markfromireland

Yesterday

“Cruel irony and “not good good enough for ‘our boys’ ” is an understatement. I have no idea why any British reporter would put the word scandal in inverted comments as Brian Brady has done in today’s story. A scandal is exactly what it is. It is scandalous that both ordinary soldiers and bomb disposal specialists should be exposed to yet further danger while a pack of dirty mercenaries should be laughing all the way to the bank. “

Today

“Reuters - Mon Sep 4, 9:49 AM ET Danish soldiers carry the body of one of two British soldiers killed in a roadside bomb attack near Basra in southern Iraq, September 4, 2006. REUTERS/Atef Hassan”

(more…)

Yankee Poodle Tony’s Government The British The Blair Government has sold off 4½ million pounds worth of armoured personnel carriers for £44,000 including four to American mercenary firm Blackwater. British Ministers claimed that adaptations made to the Mamba Mine Protected Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), which if you follow the chain of ownership is manufactured by a BAE (British Aerospace) subsidiary, made it unsuitable for its use in Iraq which included the transportation of bomb disposal teams, and too difficult to maintain. The ministers appear to be being more than somewhat “economical with the actualité.” The American mercenary firm that bought them for the princely sum of £2,933.33 apiece describes them as “the armoured personnel carrier of choice for Blackwater ops in Iraq” and clearly don’t have any problem maintaining them as they’re in daily use on Route Irish - “the most dangerous road in the world.” The British newspaper Scotland on Sunday first broke the story last Sunday and has an even more damning follow-up today.

(more…)

From: Truth About Iraqis

Thursday, May 25, 2006
صبراً صبراً يا بغداد سحقاً سحقاً للغزاة

Iraq, where now, how did we get here, and hypocrisy.
This post is inspired by an email I got. Snarly best describes it. I posted this response at 24 Steps to Liberty.

I think it explains how I feel about the situation in Iraq.

There is no sovereignty in Iraq. It was revealed two days ago that Iraqi courts operate based on CPA laws, not Iraqi laws.

Several “insurgents” were given jail time because they broke Order 3. Go look it up.

Freedom is not worth 200,000 lives, am sorry.

Freedom is not worth having your brothers and sisters tortured and mutilated.

Freedom is not about having tens of thousands of armed units - gangs - kidnapping and murdering people and working under government supervision. A government you brought to power.

Freedom is not about having 60% unemployment and child nutrition far worse than pre-war levels.

Freedom is not about a debilitated power grid or failing phone system.

Freedom is not about Halliburton coming in and robbing both the Iraqi people and American taxpayers blind.

Freedom is not about raising the flag of reconstruction and then stealing monies from Iraq’s oil money.

Freedom is not about standing idly by while the government is looted. Most of Iraq’s advanced machinery is now in … Iran.

Freedom is not about detention without charge. 35,000 Iraqis are in detention. Their families dont know where they are.

No charge. No court.

Freedom is not about the massacres in Haditha.

Freedom is not about the US humiliation of Abu Ghraib.

There were no elections in Iraq. So dont ask me. Bark all you want about it.

People in Wichita, Kansas have signed on to illegally invade and occupy a country that had nothing to do with you. Oppress and debilitate a people that can no longer even see their kids go to school.

They died? Sorry, but not for Iraqis, they died for a US foreign policy run amuck and criticized openly by former administrations on a daily basis.

Iraqis leave the house in the morning not knowing if they will ever see their loved ones again.

This is not the price to be paid for anything. But it is what the people in Wichita died for they died so Iraq can be a failed state.

Thank you.

Bottom line. Iraq is not an extension of Wichita. People of Wichita are welcome in Iraq if they come in good faith and as guests. We will welcome them with open arms, we will throw them grand feasts and we will talk about each others’ lives.

But if they walk in carrying guns, they will be fought with guns.

If they walk in to oppress, they will be suppressed.

Yes, I blame the US policies for what has happened in Iraq.

Almost every Iraqi I know blames the US for what has happened in Iraq.

You only think of Saddam. You only talk of Saddam. You only bring up Saddam when it is convenient. That is all you can do. That is your only government.

“Heck boy, Saddam killed ya off, sees, so we git to do the same. Semper fi and land of the brave and you have democracy now!”

But who do you think favored Saddam when he fought Iran for you?

Who do you think favored Saddam when he hunted down, murdered and hung communists from the lampposts in Iraqi cities?

Who gave Saddam loan guarantees in the 1980s and trade incentives?

Live in your own hole filled with lies. At the end, Iraqi is for Iraqis. And like the body fights a virus to dispel it, the foreign occupier will be ejected.

Or both body and virus will die together.

And don’t send me rosy emails as if you are genuinely interested in debate and discussion.

You have no inkling of how to debate.

US foreign policy is not built around debate and discussion.

Iran has repeatedly called on one-to-one talks with the US only to be rebuffed. Watch the US administration rebuff Ahmadinejad.

The US media has labelled him a devil and so now the premise is “How can America deal with the devil?”.

In the 1990s, Iraqi officials called on the US repeatedly for one-on-one talks to be rebuffed every single time.

And then US leaders stand up and say they gave diplomacy every change they did. Lies.

North Korea has asked for one-on-one talks with the US but the US has refused.

Why? Ask yourself why. Go back and study the past 50 years of US foreign policy.

Sorry, but Iraqis are being raped and murdered far, far more than before.

And now foreign intelligence units are involved. Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel. The list is endless.

But then again, I don’t expect more from you.

This is how it works. An invading army destroys a house and then asks the occupants to rebuild it. But it shoots and kills the workers.

It also allows people from a neighboring house to steal your materiel.

You have no home, you are exposed to thugs and gangs.

But still the invader blames you for letting your house “fall”. Blames you for not protecting your materiel. Blames you for not standing up to the thugs.

So you pick up a gun to fight the thugs, but the thugs have convinced the invader you are a terrorist and bang, you’re taken out like in a video game.

The thugs also convinced the invader that your children are terrorists, so, bang, bang, bang the invader takes out your kids as well.

I think it is the epitome of arrogance to ask me and other Iraqis what we will do.

The onus is on you, not us. You want us to build a just society? Get out then. And stop supporting dictatorships.

If you are so high and mighty about Liberty, I would like to call on the US military to invade the following countries:

Saudi Arabia which tortures maims and beheads its citizens on a nearly daily basis. The most basic of freedoms are denied its citizens. Women in Saudi Arabia are tossed about as political fodder and must be clad in Darth Vader outfits to hide their faces and skin. They cannot even drive.

No, instead you invaded Iraq where Iraqi women were the most liberated in the entire Arab World.

Invade Bahrain where a Sunni minority kingship has ravaged the Shia majority for 32 years.

32 years! You are so big on protecting the Shia, right? So go ahead. Send the boys and girls of Wichita to protect the Shia who have endured horrific human rights abuses.

Yallah 3ad! Do it! Protect liberty wherever it is stifled.

I call also on the invasion of Tunisia for similar reasons. And an invasion of Jordan, because the secret police there is one of the most merciless in the world.

What of Egypt? Egypt just gave you the finger, why not invade it? It has rolled back 20 years of democratic development (lack thereof) and practically made Gamal Mubarak the Son-God or Sun-God.

No, no my fellow Arabs. I do not rightly call on the invasion of any countries because I am tired of seeing mothers weep. But I am trying to show the hypocrisy of those who come to the Iraqi blogs pretending they understand the Middle East, Islam, rah, rah, rah.

Their veil of fighting in foreign lands for liberty is an illusion.

Why no invasion of Saudi Arabia? The house of Saud il mal3oun have been the US strategic allies for 70 years and the oil just keeps flowing.

Bahrain has opened its arms as base of the US navy. If true democracy were applied in Bahrain, the Shia would come to power and ask you to leave.

So, nope, no liberty for Bahrain, status quo fits us fine.

Egypt and Jordan? Why heck, dontcha know they have ties with Israel? If true democracy developed in both nations, the people would vote to cut of relations with Israel until at the very least the Occupation of Palestinian land is resolved.

So, why was Iraq the only country to be invaded? Is it the only country with a dictator? Is it the only country lacking democracy in the Middle East?

Why is it when Iraqi officials in the current government recently rebuffed Israel, the US government cried foul?

Ah ….

We did not invade and litter your home or destroy your heritage (see damage in Babylon and elswhere).

You invaded ours. You want an answer to your questions, get out and let us rebuild.

As my brother Baghdad Treasure said. Get out. Go home.

The virus will be ejected.

Reproduced here in it’s entirety by gracious permission of “Truth About Iraqis”

markfromireland

200,000 Ak-47 Assault Rifles Missing In Iraq? - It’s Business As Usual - Thanks Rummy

How can it happen that four planeloads of Kalashnikov assault rifles vanish from Bosnia and apparently wind up in Iraq? Put it another way 200,000 AK-47s have gone missing and there’s very good grounds to believe that the US government paid handsomely to have them delivered to person or persons unknown in Iraq, and by person or persons unkown I do not mean the Iraqi government.

HAVE 200,000 AK47S FALLEN INTO THE HANDS OF IRAQ TERRORISTS?
FEARS OVER SECRET U.S. ARMS SHIPMENT

SOME 200,000 guns the US sent to Iraqi security forces may have been smuggled to terrorists, it was feared yesterday.

The 99-tonne cache of AK47s was to have been secretly flown out from a US base in Bosnia. But the four planeloads of arms have vanished.

Orders for the deal to go ahead were given by the US Department of Defense. But the work was contracted out via a complex web of private arms traders.

And the Moldovan airline used to transport the shipment was blasted by the UN in 2003 for smuggling arms to Liberia, human rights group Amnesty has discovered.

It follows a separate probe claiming that thousands of guns meant for Iraq’s police and army instead went to al-Qaeda

[snip]

A Nato spokesman said: “There’s no tracking mechanism to ensure they don’t fall into the wrong hands. There are concerns that some may have been siphoned off.”

[snip]

Meanwhile, Aerocom, the Moldovan air firm at the centre of the 200,000 missing AK47s, was stripped of its licence by its national authorities a day before the first shipment.

Two other companies in the complicated sale claim to have papers proving the guns were delivered in Iraq but refuse to show them.”

Full report here [This link and all exterior links open in new windows - markfromireland].

US in secret gun deal

Small arms shipped from Bosnia to Iraq ‘go missing’ as Pentagon uses dealers

Ian Traynor in Zagreb
Friday May 12, 2006
The Guardian

The Pentagon has secretly shipped tens of thousands of small arms from Bosnia to Iraq in the past two years, using a web of private companies, at least one of which is a noted arms smuggler blacklisted by Washington and the UN.

According to a report by Amnesty International, which investigated the sales, the US government arranged for the delivery of at least 200,000 Kalashnikov machine guns from Bosnia to Iraq in 2004-05. But though the weaponry was said to be for arming the fledgling Iraqi military, there is no evidence of the guns reaching their recipient.

Full story here

The AK-47 is a superbly well-designed weapon:

• It’s simple and cheap to manufacture.
• It’s very easy to clean and maintain.
• It’s very rugged.
• It’s very reliable.

It has these desirable characteristics because of several features of its design. It has a large gas piston, lots of clearance between its moving parts, and a tapered cartridge case. All of which mean that it can take a lot of abuse and a lot of foreign matter and fouling and still cycle properly. - The down side of this reliability is that it’s not the most accurate weapon in the world.

Depending on where it’s made the factory cost of a new AK-47 is in the region of US$75.00 [seventy five US dollars]. AKs are in heavy demand and the demand is rising for example:
Last year [2005] the US bought the following to equip the new “Iraqi” army:

• 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles,
• 100,000 flak jackets,
• 110,000 pistols,
• 6,000 cars and pickup trucks,
• 230 million rounds of ammunition.

- That was before the program to build an “Iraqi” army really began to get off the ground, and was also at the time when the desertion rate was very high nor does that figure include supplies for the various militias and “security agencies.”

Nor is Iraq the sole source of demand. Venezuela is building up its defenses against an American attack and it’s not just interested in high tech weaponry of the sort it can acquire from Spain or of the deal that Israel was forced to drop or their recent deal with Russia. For obvious reasons the Venezuelan is interested in asymetric warfare defense and is actively acquiring expertise in that field:

“Instructors made comparisons to Viet Cong guerrilla attacks on U.S troops, including the use of secret tunnels, poisons and home-made weapons.

Venezuelan officers have also been sent to Havana to learn civilian-military cooperation from the Cubans as part of the training, said National Guard Gen. Juan Alberto Hernandez

[snip]

“They will guarantee resistance against an invading force in their areas. They’ll be trained in weapons and other home-made artifacts,” said instructor Benavides. “They can be confused with the populace and that is part of asymmetric war.”

Reuters via Herald-Sun 06 Mar 06 “Venezuelans prepare for invasion”

That’s just one source of the rise in demand, there are lots of promising little wars brewing in Africa as well.

However back to Iraq. Quite aside from “official demand” and the demand from various militias there’s a further source of demand, ordinary householders. Under a “law” passed by Bremer every Iraqi household is entitled to one weapon. American troops do NOT confiscate them during searches. By no means all households have a weapon yet, but as the American occupiers continue to engage in policies that actively encourage the break up of Iraq, that’s an oversight that many Iraqis are rushing to correct. After the Samarra bombing the average price of a Russian-made AK-47 went from from US$112 to US$290 literally overnight while bullets jumped to 33 cents up from 24 cents again literally overnight. It’s continuing to climb somewhat and even a large influx of AKs aimed purely at this civilian market will not depress the price enough for arms dealers to make windfall profits.

The temptation to “mislay” a large consignment and make a hefty profit is clear. But how could it have happened? The answer lies here:

“And the Moldovan airline used to transport the shipment was blasted by the UN in 2003 for smuggling arms to Liberia, human rights group Amnesty has discovered.”

Moldova has the unenviable distinction of being the second poorest country in Europe (some say it’s the poorest.) Its bureaucracy is notoriously corrupt and the airline in question is owned by Victor Bout. Bout whose links to blood diamond trade and willingness to supply arms to everybody and anybody are notorious was designated by the US Treasury under Executive Order 13348 [PDF] on April 26th last year. Bout who is a fugitive from justice in two countries is also strongly suspected of smuggling arms to the Taleban. But has been selling to the US PX in Iraq since at least 2004 (he’s cheap) as well as ammunition (same reason.)

By now my readers won’t be surprised to learn that the main contractors who carried out the deal on behalf of the US Government be said to be above reproach:

“The Pentagon commissioned the US security firms Taos and CACI - which is known for its involvement in the Abu Ghraib prison controversy in Iraq - to orchestrate the arms purchases and shipments. They, in turn, subcontracted to a welter of firms, brokers, and shippers, involving businesses based in Britain, Switzerland, Croatia, Moldova, and Bosnia” [Guardian report cited above - mfi]

Nor will I suppose will my readers be surprised to learn that people have been writing about and reporting on for a long time now. Nothing seems to be have done.

How could it happen? Greed, corruption, cronyism, the Bush administration’s omnipresent incompetence, and of course a government not overly concerned with what happens to the country they invaded and are now occupying. The fact that Rumsfeld’s “reforms” meant the decimation of US logistical capacity to make room for contractors made this sort of scandal inevitable. Who could all those weapons have gone to? Everybody and anybody, and that includes householders, assorted militants, and of course all the assorted variations on a peshmerga theme.

Heck of a job Rummy, heck of a job, I’m surprised that US casualties are as low as they are.

markfromireland

PS: The cost of an Ak-47 in Beirut has still not dropped.

Gin Soaked Raisin Brain Dilletante vs. Patriot

Go read.

markfromireland

Postscript: As of today 2407 US service personnel and uncounted innocent Iraqi civilians, Kurd, Turkoman, Arab, Christian, and Jew alike have died in the war for which Hitchens whored out the pathetically tiny remnants of his credibility and conscience. To hell with him.

mfi

Crossposted to Gorilla’s Guides