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Warning: No Michael Jackson News.

THE KIDS OF ABU GHRAIB
THE NEGROPONTE CONNECTION
THE “COMMUNISTS” OF IL MANIFESTO

Let’s give it up for Madrid this morning and remember the ordeal they experienced a year ago today when terrorists bombed commuter trains. 191 people were killed.

BBC reports: “Church bells across the capital will toll at 0737, the exact moment when the first of a series of co-ordinated blasts hit packed trains.The country will observe a five-minute silence at midday.”

But let us also remember what else happened, and how the Aznar government lied and tried to blame the Basques, and how the people of Spain turned against the press which was playing his game, and rallied and rallied using cell phone text messages to mobilize and in the end threw his pro-war government out. That was not a victory for democracy Washington applauded.

Remember Spain, but also compare the response there to what happened here after our 3-11 (9-11) and how different the result was, leading as it did to the wars we are still fighting. Could our press have had something to do with it? (See this study.)

THEY KEPT KIDS THERE

As we think of those wars, think of the bloodshed that once again rocked Iraq, this time in Mosul. And also think of this story from Al Jazeera:

US detained children in Abu Ghraib

An 8-year-old was among the children detained by US soldiers at Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib jail, a former prison commander has said.

Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski told officials investigating prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib that the child was crying and wanted to see his mother.

Karpinski’s statement is among hundreds of pages of US Army records about Abu Ghraib the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released on Thursday.

The ACLU got the documents under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records about abuse of detainees in Iraq.”

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F766CBA2-FAF7-43EE-AEDC-44FB55781ACC.htm

DEATH SQUAD AMBASSADOR MAY HAVE KILLED AGAIN?

There were yet more developments today on a new American angle on the Giuliana story, more twists and turns. AP reports:

Troops Who Fired On Hostage Were Protecting U.S. Ambassador

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. troops who mistakenly killed an Italian intelligence agent last week on the road to Baghdad’s airport were part of extra security provided by the U.S. Army to protect U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, a U.S. official said Thursday.

Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was killed March 4 when U.S. troops opened fire on a car carrying him and Italian journalist

The mobile patrol was there to enhance security because Ambassador Negroponte was expected through,” U.S. Embassy spokesman Robert Callahan said, confirming reports in Italian media. The newspaper La Repubblica reported Wednesday that the checkpoint had been “set up to protect the passage of Ambassador Negroponte.”

It was not known if Negroponte, who was nominated last month by President George W. Bush to be the new director of national intelligence, had already passed through the checkpoint.

The shooting took place about 8:55 p.m., about two hours before Baghdad’s 11 p.m. curfew. No civilian cars are allowed on Baghdad’s streets after curfew.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=13&u=/ap/20050310/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_italy_hostage_5

“FULL ATTACK MODE”

Former Canadian soldier Scott Taylor edits Esprit de Corps military magazine and a is veteran war correspondent. He writes on Al Jazeera’s site:

…there was nothing to be gained by attacking the Italian rescue vehicle.

And as events have proven, in terms of public relations and international politics, the Americans stood to lose everything by doing so since Italy is one of the few European members of US President George Bush’s “coalition of the willing” with a tangible troop commitment of some 3000 soldiers in Iraq.

The attack against Sgrena has only re-ignited the strong anti-war and anti-American sentiments which existed in Italy, and Prime Minister Berlusconi will be 3

In anticipation of such a damaging blow, the US neo-cons have gone into full attack mode in a desperate attempt to discredit Sgrena’s version of events.

The fact that Il Manifesto is a “communist” newspaper is reported by these Republican Party cheerleaders as though this automatically discredits the source and implies something far more sinister.

One of the most ridiculous spins on the incident is being put forward by none other than David Frum, Bush’s former speech writer, who claims credit for coining the phrase “axis of evil”.

Frum’s take on the tragedy is that Sgrena’s professional negligence (ie getting captured while trying to report an independent perspective on the war in Iraq) led to the unfortunate death of Nicola Calipari, a “heroic” ally of the US.

It also appears to irk Frum that the Italian government “went behind the Americans’ backs” to negotiate for Sgrena’s successful release. What Frum and his colleagues fail to accept is the fact that the US has completely lost control of the security situation in Iraq and, as a result, allied governments have no choice but to take matters into their own hands to protect their nationals.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9F3D082E-919F-4C0E-AD2E-7541EC22B048.htm

CORRECTION FROM UPI: “Re: *Military team fabricated the event of Saddam’s capture in a hole

“I’m the UPI Pentagon correspondent. This is actually not a true story. It was written in a Saudi paper, and picked up by our Arabic speaking desk in Lebanon. However, I’ve not been able to find any evidence that this guy exists, much less that he was in the Marine Corps. The story was not run by me before it was published, and we have since pointed out the errors in the piece.”

Any questions, please contact me.
Pamela Hess, United Press International