Tiny clay figures are reminders of growing Iraq death toll
By xofferson | Docudharma

Nearly 100,000 hand-fired clay figures, representing lives lost in the Iraq war, will be the backdrop on Friday for an Iraq Moratorium action in the California community of Aptos, near Santa Cruz.

The display is the work of artist Kathleen Crocetti, a high school art teacher, who told the San Jose Mercury News:

"I'm doing this to help people visualize the number of people killed in the Iraq war. We need a physical connection to that number. I thought we went into the war under false pretenses, and I can't sanction pre-emptive war. I feel such shame and sadness in my name as an American," she said. "I feel responsible for the pain and grief because of this war."

The 4,000-plus small white clay figures, each holding a U.S. flag, represent dead American service members. The 92,000 dark clay figures, behind the Americans like a shadow, represent Iraqis. She uses the number from Iraq Body Count, which includes documented civilian deaths. It is a very conservative number; others estimate the count could be as high as a million.

Intelligence study sees risks in rapid global power shift
By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The risks of a nuclear weapon being used and wars being fought over dwindling resources will grow during the next 20 years as diminishing U.S. power, a shift of wealth from West to East, the rise of India and China and climate change reshape the world, a new U.S. intelligence study warned Thursday.

"The international system — as constructed following the Second World War — will be almost unrecognizable by 2025 owing to the rise of emerging powers, a globalizing economy, an historic transfer of relative wealth and economic power from West to East, and the growing influence of non-state actors," the report said.

Contractors in Iraq could face charges in earlier incidents
By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

Private security contractors operating in Iraq could face Iraqi prosecution for acts committed when they supposedly had immunity from Iraqi law, U.S. officials said Thursday.

A new U.S.-Iraq security agreement doesn't specifically prevent Iraqi officials from bringing criminal charges retroactively in cases such as the September 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians by contractors protecting a State Department convoy, officials told security company officials during meetings in Washington Thursday.

The news caught company officials by surprise.

Unofficial Translation of U.S. - Iraq Troop Agreement from the Arabic Text
By McClatchy Newspapers | McClatchy Newspapers | Submitted by Michael Munk | www.MichaelMunk.com

Translated from the Arabic by Sahar Issa, Jenan Hussein and Hussein Kadhim of the McClatchy Baghdad Bureau.

An Agreement between the Republic of Iraq and the United States of America regarding the Withdrawal of the American Forces from Iraq and Regulating their Activities During their Temporary Presence in it

Based on a letter that will be sent from the President of the United States to the Prime Minister of Iraq, the United States will remain committed to helping Iraq in regard to the demand it submitted to the Security Council to extend the protection and other arrangements regarding petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas produced in Iraq and the resources and commitments that stem from these sales and the Development Fund of Iraq, these are the arrangements defined in the two resolutions of the Security Council (1483)(2003) and (1546)(2003).

Extrajudicial Assassinations As Official Israeli Policy
by Stephen Lendman

Extra-judicial killings are indefensible, morally abhorrent, and illegal under international laws and norms. Article 23b of the 1907 Hague Regulations prohibits "assassination, proscription, or outlawry of an enemy, or putting a price upon an enemy's head, as well as offering a reward for any enemy 'dead or alive.' "

Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." UDHR also recognizes the "inherent dignity (and the) equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family."

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[Note for readers: TomDispatch Associate Editor Nick Turse, has the lead piece at the Nation magazine this week and it's a sobering walk down memory lane. "A My Lai a Month" is an exposé of American war crimes and the slaughter of thousands of civilians in Vietnam's Mekong Delta in the late 1960s, events about which, until Turse uncovered them almost 40 years later, little was known and less reported. Kudos to the Nation for publishing the piece. It's hard to read it and not wonder what the Nick Turses of 2048 will be writing about our present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.]

National Archives Building Occupied Again by Veterans for Peace
by Mike Ferner

At one point a Boy Scout troop came by and one of the vets on the ground crew smiled and said, "You boys can get your democracy badge here if you check this out." The scoutmaster, visibly unhappy with the display said, "Well, the troops sure aren't going to like this." "We are the troops," the vet responded.

"I could see your banners three blocks away," the young man said excitedly. "And since I knew they were hanging on the Archives building, I wondered if it might be some kind of free speech exhibit so I had to come over and see."

The National Archives Building does indeed house originals of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights which specifically guarantees freedom of speech. But this was no Archives-sponsored exhibit. It was the real thing.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapses, falls unconscious during speech in Washington
By MATT APUZZO and LARA JAKES JORDAN, AP

Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed during a speech Thursday night and lost consciousness, a Justice Department official said.

The 67-year-old Mukasey was rushed to George Washington University Hospital, where his condition was not immediately known.

Mukasey was delivering a speech to the Federalist Society at a Washington hotel when "he just started shaking and he collapsed," said Associate Attorney General Kevin O'Connor. "They're very concerned."

Mukasey was 15 to 20 minutes into his speech about the Bush administration's successes in combatting terrorism when he began slurring his words. He collapsed and lost consciousness, said O'Conner, the department's No. 3 official.

Talks about pardoning a turkey and cooking a turkey while turkeys are killed and bled behind her.

Democracy Now!.

New Channel 5.

Cheney's lawyer files motion to quash indictment.

Judge Patricia Wald, former chief judge for the D.C. Court of Appeals and jurist on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, writing in the new report "Guantánamo and Its Aftermath" (pdf):

By Adam Ashton, McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD - Iraqi and American leaders say that a new security pact will have all U.S. forces and military contractors out of Iraq by 2012, but 14th Ramadan Street is skeptical.

"Americans won't leave," said Mazin Ali, 30, a coach driver. "They are the decision makers in all Iraq. The decision is theirs."

He and others on 14th Ramadan Street, a commercial strip in Baghdad's Mansour district, see too many signs of a long-term American commitment to believe that the U.S. will withdraw on the timetable in the so-called status of forces agreement.

"It is not reasonable, because even if it was true and they would commit to the dates, there are great big loopholes," said Khalid Muhsin Abid, 57, pointing to the sprawling new, nearly $600 million U.S. Embassy compound on the Tigris River as evidence that the U.S. will stay.

Iraqi leaders, however, say that the agreement will end the U.S. occupation of their country that began in March 2003.

Many people have been asking us, "Could Bush actually pardon himself?". Would it be despicable? Sure it would. Would it be shameless and cowardly? Yes, that and that too. But all those adjectives fit Bush like O.J.'s glove before it shrunk from being soaked completely in blood. Which means he is absolutely is planning on doing it.

And only impeachment could stop it. We need to talk about this. We need Congress to talk about this. And Congress is in session this week, so we need you to speak out this week while there is still time.

Impeach Now Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/impeach_now.php

Tens of thousands of you submitted the action page on this last week. Do it again. Please speak out again while we still can. There is already a drum beat in the right wing media calling on Bush to pardon his whole administration. Only our voices can raise the price of such action so that there would be real consequences.

From American Freedom Campaign Action Fund

Does this sound right to you?

Next week, the Iraqi Parliament is expected to vote on whether to approve an agreement setting the terms of the ongoing military relationship between the United States and Iraq. So far, so good. A legislative body, representing the people of a nation, shall determine the extent to which that nation's future will be intertwined with that of another.

Of course, one would expect that the United States Congress would be given the same opportunity. That, however, is not the case. Or at least it is not what the Bush administration is allowing to happen. Shockingly, the Bush administration is not even letting Congress read the full agreement before it is signed!

We need you to send a message immediately to U.S. House and Senate leaders, urging them to demand the constitutional input and approval to which they are entitled.

After Torture: Discussing a Plan for Justice in the Post-Bush Era

An Open Forum hosted by the NYC Center on Law and Security and Harper's Magazine.

War Crimes Conference – Retrospectives and Prospects
'Identifying war crimes and the perpetrators is a key part of post-conflict resolution'

Venue: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

When: February 20/21 2009

Prisoner of Conscience Robin Long's Letter to Obama

By Robin Long, prisoner of conscience | November 6, 2008

Dear President-elect Obama,

My name is Robin Long. I am currently serving a 15-month sentence at a Naval brig in California. I am locked up for refusing to participate in the invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq, a military action I felt was wrong and an action condemned by most of the international community.

It was illegal and immoral.

Iraq War resister Tony Anderson sentenced to 14 months
By Susan Lazare | Courage to Resist for AlterNet

19 year-old Army private Tony Anderson was court martialed Monday and sentenced to 14 months of confinement and given a dishonorable discharge from the military for "desertion with intent to avoid hazardous duty" and "disobeying a lawful order." The young soldier refused to deploy to Iraq in July of this year on the grounds of conscientious objection to war.

"I know in my heart that it is wrong to willfully hurt or kill another human being. I simply cannot do it. I don't regret following my conscience," he said at his trial as he struggled to compose himself. "I know there must be consequences for my actions and I must accept this fact."

Donate to Tony's defense here. For the next two weeks, you can write to him at: Tony Anderson / El Paso County Sheriff's Office / 2739 E. Las Vegas / Colorado Springs, CO 80906