"Bhagdad Girl Blogger" wouldn't stand a chance with the LA Times. See "Robert Scheer Fired" below her latest column. Ed
Baghdad Burning http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ ... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend... Sunday, November 06, 2005 Movies and Dreams... My parents, like many Iraqis of their generation and educational background, discouraged too much tv. When E. and I were younger, they were vigilant about the type of shows and movies we were allowed to watch. They didn’t like for us to be exposed to propaganda- Arab or Western- and any programs containing excessive violence, foul language or sexual content were prohibited. On the other hand, all types of books were encouraged. I grew up reading books by authors ranging from Jane Austen to John LeCarre, from Emily Bronte to Maxim Gorky to Simone de Beauvoir… nothing was ever off-limits. Where movies and television were concerned, there were times when something would slip through their censorship- or rather, there were times when WE would slip through their censorship and watch something at a friend’s house or at a relative’s house, etc. I believe everyone remembers a movie or two, seen during childhood, that remained ingrained in their memory for years. For me, there were two such events. One was a movie, the other was a recording or documentary- I can’t remember which. In my memory, neither of them have a name and neither of them have a place- I don’t remember where I saw either one. The images, however, play themselves over in my head with the clarity of an original DVD being shown at the highest resolution. The first one, I remember, was a movie about the Holocaust. It was fictional but obviously based on actual events. I saw that film sometime in the mid-eighties. The image that horrified me most was of a little girl, no more than six or seven years of age, being made to run by Nazi guards and try to scale a very high wall. She was told that if she could scale that wall, she would be free. As soon as she started running towards the wall, her little feet stumbling in the rush to cover the distance between her captors and freedom, the guards set free three large, ferocious, black dogs on her. I don’t remember exactly what happened next, but I remember a symphony of terror- her screams, the barking dogs and laughing guards. The second movie/film/actual footage had no actors- they were real people acting out atrocities. We were visiting Iraq and I was around 8 years old. I walked in on someone, somewhere, watching what I thought at first was news footage because of the picture quality. It showed what I later learned was an Iraqi POW in Iran. I watched as Iranian guards tied each arm of the helpless man to a different vehicle. I was young, but even I knew what was going to happen the next moment. I wanted to run away or close my eyes- but I couldn’t move. I was rooted to the spot, almost as if I too had been chained there. A moment later, the cars began driving off in opposite directions- and the man was in agony as his arm was torn off at the socket. I never forgot that video. Millions of Iraqis still remember it. Every time I hear the word “aseer” which is Arabic for POW, that video plays itself in my head. For weeks, I’d see it in my mind before I fell asleep at night, and wake up to it in the morning. It haunted me and I’d wonder how long it took the man to die after that atrocity- I didn’t even know human arms came off that way. The horrors of what happened to the POWs in Iran lived with us even after the war. The rumors of torture- mental and physical- came back so often and were confirmed so much, that mothers would pray their sons were dead instead of taken prisoner in Iran- especially after that video that came out in either 1984 or 1986. Every Iraqi who had a missing relative from that war, saw them in the agonized face of that POW who lost his arm. SCIRI head Abdul Aziz Al Hakim and his dead brother Mohammed Baqir Al Hakim were both well-known interrogators and torturers of Iraqi POWs in Iran. There isn’t a single Iraqi family, I believe, that didn’t lose a loved one, or several, to that war. There isn’t a single family that didn’t have horror stories to tell about the POW that came home. They were giving back our POWs up until 2003. In our family alone, we lost four men to that war- three were confirmed dead- one Shia and two Sunnis- and the fourth, S., has been missing since 1983. When he left for the war, S. was 24 and engaged to be married within the year- the house was even furnished and the wedding date set. He never came back. His mother, my mothers cousin, finally gave up hope that he’d come back in 2003. With every new group of POWs returning from Iran, she’d make phone calls and beg for news of her darling S. Had anyone seen him? Had anyone heard of him? Was he dead? With every fresh disappointment, we’d tell her that in spite of the long years, it was possible he was still alive- there was hope he’d come back. In 2002, she confessed to my mother that she wished someone would come along and crush the hope once and for all- confirm he was dead. In her heart, a mothers heart, she knew he was dead- but she needed the confirmation because without it, giving up hope completely would be a form of betrayal. The agony of the long war with Iran is what makes the current situation in Iraq so difficult to bear- especially this last year. The occupation has ceased to be American. It is American in face, and militarily, but in essence it has metamorphosed slowly but surely into an Iranian one. It began, of course, with Badir’s Brigade and the several Iran-based political parties which followed behind the American tanks in April 2003. It continues today with a skewed referendum, and a constitution that will guarantee a southern Iraqi state modeled on the Islamic Republic of Iran. The referendum results were so disappointing and there have been so many stories of fraud and shady dealings (especially in Mosul), that there’s already talk of boycotting the December elections. This was the Puppets’ shining chance to show that there is that modicum of democracy they claim the Iraqi people are enjoying under occupation- that chance was terribly botched up. As for the December elections- Sistani has, up until now, coyly abstained from blatantly supporting any one specific political group. This will probably continue until late November / early December during which he will be persistently asked by his followers to please issue a Fatwa about the elections. Eventually, he’ll give his support to one of the parties and declare a vote for said party a divine obligation. I wager he’ll support the United Iraqi Alliance - like last elections. Interestingly enough, this time around the UIA will be composed of not just SCIRI and Da’awa- but also of the Sadrists (Jaysh il Mahdi)- Muqtada’s followers! For those who followed the situation in Iraq last year, many will recognize Muqtada as the ‘firebrand cleric’, the ‘radical’ and ‘terrorist’. Last year, there was even a warrant for Muqtada’s arrest from the Ministry of Interior and supported by the Americans who repeatedly said they were either going to detain the ‘radical cleric’ or kill him. Well, today he’s very much alive and involved in the ‘political process’ American politicians and their puppets hail so energetically. Sadr and his followers have been responsible for activities such as terrorizing hairdressers, bombing liquor stores, and abductions of women not dressed properly, etc. because all these things are considered anti-Islamic (according to Iranian-style Islam). Read more about Sadr’s militia here- who dares to say the Americans, Brits and Puppets don’t have everything under control?! Americans constantly tell me, “What do you think will happen if we pull out of Iraq- those same radicals you fear will take over.” The reality is that most Iraqis don’t like fundamentalists and only want stability- most Iraqis wouldn’t stand for an Iran-influenced Iraq. The American military presence is working hand in hand with Badir, etc. because only together with Iran can they suppress anti-occupation Iraqis all over the country. If and when the Americans leave, their Puppets and militias will have to pack up and return to wherever they came from because without American protection and guidance they don’t stand a chance. We literally laugh when we hear the much subdued threats American politicians make towards Iran. The US can no longer afford to threaten Iran because they know that should the followers of Sadr, Iranian cleric Sistani and Badir’s Brigade people rise up against the Americans, they’d have to be out of Iraq within a month. Iran can do what it wants- enrich uranium? Of course! If Tehran declared tomorrow that it was currently in negotiations for a nuclear bomb, Bush would have to don his fake pilot suit again, gush enthusiastically about the War on Terror and then threaten Syria some more. Congratulations Americans- not only are the hardliner Iranian clerics running the show in Iran- they are also running the show in Iraq. This shift of power should have been obvious to the world when My-Loyalty-to-the-Highest-Bidder-Chalabi sold his allegiance to Iran last year. American and British sons and daughters and husbands and wives are dying so that this coming December, Iraqis can go out and vote for Iran-influenced clerics to knock us back a good four hundred years. What happened to the dream of a democratic Iraq? Iraq has been the land of dreams for everyone except Iraqis- the Persian dream of a Shia controlled Islamic state modeled upon Iran and inclusive of the holy shrines in Najaf, the pan-Arab nationalist dream of a united Arab region with Iraq acting as its protective eastern border, the American dream of controlling the region by installing permanent bases and a Puppet government in one of its wealthiest countries, the Kurdish dream of an independent Kurdish state financed by the oil wealth in Kirkuk… The Puppets the Americans empowered are advocates of every dream except the Iraqi one: The dream of Iraqi Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen… the dream of a united, stable, prosperous Iraq which has, over the last two years, gone up in the smoke of car bombs, military raids and a foreign occupation. - posted by river @ 12:47 AM *** Protest Plans to Drop Robert Scheer's Tuesday Column Email the LA Times: Publisher - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Editor - [EMAIL PROTECTED] READ MORE ABOUT IT: http://laobserved.com/ LA OBSERVED By Kevin Roderick Wednesday, November 9 2005 Scheer out as of December Here's an update to my exclusive post last Friday on the end of Robert Scheer's column on the L.A. Times op-ed page: He went on KPCC's "Airtalk with Larry Mantle" this morning (audio) and said he has now been informed the column will stop running at the end of the year. Scheer speculated about political pressure on the Times because of his lefty views, and noted he has been "a punching bag" for Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh for many years, but he told Mantle "I don't know what's driving them because they won't tell me." No one from the Times would comment to Mantle either. I've previously reported on plans to revamp the lineup of Times op-ed columnists. Scheer's column will still be distributed through Creators.com, and as I mentioned on Friday he will soon launch a new webzine called TruthDig.com. Supporters of Scheer's work have apparently begun a letter and email-writing campaign hoping to convince Times Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson to keep the column. ***** Posted November 4, 2005 Robert Scheer in the news Lots of chatter in local media circles these days about the syndicated L.A. Times columnist and KCRW commentator from the left. TruthDig logoFirst, it appears that Scheer is about to lose his weekly Tuesday spot on the Times op-ed page after thirteen years. Sources at the paper tell me the decision has been made, but Scheer says he hasn't been told anything officially. He has heard the talk, however, and suggests the pressure to ax him comes from Publisher Jeff Johnson, who recently took over responsibility for the opinion side of the paper. The column often makes the Times website's most-emailed list, but Scheer tells me "I've been led to believe they are going to kill it....If I'm coming to the end they ought to bring me down there and explain why." He has been either on staff or a Times columnist for almost three decades. Second, after a year of preparation Scheer and publisher Zuade Kaufman are launching a new Los Angeles-based web magazine, TruthDig, on Nov. 28. TruthDig logo It will combine 2,500-word reported essays on issues by scholars and writers (e.g., UC Berkeley's Orville Schell on China, USC's Larry Gross on gays and religion, Marc Cooper on Venezuela and Hugo Chavez, Sam Harris on an "atheist manifesto") with hyperlinks to original sources, reading lists, blogs, video, podcasts and daily takes on the news. The name is inspired by archeology, Scheer says: "We assume there is some truth to be found on every issue, but you just have to dig for it." Barry Golson, Scheer's former editor at Playboy who also has edited TV Guide and Yahoo Internet Life, is the Senior Editor. They are advertising now for a Managing Editor. The job posting positions TruthDig "from a progressive perspective," but Scheer says it won't be all politics. Alice Waters, the founder of Berkeley's Chez Panisse restaurant, is contributing. The business plan is ad driven, with writers being paid about $1 a word plus expenses—a young writer has already been sent to the Middle East on a "dig." Scheer is best known for his politics and books, and for editing Ramparts magazine in the 1960s, but he's been involved in Internet journalism for a while now. He is a former editor of the Online Journalism Review at USC, where he teaches in the Annenberg School. ### Veterans For Peace-LA Invites Public for Veterans Day Weekend Memorial, Friday, November 11th thru Sunday November 13th Death Toll for US Troops Killed in Iraq Reaches 2,042 Today California Gold Star Families to Lead Procession of 100 Flag-Draped Coffins Noon on Saturday, November 12th Will Be Highlight of Weekend Call for 400 Volunteers to be Pallbearers WHERE: Arlington West is North of the Santa Monica Pier on Beach (Near Santa Monica Fwy meets Pacific Coast Hwy.) WHEN: Friday, November 11th thru Sunday, November 13th NOTE: 400 Volunteers are Needed at Arlington West just north of Santa Monica Pier at 9AM on Saturday, November 12th to carry 100 flag draped coffins on a procession thru Santa Monica. Call Tonia at 310.455.2688. Just weeks after Americans learned of sad occasion of 2,000 US troops killed in Iraq, (2,042 to date) the country will mark Veterans Day Weekend Friday, November 11th thru Sunday, November 13th with ceremonies and tributes, The Veterans for Peace Arlington West Memorial 'Veterans Day Weekend' program will run for three full days and two nights, Friday, November 11th thru Sunday, November 13th on the beach north of the Santa Monica Pier. The emotional highlight of the weekend will be when a procession beginning at Arlington West will loop through the streets and sidewalks of Santa Monica, 400 pallbearers will carry 100 flag draped coffins. Over a half-dozen California Gold Star Family members will lead the march carrying large photos of their beloved husbands and children who were killed in Iraq. Crosses will be erected in the sand at Arlington West in Santa Monica by Veterans for Peace and volunteers north of Santa Monica Pier every Sunday for the last year and a half, as a tribute not only to the fallen U.S. soldiers in Iraq, but also to the countless innocent Iraqi civilians. The flag draped coffins will rest in forefront, beside a 20 foot long board that names the dead servicemen and women. Visitors are invited to write the name of a soldier, any personal comment, and with a fresh flower, place an identity, photo to each cross and a candle. WHERE: Arlington West is North of the Santa Monica Pier on Beach (All events listed below are located at Arlington West unless designated) ---- FRIDAY, NOV 11TH 7:30AM: The memorial of over 2,000 crosses will be erected. Congresswoman Maxine Waters has been invited to participate in setting up the memorial. 2:00 PM: Speakers will commemorate Veterans Day by reading the names of the soldiers killed at the top of each hour. A gong will sound as each name is read aloud. WHO: Kevin McKeown, Santa Monica City Council Member Abdul Henderson, Iraq War Veteran, featured in Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11 Tim Goodrich, Iraq and Afghanistan War Veteran Bill Mitchell, son Army Sgt. Michael Mitchell, 25, of Porterville, CA was killed in Sadr City Baghdad on April 4, 2004 (along with 'Peace Mom,' Cindy Sheehan's son Casey.) Joyce Riley, Gulf War Veteran 3:00 PM: Aztec Dancers will perform 4:30 PM: Candle light vigil ceremony will begin, 1,000 candles will illuminate a field of 2,000 plus crosses and continue burning through the night. 5:15 PM: Iraq Vet, Lance Corporal Jeff Key will play taps for the memorial. 6:15 PM: Two films will be projected on the wall of the pier: A Line in the Sand and The Ground Truth. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. 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