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Last US Base Handed to Iraq Ahead of Pullout

Salam Faraj
Agence France-Presse
Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse/Ali al-Saadi
All that remains of the US military in Iraq are around 4,000 soldiers down from a peak of nearly 170,000 troops
Iraq took control of the last American military base in the country on Friday, a day after US forces marked the end of their mission, bringing a divisive war to a low-key conclusion.

The transfer of the sprawling installation on the outskirts of the southern city of Nasiriyah is a final step ahead of a complete US withdrawal from Iraq in the coming days.

The Imam Ali Base, known to the US military as Camp Adder, housed 15,000 American troops at its peak and was officially signed over at a ceremony attended by US Colonel Richard Kaiser and Hussein al-Assadi, the Iraqi in charge of base transfers.

"We proudly announce to the Iraqi people today the handover of the last American military base," Assadi said after the signing. "Today we are turning the last page on the occupation."

The base, which will now be used by Iraq's fledgling air force, lies on the edge of the ancient city of Ur, the Biblical birthplace of Abraham.

"It's an honour to have been the commander of this base, and to be the one to sign over the last large base in Iraq," Kaiser told AFP.

"It's truly an honour... I feel very proud of all the work we've done together" with Iraq.
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War Whore

US Congress clears $662 billion defense bill

Donna Cassata
Associated Press
Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:24 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Depiction of an F-18 with Armaments.
Washington - The U.S. Congress has cleared a $662 billion defense bill and will send the measure to President Barack Obama for his signature.

The Senate voted 86-13 for the sweeping bill on Thursday. The bill would authorize money for military personnel, weapons systems, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and national security programs in the Energy Department. The House had voted 283-136 for the measure Wednesday night.

The legislation is $27 billion less than Obama wanted for the Pentagon and other accounts.

The White House initially threatened a veto but dropped that warning, saying last-minute congressional changes no longer challenge the president's ability to combat terrorism.

Comment: Pretty cool word, defense. Just to give you an estimate of how much money that is, it's over half a football field two pallets high of 100 dollar bills.
Image
© wtfnoway.com
1 trillion in U.S. 100 dollar bills.


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Handcuffs

US: Indefinite Military Detention Measure Passes On Bill Of Rights Day

Miichael McAuliff
Huffington Post
Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:32 UTC
detention center lg
© AFP/Getty Images
The Senate passed a defense bill Thursday that authorizes indefinite detentions of American terrorism suspects, coincidentally acting on the controversial measure on the 220th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights.

The bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, passed 86 to 13 and is expected to be signed quickly by President Obama, who withdrew a veto threat against the bill Wednesday. Six Democrats, six Republicans and one independent opposed the bill.

Though the legislation passed overwhelmingly, several senators argued that it was threatening fundamental provisions of the Bill of Rights, which is celebrated every Dec. 15.

"We as Americans have a right to a speedy trial, not indefinite detention," said Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.). "We as Americans have a right to a jury of our peers, which I would argue is ... not enlisted or military personnel sitting in a jury. You cannot search our businesses or place of business or our homes without probable cause under the Bill of Rights."
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Dollar

US: Six Waltons (Wal-Mart) Have More Wealth Than the Bottom 30% of Americans

Tim Worstall
Forbes.com
Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:33 UTC
Image
© Unknown

Different people will take this different ways, but Jeffrey Goldberg tells us that six members of the Walton family (the original owners of WalMart) have more wealth than the bottom 30 % of Americans. Here's where he says it:
In 2007, according to the labor economist Sylvia Allegretto, the six Walton family members on the Forbes 400 had a net worth equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans.
And given that he quotes us here at Forbes on the point, he's almost certainly right.

The question is, what are we to make of this point? I think we all know what Mr. Goldberg wants us to make of it, it's a telling indictment of American wealth inequality, the world's going to the dogs and something must be done about rising inequality.
The Waltons are now collectively worth about $93 billion, according to Forbes.
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Sheriff

US: Finding Comfort in Authoritarianism

J.G. Vibes
Activist Post
Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:45 UTC
tyrant boot graphic
© obeygiant.com
Between recent legislation like the deceptively named "defense authorization act" and the daily police brutality that is occurring all across the country, things are looking pretty bleak for America and the values that it was apparently founded on.

Anyone who has studied history can see the writing on the wall, and can tell that these developments are eerily similar to actions that were taken by the some of the worst dictators that this world has ever known.

Regimes like Stalinist Russia, Maoist China or Hitler's Germany are among the worst offenders in recent memory, but if you look at their actual policies they aren't very far off from what we're seeing in the West today.

It is very common to offend people when you start comparing our current police state with governments that have been painted in a negative light by mainstream history. I would agree that all of the aforementioned regimes were absolutely horrible, but their transgressions were on par with the native American holocaust and the medieval torture that takes place at Guantanamo bay and many other covert military bases across the planet. This may be a controversial way of looking at things, but if we don't take a comparative look at history then we are inevitably doomed to repeat it.
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Stormtrooper

US Military given go-ahead to detain US terrorist suspects without trial

Chris McGreal
TheGuardian.co.uk
Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:48 UTC
Image
© John Moore / Getty
Americans can be arrested on home soil and taken to Guantánamo Bay under a provision inserted into the bill that funds the US military.
Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay.

Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic policing. The legislation has also been strongly criticised by libertarians on the right angered at the stripping of individual rights for the duration of "a war that appears to have no end".

The law, contained in the defence authorisation bill that funds the US military, effectively extends the battlefield in the "war on terror" to the US and applies the established principle that combatants in any war are subject to military detention.

The legislation's supporters in Congress say it simply codifies existing practice, such as the indefinite detention of alleged terrorists at Guantánamo Bay. But the law's critics describe it as a draconian piece of legislation that extends the reach of detention without trial to include US citizens arrested in their own country.
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Bad Guys

When Gingrich met Yasser Arafat

Laura Rozen
The Envoy
Thu, 15 Dec 2011 08:08 UTC
GOP presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich stirred up plenty of controversy last week when he called Palestinians an "invented people" in an interview from the campaign trail.

Image
© Huffington Post
Then House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich embraces PLO leader Yasser Arafat in 1993. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) is behind them.
"I think we have an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and historically part of the Arab community and they had the chance to go many places,' Gingrich told the Jewish Channel last week.

All of which makes the above 1993 photo of Gingrich, then House Minority Whip, embracing the late Palestinian Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat, published by the Huffington Post's Sam Stein, perhaps noteworthy. Stein, who received the photo from a longtime political operative involved in Middle East issues, writes:
On Monday, a political operative who has been working on Palestine-Israel policy for the past 20 years sent The Huffington Post a picture of Gingrich, then the House minority whip, grasping the hand of longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat immediately following the September 1993 Oslo peace accords.

The embrace, the source said, came after Arafat met with 20 to 25 House leaders over coffee. Jotting notes down in a yellow pad, Gingrich used the meeting to pitch Arafat on how best to actually construct a Palestinian state. "He said, 'Look, here is what I think you need -- an economic plan - and here is how it will work,' " the operative recalled. "It was a very positive contribution at the time and as they stood up, there were pictures." ....
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Eagle

US Slips Out of Iraq; No Victory Declared


Press TV
Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:37 UTC
Obama
© unknown
US President Barack Obama delivers remarks to troops and military families at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, December 14, 2011.
US President Barack Obama has marked the end of the nearly nine-year Iraq war that strained America's armed forces and damaged to its status worldwide.

"It is harder to end a war than to begin one," Obama said in his speech to about 3,000 soldiers gathered at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Obama also said that the final work for United States military to leave Iraq has been done, and the last troops will leave the country in the next few days.

"Of course, Iraq is not a perfect place. But we are leaving behind a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people," he added.

Obama did not declare victory in Iraq but called the winding down of the conflict "an extraordinary achievement."
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USA

US: Judge Tosses Suit Against Rumsfeld, Gates; Veterans Claimed Rapes, Sex Assaults Were Ignored


The Washington Post
Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:01 UTC
Image
© J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press/Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Former defense secretaries Donald Rumsfeld, left, and Robert Gates.
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against former defense secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates by 28 military members and veterans who said they were victims of sexual assault.

The suit, filed earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, alleged Rumsfeld and Gates fostered a culture that allowed rapists to thrive and punished assault victims for filing complaints against their attackers.

But in a ruling issued Friday, Judge Liam O'Grady said the judiciary should not intervene in matters involving military discipline and dismissed the case, even though he called the victims' allegations troubling.

The plaintiffs' attorney, Susan Burke, said she plans an appeal.

"We are surprised, but nonetheless disappointed" by the ruling, she said in an email.

In one example, an Army Reservist said two male colleagues raped her in Iraq and videotaped the attack. She complained to authorities but says charges weren't filed because the commander did not think she acted like a rape victim.
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Vader

US: Obama will not veto National Defense Authorization Act

Eric W. Dolan
The Raw Story
Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:02 UTC
president barak obama
© AFP

The White House on Wednesday said it would not veto the controversial National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

President Barack Obama's spokesman Jay Carney said lawmakers who crafted a compromise version from rival Senate and House versions of the legislation had addressed his worries about proposed tough rules on detainees.

The legislation has been the subject of considerable criticism.

At one point the bill contained a provision that would have authorized the U.S. to use military force anywhere there were terrorism suspects, including within the U.S. itself. The American Civil Liberties Union described it as authorizing a "worldwide war without end."
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