After a year's training he was assigned to the USS Gridley, deployed to the Pacific, probably carrying nuclear missiles. Beset by boredom, Kerry received the news that once of his best friends, Dickie Pershing, grandson of "Black Jack" Pershing had been killed in Vietnam. Kerry seethed with rage and yearned, as he put it years later to his biographer Douglas Brinkley, for vengeance.
Kerry engineered reassignment to the Swift boat patrol.
The basic plan, explicitly acknowledged by many Swift boat veterans, was to terrorize the peasants into turning against the National Liberation Front, aka Viet Cong. The entire area, except for certain designated "friendly villages", was a free fire zone, meaning the Americans could shoot at will and count anyone they killed as VC.
On December 2, Kerry went on his first patrol up one of the canals. It was near midnight when the crew caught sight of a sampan. Rules of engagement required no challenge, no effort to see who was on board the sampan. Kerry sent up a flare, signal for his crew to start blazing away with the boat's two machineguns and M16 rifles. Kerry described the fishermen "running away like gazelles".
On daylight missions the Swift boats were accompanied by Cobra Attack helicopters that would strafe the river banks and the skeletal forest ravaged by napalm and Agent Orange. "Helos upset the VC [sic, meaning anyone on the ground] more than anything else that we had to offer", Kerry tells Brinkley, "and any chance we had to have them with us was more than welcome."
An example of these Cobras in action. It's daylight, so the population is not under curfew. Kerry's boat is working its way up a canal, with a Cobra above it. They encounter a sampan with several people in it. The helicopter hovers right above the sampan, then empties its machineguns into it, killing everyone and sinking the sampan. Kerry, in his war diary, doesn't lament the deaths but does deplore the senselessness of the Cobra's crew in using all of its ammunition, since the chopper pilot "requested permission to leave in order to rearm, an operation that left us uncovered for more than 45 minutes in an area where cover was essential".
The Pakistan connectionTONIGHT, THE ABC7 I-TEAM INVESTIGATES WHAT HAPPENED BEHIND THE SCENES WHEN THE STATUE OF SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS TOPPLED IN BAGHDAD.
WAS IT REALLY THE SPONTANEOUS ACT OF SOME AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND A JUBILANT IRAQI CROWD?
I-TEAM REPORTER ANDREA MCCARREN UNCOVERED SOME FASCINATING DETAILS. ANDREA?
Andrea on set:
THE I-TEAM OBTAINED AN INTERNAL ARMY REVIEW WHICH DETAILS THE TOPPLING OF THE STATUE.
IT REVEALS THAT A PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS UNIT ON THE SCENE PLAYED A KEY ROLE.
Story:
A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN THE WAR WITH IRAQ - THE STATUE OF SADDAM BROUGHT TO THE GROUND IN BAGHDAD'S AL-FIRDOS SQUARE. THOUSANDS OF IRAQI CITIZENS REJOICING IN A SPONTANEOUS CELEBRATION. OR WAS IT SOMETHING ELSE?
Professor Christopher Simpson, American University: "This particular event was more of what you might call a propaganda event. It was a publicity, a photo-op if you will."
IN FACT, THE REPORT OBTAINED BY THE I-TEAM INDICATES THAT AN ARMY PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS TEAM ORCHESTRATED MUCH OF WHAT TRANSPIRED.
Tim Brown, Globalsecurity.org: "It wasn't completely stage-managed from Washington, DC but it wasn't exactly a spontaneous Iraqi operation." SYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS, OR PSYOP, PLAYS A CRITICAL ROLE IN THE MILITARY'S PUBLIC RELATIONS. THE JOB: PORTRAYING THE US GOVERNMENT AND ITS FOREIGN POLICY IN A POSITIVE WAY. IN IRAQ, IT'S THE GROUP CHARGED WITH WINNING THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE PEOPLE.
Simmons: "Their thinking at the time was clearly to influence Iraqi audiences, but as a practical matter, most of the influence took place back home."
THE REPORT REVEALS THAT A MARINE CORPS COLONEL ON THE SCENE SAW THE SADDAM STATUE AS A "TARGET OF OPPORTUNITY THAT MUST COME DOWN."
A TACTICAL PSYOP TEAM MOVED IN QUICKLY, USING A LOUDSPEAKER AND AN INTERPRETER TO INSTRUCT THE IRAQIS ON WHERE TO STAND.
THE REPORT DESCRIBES THE SCENE AS A MEDIA CIRCUS WITH ALMOST AS MANY REPORTERS AS IRAQIS.
AND CONTRARY TO THE DRAMATIC CROWD SCENES BROADCAST AROUND THE WORLD, THIS PHOTOGRAPH OBTAINED BY THE I-TEAM SHOWS A STARKLY DIFFERENT PORTRAIT. A TOWN SQUARE THAT IS VIRTUALLY EMPTY. THAT SCENE IS CONFIRMED IN THE ARMY'S REPORT.
Tim Brown: "What you saw on television looked like there was throngs of thousands and in reality, it was just a few dozen people."
AND REMEMBER THE AMERICAN FLAG DRAPED OVER THE FACE OF THE STATUE? THE REPORT DETAILS THE FRANTIC EFFORTS OF A MARINE TO REPLACE IT WITH AN IRAQI FLAG. ONE ARMY COLONEL SAID: "WE WERE THINKING FROM PSYOP SCHOOL THAT THIS WAS JUST BAD NEWS."
WHILE THE IMAGES BEAMED WORLDWIDE SYMBOLIZED AN IRAQ ON THE CUSP OF FREEDOM, THE REALITY DEPICTED IN THE REPORT, WAS THAT OTHER MARINES WERE ENGAGED IN A FIREFIGHT JUST A FEW BLOCKS AWAY.
Andrea on set:
THIS AFTERNOON, THE ARMY SAID IT STANDS BY ITS REPORT AND THAT NO ONE HAS QUESTIONED ITS VALIDITY.
IF YOU'D LIKE TO READ THE REPORT IN ITS ENTIRETY, CLICK HERE.
AND IF YOU HAVE A STORY YOU THINK WE SHOULD INVESTIGATE, PLEASE CALL OUR HOTLINE AT 703-236-9559.
REPORTING LIVE FOR THE I-TEAM, ANDREA MCCARREN, ABC7 NEWS.
There is evidence of foreign intelligence backing for the 9/11 hijackers. Why is the US government so keen to cover it up?
"I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job."
-- statement attributed to President Bush in the Lancaster (Pa.) New Era from a private meeting with Amish families on July 9. The White House said Bush said no such thing.
'Enemy Contact. Kill 'em, Kill 'em.'After 15 months of chaos, Iraqis are desperate for someone who will impose order. Allawi knows that, and plays on it. Only weeks after taking office, he is already flirting with dictatorship. That would be a terrible irony for the U.S. officials who chose him for his seven-month-long mandate.
[...]
This tough former Baathist has precious few democratic credentials. He was first groomed in exile by Britain's intelligence service, M.I.6, then by the CIA, to take power from Saddam Hussein, but repeated coup attempts failed.
[...]
He has flooded the streets with cops, many of them from the old regime. He's started a new General Security Directorate, otherwise known as the secret police. Every few days his troops attack neighborhoods where criminals have gathered, rounding up men by the hundreds, cracking heads and sometimes fighting running gun battles. Iraqi TV shows footage of exultant policemen firing their guns into the air as they leave the scene of a roundup. Magistrates have been put on 24-hour duty to handle the intake of prisoners--527 from one raid on July 12.
Regime change in Iran now in Bush's sights"I want to know if I killed that guy yesterday," Hall says. "I saw blood spurt from his leg, but I want to be sure I killed him."
[...]
"I'm confused about how I should feel about killing," says Dubois, who has a toddler back home. "The first time I shot someone, it was the most exhilarating thing I'd ever felt."
Dubois turns back to the road. "We talk about killing all the time," he says. "I never used to talk this way. I'm not proud of it, but it's like I can't stop. I'm worried what I will be like when I get home."
[...]
"Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill," Hall says. "It's like it pounds at my brain. I'll figure out how to deal with it when I get home."
[...]
Much of the military's research on killing and battle stress began after World War II, when studies revealed that only a small number of troops -- as few as 15% -- fired at their adversaries on the battlefield.
Military studies suggested that troops were unexpectedly reluctant to kill. Military training methods changed, Grossman and others say, to make killing a more automatic behavior.
Bull's-eye targets used in basic training were replaced with human-shaped objects. Battlefield conditions were reproduced more accurately, Burke says. The goal of these and other modifications was to help soldiers react more automatically.
The changes were effective. In the Vietnam War, 95% of combat troops shot at hostile fighters, according to military studies.
Veterans of the Vietnam War also suffered some of the highest levels of psychological damage -- possibly as many as 50% of combat forces suffered mental injury, says Rachel MacNair, an expert on veteran psychology. Most notable among the injuries was post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition contributing to violent outbursts years after soldiers leave battlefields.
[...]
"Our primary goal is to keep soldiers functional, so they can continue to fight," Cardona says. "Everything else, including feeling well, is second to that."
[...]
"I enjoy killing Iraqis," says Staff Sgt. William Deaton, 30, who killed a hostile fighter the night before. Deaton has lost a good friend in Iraq. "I just feel rage, hate when I'm out there. I feel like I carry it all the time. We talk about it. We all feel the same way."
"The other day an Iraqi guy was hit real bad, he was gonna die within an hour, but he was still alive and he started saying, 'Baby, baby,' telling me he has a kid," Rogers says. "I mentioned it to my guys after the mission. It doesn't bother me. It can't bother me. If it was the other way around, I'm sure it wouldn't bother him."
[...]
"These guys grew up with video games," says Maj. John Hamilton, 50, an Army chaplain stationed in southern Iraq, where he counsels troops. "They've seen thousands of people die on TV. They're already numb. It scares me that some take delight in combat.
"Others just become immediately scared, have nightmares. But that reaction is more frowned upon."
[...]
"Enemy contact," the radio broadcasts. "Kill 'em, kill 'em."
Ahead, a tank pushes a hole through the school's wall. Staff Sgt. Robert McBride, 35, enters a classroom and sees a group of six Iraqis with guns, he later recounts. He throws a grenade. The blast cuts one Iraqi in half, and the rest lie dying from abrasions and burns on their bodies. The soldiers collect dozens of mortar rounds and return to their vehicles. McBride looks at the hostile fighters once more.
"It did not bother me at all to see those bodies up close," McBride says later. "I'm a warrior. You're either born to this or you're not.
"My soldiers, they are all warriors. They have no problems. I don't let them have problems. There is no place in this Army for men who aren't warriors."
[...]
"I'm a Christian. I feel I'm saving my soldiers' lives by destroying as many enemy as I can. But at the end of each day, I pray to God. I worry about my soul," he says.
"Every time a door slams, I flinch. I'm hoping it will just go away when I get home."
Enron e-mail a window on political money U.S. Airstrike in Fallujah Kills 14PRESIDENT George Bush has promised that if re-elected in November he will make regime change in Iran his new target.
Bush named Iran as part of the Axis of Evil along with North Korea and Iraq almost three years ago. A US government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that military action would not be overt in changing Iran, but rather that the US would work to stir revolts in the country and hope to topple the current conservative religious leadership.
The official said: "If George Bush is re-elected there will be much more intervention in the internal affairs of Iran."
The International Court of Justice will rule on Friday that the separation fence contravenes international law, that it must be dismantled, and that compensation must be paid to the Palestinian owners of property confiscated for its construction, according to documents obtained by Haaretz.
Robert Fisk: No Mention of Power Cuts and Violence at Trial of the Century Pentagon Alerted to Trouble in Ranks Ken Fireman: Scandals Seen as Hallmark of White House Under Pressure Israel's High Court: Remove Portion of Barrier White House Pushed CIA to Alter Iraq Data Barbara Ehrenreich | Dude, Where's That Elite?Critics say they wonder whether an Iraqi judiciary, crippled from years of isolation and repression, is up to the task of carrying out such a complex war-crimes case. They also question the degree of American influence over the entire enterprise. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation, along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and agents from the Justice Department. The American military is guarding Mr. Hussein, even as he is transferred to the legal custody of the Iraqis. Washington is financing the court.
I've experienced it myself: speak up for the downtrodden, and someone is sure to accuse you of being a member of the class that's doing the trodding.
This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Last modified: Tue Jan 25 18:50:37 CST 2005