Hello. Last Friday, in introducing articles on the London Bombings,
I included the following: "There can be no defense of, or excuse for
such deadly violence directed at civilians. I mean this whole-
heartedly. And I strongly feel the same about the violence
directed by the U.S. against the people of Iraq over the past two
years, resulting in the deaths of over 100,000 civilians and today's
ongoing disaster - for us and for them." I sent this to you and to the
Echo/Elysian Park Forum, an email exchange by many residents of
varying politics, also a great source of information and opinion on a
full range of local history, current affairs, flora/fauna and lots more.
It plays a vital role in our neighborhood, and keeps us a community.
Someone disputed the casualty figures and I was asked for reference.
Below, are the latest. They do not include the general devastation
and poisoning of the water systems by the bombing that took place
for years priior to invasion, some of which were by nuclear-tipped
bombs, now slowly destroying all living things in vast areas of Iraq.
Results among children alone, have been estimated as over 500,000.
Whatever the real numbers actually are, and however they happened,
it's clear that we are doing immense harm over there, likely nourishing
fanatacism throughout the world and seriously damaging our own
society, on many levels. We must get out.
I sent the above, the UPI report and the call to the vigil that follows, to
the E/EP Forum yesterday. This report offers a powerful platform for
engaging the many who haven't yet confronted the issue or may still
justify the war, as my skeptic does, or as a stark demonstration of
the reality of war, to one and all. However you use it, do so, please.
Then consider joining us Parkians on July 29th, or plan your own.
Ed
Iraqi Civilian Casualties
By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
07/12/05 "UPI" - - BAGHDAD -- An Iraqi humanitarian organization is
reporting that 128,000 Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion
began in March 2003. It builds on a study published in The Lancet, a
British medical journal, last October, which concluded there had been
100,000 "excess deaths" in Iraq from all causes since March 2003.
Mafkarat al-Islam reported that chairman of the 'Iraqiyun humanitarian
organization in Baghdad, Dr. Hatim al-'Alwani, said that the toll includes
everyone who has been killed since that time, adding that 55 percent of
those killed have been women and children aged 12 and under.
'Iraqiyun obtained data from relatives and families of the deceased, as well
as from Iraqi hospitals in all the country's provinces. The 128,000 figure
only includes those whose relatives have been informed of their deaths and
does not include those were abducted, assassinated or simply disappeared.
The number includes those who died during the U.S. assaults on al-Fallujah
and al-Qa'im. 'Iraqiyun's figures conflict with the Iraqi Body Count public
database compiled by Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International
Studies. According to the Graduate Institute of International Studies'
database, 39,000 Iraqis have been killed as a direct result of combat or
armed violence since March 2003. No official estimates of Iraqi casualties
from the war have been issued by the Pentagon, which insists that it does
not do "body counts." The Washington Post on July 12 reported that U.S.
military deaths in Iraq now total 1,755.
Copyright © 2005 News World Communications Inc.
***
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER AGAINST THE WAR
SUNSET BLVD AND ECHO PARK AVE.
WEST ON SUNSET TO ALVARADO AND BEYOND
FRIDAY, JULY 29 5-7 PM
We are a group of friends and neighbors who have been holding
weekly Friday night anti-war vigils on the corner of Sunset and
Echo Park for the last several months. With recent polls showing
that a majority of Americans now oppose the war, we decided to
go for a really strong statement in our neighborhood.
We invite you to bring anti-war and "bring home the troops" signs,
along with your friends and families and join us on the last Friday
in July. That's Friday, July 29 5-7 PM
We will be lining up shoulder to shoulder along Sunset Blvd.
beginning at Echo Park Ave and stretching west along Sunset
as far as our numbers will take us. If we are successful, we will
be making this a monthly event!
You are also invited to join us at one of the two weekly
neighborhood vigils:
Friday nights 5-7PM
Echo Park Ave. and Sunset
Or
In front of the Vista Theater
where Hollywood Blvd. and Sunset intersect
*** For a listing of Neighborhood Vigils throughout So. Calif.
click on http://www.change-links.org/vigils1.htm or google
Change Links Calendar and scroll past a myriad of peace type
events/activities to the Vigil Listing. It's worth checking out.
Ed
***
To: NYT Public Editor: How not to frame the Rove story
Your front page story July 13, "Rove Case May Loom as Test of Loyalty.for
Bush" is a prime example of how writers and editors frame an issue that
distracts readers from the real story. Who really cares outside the beltway
whether Bush is "loyal" to Rove? The Star Trib editorial presents a more
relevant analysis.
Mike Munk
Published on Thursday, July 14, 2005 by the Star Tribune (Minneapolis,
Minnesota)
Karl Rove: Real Issue is the Case for War
Editorial
Did White House political adviser Karl Rove deliberately reveal the identity
of an undercover CIA operative? Only two people can answer that question,
and neither one is talking: Rove himself and special prosecutor Patrick
Fitzgerald, who is investigating the question.
Sooner or later, we probably will get an answer. Fitzgerald has been so
aggressive in this investigation -- to the point of jailing a New York Times
reporter who refused to reveal her confidential sources -- that indictments
are reasonably likely.
In the meantime, it's important to look beyond the immediate political
spectacle in Washington -- White House spokesman Scott McClellan finally
confronted by reporters who feel abused and lied to -- to the reason Rove
was talking to a reporter about ex-diplomat Joseph Wilson at all.
The real issue, more serious and less glitzy than whether Bush will stand by
his political adviser, is the extraordinary efforts the Bush administration
made to protect a case for war in Iraq from all contradictory evidence -- in
effect, as the British spymaster Sir Richard Dearlove put it, to "fix" the
facts and intelligence so they would support a decision already made.
Enter Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA operative
specializing in weapons of mass destruction. As Wilson tells it, a question
arose at the CIA early in 2002, prompted by an inquiry from Vice President
Dick Cheney's office, about reports that Iraq had purchased uranium for
nuclear weapons from the African country of Niger, where Wilson previously
had served. When someone was needed to travel to Niger, Plame apparently
told her superiors that her husband had good contacts there. CIA officials
talked with Wilson and decided he should be the one to make the trip.
In late February of 2002 Wilson made the trip, talked with numerous people
in Niger, including the U.S. ambassador, and concluded there was nothing to
reports of an Iraq-Niger connection. He briefed officials at both the CIA
and State Department on his conclusions.
In January 2003, however, President Bush asserted an Iraq-Africa uranium
connection in his State of the Union message. Subsequently, it turned out
that Bush was indeed referring to Niger. The Niger-Iraq connection became
one of the pillars in Bush's case for war with Iraq.
After the start of the war, Wilson wrote a lengthy op-ed piece for the New
York Times laying out the facts of his trip and saying he had "little choice
but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear
weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."
Five days later, Rove told Time reporter Matt Cooper he should "not get too
far out on Wilson." His trip to Niger, Rove said, wasn't approved by Cheney
or CIA Director George Tenet. Cooper wrote to his boss, "It was, KR said,
wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd issues who
authorized the trip."
Three days later, columnist Robert Novak identified Plame as a CIA operative
and said two "senior administration officials" told him Plame suggested
sending her husband. About the same time, a confidential source also told a
Washington Post reporter that the trip was a "boondoggle" arranged by Plame.
This is a classic Rove technique: undercut a critic by planting the notion
that he was off to Africa on a lark arranged by his wife. Rove's history as
a rough political player is well-documented. But this wasn't about a
political campaign; this was about a serious question of national security
and the justification for a difficult war.
It also wasn't true. On July 22, Newsday reported that a "senior
intelligence officer confirmed that Plame was a directorate of operations
undercover officer who worked 'alongside' the operations officers who asked
her husband to travel to Niger. But he said she did not recommend her
husband to undertake the Niger assignment." This senior intelligence officer
also told Newsday that it was incorrect to suggest " 'she was the one who
was cooking this up.' " Besides, he said, " 'We paid his airfare. But to go
to Niger is not exactly a benefit. Most people you'd have to pay big bucks
to go there.' " The CIA always said Plame did not recommend her husband.
It is instructive to remember that the investigation into who revealed
Plame's identity was initiated by Tenet, not by administration critics.
Remember also that Wilson was correct; ultimately the White House had to
retract Bush's State of the Union statement on the Niger connection.
In addition to discrediting critics of the Niger connection, the Bush
administration, through the actions of John Bolton -- now nominee to be U.N.
ambassador -- sought to intimidate intelligence analysts who objected to
conclusions about Iraq's WMD, and to get a U.N. chemical weapons official
fired so he wouldn't be able to send inspectors back to Iraq, where they
might disprove more of the case for war.
In the scheme of things, whether Rove revealed Plame's identity,
deliberately or not, matters less than actions by Rove, Bolton, Cheney and
others to phony up a case for war that has gone badly, has cost thousands of
lives plus hundreds of billions of dollars, and has, a majority of Americans
now believe, left the United States less safe from terrorism rather than
more.
That's the indictment which should matter most.
© 2005 Star Tribune
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