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The Haditha Massacre: No Justice for Iraqis
They ranged from little babies to adult males and females.
I'll never be able to get that out of my head. I can still smell the blood.
This left something in my head and heart.
-Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones
Last week, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich was sentenced to a reduction in rank but no jail time for leading his squad in a rampage known as “The Haditha Massacre.” Wuterich, who was charged with nine counts of manslaughter, pled guilty to dereliction of duty. Six other Marines have had their charges dismissed and another was acquitted for his part in the massacre.
Villagers grieve over the dead in Haditha in 2006. (Photo: Time Magazine)
What was the Haditha Massacre? On November 19, 2005, US Marines from Kilo Company, Third Battalion, First Marine Division killed 24 unarmed civilians in Haditha, Iraq, execution-style, in a three to five hour rampage. One victim was a 76-year-old amputee in a wheelchair holding a Koran. A mother and child bent over as if in prayer were also among the fallen. "I pretended that I was dead when my brother's body fell on me and he was bleeding like a faucet," said Safa Younis Salim, a 13-year-old girl who survived by faking her death. Other victims included six children ranging in age from 1 to 14. Citing doctors at Haditha’s hospital, The Washington Post reported, "Most of the shots ... were fired at such close range that they went through the bodies of the family members and plowed into walls or the floor."
The executions of 24 unarmed civilians were apparent retaliation for the death of Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas when a small Marine convoy hit a roadside bomb earlier that day. A statement issued by a US Marine Corps spokesman the next day claimed: "A US Marine and 15 civilians were killed yesterday from the blast of a roadside bomb in Haditha. Immediately following the bombing, gunmen attacked the convoy with small-arms fire. Iraqi army soldiers and Marines returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding another." A subsequent Marine version of the events said the victims were killed inadvertently in a running gun battle with insurgents.
Both of these stories were false, and the Marines knew it. They were blatant attempts to cover up the atrocity, disguised as "collateral damage." Congressman John Murtha, a former Marine, was briefed on the Haditha investigation by Marine Corps Commandant Michael Hagee. Murtha said, "The reports I have from the highest level: No firing at all. No interaction. No military action at all in this particular incident. It was an explosive device, which killed a Marine. From then on, it was purely shooting people." Marine Corps officials told Murtha that troops shot a woman "in cold blood" as she was bending over her child begging for mercy. Women and children were in their nightclothes when they were killed.
The Haditha Massacre did not become public until Time magazine ran a story in March 2006. Time had turned over the results of its investigation, including a videotape, to the US military in January. Only then did the military launch an investigation. These Marines "suffered a total breakdown in morality and leadership, with tragic results," a US official told the Los Angeles Times.
Murtha said, "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood." Many of our troops suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones, a Marine in Kilo Company, did not participate in The Haditha Massacre. T.J. Terrazas was his best friend. Briones, who was 20 years old at the time, saw Terrazas after he was killed. "He had a giant hole in his chin. His eyes were rolled back up in his skull," Briones said of his buddy. "A lot of people were mad," Briones said. "Everyone had just a [terrible] feeling about what had happened to T.J."
After the massacre, Briones was ordered to take photographs of the victims and help carry their bodies out of their homes. He is still haunted by what he had to do that day. Briones picked up a young girl who was shot in the head. "I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs." "I used to be one of those Marines who said that post-traumatic stress is a bunch of bull," said Briones, who has gotten into serious trouble since he returned home. "But all this stuff that keeps going through my head is eating me up. I need immediate help."
Murtha told ABC there was "no question" the US military tried to "cover up" the Haditha incident, which Murtha called "worse than Abu Ghraib." His high-level briefings indicated to him that the cover-up went “right up the chain of command."
The Bush administration set rules of engagement that resulted in the willful killing and indiscriminate slaughter of civilians. In particular, U.S. troops in Iraq operated in "free-fire zones," with orders to shoot everything that moves. Attacks in civilian areas resulted in massive civilian casualties, which the Bush administration casually called "collateral damage."
Like other grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, these acts of summary execution and willful killing are punishable under the US War Crimes Act. Commanders have a responsibility to make sure civilians are not indiscriminately harmed and that prisoners are not summarily executed. Because rules of engagement are set at the top of the command chain, criminal liability extends beyond the perpetrator under the doctrine of command responsibility. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld should be charged with war crimes.
A few days after the story of The Haditha Massacre became public, US forces killed eleven civilians after rounding them up in a room in a house in Ishaqi near Balad, Iraq, handcuffing and shooting them. The victims ranged from a 75-year-old woman to a six-month-old child, and included three-year-olds and five-year-olds and three other women as well. A report by the US military found no wrongdoing by the US soldiers.
Allegations that US troops have engaged in summary executions and willful killing in Iraq have also emerged from other Iraqi cities, including Qaim, Abu Ghraib, Taal Al Jal, Mukaradeeb, Mahmudiya, Hamdaniyah, Samarra, and Salahuddin. There are similar accusations stemming from incidents in Afghanistan as well.
Many people in Iraq are outraged as the legal books close on The Haditha Massacre. They are also perturbed at the US drones flying over Iraqi skies in Baghdad to protect the largest US embassy in the world that, even after the United States “pulled out” of Iraq, still houses 11,000 Americans protected by 5,000 mercenaries. “Our sky is our sky, not the U.S.A.’s sky,” Adnan al-Asadi, acting Iraqi interior minister, said. The US military left Iraq because the Iraqis refused to grant US soldiers immunity for crimes like those at The Haditha Massacre.
The 24 Haditha victims are buried in a cemetery called Martyrs' Graveyard. Graffiti on the deserted house of one of the families reads, "Democracy assassinated the family that was here."
29 Comments so far
Show AllThey hate us for our freedoms, right?
Oh, indeed they do!
I mean, otherwise, why in the world would our 'elected reps' legislate away our civil liberties?!
Blows my mind how that equation makes sense to the US populace.
EDIT: BTW, anyone know why my posts don't display unless I'm logged in?
EDIT: BTW, anyone know why my posts don't display unless I'm logged in?
----------------------------------
It's because they have to be blessed first. I don't know whether that's true of everyone's posts, or whether blessing is automatic after some threshold of some kind. Once your post is blessed, it's visible to everyone whether you're logged in or not.
Hope that helps.
this is americkana
this is what we do
we kill peasants - we kill first nations
we have killed iraq - 1.4 million dead, country bombed into the stone age
but the oil contracts are flowing - praise jesus bechtel, dynecorps, and haliburton love the smell of napalm in the morning, so long as it is your son or daughter smelling it. the dick cheney's and mittens romney's of the world love war when someone else is fighting and dying but when its their turn they always have "other priorities"
the massacre at fallujuah was even worse and we haven't even got to the depleted urianium weapons yet, now causing massive birth defects
we left 3 million dead vietnamese - for them we left monsanoto's agent orange
we didn't even kill iraq for jesus - it was just for the oil
let's not forget the heroin. it was a big factor in vietnam and is even bigger in afghanistan
then we have our cocaine holdings in colombia
'
cash flow required for the black budget
just business - nothing personal
hey running an evil empire isn't as easy as it looks ya know
My Green Garden
Here is my breast. Aim your gun at it, brother. Shoot!
Destroy me if you will
And build from my carrion whatever it is you are dreaming of.
Who will be left to celebrate a victory made of blood and fire?
Thich Naht Hanh
~~~~~~~~~~~
One Bullet
The rain is soaking to my shoulders
Falling soft upon the leaves,
Falling on these silent soldiers
Who hide beneath the forest eaves.
I can see it in their faces
All the strain and all the fear,
Months of war has etched their traces
On the boys who huddle here.
Our leaders order us as cattle
And beat our plowshares into swords,
Thus we gird our young for battle
And fill their minds with empty words.
Not for those who give the orders
Any place in this charade,
Safe behind their chartered borders
Not for them the grim parade.
Knuckles whitening, faces paling
Hope that withers with the dark
Hands that falter, courage failing
Waiting for the cannon's bark.
For yesterday I sent their brothers
Scrambling up this hill to die,
The day before that, were the others.
Who yet on the meadow lie.
I watched them as the battle closes
Amidst the carnage and the din,
Seen their wounds like deadly roses
Blooming crimson on their skin.
I've heard them coughing as they stumble
I've heard their moaning as they lie,
Heard frightened prayer turn to mumbles,
And final silence as they die.
The dead lie in their awkward slumber,
Having answered glory's call.
Lying scattered beyond number
Piled like cordwood by the wall.
And as for me I'm sick of sending
These frightened boys to butchery,
I swear that when this day is over,
There'll be one bullet left for me.
Garnet Rogers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Ego Is A Barking Dog
look at man.... any man
to hear his ego bark like a dog
those perfect colored sentiments
superimposed on the new mona lisa
short brush strokes that rumble
disenchantment across the canvas
but they lined us up at recess
with drills that would march us
beyond the hills where the atom
would be extruded into shapes
that would redefine a starting point
it just happened that the loop
could not be fed back to the beginning
(L. Ames)
During World War II, in the countries occupied by the German military (especially
in Eastern Europe), the SS would frequently murder civilians if partisans killed soldiers in the occupying army. Most people will have no difficulty in seeing that there
is no "justice" or "morality" in such a policy. German soldiers had no right to be in other countries: the occupation is itself a great crime and everything that follows from it is just more criminality. This exactly describes the US presence in Iraq.
Wuterich and his boys were only following the logic of the SS: we can kill and harass Iraqis with impunity because we are the conquerors; Iraqis, being conquered, are obliged to submit and if they resist in any way, we will bring them to heel by slaughtering young and old alike. The conqueror's "morality" is made all the worse, by the racist logic of empire which rates the life of one American soldier as worth more than a whole "native" community, just as a single Aryan was worth more than all the Slavs in Russia!!
There is no defense at all for what was done at Haditha. I don't think the Marines were suffering from PTSD so much as from AIA---arrogant imperialist Americanism. I don't doubt that some of the Marines now feel guilt for what they did. But the Empire as a whole remains an evil, criminal enterprise, because the chief perpetrators of vicious crimes (Bush, Rumsfield, Patreus, Obama, etc) have expressed no remorse. In fact they continue to kill with absolute impunity....
Well, yes, the Germans did murder large numbers of civilians in WWII in an attempt to crush resistance movements and partisans. I am sure most Amerikans are well aware of this from the countless Hollywood movies and other propaganda works that have depicted this. But it was not just the SS. The German army (Heer), police units, field combat units of the SS (Waffen SS) and a host of police state departments and agencies (Homeland security, TSA, Special Forces, DEA, BATF, sound familiar?) along with a host of non-German militias, police units and foreign Waffen SS units who cooperated with the SD (sicherheitsdienst) and the greater SS police state to 'preserve order' and 'protect the greater public' from the 'brigands' 'bandits' and communist agents and assassins who sought to spread terror in the rear lines and occupied territories.
Yes, the Nazi propaganda at the time did not so much portray these crimes as an arrogant persecution of racially inferior conquered peoples but, rather, as a brave fight against communism and terrorism that benefitted everyone. Who was on the side of justice must not have seemed obvious to many at the time, as the Nazis found hundreds of thousands of sympathetic volunteers (well, sort of anyways) to fight with them in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania and a host of other countries.
Also, one should keep in mind that the Nazis didn't invent or start any of this. They had plenty of European legal precedent that viewed resistance fighters as illegal combatants. Punishing local civilian populations to prevent their support of resistance movements had also been done by the Kaiser's army in Belgium and France in WWI and in the Franco-Prussion war as well as by the French in Napoleon's Peninsular war in Spain.
One should also keep in mind that the Germans (as well as the French and Russians) have always been relatively poor in resources, vis a vis the Anglo-Americans, and lining people up against a wall and shooting them, while brutal, is much more economical then expensive naval blockades and air strikes.
The really fascinating aspect of this situation is the rationalization-justification that the Germans used for this brutal policy. They argued that, in the long run, it saved lives! That is, if at the first sign of resistance in a newly occupied territory, you line 50 local people up against a wall and shoot them you will demonstrate to everyone that they are in your power and that resistance is futile - thereby nipping the problem in the bud and avoiding a long drawn out guerilla war. You have to be cruel to be kind. And it worked, sort of. There was little bloodletting in western Europe in the 1940-42 period. The body counts and atrocities only skyrocketed when it became obvious that the Germans were going to lose.
This almost exactly parallels the Amerikan justifications for their use of atomic weapons against Japanese civilians in WWII. By annihilating two cities, and most of the men, woman and children in them, with only two bombs, the Amerikans demonstrated to the 'fanatical' Japanese that resistance was futile thereby forcing their capitulation and avoiding an invasion that would have cost many more lives. Yes, by nuking two cities the Amerikans saved hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of Japanese lives. How wonderfully civilized and benevolent! Isn't technology wonderful? Just think how many lives could have been saved if only Hitler would have had early access to atomic weapons!
It always interesting how the USA in order to Justify the two of the greatest war crimes committed on a people in History claim they had to do so because of the Japanese were fanatics.
What is more fanatical , claiming one will fight to the death to defend their homes or claming one will kill every man woman and child if the other continues to resist.?
In dropping that second bomb the USA stated "We will kill everyone of you, man woman and child unless you submit to our power".
This is the purest of evil and fanaticism taken to the highest level
Those US troops at Haditha were fanatics. Those that ordered them to war were fanatics.
Their fanaticism is far more dangerous then that of Quaddaffi ever was and far more dangerous and deadly then that of Ahmadenijad is yet every press report speaking of those leaders had to mention the men as mad or as "fanatics".
There are only two nations on this Earth that I think would sooner destroy the entire earth then to see their own nation fall. China and Russia and Japan and Iran and Libya and North Korea are not one of those 2.
I disagree with you that the German policy of "nipping resistance in the bud' by shooting relatively small numbers of people "worked".
In Western Europe, the Germans ran a much less brutal occupation than in Eastern Europe and especially the Soviet Union. That accounts in large part for the lack of resistance they encountered. Added to that was the fact that they had a fairly large base of support in some countries, where they were able to set up puppet regimes led by local collaborators. Marshal Petain had wide popularity in France, for example.
In Eastern Europe, if your theory is right, the Germans should have faced negligible resistance, since they not only "nipped the bud", but chopped off whole branches. Yet it was there that they encountered the strongest local resistance, particularly in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and at times in Poland.
So the real story seems to have been that the milder the occupation, the less resistance; the harsher the occupation, the more resistance it encountered. In other words, shooting 50 people to intimidate the rest "works" only if the shooting stops there. If it goes much beyond that it brings resistance.
"You have to be cruel to be kind" was never a Nazi principle, since there was no wish to find ways of being "kind", only a wish to dominate and exploit, modified by loony racial theories in some places.
Well, of course I was attempting to generalize and be brief. The situation in the east was entirely different. I believe we are all cultural-biolgical racists, to a greater or lesser extent, but the nazis took this to an extreme. Hitler categorized all his opponents thru this racial lens.
The English were not only close cousins, but admirable racist-imperialists in their own rite, so he sought accommodation with them and proposed joint empires - the British maritime one complemented by a German Eurasian continental one. Hence what is often described as an exemplary German occupation of the British channel islands.
The Germanic-Nordic countries (Netherlands, Denmark, Norway) were considered to be even closer cousins and were to be the 'crown jewel satellites' of the Grosser Deutscher Reich, perhaps in a similar fashion to East Germany and Czechoslovakia in the former USSR. The occupation here were also relatively peaceful.
France was not so close racially, but was considered to have a high culture worth preserving, so it would be reduced, but preserved. The French were not happy about their new status as 'second class Europeans', but being very bourgeois there were hesitant to abandon their homes and shops to become partisans. The German military used France, thru out the war, as a place to rest and recondition units shot to pieces in the east. German soldiers reported that they could relax and enjoy the shopping, dining and local girls in the 1940-42 period, perhaps some of '43, but by '44 were only supposed to move about in armed groups.
In the east everything was different. Germans at least as far back as the Teutonic knights had viewed eastern europe as an uncivilized frontier ripe for German 'development'. People who had gotten along well in previous German empires, the Czechs and Estonians for example, would be reincorporated. The Poles would be reduced to little more then slave labor. Everything farther east was considered 'Injun country' with the natives to be killed or pushed off to the east to make room for German settlers. So in the Ukraine, for example, few if any attempts were made to reach an accommodation with the local people. The nazis were clear in their contempt and the natives were quick to join the soviet supplied partisan groups.
JRP: Good post. I see it the way you do.
And the cowardice on display from Amerika's "finest?" Shooting unarmed women and children begging for mercy? Now that's courage!
The law of karma is a far more effective, time-tested model for ascribing justice then what is seen in the military masquerade that lets these barbarians loose with a slap on the wrist.
Ever wonder why you read about an innocent family in America that's become another victim of a local sociopath-intruder?
Often when I learn of examples of fortuitous violence, what comes to mind is the wonder whether today's victims are paying for similar acts of aggression that they committed in former incarnations.
Just because we don't see the roots of cause and effect doesn't mean no causal relationship exists. We seldom see the root networks that allow trees to grow high above the surface, either.
And as drones become cheaper to purchase, the day may come when some are sent to the U.S. to avenge the murder of so many senselessly slaughtered innocents.
Siouxrose:
I agree with you that the evil done by the US military "blowsback" into US society in a
thousand and one ways. As Nietzsche observed, those who look into the abyss often find the abyss within. The horrors of war and empire will reverberate well into the future.
It sickens me when I see people like Bush and Obama laying claim to "common humanity"--hugging their wives, laughing with their children...jovial, good-natured "guys." In reality, Bush and Obama are murderous monsters who ought to be on trial fro crimes against humanity. Haditha and all such incidents were their doing!
Bastards, the whole lot of them. As Ms. Cohn notes, these Marines get away with this because the military protects their own. The graffiti that was written on the deserted house of one of the dead Iraqis' family says it all:
"Democracy assassinated the family that was here."
Well, call me a nihilist, but I see nothing new here. Soldiers are usually only punished for committing war crimes under special circumstances. For example:
1. The soldiers crimes have been widely publicized and the political people in charge decide they must be sacrificed for reasons of international relations. For example the Australian soldiers depicted in the movie 'Breaker Morant' who got into trouble in the Boer war for shooting Boer prisoners, and, more importantly, a German missionary they suspected of aiding the enemy. The English actually shot two soldiers to Placate the German public who widely empathized with the ethnically German-Dutch Boers.
2. If the authorities really believe that the soldiers are getting out of control and a few have to be made an example of to restore order to the ranks. There are many examples of the Red Army having to do this late in WWII when the troop's orgy of rape, murder and looting threatened to slow down the advance.
3. If the war is lost and the other side get's to stand in judgment of the defeated soldiers. The great hypocrisy of the Nuremberg trials is the best example of this.
Since none of these apply to Iraq I am sure any Iraqis looking for Justice are SOL. They can get in line behind the millions of other victims of Anglo-Amerikan imperialism. From the Indian wars, the Puerto Rico insurrection, the 'strategic' air campaign of WWII, and, of course, Korea and Vietnam.
You may be right, but that doesn't mean people should just throw up their hands and say "What do you expect?"
Americans have many ways in which to challenge the regime which commits these crimes in their name and with their acquiescence, if not active support. For example, they can rally in support of Bradley Manning. They can support the Iraq War resisters who came to Canada rather than obey orders to serve in Iraq, or to return there.
Visit resisters.ca to find out more about these young people who rose above cynicism and acted on their consciences.
It's true. They did what they were trained to do. It's amazing there was even an investigation, although no justice came of it. The chickens will come home to roost.
I belive that at some point in the very near future we will read of some shooting back here in the US, people killed at random, children in a playground or a mall and the name of one of these 'soldiers' will be associated with the deaths. And the country will be 'shocked'!
Justice died long ago. If it ever existed. Was probably just a phrase made up to make the audience of nobodies watching in silence as the killing of other nobodies think those being killed really had been guilty, so they wouldn't fear the same fate might down the road await them. Then the SOMEBODIES could walk away from the slaughters they committed knowing none would dare come after them.
Where are the videos Time gave the Army? Where are the photos taken by PFC Briones? Shouldn't we, the American people, not only have a right to see these videos and photos, but a moral duty to watch them and see what horrors we have unleashed on the world.
Television ended the Vietnam war. When Americans saw photos of naked children burning from napalm and other horrors, the war could not continue.
The military has learned that lesson and we NEVER see photos of atrocities unless someone leaks them.
http://chris-floyd.com/march/
https://www.google.com/search?q=images+of+haditha+massacre&hl=en&pwst=1&site=webhp&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=8igoT5yFFoSQ2QWWu4y3Ag&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CAwQ_AUoAQ&biw=1195&bih=591
War porn. I learned this term only recently, but apparently it has become an Internet sensation among the US military to share images of killing. Google war porn images and you will find sites with videos of killing human beings with high powered US military weapons. Videos of civilians running in terror because they can see the helicopter or other weapon coming for them just before they get blown to smithereens.
One site, gotwarporn.com, seems to have gone down, but others exist:
http://weaselzippers.us/category/war-porn/
These people live among us. We have many thousands of psychotic killers wandering around in our neighborhoods. Instead of rooting them out, we laud them as heroes.
Yes, we call them 'heroes'. We give them parades. We send them into classrooms to instill patriotism. What does that make us? (That makes us good Americans.)
Tom: Please be more prudent in your use of the word we, as in:
"We have many thousands of psychotic killers wandering around in our neighborhoods. Instead of rooting them out, we laud them as heroes."
It took centuries of disabling the female half of the human equation, and equating all things sensitive (ie. caring, empathic, feelings-based) with effeminate behavior to come to a phase where brutal trophies borne of a war of aggression are seen as a good thing.
If a society rewards brutal behavior, if its songs champion war, if its early education systems urge competition, if its media glorifies violence, and its movies, war "heroes," then all of this conditioning leads the worst of the worst to take pleasure in blood-lust.
However, these sorts of sick, twisted venues hardly speak for most, and certainly do not speak for persons (especially women) of conscience.
When you use the word WE you lend normalcy to those behaviors that no sane, civilized congregation of human beings should ever grant its consent.
Haditha was just one unusually brutal incident.
Even more civilians died prior to the invasion due to sanctions and systematic bombing of Iraqi infrastructure including water resources.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctions_against_Iraq
Estimated deaths from sanctions according to "former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark: 1.5 million (includes sanctions, bombs and other weapons, depleted uranium poisoning)"
In effect this is GENOCIDE !
I do believe that under the Rules of the Geneva Convention, all who voted dem/repub could be classified as war criminals. Because, "...another moral choice was possible for them...".
You may be incorrect legally, but you are abundantly right morally.
If the German people had to shoulder some of the blame for Hitler, the same is true of the American people, who lived under a far less repressive regime than his.
The complicity of so many Americans in the many crimes like the one in Haditha, and in the brutal war that gave rise to them, is a dark chapter in American history that can never be erased.
The complicity of so many Americans in the current torment and punishment of Bradley Manning is another dark chapter, and it is being written by Barack Obama, who has the power to pardon him immediately, but declines to use it.
"Cowboy Republic: Six Ways The Bush Gang has Defied The Law"
ONLY SIX? I wish there was some way to help the Iraqi people seek justice . We can't even get justice for an Iraqi born U.S. citizen Oncologist, suffering in a federal prison, sentenced to 22 years for violating the economic sanctions. Not for oil profits but to save the lives of children, starving , sick, helpless children under five years of age. Rafil Dhafir's re-sentencing is Friday Feb. 3, 2012 . Maybe if he pledges never to help sick ,dying, Iraqi children again they will set him free. His humanitarian work will be ended permanently . America will be safe now and forever.
Personal responsibility for actions has been lost in the entire justice system, unless the accused is poor or black, or a danger to the credibility of the US empire. In the case of marines, they are trained to be brutal insensitive killers and retaliation machines. They are paid workers of Atrocities R' US.
When given such killing weapons, power, and no risk of significant payback, except from the friends and relatives of their victims, when guarenteed of no legal procedings against them, either international, nor in the foreign occupied nation, nor it seems, from their own national government, US armed forces have a license to kill at whim anybody in any foreign nation. Such killings are "understandable".
The empire prefers to hurl its justice system on those who will disclose details about its committed atrociites. The fear of Bradley Manning and Julian Assuange has spread to involve large financial corporations, who have shown themselves to be fully complicit in the crimes of Atrocities R' US. PayPal and Mastercard fully support, and help to Arm, Finance, and Profit from, every US empire atrocity, and oppose the release of any information on the Empire of War Criminals.
One more reason why I'll be voting for NO INCUMBENTS, no matter who the opposition is. It doesn't get worse than cold blooded murder of innocent civilians, so it won't matter if Obama is defeated by Gingrich or whoever but it might scare the Democrats by indicating that what they do DOES MATTER.
We have become a bloodthirsty, grasping and ungracious people. Three words that tend to describe our elected leaders to a tee! Perhaps those three words should appear on all of their campaign ads and posters! It won't matter, the moron class will continue to vote for these Bozo's! Nuff said!