A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

Iraqi “liberation” keeps many US secrets

Posted: 14 Dec 2011

Interesting piece on the New York Times At War blog:

Several weeks ago, we heard that a local businessman had purchased some trailers from a closing American base.

We were told the trailers were parked at a nearby junkyard, so one afternoon I headed out with our security team to find them.

I didn’t believe we were on to the greatest story. But I thought that the scene of some broken-down trailers that had been used by the Americans would be a new way to tell the story of the military withdrawal.

On our way to the junkyard, we got lost. Really lost. Our drivers thought they knew where they were going, but we kept on finding ourselves at dead ends.

The drivers tried to call for directions, but that didn’t seem to be any help. The fact that Iraq doesn’t have many street signs didn’t help, either.

For what seemed like hours — but was really about 30 minutes — we just drove around this dreary residential neighborhood, which didn’t even have paved streets.

After a while, I grew frustrated and concerned. I’m the most cautious in the bureau when it comes to taking jaunts into the city, and I didn’t think anything good could come of the situation. We were clearly outsiders, circling the neighborhood, and residents were staring at us.

I thought, what was the big deal if I didn’t get the scene of some broken-down trailers?

As soon as I raised the idea of turning back, the guards and drivers said that they had just figured out where the junkyard was, and one of our Iraqi reporters with us told me to relax.

A few turns later, we came to the entrance of the junkyard. An attendant with just a few teeth opened a chain-link fence and let us in.

The junkyard looked like what one would expect here: There were old pieces of motors, scraps of metal, feral cats and rotting food.

Like a real estate agent, the attendant walked us through the six trailers that his boss was trying to sell.

“These are from U.S. companies who worked with the military, and they sold these to us,” he said while smoking a cigarette. “I don’t know where they are from. They brought them from all over. I heard some came from the airport, some from the north.”

The inside of the trailers were filled with broken office furniture, empty lockers, bed frames and old magazines. Other items included a hat that said “God is Good,” computer guides, American candy wrappers and a tattered American flag banner. One of the trailers was marked “transit room.”

It was a mildly revealing snapshot of life living and working in a trailer during a war, but little more. I said that I had seen enough and headed back toward the car with my guards.

On the way to the car, I walked past a fire pit and saw a piece of paper on the ground. I picked it up and saw the word “interview” and the name of what appeared to be a Marine. I glanced upward towards the fire pit and saw that there were a few other pieces of paper strewn on the ground, so I went over and picked them up.

Like the other piece of paper, these had the word “interview” at the top. I dug through the trash on the ground, and right next to a well-wishing card to the troops from an American child I found a thick red binder filled with more interview documents. I continued to wade through the trash, picking up every piece of paper I could find. Eventually, I uncovered two maps that were marked classified.

I headed to a small shack to ask the attendant how the documents got there and if there were others.

“We had lots of containers that came with maps, binders and files,” the attendant said inside the shack, where he had a small bed. “What can we do with them? These things are worthless to us, but we understand they are important and it is better to burn them to protect the Americans. If they are leaving, it must mean their work here is done.”

The attendant said he had spent the past few weeks burning dozens and dozens of binders to smoke his masgouf, a carp that Iraqis treat as a delicacy. I had found the last ones, he said.

“I’m a guard — it is my job to protect these secrets,” he said. “The military didn’t tell us to destroy them.”

He added: “These are secrets for the Americans and it’s not appropriate to let people see their secrets. We were doing them a favor.”

Still, he let me leave with all the binders and the maps.

We loaded the trove into the back of the car and headed back to the bureau. I hadn’t had a chance to read the documents, so I wondered about what could be in them. The military creates lots of bureaucratic paperwork — maybe it was just that. Or maybe it was an untold tale of the war.

Back at the bureau, I spread the documents and maps out on a table and asked my colleagues to help me go through them. We started reading and googling, and quickly it became clear what the documents were from: an investigation into the 2005 massacre of 24 civilians, including women and children, in the town of Haditha. The maps showed routes that helicopters take in Iraq, including how high certain aircraft fly, and how far radar extends from bases in Baghdad.

A week later, the documents were scanned, and I began trolling through them and eventually wrote this article. But I still can’t help but wonder what else the attendant burned and what other stories may never been told from the war.

Hugging Israel so tight the poor little dear will just need money to fix the problem

Posted: 14 Dec 2011

While students in Gaza continue being blocked to study outside the Strip simply because they’re students (thank you democratic Israel), now and then the reality of unquestioned Western support for Zionism seeps into the mainstream. Even to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Not that he suggests any serious pressure should be applied on Israel but it’s a start:

I have a simple motto when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I love both Israelis and Palestinians, but God save me from some of their American friends — those who want to love them to death, literally.

That thought came to mind last week when Newt Gingrich took the Republican competition to grovel for Jewish votes — by outloving Israel — to a new low by suggesting that the Palestinians are an “invented” people and not a real nation entitled to a state.

This was supposed to show that Newt loves Israel more than Mitt Romney, who only told the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom that he would move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem because “I don’t seek to take actions independent of what our allies think is best, and if Israel’s leaders thought that a move of that nature would be helpful to their efforts, then that’s something I’ll be inclined to do. … I don’t think America should play the role of the leader of the peace process. Instead, we should stand by our ally.”

That’s right. America’s role is to just applaud whatever Israel does, serve as its A.T.M. and shut up. We have no interests of our own. And this guy’s running for president?

As for Newt, well, let’s see: If the 2.5 million West Bank Palestinians are not a real people entitled to their own state, that must mean Israel is entitled to permanently occupy the West Bank and that must mean — as far as Newt is concerned — that Israel’s choices are: 1) to permanently deprive the West Bank Palestinians of Israeli citizenship and put Israel on the road to apartheid; 2) to evict the West Bank Palestinians through ethnic cleansing and put Israel on the road to the International Criminal Court in the Hague; or 3) to treat the Palestinians in the West Bank as citizens, just like Israeli Arabs, and lay the foundation for Israel to become a binational state. And this is called being “pro-Israel”?

I’d never claim to speak for American Jews, but I’m certain there are many out there like me, who strongly believe in the right of the Jewish people to a state, who understand that Israel lives in a dangerous neighborhood yet remains a democracy, but who are deeply worried about where Israel is going today. My guess is we’re the minority when it comes to secular American Jews. We still care. Many other Jews are just drifting away.

I sure hope that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, understands that the standing ovation he got in Congress this year was not for his politics. That ovation was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby. The real test is what would happen if Bibi tried to speak at, let’s say, the University of Wisconsin. My guess is that many students would boycott him and many Jewish students would stay away, not because they are hostile but because they are confused.

Neo-liberalism isn’t the default position

Posted: 13 Dec 2011

New Statesman on British workers fighting “austerity”, which in effect are the most vulnerable being shafted to pay for the mistakes of the 1%:

Last week, a group of public sector workers, supporters and others who’ve had enough of the neoliberal mantra that “public services improve if they’re run by the private sector” protested outside a Capita conference called “New Models of Service Delivery – Opening Up Local Government Services to New Providers”.

That was Capita – one of the country’s biggest outsourcing firms, playing host (at more than £300 per head, behind closed doors) to senior council people who are in the process of deciding which private companies should win contracts to provide council services.

“There’s no transparency – these big outsourcing plans are being discussed behind the backs of the residents and staff who are most affected,” said Barnet Alliance For Public Services protestor Vicki Morris. “It’s wrong for the companies who will profit from outsourcing to have privileged access to those making outsourcing decisions.” Morris’s group is fighting a Barnet council plan (called One Barnet) to mass-outsource council services. Capita is bidding for a £750m contract to provide services like finance and revenues and benefits as part of One Barnet.

There’s every reason to suppose that Capita will get that contract. If there’s a manual on snorkelling cash out of the public sector, Capita wrote it – every page. Last year, Capita’s profits increased by 12 per cent to £364.2m, with dividends up by 19 per cent (you can read the rest here if you can stand it).

No matter that the questionable achievements of some of the outsourcing giants have frightened a few councils off. More ought to be terrified. Sefton council recently decided to terminate a £65m contract with Capita Symonds (a division of the Capita Group), because it failed (spectacularly) to deliver expected savings. Mouchel, another of the UK’s biggest outsourcing companies, is in a tight spot. In October, chief executive Richard Cuthbert resigned when a £4.3m hole was found in the company’s accounts. Mouchelreportedly has a net debt of £879m. The European Services Strategy Unit has an excellent document cataloguing some of Capita, Mouchel and BT’s larger contracts and failures, as does almost every edition of Private Eye.

Still, the goldrush goes on. The public services industry is not just big business – it is and has been colossal business. Figures vary, but Unisonreports estimated a worth of £79bn in 2008 with growth expected to put that figure near £100bn round about now. Wherever the total settles in so-called austerity, you can rest assured that the likes of Capita will fling themselves at it.

Greg Palast on vulture capitalism and our sordid energy future

Posted: 13 Dec 2011