It's October 2007 in Iraq...

I hope he gets eaten by a boa constrictor

while testifying. I hope somebody rubs boa constrictors' favorite tasty smelling marinade on the back of his neck while he's not looking and lets one loose in the chamber. And it kills him and eats him and everybody just watches and applauds when the snake finally closes its mouth around his shoes.

lol I'm 12

I'm not sure the boa would come near a feller with that hair.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/054718.php : Blackwater investigation outsourced to... Blackwater

Why, who better? They know the company very well.

Apparently deaths are down by half this month. Just a blip? Or is ye olde surge actually having an effect?

It's only the 2nd of the month

Sullivan posts a frightening conversation between CPSAN and N-Pod

where down by half means they're back to summer 2006 levels, I'd say no

Apparently deaths are down by half this month. Just a blip? Or is ye olde surge actually having an effect?

or did they just change the the definition of "death"? like back when they couldn't meet military recruiting goals, they just lowered the bar and - et voila! - they were beating the goals!

hahaha

more Erik Prince death fantasies plz

crushed by large, falling crucifix from a seemingly empty sky. also, rains of frogs.

death by bonitis

from wikipedia about prince:
He now runs Prince Group, Blackwater's parent company, from an office in McLean, Virginia and also serves as a board member of Christian Freedom International, a nonprofit group with a mission of helping "Christians who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ".

uh.

i mean, given that "persecution" these days means "continuing to allow gays/atheist/pagans to exist/abortions to be performed/not have mandatory prayer in schools," should i be nervous that the head of a giant private army has this other organization as his hobby?

he's on some Knights of Malta 2.0 shit, this bozo

xp: also, didn't private armies used to be illegal or something?

its a brave new world

private sector does things "better" and "cheaper" than the gov't dontchaknow

also less "rules" governing them, they don't answer to anyone, yeah. i know.

Brilliant reporting at the updated LA Times news story:

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) complained that the hearing was a stealth attempt by critics of the war to continue the attack that MoveOn.org launched on Army Gen. David H. Petraeus before his congressional testimony last month.

"It's a repeat on the MoveOn.org campaign against Gen. Petraeus," he said.

I was already talking about blackwater pulling a coup on the next president in the blackwater thread

"Civilian Contractors" = Mercenaries?

"It's a repeat on the MoveOn.org campaign against Gen. Petraeus," he said.

RepeatOn.org

Backwater
We're sailing at the edges of time
Backwater
We're drifting at the waterline
Oh we're floating in the coastal waters
You and me and the porter's daughters
Ooh what you do not a sausage can do
And the shorter of the porter's daughters
Dips her hand in the deadly waters
Ooh what to do in a tiny canoe
Black water
There were six of us but now we are five
We're all talking
To keep the conversation alive
There was a senator from Ecuador
Who talked about a meteor
That crashed on a hill in the South of Peru
And was found by a conquistador
Who took it to the Emperor
And he passed it on to a Turkish Guru.
His daughter
Was slated for becoming divine
He taught her
He taught her how to split and define
But if you study the logistics
And heuristics of the mystics
You will find that their minds rarely groove in a line
So it's much more realistic
To abandon such ballistics
And resign to be trapped on a leaf in a vine.

>>Apparently deaths are down by half ...

But cholera is up.

Now there's a choice. Somewhat less bombs but don't drink the water, it's crap.

Or is ye olde surge actually having an effect?

The surge has not changed one thing that is fundamental to the situation in Iraq. All it has accomplished is being accomplished at the margins and can be easily reversed.

for millar--

http://blackblawg.blogspot.com/

Who would you rather have protecting you?
http://bp1.blogger.com/_5seys6Shk6Y/RwKyJr8_AUI/AAAAAAAAAEY/rHldsUXNTN8/s400/Trust.JPG

dood Waxman is the man

How good is Congressman Henry Waxman's investigative staff on the House Committee on Oversight? Pretty good, most agree. But pretty careless as well. The Wall Street Journal recently blew the whistle on a Waxman witness whose reliability is a big question, considering his convictions on forgery, burglary and welfare fraud.

Lt. Col. Oliver North, the highly decorated retired Marine who is now with Fox News, penned a scathing broadside against Congressman Henry Waxman, the California Democrat leading the fight to bring down the private security company that saves the lives of our diplomats every day in Iraq. North's column appeared in the September 28 edition of RealClearPolitics.com.

yes who could be more trustworthy than good ol convicted felon Oliver North

having a family member in the security detail of the state dept, that "saves the lives of our diplomats" tack pisses me off to no end

I wonder if Iran's still got any of those weapons Ollie sold them

A couple of the mullahs keep the Bible and cake McFarlane sent them behind glass.

lol @ blackblawg
all astroturf reacharound PR sites should just be called "blawgs" from now on, I like the folksy vibe

check out the latest price buster specials on walmartblawg.com
find out if you're a dollar menunaire at mcdsblawg
union commenters will be permabanned on sight at theplantblawg.org

love issa threatening waxman's life, that's class

what do you expect from a car thief

In a separate incident, a drunk Blackwater employee left a Christmas eve party in Baghdad and fatally shot the guard of one of Iraq's vice presidents. That contractor was fired, fined and returned home to the United States, but no charges have been filed.

Merrrrrry Christmas!

Various ex-Bush aides, including good ol' Rove, feel a bit flustered.

Great embassy too.

More on Eric Prince:

“I think that he thinks he is like Bruce Wayne in Batman,” said Robert Young Pelton, the author of “Licensed to Kill” (Crown Publishing Group), a book on contractors in Iraq, who is one of the few journalists to have interviewed Mr. Prince extensively. “Bruce Wayne lives in a mansion and then at night he is out in the bat cave with the Batmobile. And that is Erik. I think he is conflicted.”

http://biotech9.getmyip.com/~jammy/IED.gif

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2006/08/71585

hmm

It is 60 percent as radioactive as natural uranium

this is bad science and bad journalism and every time some bozo writer throws something like this out there in these stories it pisses me off no end. there are thousands of honest, useful statistics at your disposal in this case. please to stop not understanding how the world fucking works.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/18/europe/18turkey.php
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/21/europe/turkey.php
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/21/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Turkey.php

So is this political grandstanding, business as usual, or an actual scary development? Or all three?

"I don't think this place is worth another soldier's life."

needs more optimism

Clearly another Scott Beauchampesque traitor.

he needs to jump on the team and come on for the big win.

the very hawkish Small Wars Journal blog has a resounding anti-torture post up:

http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2007/10/waterboarding-is-torture-perio/

We live at a time where Americans, completely uninformed by an incurious media and enthralled by vengeance-based fantasy television shows like “24”, are actually cheering and encouraging such torture as justifiable revenge for the September 11 attacks. Having been a rescuer in one of those incidents and personally affected by both attacks, I am bewildered at how casually we have thrown off the mantle of world-leader in justice and honor. Who we have become? Because at this juncture, after Abu Ghraieb and other undignified exposed incidents of murder and torture, we appear to have become no better than our opponents.

With regards to the waterboard, I want to set the record straight so the apologists can finally embrace the fact that they condone and encourage torture.

...

2. Waterboarding is not a simulation. Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word.

Waterboarding is a controlled drowning that, in the American model, occurs under the watch of a doctor, a psychologist, an interrogator and a trained strap-in/strap-out team. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning. How much the victim is to drown depends on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into the victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to the final death spiral.

Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration –usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten with its use again and again.

enthralled by vengeance-based fantasy television shows like “24”

There's something so acidly perfect about this phrase and everything packed into it.

General Dorko injured

This sucks

Meantime. Of note:

The Army reportedly has a shortage of 3,000 captains and majors this year, and recently began offering them bonuses of up to $35,000 if they'd agree to remain on duty for another three years. The shortage was forecast to rise to 6,000 by 2010 as the Army tries to grow by 65,000.

Even with the offer of the cash bonus or free graduate school or their choice of assignments, the exodus of young officers continues to grow at a pace that worries commanders. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point was founded to educate career officers for the Army, and upon graduation each officer owes Uncle Sam five years on active duty. The hope is that most will remain for a full career, and historically just 28.8 percent have opted out after five years.

A total of 35 percent of the West Point Class of 2000 left the Army in 2005; 46 percent of the Class of 2001 left in 2006, and a staggering 58 percent of the Class of 2002 left active duty when their obligation expired this year.

Those figures are mirrored among officers who are commissioned through university ROTC programs, with attrition rates now at a 30-year high. The Army Reserve reports that the situation is even worse for critical ranks and specialties: The Reserve has only 58 percent of the sergeants first class it needs, 53 percent of the needed captains and 74 percent of needed majors.

It's clear that we're grinding up our seed corn in Iraq and Afghanistan. For much too long, the administration and former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld sought to fight their wars on the cheap, without adding desperately needed but expensive manpower to an Army that started with only 486,000 troops on active duty.

By the time the powers that be agreed to begin adding an additional 10,000 per year in a “temporary” increase, on top of the 80,000 it must enlist each year just to replace departing soldiers, getting young men and women to sign up had already become such a serious problem that the Army started paying enlistment bonuses of up to $20,000 for new recruits.

To make the numbers, the Army also has lowered its standards and begun accepting high school dropouts and offering waivers to sign up recruits with criminal records or physical problems and even some who scored in the lowest quarter on the armed services vocational aptitude test.

That's only made more trouble for those captains Adm. Mullen talked to this week. One complained to Mullen that he was forced to spend 80 percent of his time dealing with the 13 “problem children” in his 100-man company.

brain drain really hurts when you can't just stick any old dipshit into a position regardless of experience

They're smart enough to teach jumping jacks.

no one wins wars like an army composed of poor illiterate criminals eh

More on the diplomats being frogmarched to Baghdad:

The meeting was called to explain the "forced assignments" order made by state department human resources director Harry Thomas.

Last Friday, he notified about 250 "prime candidates" that they had been selected for one of 48 one-year postings at the embassy in Baghdad or in a Provincial Reconstruction Team elsewhere in the country.

They were given 10 days to reply.

Senior diplomat Jack Croddy, who once worked as a political adviser with Nato forces, highlighted safety fears of staff who would be forced to serve in a war zone.

"It's one thing if someone believes in what's going on over there and volunteers, but it's another thing to send someone over there on a forced assignment," Mr Croddy said.

"I'm sorry, but basically that's a potential death sentence and you know it. Who will raise our children if we are dead or seriously wounded?

"You know that at any other (country) in the world, the embassy would be closed at this point."

lol surge working

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15858187

A piece about a combat hospital psychiatrist. I'm mainly posting it because around 5:00 she tells an anecdote about a triple amputee (left with only one arm) who lightened up his ward by telling jokes. She refers to him, without irony, as "singlehandedly" changing the mood.

Good post but time for a new thread...