STUPID AMERICAN TOURISTS AND FILTHY PASDARS

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
~ Albert Einstein.

One of the crazy Americans who went hiking without a guide last July in South Kurdistan has been released by the Teheran regime:

A jubilant American Sarah Shourd reunited with her mother in Muscat, Oman, on Tuesday after Iranian authorities released her from a Tehran prison where she had been held for 14 months.

[ . . . ]

Shourd thanked Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, Iran's supreme leader, and "everyone who has been a part of making this moment happen for me and for my family."

Shourd, 32, left behind fellow Americans Shane Bauer, 28, who is her fiance, and their friend, Josh Fattal, 28.

The three Americans were detained after they allegedly strayed across an unmarked border into Iran while hiking in Iraq's Kurdistan region. Iran accused the three of spying, a charge the United States and the hikers have denied.

Apparently, the three--who were supposedly journalists--were seized by pasdars as they were hiking in the Khormal region of South Kurdistan near the village of Zalem, according to an article in The Nation dated July of this year.

Aside from the fact that the filthy pasdars, like the filthy TSK, do not respect borders, why were these three hiking around without a guide of some sort? Their behavior was incredibly stupid. Filthy pasdars aside, the region is peppered with numerous land mines. See a map, here.

Really, incredibly stupid.

But we haven't heard too much complaining about how filthy pasdars routinely cross the border to commit all kinds of crimes (see The Nation article), have we? That's fine with me. Since I don't hear anyone bitch when filthy pasdars cross the border to murder, rape, kidnap and bomb Kurds, then I don't want to hear bitching about them kidnapping three Americans.

ALI HASAN AL-MAJID FINALLY PAYS FOR THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE

"I will kill them all with chemical weapons! Who is going to say anything? The international community? Fuck them! The international community and those who listen to them."
~ Ali Hasan Al-Majid.

Well, well, well . . . they finally executed that son-of-a-bitch Ali Hasan Al-Majid. I would have preferred that Chemical Ali had been handed over to the women survivors of the Anfal so that they could cut him to pieces rather than allow him the comfort of a hangman's noose but, unfortunately, proper Kurdish justice was once again thwarted.

Here's a little something on the dead bastard:

Chemical Ali is responsible for a lot more suffering than what happened in 1988. Here are some videos about Helebce which show some of the long-term effects of chemical weapons on the civilian population. I believe these videos are from 1998 because they feature Dr. Christine Gosden of the UK, who went to Helebce in 1998 to evaluate the long-term effects of weapons of mass destruction:

Remember that it wasn't only in Helebce that chemical weapons were used. It was the policy of the Saddam regime to use these kinds of weapons against the Kurdish people.

For more on Dr. Gosden's evaluations, see this article of hers from the Washington Post. Check also her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Technology, Terrorism and Government and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

I have posted the following videos before but, now that Al-Majid is dead, it's time to revisit them so that we should never forget. Besides, these videos were a documentary that was never aired in the US. I wonder why?

Now it's time to deliver those non-Iraqis who are responsible for the Anfal to the Kurdish women survivors . . . and let them all be cut to pieces.

FROM SEATTLE TO KURDISTAN

"I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."
~ Stephen Jay Gould.

Most Rastî readers are familiar with Gordon Taylor, who writes the blog The Pasha and the Gypsy.

Now Gordon has been featured in The Seattle Times:

Back when I rode the bus to work every day, what got to me — what began to drive me a little crazy — was the repetition.

I knew every stop. Every light. All the rhythms of the traffic and the passengers, which seemed to bog us in delays at the same junctions every day.

I would wonder: How does the driver stand it?

I never asked. I should have, because now I know the driver might have said something like: "You think about something else. Like Kurdistan."

Gordon Taylor, 66, has been driving a Metro bus for 29 years.

[ . . . ]

Not many of his riders know it, but Taylor often wanders off to Kurdistan, a remote region in northern Iraq and southern Turkey, even as he is merging his 60-footer articulated bus onto the freeway.

He's not a professional historian. But from the seat of that bus he just published an article about mid-1800s missionaries in the twice-yearly Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies.

"I'm the only one in there who isn't a Ph.D.," he laughs.

He also wrote a 354-page historical biography, called "Fever & Thirst: An American Doctor Among the Tribes of Kurdistan, 1835-1844."

Now out in paperback, it turns out the book — which "nobody bought," Taylor sighs — attracted the attention of one of the senior advisers to the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. transitional government after the invasion of Iraq.

For more on "The First American to Fail in Iraq", check Gordon's piece over at the History News Network.

Now, what I like best about The Seattle Times piece on Gordon Taylor is that it proves you don't have to be a professorial wind-bag to write good history. And you probably don't have to be a professorial wind-bag to write well on other subjects, either.

Go, Gordon; you go, boyfriend!

ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY NOT THE WAY TO SOLVE THE KURDISH QUESTION

"Someone had convinced AKP that with such hawkish strategies it could finish DTP and weaken PKK. AKP thinks that the more it becomes hawkish, the more powerful it would become in the Southeast."
~ Mithat Sancar, Ankara University.

Henri Barkey, American professor of international relations and long-time defender of the status quo, thinks that the US should mediate a peaceful solution to the Kurdish situation in Turkey between the Ankara regime and the PKK. From the WSJ:

Turkish Kurds and the PKK too are signaling that they are ready for a compromise. The current PKK leader, for instance, in a long set of interviews with a renowned Turkish journalist said that the PKK was ready to abandon the armed struggle in exchange for a process that begins with a cessation of hostilities and discussions between Ankara and Turkish Kurdish political representatives. However, the situation is so complex that Turks and Kurds will need outside help to complete a deal. There are too many extremists on both sides who would love to scuttle this new opening. A U.S. role could be decisive.

In this paragraph, Barkey refers to the series by Milliyet's Hasan Cemal, links to which can be found in this post. The problem is that the situation is not "so complex", as Barkey characterizes it; it is really very simple and, since 2006, Murat Karayılan and the Executive Council of the KCK have clearly outlined what steps should be taken in order to begin a political settlement.

Not that I would expect a privileged member of the "civilized" world to think that Kurds and Turks could solve their own problems without the help of the same kind of privileged members of the "civilized" world. As Murat Karayılan stated in his interview with Hasan Cemal, in order to silence weapons, will is needed. We all know who is lacking will and it's not the Kurdish side.

Barkey continues:

Washington is in a strong position to help because of its positive relationships with both Turkey and the Kurds. The U.S. has demonstrated its bona fides with Ankara by extending much-needed logistical support to Turkish counterinsurgency operations, and consistently backing Turkey in international forums on the PKK issue. At the same time, the U.S. is held in high regard by Kurds everywhere for its role in their liberation from Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq.

Washington does not have a "positive relationship" with the Kurds of Turkey therefore the US is not "held in high regard by Kurds everywhere".

It's very difficult to have a positive relationship with a people that you have helped to genocide at least since 1980. It's impossible to have a positive relationship with a people when you've sided with their genociders and have sold billions of dollars worth of the very weapons that the genociders have used to murder the same people and destroy their villages and livelihoods. It's impossible to have a positive relationship when you have characterized the defenders of the Kurdish people as "terrorists" so that you can continue to benefit from your very own bullshit Global War on Terror, Inc.

The US may be held in high regard by the Kurds of Iraq for reasons that serve their interests, but it is not held in high regard by the Kurds of Turkey.

Barkey continues:

Thus, the U.S. can help demobilize the PKK by acting as a trusted go-between. The PKK is unlikely to give up its arms to the Turkish military, but it might to American forces which, in turn, could offer iron-clad verification that both the Turkish government and public would trust. U.S. diplomats can ensure that a few PKK leaders find refuge far from the region, and reassure Ankara that the pro-American KRG will prevent anti-Turkish insurgents who stay in Iraq from engaging in any future mischief. This way many PKK insurgents can also return home to their families and Turks can begin to discuss domestic political reforms to expand the Kurds' cultural rights without the specter of violence hanging over. Finally, the U.S. can propose the establishment of a Qualified Industrial Zone (like that of Israel and its neighbors) that would include Kurdish-inhabited southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq, to promote economic activity and strengthen the ties between Turkey and the KRG. Landlocked KRG relies on Turkey for its economic linkages with the rest of the world and oil from Kurdish-controlled fields has recently begun flowing into Turkey.

It's impossible for the US to act as a "trusted go-between" for the reasons outlined above. Let me add that it is impossible to consider the US a "trusted go-between" because, in the aftermath of DTP's success in the 29 March local elections, the US did not condemn Turkey for its violence against the DTP. Obama made his first visit to Turkey immediately after the elections, and he mentioned nothing about the corrupt election practices that the AKP used against DTP, particularly in Ağrı. Nor was there any US protest against the violence the AKP unleashed against the Kurdish people after Obama left Turkey. There was no outrage by the US when the AKP launched a terror operation against the pro-Kurdish DTP, arresting hundreds of its politicians and political workers.

But, Turkey isn't Iran, is it?

Barkey assumes that HPG is going to lay down its weapons and disarm itself. This has never been discussed by either KCK or DTP and is not in the works to be discussed. If Barkey actually read Hasan Cemal's series, he would know this and perhaps not be so misleading in his WSJ piece.

Barkey assumes that the KCK leadership wants "refuge far from the region". This idea has never crossed the lips of any leader of the KCK. It's never crossed the lips of any leader of HPG, ever.

Barkey assumes that the economic situation is the only situation that is problematic for Kurds in Turkey. If he had followed the campaign leading up to the 29 March elections, he would have known that the AKP's attempts to bribe the Kurdish people with material goods did not yield the results AKP was hoping for; the problem in The Southeast is not essentially an economic one.

As for Ankara's relationship with the KRG, this is an American problem and not one for Kurds of Turkey, especially as the relationship from an American perspective appears to be concerned with the flow of oil out of Iraq, as noted in the piece. It's also been an American obsession that the Ankara regime and the KRG get along when the fact is that both have been getting along quite well together as they have since the 1990s when they fought together against the Kurds of Turkey.

The US as mediator in solving the Kurdish situation in Turkey is absolutely, positively unacceptable. The US has no credibility whatsoever and that lack of credibility is amplified exponentially when it comes to the Kurdish situation.

After all, it was only three years ago that we had a small taste of what US mediation would be like when Joseph Ralston was appointed as "special envoy" to "coordinate the PKK for Turkey". We know very well that the US is only interested in mediating as far as its own interests go and not a step further. The US would, in fact, be a deceptive, untrustworthy mediator.

It's difficult to imagine that there is any country on earth that would be sufficient to negotiate between the Ankara regime and the PKK because, as we have seen with recent threats against former Danish PM Rasmussen's appointment to head NATO. Although Denmark has stood firm for the right of Kurdish freedom of speech in that case of Roj TV and thus far, it is the exception rather than the rule. There is no country that would stand firm against all of Turkey's threats or bribes and corruption so that it could be trusted to broker an honest deal between the Ankara regime and the PKK.

Murat Karayılan must think so, too, and that's why he's repreatedly expressed a desire for a group of "intellectuals" to act as mediators with the Ankara regime. It would only be just that most of the "intellectuals" involved in such a plan should be drawn from among those who will have to live with the results of their efforts. In other words, most of them will have to come from Turkey itself.

Of course, that would remove Henri Barkey from any possibility of participating in the effort since the last person needed to help solve the Kurdish situation in Turkey is an "intellectual" who penned a book about the Kurds of Turkey with the CIA's Graham Fuller.

Oh, coincidentally, Graham Fuller not only supported Fethullah Gülen in his petition for a green card, but he also made the list of Sibel Edmonds' State Secrets Privilege Gallery.

HERD INSTINCT AND RACISM IN THE US MILITARY

"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd."
~ Bertrand Russell.

More good news from the US military. Along with Christian jihadis taking over the officer corps, the neo-Nazis seem to be growing in numbers in the US military, too. From Salon:

Today a complete ban on membership in racist organizations appears to have been lifted — though the proliferation of white supremacists in the military is difficult to gauge. The military does not track them as a discrete category, coupling them with gang members. But one indication of the scope comes from the FBI.

Following an investigation of white supremacist groups, a 2008 FBI report declared: "Military experience — ranging from failure at basic training to success in special operations forces — is found throughout the white supremacist extremist movement." In white supremacist incidents from 2001 to 2008, the FBI identified 203 veterans. Most of them were associated with the National Alliance and the National Socialist Movement, which promote anti-Semitism and the overthrow of the U.S. government, and assorted skinhead groups.

Because the FBI focused only on reported cases, its numbers don't include the many extremist soldiers who have managed to stay off the radar. But its report does pinpoint why the white supremacist movements seek to recruit veterans — they "may exploit their accesses to restricted areas and intelligence or apply specialized training in weapons, tactics, and organizational skills to benefit the extremist movement."

In fact, since the movement's inception, its leaders have encouraged members to enlist in the U.S. military as a way to receive state-of-the-art combat training, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer, in preparation for a domestic race war. The concept of a race war is central to extremist groups, whose adherents imagine an eruption of violence that pits races against each other and the government.

And it goes all the way up the chain of command:

"Racism was rampant," recalls vet Michael Prysner, who served in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 as part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. "All of command, everywhere, it was completely ingrained in the consciousness of every soldier. I've heard top generals refer to the Iraq people as 'hajjis.' The anti-Arab racism came from the brass. It came from the top. And everything was justified because they weren't considered people."

[ . . . ]

Geoffrey Millard, an organizer for Iraq Veterans Against the War, served in Iraq for 13 months, beginning in 2004, as part of the 42nd Infantry Division. He recalls Gen. George Casey, who served as the commander in Iraq from 2004 to 2007, addressing a briefing he attended in the summer of 2005 at Forward Operating Base, outside Tikrit. "As he walked past, he was talking about some incident that had just happened, and he was talking about how 'these stupid fucking hajjis couldn't figure shit out.' And I'm just like, Are you kidding me? This is Gen. Casey, the highest-ranking guy in Iraq, referring to the Iraqi people as 'fucking hajjis.'" (A spokesperson for Casey, now the Army Chief of Staff, said the general "did not make this statement.")

"The military is attractive to white supremacists," Millard says, "because the war itself is racist."

Surprise, surprise, surprise! Congress is going to sweep it all under the rug:

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Armed Forces has long been considered one of Congress' most powerful groups. It governs legislation affecting the Pentagon, defense budget, military strategies and operations. Today it is led by the influential Sens. Carl Levin and John McCain. An investigation by the committee into how white supremacists permeate the military in plain violation of U.S. law could result in substantive changes. I contacted the committee but staffers would not agree to be interviewed. Instead, a spokesperson responded that white supremacy in the military has never arisen as a concern. In an e-mail, the spokesperson said, "The Committee doesn't have any information that would indicate this is a particular problem."

Now you know why the Pentagon is so anxious to repress the publication of torture photos and it should be nothing to wonder about that the Pentagon is now thinking about backtracking on its promise to release a report on an air attack in Afghanistan that killed 140 civilians.

MILK BROTHERS

"Milk brothers or sisters are children breastfed by a woman other than their biological mother, a practice known as wetnursing and once widespread in the developed world, as it still is in parts of the developing world."
~ Siblings, Wikipedia.

Süt Kardeşler.

Süt Kardeşler.

MIDWEEK NEWS

"A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to."
~ Granville Hicks

The other day I posted the complete text of Adem Uzun's speech which he gave at the 5th EUTCC Conference on the EU, Turkey, and the Kurds. The speech was originally posted on KurdishInfo and I have since confirmed that it is the complete speech.

However, a truncated version has apparently been making the rounds through MESOP's (Mesopotamische Gesellschaft--Mesopotamian Development Society) email newsletter. About the last half of Heval Adem's speech was missing from the newsletter version. That's particularly interesting given that the editor of MESOP was present during Heval Adem's presentation.

The cut version of the speech was picked up by KurdishMedia, and that version ended with these words:

There is a strong possibility for its mask to fall especially regarding its approach to the Kurdish Question. It cannot possibly fight for long by hitting beneath the belt. Consequently, the AKP has no peaceful project regarding the policy on the Kurds. Although enthusiastic about harmonising with the West, it is not strong enough to determine a policy, let alone exercising it. Its entire hope depends on external forces having their turns to attack the PKK. Progressively it is becoming obvious that they wish to achieve certain goals by being semi-covert and not showing their true colours.

I wonder why MESOP did not carry all of Heval Adem's words? Why was the speech cut off at that point?

There's an interesting article on Istanbul's Tarlabaşı coming out of an Indian community:

Strolling through the beautiful streets of Istanbul's Beyoglu quarter on the European side of the ancient city, few would know that just a few hundred metres away lies a district where prostitution and the drug trade flower.

Somewhat conveniently separated by the multi-laned Tarlabasi Boulevard is the Beyoglu that foreign tourists rarely see, a district where live many Kurdish people forced to flee there homes in south-east Turkey, either because of poverty or because they left their villages through direct force or out of fear for their lives.

Estimates vary, but around 4,000 villages in south-east Turkey were "emptied" in the 1980s and 1990s, with around one million people forced to leave their homes and farms during fighting between the Turkish armed forces and the separatist Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

If you decide to go to South Kurdistan and enter through Turkey, you better make sure you stay in South Kurdistan:

Foreigners who enter Iraq through the Kurdish north of the country without a visa issued by the authorities in Baghdad will face arrest and legal charges, the interior ministry warned on Monday.

The announcement came after an Italian national was detained in the former rebel stronghold of Fallujah, in western Iraq, after having been issued with a 10-day visa in the autonomous Kurdish north of the country.

"Any foreigner entering Iraq through the border posts of Kurdistan without a visa from the Baghdad government will be arrested," under a new directive issued by the interior ministry, spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf said.

It looks like the Zionists are a bit peeved with PJAK being put on The List. Now why is that?

CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH

"British and American aircraft "protecting" the Kurds did nothing to prevent the invasion; indeed, most patrols were suspended to allow the Turks to get on with the killing. Inside Turkey, the Ankara regime has destroyed 3,000 Kurdish villages, displaced more than three million people and killed tens of thousands."
~ John Pilger.

Does it look familiar?







It should, you've seen something similar before:







Don't forget this, either:

Evidence relating to Saddam Hussein's alleged use of poison gas against Kurdish civilians was given to his genocide trial in secret on Thursday, so as not to embarrass Turkey.

After seeing a string of memos issued by Saddam's chief of staff in 1988 ordering "special ammunition" attacks, the court cut off its microphones while studying documents relating to Iraq's northern neighbour.

"We will now cut the microphones because this concerns Iraqi-Turkish relations," said chief prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon, who then presented various documents while the sound in the reporters' box was cut off.

No details were given of the evidence presented in this part of the trial, nor was it explained how it touched on Turkey.

Saddam and six co-defendants are accused of killing 182 000 Kurds between 1987 and 1988, when government troops allegedly suppressed a Kurdish uprising by using artillery, air strikes, death camps and poison gas attacks.

Bottom line: Erdoğan and Saddam were cut from the same cloth.

THE FOOLISHNESS OF DISARMAMENT

"The CIA continued to submit intelligence from the Iranian group about alleged Iranian nuclear weapons-related work to the IAEA over the next five years, without identifying the source."
~ Gareth Porter, Asia Times.

Another interesting item from last week, which you can listen to at PRI's The World is that the EU removed the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK or PMOI) from its "terror" List. This follows news from December 2008 that Baghdad wants to expel the MEK from its territory:

Iraqi officials say they intend to expel members of an Iranian exile group living in a camp north of Baghdad that is protected by the U.S. military. The expulsion, which the Shiite-led government has long sought, is expected to become feasible once the U.N. mandate that regulates the presence of U.S. troops -- and which gave the Iranian opposition group protected status -- expires at the end of the year.

Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie on Saturday traveled to the camp with several other government officials to deliver the message to members of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group that was closely aligned with deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein but has been under U.S. military protection since shortly after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The government informed the group that it would soon assume responsibility for security at Camp Ashraf and that residents would be repatriated unless they find a third country willing to take them. The U.S. military currently protects Camp Ashraf, which is 40 miles north of Baghdad.

"Staying in Iraq is not an option for them," the government said in a statement issued Sunday. The Iranian government has long called for the group's expulsion.

[ . . . ]

The statement also said the group is barred from participating in political activities and ordered it to cease media campaigns.

Al-Maliki reiterated the message on New Year's Day:

During his speech on New Year's Day to celebrate the official transfer of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone to Iraqi control, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared Jan. 1 the "day of sovereignty" and congratulated his compatriots for having waited so long. He also warned that an Iranian resistance group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), would no longer be able to have a base on Iraqi territory.

[ . . . ]

. . . when the U.S. military formally transferred control of Camp Ashraf back to the Iraqi government on Jan. 1, the MEK's fate suddenly became an issue. The group is a source of contention for Iran and the U.S., Iraq's two biggest allies, who are increasingly vying for influence as Baghdad's post–Saddam Hussein Shi'ite government asserts its independence. All three countries label the MEK a terrorist organization. Iran wants the group handed over for prosecution. But the U.S. has pledged to ensure the group's rights under international law.

The MEK was sporadically active until 2003, including helping Saddam crush the 1991 Kurdish serhildan, when the US disarmed the group in Iraq and took over their protection. According to the radio broadcast report at The World, the MEK has renounced violence and it sounds as though MEK is willing to disband as long as its members are not sent back to Iran. Of course, if no one will give the MEK some kind of sanctuary, it may return to its arms.

That begs the question: What's the point of disarming and renouncing violence if you aren't taken off The List? The MEK have enjoyed the favor of the American neoconservatives for some time, including Daniel Pipes, former Colorado congresscritter Tom Tancredo, the Prince of Darkness himself, Richard Perle, and Larry Franklin, who was convicted by a US court for passing classified information to the Israelis. The MEK has also been a source of intel about Iran's nuclear capabilities, but there are suspicions that the intel the MEK was pushing came from MOSSAD, from Asia Times:

The George W Bush administration has long pushed the "laptop documents" - 1,000 pages of technical documents supposedly from a stolen Iranian laptop - as hard evidence of Iranian intentions to build a nuclear weapon. Now charges based on those documents pose the only remaining obstacles to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declaring that Iran has resolved all unanswered questions about its nuclear program.

But those documents have also been regarded with great suspicion by US and foreign analysts. German officials identified the source of the laptop documents in November 2004 as the Mujahideen e-Khalq (MEK), which along with its political arm, the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), is listed by the US State Department as a terrorist organization.

There are some indications, moreover, that the MEK obtained the documents not from an Iranian source but from Israel's Mossad.

So, you disarm, you renounce violence, you start doing the dirty work of the real terrorists, and you're still on The List? Maybe you even pull some bombing operations inside Iran for the real terrorists, and you're still on The List?

We know that the CIA was making regular visits to Qendîl in 2003 through early 2004. We know that shortly after indications of CIA visits ceased, PWD appeared and we know what happened to them. Other groups from East Kurdistan are also in the South but have not been active for a while and certainly won't be active while they are controlled.

It's obvious that PKK refused whatever it was that the CIA tried repeatedly to offer back in 2003 because the US and Israel have been active in intel-gathering against PKK for both Turkey and Iran--and Seymour Hersh can put that in his pipe and smoke it.

There is absolutely no good reason for disarming, no matter who says it. As the case of the MEK proves, collaborators never win.

Also last week, Katil Erdoğan called on Obama to redefine terrorism in the Middle East. Be careful what you wish for.

Finally, I'm not the only one who thinks Katil Erdoğan is a hypocrite:

For Erdogan had told Peres that, “When it comes to killing, you know very well how to kill,” which is true, but how many of those supporters outside the airport are aware that the Turkish premier also knows very well how to kill. On 17th January this year Hurriyet, the popular daily newspaper in Turkey, reported that in 2008 the Turkish military had killed 696 “outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party, or PKK militants” in 2008. That’s just over half the number of people Israel killed in its ostensible war on Hamas, but only a moral retard will hold up such figures as a testament to Turkish humanity.

[ . . . ]

The parallels between the national narratives of Israel and Turkey are striking, the former founded in 1948, the latter in 1923. In Turkey’s case, the Palestinians are the Kurds, Hamas are the PKK, and south-east Turkey is the West Bank. Maybe this is why Turkey and Israel have had such a strong bond through the second half of the twentieth century, traditionally their governments have sympathized with each other as they carry out massive atrocities as centurions of the US empire in the Middle East. So while Erdogan was right to take on criminals like Shimon Peres maybe he should take a quick look in the mirror and stop his own illegal incursions into sovereign countries to kill “militants” and civilians alike.

Touché.

BAD SIGNS, HYPOCRISY, AND COWARDICE

"The U.S. has done more to assist Turkey in its fight against the PKK than any other country. In full coordination with the Turkish government, we have used our diplomatic, military, and intelligence resources to combat PKK operations, logistics, and fundraising. This cooperation continues today, and has saved Turkish lives."
~ Joseph Ralston, Lockheed Martin lobbyist.

A bad sign for Ker Kurê Kerdoğan:




From KorucuTV (TRT 6) and Bugün. And the fake Kurds at the Bugün article complain in the comments about how embarrassed they are to see such a sign because Bugün explains what "ker" means.

Where in the hell have the fake Kurds been all this time? People have been referring to Kerdoğan for some time now.

Turkish journalism awards for 2008 have been announced and SURPRISE, SURPRISE, nothing for Taraf. I do notice, however, that there's an award for a charicature of Hüseyin Üzmez, the Fethullahçı septuagenarian who recently made news for sexual abuse of his 14-year-old "bride" and AKP attempts to lower the age of marriage to 14 for girls. How convenient. Remember, these are the people the US supports. More on that child-bride bullshit, here.

A Turkish "humanitarian delegation" was finally allowed to enter Gaza. For some reason, the Ankara regime can't understand why there was a "brutal" hold-up with their aid:

“We cannot understand why the Turkish delegation faced an almost brute force approach and wasn’t let in, although a lot of foreign delegations, including French, German and Irish ones, were let in. We cannot understand this harsh stance by the Egyptian authorities. We are going to that region only for humanitarian purposes, and most of the delegation members are doctors anyway,” a member of the delegation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Anatolia news agency on Saturday.

Well, maybe everyone was a little nervous because much of the aid was transported by the Turkish Red Crescent, and Turkish Red Crescent is well known for carrying arms shipments. There's no reason why a rational person should not believe that the Islamist Ankara regime would not be trying to ship arms to Islamist HAMAS.

In the meantime, Turkish families are sponsoring Palestinian orphans, something they've never done for the Kurdish orphans they've created in both North and South Kurdistan for more than 80 years now. In fact, they applaud the murder of Kurdish infants and children by TSK because it's helping to get rid of their "terrorist" problem.

I continue to find the Ankara regime's attitude towards HAMAS to be highly hypocritical, according to Babacan:

They have made mistakes, too. On the other hand it is impossible to ensure peace by ignoring Hamas.

On the other hand, it's impossible to ensure peace by ignoring PKK, no matter what Lockheed Martin or Babacan say.

In other news, Turkey, the US, Iraq, and the Southern Kurds are setting up a "joint command center" in Hewlêr to combat the big, bad PKK. This is going to be an intelligence dispersal point so that the Americans can continue to give intel to the Ankara regime so it can continue to bomb civilian areas in South Kurdistan, with the blessing of Baghdad and the Southern Kurds. They'll probably move the Israelis from Batman to Hewlêr to help with the effort as well.

Good luck with that. These same groups have been fighting against PKK since the 1990s and have failed miserably. Besides, this move should be seen for what it is: a piss-poor excuse to avoid doing what they are afraid of doing. And what all of them--Turkey, the US, Israel, Iraq, and the KRG--are afraid of doing is growing a pair and actually going to the mountains to fight. But, then, it's so much easier to simply blast away at Kurdish civilians with targets provided by the US and Israel. . .

KURDISTAN LOSES ANOTHER FRIEND

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."
~ Walter Winchell.

Sadly, Kurdistan has lost another friend. On 1 January, Senator Claiborne Pell died:

Claiborne deBorda Pell, the quirky Newport blueblood who held the affections of blue-collar Rhode Island and championed better education of the poor during a 36-year Senate career, died shortly after midnight today at his home in Newport. He was 90 years old.

Democrat Pell, who had suffered from Parkinson’s disease since before his retirement from the Senate, died peacefully in the presence of his wife, Nuala O’Donnell Pell, and family members, according to a statement released by the family.

Pell, who served as the U.S. senator from Rhode Island from 191 to 1997, was perhaps best known nationally for the college grant program that bears his name.

He focused heavily on education, the arts and humanities, and foreign affairs during his 36 years in the Senate. During the latter part of his Senate career, he served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Although the mainstream media has remembered him solely for his contributions to education through financial aid, I remember Senator Pell for his efforts on behalf of the Kurdish people. It was Senator Pell who sent Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer Peter Galbraith to check out genocide suspicions against the Saddam regime:

In Washington in early September [1988], I laid out my concerns to Senator Pell. He accepted my suggestion that he introduce legislation imposing tough sanctions on Iraq, and he urged me to write something immediately as there was almost no time left on the Senate calendar. In little more than an hour, I drafted a four-page bill that imposed on Iraq every sanction that I could think of. The bill prohibited the import of Iraqi petroleum into the United States, ended U.S. credit guarantees for Iraq, prohibited most U.S. exports to Iraq including all sensitive technologies, prohibited loans or financial assistance, and required the United States to oppose international lending to Iraq. The president could waive the sanctions only if he certified to the Congress in writing that "Iraq is not committing genocide against the Kurdish population of Iraq . . . and Iraq is not using chemical weapons banned by the 1925 Geneva Conventions and has provided reliable assurances that it will not use such weapons." I gave the bill the title "The Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988" in part to help win support but also because that was what it was intended to do.

Making use of an arcane parliamentary procedure explained to me by Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd's floor staff, Senator Pell got the bill on the calendar for an immediate vote. Among the bill's co-sponsors were Byrd, arch-conservative Republican Jesse Helms, and Tennessee Democrat Al Gore. The Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988 unanimously passed the Senate the day after it was written and introduced. I had never seen the Senate act so quickly on such an important issue.

Senator Pell asked me to go to eastern Turkey to collect evidence that might bolster the bill's prospects in the House, and, as importantly, help persuade President Reagan not to veto the bill. I asked Chris Van Hollen, then a junior Foreign Relations Committee staffer working on European issues (and now a Democratic congressman from Maryland), to join me. Robert Finn, a political officer at the American Embassy in Ankara, and Hamza Ulucay, a Turkish Kurd working for the U.S. consulate in Adana, filled out our team.

From the NYTimes, 9 September 1988:

Secretary of State George P. Shultz met privatley today with Saadun Hammadi, Iraq's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and raised American concerns about Iraq's use of chemical weapons.

Mr. Redman said after the hourlong session: ''The Secretary stressed to Dr. Hammadi that we attach great importance to the further development of our relationship with Iraq, but that we do not intend to pursue this course if illegal Iraqi use of chemical weapons and other human rights abuses continue.''

Although Mr. Hammadi had no prepared remarks for reporters, as he left the State Deparment he was faced by pro-Kurdish demonstrators and reporters.

He said of the charges of gas use, ''This is absolutely baseless, and this has not taken place at all.''

In Congress, Senator Claiborne Pell characterized the Iraqi attacks as ''genocide.'' Tonight, he introduced legislation calling for punitive sanctions against Iraq, such as a halt to Federally backed commodity credits and other loan guarantees, and a ban on oil imports from that country.

It is unclear whether Congress, which faces a crowded legislative calendar, will take up the measure before it adjourns in early October. Such action almost certainly would prompt opposition from the Administration, which has stopped short of calling Iraq's offensive against the Kurds genocide, a Senate aide said. No similar measure was proposed in the House.

A State Department official said the Administration had not seen the proposal by Senator Pell, a Rhode Island Democrat, and declined to comment on it.

Use of any chemical weapon is considered a clear violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, but officials at the State Department and the White House, speaking privately, said there were technical ambiguities in international law regarding the use of such weapons by a sovereign nation within its own borders.

''There's nothing in international law that prohibits that,'' said an Administration official. But he added that the United States could, had and would condemn the action on human rights and moral grounds alone.

Although the Administration believes the protocol's other provisions allow for a strong case that internal use of such weapons violate the Geneva accords, he said, ''There's not much we can do.''

From the Congressional Record, Senator Pell's own words in the Senate:

I, along with the distinguished chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Helms, have tried very hard to call attention to the persecution of the Kurds, including by introducing the first-ever sanctions bill against Iraq in 1988 for its use of poison gas against the Kurds.

Since then a wealth of evidence has been uncovered documenting Iraq's brutality against the Kurds, much of which was written in Iraq's own hand. The Foreign Relations Committee--particularly through the vigorous efforts of former staff member, now United States Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith--led an effort to retrieve more than 18 tons of Iraqi Secret Police documents captured by the Kurds in 1991, which charts out Iraq's criminal behavior in excruciating detail. Human Rights Watch, the independent human rights organization, has done a superb job of analyzing those documents to mount an overwhelming case that Iraq has engaged in genocide against the Kurds.

This is a story that must be told. As some of my colleagues may know, the issue of genocide has a particularly strong resonance for me. Just after World War II, my father, Herbert Claiborne Pell, played a significant role in seeing that genocide would be considered a war crime. Although he met stiff resistance, my father ultimately succeeded and I learned much from his tenacity and commitment to principle. The world must oppose genocide wherever and whenever it occurs; Halabja cannot be forgotten, and Iraq must be held accountable for its atrocities against the Kurds. . .

[ . . . ]

I wish I could say that there is a happy ending to the tragic story of the Kurds in Iraq, and that there was a lesson learned by the Iraqi leadership. Sadly, I cannot. Although the Iraqi Kurds now control a significant portion of Kurdistan--a consequence of the Persian Gulf war--Saddam's ill treatment of the Kurds continues. Iraqi agents continually carry out terrorist acts against Kurdish targets, and Iraq maintains an airtight blockade of the Kurdish-controlled provinces. Since there also is a U.N. embargo on all of Iraq, the Kurds are forced to live under the unbearable economic weight of a dual embargo. In addition, Kurds in other portions of the region--particularly in Iran and Turkey--have been subjected to serious abuses of human rights and outright repression, demonstrating that the Kurdish plight knows no boundaries. . .

Ah, if only there were more senators like Claiborne Pell . . . Rest in peace, old friend.

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
~ Elie Wiesel.

GENOCIDE AND THE KURDS

"I will kill them all with chemical weapons! Who is going to say anything? The international community? Fuck them! The international community and those who listen to them."
~ "Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majeed.

CNN recently aired a documentary on genocide. Among those interviewed for the documentary was Peter Galbraith, the only person in the West who tried to draw attention to Saddam's attempted genocide of the Kurds. From CNN:

Years before the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was slaughtering Iraq's Kurds with bombs, bullets and gas.

The Reagan White House saw it as a ruthless attempt to put down a rebellion by a minority ethnic group fighting for independence and allied with Iraq's enemy, Iran.

But Peter Galbraith thought it was something worse.

"A light went off in my head, and I said, 'Saddam Hussein is committing genocide,'" said Galbraith, who was on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time.

An unabashed idealist, Galbraith was known for tackling unconventional issues.

"If you're going to be idealistic in life, you're going to be disappointed," he said. "But that's not a reason to abandon idealism."

Galbraith was one of the first Westerners to witness the effects of the slaughter. During a fact-finding trip for the Senate in 1987, he saw something troubling.

"When we crossed from the Arab part of Iraq into the Kurdish part of Iraq, the villages and towns that showed on our maps just weren't there," he said. Bulldozing Kurdish villages was just the first phase of Hussein's war against the Kurds. In 1988, it escalated with chemical weapons.

"Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people were killed in those attacks, and then Iraqi troops moved into those villages and gunned down the survivors."

There are several video clips of Galbraith talking to CNN's Christiane Amanpour: Video 1, Video 2, and the bullshit excuses can be seen in Video 3.

More on the documentary can be found here.

It was "special interests" that saw to it the Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988 was never enacted. In her book A Problem from Hell America and the Age of Genocide, Samantha Power notes that it was agricultural "special interests", notably wheat and rice growers who were engaged in supplying Iraq with their products, who helped to kill Galbraith's legislation. But there were other "special interests", too:

According to a 1988 confidential State Department cable, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the non-profit National Security Archive (NSA), U.S. Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie wrote that Bechtel officials threatened to bypass the sanctions, passed by the Senate in 1988.

”Bechtel representatives said that if economic sanctions contained in the Senate act are signed into law, Bechtel will turn to non-U.S. suppliers of technology and continue to do business in Iraq,” the cable said.

The document also shows further behind-the-scenes particulars of how the U.S. corporation, now part of President George W. Bush's project to bring democracy to post-Saddam Iraq, courted the dictatorial regime with full knowledge of Saddam's use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops and the Kurds -- with the approval of U.S. diplomats.

”They (Bechtel) were certainly well aware of what was going on in Iraq and had no qualms about making a buck there,” said Jim Vallette, research director at the Washington-based Sustainable Energy and Economy Network.

”So they had no concerns over what Saddam was doing to his own people.” [sic]

[ . . . ]

In the 1980s Bechtel signed a technical services contract to manage the implementation of Iraq's two-billion-dollar petrochemical project II. U.S. firms, including Bechtel, won 300 million dollars in contracts to build the plant.

But the deal was jeopardised when the U.S. Senate wanted to penalise Baghdad for using chemical weapons against the Kurds, although it was well documented that Saddam had employed such weapons against Iran for at least four years before he used them on the Kurds.

The Senate initiative came on the heels of a series of Iraqi chemical weapons assaults against Kurds -- most notably in Halabja in March 1988 -- and called for strict economic sanctions against Baghdad, including blocking all international loans, credits and other types of assistance.

The government's then minister of industry, and Saddam's son-in-law, Husayn Kamil, told Bechtel officials he was angry the Senate passed the 'Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988', according to the cable.


[ . . . ]

Fearing to lose the contract, Bechtel officials threatened then to use non-U.S. suppliers and technology to keep the lucrative deal, in spite of the Senate's decision.

Isn't capitalism great?! Aren't "free" markets wonderful?!! Let's not forget that Turkey was also involved in the genocide of Kurds along with Saddam.

Ah, well . . . at least Hussein Kamel got his. Now if only scumbags like those at Bechtel and in the Ankara regime would get theirs.

While we're on the subject of hoping for just desserts, Blackwater mercenaries were indicted by a federal grand jury in DC of the slaughter the mercenaries carried out in Baghdad in September 2007. It looks like every attempt now is to make the mercenaries look like honorable human beings, but the fact is they are simply mercenaries, whores of war, so to speak.

Man, I'd pay to see these guys swing. I'd even bring the popcorn.

LOCKHEED MARTIN IN BUSINESS WITH BAGHDAD

"Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do."
~ Aldous Huxley.

My good friend, Anonymous, dropped off a couple of URLs in the comments to the last post. The first is from Reuters:

The Iraqi government has asked for information about buying 36 F-16 fighter aircraft built by Lockheed Martin Corp, the U.S. Defense Department said on Friday.

The request, received Aug. 27, is being reviewed "in the normal course of business" as part of the U.S. government-to-government arms sale process, said Air Force Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman.

Updated F-16s are among the world's most advanced multirole fighters and a powerful symbol of military ties to the United States.

Iraq's interest in the fighter jet, reported first by The Wall Street Journal, could spark concerns among neighbors worried about advanced arms in the hands of a country still facing major internal challenges.

[ . . . ]

Flush with billions of dollars from oil sales, Iraq is emerging as the biggest client for a wide range of U.S. weapons -- a shot in the arm for defense contractors such as Lockheed, Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp, General Dynamics Corp and Raytheon Co.

Among other systems, Iraq is seeking more than 400 armored vehicles plus six C-130 transport planes built by Lockheed, the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier.

On July 30, the Pentagon notified Congress that Iraq also was seeking to buy 24 Textron Inc Bell Armed 407 or 24 Boeing AH-6 helicopters along with 565 120mm mortars, 665 81mm mortars, 200 AGM-114M Hellfire missiles and other arms that could be worth $2.4 billion.

More, from the WSJ:

There are potential pitfalls both for Iraq and U.S. officials in the move. A steady cadre of well-trained Iraqi pilots will need time to learn the planes' tactics and weapons, and ground crews will have to maintain them to high standards to avoid performance or safety problems. The U.S. currently uses a wide variety of planes for air support in Iraq, so it's unclear how big a role Iraqi F-16s could play.

The U.S. has previously seen weapons meant for fragile allies end up in unfriendly hands, as with Iran in 1979. The U.S. will have to consider how advanced F-16s and their weapons, such as satellite-guided bombs, should be.

The F-16 purchase must be reviewed by the Pentagon, Congress and the State Department. The F-16s would allow the Iraqis to carry out their own airstrikes on insurgent positions, something they currently need the U.S. to do for them. That shortcoming was a serious problem during the initial days of the Iraqi army's Basra assault in March, which didn't break in the Iraqis' favor until British and American warplanes bombed the positions of the Mahdi Army, Iraq's largest Shiite militia, throughout the city.

Air power is becomingly increasingly important in Iraq, where the amount of ordnance dropped by U.S. planes has jumped in recent months as U.S. and Iraqi forces press to eradicate the remnants of al-Qaeda in Iraq and other militant groups. Though the F-16 is a fighter designed to shoot down enemy aircraft, it can carry precision-guided bombs and missiles that can be used to support ground forces. The plane also is armed with a cannon that can be used for close air-support missions.

[ . . . ]

The F-16 would represent a significant upgrade for the Iraqi military, and -- depending on how the planes were outfitted with radar and other electronic systems -- could give it some of the most advanced fighter aircraft in the region. The planes can be equipped advanced missiles and bombs, and would give Iraq a more potent air force than it had under Saddam Hussein, when the Iraqi air force mainly consisted of Russian and French fighters.

With a fleet of U.S.-made fighters, Iraq would be able to better match up against neighbors like Iran, which relies on Russian and Iranian-made fighters and aging American jets. U.S. analysts cautioned, however, that Iraq would still have one of the weaker air forces in the region.

This is the same excuse used by the US to arm Saddam and encourage him in his war against Iran, with catastrophic consequences for the Kurdish people.

More, from the Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, whose congressional district includes the Lockheed Martin plant, said the request signals the Iraqi government’s intent to take responsibility for its own security to hasten the timetable for phasing out the U.S. military presence.

"We keep saying that the Iraqis have to take care of their own security," Granger said. "If the request is approved, then it would help move them toward providing their own security."

Granger, who has made three trips to Iraq, said its air force "is very, very weak" because of lack of resources. But with Iraq’s expanding oil wealth, the government is increasingly capable of buying Western military technology and has made plans to purchase U.S. helicopters, tanks, armored vehicles and other weapon systems.

Under dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq once had a formidable air force composed largely of Soviet aircraft. But the force was largely demolished in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and offered no resistance to U.S. air power during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

So what should all this tell Kurds? It says: You're screwed! Again! Second URL from Anonymous, from the AFP:

The speaker of northern Iraq's regional parliament warned Baghdad on Monday about the purchase of high-tech US military hardware, amid concerns the weapons could be used against them.

"The Kurds demand guarantees from the countries selling weapons to Iraq that they will not be used against our people and other Iraqis," said Adnan al-Mufti in a speech to MPs in the regional capital of Arbil.

[ . . . ]

"We want the Iraqi government to be strong and able to defend the sovereignty of the country but our concern is related to the crisis that has happened in Khanaqin," Mufti said.

He was referring to tension that flared last month between Baghdad and Kurdish leaders when Iraqi forces ordered Kurdish political parties to vacate their offices in Khanaqin, a district in the central province of Diyala.

Khanaqin, which includes a string of villages and some of Iraq's oil reserves, is home to about 175,000 people, most of them Kurdish Shiites.

During the Arabisation policies of former dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, a large number of Kurdish Shiites were displaced by force from Khanaqin. Villages came under fierce Iraqi air strikes.

Guarantees? Adnan al-Mufti wants guarantees? Is this guy for real?

Forget about seeking phony guarantees from backstabbers like the US or Baghdad and get ready for more airstrikes like those at Xanaqîn . . . or maybe like those at Helebçe. In those days, the US knew very well what Saddam's regime was up to, what it was using advanced weapons systems for, and it did nothing. Has everyone already forgotten that "covert action should not be confused with missionary work"?

The KRG and the two ruling families of South Kurdistan aren't concerned when Turkey uses the very same type of aircraft to bomb its regions, which it has done since December. They weren't concerned when Turkey dropped cluster bombs in the same regions last summer. Nor were they concerned when Lockheed Martin lobbyist, Joseph Ralston, was appointed "PKK coordinator" for Turkey.

No, the KRG and the two ruling families have forgotten all about covert action and missionary work. Is it hubris that convinces one to trust the one who's betrayed you so many times in the past?

It wouldn't surprise me at all to hear that The Cohen Group is coordinating Baghdad's efforts to buy all that sophisticated ordnance, especially the F16s. The Cohen Group was working on arming the region at the beginning of this year:

When Congress gets back to business in the new year, one of its priorities will be consideration of the Bush administration’s request for a massive arms sale - in the neighborhood of $20 billion - to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states.

Israel and Egypt also stand to gain billions more in U.S. weapons as part of the package Congress will review.

The proposed deal is controversial because of the Saudi component. Given the Saudi government’s questionable record on fighting terrorism and curtailing terrorism financing, its funding of extremist wahabbist mosques, its supply of foreign fighters into Iraq and a judicial system that recently ordered 200 lashes for a rape victim, some in Congress don’t believe the kingdom should be rewarded with top-of-the-line American weaponry.

[ . . . ]

One of the of the big names supporting the deal is William Cohen, the former senator and defense secretary under President Bill Clinton and regular commentator on CNN.

Cohen has opined on the cable network that the arms deal is good for the U.S. and good for Saudi Arabia.

“The issue really is, are we going to help them modernize their forces so they can be a force to contend with an expansionist Iran, with Iran trying to spread its Shia and revolutionary zeal,” Cohen said last summer when the administration first proposed the sale.



“I think it’s an important idea,” Cohen said on CNN. The Persian Gulf countries “are worried about Iran. In order to help them prepare for their defense capabilities, we should be the country supplying it, so it will be interoperable with our own forces.



“They can buy it from us, they can buy it from the French, the British, the Russians, the Chinese or other country, potentially,” said Cohen. “So the real issue is, are we going continue to solidify our own influence or have it undermined by other countries quite willing to move in and take over the position that we had to date.”



While Cohen cloaked the sale in terms of what is best for American interests, he left out that the weapons sale is good business for him personally.


As chief of the Cohen Group, a lobbying and consulting firm based in the nation’s capital, Cohen represents some of the country’s largest weapons manufacturers, companies that stand to benefit from the weapons sale.

Including, of course, Lockheed Martin, as well as a bunch of other corporate murderers. But the point around which Katil Cohen was talking was the Almighty Dollar. With the American economy already in the toilet, you'd be an idiot to think that Congress will not approve the sale of fighter aircraft and all the rest to Baghdad.

All that talk about being careful or having concerns or taking the sale seriously is propaganda.

And where's that so-called Kurdish president of Iraq in all this, or his son, the so-called lobbyist for Southern Kurdish interests in DC? How much of this deal is going to end up in their bank accounts?

For more than five years now, the Barzanîs and Talabanîs have been busy with a bunch of bullshit construction projects in South Kurdistan, consisting mostly of hotels, resorts, and shopping malls. They've wasted precious time and money on these fantasies, when they should have been arming themselves with more than small arms and peşmêrge. Instead of counting profits, they should have been looking to the future and investing in pilot training and air defense systems, among other things.

We also know for a fact that the US, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey have passed around US and Israeli-acquired intelligence that fueled recent attacks against the Kurdish Freedom Movement. They'll all cooperate with the same intel-sharing against Southern Kurdish peşmêrge, too.

Now what to do? Stop all cooperation. Look to the East. Look to the North. Send the best and brightest--not Barzanîs and Talabanîs--to Russia and China to be trained as pilots and in air defense systems. Then buy the weapons systems necessary to defend Kurdistan. Because, as always, the US is going to look right at you and say nothing when Baghdad bombs you with American weapons.

THURSDAY NIGHT NEWS

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
~ Albert Einstein.

First of all, Gordon Taylor's book, Fever and Thirst: An American Doctor in Iraq, 1835-1844, is coming out in paperback and is available for pre-order from Amazon.com. The introduction to the paperback edition is currently available online at History News Network. Here's a taste:

Everything seems so different now. From my room here in Sulaimani, in Kurdish Iraq, I can look down the street to the dilapidated green domed Shiite mosque and, from there, to the more prosperous Sunni mosque not too far behind it. Up the street is Kurdish Cultural Center next to the Chaldean Catholic church, next to the headquarters of the Communist Party. Overlooking it all is a heavily treed compound that everyone says is the CIA headquarters. No one seems to think twice about any of this; religion, tribe, sect, nationality, politics...in this part of Kurdistan they all seem to coexist peacefully, even happily, together.

Compared to the world described in this extraordinary book, things seem different, things are different. The Kurds of Iraq, once surely one of the most ferocious people anywhere, have calmed down a good bit. Getting a job, owning a Nissan dealership, visiting Europe, flirting and being flirted with...all these are more important these days than cutting off your neighbor's ear. Commerce, trade, and money-making have worked their wonders on this part of the world, and turned peoples' attention to less sanguinary pursuits. Islam - never as fanatical here as in other parts of the Middle East - remains a mildly cohesive rather than a divisive element. And nationalism, Kurdish nationalism, exercises an attractive force that erodes, dissolves , many of the petty differences that only recently separated tribe and village and family.

So maybe everything is different now, and maybe Gordon Taylor's book is simply a beautifully written, impeccably researched, compellingly told historical curiosity. But... why do I have this odd feeling this book is more than that?

Does anyone remember the Kurdistan Referendum Movement or the fact that not too long ago, 98% of the population of South Kurdistan voted for independence? If you do, you may want to take a look at a well-deserved rant over at KurdishMedia:

As Kurds we missed a unique opportunity to declare our independence in South Kurdistan. Establishment and independence of the Kurdish state should have been the sole Kurdish goal in any negotiations with the US before the war, and we had all the legal and moral rights for that. Nothing less should have been accepted by the Kurdish leaders and by the fighting Peshmerga. Could anything less be reasonable or even possible after all the sufferings and losses under Saddam’s satanic dictatorship; can anything else guarantee the security of our people today? The Kurdish people answered this question in the referendum unequivocally: 98% want independence, want free and sovereign Kurdistan!

[ . . . ]

We now see how South Kurdistan is turned into another of Washington’s puppet regimes in the region. But unlike other client states, the KRG has no sovereignty or authority at all. It is not even in the second class of the American slave system. The Kurdish territory is referred to as “North Iraq”, the Kurds are “Iraqis” in the political and diplomatic language of the “international community”. They are there just to implement Washington’s instructions, and must do it without protest.

The status of Kerkuk and other Kurdish territories should have been clarified at the end of last year according to the constitution, but it is still unresolved. Everything is done to keep the Kurds under constant threat that their achievement can be taken away from them any time. See the instructions of Arab and Oil lobbyists in “The Way Forward” for Iraq, and the reports from institutes established and run by oil companies that shape Washington’s Middle East policies. The 6-month postponement of the Kerkuk-referendum is one example. It is coming to an end soon, but where is the evidence that it will be actually carried out? Americans, Turks, and Arabs are doing everything in front and behind the scenes that the Kurdish city will stay excluded from Kurdish jurisdiction because of the oil.

History is important to understand how states behave today. History teaches that a benevolent Uncle Sam has never existed. The USA is a predatory global empire, as were Great Britain, France, Germany and others previously. The historical record of Americans, Turks, and Arabs is the same: They are all conquerors and occupiers of lands belonging to others; they are destroyers of indigenous cultures and societies; for territory and resources they have murdered and carried out genocides. No wonder to see them act so similar, to see them cooperate so eagerly when the issues are of strategic and material interest.

However as the predatory core state of the white race, the USA seeks benefits for itself and its European kin only. Washington’s interest in the Middle East has nothing to do with democracy, freedom, or justice. These values are valid, valued, and protected only within Western “civilisation” for the benefit of Western societies. Outside the Western sphere, in places where there is oil and other essential raw materials to exploit, democracy and freedom are treated as enemies of the West. In free and sovereign societies, the beneficiaries of the countries’ natural resources are the indigenous people, and not foreign corporations thousands of miles away.

[ . . . ]

The Kurdish leaders need to see the bigger picture and take actions accordingly. Becoming slaves and servants of a different master cannot be the option. They must implement the people’s will, which is the will for self-determination and independence from all foreign rule, all efforts must be directed towards that goal. Make no mistake, there are no friends around. We are surrounded by aggressive wolves waiting for the opportunity to attack. What measures have been taken to protect the people? What will we do when the Turks decide to invade? Are there any weapons to stop them? Constructing more shopping centres, hotels, villas will not stop the invasion. These buildings can be destroyed by air in one day. Military aggression is not a threat anymore, it is real and bloody.

We trusted in the benevolence of Uncle Sam, we simply believed his promises of freedom and security. What is the result? Turkish military aggression permitted and supported by the USA! The borders to South Kurdistan are now, as before, open to the Turkish fascists called TSK to murder and destroy. And they are making use of it. The Turkish air force is launching raids as a routine now. The criminal and racist rulers in Ankara are unpredictable and could, under the pretext of combating “terrorists” or “protecting” their Turkmen brethrens, invade any time. They do not recognize the Kurdistan Regional Government; they cannot accept Kurds as Kurds with a political position and will. They refer to the Kurdish representatives as “tribe chiefs”, to the Kurds as mountain tribes without identity. The Kemalist and Islamist Turks have not changed their racist attitudes as if Saddam was still in power and the political reality the same as before. Consequently they only regard Baghdad and the Arab leaders, the representatives of Arab Iraq, as political equals. The Kurdish territory, “northern Iraq” according to Ankara, is seen and described only as “security risk” for the Turkish state, and continuously warned and threatened. The only success story of post-invasion Iraq is looked at with envious and evil eyes. For a master race as Turks believe themselves to be, there simply cannot be an independent and successful Kurdish society. There can only be Kurdish slaves in service of the Turkish people and state. That had been the theological and imperial understanding of Ottoman Turks, and today it is the view of the Kemalists and the ruling Islamists. And let us not deceive ourselves – that is not just the view of the rulers, but of most Turks!

OUCH!

Don't miss Dr. Kristiina Koivunen's first post on her recent trip to Hewlêr. In this post, she visits the textile museum and describes her impressions:

I have very many things to tell about my journey to South Kurdistan. Instead of writing long reports I will put here pictures. I start with Hawler Textil Museum which is located in the Citadel and is open every day.

Iraqi Kurds love everything what is new - and made in factories (which are of course in other countries and do not produce things according the Kurdish style).

I do not want to be unpolite towards Iraqi Kurds but they seem to lack such knowledge and respect of their own culture than people in North Kurdistan have. There Kurdish kelims and handicrafts can be seen every where - in South Kurdistan I saw traditional Kurdish carpets during three weeks only in the museum. The long years of isolation and economical hardship have taken its toll also in this sense: 25 000 old Kurdish rugs were exported to Iran during early 90s (also other second hand things are usually sold to Iran).

Now this hundreds years knowledge of carpet weaving is not passed to next generation in the Iraqi part of Kurdistan. I really hope that people there understand what they will lose if this thing does not change quikly. Kilims are the traditional art of Kurdish women.

But why bother to preserve the art of the beautiful Kurdish kilim when you can import new, cheap shit from Turkey, Iran, or even China? Stay tuned; Dr. Kristiina is sure to have more reports in the coming days, and don't miss her photos.

Hevallo has a recent column written by Mehmet Ali Birand. Take a look at it and then compare it with the attitude of the TSK towards its own soldiers.