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by Sharon Grimes, W A M M
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Blackwater Booted Out of Iraq
Blackwater Security has been banned from doing business in Iraq, and its employees have been ordered out of Iraq, according to the interior ministry. Employees of the firm were accused of shooting eight civilians in an incident in which U.S. diplomats came under fire on September 16. Only the employees charged in the incident will remain in Iraq to stand trial for using excessive force. Maj. Gen. Abdul Karmin Khalaf, the interior ministry’s director of operations, said, “We have opened a criminal investigation against the group who committed the crime.” A U.S. embassy spokesperson said they were taking the charges seriously and are discussing Blackwater’s status in Iraq. Blackwater has $300 million in contracts in Iraq. (BBC News, 9/14/07)
Darfur a Top Priority for UN
Solving the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan is a top priority for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He visited Sudan in September to try to help lay the groundwork for deploying the joint UN and African Union peacekeeping unit. While there he met with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to urge his help in the planned deployment. Ban said: “For too long the international community has stood by, as seemingly helpless witnesses. That is now changing.” Ban is also trying to help bolster the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that was meant to end 21 years of civil war in Sudan. The CPA has become increasingly fragile, and Ban says: “It is crucially important that we implement the CPA . . . it is important that the leaders of both the north and the south be fully committed.” (Aljazeera.Net, 9/5/07)
Military Families Speak Out
Recently, the group Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) released a video against the Ari Fleischer campaign that promotes continuing the Iraq war. Gold Star Mom Celeste Zappala, whose son was killed in Iraq, was so angered by the planned $15 million propaganda campaign that she made the video “Bring Them Home, Don’t Be Fooled Again,” which appears on You Tube. (8/29/07, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSWzoGGmpqQ)
MFSO also put together responses to the Congressional testimony by General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. They say: “As military families who understand painfully and too well the need to end the war in Iraq now, we have put together our own ‘report’ on what is happening on the ground in Iraq, what is happening (or has happened) to our loved ones in the military, what is happening (and has happened) to our families, and equally important, the ‘next steps’ we believe Congress must take to support our troops and the people of Iraq.” (http://www.mfso.org/article.php?id=1075)
Soldiers Criticize the War in New York Times Op-Ed
Seven members of the U.S. military who served in Iraq wrote a New York Times editorial, “The War as We Saw It.” They say: “In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are, an army of occupation, and force our withdrawal.” (New York Times, 8/19/07)
Editor’s note: Sadly, two of the soldiers who wrote the NYT editorial, Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance T. Gray, died September 10 in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad, two of seven U.S. troops killed in the incident that was reported just as Gen. David Petraeus was about to report to Congress on progress in the “surge.” The accident in Iraq occurred when a cargo truck the men were riding in overturned. Mora, 28, hailed from Texas City, Texas, and was a native of Ecuador who had just become a U.S. citizen. He was due to leave Iraq in November and leaves behind a wife and daughter. Gray, 26, had lived in Ismay, Montana, and is also survived by a wife and infant daughter. |
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© 2007 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete October 2007 Index - click here
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