January
3, 2013. Chaos and violence continue, the neocons remain in the US
administration, protests continue in Iraq, Shi'ites join Sunnis in the
protests, US State Dept spokesperson Victoria Nuland smears the
protesters, Nuland can't define progress in Iraq or give an example,
the Turkish government is said to be in discussions with the PKK about a
ceasefire, the Defense Department needed over $500 million in Iraq this
fiscal year, and more.
A major bombing in
Iraq today has again underscored how there is no peace or end of war for
the country the US invaded in 2003 and now controls via the puppet
Nouri al-Maliki who was first installed in 2006. Today was the
culmination of the Arbaeen rituals which AFP estimated
resulted in 15 million pilgrims going to Karbala over the last tend
days. They explain, "Arbaeen marks 40 days after the Ashura anniversary
commemorating the slaying of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam's most
revered figures, by the armies of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD. Sad songs
blared from loudspeakers throughout the city and black flags fluttered
alongside pictures of Hussein and his half-brother Imam Abbas, both of
whom are buried in the city." A pilgrim from Basra explained how long
it had taken him to get to Karbala on foot and how he was taking part
to defy terrorism. That was before the bomb struck. CNN reports it was a car bomb in nearby Musayyib. Mu Xuequan (Xinhua) adds,
"A police source in Babil province told Xinhua on condition of
anonymity that the blast took place at a car park when pilgrims returned
from the Shiite holy city of Karbala in southern Iraq." BBC News cites
a police source for their news that "the bomb went off close to a bus
stop where coaches that carry pilgrims from Karbala to other Iraqi
cities drop and collect them." Reuters quotes
eye witness Ali Sabbar, "I was getting a sandwich when a very strong
explosion rocked the place and the blast threw me away. When i regained
my senses and stood up, I saw dozens of bodies. Many cars were set on
fire. I just left the place and didn't even participate in the
evacuation of the victims." NBC News Wire Services quotes
teacher Ibrahim Mohammed stating, "The explosion shook the whole block
and smashed the windows of my house. I ran to the scene of the
explosion only to find charred bodies and burning cars. There were
women screaming and searching for their missing children."
Let's move from real violence to pretense and also to money -- the US taxpayer money.
First up, Victoria Nuland. We've covered Icky Vicky
repeatedly. For those late to the party, she was the Deputy National
Security Advisor to Dick Cheney during Bully Boy Bush's first term which
allowed her to take Dick's plans for world domination and help make
them happen. She is not a neocon just because she worked for Dick
Cheney on 'national security.' She is also a neocon because she married
into the Kagan family which is the neocon family.
In
the 60s, the US government's war on Vietnam allowed some Communists in
the US to take stands on peace and on fairness. It allowed other
Communists to go running for a Daddy to comfort them from their night
terrors. Donald Kagan is one of those former lefties who ended up a
conservative -- although this transformation was also said to be in part
as a result of Cornell creating a Black Studies program. He is one of
the leading lights (or dimmest bulbs) in what is the neoconservative
movement. With the Project for the New American Century in 1997,
they began publicly calling for war on Iraq. Donald Kagan is
Victoria's father-in-law. She's married to Robert Kagan (who is a
neocon -- and probably their strongest theorist -- but he rejects the
label). Her brother-in-law is Fred Kagan and her sister-in-law is
Kimberly Kagan. Donald, Fred and Robert all signed the Project for the
New American Century screed entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses."
Fred has a wide ranging background with a variety of fields and
expertises. Most recently, as Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Washington Post) exposed,
it was learned that he and Kimbergly Kagan were advising then Gen David
Petraeus while he was heading up the US mission in Afghanistan.
Kimberly Kagan is seen as the most personable of the Kagans. She
married Fred and is liked by the press because she's seen as less
intense as the others (including Nuland). She's in charge of the
Institute for the Study of War. Victoria and her family all wanted
war on Iraq.
Somehow it was decided, after
Barack Obama was elected president based on his pretense of being
against the Iraq War, that Victoria Nuland was the perfect face for the
State Dept -- begging the question of had anyone seen that face?
QUESTION:
On Iraq, what do you make of the protest in Iraq? I mean, obviously,
there are more – they're now in Anbar, in Mosul, and they're even –
they've moved to the – blocking the highway that connects Iraq into
Syria and Jordan, the international highway, and they're protesting
against the – Maliki's regime, their government, they're against what
they call sectarian practices, arresting women and torturing them.
That's – these are their claims. What do you make of these protests?
MS.
NULAND: Well, first, let me just make the general statement that we
always make, which is that we support the right of peaceful protest
around the world. That said, we have been concerned by violence by
parties during these protests, and we call on all those involved to
exercise restraint, to respect that right of peaceful expression, and to
apply that right responsibly without inciting further tensions. And any
actions by any party to subvert the rule of law or provoke ethnic and
sectarian tensions risks undermining the significant progress that Iraq
has made towards peace and stability, and the important work that the
U.S. and Iraq have been doing together.
So we want to see
these difficult issues settled through consultation among Iraqi
leaders, and we want to see them reach an agreement on the path forward
for Iraq.
The Iraqi protests have not been
violent. They've been taking place since December 21st and only one
has had any violence -- when an unpopular politician showed up, refused
to take the stage and his guards fired on protesters. I filled in for Rebecca last night and noted
that Nuland was deliberately distorting reality in order to play the
protesters as 'wrong doers.' Sure enough, the Albany Times, reporting
on her remarks at the press conference, headlines their piece The Albany Tribune headlines this 'news,' " U.S. Concerned Over Violent Protests in Iraq."
She knew exactly what she was doing.
It's interesting, isn't it, that she didn't rush to talk about the need to allow the press to do their work? As noted in Friday's snapshot, Nouri used the military to keep reporters away from protests so that they couldn't cover them.
In
today's press briefing, Nuland experienced a little push back on the
topic of Pakistan and on the topic of Iraq. Here she is taking offense
to a pretty fair characterization of her lackadaisical, flat affect when
it comes to Iraq.
MS. NULAND: Yeah.
QUESTION:
The country is teetering nearly on the verge of explosion yet we are – I
am struck by your position towards what's going on in Iraq. I mean,
there is a threat that Kurdistan may break away. There are elements of –
there is heightened sectarian tension, there is violence going on every
day, and so on. And your reaction is like that of Switzerland. I mean,
the United States has invested blood and treasure, to repeat the common
term, in Iraq. Yet, share with us what are you doing behind the scene to
basically mitigate this explosive situation?
MS.
NULAND: Well, I would completely reject your characterization of our
dialogue and our interaction with Iraq and Iraqis. We have been
extraordinarily active for many, many months now with Iraqis of all
stripes and all groups, and maintaining the highest level contact with
leaders across the country in support of political dialogue among them
to protect and preserve the gains that they have made, and the
constitutional structure of the country that provides for human rights
protections and power sharing among the various different Iraqi groups.
So
you know that we want to see Iraq continue on a stable, peaceful,
democratic trajectory. That's going to – that takes work. It takes
commitment by all forces in Iraq. And we've been making the general
point about issues of concern between communities being settled by
dialogue. But we've also been quite active when individual issues have
cropped up, including recently with regard to Iraqi forces in the
Peshmerga, et cetera. So we are continuing to be enormously vigilant. We
have an enduring commitment and agreement to support Iraq, but it is
undergirded by our desire to see Iraqi democracy protected in all of its
forms.
QUESTION:
On that very point, on the constitution, and it was shepherded by the
United States of America, there are some major things that have not been
followed through on despite commitment to the contrary, like the
hydrocarbon law.
MS. NULAND: Right.
QUESTION:
Like the power sharing. Like many, many, other things, Article 140 that
regulates whatever between Kurdistan and the central government. Could
you share with us how much progress have you made in the last two, three
years?
MS.
NULAND: Well, again, I don't think anybody's satisfied by how difficult
it's been to resolve some of these issues that have never gotten
settled, including the question of the hydrocarbon law and energy
sharing, et cetera, inside Iraq. I think Iraqis, among all of us, are
the most frustrated by that. But, again, these issues can only be solved
politically, they can only be solved democratically, they can only be
solved through dialogue. That's the course that we continue to urge, and
we continue to use our influence to try to encourage Iraqis to talk to
each other and work through these issues.
The
point of the neocons was war with Iraq and they latched onto Nouri
al-Maliki as the answer to stealing Iraq's oil. That's why the Bush
administration installed him in 2006 and why Barack Obama refused to let
Iraqiya have the prime minister post in 2010 despite the fact that
Iraqiya beat Nouri's State of Law in the parliamentary elections.
(Doubt Barack's neocon connections. Listen to the 2012 State of the
Union address again -- that's Robert Kagan's The World America Made that he's riffing on, as even Random House noted.) Michael Rubin's a neocon as well (you don't post pieces like this one unless you're a neocon). Rubin's not an idiot. So at Commentary today,
he really isn't as stupid as he comes off. He's lying the way neocons
always lie. Protests are taking place in Iraq against Nouri. Against
Nouri. Rubin knows that. Rubin knows Nouri's a joke on the
international stage. Rubin knows the best way to distort the protests
and improve Nouri's image is to pretend that the protests are
"anti-Shi'ite." Here are facts that Rubin hopes you don't know Ayad
Allawi, head of Iraqiya, is Shi'ite. Allawi has endorsed the
protesters. Moqtada al-Sadr, Shi'ite cleric and movement leader, has
endorsed the protests. Today another Shi'ite group endorsed the
protesters.
These are not anti-Shi'ite
protests. But Rubin hopes if he lies about it, it'll take some of the
pressure off Nouri, the neocon pet. Getting rid of Bush did not end the
neocons. In fact, Rubin still is the adviser to US military officers
when they're about to be shipped off to the Middle East. Do you get how
offensive that is? This is under Barack's administration.
Please
grasp that the US government has spent and wasted billions of tax payer
dollars on Iraq -- on the illegal war, on propping up puppet Nouri and
so much more. When Bully Boy Bush was in the White House, the State
Dept was required to publish a weekly report on Iraq -- and they did.
Back then, the Defense Dept was in charge of the billions. Now it's the
State Dept in charge and in charge of billions of dollars. In Fiscal
Year 2013 (which started October 1, 2012), the State Dept plans to spend
$4.8 billion in Iraq. How? Don't you know the State Dept is not
accountable to you the taxpayer. Apparently, the State Dept is like the
Bell Telephone Company before the break up. "We are not subject to
city, state or federal legislation. We are ominpotent," Lily Tomlin's Ernestine used to say.
They
won't answer the Congress, they won't answer the Special Inspector
General on Iraq Reconstruction. No one can get a straight answer out of
them. In a functioning democracy, they would be denied all Iraq
funding as a result. And asked today, "Could you share with us how much
progress have you made in the last two, three years," Nuland had
nothing to offer. How telling. $4.8 billion wasted this year that
could have been better spent.
Instead, they get the bulk of Iraq funding. The bulk. Not the only.
The
US Defense Dept is still in Iraq, still spending money despite claims
that all US troops are out. Look at the DoD's budget request for FY2013
[PDF format warning, click here]. It is in this Feburary 2012 document that you'll find all sorts of interesting information including this:
Years
of effort have helpd enable the Iraqi government to take the lead in
protecting its people and providing essential services. While U.S.
forces will continue to play important roles in providing force
protection and targeted counterterrorism operations, there are no
performance goals included in the Department's Annual Performance Plans
(Exhibit B) in FY 2012 and FY 2013 for this objective area.
That's
chapter seven's page thirty-seven, by the way. (Each chapter in the
request starts numbering their pages with page one, FYI.) On chapter
six's page five, you'll find this:
OSC-I:
$508 million for the operation of the Office of Security Cooperation -
Iraq (OSC-I), which is a cornerstone for achieving the long-term U.S.
goal of building parternship capacity in the Iraqi Security Forces
(ISF). The OSC-I will conduct the full range of traditional security
cooperation activities such as joint exercise planning, combined arms
training, conflict resolution, multilateral peace opeartions, senior
level visits and other forms of bilateral engagement. Additionally, the
OSC-I will conduct security cooperation activities in support of the
ISF to include providing: Academy instructors; Ministerial and Service
level advisors; logistic and operations capacity building; intelligence
integration; and interagency collabortion. The OSC-I is the critical
Defense component of the U.S. Mission Iraq and a foundational element of
our long-term strategic partnership with Iraq.
$508 million. That's a pretty big figure when Barack kept saying in the debates that he brought all US troops home.
Let's move over to the protests that the US administration refuses to support. Alsumaria reports
Nineveh Province Governor Ethel al-Nujaifi (also spelled Atheel) noted
today that the protests against Nouri al-Maliki and his oppressive
government continue. He states that the demonstrations will continue
until the protesters demands are met. The Governor is the brother of
Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi and yesterday their family suffered a loss when the son of their cousin Abdul-Rahman Khalid al-Nujaifi was shot dead in Mosul. AFP reports
today that the son killed, Abdulrahman al-Nujaifi, was only
ten-years-old and that Governor al-Nujaifi states Nouri's anti-terror
brigade killed the child, "This anti-terrorist brigade, we call it the
golden brigade, in Mosul, opened fire on the car and killed the young
boy in public, in front of everyone. They followed the car, and they
opened fire with no regard. The young boy was in the car with his
brothers and the driver, returning from school."
Nineveh Province is only one area where the protests are taking place. UPI notes,
"Sunni communities in Anbar set up a tent city near the provincial
capital of Ramadi to protest Maliki's government, the BBC reports. A
protest banner on a tent warns "the sectarian government" against
dragging the country into war." Alsumaria observes
that banners and slogans in Anbar are calling for harmony and unity and
they demand that Nouri's government correct itself from the path its
on. The Economist offers this perspective on the protests:
A
recent wave of protests across the mainly Sunni areas to the north and
west of Baghdad, including strikes and sit-ins, has sharpened sectarian
strife. Sunnis were particularly outraged last month when the bodyguards
of the Sunni finance minister, Rafi al-Issawi, were arrested.
That
provoked memories of a similar episode a year ago, when Mr Maliki's men
jailed, tortured and sentenced to death the guards of the
vice-president, Tareq al-Hashemi, another leading Sunni, accusing them
of being part of a death-squad that was targeting Shias. Mr Hashemi fled
to the Iraqi Kurds' capital, Erbil, and now resides in Turkey. He was
later sentenced to death in absentia. A serious illness that has
recently befallen Iraq's mainly ceremonial president, Jalal Talabani, a
Kurd who has sometimes acted effectively as a mediator above the
sectarian fray, has further jangled Iraqi nerves.
As the protests continue, they gather additional support. The Iraq Times reports
that Baqir Jabr al-Zubeidi has declared this political party is in
solidarity with the protesters. al-Zubeidi is a high ranking member in
the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (led by Ameer al-Hakim). al-Zubeidi
was the Iraq Minister of Finance during Nouri al-Maliki's first term as
prime minister. Kitabat notes
the statement's significance is due to the "broad popular support" the
Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (a Shi'ite group) enjoys in Iraq and
within the government. The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq's
endoresement of the protesters follows cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr's earlier endorsement this week. Michael Jansen (Irish Times) covers the endorsement and offers this compare and contrast between Nouri and Moqtada:
For
a majority of Iraqis, Mr Maliki represents the Iran-nurtured Shia
fundamentalists who returned to Iraq under US auspices after its
invasion and occupation of the country.
By contrast, Mr Sadr
(39) was born and raised in Iraq during the last years of the regime of
Saddam Hussein and has projected himself as an independent Iraqi
nationalist. A middle-ranking cleric, he is the son and son-in-law of
grand ayatollahs Mohamed Sadeq al-Sadr and Mohamed Baqr al-Sadr, both
revered religious figures assassinated by the ousted regime.
Discord
between Mr Maliki and the populace has intensified due to his inability
to deliver electricity, water, jobs and security since 2006 when he
first became prime minister. According to Iraq Body Count's conservative
estimates, last year's death toll from bombings and shootings reached
more than 5,000, topping the 4,136 of 2011.
Al-Monitor translates an Al-Hayat article by Mushreq Abbas on the protests which includes:
Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
has stepped up his campaign against Maliki and warned him of an "Iraqi
Spring." On the other hand, Maliki has threatened to disperse
demonstrations by force.
With the return of prominent cleric
Abdul-Malik al-Saadi to Iraq and his immediate joining of the
demonstrations that are gaining ground in Sunni cities, sources confirm
that it will not be long before Sadr's supporters do the same in Shiite
cities.
Since his return, Saadi has changed the inclination
of demonstrators in Anbar and other cities. He sought to eliminate
sectarian slogans and flags from the former regime and give the
demonstrations a national impetus. He also called on prominent Shiite
figures to give the demonstrations their blessing.
MP Jawad Alshahyla is with Sadr's bloc in Parliament and he tells Alsumaria
that if Nouri dares to use force against the protesters, it will
immediately trigger an Arab Spring across Iraq. Iraqiya has also voiced
its support for the protesters and Alsumaria reports
that the Ayad Allawi led political slate today called for an end to
corruption, an end to the targeting on large segments of Iraqis and an
ended to attempts to marginalize various groups of Iraqis. This refers
to Nouri's targeting of various groups including Sunnis and Kurds. Xinhua notes that Nouri allowed in a statement yesterday that the protesters might have some point and the outlet explains:
For
more than a week, thousands of Sunnis have been taking to the streets
to hold anti-government demonstrations in several Sunni-dominated
provinces protesting against marginalization by the Shiite-led
government as well as targeting the Sunni community by arresting
hundreds of their sons.
The demonstrators also accused the
Shiite-dominated security forces of arresting women instead of the
wanted male of their family members.
Christine Hauser (New York Times) has a brief write-up on Nouri's speech yesterday. Ted Galen Carpenter (National Interest) notes the "American news media" lacks interest in Iraq and he presents a number of issues that raise concern such as:
The Maliki regime's political practices grow ever more worrisome. Not only is corruption on the rise, but there is a steady erosion of political freedoms.
Journalists who dare to be critical of the prime minister and his
allies increasingly complain of harassment and sometimes outright
censorship. Maliki's security bureaucracy has detained hundreds of
former officials, accusing them of supporting a return to Ba'athist
Party dictatorial rule. Although some of those allegations may be true,
the government has cast a very wide and indiscriminate net.
An
especially ominous development occurred when the Maliki administration
charged Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi with treason --
specifically with running anti-government death squads. Hashemi, one of
Iraq's leading Sunni Arab politicians and a leader of the Iraqiya
political bloc, vehemently maintained his innocence and fled the
country.
A report by the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War concluded
that Maliki seems to be conducting a concerted campaign to stifle
dissent and political opposition. "He has made it more difficult for his
Shi'ite rivals to dissent," the report stated, "while simultaneously
confining his Sunni opponents in a position suitable for exerting
pressure and exploiting divisions within their ranks."
Raheem Salman, Ahmed Rasheed, Isabel Coles and Kevin Liffey (Reuters) report
that Sunni cleric Khaled al-Mullah is representing the protesters in
talks with Nouri and that Nouri states he will declare a special pardon
which would allow approximately 700 female prisoners to be released out
of 920. That may or may not address one of the issues. May or may
not? Nouri's not real good about following up on verbal promises or
written ones. And if that doesn't sound fair, you're not only missing
his past record, you're missing the rest of the story. Ammar Karim (AFP) reports
the women aren't going anywhere just yet. What's being reported isn't
what Nouri's promised. What Nouri promised? That he would "write to
the president to issue a special amnesty to release them." That would be
President Jalal Talabani. Nouri's not releasing anyone. And he's
writing to Jalal who left Iraq for Germany in a medical transport from
an illness/condition that no one with his office or his family has
identified. (Nouri's office stated Jalal had a stroke.)
The
700 most likely will never be released. Just like his lie of "give me
100 days and I'll stop the corrpution." He lies to defuse the anger.
100 days passed and he had no plan and didn't do a damn thing. Today Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) reports
"Iraqi authorities" are going to release 11. No, not really. If the
11 families -- in poverty striken Iraq -- can raise the money for a fee
(they're calling it "bail"), then the women -- who have no charges
against them -- can finally come home. That's not being released.
Today's protests throughout Iraq saw a development that Michael Rubin
just can't handle. AFP reports,
"In a sign of cross-sectarian anger with the government of Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki, meanwhile, hundreds of protesters from
mostly-Shiite provinces in south Iraq joined the rallies, days after a
powerful Shiite cleric voiced support for the demonstrations."
Citizens
will be eager to cast their votes, for they wish to eliminate former
figures from the scene. Iraqis' experience with these officials was not
pleasant; they heard many promises but unemployment rates remained high,
services stayed just as bad as ever and the security situation
continued to deteriorate. Iraqis have observed up close their outrageous
behaviors, as they went to-and-fro to their bureaus.
Democratic
Iraq has undergone many electoral experiences that uncovered a
deep-seated collective resentment. Promises have never been met and
candidates turned a deaf ear after they were elected. Such a recurrence
has pushed Iraqi voters into a state of deep regret that is expressed in
private, in public and on satellite channels.
Alsumaria reports
that Diwaniya Province has announced 478 candidates will be running in
their provincial elections (130 are women). (There are 650,000 voters
in the province.)
In other news, All Iraq News reports
that there is no deal between Baghdad and Erbil and the military
stand-off in the disputed areas continues. The KRG Ministry of
Peshmerga says of their Erbil meeting with a delegation from the Iraqi
Ministry of Defense yesterday did not result in an agreement and that
differences on several key points remain. Erbil is the capital of the
Kurdistan Regional Government -- the semi-autonomous region in northern
Iraq. Fars News Agency notes, "Turkish Fighter jets bombed over 20 targets of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Northern Iraq late Monday." Trend News Agency points out, "The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has lasted over 25 years." Aaron Hess (International Socialist Review) described the PKK in 2008,
"The PKK emerged in 1984 as a major force in response to Turkey's
oppression of its Kurdish population. Since the late 1970s, Turkey has
waged a relentless war of attrition that has killed tens of thousands
of Kurds and driven millions from their homes. The Kurds are the world's
largest stateless population -- whose main population concentration
straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria -- and have been the victims of
imperialist wars and manipulation since the colonial period. While
Turkey has granted limited rights to the Kurds in recent years in order
to accommodate the European Union, which it seeks to join, even these
are now at risk." Today the World Tribune reports
the government of Turkey is in talks with the PKK on a disarmament
treaty, "Officials said Turkey's intelligence community was examining
the prospect of a long-term ceasefire with the PKK. They said the
intelligence community offered the PKK a range of options after Ankara
determined that Kurdish insurgents could not be defeated militarily." This follows their report from yesterday that Turkey was speaking to Abdullah Ocalan (imprisoned PKK leader) about a ceasefire. Hurriyet Daily News adds,
"Peace and Democracy Party Deputy Ayla Akat Ata, lawyer Meral Danış and
independent deputy Ahmet Türk traveled to İmralı Island on Jan.3 to
meet with the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
Abdullah Öcalan, according to daily Radikal."
Moving
over to the US, Senator Patty Murray is the Chair of the Senate
Veterans Affairs Committee and her office issued the following today:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 3rd, 2013
CONTACT: Murray Press Office
(202) 224-2834
MILITARY SUICIDE: Murray Effort to Create Standardized Suicide Prevention Program Signed into Law by President Obama
New
law will eliminate gaps in care from one service to the next; change
comes in response to major review of military suicide prevention
programs
(Washington,
D.C.) -- Today, an amendment sponsored by U.S. Senator Patty Murray,
Chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, that would require
the Pentagon to implement a standardized and comprehensive suicide
prevention program was signed into law by the President as part of the
National Defense Authorization Act (S.3254). Murray crafted the
amendment after a major study by the RAND Corporation
showed that there are serious gaps and a lack of consistency in
military services' suicide prevention programs. The new law comes as
the number of active duty suicides continues to rise with 2012 exceeding
2011.
"This law is another step forward in
our efforts to ensure that servicemembers aren't slipping through the
cracks," said Senator Murray. "It will help to not only standardize
suicide prevention efforts, but also contains provisions to reduce wait
times, ensure proper diagnoses, and achieve true coordination of care
and information between the Pentagon and the VA. We cannot afford to be
passive about the military suicide epidemic we face. We must continue
to respond with every legislative and outreach effort possible in order
to turn this tragic trend around."
Senator
Murray's amendment [calls on] the Department of Defense to create a
comprehensive, standardized suicide prevention program; expand
eligbility for Department of Veterans Affairs mental health services to
family members; strengthen oversight of DoD Mental Health Care and the
Integrated Disability Evaluation System; improve training and education
for our health care providers; create more peer-to-peer counseling
opportunities; and require VA to establish accurate and reliable
measures for mental health services. For more information on Senator
Murray's ACCESS Act which was signed into law as part of the Defense
Authorization Act visit:
###
Matt McAlvanah
Communications Director
U.S. Senator Patty Murray
202-224-2834 - press office
202--224-0228 - direct
Turning to radio, Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford are the hosts of the weekly Black Agenda Radio ( here for this week's broadcast) which airs on Progressive Radio Network each
Monday from 11:00 am to noon EST. This week they explore a number of
topics including an anti-lynching march in Dover, Delaware on January
15th and the NAACP with Reverend Edward Pinkney who feels the
organization's strayed far from its roots and is organizating a picket
outside the February 1st NAACP Image Awards and with David Lowrey who
explains how he went from President of the Chicago South Suburban
chapter to non-member. Excerpt.
David
Lowrey: This started on October 4th, when I received a call from Lewis
Raymond who is one of the regional managers for the re-election Obama
campaign. He tried to convince me to use my branch, to be able to
disimenate information as well as get people registered to vote for the
Democratic ticket in the upcoming election. After I refused to do that,
because I'm an independent, Mr. Raymond got upset with me and told me
he had been watching me and that he knew everything about me as well as
go on to say that they would deal with me -- then hung up in my face. So
I didn't know at the time who he was. I reported it to the police
because of my position and being in a national organization like the
NAACP we run into some situations when we try to stand up and do the
right thing. So we made a police report of it. WBBM Channel 2
got a hold of it. It went viral. And so the media was looking to
interview me about the incident. So I did do a show on Sirus Radio Rob
Redding News Review. I did this on the fourth. And so I started
talking about the issue of what happened. I had spoke to the state
president George Mitchell and told him what happened as well. After
that show aired, maybe six or seven days later, that was when I was
supposedly suspended when Ben Jealous heard it. But this is what
actually happened, the show had aired and then they did hear it but they
came at me with a cease-and-desist letter. And I had already complied
with that. I'd spoken to the state president and told him, you know,
man, I haven't said anything out of line, everything I said was true,
that President Obama has not addressed any kind of issues in the Black
community such as economic development, employment and education and
all the other things that the situation face every day. He hasn't said
one word.' And so when the state president heard the WBBM clip, he sent
me a letter telling me to cease-and-desist -- as if I was trying to
hurt President Obama's re-election and accomplishments, all that kind of
stuff. So I sent him a letter back saying I'd adhere to it but my
freedom and right to speak is my own and cannot be dicated by the NAACP
national office. So the word was getting around, other people were
calling me about interviews and so Ben Jealous finally did hear it.
That was when they ordered me to be suspended. But that wasn't what they
suspended me about as well. They were looking for something and when I
rebutted the fact that I had not been partisan to any party -- because
at first they said that I was being partisan to the Republican Party by
talking about Romney and not Obama. So when I dismissed that, then
they came back and said that I was going to be suspended for supporting
President Obama. [Laughs.] So I filed an appeal and I'm waiting to
hear from that but in the meantime they tried to conduct an election.
And one of the guys, Gil Ford, who is over the membership branch, he and
I have not been friends over the years so they suspended me plus my
membership so that I couldn't even run for office over this branch
again. And after this incident happened, I did a news piece at Redding
News again. I found out that there's been several other NAACP
presidents who they've done this to that took a dead branch -- I had 12
members when I started and now that branch has swollen to over 300.
I've written legislation -- House Bill 5665 that deals with illegal
foreclosures here in the state of Illinois -- that is now at the Senate
getting ready to go committee. We've gotten people jobs, we've worked
at re-entry people, we've done so many things out here in the
Southland that have promoted equality and respect for the branch that I
didn't actually understand what they wanted because they didn't want
that. We got no support from national. So I'm excited to hear back what
the NAACP has to say regarding my appeal that I filed. And after I
hear from that, then I'll take this to the next level because I'm
recommending that people who have experienced the unaccountability of
the NAACP in the Black community -- and yet they get millions of dollars
to say that they're doing things -- and yet they cannot be partisan and
we all know for a fact that they are a political machine for the
Democratic Party. So I'm getting a petition together and you can go to
my website at http://www.livingdrivingwhileblack.net/
and tell people to sign the petition and let's get the NAACP back to
the table because I'm going to request the IRS revoke their national
charter until they get themselves back to what it's all about and that's
freedom fighting for people of color.
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