an earlier radio essay. You can find more from him by clicking, blog-like on the title of the site. I'm sure that Mr. Jamal will have something to say on the trial surrounding the killing of Sean+Bell soon. I myself am not in perfect agreement with Mr. Jamal. I believe what we really need to do is to educate our friends and family members and everyone else we know about things we have learned via our Internet sources that they don't get through their reliance on mainstream news media. But, like I said above. This link is about equal time.

Bob Herbert: Road Map to Defeat

04-20-08
Unfortunately, Mr. Herbert is right. We need to get back to the good campaign Senator Obama was waging. Maybe they can split advisory teams, one to deal with attacks from the Clinton, and McCain and one to make sure the great ideas that Barack Obama have are spotlighted.

Frank Rich: Shoddy! Tawdry! A Televised Train Wreck!

04-20-08
On the Debate, Junk Campaigning, TV News Analysis that Americans hopefully will continue to see through. Frank Rich touched lightly on something I was forming a post about. Are Americans turned off by well-educated candidates? Or are they turned off by wealthy elitists who try, to ridiculous extent, to pretend they never went to college to capture the vote of people they intend to sell to the highest corporate and fat cat bidders?

Internet is Reducing the Power of Sound Bites and Big Donors

04-20-08
The Internet has given voters something other than packaged 'sound bites' for political information. And even more opportunities to donate than in 2004. Barack Obama is helping change politics for the better already. I'm noticing that few click on this link. Probably because its another thing Internet savvy America needs anymore: Political analysis on things we've already figured out for ourselves.

Krugman: Clinging to a Stereotype

04-19-08
Another Clinton serving column. Since Mr. K's main expertise is economics why doesn't he deal with the Gramm Leach Bliley act that Clinton signed, and even, apparently promoted?

Andrew Sullivan: Hillary Milhous Clinton

04-18-08
Sorry. I just can't stop reading this blog.

Huffington Post -- Mayhill Fowler: Me and Barack: Michelle Obama Talks To Pennsylvanians

04-17-08
Revealing the Real Michele Obama. Imagine struggling and working hard to rise above poverty and then having people call you "elitist".

Bob Herbert: Some Perspective on ‘Bitter’

04-16-08
How Mr. Herbert would have advised the Senator explain why some white working class people won't vote for him.

Hit Counter

Total: 1,256,777
since: 1 Jan 2007

Hits "2006"

Hits June 17, 2006 10:am  - Jan 1, 2007 6:00 am
87,753

RSS Add-Me








My Blog-City Neighborhood

adrastos.blog-city.com

mothanskin.blog-city.com

centerface.blog-city.com

jeffersonswall.blog-city.com

adgitadiaries.blog-city.com

eternalhope.blog-city.com

blackwhite.blog-city.com

akin.blog-city.com

qwstnevrythg.blog-city.com

intoafrica.blog-city.com

monsteroflove.blog-city.com

news-opinion.blog-city.com

undercoveryankee.blog-city.com

view my neighborhood

Some Witnesses Descriptions, Picture Disagree on Least One Iraqi Market Bomber

posted 02-03-08

An interesting problem has arisen in identifying who those Iraqi women bombers might be.

The Iraqi government even showed a couple of pictures of heads from women who they claim were the bombers, both dark haired and showing signs of Down's syndrome to an .

But some witnesses say that at least one of the bombers was a blond without Down's syndrome signs. 

Someone must have known the bombers.  The authorities should be able to get i.d.s on them.

The Washington Post says in “”:

some shopkeepers in the two Baghdad markets recognized them as regular visitors to the area.

The New York Times reports in “ ":

Maj. Gen. Abdul Kareem al-Ezzi, a senior officer in the Ministry of Interior police commandos, said officials at the Ghazil market concluded after studying the bomber’s severed head that she had Down syndrome. But Iraqi officials have made similar claims in the past, and it was not immediately clear whether the bomber’s head could have been distorted by the blast.

 Indeed, there may have been many heads available to be used to show reporters after the blast. Two were chosen.  Did they have to be the exact heads of the perpetrators?

Another report at the Washington Post "" indicates that someone sneaked a snap with a cellphone camera of the pictures offered for viewing by a few reporters.

  A cell phone image of one of the heads viewed by The Associated Press was inconclusive.
More interesting statements in the report linked immediately above:
Iraqis in Baghdad demanded more protection for markets, saying one of the bombers wasn't searched because she was known as local beggar and the male guards were reluctant to search women because of Islamic sensitivities.
...

Ali Nassir, a 30-year-old day laborer whose hobby is raising birds, said people with disabilities often beg for food and money at the weekly al-Ghazl pet bazaar on Fridays.

"I saw the suicide bomber and she was begging," Nassir said, adding the woman was known to the vendors. "The security guards did not search her because she is a woman and because it is not unusual to have beggars, mainly women and children, moving around in the market."

... 

Onlookers gathered at the New Baghdad pigeon market Saturday ...

Haider Jabar, a 28-year-old government employee who lives near the market and often goes for a stroll among the cages, said the woman used in that attack was a stranger to the locals.

"The woman seemed to be handicapped. It was uncommon to have a woman walking inside New Baghdad bird market, this fact had attracted many teenagers who had gathered around her at the time of the explosion," he said.

Notice above that some journalists have learned not to trust the Iraqi government's collection of evidence and announcements of “facts”. Some of the witnesses may, in fact have been told the heads with signs of Down's syndrome were the bombers. How many themselves actually saw the explosions?

The US military may be accepting the Iraqi version because it helps mitigate the public relations disasters of the horrendous practices they use in the land, like targeting whole families, and endangering and terrorizing complete neighborhoods to get one “insurgent”.

Like with the Blackwater massacre of Iraqis in September it may take a lot of time before even a decent sketch of what happened is known. Also, since this investigation will be done by the Iraqi government mostly, and it is an election year here, we may never know.  This has already become great subject of talking points for warmongers, mostly Republicans, in our midst.  Our own government hasn't been very upright about sticking to facts on various touchy subjects itself.  Remember how it tried to cover for Blackwater last year?

Will our journalists, especially those exposed to the whims of the Iraqi and American governments be able to keep their spines intact and root out the facts?

 It's time for them to earn the accolades they often give themselves.

Wow. Checking for more details on this report just now I see that I'm not the only one who is skeptical and I am in good company.

I recommend Greg Mitchells piece at Editor and Publisher "

Fair use excerpt:

The press and cable TV news carried the stark report all day Friday: A pair of bloody suicide bombings carried out in Iraq by "mentally disabled" women who were tricked into wearing bomb vests detonated from nearby by "al-Qaeda in Iraq" operatives.

Of course, this is all too possible -- but most of the media presented it as fact, rather than wild speculation. The Washington Post headline, for example, carried no qualifier: 'Mentally Disabled Women Used in Bombings."

It turns out on the following day, that the evidence for the mentally disabled part was that one of the alleged bombers' head recovered after the blast was deformed, suggesting Down's syndrome. Now the AP and The New York Times point out that the severed head may have merely been deformed by the blast.

Also, McClatchy's crack Baghdad bureau now reports that Iraqi officials "have made similar claims in the past" about mentally crippled bombers -- and a police official told them "that authorities were still investigating whether the explosion at the second market might have come from a bomb hidden in a cage or a box of eggs."
 

I'm going to have to find that McClatchy report. 

At  his blog, Mitchell has even more skepticism reported, this time by a forensic expert on "those heads".  (He doesn't seem to have seen the actual pictures as they haven't been distributed, but is talking about the force of an explosion on a body when it is triggered upon the body itself.  Please read the post (and check out Greg's new book) at "Pressing Issues: Print the headline, then let the facts catch up with it".

tags:            

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit

AddThis Social Bookmark Button



See Current Comment Policy (Subject to change)

Search This Blog

 

How to Find More Like This

To find related articles, click on relevant tag

Notice: All links below go off site, to other Blog-City denizens of my neighborhood. Selection is based by Blog-City widget on tags matching those selected for post above.

Tag Related Neighborhood Posts

Commentary: Back to School With Muqtada al-Sadr (Updated)

03-24-08
BBC: "The Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has explained why he has not been seen in public for more than nine months. He has reportedly resumed his religious studies to gain the title of ayatollah."

"The Frustrated And Patriotic Pennsylvania Voter"

04-15-08
 War-weary Pa. voters question exit strategy Democrats promise to end Iraq war; voters differ on how to depart Krista McKeon, an unaffiliated voter from Nazareth, Pa., talks about her husband, Capt. Keith McKeon. The couple cried with their

Get your anti-McCain logos here!

04-16-08
But first, here are Obama's remarks from the Building Trades Legislative Conference:We meet here at a challenging time for our families and a challenging time for America.  All across the country, Americans are anxious about their future. &n

"Where Is Iraqi Patriotism?"

04-17-08
Blast hits funeral north of Baghdad, killing 50Recent attacks raise worries that Sunni insurgents are reorganizingThe Associated Pressupdated 9:33 a.m. CT, Thurs., April. 17, 2008Marines Raise Flag At Iwo Jima BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber struck the fu

The Real Surge

04-17-08
Tim F. at Balloon Juice deduces the thinking behind General Petraeus' latest battle plans. They think around Halloween time would be the bestest time for an actual offensive. I wonder why.

GAO Report: Bush Administration Fails On Terrorism Prevention

04-18-08
GAO report: US utterly unprepared for new al-Qaeda attack.

GAO Rules Against Bush's Unitary Executive SCHIP Order

04-19-08
Unfortunately in the midst of the tidal wave of presidential election year BS, the on going crimes of the Bush administration (or crime family if you will) are getting little attention.  Front and center today is Bush's war against health ca

Commentary: McCain's Iraq Stance Echoes a Long Dominant American Tradition

04-19-08
General Mark Clark signed the peace document ending the war (Korea), even though the official goals had pretty much been achieved he stated later "I cannot find it in me to exalt at this hour." (Clark was the first U.S. commander to agree to an Armis

Barack Obama and Giving Peace a Chance

04-21-08
A vote for Barack Obama this Tuesday is a vote to give peace a chance. A vote for Obama is a vote for diplomacy instead of might, a vote for investing in the future instead of mortgaging the future, and a vote for leading by example instead of leadin

"Jimmy Carter's Out Of Order Diplomacy"

04-22-08
Bassem Tellawi / APHamas political leader Khaled Mashaal talks to reporters at a news conference Monday in Damascus, Syria, where he offered Israel a truce.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24235665/DAMASCUS, Syria - The leader of Hamas said Monday th

Good Morning, People!

04-24-08
 House approves $15 billion bill to bail out mortgage foreclosure victims:Democrats pushed a $15 billion housing bill through a House committee Wednesday over the objections of Republicans, who called it a government bailout.The measure would se

John McCain, go to hell!

04-26-08
This diary and the song with it is dedicated to John McCain and his radical right-wing agenda that is threatening to ruin our country. And now, the next stop for John McCain and the neocons is Iran. And in order to supply the bodies for the war, he w

Ministry of Love News: Circular Torture Logic

04-27-08
Let's file this one under, "when the president does it that means that it is not illegal":While the Geneva Conventions prohibit “outrages upon personal dignity,” a letter sent by the Justice Department to Congress on March 5

"Is It Time To Negotiate With The Taliban?"

04-27-08
<!-- end photoProvider -->Sun Apr 27, 2:46 AM ETAfghan President Hamid Karzai, center, is seen on U.S. Humvee as he heads to inspect the Afghan forces at a ceremony marking the 16th anniversary the defeat of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan i

Gary Randall's 2 Minutes of Transgendered Hatred

04-27-08
Once in a while the theocratic Faith and Freedom Network's Gary Randall removes the compassionate "hate the sin but not the sinner" mask, and lets us see pathological revulsion that lies beneath.  An HR handbook from Human Rights C

Billions of Dollars of Iraq Contracts Never Finished.

04-28-08
Remember all those right-wing propagandists wringing their hands over how the media was not reporting all the good things that were going on in Iraq? Well, it turns out that many of the "good things" -- reconstruction projects that were sup

Justice GITMO style: "We have to have convictions."

04-29-08
The Washington Post has a bit of a bombshell: The Defense Department's former chief prosecutor for terrorism cases appeared Monday at the controversial U.S. detention facility here to argue on behalf of a terrorism suspect that the military justi

A Deadly Bureaucracy

05-03-08
When ever these "free trade" deals get negotiated, liberal Democrats in the US often get a couple of bones thrown their way to satisfy those pesky human rights junkies (me being one of them).  The problem is that everyone knows that th

Healthcare Becomes A Luxury

05-04-08
Guess what?  Things just keep getting worse for Americans' health care.  The NY Times has a Sunday exposé on a problem that is hardly a new one:Many of the 158 million people covered by employer health insurance are struggling t

Shadowy Immigrant Deaths

05-05-08
Detained immigrants are a hairs breath away from being disappeared:Word spread quickly inside the windowless walls of the Elizabeth Detention Center, an immigration jail in New Jersey: A detainee had fallen, injured his head and become incoherent. Gu

Drug War Racially Biased

05-06-08
To all those who are privileged enough, or "white" enough to think that there exists no racial or economic class borders in our country, I give you (once again) the "Drug War":More than two decades after President Ronald Reagan es

Its a Small Occupation Afterall--Baghdad Amusement Park?

05-07-08
The "Age of Reason" is over.  According to The Progress Report, the Pentagon has big plans for the Green Zone in American occupied Iraq:With the help of the Defense Department, the Los Angeles-based company C3 is "developing the

Porn Harming Our Soldiers? Really?

05-08-08
See this number? 4073That's the number of troops killed in Iraq so far. Here's another number.29,978Yet somehow, Georgia Congressman Paul Broun thinks the issue is pornography. Yep, that's the #1 ruiner of soldiers' lives. A capt

"News From The Two Iraq War Fronts"

05-08-08
<!-- end photoProvider -->Thu May 8, 5:02 PM ETn this June 15 2006 file photo, a U.S. soldier at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq stands by a photograph that purports to show Abu Ayyub al-Masri who is the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. The Iraq

The Military Is Bleeding

05-09-08
43,000 troops with medical problems sent to Iraq. Kinda puts a spanner in McCain's Hundred Years Plan.

Attention, Illiterate Fucks:

05-09-08
Big Steve King says read or you'll be stupid and get stuck in Iraq. He's right, kids. Start with King's books, they're mostly written on an eighth-grade level. You might even get scared.

John "Anything for a Vote" McCain

05-15-08
While presidential elections are the political equivalent of a binge alcoholic, I am relishing the spectacle of John McCain "flip-flopping" all over the country as he tries to get elected after 8 years of GOP disaster.The latest is McCain&#

John McCain says he'll win in Iraq, catch Bin Laden.

05-16-08
In a new piece of hubris from John McCain, he said today that he would win in Iraq and capture Osama Bin Laden. Instead of the kind of national healing that we need after one of the most partisan administrations in US history, what we have from John

Recent Entries

Best of the Rest on the Web

Most Popular Tags