UnFairWitness

Rabidly pro-war message board Free Republic has turned it's collective attention from defending All Things Bush and War, including the destruction of Fallujah and the torture of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, to "defending" Terri Schiavo:

Terri Schiavo: America`s Death Wish

Please everyone, think this through. Terri is past the point of pain now.

Do you really think if your eyes were bleeding and your skin was flaking off this would not be painful? There is no peacful end. It is a horrible way to die that is not even inflicted on people who murder our children.

Posted by PistolPaknMama 03/26/2005 6:09:26 PM EST

To: spinestein
When I heard the clip of Ted Kennedy saying that this humiliating treatment was the equivalent of Saddam Hussein's torture chambers...

So you're saying that being gang raped by government thugs or having your eyes gouged out is better or worse than wearing panties on your head? /sarcasm

by PistolPaknMama 03/10/2005 10:16:44 PM PST

For those of you who, like me, watch the spectacle over Terri Schiavo and note the bizarre correlation of the group hysterical with outrage over that one poor woman with the group that tended to reduce the atrocities of Abu Ghraib to "panties on the head" and frat hazing, Billmon has done a post that catches the essence of the contradiction.

Giuliana Sgrena - shot from behind?

Naomi Klein has interviewed Giuliana Sgrena in Rome. The revelations in this Democracy Now interview of Klein significantly challenge the stories we've heard thus far in the press:

One of the things that we keep hearing is that she was fired on on the road to the airport, which is a notoriously dangerous road. In fact, it's often described as the most dangerous road in the world. So this is treated as a fairly common and understandable incident that there would be a shooting like this on that road. And I was on that road myself, and it is a really treacherous place with explosions going off all the time and a lot of checkpoints. What Giuliana told me that I had not realized before is that she wasn't on that road at all. She was on a completely different road that I actually didn't know existed. It's a secured road that you can only enter through the Green Zone and is reserved exclusively for ambassadors and top military officials. So, when Calipari, the Italian security intelligence officer, released her from captivity, they drove directly to the Green Zone, went through the elaborate checkpoint process which everyone must go through to enter the Green Zone, which involves checking in obviously with U.S. forces, and then they drove onto this secured road. And the other thing that Giuliana told me that she's quite frustrated about is the description of the vehicle that fired on her as being part of a checkpoint. She says it wasn't a checkpoint at all. It was simply a tank that was parked on the side of the road that opened fire on them. There was no process of trying to stop the car, she said, or any signals. From her perspective, they were just -- it was just opening fire by a tank. The other thing she told me that was surprising to me was that they were fired on from behind. Because I think part of what we're hearing is that the U.S. soldiers opened fire on their car, because they didn't know who they were, and they were afraid. It was self-defense, they were afraid. The fear, of course, is that their car might blow up or that they might come under attack themselves. And what Giuliana Sgrena really stressed with me was that she -- the bullet that injured her so badly and that killed Calipari, came from behind, entered the back seat of the car. And the only person who was not severely injured in the car was the driver, and she said that this is because the shots weren't coming from the front or even from the side. They were coming from behind, i.e. they were driving away. So, the idea that this was an act of self-defense, I think becomes much more questionable. And that detail may explain why there's some reticence to give up the vehicle for inspection. Because if indeed the majority of the gunfire is coming from behind, then clearly, they were firing from -- they were firing at a car that was driving away from them.

There's more....

An Israeli Refuser visits the US Congress

Brad Brooks-Rubin writes about visiting the U.S. Congress with Israeli refuser Yonatan Shapira on Andrew Schamess's blog Semitism.net.

The American press has clearly found this a compelling story, which probably explains why the American public is so well-informed on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and is entirely in sync with the reaction Rubin and Shapira encounter in Congress:

Inevitably, what follows after Yonatan tells his story is a long litany of excuses, of rationalizations, of head-scratching. About why even though they are in a position to demonstrate their own courage, to refuse to give into the dominant beliefs and currents of their milieu, as Yonatan and the others have done, they do not. Time after time, we hear “I am with you personally, but…” But the Jewish community. But our constituents. But the media. Translating these statements into militaryspeak – "I'm just following orders."
Yes, civilians too can suffer from the same syndrome as soldiers seeking immunity from war crimes.

At first, I’ll admit I was excited just to be able to get in the door. And perhaps over-enthusiastic about the power of the refusers to start shaking the foundations of the mainstream’s understanding of and activity around the situation. But with time, with more meetings, and with optimism about the chances for peace growing by the minute, I find myself increasingly pessimistic.

The Quagmire, Illustrated

An analogy?

Download Quagmire.wmv

Thanks, Raed.

Zarqawi - trapped in Iraq

After slipping the cleverly placed US cordon around Fallujah last time he was "surrounded," Zarqawi has finally met his match. The intrepid terror-busters of the Iraqi security forces have him cornered.

Al-Nakib said al-Zarqawi was moving in “more than one area,” but he refused to give details.

Hey, maybe they finally "sealed the border" of Iraq.

A big fish story from Iraq

If "one the most hopeful signs we've gotten yet from Iraq" turns out to be a hoax, what does that say about the entire project?

Not-Jeff Gannon questions Scott McClellan

Totally stealing this from Matt Barganier who already stole it from Wonkette:

Q How is the President going to mark the second anniversary of our war against Iraq and the start of the third year?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, there's still a few days off until the date that we began the liberation of Iraq, and --

Q The invasion of Iraq.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think the Iraqi people showed that they appreciate the sacrifices of the coalition forces, of Iraqi forces, and our men and women in uniform of the U.S. military, who helped --

Q Well, we're still there and we're still fighting, aren't we?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- to provide them with the opportunity to determine their own future, and to move away from their past of oppression and terrorism. And, obviously, we will --

Q How is the President going to mark the anniversary?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we will have more to say as we move closer to that, to express our eternal gratitude to the men and women of our Armed Forces who have served and sacrificed in the defense of freedom, and who have helped to liberate some 25 million people in Iraq. We are --

Q That isn't why you went in.

MR. McCLELLAN: We are forever grateful to our men and women in uniform. And the Iraqi people have expressed their gratitude, as well, and showed that they are committed to defying the terrorists who want to return to the past by going to the polls and voting for a future based on freedom and democracy. And the National Assembly that was elected by the Iraqi people, the transitional National Assembly, will be meeting for the first time tomorrow. It's an important step on the path to democracy. And we stand with the international community in doing everything we can to support the transition to democracy in Iraq. We stand with the Iraqi people, and we are greatly appreciative of our men and women in uniform who continue to serve and sacrifice for this important cause. We are also grateful to their families who have made sacrifices, as well.

Q How many people are dead?

MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, April.

US troops blow away Iraqi General

AFP reports that US troops score another own goal in Iraq.

First things first in Iraq...

What will be the first act of the Parliament of the New Democratic Iraq when it is finally seated?

According to Juan Cole, quoting Al-Zaman, it will be to grant Iraqi citizenship to the Iranian Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Ain't democracy a wondrous thing.

Disgusting Quiz

Take Jonathan's disgusting quiz!

Warbloggers on the FAKE Pro-Syrian protest in Beirut

The largest Greyhound bus has 55 passenger seats. How many busses does it take to bus a half-million person protest in from Syria?

Some warbloggers need to know. Here.

Oh, and this makes it even trickier. Those wily Syrians bussed in a half million men! All the protesters were men! The warbloggers know this because they've looked at all the pictures.

This is a classic "Good versus Evil" match-up, and it's why we must be willing to support the anti-Syrian side with EVERYTHING we got!

AND ANOTHER THING: Were all those angry pro-Syrian men Lebanese?
[..]
THEREFORE, I think ONE MUST CONCLUDE that many MANY MANY of the Hizballah men demonstrating were Syrian - or Palestinian Arabs from the UN refugee camps. (AT LEAST HALF!)

That's ANOTHER reason we must support the pluralistic, pro-democracy - LEBANESE side over the pro-Syrian forces!

See? It's all logical and everything, and besides, if Glen Reynolds linked to it, it must be true.

And if Instamonger linked to it, well would other warbloggers be far behind?

UPDATE: Welcome ROGER L. SIMON readers! And if you're not one yet - YOU SHOULD BE - - EVERYDAY! And... WELCOME INSTAPUNDIT READERS! Glenn has other links on this issue - including one to a new AP story that suggests some cross-border busing - CHECK IT OUT! UPDATE #2: Welcome all you folks from NRO's The Corner - and thanks KJ! Please y'all check out a few other posts!

UPDATE: This informative comment was left in the thread following the above quoted post. Thanks to all the Antiwar/UFW readers who countered the poor hysterical Bushie in his comments.

lebanon. if the truth is what you want. i saw the marchers heading out to the rally. they were men, women and some children. the call was out to 30 political parties. there were christians and sunnis, druez and commies... you name it and the lebanese parties were there. the intent of the rally was three fold. 1. to thank syria, the soldiers they lost, blood they shed to help lebanon. 2. to make a statement to the u.n., rejecting res. 1559. 3. to voice their opinion that we need to get to the truth on the murder of hariri. maybe the concept of 1mil. participants is mind-blowing but when looking at the real crowd, it could well be that many people. the congestion was all throughout the country. this is a country who's land mass is virtually eaqual to mi.'s upper penninsula. so you can walk to downtown in a half hour. the roads were clogged with teenagers all pumped up, which is different than angry. there was also, an important fact ignored by all the media, not one single incident of violence against a woman or a man, by security or the army or the police. this is a country that g.w. would have the world believe was a country not ruled by law. lebanon is special, the lebanese are special people. the war has made them willing, willing to live and willing to die. i believe that the lebanese people want syria as a friendly neighbor, who will kick-ass if anyone wants to try anything. syria is not perfect, but it has a history and future linked with lebanon.
# posted by sincerely : 9:32 AM

sincerely appears to be starting a blog named lebanon. We'll have to keep an eye on that one.

US troops in Anti-Fratricide training

From the Times:

AMERICAN soldiers in Iraq are being given “anti-fratricide” training to reduce the number of friendly fire attacks against British and other coalition troops, The Times has learnt.

Thirty-two “blue-on-blue” attacks on British and other coalition vehicles have been logged in the past twelve months in southern Iraq, Britain’s area of responsibility.

The training was revealed as Washington and Rome announced a joint inquiry into the killing last week of an Italian secret agent when US troops opened fire on the car in which he was accompanying a freed hostage to Baghdad airport.

The inquiry was announced by General George Casey, commander of multinational forces in Iraq, after Gianfranco Fini, the Italian Foreign Minister, had highlighted differences between the American and Italian versions of the incident.

Nicola Calipari, an experienced hostage negotiator, was killed as he protected Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist, who had been held for a month.

On the same day, a 30-year-old Bulgarian machinegunner was shot and killed in a second friendly fire incident, for which US forces were also blamed.

The vast majority of the 32 reported incidents involved American troops opening fire at night-time against suspected insurgents who turned out to be friendly forces, on or near the main route through southern Iraq used by US convoys.

Military officials in Basra, where the British-controlled Multinational Division (Southeast) is based, said that the “vehicle blue-on-blue incidents” in the period from February last year had resulted in ten minor injuries. “There have been no fatalities,” one said.

The officials declined to spell out the injuries received or whether they were all British soldiers, but they confirmed that most of the “firing nationalities” were American. A small number of incidents involved Romanian and Bulgarian troops opening fire.

US commanders were so worried that their men were shooting at the British because they failed to recognise the Union Jack or other distinguishing military markings that, in an unprecedented move, they asked the British Army to supply vehicles, men and flags to teach their soldiers what their allies looked like.

It is understood that the British supplied several “snatch” armoured Land Rovers, the most common vehicle used by British troops on patrol and senior non-commissioned officers, with Union Jacks, to instruct the Americans.

RAF Hercules downed by missile in Iraq?

Well, well, well. I can't wait to see what Bruce has to say about this report:

A missile fired by insurgents from the ground probably destroyed an RAF Hercules C-130 cargo plane in Iraq with the loss of 10 British special operations servicemen, an interim report by Ministry of Defence accident investigators has revealed.

The findings, outlined to MPs by Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, raised fears within the MoD that the insurgents could possess a new missile capable of hitting aircraft flying above 15,000 feet.

The board of inquiry ruled out the possibility that the Hercules, which was supplying a special-operations base north of Baghdad, was blown up by an on-board bomb or an explosion caused by an accident with bombs or ammunition on board.

The inquiry team will now have to determine whether the plane was brought down by a heat-seeking missile designed to reach aircraft at high altitude or was a lucky strike by insurgents using a Sam (surface-to-air) missile which normally has a range of less than 10,000 feet.

It's a mystery!

UPDATE: Bruce comments on the Independent article.

Read his whole post, but here's the essential line: "The Janes expert quoted beats me to the obvious conclusion... that the plane was flying at low altitude for some reason."

CONFIRMED: Jeff Gannon was an adult porn webmaster

Crossposted from this diary at Daily Kos.

While Jeff Gannon's colleagues at the "conservative" news website GOPUSA.com were writing about pornography in this manner -

April Shenandoah...We are allowing the devil to vomit all over our children, and we elect political officials who gladly swim in the same puke. We should be doing everything humanly and spiritually possible to drown pornography in its own vomit... link

Jeff "Bulldog" Gannon not only was posting pornographic  pictures of himself to sell gay porn on the internet, he was operating as a porn webmaster himself.

Thanks to  the excellent investigative work of blogslut, here , we now have definite confirmation that James Dale Guckert aka "Jeff Gannon" was an adult porn webmaster.  Read her entire post for the background, but here is the official statement of MALECORPS, one of the sites to which James Guckert signed up as an affiliate:

A few years ago, www.MaleCorps.com provided individuals and affiliates with the option to have their own home page on the site for marketing purposes. Potential members would see each individual/affiliate's personal page and subscribe to see their photos. The revenue would then be shared between the affiliate and www.MaleCorps.com. This is the full extent of the relationship between www.MaleCorps.com and Jeff Gannon. All his photos were removed from the site about two years ago.

For the past few years, many steps were taken to avoid such occurrences, including the removal of all personal web pages, classifieds and listings from www.MaleCorps.com, as well as the cancellation of the affiliate program in order to keep a better control over the Male Corps trademarks and copyrighted information. As it stands, the site solely provides erotic photos and videos of models on their own, not involving any sexual activity, as well as links to third party providers. It is also noteworthy that the Male Corps web site has never been an escort service.

Because few of us are familiar with  how the adult webmaster business works, blogslut has graciously written a Porn Biz for Dummies explanation:

Adult Affiliate Links: How They Work

Adult webmasters sell porn any way they can. They build little pages. They submit galleries to TGPs (thumbnail gallery posts). They make mini-paysites via an AVS system. Some go bigtime and create a paysite but most adult webmasters make a living by selling other people's porn. It's called an affiliate program and this is how it works:

 
1. The webmaster finds an affiliate program either by clicking a WEBMASTERS link on a porn site, searching for a program via a search engine or by visiting an adult webmaster resource site.
 
2. The webmaster signs up for the affiliate program by submitting personal information. A webmaster living in the US is  required to provide  full name and mailing address as well as either a social security number or tax id number. The webmaster must agree to the terms of service of the affiliate sponsor. If the webmaster is approved by the sponsor, the webmaster will receive a confirmation, primarily by email.
 
3. Once approved, the sponsor will issue a UNIQUE REFERRER ID to the affiliate webmaster. This ID is the lifeblood for the affiliate webmaster. If a webmaster neglects to include this ID on any text links or graphic banners that lead to the sponsor, there is no way to track sales generated by the site. The affiliate webmaster creates an adult page and places text/graphic links for the sponsor on that page. Sponsor/Affiliate links look like this:

   http://mysponsor.com/referrerID=1234

   or this:

   http://mysponsor.com/ID=me

   or even this:

   http://malecorps.com/x/usmcpt

 

4. The affiliate webmaster creates a page and embeds the REFERRER ID into
   all the links that lead to the chosen sponsor. Then the affiliate
   webmaster promotes that page in the method preferred for the type of site.
   If all goes well, the affiliate gets a lot of traffic to their page and some
   of the visitors click the REFERRER ID links. For example, links from Gannon's USMCPT site  take the surfer to
   the sponsor's site, MALECORPS. From there, the surfer decides whether or not they want
   to buy what MALECORPS is selling. The sponsor's product could be
   membership to a paysite or adult ezine. The product could be membership to
   an online personals site. The product could be adult toys. Whatever the
   product, once the surfer buys, the affiliate webmaster gets a credit because
   the surfer used his UNIQUE REFERRER ID.  Jeff's unique referrer ID for his affiliate page to MALECORPS.com was http://malecorps.com/x/usmcpt. (NOT a work-safe link.)

Profile Pages vs. Affiliate Pages

Many of the Guckert links are online profiles. Some of these profiles might be from sites that offer a free listing to anyone who signs up. They are not necessarily affiliate/sponsor accounts. These profile sites are a lot like the phone book, everyone gets listed but the ones who pay have their entry highlighted so it stands out among the other listings. The profile sites make their money from their paying members and they use the images and profiles of those members to draw in more surfers, etc.

Guckert absolutely submitted his profile to these sites, but he may not have made any money from the effort. Keep in mind that the profile sites like StudFiles and MaleTreasures probably don't set appointments between escorts and clients. If they do, they're in big trouble. I imagine that their members sign up and then are able to exchange emails or chat with other members. If the members hook up, it's not the site's problem.

My guess is that Guckert used these profile accounts to troll for members. From all I can tell, Jim/Jeff never built an actual, working paysite of his own. He built free adult pages either through these profile sites or he built pages to market his affiliate sponsor. In my opinion, James was a crappy adult webmaster. He should have dumped the profile sites and just stuck with the affiliate sponsors. But, I digress.

Here's the easiest way to tell the difference between a profile page and an affiliate page:

Look for a button or text link or banner that reads: WEBMASTERS

If you see that, you know Jeff was using this page to make money from Internet porn.

That is the case with Jeff's MALECORPS profile.  Clicking the "WEBMASTER" link in that profile  sends you  to this page.  (Screen capture of MALECORPS affiliate sign-up page linked from Jeff's USMCPT profile from archive.org)

It is confirmed that Jeff was an adult webmaster with an affiliate page on MALECORPS.  There are many Gannon profile pages on the net and we're in the process of determining which of them are affiliate pages and which of them are Jeff's personal profile sites and the purpose of each site.  A sample of sites that are being checked out (NOT WORK SAFE LINKS!) HERE.
(ED:This is linked to separate page acct. offensive links.)

We almost hated for this part of the investigation to move forward now, because Jeff will of course whine that selling porn on the internet is a personal lifestyle choice and that we're picking on him for having gay porn affiliate pages all over the internet in addition to his apparent escort sites.  In his latest apologetic posted on his only journalistic outlet at the moment, Jeff says,"They dug deep for dirt, dredging up things long past and erecting a fantasy world worthy of a Vince Flynn novel.  What they found is domain names and sexy pictures..."  No, what we found was an adult webmaster who had affiliate pages for a gay pornography site  who used nude pictures of himself to sell gay porn and to sell himself.     As for "digging deep", it's all a mouse click away.  Dig here.  As for "long past", two years ago MALECORPS pulled Jeff's affiliate page for their own reasons and  not by Jeff's request when  he was already lined up for his  White House day pass as a "conservative correspondent" for GOPUSA.

In the first page on Jeff Gannon's old  website TheConservativeGuy.com, he writes, "But I'm not a bad person, and the values I have are the same as those of conservatives......But the truth is conservatives are Americans who share a basic set of core values."  Jeff put that statement online in June of 2002 at a time when Bulldog was actively flogging gay porn on the internet.

What values do the known self-proclaimed conservatives Jeff Gannon is most closely associated with -  at GOPUSA.com -  share?  Let's look at a couple of quotes dealing with Jeff's line of work, pornography, from his fellow GOPUSA writers:

Christopher G. Adamo......only a few feet away inside the library, pedophiles and pornography addicts are enabled to indulge in their cravings for indescribable perversity over the Internet...link

 

Jimmy Moore...The unashamed and in-your-face activists involved in the gay agenda, the millions of people, including children as young as 12, having sex outside the sanctity of marriage, multitudes of married men and women who are actively engaged in adultery, the spread of pornography, especially on the Internet and many other forms of sexual perversion have sent our country on a one-way ticket to destruction....link

Jeff himself wrote, in an article about "rape rooms" in Iraq, "An adjacent room is where the rapist will prepare himself by viewing pornography...." (ed.... Maybe he looked at Bulldog pictures on the internet!)

    The issue for those of us investigating Gannon is not that he is a  pornographer, but the hypocritical spectacle of a person who claims to represent the anti-pornography, anti-gay  Moral Values "conservatives" being a webmaster who trades in gay pornography. 

This investigation is, as they say, developing.....

How to know you're on the RIGHT/MSM side on the Lebanon question

Justin Raimondo's column today inspired me to do this illustration of one of his points:

The pictorial representations of the "Cedar Revolution" that have so far appeared in the Western media have mostly been close-up shots of the comelier females waving flags and smiling coquettishly for the cameras, although this one shot of "pro-democracy" demonstrators dancing 'round a bonfire of what the caption describes as "pro-Syrian newspapers" has certain unfortunate historical connotations. We will doubtless see the Hezbollah/pro-Syria demonstrators depicted in an entirely different manner: no comely lasses and fearless lads here.

Oh, that liberal Western MSM Justin describes is so out of step:

Good thing we have the warbloggers to show us what the media won't. Notice the date that Instamonger began pointing out that Lebanese pro-democracy demonstrators are all cute little hotties and pro-Syrian demonstrators are all thuggy guys. And the beat goes on! Check out Sunday's installment.

About the Sgrena shooting - where are the photos?

Must read post on the Sgrena shooting:

More Anti-Military Slurs from the MSM

And, a question about the US account of the shooting. From a US military statement, quoted in Jeanne D'Arc's post on the shooting:

About 9:00 pm, a patrol in western Baghdad observed the vehicle speeding towards their checkpoint and attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car. When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others."

Sgrena describes this as a "hail of bullets."

However, Signora Sgrena, who was hit in the left shoulder, said that “300 to 400” bullets had been fired “without any justification” by a US patrol as the unmarked car approached Baghdad airport, where American and Italian intelligence officers were waiting for them.

Surely the US military took a picture of the car. Shouldn't they release the photos of the car?

"Hate Crime" riddle for bigots

Q: How is a Hate Crime by Muslims in New Jersey Like WMD in Iraq?

A: Neither of them exist, but right-wing nutbags believe every erroneous report that they do.

Mithras, via Atrios

Reading Mithras' post brought to mind this example from the now-infamous GOPUSA website, home of ex-White House Bureau Chief Jeff James Gannon Guckert, which also hosts a...well, writer, whose bio reads like a Who's Who of righty piety:

Barbara Stock is a working registered nurse with 24 years of experience.

She is the mother of two grown sons and two grandchildren.

Barbara will be contributing editorials and articles to her local Women's Republican Party for the upcoming election cycle.

Barbara is a regular contributor to AmericanDaily, ReNewAmerica, Bushcountry, RepublicanDailyNews, The Judson Cox Newsletter, and Prudent Politics. She has also been published on Intellectual Conservative, TownHall, New Republic, Israeli News, and even the Retired NYCFD website.

Barbara has her own webpage called Republican and Proud, thoughtfully linked by GOPUSA.com. Notice the lovely little graphic in the lower left that Barbara uses to decorate her website:

US shooting of Sregena "not justified" - Il Manifesto charges murder

Giuliana Srgena speaks:

Sgrena, the 56-year-old correspondent of the communist daily Il Manifesto, told Italian investigators the US troops' intense fire had been in no way justified by the speed of her car, ANSA news agency said.

"Our vehicle was running at normal speed which could not be misunderstood," she said, rejecting US fears of a possible suicide attack.

"It wasn't a checkpoint but a patrol which immediately opened fire after they trained their light on us," Sgrena said.

The US military said Friday Sgrena's convoy had ignored signals to stop, and that US soldiers had waved their hands and arms, flashed white lights and fired warning shots in a failed attempt to get the vehicle to stop.

But Sgrena told RaiNews24 television Saturday that a "hail of bullets" rained down on the car taking her to safety at Baghdad airport, along with three Italian intelligence officers, killing one of them.

"I was speaking to (officer) Nicola Calipari (...) when he leant on me, probably to protect me, and then collapsed and I realized he was dead," said Sgrena, who was being questioned on Saturday by two Italian magistrates.

"They continued shooting and the driver couldn't even explain that we were Italians. It was really horrible," she added.

Il Manifesto chief editor Gabriele Polo branded the intelligence officer's death a "murder".
[...]
"The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Pier Scolari said on leaving Celio hospital.

"They were 700 meters (yards) from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."

Friday's shooting was heard by Berlusconi's aides who were on the phone with one of the intelligence officers, said Scolari. "Then the US military silenced the cellphones," he charged.

"Giuliana had information, and the US military did not want her to survive," he added.

Freed Italian hostage shot by US liberators in Iraq

Oops! The US military almost killed the freed hostage:

An Italian journalist was injured when a U.S. armoured vehicle mistakenly fired on her car after her release from captivity in Iraq, news reports said Friday. One Italian secret service agent was killed in the shooting, and another was injured, the reports said.

The Apcom and ANSA news agencies said that Giuliana Sgrena, a reporter for the communist daily Il Manifesto, was in a hospital in Iraq with a shoulder injury. The shooting occurred Friday at a roadblock while the car was heading to the airport, the reports said.

The editor of Il Manifesto, Gabriele Polo, said the secret service agent was killed when he threw himself over the freed hostage to protect her from U.S. fire, according to Apcom. He also said Sgrena was in the hospital but was not seriously injured.

The U.S. military press desk in Baghdad had no immediate comment on reports of the shooting and said it was looking into the matter.

You gotta watch out for those liberators in Iraq.

Vermonters want their troops back

From Democracy Now:

The resolutions, every single one, and it got up to 56, more than 52, every single resolution begins with a plea to support and respect the troops. We need these people here. They're first responders, they're family, they're friends, they're workers down the street. They make up the fabric of society in Vermont. They're an important part of that fabric. So, we began with that, and Amy, it wasn't just lip service, as some have suggested. The rest of the resolution also supports members of the Guard. Let me just give you the high points of what we asked for. We asked for our legislature to assess the impact of the deployment, not just on readiness, but on our communities, on our families. We're asking the delegation, Senator Leahy, Senator Jeffords, Congressman Sanders, to help restore a reasonable balance between states and the federal government, not in the case of every war, only in what we call “wars of choice.” We know that if this country is attacked, if there's an emergency, if there’s an insurrection under the Constitution, there is no question that Guard members have signed up to serve, and that they would serve, and they would serve with enthusiasm and a sense of duty. Wars of choice are a whole different phenomenon. They're relatively new. We have no national policy governing the use of these wars. It's a big omission.

Vermont has lost more soldiers per capita than any state, and has the second highest mobilization rate for its National Guard and reservists.