Iraq

Haditha, Iraq, jihadi propaganda, John Murtha

Murtha and jihadi TV still holier than thou over Haditha Marine’s acquittal

by  • 

On its ‘about page,’ Al Sumaria TV states:

We are … An independent Iraqi Satellite TV Network that transmits on Nilesat and Arabsat from its temporary offices in Lebanon [all emphasis added mine]. Alsumaria was established by a group of professional businessmen in 2004. It includes a solid staff of 300 employees in Iraq and 150 in Lebanon. In a span of two years, Alsumaria has managed to become one of the most dynamic and watched TV stations in Iraq.

We strongly believe in a unified Iraq and continuously strive to be neutral and at the same distance with all Iraqis regardless of their political or religious backgrounds. Alsumaria TV wants to show the world that Iraq isn’t a country where everyday people suffer and die, but rather a place where people live, work, get married and struggle to lead long and normal existence.
…
We aim towards quality, novelty and professionalism.

United States Marine LT Andrew Grayson was completely acquitted yesterday of all charges in connection with the November 19, 2005, deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq. While he was not at the scene that day and had nothing to do with those deaths, he was charged with obstruction of justice for ordering photographs of the scene deleted three months later, false swearing with the intent to obstruct justice, and later fraudulently separating from service (out-processing from the Marine Corps while knowingly under legal restraint from doing so).

LT Grayson was acquitted for good reason. The judge dropped the primary charge of obstruction, mid-trial. Two senior NCO’s had also ordered the photos deleted, in addition to LT Grayson, because they had no intelligence value and it was policy to delete such extraneous to their duty pictures (they delete what Michael Yon calls “war porn” of the dead). Grayson correctly told the original investigating officer, Army Colonel Watt, the photos did not exist as they had been deleted. What riled COL Watt up and made him suspicious was the LT refused to sign a Privacy Act form. Yet the intelligence battalion’s troops were under orders to not sign such forms without higher HQ’s okay as a security measure; al-Qaeda has a bounty on all our intelligence exploitation troops. In other words, COL Watt ran into a rabbit hole and Naval Criminal Investigators followed him down. LT Grayson’s intelligence battalion commander testified that he signed Grayson’s discharge papers because “there was no legal hold” on him. In addition, a Major admitted to giving LT Grayson bad advice, telling him that he was under no obligation to stay put, he could out-process, take his honorable discharge, and go home.

So, Al Sumaria TV must have been aiming for novelty within their report today:

Alsumaria Iraqi Satellite TV network
Iraq News
Jordan Court sentences Al Qaeda militant
Thursday, June 05, 2008 10:58 GMT

Jordan’s security court has sentenced an al Qaeda militant, Auni Al Minasi, of Jordanian nationality, to life in prison for his involvement in recruiting gunmen in Jordan to fight in Iraq. According to the accusation list, Al Minasi has been appointed in 2006 by Al Qaeda in Syria to work on recruiting gunmen in Jordan in order to send them to Syria and then to Lebanon for training before crossing into Iraq.

On the other hand, a military source reported that Californian Court panel committee has cleared charges of US marine Andrew Garison [sic] who was tried for Haditha massacre in 2005, one of the worst war crimes by US military in Iraq.

al Sumaria TV screen shot

Click on image to enlarge and view

Crime in connection with Haditha has yet to be proven in a court of law. Yet killings there, “in cold blood,” have been alleged by U.S. Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania’s 12th District. If he ever decides to resign over those slanderous remarks, he could easily find employment with a novel, Middle-Eastern TV station that also continues to falsely accuse United States Marines of war crimes.

Update, June 9, 2008: I was forced to apologize for my above commentary (and it was a pleasure).

Update II, June 16, 2008: Michelle Malkin brings word of the L.A. Times reporting today that tomorrow charges against LtCol Jeffrey Chessani may be dropped.

Barack Obama, Iraq

Barack Obama should drop Baghdad Bob as his running mate

by  • 

Senator Barack Obama is not stuck on stupid; he knows the tide of battle in Iraq has turned decisively in America’s and Iraq’s favor. Yet he always bets on red — the bloody trail of America’s defeat — as the road to his personal victory in November.

In a New York Post editorial this morning:

Both The New York Times and the Washington Post this week had front-page stories about successful operations by Iraqi forces to root out Shiite militias in Baghdad’s Sadr City — a significant turning point in the war and a huge accomplishment for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

But there Obama was Tuesday evening patting himself on the back for his Oregon primary victory while once again repeating the same old tired formulation about the “failed” Bush policy in Iraq, “that asks everything of our troops and nothing of Iraqi politicians.”
…
[Barack Obama] certainly hasn’t let the facts change his opinion about what is going on in Iraq or what the United States should do in response. Like a broken record, he just keeps repeating the same old tune.

If he really were a new kind of politician, he’d cheer what’s happening in Iraq, compliment Prime Minister Maliki for his strides and rethink his promise to undercut the progress by a precipitous withdrawal of all American troops.

In his stubborn refusal to admit things have changed in Iraq, Obama is looking more and more like a throwback to the Vietnam protesters who actively promoted America’s defeat in order to prove they were right in their opposition to the Vietnam War. He may not be old enough to remember firsthand the shouts of “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh,” or the Viet Cong flags hoisted at anti-war rallies of that era.

But… READ THE REST